As discussion continues on this topic you may wish to review Brad's clarification of where the zones of control extend in his reply #26 in the thread about the "Meaning of Boarders". Clearly he is saying that the colored areas on the minimap are showing Zones of Influence, not Zones of Control and that the other civilizations are trying to claim they have political control of those zones of influence as well. It has also been stated (in the support documentation) for the original release of GC2 that territorial boundaries do NOT extend beyond the tile in which an occupied planet exists. This allows for a lot of negotiation between races as to where boundaries are placed, but not on whether or not those boundaries can be violated. And don't forget that one form of negotiation is military might.

Within this context, the only restrictions the game itself should put on the placement of starbases or the movement of ships is the range available to those ships or the constructors that create the starbases. It has been apparent since the initial creation of CalCiv for OS2 that this was the intent, and that it is meant to add to the fun of the game. While someone new to the game may find this frustrating,, with time they will also find this characteristic of the game engaging.

From Gaunathor's reply#23  ref. Quoting Schaefespeare,

Why would you do that? From mid-game on, starbase defences in GalCiv 2 were a complete waste of resources. You're better off sending a fleet of warships, if you absolutely have to protect that starbase.

1.  You do that because building a fleet of warships to protect a starbase  unnecessarily hikes up your fleet maintenance costs permanently, rather than just temporarily while your Constructor travels to the Starbase to be consumed by the starbase upgrade.

2.  And no I wasn't thinking of any other game but trying to remember that, without a starport on your newly colonized planet, your range of travel wasn't extended until you had built your starport.  your newly colonized planet was more than likely to be on the edge of the range of travel from your last starport or starbase and stayed that way until you'd built a starport on the newly colonized planet or had done so on an adjacent planet you'd colonized at the same expansion phase.  I did become slightly confused about the reason you had to build a starport on the planet when you just don't have the production capacity on the newly colonized planet to build starships there, but that is it - you needed it to extend your travel range to colonize or conquer the next group of planets still further away from your homeworld.  You could also achieve this by researching down the tech-tree along the branch that enhanced the appropriate support module but building the starport was pretty much always quicker.

So unless GC3 comes with starships having an unlimited travel range, no need for range-increasing modules etc., then you are still going to need to build the new-fangled Starports at least every other planetary system you colonize.  Especially when you use huge and immense Game Maps like I do.

You need 19+ constructors to adequately defend one of your starbases. For the early-game those defences will be pretty good. In the mid-game, however, this changes. The starbase will have a tough time surviving against a couple mid-game fleets, because it can only destroy one enemy ship per combat turn. A fleet, on the other hand, may cost more maintenance, but it doesn't have the combat-limitations of a starbase. Even if the fleet gets destroyed, it should be easier to replace than the starbase.

That's not the case at all. The range of your ships expands as soon as you colonise the planet. As I said in my last post, the only purpose of the starport in GalCiv 2 is to enable you to build ships on a planet. Nothing else.

Gaunathor [reply#30] : it wasn't until the "Twilight" expansion that the starport-range mechanic was scrapped, it was definitely there in "Dread Lords".  It was also in "Dread Lords" that Starbases were weak.  In "Twilight" once you'd completed the tech-tree branches for Weapons and for Defense, then you had some quite powerful weaponry to defend your starbase although the Constructor cost was high.

Sorry, can't resist trying to have the last word on this, although I know you'll still tell me I'm wrong.

However to get back on-topic, I would like the *Influence* sub-system scrapped and replaced with a souped-up Trading sub-system so that you would have a trading  victory.  Sorry I'm repeating myself from other threads.