Okay, so a more baseline question: Is there really a game mechanical NEED to watch this many planets, or is it simply a case of player OCD? Is there a strategic reason to watch every single planet in the galaxy? (Exhaggeration, but you get my point)
CPAs and Hybrids, personally. CPWs also trigger my OCD for wanting to watch this, as will Exo pathing.
Alright, so followup question: Should it be necessary to give the player the possibility of watching the entire galaxy, or should it instead be a tough choice on what key planets to watch, and which to leave unscouted for periods of time?
I'm just provoking thought here. I like the idea of Pickets, I'm just not sure it's necessary.
Were scout volume to scale up (not feasible since # of scouts limit scouting depth) with # of planets, the disparity wouldn't be as large. Also, with multi-HW, your scout volume scales incredibly as well.
It's more of a comfort thing for me than anything, truthfully. I like being able to see what's going on at planets I've utterly ruined in the past, and make sure they've haven't done something crazy... like fire up an EMP Guardian in my absense when I decide to use it as a highway for something else. While I don't mind having to retake previously taken territory, I don't want to end up in some kind of 'omg wtf' cascade because I didn't bother to leave a scout behind to watch the place.
You're also right, it does 'force' a choice between the two... and in some cases this makes sense, you can't neuter everything, at least not reasonably, which should require some of your scout forces. I just don't want to have to 'waste' pickets on places I've wrecked. While it might be a choice, it's not one I find either interesting nor enjoyable, just mostly frustrating.
