Starbases - Which upgrades and why?

it depends entirely on the role the starbase is playing. 

i usually play Vasari. when i fully uprade my Orkulas it will go one of three paths.

1) pure defensive

this is 3x durability upgrades, 3x weapons upgrades, 1x hangars, 1x frontal shield. 

2) assault

3x weapon upgrades, 2x durability upgrades, 2x frontal shield, 1x debris vortex, 

3) civilian/backline defense

2x colony pods, 1x trade docks, 2x weapons, 1x durability, 2x hangars

"Fully upgraded" simply means that all the upgrade slots are used.

As for what upgrades you should buy, it depends where you are placing the starbase. My favored race is Advent, and i haven't yet found any good reason to not have one level in Meteoroid Control (second level is currently broken AFAIK), if the starbase orbits a terran planet, i usually have the maximum allegiance increase upgrades too. If a starbase is in an uncolonizable gravwell not on frontlines, i fit it with tradeport and culture upgrades, whereas frontline starbases have weapon and armor upgrades, with Mass Disorientation and Meteoroid control abilities. Even though Ascensia can have 20 strikecraft squadrons by itself, i don't usually buy many hangar upgrades.

Generally i'd say a "fully upgraded" SB refers to one thats maxed out on weapons, hull and fighters.  Some variations are common as in front line TEC SB will often have the self destruct button.  I just started playing with advent, and I guarantee that all my frontline starbases will have meteor and mass-disorientation as it's just plain sick. 

OK, not meaning to hijack the thread... I though the weapons upgrade on the Vasari SB were the ones used to attack other SB's.  Does that upgrade effect the regular anti-ship weapons also?

I'm not an expert on vasari, but I remember last time I played them, the 1st weapon upgrade was listed as an upgrade that way "effective against structures" and the 2nd upgrade was phase missles which was something that is useful against both i'd imagine.

Orkulas default weapons are 6 banks of pulse guns. the pulse gun banks are vertically running up the body of the Orky and there are 2 on each of the big tentacles. its symmetrical, so 3 banks will be facing the front and 3 to the rear, cover about 180 degrees on each bank. its a crap ton of pulse guns on each bank, they fire like 20 pulse bullets per burst from each bank. very long range and excellent damage against mostly the smaller frigates. 

the first weapon upgrade adds the Disintegrator weapon banks. these things are fairly short range and do anti-structure type damage. they have mediocre damage against ships but rip apart structures and starbases easily. they also have a very high rate of fire. there are 4 disintegrator banks, one on each of the smaller tentacles. they seem to have nearly 360 degree firing arc. 

the second weapon upgrade adds phase missiles, which are extremely long range and do alot of damage to ships of all kinds, even the heavy stuff. these you should all be familiar with, its like a mass of Assailants basically. 

the third weapon upgrade just gives +20% damage to all of the other weapon systems. pretty sure only the Vasari SB has this upgrade, the other ones can only buy two weapon systems upgrades. 

I usually play TEC. As far as the starbase goes I generally have 4 different setups:

Front Line Defense:         2xWeapons 3xHull 2xStrike Craft and 1xRepair

Front Line Fleet Production:     2xWeapon 2xHull 2xShip Production 2xTrade Ships

(Must have extra frigate factories in place to make this really work since with the TEC Civ upgrade that makes ship building faster and level 2 ship building on a starbase you pump out ships VERY fast...make sure you are selecting the starbase when building ships to make the most of the speed)

Trade Port Line Gap Filler      2xWeapons 3xHull 2xTrade Ships 1xStrike Craft

(This is for when you have a asteroid field or gas giant or any other graity well that you cannot colonize but need a trade port in it to continue your chain for biggger income)

Empire Flank Protection  2xWeapons 3xHull 1xRepair 1xAncillary Government 1xSelf Destruct

These different set-ups provide excellent coverage for each of their assigned duties.

Codan:

Instead of upgrading hangars to get strike craft for the TEC starbase, wouldn't it be better to spend those points elsewhere and instead surround the starbase with hangar bays, providing a flak curtain as well as the squads?  The 2 or 3 extra upgrades could go to something like ship prod or even docking bays to keep the hangars alive.  Or do you suround it with hangars anyway to get extra squad coverage?

Transitive:

Thanks for the detail on the Orkulas.  Do you know detail on other civs upgrades?  It's very helpful.

ToJKa:

Broken how?  I've heard this a couple times around the forums but I can't get it straight.

Also, is docking bays as good as I think it is?  I haven't had a chance to test it but it seems the buff could get quite ridiculous while backed by Hoshis and repair bays as it targets all ships and structures in a large radius.  Is the second tier worth it?

The second level is supposed to up the damage from 500 to 750, but right now it stays at 500.

huhwhozat-----

The main reason for the fighter bays on the starbase:

The speed with which it remakes fighters when they die, and the durability of the starbase means structure ships dont fly up and destroy it 5 seconds later, and yes while the hanger bays do provide extra flak coverage....I would rather have flak ships to provide that service since they are mobile I can move them to where the fighters are attacking (since we all know they are not always attacking in the area you want them to).

You also cannot build extra hanger bays if the starbase is being used as a trade port gap filler in an uncolonizable gravity well, so it gets fighters (mainly to kill off merchant trade ships for extra cash =P)

As for the docking bays...they are nice but 3 or more repair bays will repair more things at once than the starbase can and for approx the same cost (research+upgrade cost)...and they can be upgraded to repair more hull per second.

My way is of course not the only way....but remember find the way that works best for you. Some times the trade port gap filler starbase will get a repair upgrade if my fleet is often flying through that area while fighting on different fronts. All depends upon the minor changes of the map/strategy.

