I like this.

There would need to be some kind of drawback to this, like the need to use your survey ship for the task, or taking up an entire turn with the colony ship in order to do the survey.

If you put it that late it won't get nearly as much use.

I'd really like the ability for a survey ship to do it, since you get one from the start.

The first question is, would it severely unbalance the game if the planetary surveyor module was available immediately (or at Sensors I) at low cost? I don't think so; in my experience it's actually a rather rare situation to be at luxury to look critically at one's colonisation possibilities. That Class 9 over there is going to get colonised ASAP, whether it be bristling with bonus tiles or devoid of them. Likewise, I'm wary of Class <= 3 worlds until I have some good terraforming going, which is certainly not early. Thus, it seems that real, hard gains due to this module would actually be minimal.

This, however, is no objection to the idea; to me it's just all the more reason to put it in! I say make it a low-level tech, requiring Sensors I or II, allowing you to attach a Planetary Surveyor Module to any ship. This module must be only slightly more expensive than first-level Sensors, and should probably not give you a sensor radius bonus. As for its functioning, a week's analysis of the world -- tectonics, biology, weather patterns and mineral deposits -- from orbit should give you all the data. Thus one could replace the standard Sensors on a Colony ship with this module at only a slight increase in price.

The player should find him/herself presented with two options: fast colonisation with no knowledge of planetary bonuses or slower colonisation with the ability to pick the best planets.

This raises some other interesting possibilities. What if planets, in the normal viewscreen, didn't tell you exactly what their Class is? Instead of knowing straight away that this is a Class 12, for instance, the cursor only reveals that it is an "Earth-like world"; instead of Class 2, a "Bleak world"; instead of Class 16, an "Elysian world". Then the surveyor might be indispensable; also, you should then be able to build up a database on all previously surveyed -- but uncolonised -- worlds, to refer back to later. The Extreme Colonisation would still be just as relevant; however, one would not know that this "Aquatic world" had the potential to be transformed into a Class 20 or a Class 5 until one has the Aquatic Worlds technology (this makes sense, after all). If one has this tech plus a Planetary Surveyor in orbit, one week's data gathering would reveal the planet's full potential.

This last would integrate the idea fully into the game and, moreover, add a little bit of mystery to the whole colonisation thing. It would be cool but unnecessary; I reckon the good ol' Planetary Surveyor Module on its own might be a fun addition itself.

J.

That was why i thought it might be best to have it later on, but on smaller maps i guess it would not get used at all. Perhaps it's size could be increased so as not to make it too powerful.

Perhaps this could be given at sensors 1 and the survey module moved to sensors 2, since anomolies re-spawn now that would not make so much of a difference.

But it would need to have some limitations. Perhaps it cannot work on the toxic, heavy gravity..etc, planets until extreme colonization had been researched.

Exactly. To me, making it a separate tech and a slightly more expensive module already decreases its "brokenness" (pardon the MTG term), since in the early game the economy is pretty tight. I fully agree with making hazardous worlds "unsurveyable" until the appropriate Extreme Colonisation has been researched. This allows a nice way of scaling the Planetary Surveyor tech whilst maintaining its early game functionality.

J.