Please, someone think about the poor starbase crews!

from Stardock Forums
Those poor, poor starbase crews. While the crews in the spiffy new battleships and dreadnoughts, and heck even in the lowly starfighter, sit secure in the knowledge that every new military resource, ever little increase in attack or defense technology will make them that much safer, the poor, poor defenseless starbase lackey know that all of his modules, the core of his defense, will never improve.

Please, think about the poor starbase lackeys. His modules should get the same additions to their factors as ships do.

Maybe this has changed in 1.03? Maybe I'm on crack. Maybe it works this way now. But it sure doesn't seem like it!
1,266 views 36 replies
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
They knew the score when they joined up (or were drafted). Tough cookies for them! LOL
Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
Yeah. And what if they have to like, use the bathroom? You can't just pull over to the side of the Galaxy like a Ranger can.

I hope they have enough empty soda bottles laying around...

DblDamage
Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top
The Starbase guys get defense upgrades...very significant ones at that.


~SDC~
Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top
Don't forget they get to do all kinds of other stuff.... mining, although from the modules, looks like all that's handled by robots which leaves the humans to.... do all the other stuff available... they got shopping, a giant water park and once the palice gets built get to party big style! Then they get to actually turn the starbase into a moving one and take the party to other cultures!

They also get to take turns pretending to be Peter Cushing ("You may fire when ready") or Darth, and actually get to enact the Battle of Yavin scene!

You feel sorry for these guys? Hmmmmm, Hell I'm jealous of them!

On a side note, starbases do improve, they get experience just like normal ships. In fact, I think the whole thing is just the opposite of what you said, the starbase can be improved (with loads of micromanagement, please devs fix us up a solution) but ships once built don't really.

~SDC~
Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top
What I meant to say was that star base defence modules do not seem to gain bonus from your +defence and +offense. This means that as time goes on these modules become less and less effective compared to ships.

In a galaxy with a good number of military resources the starbases can be beaten by pretty small ships, even when fully loaded with defence modules.

I'm just asking that maybe starbase modules should be affected by the normal upgrade process that affects all ships in the game.
Reply #9 from Stardock Forums Top
I think they should also get the bonus from the +Attack modules. Here's what its like now:

Lieutenant: "Sir, hostile Yor Battleships inbound."
Starbase Commander: "Very well. Raise shields."
Lt.: "Shall I prep the Dread drones and Fusion cannons?"
SC: "No, I'm confident the shields will destroy them."
Lt.: "Sir, I'm not one to question your orders, but isn't this suicide?"
SC: "No Lieutenant. We are to save the weapons for a real emergency."
Reply #10 from Stardock Forums Top
Actually, there are odd cases where they actually are better off letting the enemy smash themselves against their shield.

If you do the math on a Star Fighter with no improvements (2 attack, 1 deffense) against a Starbase with 6 defense (and therefore 3 attack by the defending rule) and you work out the math, the starbase would actually kill the star fighter faster if it forwent it's attack phase and just let the star fighter attack again.

I think there are a few more cases as work up the tech tree, and i wonder if the starbases (or any defense heavy ships) are foolishy wandering out of their fortifications to counter-attack when they would be better served by staying on the defensive.
Reply #11 from Stardock Forums Top
Since I'm pretty much playing evil from now on, I consider all of my people as fodder for my own amusement. Sometimes I just blow up starships to amuse myself. They should be honored to die for me.

~SDC~
Reply #12 from Stardock Forums Top
I tought starbase defense was pretty weak, too - until I first researched Avatar/Overlord Killer modules. :)
What I would like to see added is an "armor" module that
would increase the hitpoints of a starbase.
But maybe I just have not researched it yet. I always win by culture before I get to research to the end of the tech tree.
Reply #13 from Stardock Forums Top
(sigh) John, John, John,

You got quite a "We who are about to die salute you." kinda thing going on there ?

But then again, thinking better of it, they might gather in large groups and plan their coup.

At least that would be my choice. ;)


Elrikk ( I'm Sparticus! ) No! I'm Sparticus. No I'm . . .



