So, one of the hardest parts of exploration, for me, has always been finding resources to build starbases on; I might find that some stars are unreachable without range enhancements, but I can't find any habitable planets, or resources, in the intervening space.
Worse, I was always very annoyed to find an economic resource nowhere near any freighter's path.
The other night, I finally realized that there are types of starbases OTHER THAN "mining starbases", and they can be built everywhere. And that mining an economic resource is civ-wide, even though "economic starbases" only affect freighters.
