In other words, starbase benefits should not stack with other starbases. Otherwise, 90% of the time spent on games will be building starbases to surround your planets (which is a rather tedious chore).
Currently the dominant strategies are either:
1. Colony spam.
2. Starbase spam.
3. Do both.
100+ planets with 5 starbases means the construction of 500+ starbases. Each starbase requires at least 8 constructors for a total of 4000 constructors. Each constructor takes about 5 seconds to move to the appropriate starbase, meaning that it would take 20,000 seconds or 7 hours to build 500+ starbases in a game.
In other words, the game effectively devolves into building colony ships so you could build more colony ships so that you have more colonies so that you CAN BUILD MORE COLONIES FASTER. And then after the colony rush is done, the game becomes building constructors so that you could build starbases so that you can build constructors faster so that you can build EVEN MORE STARBASES FASTER.
Personally I think the developers should create a minigame on who can spam out constructors the fastest. To be honest it wouldn't be all that different from the game right now at certain settings.
This issue has been on my mind a lot today. Although I am a new player and lack the experience to critique the game in-depth, I have to agree with the OP and with Naselus' sentiments on this one. It's a poorly thought out mechanic and economic model that allows and incentivizes this degree of SB spam (and production spam generally).
Having my first go at an insane-sized map right now, andam clearly on a path to SB-Spam-Hell very early, even with the initial resources being fairly limited (it's a player-designed custom map, can't recall the name atm). Turn ~50, I've got a handful of poor quality planets surrounded by a few economic and mining SB's, any yet I'm already spitting out constructors like doughnuts on a conveyor.
What I'd be most concerned about with regard to this is implementing a 1-per-planet fix now that is rendered unnecessary later, once the economy is properly balanced, and so actually just reduces the number of available strategies for the player.
Currently, as everything is cheap, the player still doesn't have many options in this regard, because he can do everything at once. But this surplus of riches is unlikely to be the state of affairs forever, and is also really hurting the game in other ways. If we take constructor spam to be the result of the economic issue, then a targeted fix for it is not only not required but is actually harmful in the longer run.
Remember, that when you're spitting out constructors, the rest of us can build warships. Maxing out a SB with all modules in the mid-game can cost you 1500+ or more manufacturing points, which is more than enough to build 3 or more pretty buff medium warships.
Even triple constructors cost 150+ (if you want them to have decent engines), so it takes at least 3 to build a SB up to mid-game max. That's the cost of a tweaked medium warship.
The absolute maximum number of SB per planet is 5, presuming you optimally place them. If you've got a couple of planets nearby, that drops radically if you want to have multiple planets per SB, and if not, it still drops per planet due to placement overlap issues.
Honestly, a good rough estimate I see is a max of 3 SB per planet, covering all possible planet location/combinations.
Consequently, I'm only building multiple SB per planet where it's really worth it. About 50% of my planets get a single SB, and 25% get 3, and the rest none.
SB spam is really only a "problem" in the game when you've managed to get left alone for a very long time, and avoid building much of a military. Because building constructors means I'm not building warships, and that's a suboptimal tradeoff unless you're only at peace for long stretches of time.
Note: my reference point is playing on Gigantic or Immense maps, moderate number of planets (typically, less than 100 on the whole map; everything set to Occasional), with 6-7 AIs and slightly less Minor races.
There are many great features available to you once you register, including:
Sign in or Create Account
