Making Anomalies More Strategic
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Anomalies are great but I think they might be a bit superficial in providing depth for exploration. Instead of simply flying a survey ship over an anomaly and getting instant results it should take time to discover what that anomaly is. Perhaps anywhere from 1 to 24 turns. When your survey ship flies into an anomaly you could get a message with an "estimate"(not an exact number of turns) of how long it will take to understand the anomaly. You can either except this estimate or cancel and look for another anomaly.
This would allow for strategic decisions in which anomalies you choose to explore and how many survey ships you choose to build (for fear that one might get tied up discovering the secrets of an anomaly for 20 turns or so). Another interesting thing this could do is allow new techs to be made that allow survey ships to increase their ability to uncover the misteries of an anomaly quicker. Also, since you've implemented new techs this would mean that some races survey ships would be better(faster) at uncovering the misteries of an anomaly. These techs would have to be early game techs so that they can be used for my next option in the paragraph below.
The fact that it now takes a number of turns to discover an anomaly's misteries can be used to add another strategic element that would allow competing races to research the same anomaly at the same time. Whoever uncovers the mistery first is the one that gets the bonus. Thus competing for anomalies would be more exiting and add another element of strategy. Races that have researched more "anomaly discovery techs" could actually still uncover the secrets of an anomaly another race was researching even if they didn't get there until a few turns later.
The graphical situation would have to be redone though. As it is now, survey ships fly over the anomaly. If multiple ships are going to be allowed to compete for discovery of what an anomaly does then the devs would have to make it where the survey ship researching an anomaly stays in the adjacent parsec to the anomaly, that way another ship can still see the anomaly and move in to try and discover its secrets first. If the ship is allowed to be in the same parsec as the anomaly then another ship entering that same area would be attacking it. I'm sure the devs already realize this.
In another point, I have seen no anomalies that do bad things. Is the universe only full of fruitful anomalies? Perhaps an anomaly could destroy your ship, or damage it, of infect your empire with a plague(only for a certain # of turns, etc, etc...
Opinions welcome.
~SDC~
This would allow for strategic decisions in which anomalies you choose to explore and how many survey ships you choose to build (for fear that one might get tied up discovering the secrets of an anomaly for 20 turns or so). Another interesting thing this could do is allow new techs to be made that allow survey ships to increase their ability to uncover the misteries of an anomaly quicker. Also, since you've implemented new techs this would mean that some races survey ships would be better(faster) at uncovering the misteries of an anomaly. These techs would have to be early game techs so that they can be used for my next option in the paragraph below.
The fact that it now takes a number of turns to discover an anomaly's misteries can be used to add another strategic element that would allow competing races to research the same anomaly at the same time. Whoever uncovers the mistery first is the one that gets the bonus. Thus competing for anomalies would be more exiting and add another element of strategy. Races that have researched more "anomaly discovery techs" could actually still uncover the secrets of an anomaly another race was researching even if they didn't get there until a few turns later.
The graphical situation would have to be redone though. As it is now, survey ships fly over the anomaly. If multiple ships are going to be allowed to compete for discovery of what an anomaly does then the devs would have to make it where the survey ship researching an anomaly stays in the adjacent parsec to the anomaly, that way another ship can still see the anomaly and move in to try and discover its secrets first. If the ship is allowed to be in the same parsec as the anomaly then another ship entering that same area would be attacking it. I'm sure the devs already realize this.
In another point, I have seen no anomalies that do bad things. Is the universe only full of fruitful anomalies? Perhaps an anomaly could destroy your ship, or damage it, of infect your empire with a plague(only for a certain # of turns, etc, etc...
Opinions welcome.
~SDC~
