[Baron Munchausen]

Yes, there ought to be options to modify planets more extensiely and build more interesting things. If planet ENVIRONMENT was more than a single factor we could have more interesting techs related to terraforming. Rather than this vague "conditions" thing there ought to be GRAVITY, TEMPERATURE, and RADIATION. Then, you'd need seperate techs to deal with each of these. The current "Conditions Improvement" plants probably deal with temperature. Some mild penalties, maybe 10-20 percent production for incompatible gravity or radiation levels would make the other types of terraforming useful. It doesn't have to be some catastrophic difference. As high-tech spacefaring races the major players have the machinery necessary to survive in these environments, it's just expensive to use it and so the net return on a colony is reduced. We're talking about actually CHANGING the environment with the terraforming techs so the compensating machinery is not needed and the 'tax' on various activites is removed.

As for planet 'development', how about orbital elevators? The theory is that with strong enough materials you could build a 'tower' on the equator of a world that goes straight into orbit. Put a high-speed elevator in it and you've got direct access to near orbit without rockets or other messy propulsion systems. Then, you could build a continuous orbital structure around it -- a "ringworld" around a planet rather than around a star. In practical game terms this sounds like a great way to justify extending the facility space of a planet, and you could make a cool graphic of an orbital ring appear on the planet once it was built.

I'd also like to see some simpler additions, too, like an "Arcology" facility that boost the population capacity of a planet by a few hundred million. This could be very useful when a planet suddenly becomes 'unstable' and you have to evacuate the population before it breaks up.