Trying to generalize the above a bit...  Any time that you can make a technology visible through a graphic or animation, you should try to do so.  This keeps them from being purely passive behind the scenes bonuses.  In Civ, when you research tanks, you get a tank model.  When you research railroads, you convert roads to rail.  

How can you animate sensors?  Engines?  Soldier techs?

It is not.  You can go through nebulae and asteroids.  Both are tend to be small anyways.

To compare to Civ again, the map is defined as much by the sea as it is by the land.

Understood.  Howeever, I am talking about things that were not in gal civ 2.

It might, though I think you'd either need a lot of black holes, or they'd have to have quite a radius on them to serve as a real terrain feature.  When water is 70% of the planet, where it is matters.  A dot that you can go near in a vast space...  isn't even a speed bump.

If terrain isn't important, then random maps are pointless.  Who cares where the tiny slow you down nebula is.  It doesn't affect play.

On this note about Life Support, I'd like to suggest the following:

1) New LS tech DOESN'T increase any ship range. It merely gives access to new ship components, which are what determine range.

2) LS components should start out LARGE (in terms of space), but cheap.  Improvements should reduce the first slowly, but increase the second quickly. E.g. "Basic" LS should be size 10, cost 5.  Reduce size by 2 per new tech, but double the cost.

3) Range should NOT be adjusted by map size. It should be scaled for a Small Map, then left fixed.  One of the things that *should* be a challenge on larger/huge/etc. maps is that you MUST load up your ships with life support to enable them to cross the vast distances.

Having to build new colony ships with greater range would suck, let it auto upgrade the ships range when you get the new techs.  Also, I don't want it to feel like Civ in space, I want it to feel like Gal Civ, or in other words...  the nebulae are a cool addition, they add tactical value.  Something that couldn't be passed at all would be annoying, and would probably require more intelligent coding in order to make it not be something that messed up maps more than it aided maps.  It seems silly and not worth it to me.

I like the ideas to add more animation to the game and I think it would be nice to extend it to starbases as well. Yes it is all well and good that we see new modules as they are added, but I think that starbases could use some more visual effects to reflect certain modules particular combat or economic enhancers by adding some small craft flurrying around the starbase, or to give certain modules distinctive glow effects.

On a more functional standpoint, I think some depth could be added by focusing on orbital and lunar structures. I noticed that many of the planets in the Alpha have moons and I wondered if it would be possible to make those more than just a set piece. I am curious if the development team might consider adding lunar facilities or enhancements either through an asteroid mining or similar vessel or through the planet construction menu. It could be equivalent to one tile where a player can decide to dedicate the moon base to production, trade, or research. Or perhaps the moons can contain some precursor relics or something, I think that would add more depth to the early expand and exploration game and make planets with moons more sought after.

I am also interested in seeing orbital improvements in a similar vein. I know that the two build queues discussion has thrown around a few ideas about making space ports like starbases. I thought it might be better to have them as an orbital structure and not floating out in deep space. Then I started thinking what about other orbital improvements such as habitats, trade stations (intra civilization), research centers, or defensive stations. I think it would add another layer to the game and bring more depth to managing individual worlds.

I also think it would be cool (and I know I may be going off the deep end a little with this one) if we could establish bases on habitable moons of gas giants (either colony or moon base mentioned in second paragraph) to add some value to otherwise dead systems. And for an even crazier idea I wonder if for some late game techs for when players reach nearly omnipotent levels of technology that an option to build ring worlds or Dyson spheres around otherwise solitary stars could be implemented to add a late game expansion boost, or that some of these can be found as artifacts (granted massive artifacts) left by the precursors (surely they had that level of technology right?) which would be exceedingly rare but very valuable, just a thought...

Loving ALL this DABalke7 especially making use of defunct stars that had no habitable planets with advanced tech/research. I would love to see more animation too whether it be gradual transformation of planets as they populate (as was suggested on a different thread) or around starbases or other orbital constructs. Awesome thoughts! 

On a similar but slightly different vein I hope the 'Twin Moons' special feature on a planet will actually display two moons orbiting the planet rather than nothing as I found in one game - I love the graphic of an orbiting moon and two would be twice the fun... ahhh that's right... no fun in the alpha... that must be it lol. 

Pretty sure Fate is referring to one of the new descriptions in the alpha, can't remember which one and am off to bed lol 

oh ok, my bad, could have sworn I read it somewhere too.

I just researched the Life Support techs in my game. None of them had a proper description. I even looked in the game-files, just to make sure, that I didn't misremember something.

Have just found the software blurb for LS in the Founder's Vault - can't reproduce it apparently in the forums (at Frogboy's request) but it is there (and presumably in the alpha somewhere) as Fate and I believed. Cheers