Go to the Metaverse and click on Simulator. I'm not sure about the source.

I find that it is not worth the resources spent on constructors to build up defense once you get past the frigate stage. Dreadnaughts eat through starbases, even fully upgraded. It would be cheaper to stack some ships on top of the starbase instead of building five constructors for defense. That's quite a bit of resouces right there, especially with increased constructor costs.

I use starbases almost exclusively for mining resouces until late game when I don't have much else to build. It becomes upgrade defense -or- upgrade mining. It's hard to field many starbases that are up to speed on defense and mining. Let alone have constuctors left to make trading/production/military/culture starbases.

I think that the modules should be condensed; ie +5 or +10 at a time. Not +5, +3, +2, +2, +3. It really becomes a drain on resources to make sure that one roaming dreadnaught won't blow up your starbase. I don't really likek stacking a bunch of Battle Hammers on a starbase for defense, but that's the only way I can have starbases that DO something without lots of miliary spending producing 100% constructors.

Also I'll just put a plug in here for late game defense ships. It's silly to have Avatars/Overlords be the only ship worth producing in late game, for both offense and defense.

Ha. The Poor babies on the starbases. I have seen no pleasure palaces complete with their brothels and the like on starships..........

Starbase combat modules are generally a waste of time unless you are playing on very small maps. A good sensor net with ship patrols and a stock of missiles are far more efficient at defending starbases and any other assests you might possess.

The propensity for the AI to upgrade starbases fully in v1.03 has created yet another weakness for human players to exploit. It only takes one, maybe two 300 BC missile to blow up a fully upgraded starbase with a 5,000+ BC price tag after all.

Starbases simply need to use their own weapon pods to defend themselves. See post #9 for why.

Anyone else wonder what the defence 'counter attack' is? I mean, you have 10 defence (aka 5 attack) - what the heck is that?

"Oh no, the Yor is opening fire sir"
"Don't worry Jim"
"but captain we'll be destroyed... "
large explosion
"hahahaa stupid Yor tried to ram us again"

LOL LOL

Albow, ship to ship (or ship to starbase) combat runs in phases. The ship that initiated the attack rolls a number from 0 to its Att value, and the one that didn't rolls a number from 0 to its Def value. If the Att roll is higher than the Def roll, the defender loses the difference in hit points. Then the two switch. If the ship that was originally attacked has a higher Def than Att, half of its Def is added to its Att.

FWIW, Lightning Shield Generators were moved down to Dreadnought tech in 1.03A, so that might help some.

Is the decision about adding half of Def to Atk made before or after your military bonuses come into account? And is the half of Def value calculated before or after the same?

The half Def is added after the bonuses from your civ's tech, discoveries and resources, and also applies to Starbase Defense modules.

I think the rule could be described as inverting the shield (Earth and Beyond), reflecting the energy, or focusing the defensive phasers.

There seems to be some potentially nasty consquences to researching too much weapon tech vs. deense tech in that case.

Say you have a ship with attack 10, defense 20, and through research and resources and such you get it up to 29/30. That's great, effectively you have 44 attack (29 attack + half defense) Then you get another 10 percent to attack through some means, the stats become 30/30, and you effectively lose 14 attack points.