Yet, i have some remarks about the astronomy:
- Rogue planets appear around stars
- it would be nice to see the odd nebula or wormhole
- terraforming is remarkably quick, and it doesn't change the planet-type to M or O
- Colonies can hold too many people. Colonies should be stepping stones in the galaxy. Or production facilities. For populous colonies the minor-races are there to incorporate in the empire.
- Some planet-types hold way too many people: Billions on Pluto?? It isn't even big enough. And what about the gravity of small planets...
- No moons.
- Can it be made possible to scan planets and earn rewards or research points? To enhance the explore of the 4X'es. Or make it necessary to scan and reserach them for terraforming or colonisaton te begin.
- A bigger map would be nice too
- The minor-race-pictures i don't like, but that's a matter of taste and i only see them in the diplomacy-menu.

An enjoyable game so far. Keep up the good work!!

what do you mean by rogue planets? Class R planets or some abnormal planets that could qualify as a bug? Or do you mean stars should not have rogue planets as their first one nearest to them? Well, look at Mercury. It's sure a "rogue" planet in my eyes.

nebula and wormholes are on our to-do list.

terraforming is just to adjust planetary rotation levels to humanoid needs, not to transform the whole environment to class M or O shape of the planet. That's why it's rather quick. Still a turn takes months to years so it isn't that quick in "real-time".

well colonies take up the surplus amount of people from your homeworlds basically. Since turns equal years at the beginning, there are many generations and surplus men to be spread out to those colonies.

adjusting gravity is part of the terraforming process. Don't nail me down on how future tech is going to do that but imagine some fancy gravity magnetron field implanted into the core that generates a multiplying gravity wave interference effect ultimately resulting in heavier forces on the planet's surface .

scanning anomalies for research points is also on our to-do list. It was just not that high-up in priority yet.

a bigger map is possible, for Alpha 5.0 there was a mod with 40x30 map size. That will come too one-day. But I heard the modder only needed 1 day to mod the game to support larger maps so it seems rather easy to do.

well, I kinda like the pictures. If you got better ones, just replace the .bop files (they are just renamed .png files) in the \bote\graphics\races\ folder.

The 'info-text' says that rogue planets do not orbit stars...
In my opnion 'terraforming' is something else. Living on Venus would not be possible without changing the atmosphere and the temperature. Certainly not if billions of people are to live on it. Wouldn't it be possible to change the planet-type (according to preferences of the major race)? I would like to see an M-class Venus and Mars in the Sol-system. And in that way, the other majors could terraform planets to their likings to really claim them. So earth could end up an N-class or so.
Also: this view is in line with the info-text of L-class planets.
The galaxy-creation and the planettypes are hardcoded? Would it be possible to make some kind of galaxy-editor? I like the ships and buildings editors. And i like tweaking... ;-)

usually rogue planets do not orbit stars but travel around until they are caught by another star and then orbit that one (for a while possibly, until they are "swinging out" (which takes millions of years to happen possibly) of orbit again travelling further to the next star, whenever they reach one). Maybe I should add that to the description.

well, there's a reason why on class N planets usually there aren't more than 1.5 bn people on there. They are living in special habitats, that's also why terraforming class N planets takes 3-5 times longer than terraforming class H or P planets. You have to see that surface components and matter on those planets are just not class M type and a terraforming ship cannot convert all molecules on the planet's surface like billions of years in planetary evolution does (microorganisms that produce bio-molecules etc.pp.). If there's only sand on a planet, then there is just sand, no matter if the temperature cools down to 20° Celsius and also if water is being pumped up to the surface. There is still no good soil for microorganisms to turn the desert into an earth-type planet in let's say a 100 years time. They don't work that fast and because we don't want to switch classes in-game by terraforming we don't let any fancy future tech that pimps up microorganisms to be fast enough occur . Also, since nearly all races are humanoid and like it earth-type, there's no need to allow turning class M to L or M to P and vice versa.

People colonizing for example a class H or a class P planet need to use fancy tech to get enough water and food supply, mainly by using ground water. That's why these planets have much less growth rate than real class M planets because it takes longer to implement a sustainable water and food infrastructure on those dry planest. In case of really dry deserts with no ground water at all, we are in the case of class C planets actually and those dead planets have less than 1 bn people on it anyway. In the end, a class H or P planet isn't that far away from class M in terms of ground water but it is far away in terms of chemical elements on their surfaces, especially the biochemical ones which determine class and look of a planet.

The info-text on planet classes need to be revised I guess.

A galaxy creation editor just like good old botf had is planned. In bote.ini you can already set star density and minor race density percentage-wise. Star density means stars per sector and minor race density minors per star system (values are percentages). Good idea to make planet type density choosable too. Will have that recommended.

Been playing the new BotE 5.1 for a while and noted a few ?'s What is under SYSTEM Building Barracks "Hanuhr Raketenmanner" and the description "Ein zusammengewurfelter Haufen von Hanuhr, die mit gefahrlichen Raketenabschubanlagen ausgerustet sind. Leider ist ihre militarische Ausbildung mangelhaft."? I found a translation but "A bunch of Hanuhr zusammengewurfelter with dangerous Raketenabschubanlagen ausgerustet. But their defense education weak." Does it work and apply to system spy bonus??? Also, Diplomacy is weak but will review for further feedback. Where is a report on my spy reports to initiate missions not just read what they captured or found.?

The bombardment of a system is continuing to indicate missing even after udpating the StringsTable I found on this forum.

LOVE the Buildings Editor and the Ship Editor Is there a Planet Editor? or related system population expansion based on Research Bio (terraforming) More tech work needed (under Special) duration is VERY EXPENSIVE and timely or I'm doing it wrong.

More to come
Thanks

Hanuhr Raketenmanner are "Heyoun Rocketeers", some kind of rogue rocket-firing soldiers. They form the regular troops of the Heyoun Trade Union. No spy bonus there.

The report for special attempts on spied-out targets is under the button "attempts" in intel menu.

System population growth can't be edited yet.

Special tech development takes longer, that's why one should wait at least one full tech level before researching special techs that are available at the current tech level, i.e. whenever a new special tech appears, wait until you have researched another regular tech level (i.e. from tech level 2 to 3) and then research the special tech you got at tech level 2 because then you probably have enough research production to cope with the costs. A special tech requires the research points of all regular subtechs of that level, i.e. when you got one at tech level 2, researching it requires six times the amount of research points that you need to develop tech 3 in a certain regular tech area (e.g. biotech). That's where the impression of high costs for special techs comes from.