#24: Mod it in. I'd use that mod. I think its too far up, also. I want to use it in my small map, normal tech games.
Read some David Weber, Honor Harrington series. Good books featuring some military sci-fi.
True, a mass driver may go until it hits something. Problem is, it takes time to reach its target. If its target is unsuspecting, or can't dodge (like a planet), it can hit. If it can dodge, its troublesome to even shoot a light-minute away. A light-minute is about eighteen million kilometers, or about eleven million miles. Suppose your non-hyperdrive weapon is travelling at the speed of light and so is your target. If the target randomly changes course by a few degrees every thirty seconds, they're not going to be anywhere near where the projectile is.
In gameplay terms, I'd be a bit careful about powerful starbases unless I could guarantee the technology wouldn't be available to soon. It should be possible to mod the fortification branch so that starbase attack and defense got say, a plus ten, plus twenty starbase attack. Now, I'm actually not against giving starbases the ability to directly attack enemy ships. I'm just against giving the ability to do so with the modules we already have. It would make them overkill. Imagine, early game, a devestation beam attack against any ship in the area. What I _might_ appreciate is a sort of space artillery module or mining so that ships in the area of effect take say -1 hitpoints or -10% a turn.
Just to clarify, I'm fine with starbases as is. I think they are plenty powerful, even if they can't "reach out and touch someone".
Why can't the assist modules attack the enemy directly? Think about saturation of defenses and attack vectors. If all the weapons fire is coming from one vector alone, parsecs or light-years out, its easy to track and gives the defending ship plenty of time to plan their defenses and plot intercept vectors and whatnot.