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I very much dislike that I basically can not control whether automated explorers (and other ships) will venture into nebulae or not. The only way to control that behaviour is to avoid installing anything beyond the basic armor and shields or the second-tier hyperdrive, which makes these ships very vulnerable and very slow.

In my current game, my 50 exploration ships have basically mapped most of the region around my empire, and have now started going into dangerous nebulae, where they have triggered, in quick succession, 3 hive ships. Needless to say, that's something I would have avoided until my military forces were ready to deal with the threat.

The solution: Add a separate button or policy that prevents civilian ships from going into nebulae. Ideally the options could be:

* Can enter any nebulae
* Can enter any nebulae with owned stations or colonies
* Avoid entering dangerous nebulae
* Avoid entering any nebulae

I'd like that too. In fact, exploration is such an important part of the game that I think explorers should have their own set of tactical settings, different from military ships. Taking into account the specificity of explorations, including auto-spy (if it ever work properly, or at all ).

That will probably become even more relevant once there's better support for retrofits of multi-designs ships. It would then become practical to use specific explorations ships designed for different tasks / missions (for instance, one design to explore nebulae, one to auto-spy, another as a mobile monitoring station with long range scanners, etc.), each design having their own sets of exploration tactical settings.

100thMonkey wrote: Thu Aug 04, 2022 1:30 pm I'd like that too. In fact, exploration is such an important part of the game that I think explorers should have their own set of tactical settings, different from military ships. Taking into account the specificity of explorations, including auto-spy (if it ever work properly, or at all ).

That will probably become even more relevant once there's better support for retrofits of multi-designs ships. It would then become practical to use specific explorations ships designed for different tasks / missions (for instance, one design to explore nebulae, one to auto-spy, another as a mobile monitoring station with long range scanners, etc.), each design having their own sets of exploration tactical settings.

Completely agree with your suggestion. It would make the different automated roles of exploration ships actually viable, without needing to babysit them.

And when you have 50, 60 or more explorers, that's a lot of babysitting!

Another thing that I believe would help immensely to manage exploration ships: filters in the control center based on their automation type/role. So you could see, for instance, the ones on auto-spy, without having to go through them all.

And when we get good support for retrofits of multi-designs, it would be also useful to be able to filter by design... Or at least to sort on designs.