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.

I have no issue with physical placement being relatively - if not totally - unencumbered.  I do believe the having benefits in some typical cases (nearby to friendly planets or contiguous influence regions) and penalties in others (near hostile planets, middle of nowhere) would add a welcome element of strategy - as long as it can be done without the same kind of mid-game worker-hell that Civ experiences - or that GalCiv experiences with constructor ships.

And then the ultimate question is: can the AI and "invisible economy" aspects of the game be implemented adequately?

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.

In fact, I would support if planets could be split between several empires, perhaps as a result of invasion, purchase, or insurrection. Citizen races, cultures, and citizenships could play a part in this; if citizen citizenship goes above 66% for a given foreign empire on a tile of a planet, a referendum may be held to transfer the tile to the empire. Success rate of referendums will be (% of citizenship - 66%). So with 75% citizenship of a given foreign empire, there is a 9% chance that a referendum would result in a transfer.

Planetary invasion should also become a tile-by-tile affair, rather than a clicking of a few buttons.

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.

IDC about really. Nations have bases and stuff in there allies territory in strategic areas for security, this adds realism and would look cool. IMHO.

DARCA.

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.

No, there was no such mechanic in DL. Nor was it in DA. If you don't want to believe me, then start up the game and see for yourself.

The Starbase Fortification techs and the modules unlocked by finishing the Weapons and Defense branches were already in DL and DA. The only new starbase defences in TotA are the Singularity Armor from the Thalan, and the Annihilator and Shredder modules from the Korx. The former is exclusive to the Thalan, while the latter two can be bought from the Korx (should they decide to research the necessary techs). This means, that the Thalan could have quite powerful starbases, if they also manage to get access to the Starbase Fortification techs. However, any concentrated attack would still destroy the starbase, unless the Thalan also had several maxed out military mining starbases.

The amount of constructors and techs required to achieve such defences still makes this completely unfeasible. Hull techs up to Massive Scale Building, completing all Weapons and Defense techs (except for Shields, which only requires Advanced Force Fields), all three Starbase Fortification techs, Hyperion Starbases (Thalan), and Starbase Victory Strategy and Starbase Supremacy (Korx). That's a total of 31 constructors just to add all the defences to one starbase. Seriously, if you have researched all those techs, why aren't you using the production required to build all the constructors to build warships instead?

I usually wouldn't have bothered with this whole argument, but I just can't stand it when people makes unsubstantiated claims. Especially when it's so easy to verify, if what was said is actually true.