Argonev Star Base

Its all about the bombers Advent have the best strikecraft, and you can send those things to do your dirty work from the other side of the grav well. Upgrade-wise, I think it depends on what you're using the starbase for - meteors are awesome for taking out a fleet, fighters/bombers are best if you want to be able to hit anywhere in the grav well (but are redundant if you're building somewhere you can also build hangers) and so on.

I'm such a retard. I didn't even think of bombers. Duh!

As for the questions regarding the star base, I just wanted to know because for some reason I fully upgraded culture on a front line star base. Mucho stupido?

It got nuked decently fast, and I wished I had done meteor and disorientation.

But for front line, what upgrades would you do?

front line = armor and meteor but you can do wathewer you want if a tec guy come with ogrov you starbase is just a waste of money

use fleets advents have the best one so use it

Does the last weapon upgrade allow the starbase to attack Ogrev's? It says it allowed the starbase to attack at "extreme range."

For attacking Ogrevs, you want meteors and mass disorientation. I know meteors have range to hit Ogrevs, and I'm pretty sure MA does, too. Regular weapons, though, won't work.

Also get a guardian behind his ogrovs and just repulse them towards the base.

MA does not it is short by 2000, meteors does (its right on the money 12000 for both meteor and Ogrevs)  but when the TEC researches missile range Ogrevs outreach meteors

Some fighter bays (with fighters) will make quick work of ogrovs, and dropping some homing mines can do some serious damage to an attacking fleet

Yeah, once I started to think about it (although the repulse idea with the Guardians is AWESOME) there are alot of ways I could have handled it better. However I was pretty stupid when it came to upgrading that starbase.

I just like asking questions apparently, so in your opinion is there ever a time to upgrade a starbase with Culture, and if so, how many and when?

And I think I've decided to stick with Weapons/Armor/Meteor/Disorient for upgrades with my front line starbases. Is there any reason to deviate from this and go with something different, say Fighters/Bombers?

at a star you can use one as a cultural weapon while the others guard it (you can put 4 starbases at a star)

also you can use them at your second line to help boost your culture strength overall

also suggest going fighter/bomber on back areas if fighting TEC, their insurrection research (tier 8) can wreck havoc on your rear areas if caught unprepared.

Best time to use the culture upgrade: 1, on a starbase protecting inner portions of your empire (like a wormhole for example), 2. If your opponent is technologically inferior (ie doesnt have much culture of his own), then you can use culture to grab his border planets without firing a shot, or prevent him from taking a contested planet.

As for bombers/fighters, most of the time its difficult for an opponent to tell what upgrades you have on your SB. If you upgrade its health to full, an opponent may assume its weapons or abilities have been upgraded and doesnt want to send a fleet up against it, so theyll opt for bombers or assault cruisers, in which case upgrading fighter capacity may help protect your SB, or if your opponent has more strikecraft than you, upgrading the hangars may help even the score.

I suppose so. I'm trying to figure out if I want to primarily go for one of these two builds for my front line starbases:

Full Weapons (2 Slots)

Full Armor (3 Slots)

1 Disorient (1 Slot)

2 Meteor (2 Slots)

OR

Full Weapons (2 Slots)

Full Armor (3 Slots)

2 SC Upgrade (2 Slots, mostly fighters vs long range frigates and Orgevs)

1 Meteor (1 Slot)

Whatchu guys think?

Depends on what your up against, but I will say, If you're going to be using meteors, you dont really need that second weapons upgrade. And you can actually do without the weapons upgrades completely if youve got disorient and a bunch of synergized beam turrets. I would highly recommend using homming mines (build a hangar bay or two to get them) in any front line situation. Theyll soften your opponents fleet considerably for your defenses, or cause heavy damage to fleets trying to bypass them.

Strike craft upgrades, in my opinion, should only be used in uncolonizable gravity wells, especially as Advent.  Spend tactical slots on cheap hangers, not starbase upgrades on expensive strike craft bays.  Only use them in wells where you cannot build hangers.  If you need mines, use your drone hosts as mine-layers.

Typically you should use either disorient or meteor, not both.  An intelligent player probably won't even attempt to rush your starbase if you have one or the other, and will instead attempt to barrage it from a safe distance.  This leaves these upgrades more as deterrents to keep the enemy away from the starbase.  Personally once I have meteors I don't invest (heavily) in weapons upgrades for this very reason; an enemy is likely to keep his distance and not come into range of those weapons. 

Unless I'm in a very late-game scenario where money is no object, I will very rarely fully upgrade starbases.  It's throwing all your eggs in one basket, which can be disasterous if the thing is destroyed or the enemy fleet bypasses it.  You should buy upgrades because the starbase needs the utility to fulfill the role you intend for it, not because the starbase still has room for improvement.