"I think Earth may of been class 16 come to think about it. Next time I get such a poor quality starting planet I will quit before I even begin.
"

Ouch...yah that'll do it to you... I usually wont take a starting PQ of 18 or less unless I get a really killer starting position (tons of yellows nearby, etc)

As to the starbase thing, I've not noticed the major hits on my economy from starbases as yet, and I got quite a few of them on the map. In the above scenario in which I got the Drengens off my next, I think I had about 7 starbases, two of which were stacked in the same sector. I occupied a morale resource as well as a military resource. My economy is holding as I've stated above in the 160 to 180 range, so I'm not doing that badly.

One thing I've noticed, and this is a first was that I got FLOODED by freighters coming from everyone. I'm getting alot of income from trade. I've not had to blow money on research because I used my morale boosting trade items to wheel and deal with the AI. I'm not sure if the extra difficulty I'm encounter is more to do with the higher left I chose to play, or if 1.03 is harder, but my usual antics tactics seem to work (with a couple cursory changes of course)

seanB

Brad, would it be possible to alter the starbase cost along these lines: on founding a starbase it costs you 1 BC maintenance, then +1 BC per module until it reaches 5 BCs (capped at 5)? As it is you get hit with the full maintenance cost at the time when the base does the least. It just seems wrong that a bare-bones refueling base costs in maintenance exactly as much as a starbase that's been upgraded with 25 or so modules.