I like the keep record of which of my planets have poly vaults or other certain artifacts, and I go crazy when I'm "missing" a planet or more from my list. Can we please be able to search through the planets database by artifact? So if I type in "vault" I will be able to see all planets that have an artifact with the word "vault" in it.

Flags would work if I didn't have them used for other things

i keep track via spreadsheet:
ADU 267
BNX 266
ABW 236
SGV 211
DOW 137
HSS 219
HYG 219
BAN 205
LDP 171
ISO2 201
TPP 114
GCS2 124
TMC 66
PCV 188
GKT 27

Technically this would result in an insane amount of extra coding work and a big increase in the lag already present on the planet tab.

As it is, the planet tab already lags a bit even when it is just displaying a thumbnail, name and list of the planets you own with a hyperlink from each to request and open the details of each planet.
Your idea would require a request for every planet and every item on every planet which would need to be requested and loaded every time you visited the planet tab.
In short, this would suck big time.

As Senator suggests, spreadsheets are your friend.

Actually, how about just some type of formatted download so people can load the data into their own spreadsheets, databases, etc., without having to manually visit every planet and record the stats manually? That should make the suggestion do-able without massive coding and leave the searching aspects up to tools that already exist without all the manual work required to maintain spreadsheets. I know Senator (no offense meant, of course) has all the time in the world to dedicate to the tracking a multitude of items, but not all of the players want to follow his example. Personally, I tried a spreadsheet for awhile, but the more you rank and the more planets you add, the more of a pain it is. And maintaining that spreadsheet over time as you tweak your planets is just too painful and I'm waaaay too lazy for that.

Rather it would have been smart to note in Excel or notepad only when you build a new planet and it's missing the usual miss you wanna stick on it. That way the list stays short and sweet.

Projects would have their own section for what they're missing, and you'd only have a few of these running anyways.

That way your full list should only be 10-15 planets

it is actually the opposite situation. the more planets you have the more of a pain it is to NOT track using a spreadsheet.

the numbers that i snagged in the previous reply were the SUMMARIES ... you visit each planet ONCE manually, and then use the spreadsheet to decide what else can / should be built. the artis that i listed previously are ones that i am willing to put on pretty much any planet, while the rest go into a grab bag column.

if you change your standard planet build, then yes, you will have to adjust, but since you already have the structure data in your spreadsheet from your previous manual tracking, you won't have to click thru all the planets again. i have 14 planets lined up for galactic concord stations up to the end of august, and it is very easy for me to figure out on which planet to place my next hypergate upgrade or t.o. manufacturing core upgrade.

and in case anyone is still trying to figure out the abbreviations that i used:

ADU adumbrate station
BNX barrier nexus
ABW astrobiology ward
SGV silthion gas vesicle / silthion t-plasma vesicle
DOW domain walker
HSS hypersensor satellite
HYG hypergate
BAN bainar
LDP litheor deep-phase probe
ISO2 isolation bureau (doubled)
TPP toxic processing plant
GCS2 galactic concord station (doubled)
TMC t.o. manufacturing core
PCV polychoron vault
GKT galakis transport

personaly I just go through my planet list whenever I feel like seeing if I can optimize production or have a number of polychrons to put on planets, although all new ones get a poly as default unless their 15x ap+

Overall, I agree that it is probably more of a pain to me not to maintain a spreadsheet (or database). All I'm suggesting is that I just wish there was a way to auto-maintain it (like download a list of planets with all their info). I started out once...but had to keep changing things as I got more and more things to add to planets and I was making more and more "arti shuffles" to squeeze a few more AP out of my inventory. And I realized it didn't help at all with enemy planet searches. So, I kind of abandoned the effort as too much work to do manually and kind of do what Peticks does -- just manually browse the planets (which might be more work in the long run). But this could be SO much easier with a simple download function.

My version of this suggestion is to have a simple download function that enables you to download the info on ALL the planets on your scan -- including the enemy and unoccupied planets. That way, I could easily browse and search the enemy planets for stuff without spending lots of time manually opening and browsing one-at-a-time. The enemy planets probably actually have the biggest "turnover cycle" as I purge and scan and I may actually waste more of my time on them.

All this was just meant to be a tweak on the original suggestion (which wasn't bad in concept since planet searches are SO limited), but was criticized for being to much work on the developers. My tweak was intended to reduce the work on the developers to a simple export function (which usually is NOT hard to write) and let other tools the user has handle the grunt work of refined searches and sorts. With the right tool, it's even possible to ask questions like which planets to NOT have a certain artifact, which planets only have 1 (say if 2 are allowed like litheor probes), etc. So, I'd probably rather import the data into a SQL database in the long run....but that's just me. I say just give the user the data and let them do with it what they will. The problem today is the limited interface and I'd prefer not to have to make up for those limitations but telling people to get off their lazy behinds and do lots of manual work to make up for the simple lack of a way to download or, as originally suggested, better search and sorting mechanisms. This is supposed to be a game after all and I wouldn't be surprised if part of the reason we have a high drop out rate even at higher ranks is just eventual disillusionment with the sheer amount of work you have to put into playing this game due to the lack of some simple features that could make things much easier. Just look at the constant references to the need for a "use all" button on artis.

And wouldn't life be wonderful if you could flux probe all your planets at once?

For a long, long time I've suggested that Dan let you export your whole planet data base as a .CVS file and we can do what we want with it.

He could limit it to once a week or month (maybe spreading out the day of the week you can do it on so you don't have everyone doing it Sunday night).

I also have a DB I keep, it sounds like it might be as detailed as the senator (maybe more in places, less in others). Setting it up the first time was a pain, keeping it updated is really no chore. In the long run, it is super helpful. It also lets me throw out stats people like.

539/545 of my planets have polycrons
8 Bainar Access X-Node
42 Bainar Access A-Node - Advanced Artifact: 2
14 Bainar Access A-Node - Prime Artifact: 3
247 Deep Space Probes Placed
10 Small Moons
and so on

I know what planets need something from the Galakis legion mission, I know where I need omni-forges and when I don't.

One of the main benefits is being able to efficiently change race/profession. When I go hacker for a mission, I know which planets have Holomatrix and Alari Comm Towers need upgrading. Maybe I'll go biologist and upgrade all of the Vorean artifacts I have (12+ of each).