Satellites?

[Fideach]

Are there any form of Satellites in the game? Not just moons, but the race made and designed ones. Such as a Satellites probes, Satellites sensor nets, Satellites that might be able to orbit in one area to keep you up to date on whats going on.. etc. Well you get the idea I guess, just thing of what all they did with sats in other games and sci-fi shows!
Heh, what about even remote mining sats for asteroid fields? that use.. what is it called:S I forget.. but guass cannons use it to shoot mass.. electro magnetic rail propulsion? Well anyways.. have remote mining sats use that to rely material back even:S.

[Therlun]

I could imagine sattelite being another ship class.

Cheap but limited in their individual use. (No FTL travel)

I already see my Explorer ship entering a new system, and sending a dozen probes in all directions to catalogue it.

Defense sattelites would be interesting too, but then there is the problem of their numbers again...

[Fideach]

sattelites themselves, I couldn't see being a problem to ships; maybe to fighters. But to real space ships, no.. they be nothing more then gnats. For sattelites to be really big enough to damage ships bigger then a fighter to any real degree. They would have to be too big probably, to carry the energy capacity and weapon pay load to generate the damage to tonage ration to really hurt a ship. May as well just be better of building orbital weapon platform, or just a small star base.
Unless you can use them to damage sub systems or buy you a few moments. Maybe just use them mainly for early game defense and recon?
Have them be stationary, limited use in sensors, and be nothing more then a gnat you can shoot down. The use of them being it lets you put eyes in areas you can't afford to keep patrols in all the time.
Or allow you to keep an eye on a planet you like to colonize, but have to put off due to resources being limited at that time due to your developments elsewhere. Or perhaps your just waiting for that Colony Ship to get built.

[ForesterSOF]

In SEIV they let you make defensive satalites.

Same idea as building a wall in CIV.
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[Fideach]

in SE4 with the sats, that was annoying.. how they were all bundled up together in one spot. As a collective unit to say. Had no control as to were they were during battle, and you couldn't move them during battle either(unless you had one of the mods that added a module for that). I hope they change that in SE5

[Sim-Mania]

Defensive satalites maybe a cheap and effective option over space stations. Cheaper and quicker to build, with greater functionality to perform other tasks such as spying, and the real benefit, of being mobile unlike space stations.

Although as Fideach has stated, just how effective offensive or defensive satalites will be against the different ship classes would have to be worked out in a balanced way.

Another option to satalites concerning offensive and defensive actions might include simple drones. Cheap and simple gun platforms that are quick to build, that are fast, very menuverable, and could also have stealth or cloaking capability. Also, if you're invading a heavily defended system, just send in waves of drones to soften their defensives, which won't be a huge burden tp your economy, nor will it effect your morale since the drones are unmanned.