Starbases

Starbases can be built at planets, and once built they will orbit that planet. Starbases are primarily used to build ships. Starbases can also repair damaged ships, recycle ships that are no longer useful and perform a range of other orders. Additionally, starbases greatly help in defending planets in battle.

Building costs

• 900 Megacredits
• 120 kilotons of Duranium
• 402 kilotons of Tritanium
• 340 kilotons of Molybdenum

Free tech natives
Some native races provide a base with free techlevels. Depending on the race, a base which is built over a planet with these natives gets one techlevel set to 10 for free. This applies to both shareware and registered players. To receive this free techlevel the appropriate natives have to be present at the time the base is built.

• Humanoids: give a base free hull tech 10
• Ghipsoldals: give a base free engine tech 10
• Amphibians: give a base free weapon (beam) tech 10
• Silliconoids: give a base free torpedo tech 10

In case of the Cyborg: as long as there are still natives at the moment you give orders to build the base (building bases comes way before assimilating natives) you will receive the free techlevel. You will keep this techlevel even after the last native has been assimilated, both with shareware and registered versions. New natives appearing on a planet that already has a base will not give that base any free tech levels nor allow shareware players to upgrade any techlevel beyond the shareware limitation.

Starbase techlevels are reduced by the damage the base (and the planet) has suffered in combat. A planet/base that is 70% damaged will have all it's techlevels reduced to a maximum of level 3. Previous build-orders will be maintained (if the base was set to build an all tech 10 ship, it still will) but it is impossible to buy new parts unless the techlevels are upgraded again.

Starbases work on ships
Starbases can, when given the order, repair&recrew (fix) a ship or recycle a ship. Only one ship per base per turn can be fixed or recycled, and only ships belonging to the starbase's owner can be fixed or recycled

Repair & Recrew (fix)
By giving a starbase the command to repair a ship, any damage the ship has will be fixed at no cost. Additionally, if the ship's crew is incomplete it will be completed, also at no cost (no clans are taken from the planet). As this happens before movement, it is possible to give a ship a waypoint and a heading, and have it arrived at it's destination completely fixed. During the flight the ship's warpspeed will not be limited by the damage.

The text in the Winplan helpfile is wrong; it only applies to the DOS version of VGA Planets:
"The Fix command allows you to repair damaged ships in orbit around this starbase's planet. The command also allows you to load torpedoes and fighters onto ships that are equipped with handle ether one. When you build torpedoes using the build torp command remember to build only the torpedo types that match the launcher types that you are using on your ships, otherwise the torpedoes will remain in storage."

-In Winplan, the fix command DOES NOT load torpedoes onto ships. This is done by the 'load fighters/torps' command.

Recycle
By giving a starbase the command to recycle a ship, the base's personnel will take the ship apart. The hull is converted back to minerals; engines, weapons, torpedoes and fighters will be stored at the base. Other than with the colonise ship command, the hull is 100% recycled into minerals.

If there is no room to store the fighters that are onboard a carrier which is being recycled (a base can hold a maximum of 60 fighters) the extra fighters go to waste.

Starbase orders
Starbases can have one of six Primary Orders set. Five of these orders take place after all ships have moved:

1. Maximum defense: The base will automatically build up defense strength to max. It will build as many base-defenseposts as it has money and Duranium minerals for. This mission does not influence the amount of defenseposts built on the planet, and does not build any fighters. One base-defense costs 10 megecredits and one unit of Duranium.
2. Unload Freighters: The base will automatically unload all cargo and money from ships at the base location that are of the base-owner's race or have the same friendly code as the planet/base. If the planet/base has a friendly code of "dmp" (dump ship components) or "bum" (beam up money) it can not unload cargo from ships belonging to other races. Colonists, unloaded from enemy or allied ships are added to the population of the starbase's owner.
3. Repair Base: The base will repair damage done to the base by enemy ships. This is done by 5% per turn and does not cost any resources.
4. Load torps onto ships: The starbase automatically loads all available torpedoes on all ships belonging to the same owner or his allies at that starbase. Only torpedoes which match the torpedo types of the ship(s) are loaded, and the amount of torpedoes loaded on the ships is ofcourse limited by their cargohold.
   Ships are loaded in order of ID: the lowest ID is loaded first, then the next and so on.
   To load torps onto allied or enemy ships they have to match the base's friendly code. Setting a formal alliance is not enough (and not necessary).
5. Refuel: The starbase will automatically transfer all it's fuel to orbiting ships, until there is no more fuel on the planet. Ships receive fuel in order of ID and ofcourse never more than there is room in their fueltanks. To refuel enemy or allied ships they have to match the base's friendly code. They don't need to be allied through the "ffX" ship-friendly codes.

Force Surrender
"Force a surrender" is the sixth possible Primary Order for a starbase. A starbase with this order set will attempt to force a surrender on all ships belonging to other races that are orbiting the starbase. Contrary to the other Primary Orders, this one is executed before ships move. A ship that is forced to surrender at a starbase will have it's waypoint reset and it's warp set to zero.

To surrender, a ship has to meet at least one of the following criteria:

• The ship's friendly code must be the same as that of the base.
• The ship must be out of fuel

Birdmen starships on a super spy mission are immune to the surrendering functions of starbases as long as they have at least one unit of fuel - if on Super Spy, they will likely match the planet's friendly code but will not surrender because of this. If the Birdmen ship switches it's mission to anything other than Super Spy it will surrender to a planets starbase if it has a matching friendly code and the starbase mission is set to force surrender.

A ship surrendering to a base will send a last message to it's (old) owner, while the new owner receives a similar message from his starbase:

Free fighters
Through the host configuration, it is possible to give the races a number of free fighters per turn at each of their starbases. By default, only the Evil Empire gets these 'free' fighters, they get five fighters per turn. These free fighters are built with minerals from the planet (3 tritanium and 2 molybdenum per fighter, as with all fighters). These fighters do not cost any money or supply-units. When you are given free fighters through the hostconfig, you can not disable this unless you make sure one or both of the required mineral are not present on the planet.

Dump parts
By setting a friendly code of "dmp" a starbase will convert most of the parts in the starbases storage bins back into minerals and dump them on the planets surface. Engines, beams and torpedoe tubes are disassembled into separate minerals and dumped on the planet's surface. This way, 100% of the minerals that were used to build the parts are converted back to raw minerals - regardless of the host-configurable colonisation rate. Torpedoes and fighters will not be dumped. While the planet/base's friendly code is set to "dmp" it can not unload cargo from ships belonging to other races using the starbase mission "unload freighters".