I am much too low rank to have this issue, but I am wondering how someone can recover from having their best planets taken.

It seems likly that by rank 300 I will have other planets to colonize that are not useless, but what would happen if I didnt? At the moment losing even a single planet that I have colonized means I cant replace it. I dont even have enough choices to colonize my max possible planets. I dont want tiny-no resource planets!

Scan more you say. I had the best scanners I could fit into my ship and only got 7% chance to find anything. Research more you say - okay I am doing that but, in the long term wouldn't invasion attrition mean you maxed out on planets and all the good ones are stolen, all the ones you scanned are tiny, and you lack the power to attack anything better?

Keep in mind I said attacking someone else is not an option as attack is too low to hit the only planets on your list. Star chart purgers ftw - but they seem rare. Only thing I can think of is have a legion that can help you take over new planets. Thoughts?

As you progress you will see that scanning planets will become a bit easier. Legions are also good for sharing planets, not just back-up on invasion.

Especially after the recent change, you should be able to defend your planets well enough that you probably won't end up losing more planets than you can afford.

It's not the issue you think it is Slord.

Someone could take your world. But they'd only do so if:

1) They happened to scan it. With a million worlds, the chance of any individual scan scanning your world is one in a million. A whole lot of scans happen, but since a world can be scanned repeatedly, each chance is one in a million.

2) Your world has to be attractive. If it's not better than what they could get without fighting, you're ok.

3) They have to be able to take you. At low level, that may sound awful, but it seems like anyone of about your level, assuming you defended your planet, probably can't take the planet. And most of the players are low level. There are lots of high level players, sure - but I'm level 53, and half the worlds I'm scanning are people of my level or lower...

So in the end, it's not likely that you'll lose all your worlds and find yourself unable to progress.

I felt this way about two Terra I scanned VERY early. I even fluxed one once because it got scanned (Back when fluxes were A LOT more common). I am now rank 191, and have still not had either of them even attacked. I keep two of my best shield on them, and still watch over them even though they are not among my best planets Sentimental value).

My best advise and tactic that has worked for me:

Keep one shield of your best tech on all planets (It's only 2 spaces now, used to be more)
Keep one satellite of your best tech on all planets (Also a small space structure)

Outside of that, put an extra shield on planets that are really good (Like the top 5 of your scanned list) and any artifact defence buildings you come across are just bonus as long as they are better on space than your researched tech.

Hope this helps.