Quote Originally Posted by AgentPaper View Post
One useful thing about science ships, at least a bit later in the game when you've got enough of a navy that you don't need it all in one place to be of any use: While you can't arm your science ships, or attach a fleet to them, you can get similar results by setting the science ship to neutral, and having a decent-size (300-500 strength) fleet set to follow them. That way, the science ship can fly around surveying systems inhabited by hostiles, and if anything does engage them, the following fleet will be close enough that it automatically engages and defends the science ship.

Haven't been using this tactic for long, so I'm not sure how reliable it is, but it should save a lot of hassle when exploring large areas with lots of weak hostiles, as I've been doing.

One hassle that I am having some trouble with, though, is trying to pin down all of the colonizable worlds in my empire, and fill them with colony ships of the appropriate pop to maximize habitability. I really wish there was a ledger in this game, so I could see stuff like "all uninhabited planets in my system".

Also, does anyone know if sectors will build and upgrade space stations if you give them enough minerals?
The lack of a easy colonizable worlds display cost me a Gaian world which I didn't spot until my "friendly" neighbour already planted his grubby hands on it. Now I scrutinise each system that is surveyed and note it manually.