That sounds like a good idea, maybe the distance could be two squares away from your farthest planet.

Like the idea.

The death of a star is a slow process, with lots of prior warning. So if they do add supernovas, they should only happen to a special class of Large, Dying Stars. That way, the player and the AI know the possible risk. Realistically, there should not be very high class planets, but any planet, as well as asteroids and resources, might make the risk worth considering, especially if the risk is very low.

And if the star is say a certain color.. like red, meaning its old and is very big and.. old, then it might have a chance to creat a black hole that will keep growing larger and larger and starting to suck things in and there will be like a radius to how big it can become, but it should be pretty big.

I like that idea, but in reality Black Holes do not grow. The effect of the black hole is instant, and does not grow or shrink.

it should be totally random any and all systems should be at risk

black holes shrink and the event horizen grows

if two black holes combine then you really have a problem

also not that i use them but on a small galaxy there shouldn't be one at all

Only large stars go supernova. When they die, their core begins to collapse, resulting in a large boom. Before the supernova, the core does a lot of other funky stuff. A space-going civilization would know for years that a star is dying, but may not be able to predict exactly when the star is going to blow.

That was the geek's take on it. Now for the players.

I don't know why people always get the idea that black holes suck everything in. They don't suck in stuff anything more than any other celestial body with the same mass. What makes a black hole a black hole is that anything that crosses the event horizon has no chance to ever get back.

In other words: if the Sun magically turned into a black hole overnight, we would notice ZERO difference gravity-wise here on Earth. You would only experience a dramatic increase in gravity if you got nearer than the Sun's current solar radius. And of course, entering and staying in orbit around a black hole is EXACTLY as difficult for a spaceship as around any normal star.

What could make a black hole dangerous for nearby ships is when it was a rotating one and unexpectedly became active, meaning collecting matter in an accretion disk from gas clouds or a stellar companion. That matter could get accelerated and turned completely into energy or ejected as jets from the poles at relativistic speeds.

I like the idea also. The mini mission idea is nice too, anything to stirr up the daily routines is good.

What about if you get the Event warning the star in going nova you are able to research a tech called something like "Star ReStarting" or what ever but it allows you to fix the collapse.

The tech would only pop up at event and then research it.
Make it so the tech is a long and costly affair to reseach.