Starbases: how to use them?

Trifna · March 31, 2003, 18:12

I wondered how you guys were using starbases. Personally, I jump on ressources and I add stuff to boost trade. I add military when I need to defend them and further in the game I boost my production with starbases.

You? What would be the best?

vmxa1 · March 31, 2003, 19:35

I don't know either, I am still testng. I do like increase ship speed, to get those fleets from one place to another. If you want to take over planets with culture adding that to SB is very good.

PriestOfDiscord · March 31, 2003, 20:04

The Social/Military bonuses are quite nice in the early game at your home system. On the borders though, it is all about culture. Worry about defending them though, because it seems the 2 evil races are fond of targeting them with heavy force.

vmxa1 · March 31, 2003, 21:55

I tend to drop a few ships one the ones in danger. 138 HP is not going to be busted by just any old ship though.
I had many attacks stopped by the SB by itself.

Lemmy · April 1, 2003, 04:18

Drop 'm on all resources, get the +5 defense first in case the civs get any bright ideas. Then increase resources mining.
I only do trade and production if it makes a difference or if i have too much constructors (ie. never

).
I always do culture, and if i'm going to war, i first save up some constructor ship, about 6 of them. Then upgrade the military modules and attack.
The Culture Maximizing tech rocks btw...+300% culture in your starbase

BlueDEvil · April 1, 2003, 09:06

Build a starbase in your sector with lots of planets. This will benefit all the planets in that sector with big production bonus. From what I see, production bonus affects both building structures and ships. Resources are garbage because most of them appear in isolated places, so their production bonus is really not applicable. I build my starbase in a sector with most planets with or without resource.

Another good thing about starbase is they attract enemies into a trap. Just build one between you and the enemy. Beef up all the attack only, so all your ships in that sector gain that amount of attack. Your ships can kill enemy ships like flies, and getting level up pretty fast. Repair bay is also necessary. Starbase have good HP, so it keep your weaken ships from getting killed when your ships are stack with it.

Harry Seldon · April 1, 2003, 09:54

I use them mostly for culture. Definitely get some defense on them as early as possible. When in war, the AI always target starbases first and it is devastating to watch five or six bases go down in flames along with all their bonuses. The +5 defensive bonus is usually good enough to get by with until the battleship comes along so that will give you some time to beef up your fleet.

PDifolco · April 1, 2003, 10:25

Same as BlueDevil, I've found they are VERY useful at boosting everything in your "core" sectors, resources or not. A big defense base boosting friendly ships attack and defense is way better than just more starships, and the SB economic/morale bonuses are better and cheaper than Social projects, plus they cost NO maintenance

In fact by mid-game I think you should crank up constructors by the dozen to establish a powerful base for late galactic domination !

Lemmy · April 1, 2003, 10:27

, i just read on galciv.com that with multiple starbases in a sector, the bonusses stack!

Malleus · April 1, 2003, 11:20

In my just completed game my core sectors had 3 starbases with full production, culture and trade improvements.

Any sector outside the core which had planets had a culture palace and all the fixin's with ample defense.

I only possessed one resource.

M

Didymus · April 1, 2003, 14:58

Quote:

Originally posted by BlueDEvil
... Resources are garbage because most of them appear in isolated places, so their production bonus is really not applicable...

Resource bonuses are GLOBAL to your civ. That's what makes them strategic.
By midgame, a resource can add +50% to one attribute. That ain't chump change!

Harry Seldon · April 1, 2003, 16:51

Of course, you have to hold onto the resource until midgame. I've had civs with warm relations smile politely as they destroyed my starbase right before three constructors show up.

PriestOfDiscord · April 1, 2003, 18:33

The Yor trashed my two starbases both sitting on economic bonuses with missiles right at the beginning of a war, this in the last game I just played. In essentially one strike they destroyed my ability to make decent money.

