In the dev stream on July 11, they mentioned that the starports were going to get a defense, as well as starbases. They also mentioned talking about Drengin not starting with weapons and the ranging issues will be modified. Unless they give more direct details on exactly what they are going to provide in terms of defense of the starport, we'll have to wait and see.

When I mentioned defense, I was referring to military ships defending the starport, these military ships have offensive capabilities, but the inherit defense of the starport would hinge on such fighting ships.

By 'defense' do they mean shields and armor, or the capability to fight off attackers...?

Not sure, they said defense. They were rather vague on the whole thing, probably since the combat system hasn't been finalized. You can see the stream http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-noLeOF71RI&list=UUUCMPd9b70oNX51guypaYhw at around 21:45.

I am assuming they mean more than just shields / armor otherwise it is exactly the same issue. I'll just have to 'plink' you to death to win. But who knows until we see it.

I too don't like the idea of mobile star ports.

Choose the tile to build it in, within X tiles from the constructing planet.

Don't give it weapons by default, just give the option of building basic defensive weapons with a maintenance cost if built.

If you need to put in a better location, decommission it and build another.

Long term protection will require a docked defence fleet.

One idea- instead of making it a battle unit, give all static structures a value which a fleet has to surpass in order to destroy it.  Otherwise they can't attack it.

This makes you build up a sufficient force to attack bases/planets

I actually like this idea. I simple value that can be modded up, down or out is a great idea. Put it a low/medium value at launch of game and allow fellow players to mod or adjust it as they desire. Again putting the taste of gameplay back on the player instead of hardcoded choices that others may not like on down the line. 

Pardon me for saying this, but I think this is just plain too cheesy a way to solve this problem. It reminds me of some of the ways some games have tried to solve problems on the cheap. It just doesn't fit the StarDock style of creating games. It lacks believability.

Yes lucky it does make for a cheesy road block and lacks any credibility, however it would solve the problem and keep the solution simple both at the same time. 

Give Stationary objects & Star ports a 'combat' rating which is really just an indication of how strong the object is (it includes, gun platforms, AA, shields built deep in the platform, ect.) Fleets have a numerical value we look at anyway, you can simply say your rating must equal or exceed 40 to attack and destroy this object, 3 drengin bombers each with '6' missiles could not touch it, but 6 of them would or a ship that had both defense & shields added up to equal 40 would. 

Simply tossing ideas into the creative Alpha Pot so to speak. 

Agreed, Larsenex. It would work, but the cheapness of it would be very apparent.

Your ideas are good ones. I just don't think they fit in with the GC pattern, and I think SD has built the game in a way that makes it very easy to add a much more elegant and credible solution to this problem.

What's cheap about it?  Just say that the amount is the damage the base can repair easily, so if a fleet can't exceed that, they can't destroy the starbase.

I think a 1hp litter box with a peashooter shouldn't be able to destroy a hulking starport easily.