Star Systems. What I'd like to see in 'em.

Blackholes and wormholes too!  And the occasional a$$hole alien.  

Sorry, couldn't resist.

Pluto must still be counted as a planet.

You forgot Ion Storms, Plasma Storms, and various dust clouds each of which might have varying effects.

I haven't brought up "terrain" because fully using terrain in space requires more complex ship designs than SC will have, but they can definitely still use terrain to good effect in this game.  I actually have a way of using terrain to create a structure to space that has never existed in any previous game, it was one of my big innovations in space games that never got done because I never got to do it:-)  But the ships need to be much more complex to make that work with advanced "avionics" like sensors, scanners, ECM/ECCM, etc.

^ Yep, feel free to add.

http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2014/09/-will-earths-twin-have-two-stars-exoplanet-systems-with-binary-stars-are-much-more-common-than-was-b.html

Interesting read.

I don't understand the debate about Pluto being a planet or an asteroid.  Long ago, sci-fi solved this issue... it's a planetoid.  A little tiny planet.  A planetoid.  Sci-fi made up the word, we've got to use it for something.  May as well be for this:-)

No one is saying it's an asteroid. It's a dwarf planet. There are several other dwarf planets in the solar system, but until recently only Pluto was counted as one of the main planets, without any good reason. 

This probably falls under "Space Anomalies" but obviously things like IDF holes (possibly using these as shortcuts into Quasi-space).

The wonderful thing about wormholes in this type of game is that they can take you ANYWHERE.  Anywhere you can imagine, a womrhole can take you there.  A  different galaxy, a different universe, a bunch of X-Wings attacking the Death Star, a wormhole can take you there.  Kirk and Khan fighting in a nebula, a wormhole can take you there.  Babylon 5 being attacked by a bunch of spikey black ships... a wormhole can take you there.

Wormholes are very useful within this genre, allowing you to add just about anything you want in the game through them.

Star systems should feel like Hearthstone/MTG card packs, like FIFA/Madden packs. They should reward you with a "legendary" "item" if you "open" enough of them which in terms of SC means - some star systems when you visit them should literally make you go: "wow! what's that?!" and you sit there and just enjoy the beauty of the unknown for a few seconds before you venture to scan/interact with it. It could be a purple asteroid ring around a banal gas giant or two different size  and color stars revolving around each other with a neon cyan semi transparent pulsating cloud in between them sending you radio signals in an unknown language.

That's what I as a player would LOVE to discover and explore if SC is about DISCOVERY and EXPLORATION.

Space does not have to be a void of nothingness.  It can be a patchwork of terrain features and players will be willing to suspend disbelief and accept that as long as the terrain features themselves make sense too them.  Terrain features such as asteroid fields/belts, comets, ion storms, plasma storms, various "dust clouds", planets, planet rings, and moons (and possibly "man made" terrain such as a minefield) can all be used to create a structure to space that has never been done before in any game.  This can only work "in all its glory" with ships that have avionics capabilities that the ships in SC wont have, but it could still be achieved to a lesser degree with more simple ships like SC will have.

This was to be one of the innovations in "my baby", the best game I ever designed, which was a top down space combat MMO I designed on paper way back in 1998.  If the devs are interested in applying this concept to SC I would be happy to send them the terrain section of that design document and answer any questions they might have about turning space into a far more interesting place than it has ever been before.

"I am a nearly limitless well of useless information." ...unless you are making a top down space combat game:-)

Well, apart from the obvious copyright/trademark issues mentioned above, I would like to see some wormholes in this game.  Wouldn't it be interesting if some wormholes simply threw your ship to randomized parts of the galactic map?  It would make for an intriguing (albeit somewhat risky) way to explore the unknown.

Asteroid fields yes, though I wouldn't want to navigate them every time except when actually going into one. Also, if the combat is more planetary system based they'd have their role to play there. Huge asteroids and comets would be basically small planets and moons gameplaywise. OK, but could add too much clutter if not placed only when there is something important on them. Binary star systems are actually common and judging from Lord_Utwig's link, may have planets more often than was previously thought. Would certainly be a nice thing to have in the game. The more exotic stuff, why not? Is better when it serves a purpose, but works as scenery too.

I'd say there certainly should be at least one megastructure, a "Big Dumb Object". Probably of Precursor origin, but it doesn't have to be. The more mysterious it is the better. SC2 had the rainbow worlds.

I would like to see a large/puffy star...one that is sluffing off its outer layers. One that doesn't have a well defined edge, as most stars do. Could be a large pre-nova.

I would also like to see very rare real stars like pulsars, magnetars, etc. Not that they would even have to do anything, but it would be so nice to have them in the game, even if it's only on multiplayer/melee.  There are so many interesting varieties of stars, and we have come so far with computers that I think it would be doable to add some different kinds (not just colors/sizes) into the game.

Would also be neat to see a close binary, where one is siphoning gas from the other. That would be a great home-system for some race, I'm sure!

I want to see rainbow worlds become highly contested hotspots, where you want to keep them a secret if found and for them to be the cornerstone of a races power.  Control the Rainbow Worlds, control the galaxy.

Perhaps make a few new rainbow worlds appear as a special type of supernova remnant in binary star systems as the story progresses.  A fictional type 1d supernova for example that is triggered by 'design'

Brown dwarves.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_dwarf

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lATepmB8HwU

A few other fun items.

A Dyson Sphere - In use by the original builders or a horrible level of disrepair and abandoned

Ring World - In use by the original builders or a horrible level of disrepair and abandoned

Clarifications:

Ring Worlds are artificial constructs that is like a Halo around the sun and moving panels gliding over the surface to produce day/night cycles for the side always facing the sun.

Dyson Sphere is a Ring world, but instead of a single long ring going around the sun, it's a sphere fully encapsulating the sun essentially making the entire surface area of a planet's orbit be a living environment.  -- Note this has been seen executed in Star Trek - The Next Generation Yes it has Scotty in it.

There is 1 more thing I would love to see implemented into the game...

The birth/rebirth of a star as a well hidden optional quest.

If it's a new star, your ship will have to stop due to an uncharted gravity well dropping you into normal space in deep orbit of a highly dense radioactive planet with the ability for you to nudge the spark of energy into starting it up. -- Note: no planets would be in the system, just tons of radioactive dust, asteroids, and possibly some planetoids in process of becoming planets

If it's rebirth, maybe one of the races they put into game will have a S.o.S beacon running with them in some form of protection stating their sun has encountered a mysterious event that had stopped its natural processes and is in need of help to restart it.

SMG had levels where you travelled on the inside of a globe, Stardock. Make Dyson Sphere happen!!

i WaNT MeCHaNiCaL PRoBeS

SeaRCHiNG FoR LiFe

aND CoMiNG iN PeaCE

I think all SC:O star systems should atleast reflect what's currently possible in the real universe. Back when SC2 was made we had no brown dwarfs and proof of black holes for example .

Also, what would be really nice is if we could get a little nod to the original game by for example including rainbow worlds .