So about orbital starbases....
I was thinking (once again) along the lines of Star Wars Empire At War. I loved how the starbases were just these massive obstacles for an enemy invasion force, that just kept on spawning suppourt ships and fighters, which constantly harrassed you until you destroyed certain hardpoints (such as the hangers), in which case it would blow up.
It doesn't have to be the same way in GalCiv3, I was just basing my idea on the one mentioned above. So what orbital starbases would work like would be as follows.......
They could have a certain amount of attack/defense points (of course since they are in orbit, they would be weaker than Deep Space Starbases), to help out any defensive force in the area. If the combat value of small and tiny hulls gets hiked up in GalCiv3, they should also add hangers onto those starbases. For each starbase you had, you would be able to launch a certain amount of tiny and small hulled fighters to help in the defense (just imagine having 7 Orbital Starbases launching 7-10 fighters each, it might be a bit overwhelming, but once again, it would all come down to how effective Tiny and Small hulled fighters will be). But if Tiny and Small hulls remain as crappy as they are now, each of those orbital starbases might as well be launching 500 Tiny fighters against a fleet of 5 Capital Ships (which would probablly pwn all of those Tiny Fighters eitherway). But if the combat system gets changed around, Stardock should try incorporating hangers onto starbases (if not onto the orbital ones, then at least put them on the deep space ones we have now in GalCiv2).
And I agree whole-heartedly with Doom, orbital starbases should be expensive. You wouldn't really have to buy a constructor to build one, it would be sortof like a social project. Within the Planet Screen (the one that shows you all the pretty little buildings that you have built) there should be a tab that takes you to another screen which shows you the available number of starbases that you can build on a planet. Let's say that the maximum is 10. At the beginning, you would have ten blank slots aranged in two rows of five, and on the left hand side, you will find a scroll-down list of all the available starbases that you can build (there will obviously be some restrictions to the amount, and type of starbases that you are allowed to build per planet, such as number of moons, this can for example be good or bad).
There should be an economic starbase (acts like a stock market for that planet, also increases the value of trade routes attached to that planet), manufacturing starbase (acts like a factory), orbital shipyard (increases the number of ships you are allowed to build at a time, maximum of 2 of these starbases per planet), propaganda array (acts like a morale booster), orbital shopping mall (helps spread your influence at discout prices, LOL), orbital gun platform (sortof like a massive hulled ship, only it can fit more weaponry and defenses), orbital greenhouse (increases food production, just thought I'd throw this one in here).
And the list goes on, you guys will probablly be able to come up with others.
Getting back to the paragraph before this last one......
So for example, you decide to queue up 5 economic, 2 orbital greenhouse, and 3 propaganda array starbases. I thinks you would build this on an economic planet. You could (maybe) be able to rush buy these, but prepare to shell out alot of moolah. The price of each consecutive starbase should increase by a 25-50% margin. So let's say you had to pay 1000 BC for the first one, you will have to pay 1250-1500 BC for the second one (and so on and so forth). These would of course only have direct effects on any thing related to that one planet in specific (such as production, income, trade routes, etc.).
I think I missed a point or two back there. If so, please remind me, I'll comment on it as soon as possible.
And then, there is the micromanagement problem of Deep Space Starbases. These shouldn't be totally jetisoned from the game, they should just be upgraded. Such as the ability to build their own modules. This of course is somewhat stupid. You shouldn't remove the reliance on additional constructors, Stardock just needs to find a better way of getting those constructors there with less management. I was thinking something along the lines of a trade route. I know what you are thinking, how the hell do trade routes have anything to do with starbases?! I will elaborate......
To do this, all that you would really need, would be 2 constructors. The first one to build the initial foundation of the starbase. The second one, to establish a supply route that would send that one constructor back and forth between the nearest planet to resupply it's module building equipment. It would sortof look like a trade route, only it would have a constructor instead of a freighter. So the moment that the second constructor comes in contact with the starbase, it will be able to build one module, and then, immediately after that, it would start heading to the nearest planet to resupply. There could be momvement restrictions on it, but I think that would be unwise. So let's say it has a speed of 30. It starts it's turn of by building a module on a starbase (-1 movement), it then heads to a planet 4 parsecs away (-5 movement points), it then heads back (-9 movement points) builds another module (-10 movement points), and so on until it runs out of movement points. So in essence, that one constructor can build 4 modules on a starbase before the next turn (according to my example). And this would go on until no more modules can be built, in which case, you still have that constructor with which you can build the "skeleton" of another starbase, starting the process all over again.
There should also be different kinds of deep space starbases such as.......
Resupply Depot (sortof like a gas station for your ships, it would only be able to service a certain amount of ships per turn, renewing their movement points), Deep Space Research Platform (a research building in space, somewhat expensive, but it generates more RP's than a regular research building on a planet, you can only have one per sector), Fortress Platform (sortof like an orbital gun platform, only it can launch larger ships, namley anything between Tiny and Medium, it can also fire upon any ship that enters it's area of influence, providing that it's an enemy). And once again, the list goes on.
Please throw your own ideas for starbase classes in here too (I'll give them specific functions, you just give me the names).
There are definately some things that I overlooked in this post (it's 2 in the morning, so I must have missed something). So if I did miss anything, and the post seems incomplete or confusing without it, please let me know, I'll clear it up in my next reply.
See everyone in about 12 hours (at the earliest).
Y-Y-Y-Yaaaaawwwwn..............