noob questions

1) Both. Spending sliders on domestic policy screen set the ratio between the two, of course you actually need to be producing a ship or building (or both).

2) Just buildings, population has no effect.

3) Influence starbases don't increase morale on your own or anyone else's planets. They increase your influence which is only good for cultural "flipping" an opponents planet or preventing your planet from "flipping" to an opponent.

4) Resource mining of any kind is global to your entire empire.

5) There are a number of buildings in this category. But AFAIK

Hyperion Shrinker, Hyperion Logistics Center, Xinathium Hull Plating, Micro Repair Bots and Gravity Accelerators affect all ships everywhere (including those built before the building).

Spin Control Center and Omega Defense System affect only ships in orbit around the planet, regardless of where they're built.

Hyperion Shipyard only affects ships built on the planet.

I'm not sure what the Hyperion Re-Supply Center affects.

I build everything except Omega Defense System, Hyperion Shipyard and Hyperion Re-Supply Center.

6) Pretty much the same though since it costs money to build a new station I usually build them out before starting another. BTW I think it's a waste of modules to put any attack/defense on *any* SB.

BTW I think it's a waste of modules to put any attack/defense on *any* SB.

Is this basically because they are useless or is there an underlying motive Mumblefratz? Just curious... as I like your style!  

I'm not sure what the Hyperion Re-Supply Center affects.

Extends range of ships.

BTW I think it's a waste of modules to put any attack/defense on *any* SB.

Unless you are using mil SBs to enhance your military rating. When adding the ship assist modules you have to get Battle Stations I to complete the upgrade entirely for all the ship assist bonuses. BS I gives you one point of attack in each catagory.

BTW I think it's a waste of modules to put any attack/defense on *any* SB.

I dunno... my military resource bases are pretty important...
Check the end game stats. You'll find most of the time that an AI's "most powerful" ship is a starbase.

It's also a very fast way to phony up a military rating to avoid war

Is this basically because they are useless or is there an underlying motive

It's just that it takes so many constructors to build up the attack and defense on a single starbase and I have 148 of them in my game. Plus, regardless of how much attack and defense you put on them it's still not sufficient at any point in the game to protect them from a top line fleet. I usually park a top line fleet of my own on every resource mining SB and a couple of fleets to guard each of my economic starbase arrays.

Extends range of ships.

I knew that, what I don't know is if it applies to all ships or just ships built on the planet.

Unless you are using mil SBs to enhance your military rating. When adding the ship assist modules you have to get Battle Stations I to complete the upgrade entirely for all the ship assist bonuses. BS I gives you one point of attack in each catagory.

Yep. You need BS I for this reason.

my military resource bases are pretty important

That's why I use fleets to protect them.

It's also a very fast way to phony up a military rating to avoid war

It's way more useful to put the 28 modules on a military starbase that boost your ships ratings and then park a bunch of cheap ships under them. An array of 16 maxed out military starbases add 1008 points of attack and defense to your tiny hull fighter that otherwise only has a single attack and a single defense point. Besides pumping up your military rating to avoid attack, these fighters are now worth about 300 points of attack and 50 points of defense in all three categories. A few fleets of these and why would the SB's need attack/defense of their own?

1) It goes to both. The amount that goes to each is determined in your domestic screen

2) No. Sheilds come from buildings only. The high pop will only lower your moral and make managing the difficult

3) To my knowledge influence starbases only affect enemy planets

4) Resources affect your civilization as a whole, not just their range

5) Different buildings have different effects. You have to read the dicription. As for the worth of them, that is up to you and your own style of play and the situation you are in

6) I am not sure if 2 OK stations do as much as 1 great one, but economic, military, and influence sation bounses will overlap and give a greater effect than just 1 starbase by its self

Hope I was some help. If you have any more questions, just keep writing.

I knew that, what I don't know is if it applies to all ships or just ships built on the planet.

Ahh. All.

Besides pumping up your military rating to avoid attack, these fighters are now worth about 300 points of attack and 50 points of defense in all three categories. A few fleets of these and why would the SB's need attack/defense of their own?

Very true. I dont even put engines on mine. Easier and cheaper to build hulls with engines, fly them to the SB and then upgrade to weps and defense.

Check the end game stats. You'll find most of the time that an AI's "most powerful" ship is a starbase.

True. I have read though that SB atk and def do not apply to the over all score you get while ship assist does.

An array of 16 maxed out military starbases add 1008 points of attack and defense to your tiny hull fighter that otherwise only has a single attack and a single defense point. Besides pumping up your military rating to avoid attack, these fighters are now worth about 300 points of attack and 50 points of defense in all three categories. A few fleets of these and why would the SB's need attack/defense of their own?

