Hack scouting questions

[carldong]

For a new game I opened, I am running way too high on AIP due to capturing a lot of good stuff and having nearly no AIP reducer in my half of galaxy. I read multiple times that I should be able to hack scout, both in tutorials (which I couldn't finish exactly because I couldn't figure this out), and in description.

Problem is, I cannot send ships to unexplored planets, and I only get the Watch Planet hacks on explored ones. The map has low connectivity, so each planet I take only reveals 4 more at best: that is 20 AIP for destroying a station! And since my part of galaxy does not have any good turrets either, I cannot put up good defense against more powerful waves.

That brings another problem: if another faction destroys a command station, we don't get scout info. Then does that mean we can get bottled up because we lack just that one planet of scout info that happens to be an AI home world? Think about the snake map.

Unless I capture every battle station, that is.

[Strategic Sage]

For unexplored planets, you use the Explore Planet hack.  The planet has to be adjacent to one you've already Explored.  This is what Step 7 of the scouting tutorial instructs, and it also prevents any danger (unless you are out of hacking points of course) of getting bottled up to the point of being unable to expand for scouting reasons. 

[carldong]

For unexplored planets, you use the Explore Planet hack. 

No such option, unfortunately.

[Strategic Sage]

The planet you have highlighted there is already explored.  You can't explore a planet twice - that would have no purpose.  Try selecting one of the two planets roughly above it (any white one with no name, which is what the unexplored ones look like on the galactic map, that is adjacent to an explored planet).  Those should give you the hack option to Explore Planet. 

[carldong]

I see. I didn't realize I have to select it.

[tadrinth]

As long as you're using the default scouting settings, when you take a planet, it scouts a certain minimum number of planets.   That ensures that snake maps aren't impossible.  It also scouts at most 8 planets, ensuring that highly connected maps aren't too trivial to scout.