Auto Explore

Yes.

Wahoo!

Sorry for the newbie-ish question, but I've been playing the game (pre-ordered it) for a good while now, and I've never found that auto-explore button. Where is it?

It's called Sector Sweep. Not obvious, but it works, and not just for one sector.

I have never tried sector sweep in GC2. I didn't find it useful in GC1, so never even thought to try it. Sector sweep will do a Civ4 style auto-explore? Or do I have to keep setting its auto-pilot to go to the next sector, at which point it goes back to sweeping until interrupted?

For Colphe:

There are two kinds of auto command.

The auto explore in the beta works when you hit the key A but it is for exploring anomalies with the survey ship. I have not seen a button for it but I recalled the key command from GCI and it still works.

There is a button for sector sweep and like star pilot I never cared for how sector sweep worked in GCI. I would build more scouts if I could set them to explore any unexplored sectors on the map but they just keep sweeping the single sector until you redirect them. I only tried sector sweep in the beta once and it seemed to have a bug or I was doing something wrong. I don't really recall but it told me it couldn't do it for some reason. Based on the comment by Pop up I will try it again

In a huge game I did build some super scouts with boosted range. The generic scout is not that good on a big map with its short range and on a small map I have been able to cover the map adequately with the flagship.

The starting scout sucks all around. The problem is it has a sensor range of 3 for all non-Torians. Your starting flagship is a good explorer because it has a sensor range of 5. It might not see that big a difference, but that's a radius figure. And considering you can just build colony ships or constructors and get the same sensor benefits, well.

I now design a cargo hold that holds 1 extra engine, 1.2 extra sectors of range, and all else is crammed with sensors (giving it a total sensor range of 14). It does very well for clearing out the fog.

Sector sweep is no longer sector sweep. It is now auto-explore in the beta. Very nice, as that's one less thing to micro-manage.

As soon as I've got the time, I usually research all the sensor techs and then build something with sensors only.

It's not perfect, it seems to focus on the unexplored area closest to one of your colonies/starbases, ignoring how close it is to itself (I had a scout on auto-sector sweep once ignore the grey to its left and right, and go all the way to the other side of the planet it was exploring around). Still, it's a nice way to eliminate micromanagement in the midgame.