Thanks on the replies.  I have a 4 player (me vs AI) FFA going and I am trying Vasari.  I tried out the upgrades on the SB and it makes sense now.

So do you mean to say that the starbase actually rebuilds squads faster?  Keep in mind that the hangars are being repaired by both repair bays and the docking booms ability so they won't go down too fast, even to structure busters.  If the enemy is there with his fleet, he can probably make mincemeat of your flak ships, but it'll take him longer to wear down the hangars.

True, the whole premise of my turtleshell idea is based on building at a colonizable world.

Keep in mind that docking booms repairs ALL friendly targets in a large radius, while also restoring antimatter.  I was assuming use of both the SB and repair bays in conjuction, the repair bays doing the brunt of repair work, while the SB refills their antimatter and also adds a little to the repair effort.

Of course the turtleshell would have a specific situation in which it would be useful, such as a major chokepoint planet.

Ummm, I just realized something.  My whole premise for this strategy assumes that docking booms targets structures as well as ships.  The in game description does not give target information and I can't easily test my theory.  Does someone have a definite answer?

Do the TEC and Advent SBs have some sort of advantage to negate the mobility of an Orkula?

Also is there any gravity well aside from stars where you can have multiple SBs?

Anyway, I normally play TEC, and I have similar configurations to the other TEC plans already here, and more specialized ideas for stars, especially stars that are also chokepoints:

Flank SBs (generally 2)

  2XWeapons, 3XHealth, 2XSelf-destruct, 1XTrade

Center SB

  3X Strikecraft, 2XConstruction Bays, 2XResupply, 1XTrade

Maybe using 1 less of the other slots to get 2 trade upgrades for the center base.

TEC and Edvent don't get advantages to negate to mobility of the Orkulas becuase the Orkulas is the Vasari's anti-SB unit. Vasari need that advantage becuase they lack an assualt cruiser.

No.

I'm still looking for confirmation on some of my questions, anyone know?  (I haven't been able to test them myself yet.)

I'm just wondering here, does the TEC's starbase's self destruct do more damage in a gas giant gravity well? and if so, how much? i think that would be pretty intense if an already devastating attack like that could do even more damage.

For TEC bases:  I found that I am better off getting weapons and defense instead of getting 2 Last Resort and hope the blast kills all the attacker.  The cost and time for rebuild are great.

Yeah, I generally avoid the self-destruct upgrade as well.

I will only go for trade upgrades if it's a gap-filler (to include low-logistical, if it's not too forward), rear-line, and plasma-storm grav-wells.

For all-out barrier-worlds where the enemy only gets thru over my cold, dead fleet, I'll take all three hull and SC upgrades, as well as both weapons upgrade. People might call me crazy, but any front-line world of mine will already have a culture structure in orbit to ensure my antimatter regen is up to par and there WILL be repair platforms and hangar bays surrounding that SB. The trifecta of repair around the SB, as many hangars as I can, and then probably as many weapons platforms as I can squeeze in just to finish it off and give the enemy something else to sweat (what else would I use 3 logistical slots for? Though a 4th repair may not be a bad idea, either). This will usually put over 20 SC groups in the air, more than enough to cause pain and give enemy SC and structure bombers something to think about. Any proper choke-point only has one approachable side, and mine will all feature mines as wide and thick as possible on the entire approach vector if I can afford it (randomly scatter it, if not).

Some barrier worlds will get cap-ship factories in place of SC hangars if I'm not close to my supply wall. Twenty LRMs build mighty fast and when backed by all those repair bays and the smaller strike craft #s...they can still defend the system quite efficiently.

If I manage to rope one of the smaller star-systems in a multistar game off to myself, I generally drop the fierce barrier-SBs on every gravwell tied to the star, in addition to the star itself. Speaking of stars...it's never a bad idea to set some SBs in an enemy star's gravwell if they don't have some up already. Fill them full of SC and pummel their economy as all their trade ships keep wandering into the kill zone.

I just got entrenchment about 2 hours ago, played one game as vasari.  I got spanked.  4 or 5 of my SBs died.  Anyhow, i kept using debris vortex but couldn't notice it doing anything to help my SBs hull health.   Can anyone explain debris vortex for me and when to use it?

ty

DA BUTTON!

nuff said

siddy,  i have no idea what that means

ahahahhaa.

ok, so im pretty sure debris vortex works by sucking up the debris left behind when something blows up (you can see it if you zoom in.) I'm not completely sure how much it repairs tho, or whether or not the amount of debris directly affects this. anyone know?

Is it autocastable?  And if so, was it on?  (I almost never buy it.)

each ship drops a set amount of large and small debris pieces on destruction. don't know how much is restored per piece.

fully upgraded means that its firepower and hit points are maxed. for some races this is more important than others, u will never care if non-vas sb's hit structures cuz they cant move! so unless u are building it next to labs, which is dumb cuz 10 kanraks or a similar number of lrf's can cut down the labs before the sb is up. so it is only viable on a Vas SB.

if you are vasari i wouldnt worry about any upgrades but hp and weapon dmg. your fleet will do everything else you just want a big moving juggernaught to focus enemy fire on prevent any devastating micro swaths into ur fleet.

for advent you need to be more cautious with how you buff it out, too many strategies there is no set way just adapt. to be honest an advent battle ball is 10x better than any upgraded SB chains, so i dont ever build this guy.

tec sb is a must for trade, they are cheap and link up eco's making it possible to get above 250 creds/s in under an hour. something that was impossible in the older versions of the games. like siddy said, use the big red button to devastate scrubs. but other than that your upgrades should be in trade and health. i like to use them as forward yards too, building kodiaks from them once i have that researched and spawning them on the front line.

hope this helps

-bronze