Starbases

Well one pointer is try and get the Economy Starbases to effect multiple planets if at all possible. You can tell by the light glow around the around ship i think it is 8 or 9 cube radius i forget exaclty but you will get it quick enough.

Military Starbases seem good if you are going to be using lots of smaller ships as the bonous are a real help to them but by the time you have large or huge ships the bonous are not that impressive.

Influence Starbases are good for extending your ships Range and also effecting your enemies or even allies, by the time it is fully built you might be able to get a planet to turn it is should aleast be suffering moral problems.

I personally like to build up economy starbases in the Territory of those i wish to soon or later take over so that as soon as i have the planet it is under the effects of the starbase.

P.s any starbase extends the range of your ships.

I like to build military starbases in enemy star systems early on, it allows you to clean their clock with a bunch of small ships even if their technology is more advanced then yours.

That can be seen as a hostile act, and at higher intelligence levels the AI will take offense ("--we see what you are doing").