Suggestion: Explorers

[kingwanabee]

As I understand it:

Currently, you can automate your explorers and they will go off in random directions, and automatically refuel when needed. I like to methodically explore outward by sectors, and you can set your explorers to explore by sector, but you have to manually refuel them. This is a micro-management pain when you have a bunch of explorers out in neighboring sectors.

Would it be possible to have them auto-refuel when assigned to sector searches? Explorer goes to assigned sector, searches until fuel hits 50%, goes to the nearest base to refuel, then returns to the assigned sector to contiue the search. Once the whole sector is explored, the ship asks for new orders. This would be a great feature. Thanks

[bloodystump]

Good idea. I'd like this for all ships/fleets to be honest or at least an option to toggle it.

[Okim]

Agreed. This could be introduced as another automation option (ship autorefuel) for all ships that are low on fuel regardless of their automation and current mission.

There is an interesting thing that i`ve noticed about explorers. They doesn`t seem to be exploring planets when set to automate. I have to manually send it to each planet or between them in a case if they are close to each other.

Also i t could be very helpful is we can actually see the range of our resource scanners.

Another thing that would be very useful is a CRTL (shift or whatever) + click to add a default mission to ship`s order quee. It is quite annoying to manually set each new mission as you have to reach it first through plenty of submenues...

[Flaviusx]

I love this idea. I also started playing with explorers assigned to sector exploration but quickly went back to full automation due to the refueling micro.
 
Unfortunately, the automated exploring tends to be inefficient and sends them all off in the same direction.

[Erik Rutins]

Good suggestions for the future, thanks. I find the automated explorers do a good job over all, but you need to build enough of them to cover the local area.

[elliotg]

ORIGINAL: Okim
There is an interesting thing that i`ve noticed about explorers. They doesn`t seem to be exploring planets when set to automate. I have to manually send it to each planet or between them in a case if they are close to each other.

When you have multiple explorer ships and they are automated, some of them will act as fast scouts that simply visit each system without inspecting each planet. This speeds up exploration to find new colony locations. Your other exploration ships will explore each planet though, detecting the resources present there.

Another thing that would be very useful is a CRTL (shift or whatever) + click to add a default mission to ship`s order quee. It is quite annoying to manually set each new mission as you have to reach it first through plenty of submenues...

When zoomed out to sector or galaxy level you can queue up missions by right-clicking the destination and selecting 'Queue Next Mission'