Constructing starbases has long been a key element of any successful space empire in Galactic Civilizations. We’re taking a good look at them for Galactic Civilizations III from both artistic and mechanical perspectives. Starbases are going to be cooler and more strategically interesting in Galactic Civilizations III than ever.
(click the pic for a high-res downloadable version)
Lead designer Paul Boyer (Mormegil here on the forums) has the following to say about starbases:
We’re adding some great features to starbases in Galactic Civilizations III. Like in the previous game, each starbases specializes in a particular function: economics, military, cultural, or mining. However, players no longer choose a type upon construction. Instead players add a Specialization Ring that allows the starbase to perform special tasks. Once the ring is built, players can further upgrade it with special modules. These modules are key to a starbase’s strengths, such as expanding your civilization's cultural influence, defending your borders, boosting planetary economics, and mining the new resources such as antimatter that fuel the deadliest ships in any game of Galactic Civilizations III.
Other new starbase features include unique styles for each race and unique starbase modules. Fleets can now dock at a starbase, much like they can garrison friendly planets. Players can also add multiple constructor modules on a Constructor ship now.
These changes allow starbases to fill even more roles in your strategy, and open up new doors for different development paths for your empire.
What would you like to see unique modules do in Galactic Civilizations III?
stacking hyperion shrinkers is an exploit and should be stopped once and for good in galciv 3 I hope
all unique per civ building such as capitals & such when you capture another world with one, you should have the choice to keep it (and destroy your other one)
or to destroy it (which should be available for super projects you have not built and don't want there).
it's like saying: ho hey technically we can't have multiples of this building because it only works once then "ho but hey if someone else built exactly the same it still works" makes no sense whatsoever
more concrete example : shrink a processor from 22nm to 16nm thanks to a scientific building, can only build one (obviously you can't shrink a processor to 16nm two times in a row with the same exact set of technologies) and then discovering that another race did the same and that if you capture the building suddenly your processor is shrinked to 12nm (or whatever value)
makes no sense and is a way to exploit the scoring systems and the game too much.
I'm all for being able to be all powerful but this is going too far. if it's only 1 allowed per civ, a civ should never be allowed to have 2+.
Not quite sure I see the point of a Military starbase... nice huge well-armed Military specialized starbase right next to my planet, NPC simply chose not to attack it and directly attacked and took the planet. Military starbase sitting RIGHT THERE, tile away, never showed up in battle view, never fired a single shot to protect anything nearby it.
So I said "huh" and went over and took out someone else who also had a very nice military starbase sitting right next to planet - I simply chose to attack planet, ignored starbase completely and it ignored me. Because I chose to attack something near by it, but not it directly (1 tile away), it did not show in battle view or take a single shot at me. Civilization was destroyed and the military starbase right next to it that failed to engage at all simply became "pirate".
If they do not defend any planet nearby them...only themselves...then what is their point? Why wouldn't everyone simply do what just happened and wave politely as we stroll by, granting them a lovely view of a planet slaughter?
There are lots of really cool sounding Military Starbase upgrades my base had equipped with, which it then did nothing whatever with and didn't even show up in battle.
I feel as if all Military star-bases should have an automatic bonus to its radius. On anything above a small map they are kinda useless as you can avoid them. By having a bigger radius you could literally make a wall of bases on your border which i think would be cool. Kinda like in startrek where they have a border defense detection grid.
And i haven't really build them so im not sure if they already do. But would be really cool to have some "system defense" techs that automatically per turn slightly damage all enemy ships in its radius. Kinda like a long distance weapons platforms. that would make them more of a target. Also would be cool to have modules that boosts all planets resistance by X%. That way if you invest in them not only would they pose a threat from being able to damage ships for a short distance, they become a meaningful defense to destroy before you invade a planet.
if a base also gives a 50% bonus to resistance to planets, there would be more of an incentive to destroy it first before you tried to take a planet. And as i said before if the radius was larger, not only could you chain them together easier, but it would mean you still could build economic bases and such near your planets. As it is atm, most of the time the eco base is always the better option. Everywhere else is empty space so why would you even bother when as you said they can just fly right past them. On that note, would be cool like in galciv 2 if you could add warp inhibitors on them that reduce the speed of all ships in its radius. (actually i have a feeling that last one is already there, but im not sure i didn't check)
Edit: Most of the upgrades simply boost the damage and shields etc of ships in its area of effect. which sounds good in theory but you really need the base in a good spot to make it worth it, besides i have noticed most the time just adding one extra ship to a fleet is just as good as some of the bonuses.. tho i really have not built many as i just avoid them most the time.. so maybe they are better then im thinking.
Also side note, Stardock is going to be making either an DLC or add it in the expansion, a fulled redone and upgraded starbase system. Where they have already said they want to address a lot of the problems people have, and hopefully that is when they will also add the Star base designer like the ship designer/
On the tile right next to the planet though - you can't actually get any *closer* and the enemy fleet can still just stroll right on by the Military Base without it attacking at all and just taking the planet directly instead...means there is no incentive whatsoever to ever directly attacking the bases that are supposed to be protecting. Enemy fleet isn't blocked in movement by passing by on the tile right next to base or anything.
The base (on my side, when my planet was taken) actually had "slipstream" enhancement to boost the tactical speed of all ships nearby, but I've since realized this doesn't work because game doesn't understand tactical speeds... A.I. for the ship battles only understand one attack range - close...so even if you build a long range missile boat with really high tactical speed it just rushes into close-ranged battle that much faster (tried it). All ships on both sides in every battle just rush to center then closely orbit each other in close range battle...doesn't matter what they are equipped with, so really they should have limited the weapon types in game to just 1, since that's all they built the ship battle A.I. for.
The rest of the upgrades to base had great nearby ship shield boosting, and massive firepower and defense itself, as well as range sensors but as I said - it never engaged or even showed up in the battle viewer, whole game just ignores any "zone of control" of a spacebase, fleets attack things on tile right next to starbases and go unharmed.
I would not pay for an extra expansion just to have them FIX what should work by description from the beginning.
However, rest of the game and planetary mechanics are good fun and the economic and mining bases seem to function for their main purposes.
The attack and defense on a starbase is just there so it can defend itself, its not there to attack ships its pure defense of itself only.
And I'm not sure if your aware that any module the starbase has that says "boosts effects of near by ship attack" ect. Doesn't mean the ships have to be In the starbase to get the bonus. They only have to be in range of the starbase. So you can have your ships on a planet defending it from invasion and if its in range of the base they get all the bonuses.
As for the enemy ships avoiding the radius of influence of the base, that's just smart strategy.. why would it choose to fight in it. Maybe if you built the star bases to cover planets and things instead that way it forces them to attack within its effect.
im not sure what your getting at, they are not broken and work as intended. All the other stuff is just suggestions from players. Its not like they sat down and said "lets make them crap so we can get DLC money". They made them how they wanted to make them, then after player feedback the decided they could add extra stuff players wanted that were out of the scope of the original design. But that's just to add extra dynamics to the game, not the milk people for money . If anything you should be happy Stardock listens to there players and dost just push there ideas aside.
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