As I've scanned I've found numerous planets that are either all sparse or very small. These planets seem destined to go to waste, so I was thinking why not create another type of resource trade. You could add trade outposts on the planet that generate a small amount of income. I know people aren't keen on "properties" but my thought is with research you can open up advanced negotiation techniques that can bring in other things besides just money.

Trade outposts could with research have a small chance to bring in extra artifact points, minerals, or research after building new specialized version of the outpost.

Thoughts are something like this:

Backwater outpost:
size 4
cost 500
generates 5 credits per hour

Seedy outpost:
size 7
cost 500/100dynite
generates 7 credits and has small 1% chance to bring in 100 artifact points

Boomtown Outpost
size 7
cost 500/100dynite
generates 7 credits and has small 1% chance to bring in 100 mineral points

Monitoring Station:
size 7
cost 500/100dynite
generates 7 credits and has small 1% chance to bring in 100 research points

then we move on to something that could generate different categories in the same building. It's never so many credits or points that it would be worth replacing the regular buildings like labs or mines but if for example I know that I'm going to be spending the next several levels so there for maybe weeks with more or less the same scanning capacity I'd like to be able to feel ok colonizing a few of these "garbage" planets and maybe of the course of a few weeks or months get something out of them.

This can also add another tech tree to delve into.

I like it, and it would add another way to gain credits, which was my goal in this post: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=205

As it is now, the only way I've been able to colonize more than 6 planets is by spinning the galaxy wheel. I'd love to be able to invest points & resources into persistent cash sources.

I don't think anyone would build outposts on tiny & small planets though... People would use their junky large & massive planets.

Yep no matter what the situation is im still going for the largest planets possible. The galaxy is destined to mainly be junky planets. The only real reason they exist is because Dan wants to make us work for good planets.

Should have an option to detonate planet -_-

OMG YES.

Ok so i thought about it some more and had a few more ideas to flesh out the trade concept. It should be something that can be simple like reserach where if you mouse over it it says its worth Y number of trade points. But it should also have depth to it that can be explored if you want to get into that end of things.

When considering trade there are a few factors that make it up, population, ease of accessibility, and for simplicity "attrctions."
Attractions could be rare resources, odd anomalies, beautiful sights, ancient races' ruins.

Here's how I was playing it out in my head. A planet has poor minerals, sparse artifacts, and very sparse research but is large. This normally is a planet that most of us would avoid. But if we add trade into the equation and we deem it trade abundant then it might start being worth settling. Now here's where the depth comes in if the factor that makes it abudant is that it's "easily accessible" then perhaps we would only focus on building trade outposts. But if it also had "anomalies" as part of what made it trade abundant then there would be bonus chances to gain research points from a multifunction trade outpost like the monitoring station.

Another aspect to trade should be population. I think that a boost of 1% in trade for every 10 pop points over 100 would add more value to population than it has now and make things like arcologies less filler items.

I'll try to develop it more but the idea is to create something that can be simplistic if you want it to be, but with some digging provides depth that can be used to maximize a your planet.

I think untill your able to colonize (or do something close to that level) with all the planets you find, crappy planets will exist so people will research scanning.

Coth,

I'm not trying to make it so there are no crappy planets it just seems like there a quite a few that could really be used it also creates a choice about whether or not to colonize a planet that you might normally ignore since there is a cap based on level. Plus creating some way to generate some income besides selling off minerals might make the game more attractive to more people.

Especially if there are things like Dyson Spheres or maybe eventually legion battles with monsters you need to scan to find, there will be reasons to develop scaning. The more choices you offer players the longer they will stay interested and the more people you can widen your appeal to reach.

I think the function of an outpost would be to protect the rare planets. You could build defenses, distant early warning systems, cloaking systems, scanning systems. basically, stuff artifacts might be able to do but with a bit more permanence and a bit less oversight. Go ahead and nerf most concepts. Those planets are crap for a reason. Outposts would have to be assigned to a specific "home" planet since there aren't really "systems" in the game. It would be a second type of "colony" type object; it would cost more to create when you have more of them.

Seeing some of these replies makes me smile. I can tell things that come from other games.

I love the outpost idea. Each planet could have a max number of outpost planets... Tiny -1 Small -1 Average -2 , etc. Max being 3-4.

Credits are easy enough to come by, the outposts could be more defensive/offensive/cloaking/scanning related.

Each outpost adding 5-10+ scanning. Depending on the size of the outpost giving more defensive measures for the planet that MUST be broken before the planet can be invaded.

