A ship computer/upgrade that allows you to scan planets before diving down onto them, could give information such as the composition telling you what metals and such you are likely to find down there and if there is any form of civilised life be it hostile or friendly, perhaps an advanced hostile race on a planet could jam your scanning attempts with their own technology?
I would love this idea, possibly implement the scanner to be able to scan the galaxy near you and list the biome type (snow, forest, arid, desert, etc.) and their levels. Currently in beta right now I'm having to put a tremendous amount of effort to find planets near me that are say forest under level five (I went to level 5 from a level 1 after no luck and was killed by a bird in one hit) being able to see a list of said biome and level near (saves on fuel consumption) would be a game changer for me.
Adding to this, it would be nice to scan the environment to know the average temperature on the planet so you could decide if you will be warm enough to travel there. I don't agree on seeing if it's hostile or friendly intelligent life, but if it could scan to see if there is intelligent life on the planet.
I was just about to suggest the same thing. I do not enjoy jumping from planet to planet and spending 15 minutes walking around the entire surface just to see if there are villagers who I can buy a better weapon from.
