mineral rights

Just like a colonization Rush, there is a minerals rush.  Not much you can peacefully do about it.

its not a big undertaking at all.  But I think this is one of the things the devs want, to cause 'tension'.  Paul did state in a dev diary they are considering that star bases can be flipped, like planets.  imo, if you can flip a planet, you should be able to flip a staRbase.  I suppose the question the devs are trying to answer, is how much culture defense it should Have.

I get the whole "rush" phase.  It was like that back in GalCiv 2.  My point is that I would like a peaceful way of dealing with it.  It seems strange to me that the neighboring race, that loves me, would steal my durantium.  Some AI tweaking could fix this.

Culture flipping a starbase may be a viable way of peacefully dealing with obnoxious neighbors.  But it doesn't take care of an AI stealing a relic from a mining starbase before the relic addon can be installed.

Well while I personally hate it when this happens to me I like the whole resource rush element.  However I do believe taking anything that is already in the influence area of another race should carry HUGE diplomatic penalties.  The AI should naturally shy away from doing so except when the value of the item they want outweighs the potential consequences. There are far too few things that really piss off the AI unlike most 4x games.

I will admit, I don't like the lack of 'boundary' respect that goes on re the positioning of SBs - by Human or AI.  Yes, I know; there are no hard boundaries as such but the problem is that there aren't any 'soft' boundaries either, i.e., a figurative boundary that when crossed has a negative impact upon another aspect of the game.  Allowing SBs to be flipped goes some way to establishing a boundary of sorts but there should also be a diplomatic function so that one's displeasure can be expressed and, more importantly, be leveraged.

Me too, a real love/hate thing going on.  I don't want it prevented nor do i like the idea of automatically applying diplomatic penalties right off the bat.  Maybe a fee (negotiable ?) to build in someone  else ZOI could be applied. Or receive a % of the resources mined in your ZOI.  (I know, that whole integer thing would make this screwy) 

As said all too often by the devs, ZOI is NOT zone of control.  

From DiplomaticModifiers,xml, this is how the AI reacts if you do the same.

<DiplomaticModifier>

<UniqueID>StarbaseInZOCWithoutOpenBorders</UniqueID>
<RelationEffect>-2</RelationEffect>

<UniqueID>ShipInZOCWithoutOpenBorders</UniqueID>
<RelationEffect>-1</RelationEffect>

<UniqueID>ColonizedWithinZOC</UniqueID>
<RelationEffect>-3</RelationEffect>

ZOC is I believe 5 hexes from any of your colonies.  Otherwise, ZOI is the "cold war" or "proxy war" in deep space.  And I'm quite sure that the AI is not sending constructor ships for the hell of it.   The AI knows where they are (it has to scout, but has no FOW on higher difficulties), and are mining the closest ones available.  If in your ZOI, you had plenty of chance to mine them yourselves.

Trade for their starbases, or go to war with them and nukem.

I prefer to explore the galaxy, in the early game, with constructors.  They are faster than scouts and, as soon as they find a 'resource,' can immediately start mining it.  This has the additional advantage of expanding the players range of influence/sight.

As was mentioned, there are no official borders.  The galaxy is a big place.  What seems small on our game maps can represent hundreds of light years across.

And yet, you get big diplomatic negatives for having your ships inter into other empires zones of influence. And yet, there is a "open borders" treaty that allows you to enter other empire's zones of influence without penalty. For all intents and purposes, zones of influence are borders. Simple as.