I think their should be a common artifact that allows you to rename one planet. This artifact would be very common to get from your artifact collection, like spy probes - and would give no other bonus. Granted I'm sure I'm not the first to suggest this - but I'd still like to hear your opinions.

Edit:
What about planets with one random building or positive/negative effect on it? Like a ruin city (that would still take up space) that gave +1-3 research - or a ancient crashed ship that gave a bonus to the planet's attack/defense or a one time research point bonus. Effects like native population - that gave the planet a +10-25% production bonus - or pollution that reduced the normal planet's population cap by 10-25%.


Edit Edit:
Also just a basic thought - how about a timer that tells you how long you've played the game? I've been playing for less than a week but I'll never know when I've been playing for a year.

renaming artifact: good idea.

planet ideas: there is already a thread on that, you should put it there.

play timer: why would you need to know that?

Yeah I really thought there might be a thread already. The timer would just be to let you know when you started playing compared to other players (if other player's "timers" were visible). Just to show benchmarks in your playing - you might not know how long you've been playing the game and might want to.

I like all 3 ideas.

Renaming would be nice, planet names are very generic or arbitrary, and I really have no way of knowing which of my own planets is which. Common conversation topic heard from the voices in my head: "which is the planet I wanted to build the phase cutters on? It was a volcanic mining world. Not that one... Nope, not that one either... Ah, here it- no, must be this one." Plus, it would let us add a personal touch to our empire.

I'd be all for random little planetary traits as well, even without taking up space. If planets had traits, it could also be a reason to colonize a low resource world. A temporal anomaly on a planet might increase research, an asteroid field might give you +10% cloak while guarding it, high-yield crops could give a tweak to population, etc.

I don't really care about a timer, but certainly not opposed to something like that.

1) I would like to rename my planets.

2) There is a thread on that like Zopha said. I like the idea though. Maybe anomolies for research, strong magnetic field for added defense and attack, quickly cooled for added minerals(If a planet cooled fast enough there would be higher concentrations of heavy minerals in the crust in real life), ancient ruins for added artifacts. There would be negative effects too, Meteor Impact Prone would decrease population, something that means it gives off radiation would decrease cloaking, I cant think of anything else.

3) I would like to know how long Ive played