Starbase help please

[Gamesmaster]

Do starbases only affect a planet inside their sphere of influence?.

I'm thinking like an Influence starbase, can you place one solely to spread your influence in a region in which you have no planets, for purposes of moving your ships further for example or building military starbases outside an alien planet to assist in opening that can of whoopa$$ on the drengin.

Also, when building starbases on resources, does the resource have to be in range of one of your planets for it to be useful or can you make use of it where ever it is.


I appreciate any help you can give.

Steve

[Gufnork]

Resource starbases affect your entire civilization, so it doesn't matter where it's located. Other starbases only affect planets or ships within it's radius. Your influence doesn't have any effect on how far your ships can travel. Think of your range as circles around every planet and starbase you control with a radius based on the ships range. So if you build a starbase on the other side of the galaxy, there will be a circle to in which your ships can travel freely, even if you have no influence there whatsoever. Thus, you can use any type of starbase to increase your range, I recommend military starbases for that purpose.

[bovine cannibal]

I'm not certain as to extent of the effect, but I'm sure it exists.

I've seen influence starbases AND military starbases with no modules, that when destroyed, altered the culture boundaries.

I suspect that influence starbases are more effective at this, but in the original GalCiv, a starbase without modules might not increase your total influence, but it would increase the range of your influence. I've built influence starbases next to enemy planets (galciv2), and the borders shifted even without modules, though it wasn't enough unenhanced to cause revolt.

Military starbases don't really affect planets at all, as far as I'm aware. They only affect ships in their area. I don't know if they affect orbiting fleets, but I suspect they do.

Sometimes I build a strong military. Other times, I take the Starbase Fortification and Defense route and swarm tiny/small ships. Because assists are per ship w/weapons/defense, the fleet gets cumulatively more impressive. I do this both on offense and defense. Obviously, a denser empire benefits from this more than one that spans half the map.

Economic starbases have two main routes. There's the production branch, which only affects planets, and there's the trade branch, which affects freighters. Since trade income is greater the further the away the freighter is from its home planet, it may be useful to build an economic starbase deep in friendly territory. I tend to build them around my economic capital, where all my trade routes meet, however.

When building starbases on resources, mining facilities provide an empire wide bonus. Any odd facilities such as sensor modules are still only radius eight, however. If I have enough of a colonization lead, I often build Starbases deep in potentially hostile territory. Until I actually go to war, they're at no risk and are benefitting my empire. If they are providing dramatic benefits, I really focus on building up their defenses so I don't have to worry about them in case of a war.

[bovine cannibal]

I think starbase assists DO NOT affect other starbases, however. Their bonuses are cumulative, as far as I know.

[Gamesmaster]

Thank you both very much, this has helped me alot.

[Kinjiru]

If you click on a starbase, on the main map you will see a circular area 'light up'. This is the sphere on infuence of that starbase.

[ben_sphynx]

I've noted from my current game that military starbases do NOT appear to affect your ships in orbit around your planets; such ships get their bonuses from the planet instead, which tends to be a lot less than a well equipped military starbase.

I'm realy impressed at how much a military starbase does for your ships nearby; the bonuses it gives are not % bonuses as I had initially expected, but addative bonuses.

For example, if you have two modules giving +1 and +2 beam attack, a ship with normally no beams and 1 mass driver, suddenly gains +3 beam attack within range of the starbase.
Similarly for the defences; there is a module that gives +1 to each defence, and then ones that give +3 to specific defences - these combine well to give +4 to each defence (important defensive values for off type defences are 1, 4, 9, 16, 25 etc).


It seems to be quite an effective tactic to store up a big fleet of constructors while at peace, then, when you have fleets in place, create a huge military starbase in enemy teritory, then attack with your fleets; even small ships kick ass when provided with +4 to each defence, and multiple attack bonuses.

[Gufnork]

Small ships kicks even more ass than big in that scenario, since you can pack more of them into a fleet. I'm quite sure you're better off just building better ships instead of all those constructors, though.

