I started about the 1st page, I had a MASSIVE list of ideas... but then my computor glitched right after I was done typing a page-long list, so I said," Screw it, that's bull crap" so here I am.

Also, maybe a nanobot-planet for the Vasari, which would get bonus population, health, and be able to re-generate infrastructure damage at an increased rate after bombardment.

Koda0 (^)

EDIT\\ The planet type would be upgradeable from Terran planets as an Population Upgrade lvl. 5... but only after a LOT of research towards this was done.

The black hole and normal star would be interesting because you could have a thin bridge of plasma coming off the star and going into the black hole...

hmm... seeing as it hasnt BEEN a year since this was first posted that os highly doubtful

well, if we are taking reality into effect, most of those shouldnt be possible, as any object of sufficient mass would make a general spherical shape... but these would make cool planets if we didnt care about actual large body physics

a Massive flying city ship that you can colonise

wath if we used both t

and

" reduced production time and cost for ships."

Here's a few ideas:

Brown Dwarfs:  These are stars that never quite made it - the elements for fusion were there, but their mass wasn't great enough to start it.  However, they still have pretty impressive gravitational fields, and they are still incredibly hot.  I dunno how ships would be affected, but it's an idea nonetheless.

Blazars:  These are quasars that are like the previously mentioned "Space Fountains," except they shoot out a jet of all the stellar material at their cores.  The effects of said jet on ships are left as an exercise to the poor sap who approaches them.

White hole (if not already mentioned):  The complete opposite of a black hole, these fellas eject stellar material at a surprising rate.  Check the wiki article for more details.

Dyson Swarm/Shell/Bubbles: These could be found around some star systems, increasing the production or trade rate somewhat (the original proposal was meant to increase the amount of energy available to us), though whether it would encompass only a few planets or all of them is up for debate.

Hmmm... it's been a while since I've posted here, and from the looks of things, our imaginations seem to be getting to us. While the sky is the limit mentally and imaginatively, the game itself has limits, and so does your comp. I'm going to go with my original idea, about Moons and planet upgrades unique to each race. Hopefully, with enough reasonable ideas, some of our effort here will pay of in Diplomacy.

1st: Planet upgrades unique to each race.

Vasari: A nano-planet. The 4th level of Emergency Facilities research, this provides the planet with an automatic 20% reduced infrastructure damage during bombing, 10% Population protection, +500 bonus towards planet health, and 5 Planet health repaired a sec. during planet bombing.
Vasari2: Nano-bot Infrastructure. (Only applyable to Ice, Volcanic, Desert and Terran worlds) the 4th or 5th Population research, this allows for a 20% boost to planet population, and a 15% boost to population growth.
Vasari Rules: Both of these are only unlockable via research, Nano-Planet lvl. 3, Nano-Infrastructe, lvl. 4 or 5.

Advent: Religious-Planet. (only appliable to Terran, Volcanic, Ice and Desert worlds) Immense religious campaigns on larger worlds allow for increased population cap as the guided population is more willing to share living space. Provides a 20% boost to planet population, and a 10% boost to planet population Growth.
Advent2: Psi-Protection. Spirituals and other members of the Gifted population work together to provide increased protection to the planet during planet bombing. Provides a 15% block to damage done by planet bombing, and adds 250 health to the planet, and protects the population by 15%.
Both are applied to the planet at the planet upgrades screen, both are only unlocked via research, Religious planet at lvl. 3, Psi-Protection at lvl. 4

TEC: Urbanized Planet. (Only appliable to Terran, Volcanic, Ice and Desert worlds). Urbanization on a global scale massively increases the planet's population cap. In addition, the population grows faster as a result. Planet Population increase: 30% Population Growth increase: 5%
TEC2: Bombardment Bunkers. Civilians develop immense underground bunkers in order to further protect from planet bombing damage. Damage to population reduced by: 25% Damage to planet reduced by: 10% Bonus Planet Health: 250
Research for both: Urbanized Planet: lvl. 4, Bombardment Bunkers, lvl. 3 Again, applied at the planet dev. screen.

2nd: Moons:
I think that every Homeworld should start out with a Moon, and that every Terran Planet that isn't a homeworld should get one as well. I think this because the Earth wouldn't be a Terran planet if it weren't for the moon, therefore, we can assume other Terran planets wouldn't be either.

Moons should be upgradeable INDEPENDENTLY from their host planet. Moons should have a Population Cap of 90-100 to start out, and a health cap of 1000 to start. They can NOT have their own Logistics or Tactical slots, but they should provide a boost to their host planet's Tactical and Logistics slots by 4 Logistic, 5 Tactical. Moons cannot be upgradable at first, but have research done to increase population and health cap. They split the damage 50-50 with their host planet while being bombed, until the moon or planet goes under, then 100% of the damage goes to the remaining entity.

Moons provide the following bonuses: +100 Population, +1000 health, + 25% Gravity well size, + 5 Tactical Slots, +4 Logistic slots.
Research for Moons applies as follows:

TEC: Enhanced Lunar Colonies: Increases Moon population by 10% at first, 25% 2nd, 33% 3rd and 50% 4th. The 3rd and 4th levels are research 2 tiers up from the first two.
TEC: Enhanced Lunar Facilites: Increases maximum Moon health from 1000 to 2500.

Advent: Lunar Manifest: Increases Moon population by 10% to 25%.
Advent: Enforced Lunar Protection: Increases Moon Health from 1000 to 4500

Vasari: Denser Lunar Colonies: Increases Moon population by 10% to 25% 1st level, 33% last level.
Vasari: Hardened Lunar Bases: Increases Moon health from 1000 to 3000

I tried my best to make this balanced and fair across the board... Hope I Helped!

Koda0 (^)

EDIT\\ Oh, and srry if I seemed like a jerk during the first part of my post... I just re-read it after I posted and it seemed kinda harsh at first. Didn't mean to stomp your ideas!

my thoughts.

a Dyson sphere could be done by simply adding a re-textured star field/background so it will look like all the planets close to the star are inside the sphere.

some kind of huge starship or space station would be awesome, maybe a huge Vasari colony ship, long ago abandoned during some long forgotten battle, surrounded by a field of wreckage and maybe with a capital ship or 2 sticking out of its hull like it rammed it.