To me Endless Space is missing only 'tiny bits' of what I usually enjoy about 4X games, those tiny parts between turns of getting a new ship and technology where you actually try and be a part of your growing empire.



My suggestion here is the addition of a 'Exploratory Expedition' or something to a planet, where an uncolonised planet's stats are not revealed until your scout (or whoever) goes to it and presses 'explore', there they can find the stats of the planet and sometimes hidden good/bad event (Tech, Dust, Monsters attack and eat the crew, natives, hero choices, etc). This can occur on the same turn as colonizing a planet (so there would be no downside of the addition), but only one planet per ship per turn.



It is just the addition of something a little extra that would provide a whole lot in the way of immersion and risk to gameplay.

Since the stats for a planet only depend on the planet type, exploring it for the stats seems a bit strange.

I agree with you, though, that you could explore the planet to search for its anomalies.

I can agree that the anomaly could be hidden away ala. the moon exploration. It won't have an affect on the planet until you've done tests to determine if it has any anomalies - it'd be a double edged dice roll.

As much as I like the idea of getting more exploration, I don't think that this is the right way to implement it. I cannot, help but feel that implementing a system as the one Mansen proposes, would decrease the differentiation of planets. Something that at the moment is already not nearly as much as it could have.

With the addition of technology along the lines of the colony traps in SotS and other scorched earth tactics like leaving a system with a full infrastructure built but everything would be "booby-trapped" and/or leaving hidden "troops" behind so that they could sabotage your newly conquered system forcing you to send an "expeditionary force" go planet by planet to try to find them at the risk of collapsing a "resupply line" for your fleets.

I think having settlers on the planet should always count as exploring the planet.

So you can either have advance warning about the anomaly or just settle and chance the roll.



But to be honest, I do not see even a "bad" anomaly as sufficient reason to not settle, so this alone is not benefit enough.

Maybe settling should be more dangerous (somehow "Time for the stars" from Heinlein comes to mind), with a chance (50% or more) that without exploring first your colony will be seriously harmed, delayed or destroyed (wild animals, meteor, etc)v

I wouldn't mind that either - you have to make landfall to begin installing proper survey equipment.



I can imagine it - "See the stars! Sign up for the first wave of colonists on Terra Prime" (Pictures of a heavenly grassland paradise flows by) - then when they make landfall they're attacked by hostile animals within seconds xD

Like settling a planet classified as LV-426?

xilacnog wrote:
Like settling a planet classified as LV-426?

It's the only way to make My Little Pony: The RPG enjoyable, so don't knock it. ;D