Explore Planet, what's it good for?

from Sins Forums

Not a literal question, but a balance one.  Explore planet.  Or as my friend and I call it, the Gamble Button.  Maybe you'll find an awesome artifact or hidden planet bonus.  Or maybe you'll just waste a fair chunk of resources on nothing, or useless bonuses.  The main problem with this is the cost.  Specifically, no one can afford to do it as there are far more important things to get.  The only TEC or Visari can afford to do this is late game, when the minor planet bonuses are almost meaningless (+culture rate?  Gee that sure would have been nice to know BEFORE I used up all the logistic slots).  Artifacts can be more game changing, but there are some pretty lame ones.  Not to mention on your average medium sized map you'll be lucky to see more than 3 artifiacts total in the game.  Advent can make more use of Explore Planet due to their research to drastically lower the cost, but even then this is a low priority to establishing your fleet, infastructure, economy, and tech.

 

Some of these may be better to put into Diplomacy, but I think it would really help - and make the game a little more interesting - if:

-Minor planet bonuses should be MUCH more common, and a few more added.  There are only a small handful of searchable ones to be found.  Most come on initial colonization.

-Why does 90% of the bonuses only turn up on the first search?  This makes doing more than one search a true gamble, as you can really only hope for an artifact on the second try.

-Re-evaluate artifact usefulness.  Some are awesome; Kinetic Intensifier, Relativistic Factories, Data Archive?  These offer massive advantages over your opponent.  Jump Drive Relic, Resilient Metalloids, Manifest Domination?  These are pretty small time advantages, with Jump Drive Relic possibly doing nothing at all.

-The high cost makes doing this extremely unlikely for any player early-mid game.  Generally it's reserved for Advent players after buying their special research, then doing a huge explore blitz on all their planets at once.  Consider a cost reduction so this becomes a viable option early game.

18,871 views 5 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top

-Minor planet bonuses should be MUCH more common, and a few more added.  There are only a small handful of searchable ones to be found.  Most come on initial colonization.

this is actually controlled in map, if you use Galaxy Forge you can set this rate as high as 100% (Ive done it, talk about crazy)

as for the artifact usefulness, yeah that is a bit of a gamble and annoying (especially when you get Data Archive after you get most of your research done)

overall, its a way of "spicing" up the game,

there are some mods (Like Distant Stars) that change and expand the whole Planet Bonuses (we left the Artifacts alone) to make it real gamble (like Deadly Secret, I hate that one)

Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top

There needs to be some kind of pinger so when you find a planet, you end up with a message telling you that "Your explorers estimate a high probability of finding an artifact/bonus on this planet" so at least people should explore some planets, rather than just ignore the button completely.

 

Maybe there should be some sort of population/planet bonus for exploring a planet i.e. the people know the planet and can better adapt to it and adapt the planet for their uses etc.  That, in additon to the artifacts, would surely make people explore more.

 

And Ryat, what does Deadly Secret do?

Offworld Trading Company
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top

lol

its a Secret

and a Nasty on at that

basically it wipes out the planet with no hope of getting anything back

Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top

Deadly Secret takes 10,000 points from your planet. Just make sure you fill all the orbital slots etc before you explore!

Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top

Unless you're Advent or filthy rich, it's generally not worth exploring.

Worst of all, ice planets can potentially unlock the "High Security Protocol" secret, which is mostly likely to be a bad thing.