one of my major gripes with the game itself is exacerbated by the addition of content via mods. specifically, surveying. there are two major problems with it, first is how small the window is you can actually find things before the galaxy has been completely surveyed. which leads into two; most of the better techs and leader skills related to surveying you will never actually get to use. im pretty sure in all the time since, say, the Vibrant Storyteller trait was added i have never actually managed to get it while there were still anomalies to be found or investigated. sure i could lower the amount of empires to be able to explore more (which is my favorite part of the game tbh), but i also like to play in a melting pot of a galaxy with tons of empires vying for victory.

so my suggestion; change the way surveying works entirely. rather than having a simple yes/no flag for whether a system is surveyed instead create tiers, i think 5 would be good, with level 1 obviously being your default tech, and adding new techs to unlock scout levels. there should be a note on each planet for the maximum level of survey (that you know of), while freshly conquered systems should default to 1. each survey tier should be managed separately, with increasing time required for higher levels (so you can actually get some use out of faster surveying later in the game). level 1 surveying to colonize is a given, but i would also limit capital buildings to survey tier. for example, a planet being surveyed to t3 is required for the second tier of planetary capital.

as an aside, this system would also allow 'tiers' for anomalies so that stronger ones that still have relevent effects in the late game can be added without risking them destroying the balance in the early game. i figured this tweak would synergize perfectly with Guilli's mod so i messaged him on reddit (my game is gog so i cant comment on his workshop). no idea if he will ever see it, or be interested if he does, but i figured i'd share the idea here in case anyone wants to make this a reality and has the skill.