Yes we can detect planets by their shadow across their sun/star but we have no way of knowing if their inhabital or not and current RL tech means even with unmanned craft it would take hundreds if not thousands of years for a probe to get there let alone its transmission time back to earth? That said this is a game and wheres the fun in knowing where everything is? (this is why I dont research stellar cartography unless I really,really need it)

You are quite right and any decision to have it otherwise is based on game play and not reality.

I believe I read, or heard on one of the Friday things that Brad wants to black out the stars as well. I know we can't see all the stars in the galaxy with our naked eye, but we have had telescopes capable of doing so for nearly a hundred years and we certainly wouldn't need to send out scout ships to map the stars in our own galaxy. I hope they leave it as is, see the stars but not the planets.

But, it's still a game and if they want it to play that way so be it. It won't spoil it. With all the lost ships in the game, and the option to have plentiful habitable planets, finding places to send colony ships is not an issue for me.

Of course we all know that whatever they decide, the AI will know where all the planets are and in spite of this they will not pass up a PQ 4 to colonize a PQ 20, 6-7 hexes further away.

Press the tide key "~" and type "fow" that removes the fog of war so you can see...everything.

DARCA

The last Stream, Paul said they are going to leave most of the Console unlocks available and open for single players, stating that if a player wants to cheat in his own single game that is fine. 

I don't want to "cheat", what I want is an idea of what is out there. I like playing maps with low habitable planets. It drives me crazy that a stars close to me have zero information until I fly to it. So really what I am suggesting is.

Based on sensors (or some other tech) stars in the FOG should have certain information

1) Star Type/Color

2) Based on range from my colonies at least, I should have an idea of planets that are greater than "X" size.

Why would I bother flying to a black hole early in the game?

Certain stars should yield certain numbers and types of planets. A red giant would probably have less planets because it already engulfed them, a white or brown dwarf would likely have no or a couple of poor planets, etc.

So while I wouldn't have perfect information, I could at least get an idea of what is over there before sending a spaceship. I really doubt any nation would send a very expensive ship to each and every star no matter what hoping for a good rng roll.

That said, this game isn't really science based as much as fantasy based, so I am probably over thinking it all.

Slash, I do know there was a lot of discussion on this. Brad wanted to have the entire map DARK with ZERO stars. I actually like this idea as it forces you to guess where to go. 

We will get the galactic mapping tech and that will put your planets and stars on the mini. The game has to have a mechanic that forces you to explore.  You want to see where to go first, others want blind exploration. 

Lets have both! I think if we can ask for it the devs can put in the options a way to disable blind exploration. This kinda defeats the purpose of the first X in 4x games but hey,  you play your way!

 You've stated that we have the technology to "see" planets a great distance from us now in reality and should be able to "see" them in the game. Why don't you use the technology in the game to "see" what you want to? I use in game technology to find my neighbors before they find me, find the furthest planets from my home world so I can go out & colonize them to create a zoc that is too deep to penetrate and also watch their every ship movement. They can't go to the bathroom without me knowing it!

 They can black out the stars from the maps if they wish. I will still be able to "see" the ones I need to without turning off the fow. Research the tech and handle it. By late game I can even see their neighbors on the other side of them. All of this using in "game" tech. In the word of the immortal Forest Gump - "That's all I got to say about thaat"