Agreed. Starbases in GalCiv2 are interesting as a concept, and I certainly don't hate them, but I admittedly wasn't wild about the way they were implemented. 

I personally would prefer they get rid of mining starbases and make ordinary SB's more powerful/useful. Having strategic resourses pop up in the middle of empty space didn't really make much sense and the AI was generally rubbish at defending and weaponising them anyway which tended to swing things firmly in the players' favour. Also, building loads of contructors became tiresome. Starbases definately need changing somehow.

Only way they need changing is more modules

If they change the upgrade-mechanic, and remove the module-limit of the AI, then I agree to more modules. Otherwise, this will only lead to more micro, and makes it even harder for the AI to upgrade it's starbases.

Also, those modules need to be useful and fun to use (provide some sort of challenge or trade-off). A couple hundred modules with +1 modifiers isn't something I would call fun to use, even though they might be useful.

The keyword is "interesting". Micro for micro's sake isn't interesting, only tedious.

Star bases were a pain in the ass to construct and upgrade because it took so much time and resources for them to have any worthy abilities. By mid game they blow up and you have to do the whole process all over again only to discover that no matter how hard you try, that star bases is shit compared to fleets of customizable ships. It was so degrading to put so much effort in getting the modules in the star bases and see them pop like balloons because you couldn't get the tech to keep up with ship R&D.

The research required to keep the stations defense high enough to even defend itself would cost hundreds of tech points that could of been better spent on epic spaceship components, the cost is similar to having a black hole gun in the mass driver field.

The only thing about starbases I didn't like in GC2 was how expensive they suddenly became in GC2. When people kept asking for them during the GC1 test cycle, I didn't want them at all. Now I think they became a great well done feature.

The GC2 system worked well enough:

- It needed a build-queue, just like a planet.  So you could just point your constructors at it as a "rally point" and have it work automatically until you finished out the build-queue.

- Starbase tech didn't keep up with ship advances.  A starbase (in my mind) should be competitive with even the largest ship hulls if you invest the constructors into upgrading it.  In my mind, a military starbase should be able to fend off multiple of the largest ships.

- Maybe we need multiple sizes of starbases that have to be researched.  So that late-game starbases match up with the late-game ship sizes.

- Constructors being vulnerable to attack during movement to the starbase was a good feature.

- Starbases need a better UI where you can decommission unwanted elements in order to make room for new elements.  (I view starbases as being "mini" planets with special buildings.)

Starbases have always played an important role in my strategy but I would like them to be more flexible. I recall asking back in the Dark Avatar days why they couldn't be more like ships - upgradeable as you research better miniaturization, weapons and defensive tech. I also believe starbases should be generic - their purpose determined by the modules the player chooses to install. I don't want invulnerable starbases but believe they should automatically be part of any defending fleet, combining their offensive and defensive capability with the fleet for tactical combat. Another option might be starbase clusters where several bases in the same region can combine their strength if attacked. I agree that the proper way to deal with micromanagement is build queues and rally points - these things should be expensive, high value targets and figuring out the best way to deploy and defend them is one of the strategic choices a player needs to make. 

Here's a vote for the minority.  Constructors swarming slowly across immense galaxies.   Constructors dying in masses during wars.  Starbases taken and rebuilt.  Love it all.

I'll add a conditional vote for the minority as well. Starbases will be significantly less valuable without the capability of building them quickly, which is what most of the alternative schemes lack. If I blow up a Torian starbase on an economic resource, I want that stack of constructors to build it from nothing to full production immediately, not 20 turns from now. Slow build would suck.

If there's a better way to implement that sort of system, I'll support that. Even a hybrid system where the functional part (mining modules, ship support modules, influence modules, etc.) can be crash built while the weapons and defenses could be slow built from a nearby planet would be acceptable - with of course player control as to the balance between the two. If I only have one constructor nearby, I could start the base and slow build the entire thing, or if I have excess constructors I could crash build the functional bits and as much defenses as I have constructors for.

If you don't want to wait long, why not reduce the amount of time it takes for it to get to the final stages, or cut out stage 3 entirely according this model.

Or maybe we should just give this model up and leave the star base system the way it is, I am just hearing what others have to say, really it wouldn't kill you to have like 3 extra constructors up in the 4 weeks given to you to instantly complete it. That is if you want to remove the time parameter... it is just more realistic to include a construction time, if you don't care about realism, then you can suggest to remove the time parameter and just get 4 constructors to instantly pop in a star base.

mind you it would be cake to just to choose the old star base types in the old game. The blueprint could be optional as well.

looks like my method of post broke... oh well...