Ok, here's where I get into the micromanagement issue. I'm willing to have an extra year of in game time to avoid stuff like this. Besides, if you're trying to boost your military rating with a starbase... you're probably not producing all that many ships at this stage in the game. In fact, if you need to phony up a military rating, chances are you've cut off your military production and are pumping out constructors from your man. capital only. Those ships have maintenance costs. This is how I treat the game for at least a year after the colony rush / my first war. I usually need to play catchup with research and social production, and i have a population to grow. I need every dime I can to go towards my civilization. Maintenance costs will OWN you on these fleets. Even 1.5 bc or so spread across 10 or 15 fleets is usually around 2-3 hundred bc. Early game, that's astronomical. It's much more efficient to grow imbalanced, doing military only when necessary to maximize your social/research gain.


And they're essentially turrets since they're stuck inside that military base. Now i have to pay for stationary defenses? Psssh, f dat.

By the time I make a military base useful I've already conquered whatever planet(s) I was attempting to get.

I don't defend with military starbases, because I don't believe in defending on my own turf. Never let them get to your turf.

So to make a blanket statement saying one should never, ever put weapons on his starbase... no, not a fair statement, espec for a poor n00bie still finding his style. The answer is, Mumble, You should never build them up, as it does not fit your style of play.

Ok, here's where I get into the micromanagement issue.

No doubt that an array of 16 military SB's is micromanagement. At 28 constructors per 16 SB's that's 448 constructors. This is certainly not everyone's cup of tea. But on the other hand it does far more than the Spin Control Center does and it can keep you out of wars until you're ready on your own terms. Anyway, this is the only real use I've found for military SB's. As you say and I wholeheartedly agree:

By the time I make a military base useful I've already conquered whatever planet(s) I was attempting to get. I don't defend with military starbases, because I don't believe in defending on my own turf. Never let them get to your turf.

But my statement about using starbase attack and defense has nothing to do with the above. It's just my estimate of the cost benefit comparison of doing so versus the cost benefit of protecting starbases (when necessary) with ships. With the importance of logistics in battles the starbase is still a single ship no matter how heavily defended or weaponed. Now, if in DA each weapon can fire independently it becomes a much different decision.

Anyway, this has been discussed before and there are certainly people with different opinions. I know we had a discussion awhile back where LogicSequence put up a screenshot of his defensive array of starbases and ships. It was quite impressive. It was also his personal choice of style of play. But I still maintain that his game could have been ended far earlier if he had spent the same development effort on offensive capability.

I think my advice to avoid starbase weapons and defense was applicable particularly for a noob. A noob is generally overwhelmed by the complexity of the game and is looking for some guidance as to what's more important. Once he has more experience with the game, he'll form his own opinion. I certainly wasn't recommending the military SB array for a noob.

eesh, i took another way out of context... looks like i'm due for that gay mafia post

looks like i'm due for that gay mafia post

 That was either Wheel or Evil, I don't remember which, sometimes I get them mixed up (Not really, I'm just saying that for effect). In any case, I'm neither of them.   

I apologize to Richert, for not answering his questions fully, as I am also fairly new, jumping onto my metaverse game indiscriminately (here and there, in other words).

but, I do kinda have a piece of starbase advice for a newbie ...

Mumblefratz and (for lack of a better translation) "novacaine" have both the right idea: wait until you have your own style of playing before you start fretting about starbase deployment.

I've personally found starbases' Extremely helpful fully developed (economic ones, of course ), in the early - mid game when pirates "rule" the skies.

I find that when I only have up to defender researched, my Starbase's are lightyears ahead of that, for w/e (whatever) reason .

So, when a lonely fleet of pirates happen upon one of my planets, apparently, instead of going for the *ahem* usually Un-defended planet (I know - I still stink at that; working on beginning game economy right now, really ), they go for the very much "BEEF-CAKE"'ed economy starbase which, to my eyes, seems to take them out in one shot (yes - the entire 4 ship fleet ), with only two hitpoints out of 48 (math time: 46/48) gone.

So, although this comment may say I'm "chaotic evil", I'm really, according to my present game "Saintly good" and I usually lean that way, so I get the best defense techs................or something .

but my ethical alignment usu *we apologize. those responsible for this tangent have been sacked*.

What I'm trying to say is that starbases are anyone's guess, but I agree that for actually defending planets, I would choose a good kick-butt fleet over a military starbase any day .

so far, in my ever-changing huge metaverse game I'm playing, I'm ready to attack the altarians and so am putting a combo of both influence and military SB's (starbases) on their borders.

