You can't create a fleet with a starbase. It's generally better to move the fleet out to intercept the enemy, anyway.

Troop transports -should- be blocked if you have at least one combat ship in orbit of the planet.

Try leaving the ship on the starbase in sentry mode, that way it'll wake up when a ship gets in sensor range.

Are you joking? Military starbases can give huge bonuses if you research the right techs to both defense and attack. A couple starbases can turn garbage units into powerful ones.

Right but they gives bonuses to ship in orbit of planets in their arae of effect and military starbases can even make a star fury (the basic beam weapon fighter) a deadly opponent if you know what to do, you can add that starbases can be turned into killing machines if you research all tech needed to do so.

For myself, I find starbases one of the only areas of the game that I just don't like and would like to see reworked. I think the defensive measures starbases took in MOO2 in terms of planetary and ship protection were much superior even though more simplistic. Unfortunately, if the GalCiv II starbases reacted like those in MOO2 they would be massively unbalancing unless the module system was completely retuned. On lower AI settings I've done exactly what someone else in this thread suggested with great success. I just moved around opponent's bases and attacked outside of their bonus range. Still working my way up through the difficulty levels, so I'm not sure how the AI changes its starbase 'philosophy' at higher levels.

But it doesnt defend your planets like Starbases in MOO2 did, so invading fleets can fly around them to invade your planet

Military starbases improve the attack and defense values of all fighting ships in its area of effect (which can be see by clicking on it) this means fighting an enemy fleet anywhere in this area gives your fleet a massive advantage (multiple military starbases will even stack their bonuses).

So this means you can use them for offense as well as defending around your systems.

Attack radius of one would be an interesting addition. Since starbases have to be 3 spaces away from each other, there would still be some room to navigate. The AI probably can't deal with it though.

And if you can only toss constructors onto a planet for defense... that would also be nice.


then i did some rough estimate, it might not be broken for a military base to be in orbit.

The defense bonus it gives your ships is small reward for building all those constructors to build up a powerful starbase that cant be used to defend your planets

I don't see why people complain about the lack of planetary defense structures like MoO2. That's what ships are for. Like someone else said, the starbase can boost ships in orbit.

Just because starbase doesn't defend a planet like MoO2 does not mean there is nothing similar to it. You can do just as well by building ships to fulfill the role that starbases and missile base had in MoO2.

A core constructor cost 144 bc to build.

1 constructor: 32 hp 0/0/0
144 bc (to build)

2 constructor 32 hp 1/1/1
288 bc (to build)
200 bc additional


now with tiny hull
you can fit one ship with a particle beam for cost of 60 bc
for 60 bc, you will have a ship with 1 damage and 6 hp
build four of them and you will have 4 ships with 24 hp and 4 attacks.



Granted, without orbital fleet manager, the ships would be sitting ducks.
But if you were going to spend a tile building missile defense, you might as well build orbital fleet manager instead.

I'm sure someone else can try to do all the math and see which one is more beneficial on the long run, ships might not be a way to go.

So.. I would say that instead of wanting starbases to work just like MoO2, try to incorporate the elements already available in gc2 to find a replacement for it.

Can you explain fleet manager? You need one for every planet, so what does it do?

The fleet manager allows the ships in orbit to act like a fleet. If you don't have one, then the enemy can come in and destroy the ships in order one-by-one, instead of fighting them together in a fleet. If you don't plan on defending a planet that well, then you don't really need one.

Starbases fighting in their area is a really cool idea, but it'd probably have substantial balance ramifications - and what happens if you litter an area with Starbases? Do they all fight? Impossible nut to crack?

I think you guys are on to something here. I think perhaps the option to build an orbiting base on the planet that would go into fleet battle mode with the attacker would be nice.

I'd like to be able to build a defensive base that would intercept attackers and free up my fleet for maneuvers. Think about it like this, a planet has trillions of times more area than a ship yet can't put guns or missiles on the ground to defend itself? I think to take them out you'd need some bombs like in MOO2 or guided missiles.

At least be able to build a military base "in orbit" around the planet to defend it. I think this would satisfy the need for better static defenses.

I would like to be able to merge at least a few ships with my bases to help defend them at crucial times. My fleet is right on the base, would they just sit there and watch the enemy destroy it? They would help defend it. You can lower the logistics so that only a few ships can help defend but at least some defenders would be appropriate. You don't have to lower the logistics actually, just assign a value to a base of certain magnitudes or levels. A wimpy base could be 4, a more powerful one 6, 8, 10, etc.

The base should be easier to hit since it's large and stationary so perhaps lower the defenses, increase the HP, but allow ships to defend it. This would allow you to make strategic maneuvers to lure the enemy away from the base with one force and attack it and destroy it with another. I like this better than uber bases that can't be defended.

whats the point of a military starbase when you can build influence and economic and mining starbases with all the same ship bonuses

As has been said: some of the modules for military starbases provide offensive and defensive bonuses combat vessels within their area of effect. No other starbases can do that. When you have crappy ships and an angry AI to deal with, this becomes very, very useful indeed.

I see all those offensive/defensive modules available on economy/influence/mining bases as well

Do the starbases AFFECT your ships or add it own weapons to the fight? For example, all your ships have lasers and you build a Rail gun module on the starbase, does the rail gun module become useless or does it add Railguns to the fight?