Starbase Construction Speed

Hmmm.... i play normally with the build speed set to fast, and it did seem to build rather quickly, but to be honest, i prefer the fast build speed. I know others perhaps prefer it slower. But well, i usually dont get long to play, and so getting into the game quickly has become a rather major point with me. But i dont mind it.

-Teal

I'm starting to think the Starbase build time was deliberately left that fast for the beta.

It makes no sense if you compare it to other build times, Superweapons especially that actually take quite a bit longer to build than Starbases.

For their extremely weak state without any upgrades, it's fine. It really doesn't take much to destroy an un-upgraded Starbase. If that's ever beefed up, then the build time will need to increase.

1. Build starbase in enemy gravity well.
2. Queue 3/4 shield/hull/armor upgrades.
3. If Advent, queue mass disorientation.
4. Queue weapon upgrades.
5. ???
6. Profit!

You make a valid point, but this tactic is far too successful.

This won't work against a human player and you know it Those upgrades take a while, and it's pretty easy to destroy the base while it's constructing with a half-moderate fleet, or at least deal heavy damage to it. And if a player allows a constructor to get into his core/undefended worlds, well, he deserves it.

It really shouldn't take half a fleet to destroy something in construction.

I made a post earlier about a game where the AI decided to start building a Starbase in the middle of a fight.

First the constructor "starts building" right before it is destroyed, simply disappearing and making the damage done irrelevant. Annoying. Then the 6 Destras and the high level Radiance with Cleansing Brilliance who turn focus fire on the "construction site" are unable to destroy the base before it is built. That's 110 fleet supply points worth of ships including a high level battleship with a level 6 ability. The thing is...

A massive Starbase was casually built from scratch under direct focus fire during a skirmish!

Now that's a dedicated and determined construction crew.

The issue here seems to be that the starbase has shield mitigation while it is being constructed.  (Obviously this is less of a concern if you're playing Vasari, but it still matters somewhat.)

I was too tired to run the math last night, and I've lost what I was working with (cut to clipboard and forgot to paste somewhere), but I was looking at about 160 DPS to kill a starbase before/as the first upgrade completed.  Call it 300 if you want to destroy it before/as it's built, as building takes about 25% longer than an upgrade.

Feel free to run the numbers yourself.  For one, I didn't consider the rise of shield mitigation (just calculated it as capped), as, again, I was exhausted, so in the first few seconds you'll actually do somewhat more damage than that.

It's very impressive they can build faster than a fleet of ships can destroy.

Like.. building a house when there's a row of tanks bombarding away at you.

Funny topic.