This would help a small amount the lower levels against highers that just want to hit and hurt, now they have to think about more possible losses/costs. This also provides more battles/xp for planets.

I posted an idea in another thread somewhere similar to this, but that the function of an outpost would vary based on the planet size and/or composition. For example those tiny barren planets might not be so useless if you could build a +scanning outpost on them, but not on the others. Maybe average planets could become trade outposts, generating income. And so on. That way ANY planet could have potential value.

Ok, I think its great that you guys want to get some good new ideas out theyre and all but heres how I see it. Implementing something like this would......
1 take up quite a bit of time that could be spent in better ways
2 highly reduce the importance of choosing planets
3 going to require another planet balancing
4 going to require alot of resource gained from these balancing just to make it fair to higher ranks, that is unless you guys want 200 of these things to pop up from everyone over rank 80
If you can figure out a way to not have these happen (excluding balancing thats happening no matter what) im all for this, its just that this seems like something that dosnt solve any problems but will create many.

Note: Im probably going to extend that list, alot.

1. You're right, of course. It's not a priority, just an idea for a future addition that could greatly improve one part of the game that I (and many others) find annoying, and that is an overabundance of crap planets. But there are plenty of things I would love to see. (*cough cough favor point rewards cough*)
2. Not at all. It would increase the importance. Do you build a colony, to feed your empire? Or do you sacrifice a planet slot for an outpost, to support your empire.
3. Not sure what you mean by this. The current planet system would be unchanged, this would supplement it. Its true though that as the game evolves, there will be balancing in all areas.
4. I don't get this one either. How would it be unfair for higher ranks? Sure they'd have a larger list of crap planets, but trust me lower ranks will have plenty.

Again, not something I'd expect to see any time soon, but something that could add a lot to the game and open up new strategic options & playstyles. Such as multiplayer epic/boss battles, or organized fleet battles. I'm all for options. I get bored with games once it seems like there is one "correct" way of playing at higher levels. Very few games offer options, and I'm hoping that GL will be one of them.

#3, remember when there was a surge of 2000 players before the planets before them were added to the planet list? Also choosing which planet to organize would become less important (this is a bit of a grey area for me, shuts nubs up, makes the fact i have 2 exotics not as awesome)
#4 People were suggesting things such as a +5 increase in scanning and what naught, 5 scanning at rank 5= awesome 5 scanning at rank 105=nothing. So some balancing for this would be needed.

Coth,

The idea is that like all other buildings you would have to research these. Games like GL will constantly expand the research tree over the course of the game. Eventually zero point reactors will give way to something better like quantum singularity reactors or dimensional reactors. Just like the basic mine only gives +1 I think outposts as they were envisioned would require more advanced research to unlock better options.



I wasn't thinking of MOO2 when I created the concept but your suggestion makes me realize perhaps it was subconscious. Anyway when I suggested this idea it was to do exactly this spark debate and see if people felt the way I do, it seems some do.

In truth I'm just hoping that we give Dan some ideas that make the game better I'm finding I love this game a ton and hope it keeps being as exciting as it has been.

I was suggesting outpost and thing to create trade because at lower levels it's kinda hard to get cash, but at higher levels when pawlacite and things become more common it seems like I don't have too much trouble. This seems to happen about the level 50-60 point. Was this anyone else experience?

As I was reading the ideas about outposts, I got this cool idea, that uses crap planets and helps find better ones:

Scanner Outposts: grants bonuses to scan for finding other planets!

To keep it balanced, it could have large size, large cost, and only counts for finding planets of the same type (volcanic, toxic, and ice for example). However, the "same type" requirement (along with the high cost of abandoning a planet and the increasing cost of colonizing planets) makes strategy a big part of using it, so much so that it might even be used on planets that actually have resources.

The research tree can even be called "Planetary Triangulation" as an in-character reference to how it is actually used.

Discussed, disagree 100%. Boosting ship stats via planet stats could unbalance the game badly.

So a dyson will get you another dyson and so on... disagree.

/concurX100,000,000

I see now that I got the scanner wrong. How about a 'warehouse' that can increase the max limit of mineral and artifact points? The cost can be that if the planet is taken the taker gets a bit of those resources. (research storing is out of the question.)

ok you guys THERE WILL ALWAYS BE "BAD" PLANETS, leave it alone already. By making "bad" planets in anyway useful will unbalance the game in 2 ways 1: More PVP from more planets being used= more "bullies" 2: people who have the most planets right now would start to have a huge advantage over those who dont have many. Im sorry but this would just hurt the game, let the idea die in peace.