Hi,

I had this idea. It seems like colonizing planets and getting minerals and artifacts seems like a fairly mind numbing way of doing it. I was wondering why we couldn't have certain artifacts or certain minerals on different planets.
For example: one planet that produces everything until hydium, planets that only produce erixon etc.
same for artifacts. you could get certain artifacts such as spy probes from planets that had civilizations on it that used these probes.
I was also thinking it would be neat if the planets had moons like in real life. You could build a ship or something and send it to explore the moons of the planet. It could add some extra space to the planet like 2 or 4 spaces.
These two points would make colonizing planets a lot more strategically attractive.

Another thing that might add to some extra strategy would be npc battles. It seems like a very simple task to attack them and get rewards but what if Dan adds NPC such as cosmic anomalies that you have to scan rather than attack? You could find an abandoned ships/stations/structures/space anomalies and send a team there to explore (possible failure to loose one but also possibility to gain research points find cargo, detect a planet, etc). other things that would be neat and would mix up npc battles would be strange occurances on planets that pop up. again it would fall into the scanning rather than attacking niche or maybe you would have to hack your way through some ancient firewall ... I don't know but it might make the whole *click 15 times and get reward* mentality. It would make more use of those scanners and cloaks.

Those are just some thoughts as the game would feel a bit more strategically challenging even thou it's already an amazing game . Would be nice to hear what you guys think.

Cheers

the mining idea isnt that great... i rely on my planets mineral production to scale with me. if none of them produced up to aidonium, i would be screwed in my upkeep. as for moons and derelicts/anomalies, those have already been suggested, and in much greater detail. still, i +1 the moons and anomalies.

search for "a use for all those tiny crappy planets everyone hates" and youll see the moon thread i was talkin about. lol i dont rly feel like linking it again for the umpteenth time. :P

Oh sorry if it's been posted before, it was late last night

lol dont worry about it. its a good idea. its good to know more and more people want it in the game. especially since it was suggested several months ago, it could use a revive.

Still nice idea.