Can starbases initiate an attack?

from GalCiv2 Forums
Great game. Never did play the first and have gone through tutorials and recommendation of playing a smaller universe to start off with. Forum also a great help. Thanks everyone. Can't wait till the mods start rolling out. Something I have noticed on the forum and in game, Starbases are very important. However, they are stationary and cannot move. They influence other species and help support ships within their effect radius. I noticed that enemy ships can pass by them without being attacked by a starbase. Are there techs that allow a starbase to attack first as enemy ships go by?
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Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Not as far as I've seen and I've played several games already.

Although I have had freighters destroyed when they ran into my ships following their course.

Starbase weaponry is more of a self defense thing rather then an attack thing.
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I haven't seen a starbase attack and don't think it's programmed to work that way. At first I thought that might be a neat option, but then that kind of defeats the purpose of creating your own ships and producing enough of them to defend your planets.
Galactic Civilizations IV
Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Indeed, starbases are a reactive force. Consider them the light side... they are for Defense and Knowledge ONLY.
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
They can increase the effectiveness of your ships do, they can boost defense and attack for your ships under their area of influence.
Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top
They can't move, so how exactly are they going to engage the enemy?



Um, by shooting at that enemy next to it? They should at least be able to fire at enemy ships that are adjacent IMHO.
Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
by shooting at that enemy next to it?


Those are parsecs you're talking about. When we move a ship to attack, it simulates the ship closing that distance to get into firing range. Starbases can't move so they need to wait for ships to come to them.

Reply #8 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Along these lines, it would be neat to see an area of influence where enemies can only entire if they engage the starbase. It would be a nice option for a defensive military base set beside a planet. One of the alternates is to create a ship with no engines. I have made a weapons platform in a couple games and they've worked pretty good.
Reply #9 from Stardock Forums Top
Those are parsecs you're talking about. When we move a ship to attack, it simulates the ship closing that distance to get into firing range. Starbases can't move so they need to wait for ships to come to them.



I understand the concept. It just seems silly that they are always on the defensive. I have some military installations with HuGe guns...and wish they could attack incoming fighters and not just react defensively all the time. Maybe a first strike upgrade?

Reply #10 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
While defensive in nature, they do seem to have a big impact on the game against the AI. Since I am new to the game I noticed that a military starbase built in enemy territory is attacked on a regular basis. Sending a fleet of constructors in at one time (6 or 7), I could quickly upgrade it in one turn. The AI did not take a liking to a military starbase so close to one of its planets. As a result, it kept sending ship after ship to try to destroy while I kept upgrading it. This allowed me to attack other planets while it was busy attacking my starbases. I also tried to build a starbase in orbit around a planet. Unfortunely with no luck. It would seem I need to launch the constructor before I can use it to build a starbase. Any planet with an orbiting starbase would be difficult to conquer and would require large fleets to overwhelm. I like the ship with no engines ideas as an orbiting platform. I will give it a try and see what impact it has on game play. Against a human player, I'm wondering if the strategy would be attack the planets and then go back and clean up the starbases since the starbases themselves can assist ships in their area but cannot move or attack passing ships and are difficult to destroy. It is almost like the starbases are a heavily guarded refueling and reloading center for your starships within enemy territory. Can't wait to try the influence starbases. Thanks everyone for your responses.
Reply #11 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Those are parsecs you're talking about. When we move a ship to attack, it simulates the ship closing that distance to get into firing range. Starbases can't move so they need to wait for ships to come to them.


At the same time, the starbase can aid ships with their offense/defense up to 8 parasec.

It would be nice for the starbase to automatically attack everything within 1 parasec radius (at least a % chance). It wouldn't be terribly unbalancing because starbases need to be 3 parasec away from each other (leaving you with 1 parasec to sneak by).

Some problems would be that AI might not be able to fully take advantage of that knowledge. Also, you could build a starbase right next to a planet (shouldn't happen, really) and that could very unbalancing as the starbase get a chance to destroy a newly built ship as soon as it comes out.