[bovine cannibal]

When I have a solid infrastructure, but pathetic research abilities, I often focus on the Starbase Defense/Mobilization. And there is a huge advantage to a contructor fleet. No maintenance. Back em up with puny fighters (little mainenance). In actual war time, I stop producing the constructors, but in peace I focus on them. I like to have a strong core fleet, and lots of pathetic fighters. This is on a small map, though, where there isn't much of a high tech endgame, let alone large hulls.

If anything, I tend to have an excess of constructor ships. If I get distracted and forget to keep up on my progress, I may have twenty constructors at a rally point. Nice thing is, thats a lot cheaper to maintain than twenty medium-hulled warships.

[Gufnork]

On small maps it might be feasable, since you don't require that many starbases to cover the entire territory. On larger maps mobility is much more important.

[bovine cannibal]

However, starbases do have speed modules. I mostly missed them in my small map, but there's at least three I can find in a quick scan of the Galactopedia. I found one that slows down the enemy and two that speed them up. It may certainly be impractical, I think it would be great fun to have three -1 enemy speed starbases around my homeworld or the enemies. (And while it may be abusive, I think I might mod in a few more modifing modules.) I've just found out about these because of my switch to medium maps.

So you know, the majority of military modules are located along the Starbase Defense and Fortification paths. However, some are unlocked by other techs, such as key weapon or engine and sensor technologies. One branch alone can add about 20 total mass assist. Load it up with other assists, and that's one mighty core Defender.

I first focused on starbases because the AI out colonized me, and it was an effective strategy. A great thing about the military path are the constructors are cheaper than GC1, and a lot of the assist modules are free (as compared to buying nearly every single culture module), even without being evil.

[Kekkonen]

Originally posted by ben_sphynx
Similarly for the defences; there is a module that gives +1 to each defence, and then ones that give +3 to specific defences - these combine well to give +4 to each defence (important defensive values for off type defences are 1, 4, 9, 16, 25 etc).

I think you need to have some sort of defense on your ship in order to get the bonuses though. A ship with no armor, shields, or point defense doesn't seem to get any defensive bonuses.

[tetley]

I have never used military starbases. The bonuses are fine and wonderful, but--how do you put them to good use? Do you send 4 constructors along with your invasion fleet?

[bonscott]

Originally posted by Kekkonen


I think you need to have some sort of defense on your ship in order to get the bonuses though. A ship with no armor, shields, or point defense doesn't seem to get any defensive bonuses.

That is correct. That is why I try to have my ships with at least 1 point of defense on something or make sure I have one ship of that type and make sure each fleet has at least one of them in it.

[bonscott]

Originally posted by tetley
I have never used military starbases. The bonuses are fine and wonderful, but--how do you put them to good use? Do you send 4 constructors along with your invasion fleet?

I'll give you a couple examples of how I use them in every game I've had.

I'll typicaly try to build one in the center of my core worlds to provide a great defense boost and counter attack capability if I'm attacked or someone gets through my outter defenses.

I build them on my borders. In my current game I had the Altarians right next to me and they were hostile. I build up a military starbase right on the border. It's range included 3 of the 4 Altarian planets as well as 1 of my border worlds. Once we went to war I was able to slaughter their fleets and cut through their planetary defenses on those 3 worlds. I had a much tougher time on that 4th that was outside the range.

Once the Altarians were knocked out of the game I destroyed that starbase as I no longer needed it. Now I have the Yor to my "north" and the Arceans to the east. I have built up an influencer and military starbase along the Arcean border (they like me, but just in case) and 2 military starbases along the Yor border which just about covers the main corridor they might use to attack (or anyone else going through their territory). I have posted mega sensor ships along any gaps so I'll be forwarned if they attempt to go around them.

It's harder to do in combat conditions but you could have say 4-6 constructors build a military starbase immediately and upgrade it up but it won't be quite as effective since you'll use probably 3-4 just to get the starbase built up enough to defend itself before you'd get to the assist modules. But it's a good premptive strike to quickly build one up say on the Drengin border, making sure as many of their planets fall in range and then declare war once it's built up enough to be effective and defend itself.