Hmm...Starbases are kind of useless...

True, but when you run away from a gravity well with a Starbase (even to retreat), you lose 30% of all of your ships health and all of your ships antimatter. Which means if you skip a starbase, not only is your escape route extremely dangerous, but you're fleet is easy pickings if you happen to run into an enemy fleet soon afterwards. Also late game most planets have a starbase at every planet, so trying to just run to the enemies homeworld without taking out the Star bases is suicide. Much better to take them out (it usually isn't all that hard late game).

I don't mean jump out of the gravity well, just run around the starbase inside the well and let bombers take it out.  It kind of makes them moot.

yeah, with Bombers their easy prey...........but to actually kill the SB you have to divert almost all of your SC to do so which allows your opponent to jump in a fleet and thrash you with their SC and Ships......I use my SC as precision killers focus firing all of them at once on one target at a time. With them tied up on SB im losing a very big key to my success in a slugfest with an enemy fleet. Also you put 4 starbases in a Star GW and place them right, they'll eat away at any incoming fleet. Only a few ships will get through to attack your planetoids. I dont think their useless at all, just another piece of the puzzle to consider when jumping into an enemy GW.

so the SB alone can't really defend a gravity well?  Isn't that what they were designed to do?  Protect a GW while you take your fleet out for an attack...?

Starbases are a delay tactic rather than a slatemate inducing end all and be all. They can take a while to take out if its supported by hanger bays and repair platforms. One time in the very late game my opponent couldn't take out one of my starbases, supported as I said with hanger and repair bays, as well as a Halycon, some guardians and some carrier sourced fighters. This was very late game...

Starbases also make guerilla tactics ineffective, which is a huge boon particularily if you are heavily reliant on an established trade port economy.

Now don't get me wrong, I love Entrenchment and I love starbases, I just would like to see their area of effect increased.  Maybe to a phase jump inhibitor sized circle...

i dunno, seems like it should take longer to take 'em down. I made a mod that upped the range on 'em and upped caps power.

All in all, it seemed to work out pretty well in the matches me and my friends/testers played it.

*changed mass dis-orientation abit too... effin' awesome, but not op.

Starbases on their own are indeed no more than a delay tactic.  They fulfill their role very well, acting as a staging point and roadbump stopping the enemy from bypassing your frontal defenses.  When the enemy fleet is present, a starbase can make a planet incredibly difficult to take down.  Sure, the starbase on its own can be avoided, but the enemy fleet will use that safety zone around it to their advantage.

for all of 20-40 sec.

Depends on the situation.  If it's early enough in the game, you won't have enough bombers to simply overpower the starbase, and if it's late game who knows what the enemy fleet will have to counter you.  Typically I regard someone hunkering down in their homeworld with a starbase unkillable during the early game (presuming they're competent) unless I get some serious feed.

If you don't have feed, you can be in for a LONG ride to try to break down an entrenched opponent.  Starbases are great strategic emplacements when used well.  When used poorly... well, they're big hunks of metal lying in space just waiting to get blasted into tiny chunks of shrapnel.

Or you could be a man and not spam bombers. Your enemies are only as strong as you want them to be, remember.

Most likeyl if you have the labs to get a sb you can get some fighters which will chew up bombers into little bomblets for the sb.Then your sb is nearly invincible.

I find Starbases quite effective as said delay tactic.  Here's what I tend to do:

TEC:

• Frontline Planets: Max Health, Weapons, and Hangar Capacity
  
• "Trader" Planets: Max Health, Hangar, and Trade Capacity
• Asteroids: Max Weapons, Possibly Health, Trading, Some fighters
  
• UCGWs: Max Weapons, Health, and Trading, Defended by 10 Gardas, Some other ability
  
• Non-Homeworld Stars: Max Fighters, Health, and Trading
• Homeworld Stars: 1 Ship Plant, 1 Weapons Platform, 1 "Red Button," 1 Trading Port, all Max Health and Hangar Capacity
  
• Homeworld: Aux. Gov't, AM Restore, Max Fighters, Some Health

Advent:

• Frontline Planets: Max Fighters and Health, Meteor Storm
  
• "Trader" Planets: Max Fighters, some health, trading, increased allegiance/Culture Spread
  
• Asteroids: Max Weapons, Health, and Trading, Meteor Storm
  
• UCGWs: Max Weapons, Mass Disorient, Meteor Storm, Defended by 10 Defense Vessels, Trading
  
• Non-Homeworld Stars: Max Fighters and Health, Trading
  
• Homeworld Stars: 1 Caster (MS and MD), 1 Trade Port, 1 Weapons Battery, 1 Culture Spread, All Max Fighters
  
• Homeworld: Unwavering Faith, Max Fighters, Increased allegiance, some health
  

Vasari:

