Since we can already scan our own planet today, I see no reason why any ship with even the minimum default scanners shouldn't be able to already support this idea.

Interesting. I just checked on GC2 and if you have reached an espionage level of "high" on the race owning the planet, you can see the planet's tiles and what has been built. I would think that with how we can scan the surface of our world from satellites today that it just seems wrong to not be able to.

Gameplay reasons? I guess you might choose to not attack a planet if certain buildings had been built, or maybe decide you needed a bigger fleet to conquer the planet.

Implementation cost? Less than having to be selective about which planets you are allowed to view.

Yep. I misunderstood that part. However, I think the reasoning holds for any/all reasons anyone would want to see a planet's tiles. I also think the code simplification is a strong reason to request that SD does this.

Agreed, however you would need a ship beside a planet in order to scan it or a spy. Other then that being able to look at others planets just be clicking view when there is no spy or ship in sight, that is a no no.

nope cameras and all forms or digital or mechanical recording were destroyed in the great NSA rebellion of 2058

the NSA managed to get a law passed making facebook twitter and all forms of social media to be considered as subsidiaries

this being the last straw caused the citizens of the U.S. to rise up and overthrow their government they created a new government that made all forms of recording illegal

over time most other countrys passed similar laws due to the growing paranoia of its citizens