If you want to bring the other unupgraded SBs up to the level of the Orkulus (I am assuming that is the intention):
Not exactly, I want the other starbases to be viable, but not necessarily as strong as the Orkulus. The Orkulus, after all, is probably the main weapon of the Vasari, and can be extremely strong both offensively and defensively. For instance, good use of Orkys by an experienced player can allow the Vasari player to stay just at 250 fleet supply or less, which is an incredible strength in some games (especially in 1v1, and in eco slot 5v5).
As for the ideas, you really want someone spreading culture without having any research in culture?
It's a significant strength, which is what the Advent starbase needs, and is especially something like what the Advent needs overall for balance purposes. It could be a real help when trying to culture out someone who's heavily entrenched.
Why would you bother with the research?
Well, starbases are expensive. If you already have the civic slots and just want a culture center near your homeworld to increase income by a bit I'd go for the culture structure instead of the starbase.
But even so, if circumstances were that a starbase would be a better investment, that's fine too. Culture stations could be useful for providing an additional boost to culture if needed.
TEC idea is kind of the opposite; building a starbase for repair is a waste of money when you can, at a much lower tech level, grab repair bays. But, then if it is such a good repair, why would you build regular repair bays after you get to the point where you could make SBs.
The point is that an Argonev would provide extra repair, fleet-wide, which is not dependent on antimatter. The repair amount, while significant over the whole fleet (especially in a prolonged battle), isn't very much for each individual ship, which is why you would also want Hoshikos and repair structures to allow +60 hull repair, especially on more important targets (on top of the relatively small 7.5?hull/sec repaired by the starbase). The Argonev, the Hoshiko, and the repair bay would still all have very important purposes.
As for the 'tug' option, I don't understand... theres the option to deconstruct things you dont need anymore, how does this stack up with your "you broke it, you bought it" mentality? The system doesnt always place the structure exactly where you expect it to, and things change over time. Where I put the repair bay at the begining of the game might be completely out of whack compared to where I want/need it at the end of the game.
Meh. I guess I'm just familiar with the "feel" of how static defenses are now.
If constructors can "tug" them I guess it's not bad though.
But in my battles, at least, I find that I'm almost always fighting one enemy from one direction, and so place my tactical structures accordingly so they'll be best for defending from that direction - that rarely changes, and if it does, usually my enemy has either won and has taken control of the gravity well, or I've won and pushed the enemy back another planet, either way rendering my tactical structures now mostly useless.
The "tug" feature could be interesting and could be useful in a few circumstances but I wouldn't ask the developers to put it in.
