(Off topic) Mark, reading your posts is a delight.

Thank you! It's nice to be listened to.

Just a thought and I think in some way or another it has been mentioned...just not combined.

As it is, you can do only a couple of thing within each server;
- colonize...usually you're done with that after the first two months and then you're "stuck" (except for a few empty slots)
- build...be it buildings, defenses, ships...never ending cycle of growth
- attack, raid...whatever you want to call it, it is about taking resources from other players, directly from their planet or by destruction of fleet
- expedition...send ships at your own peril...you either get some resources, which you could have gotten from the next nearest inactive...or you get some ships...or your fleet gets sucked into a black hole...

as a player, what choice do you have?
grow...grow some more and grow even more...sure...daily chores, how fun are those?
so as a distraction you attack some-one else, you get a big fleet, but there is always a bigger fish, just like in real life.
All well and fine, but all this could be extended with more in depth experience...

a couple of things that might seem crazy, but help the enjoyment;
- if you're bored with the location, teleport the planet, ofcourse at a certain (high) cost and with a cooldown, before being able to do it again...own flights form or to will block a teleport
- deep space investigation might give you new technologies you could further explore or a new species is found
a alien technology might help in better regeneration of ships and defenses...yes you lost the battle, but some of your ships ( 5% )have regenerated after say 1 hour...

crazy? maybe...but it definitely makes the universe more flexible and broader to play in

O.O Teleporting planets. THAT'S BRILLIANT.

thanx on the vote of confidence Vixen!

in my mind I was thinking of the following scenario;
- an expedition finds an alien planet, they make contact and acquire the technology for a planet engine
- you can now research that technology
- once researched, you need dark matter to power the engine, that you can only get by doing more expeditions
- you need quite the amount, say 4 successful expeditions bringing home dark matter (and not forgetting the chances of another black hole, planet, ships etc...so 1 in 4 chance you get what you want)
- you got the tech, researched it and you got the fuel...an planetary engine needs to warm up...all flights have to be landed and factories are closed...warm up takes an hour
- flight is instant...you appear in your designated (free) new system slot
- planet has to settle into system orbit, before attempting a new planet jump, galaxy maps have to be updated to make the necessary calculations, any new attempt can be made no sooner then after a week
- moons are not jumped with the planet, the moons are not big enough to house a planetary engine

just a brainfart really

I'd probably make it simple, you can do it once a day, costs x amount of resources to do it.

it's not supposed to be easy, because it is not a method to avoid attacks.
it opens op an opportunity, to have a real end goal to the "expedition" option, which is now a "dead end"
there's not much to gain from "exploring" outer space, whereas finding the alien tech and the fuel for a world engine makes this section in the game more attractive.
the gains shouldn't influence the other parts too much and just like reaching a high building level is hard and takes time, gathering the pieces and fuel for this planetary "upgrade" shouldn't be too easy either...

hmm ok

How about, every new world you colonise, you get 5 rubies? Not too relevant for most established players unless they employ roamers. But, for the newer players, something to help get themselves established? A one off, for each world colonised. Once you have had this 10(11 times for the extra bought slot) times, every subsequent world you colonise you receive nothing. Otherwise you would have players colonising worlds, trashing them then doing the same over and over. So, a maximum 10 (11) times.

Hmm could help, but not really sure enough to make a big difference.

I would say that they need more starter resources. If you are brandspanking new and have no idea what you are doing. You likely build a few buildings (maybe some research or defense, perhaps a few small cargos) and then you are just sitting there (if you don't know how to raid.)

I think a more specific tutorial that explains things like how to read, how to read your techologies button, and so forth would be very helpful