While playing I thought of a governor system to help with managing starbases. It doesn't require any major changes to the current starbase/contructor system but would still greatly simplify things. I think the changes might be simple enough to include in a patch, but I'm not a developer so I can't say for sure.


Basically. add a special governor section for each type of starbase (Military, Economic, Influence) in the Civilization Manager screen. Each section would list all available upgrades for that kind of starbase; the player can "queue" what upgrades he/she thinks is necessary for that particular starbase type and arrange them by priority.

On the details page for each starbase (double clicking the starbase on the main map) you can check a box if you want that starbase managed by the governor system. On the main map, each starbase that is being managed will be highlighted and will have number by it; the number representing how many upgrades there are until the queue is full. When a constructor is sent to and reaches a managed starbase, it automatically constructs whatever upgrade is next on the queue and one is subtracted from the number.


To give an example, lets say I have a basic non-upgraded economic starbase next to each one of my planets. I go to the economic starbase governor and queue up all of my desired upgrades; first Ray-Shielding, Combat Armor, then Missile Defender (for defence), then Starbase Factory and Adv. Starbase Factory (for the econ bonus), and finally Battle Stations (for some offence capability). I then activate the governor system for each of my econ starbases; on the main map they are all highlighted with a the number 6 by them (six upgrades queued up for each one). As I send constructors to each one each upgrade is automatically built. From the main map I can easily tell how many consrtuctors I need and where to send them. When a new upgrade becomes available, like Massive Scaling Center, I can simply go to the governor screen and add it into the queue. The main map is updated automatically, so I know each starbase now needs one more constructor.


This system would give an at-a-glance status on all of the typical starbases in a person's empire and eliminate the hassle of selecting each upgrade from a menu when the constructor arrives. The starbase governor system is totally optional, so if you have a starbase that needs special attention you can just disable the governor and manage it manually.

Thoughts, comments, suggestions? I tried to keep it simple enough so that the devs might actually consider implimenting it. If a dev is reading this: even if my above suggestion doesn't sound good, please do something about constuctor management! It's the only major flaw I can see in this otherwise awesome game.

I have posted this before but I agree, the constructor phase is the most boring part of the game. I would rather they were like planets once established and you could just spend money to improve. I get it over with as soon as possible. Max out my mining bases for extraction only. I build very few econ bases around my key planets. Tech capital, manu cap and econ cap and maybe a few when I can build a econ to cover multipul planets. Econs only help you spend money, not bank it.

I build my trade routes all from my manu cap and put trade boosters bases along the way.

I never add a defence or offence modules to any unless I'm clicking to fast and do it by mistake.

When at war, I rarely loose any bases as the AI is more concerned about protecting the 4 or 5 planets I'm taking every turn then attacking my starbases.

Yeah - I spend ages on it. I've just stopped attempting to build influence starbases now. I used to have stacks of colonies churning out constructors - but it took ages to set up and a nightmare to figure out how many ships where enroute to which starbases.

The developers have known for ages that lots of people find all their time taking up by what is basically a boring bit of gameplay. As they've not done anything about it in previous patches (not sure what could be done with it) I very much doubt that its ever going to be solved - its just going to be one of those annoying things you look back on when you remember the game!

I use my extras to snag resources that are freed up by wars.
I usually get 40-50 extras ready just for wars by other civs, to snag econ or influence resources as they become free.

There is always a use for extra constructors. You just might have to wait, but a use will show up eventually.

I wish the aspect of constructor management was traded more for fleet management, so instead of building constructors, build your initial starbase with a constructor and let the starbase do it's own upgrading duh it is a starbase right? Not the Something armed with the Devastation beam should have more power generation and manufacturing capacity then the "Mir" LOL.

