I think things like super novas, black holes and meteors should definately be added in an expansion. We could adjust the frequency and severity of the events to our liking or even turn them off completely (just like in SE). I'm sure this would please everybody. If you all agree with that i'm sure stardock will consider them for a future expansion.

To throw in my two cents, I didn't miss supernovas, black holes, meteors, terror stars and the like in the Beta a single second. I think we all should play the game before demanding any additions.

Ive got some ideas but im gonna wait till ive played the game first to see how well they can be implemented

I just don't get it. Why don't people want novas in the game as an OPTION? Would it bother them so much? If you don't want your stars to go nova you will be able to disable this feature completely. How does this sound to you? It sounds fair to me.

How does this sound to you? It sounds fair to me.

And is it fair to the developpers who need to code such thing, test it and teach the AI how to react to it. And what happen if very few people are using this feature?

So, we can just disable whatever features we don't like in the game? Like all the other game ruining random events? Except, of course, if you are playing the Metaverse. Metaverse games will have to be standard... no modding!

In the earlier gamma builds, I had every good (fun!) game of GC2-gamma I played ruined by a serious random event. Every one of them. A retail game does that to me, I toss it away, and put the world out to my other gamer friends that the game is a complete waste of money. That means lost sales to StarDock (every one unhappy customer chases away 10 other potentional customers is the old adage). Remember that GC1 had a *lot* of sales on the pure "word of mouth". People telling their friends "yeah, MoO3 really sucked, but GC1 is a pretty nice game. Give it a try." That same mechanism can work against them.

The other issue is: Why bother including an option if the majority turn it off? How many players would leave "nova" event turned on once they've lost their empire's crown jewel to it? Not many. Or how many would reload an early save to avoid it? Most would. So if almost no player ever goes through the event more then once, why include it? That's the sort of thing that game designers have to think about. Would you play a game for a month if, at every turn, there was a straight 1% chance that you'd lose via a simple random event (ie, "The Ancients return, and boy, are they pissed off at how their worlds are being used! They wipe out every sentient species, and take over. Please try again.")? Most people would either stop playing, or find a mod that just didn't include that option (if it was a really fun game otherwise). Wouldn't you?

Well Said!        Particularly the part of avoidance via reload of a save game.  The idea is to pursue a well thought out strategy and see how it goes - having an unavoidable/undefendable monkey wrench thrown into the mix detracts from the challenge.

Nightyboy42 seems like you are a space empires player as that game has all of those images in it. Really I don't see the need for these things in the game as its an incredible entertaining as is and all these would be is for eye candy. Distances in space are vast and so are stars. Having a more scaled universe would be crazy for a game like this besides its about the fun factor not realism. My two cents.

Oh well, i give up! You guys got stong points. I guess the fact that there is no planetary destruction weapon has affected me. Now i won't be able to create an Armageddon kind of scenario......

There could be safeguards in the game to stop it destroying your most valued planets. You could give the player plenty of warning, so disaster management could become an interesting challenge. You might be able to get back a lot of your investment and evacuate the population. Hey, you might even have to option to prevent it exploding with some specialist technology when a scientist approaches you with a prototype design that might work, but will take your entire industrial capacity to produce.

But there are plenty of other random events which could be even more disastrous. And besides, the first time your saw the star, you would know whether there was a risk of it exploding within the game's lifetime, so it would be the players fault if he over invested there.

Oh well, i give up! You guys got stong points. I guess the fact that there is no planetary destruction weapon has affected me. Now i won't be able to create an Armageddon kind of scenario......

As far as that goes, I remember reading in another forum that they'll most likely add terror stars in another expansion. The reason the aren't in the release is not because they wanted to abolish them but because they ran out of time.

As far as that goes, I remember reading in another forum that they'll most likely add terror stars in another expansion. The reason the aren't in the release is not because they wanted to abolish them but because they ran out of time.

This is the truth. StarDock has stated that Terror Stars aren't in the game, because they didn't have time to put it in and get everything else they've done completed. StarDock is planning on adding Terror Stars back into the game later. So expect the star/world destroyers (however they get implemented) added to the game in a future update. Remember, StarDock aren't done with a game just because it goes "retail". They continue to support their games for at least a full year after its initial release to the public, improving the AI even further, adding in new features, and in general just enhancing the game. That's one of the greatest things about the company, and why I'm a fan.