Just a random thought that occured to me to make starbases seem more epic.  When destroyed, rather than just dissappearing a starbase should leave behind some uniques wreckage that looks, well, like a destroyed starbase. Have massive chunks floating in space when an argonev gets destroyed, or remnants of the ring of a transcencia.  Maybe it could even be named "Remains of <starbase>" just to add to the sense of how immense the structures are.  Obviously to prevent a bunch of wreckage building up in large games, you could make the wreckage dissappear if a new starbase is constructed in the grav well, or whatever other arbitrary rule is deemed appropriate.