Maybe. Something needs to be done. I don't really care what. Either make this something actually useful instead of filler or just get rid of it.

I've only skimmed through the entire post so please forgive me if i missed some stuff ^^;;

Personally I've always been wondering if there is a way that newer players can catch up to a point where they can compete with the larger players within half a year, granted I have no idea what the speed server is like so maybe that is the best of the servers, but I'm sticking with standard.

Perhaps expeditions could be a way of actually (riskily but generally profitably) growing quickly until a certain level?
(lower points (including airborne fleet) -> better odds)

_______

gambling makes sense, but to keep everyone on their toes, why tell us HOW its changed? Throw in some easter egg like bonuses and change them if it is discovered, for example, under some randomly specified condition (or just chosen by the admin) (things like more than one player sending expeditions the same slot over the same time-frame ie. possibly encounter each other or more than x number of ships sent etc.)

BAD event
have ships return hostile, or to the wrong location (hostile so that ships cannot be accidentally 'gifted') and subsequently become a debris field if they survive the battle for some extravagant reason (like the crew all perishing due to an unknown radiation)
this kind of thing would give players (and their neighbours) the chance to recover some losses from a 'failure' (although granted there may be defences destroyed )

GOOD event
instant research of zorg physics level 1 if it hasn't already been researched "after observing another large fleet your crew are able to describe some interesting facts to you're scientists [and advances have been made]/[unfortunately your scientists already knew]!"
perhaps instant buildings like Terraformer's could be 'salvaged' as well... (that kind of event probably requires large number of ships to haul it back..)


It would be nice not to be able to calculate the risk, and just know that if you hit the jackpot it should be worth it, if not, you could end up with you're fleet destroyed by the half you sent on the expedition and/or defences bashed, possibly a chunk stolen from you're stockpile preceding a massive debris field leaving people wondering how and why you attacked yourself...



So in general: it would be nice if 'smarter' small players could use this to advance with some speed (of course bad luck and inattentiveness could set them back just as much).
And do we need to know the workings? those are going to allow us to instantly weigh the outcomes. It would be more chaotic if one week there may be higher profits, and the next more ships may be destroyed; the next week sending more than a 100k fleet may come back with a near full resources, while the next anything over 10k is doomed.
and just to put it out there, why not send deut with the expedition to add a time variable of how long the expedition can take.. (less than the same as the original trip may trigger failure to return, more may allow longer harvesting of resources, but of course everything is gambled...)

But I have to agree with the above, at the moment sending expeditions seems to be for the lol factor for bored players.
If this feature is not being used and has minimal benefits to the players, is it just hanging around as a legacy?

Athight

This needs some re-brief. I will be organizing this and then I will provide the final player suggestions to the devs.

Implementation of this starts in Wednesday, October 16. I will organize it at Tuesday 15, final touches (need to read,review,exclude,ad and then give it). Whatever you need to add, please do till then.