Maybe "fog-of-war" wasn't the best description for what I was imagining, because I do not by any means want the beautiful layout of the land to be hidden from site at any point of the game. Rather I'd basically like to see the resources hidden and need to be found by the rover. Or some other method. Maybe in the begging of the mission there could be a satellite report that iron was found in a section for example. You would then need to explore that area and find that resource. I'd imagine it would be challenging to find something like Zorium before the colonies batteries drained to power an already existing Zorium Plant. I do hope they add more options to sandbox mode. I'd like to be able to set some additional scenario objectives and preset what the base has to begin with.
I do like your idea of being able to upgrade scrubber drones to extend their range and maybe their speed as well.