Trade ports are 750 - 100 - 125 (1762.5 credits) and refineries are 1500, 125, 175 (2850 credits)...lets say refineries should be more or less the same cost as trade ports...I'm thinking a cost of 1000 - 75 - 100 may be appropriate...that is equivalent to 1787.5 credits and, like the original cost, reflects a higher credit cost relative to resources required...
That may be an overbuff for refineries. You're talking about a 40% cost decrease. I was thinking more in the range of 15-25% to reduce the steepness of their cost.
if this trade port technology is cheaper than most lvl 4 defense techs (and the trade upgrade is better) then I think the colony pods tech should be cheaper as well...
Keep in mind that this upgrade requires 4 military
and 4 civic labs, and takes a 4th level tech (priced as a regular 4th level tech...) as a prerequisite. The Vasari trade port upgrade for starbases is anything but cheap to research.
This is probably why its cost is low for a tier-4 tech, its prerequisites are
so high.
While colony pods may offer much lower prerequisites to research than trade ports, they still absolutely suck in payoff time (nearly an hour, not including the starbase cost). I think a better cost would be 500 credits, 100 metal, 75 crystal for level 1, 750 credits, 150 metal, 125 crystal for level 2.
so any costs going into building the SB in the first place are sunk costs
While I come to the same conclusion, I do so for different reasons: building a starbase only for colony pods is simply
stupid. It wouldn't make economic sense even if colony pods were free.
I think more to the point, people will put this on a starbase if they're besieged with few planets, giving an extra form of income. I doubt very much this will be applicable to a trade extension starbase, simply because if your trade route is long enough for that to be viable, you probably should be buying logistics upgrades and more trade ports as your economic investments.
so, how about a cost of 1000 - 150 - 75 for each level of [Induced Reverence]?
Sounds good.
Vasari "Pinpoint Bombardment" Upgrade: That is pretty extreme, but where exactly in the gravity well does that mean firing from? It should be pretty far out, but not quite at phase jump distance IMO.
As I already mentioned, the prerequisites and cost for this tech put it so late in the game that superweapons should be on the field. I actually think it's fair to compare this ability to the Novalith Cannon, in that by the time it comes out, putting up starbases and auxiliary government on all your planets is a completely viable response.
Vasari Wave Cannon Upgrade: Not much we can do besides just increase the damage/increase the range/increase the rate of fire. I was thinking about maybe adding a secondary effect by using it to unlock an ability that does extra damage to shields, but it would difficult to add to capital ships with wave weapons.
Not to mention it would effectively have a dissonance with phase missiles. Why have one weapon that deals extra shield damage when you have another weapon to completely bypass those shields?
I think adding a range upgrade on top of its current effect might be the best approach, which would definitely add to the power of Vasari heavies.
TEC Shield Generator: Could just have it reduce 100% of bombing damage, so the TEC doesn't have to waste a starbase slot on auxiliary government. Otherwise it has be suggested to have it shield nearby structures like the advent hangar, though that is rather unoriginal.
We could make it give 100% protection, but this would have to be
after its 7th level upgrades are applied. Shielding nearby structures doesn't fit with TEC and infringes on Advent's niche, so that's definitely out. I think the 100% shielding is the only real direction we have to go with this one, even though it's probably not enough...
Communal Labour: I think this is a lost cause, because I'm not sure we can make this do anything else without just starting completely from scrap. I suppose it could be a free research, but would take awhile to unlock, but that is kind of radical.
And doesn't change the fact that it's still worthless. Perhaps the best solution is to make it so that this ability
refunds some of the cost of the structure you're building rather than costing a little extra.
While we're on the topic, does anyone consider Intelligent armor on the Vasari SB to be a little too weak?
Every scrap of armor is quite nice. Shields and hull are additive, armor is something more. I will agree it's a small boost, but worth researching in the long-term since Vasari starbases have no real abilities to fend off large swarms of enemies rushing at them and have to stack DR and healing to survive.
Communal labor - what if this ability reduced the cost (slightly) of structures when multiple constructors work on one structure?
Heh... go figure that we'd both have the same idea
