starbases need to have anti-strikecraft weapons

/SIGNED!

Do starbases need improvements with all these titans coming out?

YES.

Perhaps starbase improvements don't just need to be TEC loyalist related... perhaps they need to all be improved to some degree, like increasing HP/armor upgrades across the board for all factions so that starbases are more relevant to the game in the long term. 

It should be the 3rd upgrade level of offensive weapons. I'd disagree if they came equipped.

/signed

with the exception of vasari starbases... they need some sort of weakness. 

Wierd, I didn't find that strikcraft effectivity increased by any big margins. All factions have an ability that helps in some way against strikecraft installed on their hangar bay (especially TEC and Vasari, but Advent get help too with increased numbers in strikecraft and powerful passive shield regen), and a starbase in a neutral well should not be left on their own anyways. Not to mention that corvettes can now cheaply counter strikecraft at tier 1.

If the starbase was to gain effective anti-strikecraft weapons the only counter safe for overwhelming them with power would be anti-structure units, seeing how easy it is to counter strikecraft with other units or structures I'm not sure it's really neccesary to remove strikecraft as a weakness...

if you've ever played against the advent you'd realize they tend to like to use strike craft and in that case it would help to have anti SC weapons on SB's

And there is a point where the AAA can't stop the flood of SC. Add in the fact that SC are virtually free and you have a win situation if you go in with enough bombers.

Just how effective do you want to make the starbase AA defenses? If the enemy bomber swarms are so effective as to overwhelm everything else, just what kind of effect would any reasonable (as in not stupidly powerful) amount of starbase AA have? Even the Beta 1 titans folded like cardboard against sufficient numbers of strikecraft.

Yes, I happen to have played against advent before, and I do know both human advent players and AI like to use drone hosts and carrier caps. This was the main reason why in defensive situations I picked the habit of placing two to four hangar bays in close proximity to my starbases. Other than that it should be more important to take out the sources of the spam instead of trying to completely nullify the effect of those strikecraft. Which, again, should be done by the protective fleet. In your own or neutral gravity wells close to enemy territory something like a protective fleet should exist, or at least be closeby.

Edit: Also, the player using that large number of carriers had to invest lots of time and resources into producing all those ships, where is the worth in investing into carriers if their only weapon was shredded by a lone starbase? Ogrovs are a lot cheaper and kill starbases easily. Of course the carriers kill everything else, too. But looking at their supply and resource cost they should do that.

I agree entirely starbases need a facelift with the addition of titans.  Especially for the TEC & advent who's starbases are less suited to dealing with very hard targets(such as titans). The presence of titans is a pretty big blow to the defense provided by starbases.

I disagree on adding *default* antiair to starbases.  After all, only 1 of the three factions has access to the alternative to bombers(Ogrovs).  That said, I think the starbase upgrades tailored to making a starbase more resistant to bombers should be stronger(which is largely to say the extra strikecraft upgrade).  After all if a starbase spends actual upgrades to resist bombers it will be more vulnerable to direct assault due to the 8 upgrade cap.  default AA is a bad Idea though.

Vasari Starbases needs no buffs though, being that they can move, can be used more efficiently to attack enemy planets or control neutal garvity wells then the other two starbases(not to mention extra level of weapons upgrades & frontal deflector make it terrifying already).

a fully upgraded titan will eat a titan any day of the week lol

and i agree to sb should get AA weapons but only as a weapon upgrade

Starbases definitely need anti-strike craft weapons. Never understood why a bunch of bombers and fighters should be able to tackle an immense structure like that so easily, the starbase just being a sitting duck. It's time for change!

Giving the Starbases AA weapons in addition to the hangars you can build as protection around it would simply cripple Advent's ability to attack a fortified world at all, given that the Adjudicator is nowhere near as effective against Starbases as the Ogrov is.

What else are they supposed to attack it with?

Yeah this one can go either way.  but All of the titans have some type of AA ability thus far.  the Advent Rebel Titan even has repulse.  The AA's on the Titans don't stop strikecraft and bombers completely but it helps.  I've been saying the same thing since Entrechment, who would build such a large structure without AA guns?

Like others I always just put a couple of hangers next to my starbase and for the most part that helps - but if a fleet jumps in in 50 bombers I expect my Starbase to die hard and fast - that's part of the fun and strategy of the game.

As  you can see - im on the fense, if they add it - it should be limited.

I say,

- just make the Flaks as powerful against bombers as against fighters

- build 10 of them, send them to starbase

- add Guard command, so you  can assign them to stick to the SB (even if the SB moves in case of vasari) 

its part of the design, really. If you add AA to SB, there is no incentive to build flaks or hangars. 

Sure there is.  The SB's AA wouldn't(Realistically) be more than say 4-8 flack frigates worth of firepower.  That's not nearly enough to make bomber swarms pop, but it would keep all but the full-size assault away from them.  7 Light Carriers can field the same number of strikecraft as a SB, and unless the SB is all Fighters(Which is a mistake) then those 7 LC could just sit on the sidlines whie their bombers ate the SB away.  Giving it Flak would make the enemy dedicate a decent fleet to taking down the SB if they were going Strike-craft heavy.

Note:  This is a dramatization, I am aware nobody is dumb enough not to send a fleet in to take out the carriers.  It's just unrealistic that the SB has to rely in fighters to defend it from a threat that a couple of light turrets could do just as easily, and constantly without fear of losing them every 10 seconds.

-Twi

I think it just needs light AA, a large amount of bombers should be a counter in my opinion to a starbase. Because the Vasari and Advent do not have a real hard counter to them that is quick and easy to get. Also Ogrovs are to good against starbases in my opinion, but I won't go on about that.

I'm of a mind that Starbases NEED a hard counter like strike-craft.  A fully upgraded Starbase is just too beastly, especially when it has additional support (fleets, static defenses, friendly Titan, etc).

What I WOULD support though is the idea that there should be a better hard counter to carrier fleets.  When the inevitable corvette nerf comes around (and they probably do need it), I wouldn't mind at all if they ended up being especially good against carriers and somewhat resistant to strike-craft damage themselves.  They're already much faster than carriers which makes them good at chasing them down.

They only needed a hard counter pre-rebellion.  Now with titans and hyperspacing vasari SBs the tec and advent bases lost a great deal of their usefulness. 

It's also honestly just dumb they have no AA, even if it was only a token amount it makes no sense they are defenseless to something so basic as a fighter. 

They aren't defenseless to fighters or bombers. 14 strikecraft squads (20 for the advent) is anything but defenseless given you filled them at least halfway with fighters. Heck, TEC Loyalists can even have 28 if they want.

I haven't found any situation yet where I thought "oh man, my starbase sure sucks balls now". Especially in my own wells a mix of defensive buildings kills any need of mine to have AA on the starbases (I usually only use strikecraft on starbases in neutral wells to take out carriers and Ogrovs/Adjudicators).

Hangar defenses are also very good at helping to defeat invading SC.  TEC flak is powerful.  Advent shields stack IIRC.  If I'm playing Vasari against someone that loves their SC, I'll build three: two with fighters, one with no SC and dedicated to phasing out enemy SC.

The shields only stack on beam platforms with synergy (up to 1750 shield points). However with the 9 drones per squad, the three squads per hangar bay and the 4 shield point per second restore rate it's still quite useful.

I had the AI build a SB.  ONE hangar bay filled with FIGHTERS blew up the starbase!

I agree!  A guard command would be a really good addition.