Starbases?

It takes 5 constructors, plus Terror Star tech, plus 5000bc to make a terror star.

The tech tree over at Javascout's web site includes all possible starbase modules.
http://webpages.charter.net/trevorpowdrell

I use trade and production enhancements mostly (along with resource mining).

Oh yeah, you don't have to actually HAVE 5000bc to build a terror star. If you have 1 bc in the bank you can still build 5 terror stars that turn, and you'll be at -24999bc. And then the next turn you can still build 5 more and be at -49999bc.

I would consider this a bug; I don't know if they're fixing it in 1.11 or 1.12....

1 It takes four upgrades and 5000BC to turn a starbase into a Terror Star (once you have the Terror Star technology).
2 My usual starbases are designed for one single purpose. I use these types:

A resource base - build a base on a resource somewhere in space and upgrade it with the Mining techs to improve your entire empire

+50% trade (Build several in a sector where your mini-freighters spend a lot of time. If you have a lot of trade routes going to and from the same place this is quite effective.)

+2 speed (In the other sectors in the same trade route. This will cause your mini-freighters to spend more of their journey in the sector with your +x% trade bases.)

Party Palace base. (For cultural conquest, when you have the right techs - build two or three in a sector adjacent to one with AI worlds in and they should eventually switch to your side.)

There are other sorts of bases that I don't normally use, though they can be effective in the right place. For example:

Production bonus base: Build one with all the 'Social and military production' enhancements. These work best in sectors where you have several good planets.

I tend not to build any defensive modifications on my bases, but this is linked closely to my diplomatic/military strategy - I make sure that in war, I am always the aggressor.

3. You can find links to them on this site - http://webpages.charter.net/trevorpowdrell/sbmodules1.htm


~SDC~

not ever having seen one. i take it that the terror star is this games equivalent of the death star from star wars?
does it serve any other use?

thanks
damn newbie questions!!

If you have all the culture modules on it it can just as easily be used to flip systems.

~SDC~

Yup, terror stars are like the Death Star, except they make the star go nova, destroying the whole star system (rather than just one planet).

Some people like using them as mobile "culture stars." Load up the TS with cultural modules and march it through the enemy's sectors, watching enemy systems flip in its wake. Personally I think this tactic is too slow (terror stars move at 1 space per turn, which can't be increased) but some people disagree.

mmmmmn. got to get me one of those
i take it the party palace is the cultural opposite of the terror star then?

starting to get the idea now.

Not really it's a terror star either way. It's just optional wether or not you add the cultural moduels.

~SDC~

The terror star is just a 4 constructor 5000 bc add-on to your generic starbase. Terror stars move one space per turn so one might think of them as (barely) mobile starbases. You can add any module to terror starbases that you like. You can even move resources with terror stars albeit slowly. Have fun

thanks guys. this helps. maybe this will stop me getting my backside whipped so easily in the later stages of a gigantic map (he says hoping).

LOL. 4 of us answered at about the same time.



Party palace is a starbase module. A starbase with a party palace and cultural maximization takes a total of 7 constructors IIRC. These are very effective to culturally "flip" opponents to your culture but they are not mobile. Many find that 4 to 6 of these party palace enhanced starbases in sectors adjacent to an opponent AI are very effective in culture flipping. Some call this strategy "culture bombing".

A terror star looks like a silver basketball while a regular starbase looks like a 5 pointed star. I call all of the basketballs, "terror stars" and all of the 5 pointed stars "starbases".

You can turn starbases into terror stars. Or, you can modify terror stars with a party palace and cultural maximization module to make terror stars mobile culture flippers.

My most common use of starbases is for an end-game alpha strike (attack all planets simultaneously) to end the game. Usually, it is a hurry-up thing when I have the game won and don't want to build 100 combat transports to conquer 10 huge star systems. A couple of times on maso level, I built terror stars because I was desperate and was getting clobbered. Terror stars work well to turn to game around when you have enough time to get the constructors out and have enough bc. Hope this helps.
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a lot
thanks

This is ok in a tiny galaxy but in gigantic,
Excaliburs move at 17, transports 7.
Terror Stars should move at the same speed as Transports.
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There is a bug around that makes them move faster under the right circumstances . . . LOL

Which is useful on a gigantic map
~SDC~
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anyone know what this bug is, and how it works?

Basically you have to stack the TS with some other ship, and at some point (not sure how quickly, it may take a while for the bug to kick in) you'll be able to move the whole stack, including the TS, at the rate of the ship that it's stacked with.