Star map that allows player to choose where their fleet goes

[corfe83]

Maybe grind on different planets for specific item/resource drops, or access to certain ships, or similar.

[corfe83]

Notes from Discord user Harbison:

The current insight system is, technically, infinitely scalable. And so are the battles, as the game stands now. Therefore, after mastering each job (which doesn't take all that long after the first couple), there is no other goal in the game to shoot for, currently. So, rolling the insight system into a starmap system with a "final planet" somewhere would definitely introduce a goal, and give the players even more choice over how they want to reach it (invest in early planets for faster starts/prestiges, or later planets for deeper prestiges). And as an example of the "more expensive elsewhere" mechanic, here's my rationale. Say you start on your home planet. You grind it to battle 40. Then you move next door to a different planet that starts at battle 6. You grind it to 40. Then you move to the next planet that starts at 11 (or another planet that starts at 6). You grind it to 40. By the time you're ready to prestige, you'll instantly master a class. On the other hand, say you start at your home planet. You grind it to 40. But there's a global difficulty scale of .5 battles/battle fought. So, you cleared 40 levels, and all other planets have their starter level raised by (40 * 0.5) 20. So, you move next door to the battle 6 planet, which now starts at 26. You grind it to 40. That's an additional 14 battles, or a penalty of 7 levels. You move to the battle 11 planet, which now starts at (11 + 20 + 7) 38. You take it to 40. You're now certainly encouraged to prestige at that point. You could certainly move to another battle 6 planet, which now starts at 34, and push it slightly. Or, you can prestige, and reset all penalties, while also getting some permanent boosts dependent on the planets you chose to fight in.
War Tortoise 2, for example, has a persistent overworld with different locations to fight in, and you gain different permanent bonuses by fighting in different locations ... if you want to see a similar system in action. The biggest problem with their setup, though (other than the massive lag and battery consumption), is that it takes literally thousands of stages spent within a location to upgrade it once you get into the midgame. Still, that game is massively successful. And a system like that seems to fit within the "conquering armada"/rts thing you seem to be going for. The "penalty" simply allows the game to be more strategic as opposed to mindlessly/nearly-pointlessly grindy, as most other idle games are.