to quote some of the flavor text, "the thing about space is, it's big. really big."

i don't think choke points make any sense for this game. and i have no problem setting up defensive positions, since enemy ships go so slow. you just need a modest fleet in each sector and enough sensors to see what's trying to get in.

When you're outside the Schwartzchild radius of a black hole it's no different than any other star, so it wouldn't make much sense for them to block more space than a star already does. Honestly, as it is we've got more obstacles than make sense. There's absolutely no reason a planet should occupy a parsec (that's 3 light years, give or take) of space square for example. I understand why it's the way it is and it doesn't really bother me, but you can't really make any astronomical arguments about a game where Earth is 4 light years from the sun.

As to nebulae, they actually can take up a multitude of light years worth of space and their inclusion might be interesting in a future expansion. Most of them would take up most of the map, but there's no rule I suppose that you can't have smaller ones exclusively. Since they're really just a cloud of gas and dust that happens to be lit up (be it by radiation from central stars or by reflecting the light of stars nearby) I don't really know what impact it'd make sense for them to have.

And finally, as others have said, there simply are no choke points in space. Period. A two dimensional simulation of 3d space is really only acceptable for that very reason, in practical terms it doesn't much matter.

Actually, a good idea for nebulas would be to make it that some nebulas may be different from one another and have some sort of effect on your ships.

For instance, one type of nebula could mess with your sensors and weaken your visual range by a certain amount in the area it's located.

Another effect would be that whenever a ship goes into a nebula's area, it will become "cloaked" and can effectively hide in the nebula in order to avoid enemies.

Another could be a sort of nebula that can either boost or slow down your overall speed by a certain percentage.

Honestly, there's a lot of possibilites when it comes to nebulas. We just gotta be creative!  

Hehe, yeah I don't think the star formation element's particularly relevant seeing as the game is played out on a scale of, at most, decades. The sensor blocking is a good thought, and makes a degree of sense considering the amount of ionizing radiation that tends to be present in emission nebulae. The research bonus makes sense too. I'm not exactly sure why it'd slow down movement, though as you say we're not really talking realism here.

Well, you'd just HAVE to have nebulas mess with sensors, otherwise Kirk never would have been able to outmaneuver Khan in the Motara Nebula. Duh.

Hi!

And who will be creative with the AI to make it use those new environments properly?

BR, Iztok

I'd like to also suggest the addition of nebulae that have different effects. Heck, maybe they could even be temporary additions (they exist for so many turns and then leave). There seem to be a lot of possibilities. Thinking back to Master of Orion 2, I believe they had a nebula that would slow down travel in that area. I could see implemented them to:

*Slow down/speed up ships traveling through it (both military and trade)
*Increase/decrease sensor range in there (I like this idea the best)
*Have a higher percentage of anomalies (although they may be harder to find/take longer to get)

This would add a little more variety to normal maps. Asteroids are a good start, but this would be neat, too. Something you could turn on or off, maybe?

It doesn't have to, but since these are real phenomena their actual effects are a good starting point for discussion, it seems to me.

If you just want to discuss game effects my opinion comes down the same way, nebulae have some interesting possibilities but I don't see the point of a 3x3 no fly zone black hole. Choke points in space make no sense, perhaps more importantly, don't fit the current gameplay model.

Better?