A lot has been said already about the weapon range on starbases, and I agree that there should be a huge increase in it, preferably covering half or more of an average gravwell, but it just struck me what the absolute minimum range should be.

The minimum reasonable range for a starbase should be long enough that another building, say a lab, or a hangar, or a refinery, can be placed next to the starbase, and the starbase can hit any ship (other than the new torpedo cruisers) that is in range to target the protected building.

Right now, the starbase can't even protect itself in this manner, since it's outranged by normal old LRMs, etc., let alone protect even a single other building.

Having said this, I still really think they need a big enough range to actually protect a planet, but at the very, very, stingiest least they should be able to protect a single orbital facility.