SoaSE:R Starbase rebalance mod

Mods should be posted in the Modding section of the forum, found here:

https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/forum/443

Oh, sorry about that, moved.

Movement inside a gravity well is a huge advantage because it allows a starbase to fire on its own counters.  Combine that with the fact that the Argonev and Trans have uncapped AoE's and you just made the Trans the bar-none most powerful starbase in the game.  Nothing will kill it now.

The Orky's main problem is a problem with the fact that it can jump when used by the VR because it becomes a second titan.  

All you did was bring the other starbases up to the Orky's level and then some.  True, they can't jump, but in-well, they were already more powerful.  Now they're juggernauts of destruction.  Maybe that's what you wanted I guess..

Fundamentally it comes down to this: an Orky can be overwhelmed numerically.  Meteor, MD, and BRB prevent the other two from being overwhelmed, regardless of how many enemies come at them.  Making it so that they can take down their own counters is going to make these two starbases nigh-unkillable.

Like the idea of the Transcendia and Argonev having an extra hull and weapons level, respectfully.

Moving however, could be a problem. In PvP mass bombers is the usual method of taking down SBs, rather than the proper counter of Adjudicators or Ogrovs. The Vasari have no counter ship, rather they counter with a SB, hence why it had more hull/weapon upgrades and can move. However I do find this a bit of a problem because those upgrades are also good against regular ships, the same reason mass bombers is the norm instead of anti-structure cruisers. Even worse, carriers use fleet supply while the orky doesn't...thus the only heavily used SB is the one that can approach the counters!

If they are going to move, they'll need to move very slowly, or else disable their weapons while they move or some such.

@Volt: you're overstating things a bit. Mass bombers are unaffected by those AoEs, or in the case of RB the SB dies with the SC. Although now the counters are even worse then they already were.

@Card: another idea, you could change the AoE's some, like add more time to get away from RB, max target count on MD and Meteor.

Thanks for the nice feedbacks, guys, now we have something to add/change in our minds and I'll update as soon as it's done.

Anyway i'd like to remind you that the starbases already move veeeeery slowly. For example a standard carrier moved at a maximum speed of 450, while the starbases move at the following maximum speeds:

Argonev 50;
Transcendia 80;
Orkulus 130 (in own wells) or 30 (in neutral/enemy wells). 

The main idea behind that was to give the player the possibility of re-arranging their defenses after repelling an attack. Maybe we'll change those values slightly, but they already give enough time for an attacker to avoid getting crushed.

I disagree... sllghtly. BRB is works immediatly and deals immensive damage immediatly. Meteor strike might do more damage in the long term, but it requires that your starbase survives that long to use it extensivly. Mass Dissorentation is certainly very powerful (not to mention it looks hilarious ) but it will be on cooldown regulary, allowing you to close the distance or to run like hell. It does not work against Titan and Capships with full force, too. Having a fully upgraded MD and Meteors also means that your starbase will have less direct firepower. That makes it comparable ill suited to deal with singular hard targets. A TR Titan and a few cap ships will give your base some serious pounding... while they just shrug of the occassionly meteor.

Meteor Storm doesnt do a lot of damage compared to the cooldown time and AM cost. What make it so immensivly powerful is the fact that it is uncapped, and has a rather nasty range.

It is very good against heavy cruiser fleets, but in MP you are likely going to face carriers with Cap support. The carriers sit out of range while the capships add some nice damage. Meteor storm will destroy any Cap.... but it takes a long time.

If the Orkie is more powerful than the stationary starbases, this makes them even less useful. The entire point of having a starbase is to force your opponent to spend a lot of money... more money than you in fact to get by it. With the Orky, yxou just build it out of range, upgrade it, kill the enemy starbase and after that you have this gravity well nearly as good protected as your enemies has before.

Or to make it more simple... torpedo cruisers/adjucators are absoluty worthless against anyting else, the orkulus remains quite useful, phase jumping or not.

Starbases shouldn't be standalones and should always have defenses with them.  Anyone who is getting attacked by a fleet and has a Trans with Meteor that doesn't have Malice handy is a bit of an idiot.

oh boy more of that kind of arguing. But isn't that all the same as it currently is? We're talking about their changes here....I fail to see how adding a 4th armor and making the SB move changes things considerably. Meteor already out-ranges Ogrovs, the official counter. How would you counter a fully upgraded moving Trans differently from a stationary? Carriers moving out of range? Or Titan/Caps with the advantage? Nothing has truly changed in concept here....except SBs are slightly tougher and can reposition or eat up a frigate (particularly LRF) fleet better.

That's why they removed the 4th hull upgrade. Since the Trans and Arg have an additional upgrade, they're nearer to the same power.

Since they can move, Trans and Arg should have nearly the same offensive use the Orky does.