Stars on map at start of game.

We can see stars but not planets etc.

Yes, I know. Currently we have Circles, and a fog of war. What would be nice is a change that has that but does not look like that. 

This engine makes the COOLEST Stars. Also the background is simply breathtaking. Why cant we have that at start up but not show planets. 

What I mean is, I want to see a 'revealed' back ground with Just the stars. Then as  you explore, all the cool stuff will appear upon proximity to your ship.

Things like Asteroids, Mining resources, Habitable and Uninhabitable planets, Moons, Anomalies, all of these would NOT be seen on start up, but the Stars in all their beautiful glory would be, Red Giants, Brown and White Dwarfs, Young Blue and White children and of course mid range Yellow suns. That with a nice black or dark background (or similar fog) with colors and gases able to be seen. 

What I am looking for is really an (Cosmetic) overhaul of how we do fog of war. 

The biggest advantage to how its currently done is that it is obvious what you have and haven't explored.  The more detail you put into the fog of war the less differentiation between it and the map and the more potentially confusing it could be for players.  So any changes would need to take that into account.

I think that we should have stars on the fog of war but they should not be large grey circles.  They should look more like stars look to us now on earth.

I did a quick google search of what I am talking about:

http://www.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=&imgrefurl=http%3A%2F%2Fscienceblogs.com%2Fstartswithabang%2F2010%2F01%2F25%2Fseeing-red-in-the-sky%2F&h=0&w=0&tbnid=QutFCTGmEsoljM&zoom=1&tbnh=180&tbnw=280&docid=Ch_HIyNB_3AQDM&tbm=isch&ei=VSifU-2hCtKZyASax4H4DQ&ved=0CAUQsCUoAQ

Hopefully that picture gets that idea across.  The images themselves should be small and unimposing.  They should look distant until you get within sensor range.

The grey circles are very large and uninteresting, I think they make the map look more cluttered then it actually is.  But I don't think removing them from the map is the way to go.  We know what all the closest stars to earth are now and we can't even get people to mars. (yet)  It seems unlikely that any other technic species aspiring the stars would not have any idea where to look for them.

I agree that this initial 'fog' should be nothing more than empty space with just stars (and perhaps large nebulas) showing. As you explore the hexes can become visible denoting 'explored space'. Any space without hexes can simply be unexplored inside this fog.

As for previously explored space in the fog of war - once you leave an 'observed' area the planets/asteroids/units etc can become faded/translucent and remain static as the last way you observed them. This way you can still see the explored areas but you will not know how it has changed (i.e. a previously available planet will still show translucent as available but could have been colonized since the last time you were there - or a translucent enemy starbase will show on your map but it could have been destroyed since the time you were there). These instances would all be true unless you have an alliance, treaty or spies/intelligence (or even new techs) in which the areas on the map can update occasionally or in real time.

I think another forum member suggested a shadowy overlay to the board. I think if done well this could work. In addition to what I stated above the fog of war could contain a very subtle rippling shadow that overlayed the fog areas. It would have to be extremely subtle though, warping space/light ever so slightly that it still looked like empty space but animated/distorted enough that the player would be certain that they were looking into the fog.

Yes. Let it be beautiful and relaxing.

I agree that stars should show up on the fog of war, I do like lecek's idea on what the stars should look like as well. Just having that plain circle is boring. Why not make it look nice?!