I do believe it was sins plus...i don't know.

but Sinperium if you're going to make remarks about the things in mods and sins that are unrealistic, sins may as well be trashed.

While I love the new 2:1 texture UVs to save a lot of memory load I think I want to take this 1 step further and reduce the mesh itself. 

The typical SoaSE planet mesh

1271 points, 3590 edges, 2320 faces

The new 2:1 planet mesh

1742 points, 5220 edges, 3480 faces

Times this by a typical 90 planet map and holy cow thats a lot of tris that need to be calculated for orbit.

I have them both is XSI and will work on some testing.

SoaSE Planet Mesh -                1271 points, 3590 edges, 2320 faces

ZombiesRus 2:1 Planet Mesh -  1742 points, 5220 edges, 3480 faces

myfist0's 2:1 Planet Mesh -         758 points, 1540 edges, 784 faces

This is the bare minimum with very little blocking effect but the savings will be tremendous. I used a sphere with 5000 radius, U 28, V 28. We can probably go less for moons and dwarfs but will need more for giants to avoid the block effect. I set the Glossiness to 20 but I will try lower. Planets should not be shiny.

Here is the UV I had to create from the spherical UV

Wow--I like the economy on MyFist0s.  That's pretty amazing.   Please produce some sets that we can use!

Zombie, I had an idea about the moons but I'm not sure about how to get it to orbit. I thought maybe have it show up as sort of an asteroid type thing, randomly showing 1-4-6 moons and maybe making something to build on them like with the asteroids have extractors you could build cities or such on the moons. Maybe give them an elevator mesh, or something that covers the moon entirely to change it's appearance.

 In the case of how it's built, maybe you could slip an ability into the starbase constructor, it DOES take quite a bit of materials to build a space station or at the same time a city, you could try fitting abilities on the moons as well like small scale arms/lunar shielding/economic upgrades, practically a lot of what the planets themselves have, even hangars might be able to be incorporated into them, you could even use "starbase parts" in the design to make the build with a starbase constructor a little more realistic an idea, maybe a lower part or any part for that matter of an argonev placed over the planet like an elevator, parts of the hull, a ring around the moon for the advent......something else for the Vasari that I don't know(image of a sphere and the vasari starbase not meshing in my head well) but these are just some things that popped in my head.

planet_earth.7z 
Binary planet model

It's basically WIP right now.

These ideas are good and might make it in.

Just for a short background there are three types of moons floating around.

1. The binary mesh as shown above. This type of moon orbits the planet because it is part of the same planet mesh. The moon itself doesn't rotate on it's axis. This type of moon has limited effect on gameplay as it may increase the size of the planetary body. All upgrades are tied to the planet.
2. Nova's Moons which are part of the asteroid definition that can be turned on/off. These moons have no effect on gameplay and are for purely visual effect.
3. Zombies's Moons which are tactical structures. These moons have the potential of being destroyed, can have their own abilities and stats and can rotate. They do not orbit the planet. Moons like this are spawned via the GalaxyScenarioDef meaning they require a colonized planet on game start. It may be possible to spawn a moon on an interior planet, but will require some tinkering to see if works.
1. These types of moons could also replace the crystal and metal asteroids. This would allow moons to exist on all planets and allow for racial specific upgrades via the extractor modules. Though asteroids with moons would be hard to swallow... Would probably have to remove asteroids as a planet type and go with Dwarf planets or larger if this was done.
2. Moons could also be treated as starbases, unfortunately starbases can't be spawned via the galaxy scenario def, so this would create some complications getting moons to appear on your starting planet, plus would use up a starbase slot on the planet.

All of the moon concepts are good ideas in their own right, but I'll be focusing on the tactical option to varying degrees.

      This mod has me pretty excited, not going to lie. The possibilities alone have me threatening my laptop with a potential shower of drool.

      Gamegasms aside, I wonder if it would be possible to treat the moons like stations as far as upgrades are concerned. By this I mean one moon has one upgrade slot, forcing you to choose between an economic or tactical.

     Here are some of my ideas for each:

      Economical-

• Mining of a mineral of your choice, with a bonus to that particular mineral's mining rate.
• Nar-Shadaa-like economy center that provides both trade and tax income (This one should cost quite a bit).
• Shipyard, with a bonus to production rates of either frigates/cruisers or capitol ships (I'm reminded of Lunar Base from the original Gundam series)
• If possible, a penal colony that actually increases the health of that planet but also--again, if possible-- makes the planet more susceptible to neutralization through enemy culture (as if the prisoners are offering your enemy their allegiance for their freedom, much like my Irish ancestors were to the French to be rid of the English).

      Tactical-

• Endor-esque shield generator that, if possible, could cost fleet supply (the electrical bill on that thing would be ridiculous!)
• orbital defensive weapon. The recharge on these should equal the time it takes for the moon to make a complete rotation (can't be shoot through it, now can we?)
• Ion cannon to seriously cripple enemy capitol ships, knocking out propulsion, weapons, and shielding.
• Anti-ship cannon that does a large amount of damage to enemy vessels.
• Anti-just-about-anything-bigger-than-a-ship cannon
• Much like the super weapons of the Vasari and TEC, but can target both planets and (should you be peeking at an enemy planet that looks tasty) Space Stations. Not sure if the latter is possible, but boy would you be able to piss a LOT of people off with it.

No, I haven't modded a single game in my entire life. I'm too lazy. And selfish, if you take into account I prefer to play modds without contributing anything more than feedback. So with that in mind I'd like to say, one final time (I promise), that I have no idea if any of these would be possible. I simply think that they would make the game more interesting in that any enemy planet with a moon could be either a potential blessing or a disastrous curse.

That is really something there.  Every thing you guys are doing is pushing me farther and farther into the "Duh what me know?" corner.  I can officially hate and envy you all now.

muchahahaha EPIC