Star Bases & "Jump Nulifiers"

As for more ideas, the slots could be used to increase range (or put a jump inhibitor in).  For example, there could be a "Range Extender" to build in a SB, each slot used increases range by 10-30%.  Allow it up to 5 times even maybe, for double (or even tripple) the range.

Me the way to fix going around starbases is to make it so that hostile forces are not able to jump towards Friendly planets if you have a starbase present. But that they can jump to any uncontroled or that they or they allies ownd.

So Blue owner of planet E can jump to A.

He can retreat back to E if he wants.

But he can no go from A to B and C.

HE can jump to D and then to B.

From be he can also jump back to A, but cannot jump back to B after.

So in the end C is the only planet that Blue cannot jump to without killing reds Starbase at A

Now if the game codding will allow this i do not know. But it would be the best way to do it.

Oh and scouts with jump interference immune research should ignore this and be able to jump everywere anytime.

What if phase lanes soaked by friendly culture are impassable to enemies when there is a starbase present? It opens up some interesting possibilities.

Starbases in areas of uncontested culture become tar pits - once you go in, you can't go out without smashing the base.

If you want an escape path in case the assault turns for the worse, push your own culture back at the target gravwell to open up the retreat path. If you happen to have a lot of culture to push, you could simply remove the jump interference. An interesting side effect is that the culture repel rate of capitol ships suddenly becomes critical to hold blockades.

For Vasari and TEC, this means that a Starbase at a neutral gravwell that is 2 or less jumps away from a planet with a broadcast center will protect the jumps behind it. Uncontested with culture, of course. Perhaps Starbases as a whole could receive a minor culture resist, perhaps that of one capitol ship.

Advent starbases can generate their own culture, making their defenses more powerful - but they're already the racial defense specialists, so this fits thematically. It also makes the Deliverence Engine useful for blockade running.

I'm not sure how star to star and wormhole travel should be handled, though.

An interesting play would be when you're pushing a lot of culture at a base but the enemy has several capitol ships stationed, blocking it. You phase in, snipe their caps to let your culture through, and then jump out, skipping the starbase. Makes the support abilities of bases more important.

It's graphically easy to see what your jump options are and probably isn't that difficult to implement. It gives 'area control' to gravwells under your domain without making offensive use of starbases too powerful. I think it might just do the trick.

just increase the range and make the starbase a viable defensive structure comparable to 2-3 cap ships. 

...and have a jump inhibitor upgrade...

-da noob abides

I totally agree

StarBases do not have enough range to make a real difference unless the two travel spots are near the SB where he will rape destroy the attacker.

people are investing waaaay too much in their SBs

and when the enemy fleet doesnt want to engage it and goes around this becomes a problem

don't fully upgrade a SB unless the enemy is actually attacking it

i mean : deploying a starbase is cheap and requires some lead time (to build and move the constructor).  Upgrading it is very quick yet drastically increases the cost. Since you can't always be sure where the enemy will commit their forces, focus on building ships and orbital defences, which have much longer lead time than starbase upgrades. Then when the enemy's move becomes apparent, upgrade your starbases as appropriate.

I don't like the idea of a starbase jump inhibitor because it makes a frontier utterly impenetrable. You HAVE to take out the SB. And the defenses will be completely clustered around the SB because it has that inhibitor.  A 10 planet empire would have to commit half of its ships just to break the SB + defenses, nevermind the defense fleet.

and if you KNOW the enemy has to come to you that also introduces unpleasant possibilities with the mines.

they can still phase out, we (or at least I) never said anything about completly preventing them from phasing out, just to make it so that they might not survive to do so.

I still think a phase inhibitor upgrade would be great...

-the uber noob

I think that sounds interesting.  Another idea that occurred to me: add a "jump lane lockdown" upgrade to starbases, which prevents hostile fleets from using a jump lane.  The catch: you have to have the upgrade installed on a starbase at *both* ends of a jump lane before it takes effect.  That should nicely make it hard to interdict gravity wells that you don't have a strong presence in.

Great comments; what if they called it "Jump Lane Barriers" or "Culteral Check Points" or "Jump Drive Neutralizer" and add it on for one slot or more use of a SB.  1 Slot could make it work like the Jump Inhibitors, 2 could totaly shut down all friendly jump lanes.  Let them be able to jump back if they want (like EadTaes said).  A lvl 7 Defence Tech maybe.