~SDC~
Reply #14 from Stardock Forums Top
Daetrinn, the defending rule applies only during the starbase's attack phase. On its defense phase, it does nothing to attacker if it rolls a higher defense. And if you're going to put +Attack modules on a starbase, you might as well put on Defense modules to protect your investment.
Reply #15 from Stardock Forums Top
I don't think the starbases should get the +attack bonuses. They don't actually have any attack to start with, but they should get the benefits of the +defense ability percentages. I don't really know fully how the combat's worked out, like the defending rule, and how it applies to starbases.

There is no +hp module for a starbase. I prefer to win by tech victory, so have seen the ending and the end of the tech tree quite often, and know there isn't one.
Reply #16 from Stardock Forums Top
BUMP.

I just checked in a save game, just to make sure and I was correct, starbase defence modules do NOT get the civilization's defence modifier.

This really makes starbases pretty weak.

Sure a starbase with Basic Defense, Advanced Defense, Advanced Shielding, Barriers, Deflector Shields sounds pretty intimidating. It has a defence of 3 + 10. Compared to a battleship's attack of 9 that's sounds like a good deal.

However throw in the technological additions from the period and maybe a military resource and you have a good +100 to attack and +100 to defence.

That makes the attack on the battleship 18 and the defence on the starbase 6 + 10. Ouch. That does not sound so good. And don't even get me started on Dreadnoughts they are going to totally wack the starbase.

Heck, let's looks at a fully loaded starbase at the time when you have avatars, at 1st it looks way better than the battleship phase.

The avatar has an attack of 14 and a defence of 9. The starbase has a defence of 3 + 21. Wow. Looks like the starbase is going to crush the avatar. But by the time you have avatars you probably have somewhere in the region of 150% attack and 150% defence (probably more on a larger map, but we will err on the side of caution).

That means it's now 28/18 for the avatar, and 12/24 for the starbase. Uhoh. Looks like the starbase is going to get eaten.

Now looking at the numbers I can see that if the defence values for the modules remained the same and the civ's defence value were added in, the starbases would become very strong indeed. Perhaps too strong. So perhaps the numbers have to be modified. I don't know. But the current system is a little imbalanced in that it does not scale correctly wrt. technologies/resources and something should be done.
Reply #17 from Stardock Forums Top
I'd say that early in the game, the starbase's defense will take care of most attackers. Later on, when the real heavy-hitters appear, I'd send my own heavy-hitters to defend the base... backed with various military modules (like all the Battlestations, speed+, enemy speed-, etc.).


~SDC~
Reply #18 from Stardock Forums Top
Nicolas Bossy:

That's not the way i understood combat to work. If the attack rolls a low attack and the defender rolls a high defense, the _attacker_ takes damage.

Anyone know for sure that can clear this up? The manual doesn't seem to be very clear. I got my impression from "The difference between the two is then subtracted from the number of hit points." but it doesn't explicitly say what happens in the case where the result is a negative number.
Reply #19 from Stardock Forums Top
what bothers me is when you put your ships around the SB and click guard they just sit there when an nme comes in and goes around the guarding ships and heads straigt to the SB and crushes it. i think the guarding ships should wake up and intercept the bugger...
Reply #21 from Stardock Forums Top
Yes, but if it's during the enemy movement phase you might not get a chance.

I put the ships on top of the SB.

~SDC~
Reply #22 from Stardock Forums Top
Uhm, the problem is that you have to go so crazy stacking ships on starbases.

You pay a lot for all of those modules that you are stacking on the starbase. They should do something. They DO do something early on when you have a very small +defence and +offense.

The problem is later in the game when the offense and defence modifiers are quite large and those modifiers are not applied to the starbase modules.

Jeeeze. I guess I'm not being clear.
Reply #23 from Stardock Forums Top
#18:

The defence rating does not relate to the amount of damage it inflicts. You can verify this by checking the source code for the combat simulator.

There is no "negative" damage inflicted, nor does a negative damage roll inflict damage on the attacker.



Reply #24 from Stardock Forums Top
New Recruit after Starbase Sensor upgrade.
UUhh!Captain the red thingies moving toward the green thingies.(I loved Galaxy Quest.)