The Templar · April 1, 2003, 20:12

I've been using mine for culture mostly. At select systems with high production however, I build starbases with all of the production boosting modules. And I'm kicking ass (on beginner, in my first game. >>Sigh<<)

unic · April 2, 2003, 09:25

In my first game, I used mine for culture mostly... this time around, in my second game, I threw up three of them in a sector with high industry, and put all the manufacturing improvements on them, which really made a huge difference.

I've also started upgrading some of them to increase revenue from trade routes, in the hope of helping my economy (is there a bug with this? I reloaded my saved game, and my economy seemed to have dropped since I saved it - I'm suddenly losing about 100 bc / turn), but am so far unsure about how efficient it is.

Havn't done any of the military upgrades, as I'm not fighting yet.

Kinjiru · April 2, 2003, 10:54

Hee Hee... Last night I loaded up a save game from a couple nights ago. Went along fine for a while, then got into a long war with the Yor. We went about pillaging each other and generally depleting each others resources. I was pretty sure this meant I was not going to to win the game since during this war the Arcs kept steadily progressing in all areas.

Then I noticed these two planets off in the far corner that I had settled long ago and forgotten about. And since I turned off notification for most everything (can't be distracted from the war you know!), I had no idea what was there.

So I click on over and what do I find? About 40 constructors all waiting for me. Well, clickety-click, there we go, six fleets of seven constuctors each. Put them on a course for the rear of the Yor empire. When they got there I instantly had three Yor sectors with three culture filled starbases (and a little defense of course). Rush some ships over to defend them and in a few turns (okay more like 15) those sectors have defected to me!

War... over....

sacjim · April 2, 2003, 16:42

I think a couple of the cultural bonuses for starbases should also give a small econ bonus to planets in the sector

off the top of my head, i think there's a shopping center, and a waterslide park that give big culture bonuses. Seems like those should affect your economy, since it's basically tourism.

BlueDEvil · April 3, 2003, 03:35

I much prefer to have morale bonus modules like holiday resort. It is quite difficult to handle large population with the morale dropping so rapidly.

LDiCesare · April 8, 2003, 21:50

I use star bases for offense/defense. I build them in clusters around the corners of sectors, farthest possible from the enemies, so it is easier to protect all of them with a single ship. In my territory, I boost whatever production and ship offense is available.
But the most useful usage of these beasts is offense: Stack 3 or four constructors, move them in opponent sector, build star base, add +6 to ship attack and smite them. That way you lose little or no ship, can recycle the starbase later into a production/culture base if you like to. These bases make it very easy to attack/defend a given sector.

Fried-Psitalon · April 8, 2003, 23:11

In a day or two I'll be posting a few screenshots about why Starbases are completely broken in the overpowered direction right now...

Starbase productivity bonuses stack. I have a system that is doing....frightening...things.....per turn.

There are a LOT of starbases with everything up to Massive Scaled Factories there.....

LDiCesare · April 9, 2003, 09:17

Does the AI use star bases aggressively at high levels? By aggressively, I mean building clusters of starbases between their stars.

Brizey · April 9, 2003, 16:47

unic:

two things:

1) Did you load an autosave? Might not have been the very last turn.

2) Don't forget that tribute can alter you instantenous economic balance by quite a bit. Did you have a tribute agreement run out?

eloquence · April 9, 2003, 21:26

I have been stacking 7-8 starbases in populated sectors and I have to agree with Fried that this can get very scary in terms of the production that you can get.

Once the late game hits I can crank out battleships about 1 every 2-3 turns on my populous planets.

I think that there really needs to be some balancing on that. I've only been playing on normal level but it seems like things can get very broken quickly.

unic · April 9, 2003, 21:45

Quote:

Originally posted by Brizey
unic:

1) Did you load an autosave? Might not have been the very last turn.

No, and there was a bug... which is now fixed in one of the patches. (Nice to have developers online on IRC - I mentioned the bug, and less than 10 minutes later, got told that it had been fixed so values would be saved correctly now, and would be part of the next update/patch)

/unic