Space Stations--Pros/Cons

[General Hawkwing]

Pro-Supplies: I will build a space station as a forward base/defense point in a system near my frontier. I then run my explorer ships back to it, merge into a fleet and then separate on the next turn. Both the station and my ship(s) now have full supplies.

Pro-Defense: They make good early warp point monitors until satellites can be researched.

Pro-Construction: The only way to get extra space yards, since planets can now only have one.

Con-Immobile: While I agree a space station should not be able to go flying across the universe (unlike the Death Star), I do believe that they should have movement capability in tactical combat. Not equivalent to a ship's movement, put enough to keep between a ship and a planet.

Con-Placement: Multiple space stations near a planet should be evenly distributed around it, not grouped near one another.

[Instar]

Hey and they're big.
You're right about the immobile thing. Manuevar is a very important part of warfare.

[R'tal]

I have succesfully discovered a way to give stations movement points! Simpy add an emergency propulsion pod, you can then have 5 movement points for your station! I'm not sure if it will actually MOVE, but it shows up as having 5/0 movement points.
Telek R'tal
Grand Admiral
R'kallian Expanse

[Lerchey]

Sorry, it doesn't work. You can include the component on your space station, and use it, but the station still can't move. The "move" and "warp" orders simply don't function, and if you include in a fleet with normal ships, the space station essentially turns off the move option for the whole fleet.

Kudos for thinking out of the box, but it doesn't get you mobile space stations. Guess your Death Star will have to be a base ship.

John

[General Hawkwing]

Just to restate my point: I am not looking for a Death Star but some moving ability in combat. Another issue with space stations (which could be related to inability to move) is that when my spies take over an enemy space station I can not use the station to attack the planet it is orbiting.

[Master Belisarius]

Lerchey is 100% right: the Base Ship is like a Star Base but with engines...
But I must say that this kind of ships are useless against human players... you need so many time and money to finish one of them.

General Hawkwing: yea... you can not start an attack against one planet, with a battle station... but anyway you will be blockading the planet.

[General Hawkwing]

One way to work around the immobility of space stations would be to allow them a greater range of fire than ships for the same weapon. That would eliminate the ability of ships to move in to fire and then move out of range during one combat turn. The current system allows (early game example) and escort armed with meson II to defeat a space station armed with meson II without getting a scratch.

[Fionn]

That's a good idea. Not only does it balance things a bit, but it is also easy to believe a fixed and stable firing platform would have a longer effective range compared to something that is on the move.

Another option might be to increase the range for the larger weaponry mounts. That'd give the same advantage to larger ships as it would to stations of the same size, but it'd still add an advantage over the smaller varieties.

I realize it would require a lot of work to retro-fit into the current system, so this'd be something for the wish list, but an opportunity fire option would also be nice. Just hold your fire and wait, and bLast 'em when they come dancing into range! :-)

[jars_u]

I don't think weapons ranges for a fixed platform, space station, should be any longer then a ship. In space I don't really think such considerations would come into play as much as they do in an atmospheric enviornment. But, having bigger or different weapons that can only be placed on space stations I think would be a good idea. Allowing them greater firing range would offset their inability to move, but I still think there should be some limited movement allowed at least around a planet, not so much forward and back, as in changing the orbit of the stations so that it is between the planet and the attacking fleet - so just a circular movement kind of thing.

[Klauss]

Now we have heavy weapon mounts which do double damage or so if fired.
On thing could be the introduction of heavy long range weapon mounts which are more expensive but have a longer range. This is similar to MOO2 heavy weapons.
This could help a space station.
A second thing could be a space station "afterburner" wich allows it to move a number of tactical squares per turn.
For example if it has a station afterburner 2 (which should be a medium till high technology component) it could move 2 squares per tactical turn.
In this way a player can differentiate between combat stations (with afterburner and long range mounts ) and non-combat stations (for building or repairing)

klaus