Like lich pointed out, it would be broken as hell.  There's a good reason why starbases aren't allowed to have full weapons, hull, and special abilities.  I mean, an Advent base with maxed weapons, hull, fighters, disorient, and meteors?  

Thought about this a bit... I don't think there needs to be a pact that increases the max number of possible upgrades.  I do think that each race should have an inherent/zero-slot upgrade that fits with their racial theme.  You'd still have to pay for them, but it wouldn't count against your upgrade total.

My throughts would be: Evangelization nodes for Advent, Docking Booms for TEC, and maybe Phase Stabilizer for Vasari.

This would give starbases a more interesting role in uncolonizable grav wells, since using racially appropriate abilities wouoldn't impinge on their offense/defense count (which is VERY important in uncolonizable space, since you have no tac structure support), while still requiring you to balance upgrades if you want to use something outside your race's profile (trade outpost for Advent/Vasari, etc.).

It makes sense in a fluffy/lorish way that these characteristics would be so important to the different races that they would build it in to the SB design at a more fundamental level than other updgrades.

Yeah, I don't really play Vasari that much, so I was kinda guessing on what they should get.  Really, all having a no-slot phase node would get you is being able to jump in to non-colonizable grav wells, or saving some planet slots.

Colony pods would be an interesting choice.  Another unique choice for Vasari would be the debris vortex.  I think colony pods would be the best choice though, since like what I've suggested for the other two races, it's effect is at the economic/empire level.

On the other hand, it doesn't really fit with the other Vasari strengths.

Glad you like the basic premise though!

Tiberius: They are anti-structure, and they do well at taking out orbital structures. Starbases still take about 20 minutes to kill with an Orkulus though (presuming both are highly upgraded: good repair rates + good armor greatly nullify the SB's disintegrators). Coming in with enough normal anti-SB units (non-Vas), or just using a Vasari fleet tooled for the job takes about 2-5 minutes. Also, the shields do help - but not enough to warrant the points - and only situationally. Debris Vortex is always the better choice (believe me, I'm sad about it - I used to be a shields believer). I vaguely recall one of the dev's a long time ago saying something a long the lines that an Orkulus would make the Death Star look like a panzy... which is why I always assumed the thing would have some sort of big disintegration beam of doom or the like... I had many lovely dreams of an Orkulus latching onto an enemy starbase Unicron style and eating it alive. A shame that it didn't go down that way... but hey, c'est la vie, non?

TheEvidence: It doesn't fit with the strengths, but it helps to counter a weakness. Vasari are sort of bad on the tax-income level. Rank 2 Colony pod used liberally really help quite a bit - you get a population of 125 per starbase. It fits perfectly with the Lore (the Vasari live in low-orbit structures, vast ships (evacuators) parked in orbit, and in star-bases). And I do like the premise, quite a bit.

-Itharus

Edit: I play on "Normal" game time setting (1x), for reference.

That's a good point Itharus.  I don't think anyone could make the argument that it's unbalanced... 125 population for that kind of price isn't exactly a steal.

You know, now that I really think about it, this is a problem that has already been solved.  Planets have SEPARATE caps for logistics and tactical structures.  I think it would make sense to do the same for starbases.

So maybe not a no-slot upgrade, but separate upgrade slots for tactical and logistical upgrades?

This way, the problem of the uber-military starbase is still avoided, but we still increase the versatility of starbases, and move them in line with existing game mechanics!