I have to say you presented the origional idea every well and it would be visually interesting just from an implemention and utility (e.g. for managing your colony, you'd have to keep rotating it), point of view not practical in my view. But I say keep offering suggestions it's what this forums here for after all.

This would be sweet. Your first click on the planet will just select it and show you quick stats, but double clicking would bring it zooming up into view. The more I think about this I think it would add a very showy component to GalCiv 3. It would make the game look very polished indeed. This actually makes me think of Gal Civ 1's planet screen, where you have all the stats to the left and a giant rotating planet wrapped in the stats and tooltips on the right (if I remember correctly). This would make GalCiv 3 that much more.

I for one would like to see some graphical love to the planet/colony screen in the form of something 3D whether it be of a spherical nature (as per OP) provided it was practical or these very cool suggestions . I know the adjacency aspect is going to be massive in GC3 but I really hope SD is already planning to bring some (3D) bling to the planet tile screen (are you reading this Paul? ).

I'm no expert but couldn't a compromise be made in this situation. Making a globe like feature would for me seem like a huge undertaking for the number of planets that would be in one map and it might draw to much work away from the actual game play which in my opinion is more important. At least draw attention away from more features or ways to play etc. 

Is it not possible to have a 2D map with 3D obstacles (maybe a tilted view and still a lot of work) or simply just an enhanced 2D background that isn't just a simple portrait of the planets surface? If anything, wouldn't it be possible to add a little life into the background as well, simply movement effects or like tiny ships flying from the stardock to factories etc. 

Also, my opinion on why this is important to me or it is something I would like to see is depth. This game gives you a galaxy for you to immerse yourself into. It draws you in so that you care about what is going on and you care about your planets etc....but...when you go into planet view that immersion lessens drastically as it feels so stagnant. I think any improvement in the planet view would enhance the game.

P.S. I do hope that planetary invasion isn't as simple as it was in GCII but I will still be happy if it isn't.

What if the current colony tile view was a 'touchscreen interface console' and above it, in a split screen was a viewscreen with a closeup 3d orbital view of the planet  (similar to what is in the main menu of the game) with all it's fancy clouds and sun/moons in the background as well as any ships that might be in orbit. Then when you click a tile/improvement on the 'touchscreen interface console' the viewscreen pans/zooms down quickly to the planet through the clouds where it either shows the terrain/sky of an empty tile improvement or an actual improvement/building from a relative distance (which you could pan and zoom around in 3d if you wanted to - but it would be restricted to that immediate area/tile of the planet. Also, all the planet stats could be a digital overlay on the viewscreen too.

As you develop the planet you could see more and more city lights from space in the orbital view (which could also be seen in the space view as well as some people have already suggested).

Well I do agree with that fact that not many 4X games have made it successful in looks and function. I will of course side with functionality cause you can't have something that looks good but doesn't work and still have fun. Putting a little life into it wouldn't hurt though. Whatever can be added to increase its depth without hampering functionality I would say is an improvement no matter how little the change is.

I have seen that done before, used to happen in a lot of older games due to graphic and power restrictions and now days that wouldn't be that hard to create and make it look tasteful. You would still get the functionality of the map but a sense that people actually live there. Another possible if all else fails is in interactive mayor. A portrait square of a mayor type person for the planet, it wouldn't have to give you planet information but would be nice. He could simply give you hints about the game like at a loading screen etc. Anything that would really give the planet view a look like someone is alive down there would be awesome.