In my current game, I'm the Iridium, with the Altarians right next to me. In the very early game I sent two unfleeted fighters into Altarian space and destroyed their starbase. I've parked the two fighters next to each of their worlds in their home system. Every few turns they build a new starbase, and in the same turn I destroy it with one of my fighters. Because of this, I have completely crippled their civilization, they can't do anything. They can't build a single ship to explore, to colonize or to fight. This seems pretty gamebreaking to me.
I have two suggestions for starports:
1. Make them immobile. Think well about where you want to build them, and then leave them be, like starbases. It really makes no sense that they can move one space per turn anyway. That's hyperdrive speed. That's one parsec (or 3.26 lightyears) in one week. They shouldn't be whipping around the galaxy like ships.
2. When built, they should have level one weapons in all categories, and level one defense in all categories, and plenty of hit points. This would protect them well against early game attacks, they really should be a force to be reckoned with. This wouldn't make them too powerful, because they wouldn't be able to move and attack, the weapons are defensive only.
Something needs to change though, a couple of very low end fighters shouldn't be able to cripple an entire empire.
Thanks.