Question about starbases.

the Vasari starbase can move about it's gravity well. The Advent and TEC SBs are completely stationary.

The reason the Vasari SB can move is because the Vasari don't get anti-structure cruisers. That's what their SB does.

The TEC SB has the 'BIG RED BUTTON OF DOOM', which when fully upgrading the ability, lets you kill an entire enemy fleet in the proximity of the SB.

The Advent has Meteriod Control and Mass Disorientation. The 2nd makes enemy ships spin uselessly, the 1st will destroy an enemy fleet with meteorites.

And no, SBs cannot phase jump.

Well you could mod it to make it jumapble

I suggest you bought the Entrenchment.

It does not add a heap of features, but the few are seriously game changing.
Starbases and all new research options really gave some sense to tactical structures. Before, tactical structures were only useful as a support for the fleet. Now, a starbase with tactical structures supporting it can really stop a huge fleet in its tracks, even without a fleet on their own.

Entrenchment is well worth the $10.

That cannot be said about some other products around, like Tales of Valor (if you already have COH and OF, ToV is worth about $5 to you and yet you have to pay $40 because it is a big standalone game that includes almost the whole COH and OF)

TBH, I personally find the fighter movement alone justifies buying it

I remember when i first bought the Sins of a solar empire at Wal-Mart. I played it and was like, "Man, Defense on my planets sucks. The only thing i don't like after playing it two days is that i can't better defend a planet. :("

Then i got on the website and voila! Entrenchment. if placed correctly, many of the defences can slow down the largest fleets, and completely stop a big fleet. It's wonderful. Granted, that's only against AI. Human players are smarter, and sometimes find there way around your defences. So, be smart.

If you plan to play the game in online multiplayer (highly recommended) then you'll definitely want to get Entrenchment since that's where most of the action is along with the 4v4's and 5v5's  Online multiplayer offers you the opportunity to enjoy more challenging, intense, and suspenseful games in addition to having real teammates that you're actually concerned about as well as camraderie.  You'll also quickly discover that the AI isn't a very challenging opponent and that it can't make sound strategic decisions compared to what human opponents and teammates can do.  (In other words, in single player your opponents don't behave the way real opponents would.)  It's also possible to play humans v. AI games called comp stomps which might be a lot more fun than playing alone, especially when combined with something like voice comm and/or real-world friends.

However, if you plan to play it in single player exclusively then you do have other options for expanding your game besides getting Entrenchment.  In fact, there are some mods that might not run under Entrenchment (and even the most up-to-date version of regular Sins).  I'm not real familiar with the mods, but I do know that one of them is supposed to be excellent and that it adds new planet types and more races to the game (the Seven Deadly Sins mod).

Fighter movement ROCKS!

And Teal made a mod that turned SB's into cap ships. Ergo, jumpable.

From the tone of your question you may be thinking " if starbases are glorified turrets, why would I wanna spend 10 bucks for that?"

Truth is they are much much more. Each have a vast array of upgradable abilities based on thier factions relative strengths, and the nice thing is that all of them can be upgraded to prevent whatever planet theyre protecting from being destroyed by siege frigates, capital ship and novalith cannons, forcing your opponent to destroy the base to take the planet. and they can all be upgraded to take on huge fleets by themselves.

TEC: Can upgrade for big trade bonuses, frigate production, self-destruct (big red button)

Advent: Can upgrade for super culture strength, fleet immobilization and devastating meteor storms

Vasari: Can upgrade for 100% damage reduction from the front, rapid regeneration and increased damage to structures (including other starbases)

Another nice addition to entrenchment are mines. Theyre a bit expensive, but when well placed, they can do some serious damage to enemy fleets attempting to bypass your defenses

Put it this way, I downloaded Entrenchment, now i wont play Vanilla AT ALL. Not even for a mod or nostalgia or the old maps or anything.

Entrenchment just takes all the old and makes it better, there is hardly any reason to play Vanilla anymore

'nuff said

Could anyone please explain a bit more about this "fighter movement"? Abother question as well, are you able to build more than one starbase?

you can only build 1 starbase in a grav well.  stars can have up to 4 starbases.

to my understanding, fighter movement is a mod feature that makes ships in the fleet move in a similar way to strike craft.  if im wrong im sure a modder will correct me.

edit: and i definately recommend entrenchment.  like a poster above, my wife and i never play the original game now, only entrenchment.  between mines, starbases, and the other defense enhancements, it is a great improvement on the already great game.

DauntlessAnsible, you nailed fighter movement. While it's not enabled by default, setting the line value as 'TRUE' instead of 'FALSE' will make ships fly around like their fighters.

I think that that would actually be a good way to improve the Light Frigates over LRFs, as the LRFs wouldn't have it on, while LFs would.