New Map

[magellan]

I merged this with persistent maps, because it's basically the same thing, just in the other direction.
Instead of starting with a new ship on your old map, you start with your old ship on a new map!

The only problem I see is of course the "plot":
You move to a new sector, Robot ships, sandworms and apollo follow.
Doesn't make much sense. A workaround would be to reduce the number of special planets generated, and if you move to a new sector generate special planets that where missing so far.

Still, the main programming obstacle is trivial in both cases: make 2 savefiles, one for the ship, and one for the sector.

Another fun thing one could do with that is hold a contest: Generate a sector, and see who manages best to brave it's dangers!

[Spacehamster]

Hmmm...
I can suggest next thing:
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Edited
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What about "to break" a game in two-parts, first part - regular prospector game, second part - another adventure after retire (more detailed) -
[spoiler="spoiler"]Captain after few years of retirement returns to active prospector *duty* (in desperate need of money or cuz was too bore etc) in another newfound sector (where you can found generated special planets that where missing so far. Yup, also need to reduce a number of SP generated per sector) where he buys a new ship on saved money(or takes as gift from old comrade) or uses old (see below) one. During that adventure captain can found special warp jump engine which can be used to travel between sectors (bring in mind another class of sp - superunique planets - 1 per sector and exclude all another of some class... oh and special multisector puzzles ... at good side you can have a persistent galaxy (also uses another generated sectors - maybe save sector with specific sector name?), at bad side - total size of it (in mb, later gb)). That sector much more dangerous (turn *****; you can call it hardmode)

Retire assets:
That things can not only add some score points but be a really helpful:
Wanna to save your fancy ship? In order to do it you need a really high rank and nice planet to keep it in garage.
Wanna to save ALL your artifacts, cool equipment and your experienced crew? Only for Dukes with really expensive domains!
Just a planetless knave? Duh - you can keep only your personal equipment and all your moneys.[/spoiler]

P.S. Spoiler tag still broken?

[HunterZ]

New map: What would be the mechanic that would allow the player to do this? Being able to do it at will could potentially be overpowered, because it may let the player farm the starting areas repeatedly (assuming that the player is less likely to encounter hazards around the starting area, which may or may not be the case).

Putting a random one-way wormhole or two on the map that sends you to a parallel universe might be okay.

[magellan]

Map changing mechanic would propably look like this:
"A long range carrier has docked at this sation heading for a [different] sector [further out] [closer to civilisation]"
And then you could buy a ticket. Storing a scout would of course cost less than a battleship. further out has one station less, closer to civilisation has one station more, and different has the same number of stations. (And your run of the mill starting sector with 3 stations is the one closest to civilisation.)

I am definitely going to do the savegame splitting thing. Still not sure about the new map thing, because of repeating special planets.

[Spacehamster]