15% of the planets on default maps have artifacts (some maps force artifacts on certain planets), and there's also a 40% chance of a planet property gained through exploration (higher pop, more tactical slots, trade bonus, etc).

I can't consult the manual at the moment (at work...), so I'll just ask. Forgive me if it's obvious.

When you find an artifact, is it fixed to the planet? Meaning, do you lose control of the artifact if you lose the planet? Conversely, do you gain control of the artifact if you take the planet?

Yes, it is fixed to the planet. I think you gain control of it if you take the planet from the other player.

Excellent! Thanks for the quick replies!

I was worried I might have to start trying to take planets quicker, to gaurantee that I eventually FIND one of the little buggers.

PONIES!

It doesn't quite work like that because artifacts don't recoup costs. However, I'd say the +12% damage artifact is quite worth the exploration

Exploration isn't random. It's fixed at the beginning of the game.

I've been playing on a Huge Random and out of the 15-20 properties I own, only ONE ever actually had a planetary event discovered ("High Security Protocols"). The fact that the AI each starts with an artifact in their second planet pissed me off so much I ran some tests and determined that you can just save the game, explore the planet 100%, if you don't find anything, reload and ignore it forever.

It's also a complete joke because I'd say less than 10% of any of my worlds have even a MUNDANE bonus. I'm not expecting artifacts on every planet, but I control half of one star system and 2/3rds of another, and I have ONE exploration bonus, and it was so worthless to me I just reloaded and ignored it, since it'd hurt more than it'd help.

Either I have atrocious luck, or the chance of having even slightly mundane bonuses is so low it makes exploration a laughable joke.

Either the cost needs to drop 90%, or the bonuses need to be more common and actually worth the investment. Losing 20% of my trade for +5 tactical slots at a planet that is completely safe in the backend of my empire is absolutely worthless to me.

It's bad luck.

In my current game I discovered 2 artifacts in the first 5 worlds I grabbed, and have now uncovered three or four 'planet bonuses' on worlds I've captured since.

That's the thing with randomness - it's kinda random.

I find Exploration a decent thing to do when playing Advent and I control a good number of worlds. Advent's Divination ability (fairly low level, Civic/Harmony ability) allows them to explore at more reasonable costs, for a fairly steep initial price, that is.

To fully explore a world, you need to sink 1,000 credits, 325 metal, and 200 crystal into the project. Fully researching Divination (two steps) costs 1,700 credits, 225 metal, and 275 crystal, so not cheap at all. But it cuts the cost of exploration in half. With Divination fully researched, fully exploring a planet costs just 500 credits, 163 metal, and 101 crystal.

Total savings is 500 credits, 162 metal, and 99 crystal (it's supposed to cut it in half, but some odd numbers mess things up) per planet. Divination effectively pays for itself after exploring three worlds (after just two for it's metal cost) and after that it's a very nice thing to have if you're into exploring.

I've been waiting until later in a game until this kind of project is feasible and then going for Divination then spamming exploration on planets. The sad thing is though it usually yields just a lot of "Our scryers revealed nothing" over and over. Even with a lot of territory, I often don't find many bonuses that ultimately justify the costs of exploring in the first place. A couple of the income bonuses are nice, as is the artifact that allows for increased damage, but it's all very expensive and risky.

I didn't know that about the Progenitor Mothership, which is kind of sad, since one of the reasons I've gravitated toward the Advent was for the Progenitor's flexibility.

Unlike the other two factions, the Advent's Progenitor is capable of both the Shield Restore ability as well as Colonization, which to me makes it very useful early in game to get out early and have it team up with my first Destroyer. For the other factions you need three Capital Ships to do the same thing, which isn't feasible to do very early in a game, or deal with having a Colony Frigate in tow that everyone and their dog tries to kill. Just love that Progenitor/Radiance pair early in game.

Have to try for the 3x Colonization ability sometime either on my first or a potential second Progenitor, sounds like a cost effective strategy on large maps.

imagine getting +12% damage bonus... 30 times...