[Arkcon]

In the standard game, baseships are a little slow. Only a litle really - at max tech you have speed 8, which is faster then at the start of the game. Slow to build, slow to get to the front, which is scretched wide by that late in the game.

But they're not really an uber weapon. Even with the added space, they're outmanuvered in combat by battleships, cause they're so slow.

But, you can throw all that away if you use Suicide Junkie's Pirates and Nomads mod. With QNP, you can get a reasonably fast, well defended ship -- with the pure liquid joy of the massive mount wave motion gun.