Continuing on suggestions for Military Starbases.

Posted on Tuesday, June 2, 2015

There is another thread here that is half complaint and half good ideas. Rather than add my two cents I am going to start a new thread just on the topic of Military starbases.

Like strategic resources we should have a reason to want these in game. Frogboy and Paul came up with weapons and buildings that required the strategic resources and now they are actually the very first thing I rush out to get. Anti matter, Thulium and relics. All are great things we should be rushing to get and causing us to painfully choose "do I build that colony ship or a constructor"

Military Starbases.

My personal expectations on what I think they should do:

Project power, they should make anyone think twice about fighting inside the influence of them.
Area of effect should be LARGER for attack and defense purposes (it should be designated separately in XML with innate larger influence.)
They should cause diplomacy upsets when placed 'too near' anyone. I want the AI ready to DOW me for building one on his border.
They should slow down all ships except the owner while inside influence. Early modules should be made available for this features. Go through or go around.
Sensor stacking as it is now on ships should also apply to Military star bases. Just like ship parts, however it should be 5 or 10 sensors per constructor module.
We should have modules right from the get got to weaponize starbases, perhaps in the Military tree but in the 1rst age, not Age of War.

I am also going to steal Nodes" post on that thread as it has some good ideas:

Off the top of my head, there are a number of things that could be done to make Military SBs worthwhile:-

Increased auto-repair for fleets stationed within its ZoC.
Increased Logistics for fleets stationed within its ZoC. (Although when moving a boosted fleet out of ZoC there will need to be a pop-up telling you that you need to break the fleet up first.)
'Free' rapid response Fighter Wings that automatically join any battles that take place within the Military SB's ZoC.
[variation on the above:] Any ships that you have stationed in defence of the SB are that SB's rapid response contingent.
When stationed 'in orbit' around a planet (cf. placed in a hex directly adjacent to a planet) then any attacks directed at said planet also include the Military SB, plus defending fleets, (plus rapid response Wings).
Every module added to a Military SB makes it tougher (extra HP).

I invite all to expand on ideas to increase the desirability to build Military starbases. Please refrain from complaining about whats wrong and lets suggest ideas that sound fun!