I apologize for the length of this comment, and the inability to answer your actual questions, but just remember, just 'cause you have no bonus production from a 4-billion planet, does not mean it can't make exponential economic growth by placing a few (I usually do five on a ten Planet quality planet) [ stock ]markets and thus, you will usually have good money for making all those expensive (around 1,111 bc) starbases away from your *chuckles* center of galactic gravity .

-Joren out (for now )

Thank you for answering my questions. I do have one question though.

3) Influence starbases don't increase morale on your own or anyone else's planets. They increase your influence which is only good for cultural "flipping" an opponents planet or preventing your planet from "flipping" to an opponent.

So, is this "flipping" different then the flipping that might occur if you morale drops below 30%? And is there a parameter I could look out to judge the affect of influence? Specifically, if another race builds an influence starbase near my planets, how can I moniter its affects and see if I need to destroy it for the sake the health of my planets (or tolerate it so as not to lead to war)?

Thanks

No doubt that an array of 16 military SB's is micromanagement. At 28 constructors per 16 SB's that's 448 constructors. This is certainly not everyone's cup of tea.

And the Understatement-of-the-year-Award goes to....Mumblefratz! I once managed to get 11 fully loaded econ bases around my research capitol. By that time, I no longer needed to do any research.

I didn't realize they could affect your military rating, though. That might be something. Otherwise, I haven't found a way to make military bases useful in my style of play.

To see if your influence bases are affecting another planet, or theirs are affecting your planet, click on the planet and look at the IP of the planet. The number in parenthises right after that is a multiplier of foreign influence. If this number gets above 4.00, than a red skull icon appears around the planet, and there is a chance it will flip. Even at high difficulty levels the AI never seems to put enough modules on there influence bases to threaten any of my planets.

Specifically, if another race builds an influence starbase near my planets, how can I moniter its affects

When you have a planet selected in the info in the center of the UI. You'll see Influence and a number, the number is what your planet is producing. Next to that is a number in perentheses, that is the foreign influence on the planet, if it gets above 4.00 you'll see the skull and crossbones symbol, meaning the planet has a chance of rebelling to the outside influence. BTW a high morale can help stave off the effects of outside influence making your planet harder to flip.

So, is this "flipping" different then the flipping that might occur if you morale drops below 30%?

I'm not sure because I've never had an approval that low (I highly recommend that you avoid it as well). But I think that planets revolting because of low approval is similar, but instead of joining another empire they form a faction of your own. In either case you lose the planet. (Someone help me out here, is this right?)

I once managed to get 11 fully loaded econ bases around my research capitol. By that time, I no longer needed to do any research.

Try 108 fully populated economic SB's (7 constructors each), 24 resource mining SB's (8 constructors) *and* 16 military SB's (28 constructors). Do you wonder why this game has taken me eight weeks? Particularly without a dependable auto-launch to rally point? Some evenings I finish one turn in two hours. Talk about painful rectal itch.

BTW a high morale can help stave off the effects of outside influence making your planet harder to flip.

I did not know this. Are you sure?

I did not know this. Are you sure?

When I was a noob asking about flipping planets, I was told by people that a high morale will make it harder to flip planets. I have to admit, it is heresay. I never saw anyone dispute it though, when it was told to me. Maybe Kryo or someone can confirm if this is true or not. I hate giving false info, but sometimes all you got to go by is what you've read on here. If I don't see others dispute a claim, I have to take it as at least having some truth. There's enough knowledgable people on here someone would speak up, I would think.

sometimes all you got to go by is what you've read on here

Ain't that the truth. I checked the galactopedia, the manual and cyberj914's FAQ on gamefaqs.com but found no reference to it. But as you say, that doesn't mean it's not true.

In any case it seems that my planets flip far more quickly than the AI's do once the influence ratio gets above 4, and I *always* keep my approval above 80%, so I wouldn't count too heavily on this effect.

BTW I've not seen any reference to cyberj914's FAQ on this site and I've found it to be a very useful reference. It's a bit dated as its last update was v1.1 but as I said it's still useful, especially for noobs. Anyone interested can use the following link and then click on FAQs & Guides.

GALACTIC CIVILIZATIONS II DREAD LORDS FAQ

You got me thinking bout this Mumble. I want to try to test it, but with a lot of the planet flipping stuff happening under the surface,(the rolls and that) it would probably be pretty difficult to get an accurate gauge. I have had situations in game where I would have several planets in a system rebelling. One would rebel almost immediately, while the others held on for years till conquered. If I run into this situation again, I'll try to get all the info I can on the various factors that could be different from planet to planet.

I read cyberj's FAQ back in june/july helped me a lot to get started when I was learning the ropes, along with the insight of the community here.