• Frontline Planets: Max Weapons, Max health, Trading
  
• "Trader" Planets: Max Weapons, Some Health, Trading, Colony Pods Possible
  
• Asteroids: Max Weapons, Trading, Colony Pods Definite, Some Health
  
• UCGWs: Max Weapons, Max Health, Trading, Defended by 10 Sentinels
  
• Non-Homeworld Stars: Max Weapons, Trading, Clustered at Most Likely Entry Point (if possible), Max Health
  
• Homeworld Stars: 1 Weapons Platform, 1 Trading Center (Trading and Colony Pods), 1 Max Defense (Max Health and Shields), 1 Self-Repair, All Max Weapons possible
  
• Homeworld: Max Weapons, Enforced Loyalty, Phase Stabilizer, Some Health

Throw in some mines, Gauss/Beam Defense Platforms, and Hangar Defenses as well, and I'm set.

personally i think SB's are probably the best addition so far. While Ive heavily fortified my frontline worlds with everything from mines to repair bays but without a SB sitting there overlooking my GW at times the heavy assaults of my opponent would have overran my defenses long before my Fleets, which are normally skirmishing, could turn around and double back to defend the besieged planet.

I play multiplayer, so that couldn't be more wrong.  My enemies are going to be at a maximum level of viciousness all the time.  If I don't respond with appropriate force, I'll lose.

To be honest, the only time I ever get hanger upgrades for starbases is when they occupy an uncolonizable gravity well.  These upgrades are way too expensive for what you get.  Four strike craft?  I could build two hanger structures for half the cost of the starbase upgrade.

I dont know about Advent or Vasari but the TEC get 4 squadrons for the first and second upgrades but the third adds 6 squadrons which yes its expensive but considering the fact that anti structures can stay out of the SB's canopy and that SB's have no anti SC abilities other then its own SC. As well adding 14 SC squadrons to your GW with only 8 or 12 Squadrons can mean holding off the enemy long enough to get your fleet in the action. Im pretty sure SC is an essential part of a SB built for the purpose of holding off an assaulting fleet. I normally only build Tradeport addon's in the Sun GW along with Three SBs with fully upgraded hull/weapons/SC. This way the SB with only one weapon upgrade doesnt need to worry about being destroyed. As SBs are expensive and losing a trade port that puts out 6.6 creds/s is painful.

All the upgrades are the same.  Four squads for the first two levels, six squads for the third level.  The problem isn't that strike craft are bad or not useful, but that the tactical hanger structure is a WAY better deal so there's no point in getting it for the starbase.

maybe for some people. I prefer as many SC defending my GW as I can get. They wont stop a well prepped fleet from taking that GW but atleast theyll add a little bit of buffer between the enemy jumping into my GW and Me jumping my Fleet in to counter.

Except that for each upgrade of SC hangers for a Starbase, just buying two Hanger Defenses is cheaper and provides the same amount of SC.

not every GW allows you to get as many SC hangerbays as a starbase can hold.

Regardless, the price it takes to buy a couple Hanger Defenses and upgrade tactical slots to accomadate these will be cheaper than upgrading SB Hangers. Also, tactical slots are never really at a premium; Repair Bays costs only 2 slots, and a few of those and Hanger Defenses are all needed when it comes to tactical slots.

im not argueing the price of them, Id rather pay to have as many SC as I can then decide to not to pay and have to Retake my planet when my opponent takes the GW with a well prepped Fleet.

When comparing the cost of a SB Hangar against 2 tactical Hangars are you considering the price of the 8 tactical slot that you are buying as well?

Of course, the tactical hangars also get flak cannons which could be considered a limited form of a fighter so that is a good reason to build them when possible and only use the SB if you want even more SC in the GW.

sheesh... hanger defences get flack guns... are cheaper than sb upgrades... and so forth... There is NO reason to get strike craft upgrades on colonizeable gravity wells... or even better... 7 carriers... not only do they give you 14 squads of strike craft for less... you can move them around.

geezus... I mean you can use those 3 slots for alot better things than strke craft...

and if your upgrading a starbase to the max... then if you DONT have say... a kol with flackburst near by (recharged by the starbases docking booms and your culture... maybe toe occasional finest hour or flux field) then your nuts... and flackburst will beat 100 squads of anything.

with 1 kol and 2 donovs I can keep a starbase in even an uncolonizable grav well immune to bomber spam... they attack the starbase... flackburst and restore shield... the kol... flackburst, adaptive force shied and shield restore... and one of the donoves... flackburst and restore shield... he gets close... magnatize and use his own sc agaist him.  I was playing a game where we both had starbases in the same gravity well... and we both had 50+ carriers in the gravity well.... I ended up just docking my SC so his capital ships stop getting exp from them... and just let my kol take care of it all.

You are better off using those tactical slots for repair bays