He's talking about ship defenses.

And here i was thinking this thread was about starbase strategies.... silly me!

Even ship defences fail to keep up with weaponry, but different to starbases, a player can change the defensive capability of ships to suit whats going on at the time.

could you explain to me how to place influence starbases most efficiently?

should i use them like economy starbases and cover as many of my planets with its field of effect as possible? do multiple influence bonuses to planets stack as well?

i didint build many starbases in my previous games (im playing my third game now), only a few on the edges of my empire to expand its cultural reach, should i upgrade the corner influence bases completely or just leave it at that (i.e. does the % bonus apply even if theres no planet in the base range?)

Every influence base produces an amount of IP's not a bonus to a planet.
They have a range you can see by highlighting the base. If multiple bases intersect in the sphere of influnece, the amount of IP's will be added to get the total influence enforced on that given point.

hey it actually worked, i overwhelmed the lousy humans with my influence and 2 planets in a star system i expanded my influence into defected to my side.... too bad a law was passed which limits evil civs to only 1 trade rout... guess what i AM evil and about 60& of my income was generated through trade.... im doomed

hey it actually worked, i overwhelmed the lousy humans with my influence and 2 planets in a star system i expanded my influence into defected to my side.... too bad a law was passed which limits evil civs to only 1 trade rout... guess what i AM evil and about 60& of my income was generated through trade.... im doomed

That is why you should ALWAYS save the game before every UP vote. I learnt my lesson back in Galciv1 when a permanent vote against Terror stars was implemented. I'm like, "oh yea, i'm really gonna want to continue playing!!CNTRL+N".

My newbie game settings:
Star Clusters: Random
# of Stars: Abundant
# of Planets: Abundant
# of Habitable Planets: Common
Difficulty: Challenging
Number of Races: Random (4 major appeared: Drengu, Tholians, Yor, Korx)
Galaxy Size: Huge/Immense (Largest)
Technological Victory disabled


It's sad to hear starbases are, if not worthless, very underpowered in the later stages of the game. I just experienced that today.

I am/was starbase happy. I'd usually build two of them (one economic, one military) at spots where their influence would include the maximum number of colonies (three planets is the most I've gotten so far, so usually it was two). I haven't yet hit the starbase ceiling, but I've gotten close.

The thing is, I figured if planets are not building warships (and I've made the error of arming myself into bankruptcy),then they should be pumping out Constructors. I set idle starports to do this, and then I upgrade every single station to the teeth. I put heavy engines on later versions of the Constructors to zip out and do their thing. So what does everyone else do . . . just let the Starports be idle?

Not a real winning strategy due to what I feel are game flaws or oversights. Starbases can't seem to "group" with my fleets nor can they host ships. I also don't like that you can build them anywhere - one of my allies, the May-They-Find-Space-Herpes-In-Their-Beds YOR, had the stones to put four Influence bases circling my home world (not anywhere else on my territory, just THERE).

IMO:

1. They need better tech
2. They should be able to host ships like a planet (but few, say, 3-4)
3. They cannot be built on another race's territory
4. Its GOOD, not EVIL that should get the maintenance free perk. This would represent funding or resources from other good-aligned races for its upkeep (like Bab5 was)

I DID kinda litter space with Starbases . On the flip side of things, the limit, the number you can build, should be a lot lower I think.

. . and maybe also removing the ability to upgrade ships except at a starbase, or starport.

heh, I'm just rather miffed that Good seems to have gotten the short end of the stick in this game . . . . it seems like the only way to win is to pursue diplomacy and get tough big brothers (i.e., Allies)

1. They need better tech

Agree very much so

2. They should be able to host ships like a planet (but few, say, 3-4)

Yea, might be nice - agree a little bit. but tiny hulled ships only, Since it is reasonable that a starbase can have a fighter squadron.

3. They cannot be built on another race's territory

This idea has merrit. I'm thinking it would make it harder for players to achieve an influence victory or horde galactic recources. Also it would be harder to keep influence overwhealmed worlds. The only negative being that AI starbases would be unable to annoy players (it's the challenge hehehe).

4. Its GOOD, not EVIL that should get the maintenance free perk. This would represent funding or resources from other good-aligned races for its upkeep (like Bab5 was)

Not necissarily. However i would agree that good alignment is missing some legitimate potential advantages.

I DID kinda litter space with Starbases . On the flip side of things, the limit, the number you can build, should be a lot lower I think.