Anyway, then the challenge would be to provide logistical support, I like how the starbases allow you to expand your traveling distance. This is awesome, but it would be cool if you could do this with constructor ships as well, allowing them to have their own radius. I do this with sensor ships, rather then upgrading starbases, just make a layer or sensor armed ships, I'll even build a chassis ship with fast engines only send it out to space, and then upgrade it to a slow 1 or 2 sectors/turn ship speed but armed with a large survey area capacity. I wish you could do something similar with a logistical ship. Well just an idea, not like this area of the game really bothers me. I don't like the time spent on making constructors so much of the actual production but I can see that is makes sense. In the larger games it does get tedious but so what. It's still gotta be done.

here here! I don't like messing around with constructors and starbases but find it neccessary to do so. I don't use rally points either because I feel they're clumsy. Just thought I'd add my vote to the debate!   

Excellent logistical thinking for naming Starbases!   

Thank you all for your responses; not too bad for my first thread here =D

Managing constructors doesn't become a hassle for me until I have thirty or so planets in a larger galaxy; with a two or three new constructors being built every turn it's very tedious trying to get them all to the appropriate starbases, especially as new upgrades become available. If I could tell at a glance what starbases need improvement it would help a great deal.

I agree that eventually an overhaul of the constructor/starbase system would be ideal, but that's very unlikely to happen until GalCiv3. That's why I proposed by above suggestion; it seems simple enough to add to a patch and doesn't effect the basic way constructors and starbases work (so no rebalancing needed), it's just a little bit of optional extra information and automation to help the player.

The starbase naming system is a very good idea. So far I haven't bothered at all to name individual ships or bases, but having a recognizable name should help me mentally juggle all the needs of my starbases a little better. Still, the addition of a starbase governor/queue system and some visual indicator on the map would be a great help.

The basic notion is ergonomic--build a UI that doesn't force so many repetitive clicks on folks.

I think you hit the nail on the head. A functional waypoint involves clicking the rally point button, clicking the location, renaming the rally point to something useful (clicking through menus...), double clicking on a ship and clicking rally point (hitting T helps bypass this), then clicking the waypoint and clicking OK. It's much easier to just click the ship, scroll on the map, and click where I need it to go. And with constructors I have to scroll to the starbase to see what upgrades it has anyway, so a rally point isn't practical.

A better waypoint system isn't my biggest concern though, I just want something to help me manage my constructors and starbase upgrades better (but if they do that by revamping the waypoint system that's fine by me).

I found building starbases way too tedious and time consuming. So...I don't do it anymore. I build them sparingly and only add the modules I need to increase their effectiveness. To defend them, I put a nice heavly armed fleet underneath them.

When you do upgrade a starbase, fleet up your constructors first. Assuming you have all the techs, you can upgrade an influence starbase to fully effective in one fell swoop with a fleet consisting of 11 constructors, 7 for a mining starbase.

I've stopped upgrading my starbases completely in my game now, I'm just too frustrated trying to manage them all. I think in future games I might try Uatu's method of having only a few planets building the constructors; that should help me oragnize them better. I'm also not going to bother with econ bases anymore, maybe just a couple for my very high production planets.
Please Stardock, give us some way to better manage starbases and constructors!

Right now you can't say everybody building constructors go here without going to each planet

You sort of can, depending on what all your planet rally points are set to when you start building a given type of ship. Try experimenting with the Governors tab in the Civilization manager. I've been using a small set of rally points & the Governors tab for a while, and adding CraigHB's tactic of collecting several fleets without using them has really helped me cut down on constructor tedium in my latest very long game.

I'd probably use lots more rally points if the little window was sizable and the list box a bit smarter, e.g. able to filter by rally point type & able to move the main map to the selected rally point.

I find this part of the game tedious also. I'm still a starbase nut, I build tons of them, mostly Econ for planetary groups or Influence to flip neighbors. A few Military ones at galactic "choke points". When the turn comes and seven or more of new constructor messages cue up I sigh.

I like the Starbase Governor idea. It does say (or I thought I read it somewhere) that can you automate ships coming out of a planet to muster at rally points, but so far I've yet to find it or figure out how its accomplished.

One simple improvement would be a "Auto Upgrade" button on the planet governor for Constructors created. Of course its makes more sense to put it on the Constructors themselves but that would necessitate clicking on each and every one and activating it, which would be almost as much work (if not more)