Hard to get into...

[TechSY730]

I still think that the number of Shield network A gens needed to be destroyed can go down from 4 to 3, as most players I know don't really need 4 new bonus ships to win a game.
Other than that, yea, a large purpose of CSGs is to help players know which planets to take to help you know when you are strong enough to actually face the homeworlds.

[Wingflier]

Yeah you definitely don't need 4 bonus ships to win the game lol

[zoutzakje]

that depends on the game you're playing really. I've played games where I desperately needed all 5 of them.

[Wanderer]

Yeah you definitely don't need 4 bonus ships to win the game lol

Check out a few of my anti-Raid Engine AARs.  This is not always true.  Sometimes, I'd like to find 3 or 4 more of them.

[Hearteater]

I don't feel CSGs are for "teaching" people what they need to win the game.  In that regard they somewhat fail because it isn't obvious you even need to kill them to a new player, so the "benefit" you get from being told what to kill is lost to the confusion of not realizing what they even do in the first place.  So when it comes to CSG-A's, the all-but-one is really just the reverse of the other CSG's only-one requirement and so that makes sense and is easy to remember.  Really the biggest issue is a new player doesn't know there are 5 CSG-A's seeded and so they don't even know all-but-one means 4.  I'd really like to see the objective display list the number of undiscovered CSG's for new players.

My solution to the 4 CSG-A's issue and forcing me to take 4 ARS every game is on mantis here via a new AI Modifier (same type of thing as Schizophrenic Waves).

[TechSY730]

I don't feel CSGs are for "teaching" people what they need to win the game.  In that regard they somewhat fail because it isn't obvious you even need to kill them to a new player, so the "benefit" you get from being told what to kill is lost to the confusion of not realizing what they even do in the first place.  So when it comes to CSG-A's, the all-but-one is really just the reverse of the other CSG's only-one requirement and so that makes sense and is easy to remember.  Really the biggest issue is a new player doesn't know there are 5 CSG-A's seeded and so they don't even know all-but-one means 4.  I'd really like to see the objective display list the number of undiscovered CSG's for new players.

I was just saying that this was one of its purposes. Never stated that it was doing it effectively in the current implementation.
If they are enabled, making their existence and importance more obvious somehow (like that objective display list idea) seems like a very good thing to do.