NOOOOOOOWAY no no no and no!

the limit, the number you can build, should be a lot lower I think.

What is the limit for SBs, anyone know or can you just build four per sector in every sector if you choose? I had 78 in my last game and have heard of people having 200+.

What is the limit for SBs

The limit is 4 x the number of sectors on the map.

The limit is 4 x the number of sectors on the map

not including recource starbases

not including recource starbases

Right.

not including recource starbases

I knew that one ,but thanks   . I'd hate to see the cost of SBs at about 500 or so. I know at about 245 or so they start costing about 14000bc.  

The reason I'm thinking fleets, is to pop a sizeable (and slightly armored) starbase in one turn, to prevent the "enemy" to snipe my constructors or my base before it can do anything But the idea for rally points is a good idea when operating in my own space indeed.

You only would need to do fleets if you were already at war, or you felt you were VERY close to war. Your opponents will not "snipe" a friendly or neutral base, only an enemy one, so this is a non-issue if you aren't basically at war.

Am I the only one who wishes you could send freighters to starbases to set up a supply route to allow the starbase to slowly upgrade on its own without sending a massive number of constructors there?

I always have a number of planets building constructors. They build one starbase at a time and upgrade it to where I want it and then move to the next base. I set a rally point at the Starbase and then I set the rally points of the planets building the Starbase to that point. When that base is done I move the rally point and the planets start building the next one. I usually play loose clusters so I usually have a few stars with 10 or so planets. Half will build starbases for all the planets the other half build military ships. I try to place econ starbases in sectors so they cover as many planets as possible.

I rarely upgrade economy Starbases past the factory upgrades and trading upgrades, sometimes not even the tradeing upgrades if my routes do not go through the sector. Battle stations and sensors can be accomplished in other ways. I build sensor arrays...basicly a hull with one engine and as many Mark IV sensors I can fit on it. Cheaper than the 4 constructors it would take to bring it up to sensor 4 and better sensor range. I will sometimes put weapons on them if I get in an early war but that rarely happens. Usually its because of some random assassination event. Otherwise I would rather have small fleets of fast corvettes to intercept anything that gets close to my clusters of starbases.

Influance starbases are very useful on the fringe of your territory. I usually put one in any system that has one of my planets plus other races. Usually one fully upgraded influance starbase will flip a planet (usually) if you have one planet as well nearby. For flipping planets in other territorys I find you need 2 or 3 fully upgraded ones to flip a whole star system of 2 or 3 planets. Once one goes however they all start falling. I am big on morale and diplomacy early and trade for weapons so this works well for me.

I have not found Military starbases as useful as I would have hoped. I think they have their place and I could see them being very powerful especally in the early part of the game if you found yourself on the defensive. But their lack of mobility and the lack of chokepoints makes them difficult to use well. Teamed up with tiny or small ships in huge numbers they could be fun. That is how I would use them if I had to. Put them near my fringe systems and build lots of tiny ships to take advantage of the bonus the base would provide to each ship.

Hope that helps someone

I am big on morale and diplomacy early and trade for weapons so this works well for me.

If your weak militarily you can trade for weapons tech.... not possible to do this if your strong.

I have not found Military starbases as useful as I would have hoped. I think they have their place and I could see them being very powerful especally in the early part of the game if you found yourself on the defensive. But their lack of mobility and the lack of chokepoints makes them difficult to use well. Teamed up with tiny or small ships in huge numbers they could be fun. That is how I would use them if I had to. Put them near my fringe systems and build lots of tiny ships to take advantage of the bonus the base would provide to each ship

I always use military starbases. I will put 2 or 3 in advanced positions around my empire. Then i put a fleet on top and intercept all the enemy fleets headed for my trading starbases.... and we all know how much the AI loves to attack economy starbases!!!!! it is what i would call, boardering on the obsessive.

Actually I have found economy starbases to be not that useful and military starbases very useful. With econ starbases, I have found it hard to recoup the cost of the constructors you use building it; especially when you consider the time value of money (i.e. 1 bc now is worth more than 1 bc a year later). You can't just improve your economy for the sake of improving your economy--there has to be some other end in mind.

