Empire-wide Unique Starbase buildings

[NotAYakk]

I would like to suggest empire-wide unique starbase buildings that depend on the system features.

1. Nebula
2. Pulsar
3. Each class of star (M, F, G, A, etc).
4. Trinary system (gravitational chaos lab)
5. Planetary Rings (yield scales with planet size)
6. Asteroid lab (yield scales with sum of asteroid sizes)
7. Gas Giants (yield scales with sum of gas giant sizes)
8. Barren planet (yield scales with planet size)

While this adds some texture to the game, the gameplay fun is to encourage people to interact with the "background" element of the game. In a sense, the star type and gas giant vs not doesn't matter to the gameplay.

Having these empire-wide unique labs gives you a reason to be excited about discovering a tasty system with 3 huge gas giants (for example), or a asteroid-heavy system.

 

[GhostDanny]

I'd rather have them being system unique, like the nebula refinery.
Which just makes more sense to me.

 

[NotAYakk]

I'd rather have them being system unique, like the nebula refinery.
Which just makes more sense to me.

Sure, but then they become "put in every starbase" building tax, or "suck why bother building" useless.

I want them to be *bigger* in effect than they would be if in every starbase, and I want the player to search for systems with certain properties. Rather than "look at list for what I put in this system" spam.

Finding the best place to study gas giants, the best place to study asteroids, etc.

And I described more than a dozen. Unless you have a large endgame empire, you could easily have one in every starbase; but you'd have to pick where you put your starbases to do this. If there is no "1 per empire limit", the game of paying attention to the system geography and putting starbases in the right spot to get these benefits goes away.

 

[3ishop]

But most of these it's like, why? They seem either just forget about it maybe build and forget about it. The micro of trying to find locations for them and work out the returns they'd give doesn't seem worth while.

 

[NotAYakk]

But most of these it's like, why? They seem either just forget about it maybe build and forget about it. The micro of trying to find locations for them and work out the returns they'd give doesn't seem worth while.

How do you know what the returns are? "It wouldn't be worth the cost benefit" when the benefit isn't defined doesn't make sense.

My point is you can make them have enough benefit to be worth doing.

Gravitational Lab: requires a trinary system. +100 physics +50 engineering
Nebular Bioscience Lab: requires a nebula system. +200 society research, +10 gas
Pulsar Forge: Requires a pulsar. +100 engineering research, -20 minerals, +50 alloys
Planetary Ring Sculpting College: (largest ringed planet in system size)*10 society research
Asteroid Research Center: +1% minerals from stations per size of asteroid in the system, +5 minerals per size of asteroid in system, +1 alloy per size of asteroid in system
Genesis Lab: Per size of largest barren planet, +0.5% empire wide hab, +10 society research
Stellar Seeding Project: (sum of gas giant sizes) * 5 physics and engineering and energy
Stellar Evolution Lab (G): +50 physics research
Stellar Evolution Lab (M): +50 physics research
Stellar Evolution Lab (A): +50 physics research

Making the benefits worth doing the work isn't hard.

 

[3ishop]

How do you know what the returns are? "It wouldn't be worth the cost benefit" when the benefit isn't defined doesn't make sense.

My point is you can make them have enough benefit to be worth doing.

Gravitational Lab: requires a trinary system. +100 physics +50 engineering
Nebular Bioscience Lab: requires a nebula system. +200 society research, +10 gas
Pulsar Forge: Requires a pulsar. +100 engineering research, -20 minerals, +50 alloys
Planetary Ring Sculpting College: (largest ringed planet in system size)*10 society research
Asteroid Research Center: +1% minerals from stations per size of asteroid in the system, +5 minerals per size of asteroid in system, +1 alloy per size of asteroid in system
Genesis Lab: Per size of largest barren planet, +0.5% empire wide hab, +10 society research
Stellar Seeding Project: (sum of gas giant sizes) * 5 physics and engineering and energy
Stellar Evolution Lab (G): +50 physics research
Stellar Evolution Lab (M): +50 physics research
Stellar Evolution Lab (A): +50 physics research

Making the benefits worth doing the work isn't hard.

Because unless it's getting payoffs like the mega structures it's not going to be worth it. Having to check every system I own and then run a spread sheet in the background isn't worth it. Those payoffs wouldn't be worth the hassle of that and become more just if I have starbase and the option appears.

 

[Kanzhuu]

I like the idea in principle, but I recently scanned the map for black holes and found it visually straining. I think the UI does not present the galaxy in such a way that is conducive to gameplay around its geography. Sadly.