With a game like this, featuring many advanced civilizations, i wonder whether it would be conceivable that, if you use the Kardashev Scale, wouldn't the races in ES be able to reach type II at some point?



Maybe it could be possible to add ( very) lategame research to construct improvements on a stellar scale in order to harness the resources of the star itself, rather than just the planets. I'd think that the Endless civilization would have been able to do this aswell.







What i'm talking about here is stuff like star lifting. This is a process where you literally mine the star for it's materials and resources. This is also a way to prolong the life of a star and keep it in the main cycle for longer, increasing the eventual yield of the star system as a whole.



One of the more classic stellar construction projects would be a Dyson sphere. This can come in the form of an actual sphere, but it also covers variations of the theory like for example a Matrioshka brain or perhaps a more known variation, a ringworld.



Stellar engines are another example, though this is probably less feasible in ingame terms, moving stars might be a bit too much ;p



Smaller scale projects like constructing a new planet would probably be enabled by this aswell, though this might depend on other factors. Such constructed planets would probably be quite small and by their nature would not yield raw materials themselves.



Of course, not all stars would lend themselves to every project. Dyson spheres would only be possible around dwarfstars or smaller (yellow) stars given the dangers and material requirements. Protostars and giants would pose very real dangers to the project.



Star lifting could be done on any star, though it would serve little purpose at red giants and dwarfstars due to the diminished materials available. It would be very effective at blue stars and supergiants though, many materials can be mined and the life extended. It would be effective around yellow stars aswell.



Ringworlds could take the place of a planet's orbit, possibly. Which does bring me to the point that a Dyson sphere would very probably replace the planets in a system out of necessity, though it could be possible to keep inner planets. Resource mining however would be nearly impossible, but a dyson sphere can support an absolutely massive population, benefitting science and food production.





Such stellar projects would add very cool new options in the late game, depending on whether they can be implemented. They also bring the star of a star system into thje forefront again, rather than it being just a background element

Star exploitation has already been proposed here: /#/endless-space/forum/28-game-design/thread/12024-suggestion-star-exploitation

This thread has been linked to the former and is moved to the archives.