Military starbases, though, I am quickly able to recoup the value in constructors back. Each ship of yours that doesn't die, or that you never have to build in the first place, counts towards that. I have found that a few constructors invested into a military SB can save a lot of bc worth of starships. And you tend to get that return on your investment quickly. Their benefit of course diminishes in the late game, but...so do economy starbases. After all, if the game is about to end anyway, how much benefit are you really getting back from your economy SB's?

especially when you consider the time value of money

Normally yes, ingame no. You get no benefit from your savings over time, the only thing that happens is an economic penalty from having too much money. May as well put your money to work in economic starbases, at least it is doing somthing better than nothing.

Yes military starbases reduce losses, but you know what else they reduce? the number of other starbases you can build! big problem.

What are you doing that's making you so much money? Are you not getting enough industrial capacity up & running, or have you discovered a magic trick like with the trade ships & starbases in GC1?

Economy star bases are extremely useful all through the game because of their multiplicative effect. You just have to arrange them correctly. If you can get even 12 star bases (in three different sectors) to cover your technology or manufacturing capital you can get a 325% bonus when maxed out, and if you get 16 maxed-out star bases, it's 432%.

A quick example: a planet with 15 or so discovery spheres (20 rp if I recall correctly), running at 50% research would pull down 150 rp's for 150bc per turn. Add the tech capital (+100%) and you've got yourself 300 rp's per turn for 225bc (bonus production is only charged at 50%). Surround that planet with 12 maxed-out econ star bases and you've got a +425% bonus (not counting race research bonus, trade goods, or research resources). That means you'd be getting 787 rp's per turn for 468bc. Add more discovery spheres (or better yet NLCs) some racial research bonuses, a few research resources, and a total of 16 starbases, and you can get totals of over 10,000 rps/turn as this thread shows:

https://forums.galciv2.com/?forumid=346&aid=134469#1077863

The same is true, obviously, for manufacturing starbases. And you don't even have to get as crazy as arranging 16 starbases around one planet (which isn't even always possible). Just 4 maxed-out starbases (+108%) is the equivalent of a tech capital.

Anyone recall how many constructors it takes to max out an econ star base?

12 maxed out starbases?!? That sounds fine and wonderful if you're making your empire all pretty, but are you really winning games with that? So you're playing on high difficulty, aliens are knocking at your door, all hope seems lost, and...you pulled it out in the end by surrounding your capital with 12 maxed out starbases? I have a hard time believing that. In no small part because you can't max out starbases until you get industrial sector. That's end game. Besides that, for 12 maxed out starbases...you could build 50 troop transports with that!

I can honestly say I have won games with military starbases. Because of the timing. I'm in a war and/or a military build-up, at 100% military spending, and all I do is switch out some constructors instead of fighting starships. The constructors do more than their share of the "fighting". And the beauty of it is, at the end, I have a military starbase on the front lines left standing--not a bunch of dead starships.

tetleytea - different strategies for different situations. For me (playing crippling or maso) the load of maxed-out star bases comes towards the endgame when it's me versus the one AI who's gotten real big by taking out his neighbors. Playing as good or neutral, I find that another good or neutral civ in that situation will start out with average-positive relations with me, but as it becomes clear that I am its main rival, those relations will drop like a rock (I'm talking about the last few games I played in DL 1.4) and it will finally declare war on me. If I'm not powerful enough to take on that AI right away, I'll use this time to deck out my tech capital with starbases to keep my research competitive with the AI's inflated rates and retool my fleets to match the AI's weapon and defense categories. I've definitely won games doing that.
So yeah, it's not like the enemy is throwing his fleets at me and I'm trying to increase my research, but in that "calm before the storm" period it's not too hard to build a mess of constructors and see some serious, useful increases in research.

tetleytea - different strategies for different situations.

Exactly. Also player skill plays a part. An elite player probably won't get into a really bad strategic position in the first place - not unless he's bored and wanted a challenge! hehehe.

So for somebody who is trying to play way above their skill level, i can see how Gre_Magus strategy won't seem possible. Not that theres anything wrong with playing way above your skill level, if you can win, there is no sweeter victory!

If you can build 12 upgraded starbases in peace, I would say you're playing way BELOW your skill level.

If you can build 12 upgraded starbases in peace, I would say you're playing way BELOW your skill level.

What are the key indicators your playing above your skill level anyway? Naturally the in game statistics are supremely useless so.... hmmm for me i think the best indicator is AI technological advancement compared to me. Especially when the AI's all have a big list of techs and i cannot afford any, yea i know i'm in serious trouble then! Also when the AI builds pretty much every project ahead of me, yea, generally when i start seeing more and more AI projects completed i begin to realise i'm in trouble.