And, according to Cari, it is the sphere of influence for the upgrade modules such as planetary production improvements and ship defense and offense capabilities.

Another note on the irregularity and inconsistancy of the circles. They happen the same time that the segments change as the view is moved around. As in the minor and major FOW changing colors. (Hhhmmm. I may have to think of a better way to describe the FOW color changes, as I find it very annoying.)

You can always build starbases anywhere. You don't have to build them on resources. If you really want a starbase to support your colonies, just build one next to it

I think that was referencing the resource starbases, and we don't get to pick where those go.

I've had that issue as well. I think the range on the resource starbases needs to be bumped up 25-50%, as even when I've got one in the heart of my empire with Abundant Everything, I'm lucky if I've got better than a Class 10 planet within range.

I think that was referencing the resource starbases

No, this thread originated as referencing the "range of affect" of star base upgrades other than for galactic resources. A star base built on a galactic resource, and the star base upgrade modules for "mining" those galactic resources (such as "mining baracks") apply empire wide. Star base upgrade modules that give planetary production assistance (such as "Phase 1 factory"), ship assistance, (such as "micro fighters", "inverse tractor beam", or "basic trading post"), or cultural impact (such as Foreign Relations Center") all are limited to the "range of affect" of the star base (although I think the influence generated by the cultural impact upgrades may have some diminishing affect as you move away from the star base's "range of affect" like it did in GC1).

In short, you can think of a star base's "range of affect" as being similar but better than how a star base in GC1 had a "range of affect" limited to a sector. Since GC2 no longer has the "hard" sector boundaries that GC1 had we get what appears to be a more realistic affect out of our star base upgrades.

Well, I did some more testing, and I know know that the resources are global, but at least the military resource doesn't work quite the way it did in GC1. It seems that the bonus a ship gets is fixed at the time the ship is completed. Because of this, my earlier tests that I thought confirmed the limited effect were invalid.

So, to quote Gilda Radner, "Nevermind."

The starbase becomes mobile, and it can attack (and destroy) a star system the same way you would attack a ship.