After playing the game it struck me that scout/scanner equipped ships pretty much go away soon as the galaxy is explored, no reason to hold on to them after that I could find. So what could be done is make the ship mounted scanners (or possibly an expensive system upgrade) capable of picking up "stealth-ed" objects off the wormhole links that connect the rest of the galaxy. This could be something like hidden/abandoned endless research stations out in the middle of nowhere or hidden systems with special upgrades/resources in them. Once found, either a new wormhole could spawn or you simply have to send the ship over the slow way. By linking finding these things to the higher end scanners we provide a reason to upgrade scout ships beyond the base one provided at game start and mix things up a bit mid to late game. Could even have derelict ships (repair or refurbish for a price or simply salvage for tech) Dyson Spheres, etc.

This would need to be worked out a bit better, but it's a good suggestion. Increasing scanner range may reveal hidden systems, or systems which are difficult to get to.

I think everyone agrees that ES could use a lot more eXploration! This, along with minor and major/structured "events", can help breathe life into this galaxy.

I would definitely love to see new things to discover. Late game exploration is severely lacking.

This has in principle already been suggested here: /#/endless-space/forum/28-game-design/thread/12671-isolated-systems-not-connected-by-lanes

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