I'm with Gauntlet, and that's why I made sure to mention that it'd be toggleable, and very rare. And, obviously, it would only happen on huge maps with multiple solar systems. Since something like a supernova would be a huge change and potentially empire ending, something like a 3-5% chance per *game* may be good, or lower. More basic random events could be in the 20% area. I don't want it to be like other games (I remember the old SimCity) where random events would be almost constant somewhere. That'd get tiring very quick.
In my book, some degree of randomness can be a welcome change, if it's done right.
the problem is if it affects different people in a different way for no reason but chance.
this supernova affects one star system where two players started. these are at a gross disadvantage compared to the rest of them, as a lot of their (most developped) colonies will simply be gone. no matter how well they play, no matter how many ships they evacuate, they will not win the game anymore with possibly 80% of their territory gone.
don't get me wrong, I do favour random events, even big ones if the chances are low enough, but they should have equal impact.
how would you feel if the random event was a huge pirate attack at the beginning that destroys you (or at least cripples you) even though you had a very good start and did not really do anything wrong?
losing solely due to chance is frustrating. you probably didn't mean anything this extreme, but that is just what people will hear and think when they read your post. balance it out and we're fine.
(for example, have the supernova this way that you can avoid by doing something, like spending some set money on a research or building some special building or ship. if you succeed you will get some bonus to offset your expenses, like reduces research costs, improved shields or whatever).
edit: oh, one little extra point since it does fit the topic: asteroids and asteroid belts need a lot more asteroids in the visual representation and I not sure but I have seen a lot of circular ones, are they always circular, I would like some more variation. also, if possible, make it swap over the system boundaries or something (nebulas too), because they should be more expansive phenomenon than planets, the picture above of our solar system shows it nicely. I likey the ion cloud btw (I cannot keep them apart, the red one I think)
