Old thread but still going, either there's merit or tenacity
I think having all star bases move (inside their own gravity well) is a fine idea IF the movement is SO SLOW that during a fight it is already too late to move.
All Vasari starbase tactics are good and balanced according to the majority due to the early game disadvantages of the Vasari, I haven't played enough to argue, however I do think that having starbases permanently stuck doesn't match the technology level or any of the races; humans invented the tugboat concept a long time ago.
So I agree with the first point in that Starbases shouldn't be stuck however I disagree that they should move fast enough to move around and attack.
The OP could suggest other options though for buffing the Advent and TEC Starbases to counter Vasari building starbases outside of the range of Advent and TEC starbases and then fighting when fully upgraded.
An idea for each of the races which I think match their race bonus and would counter the early game Vasari Starbase build tactic are written below but they are just random ideas:
Advent Starbase: Passive upgradable ability that very slowly damages all enemy ships/starbases in the gravity well. The damage stacks for each individual ship/structure to get stronger the longer the enemy stays in your gravity well, such that in the time it takes to build and upgrade a Vasari Starbase in the same gravity well, to the same level as the local Advent Starbase, the Vasari Starbase would be at 75% health, and it would be forced to get rid of the Advent Starbase. Name it something about Unwanted Presence, the slow but limitless energy of the advent's hatred.
TEC Starbase: Passive upgradable ability that very slowly drags all enemy ships/starbases in the gravity well closer to your stabase. The drag effect gets stronger the lower% health the starbase is, such that when the TEC starbase is 15% and about to red button the enemy has to have planned to be running full tilt away in order to get away in time or destroy it before it blows. All enemy starbases during their construction and after would also need to be dragged in although it is not technically a ship, and because their movement speed is so low they cannot escape the Red Button. Seems overpowered but hey its just an idea. Name it something about gravity/heavy mass energy harnessed from the reactors as they overload from getting damaged
Spreading the uniqueness of the Vasari Starbase is probably a step in the wrong direction, so I suggest adding options to the Advent and TEC Starbases such as those above might be a better way to satisfy the OP
THESE WOULD MEAN LOTS OF BALANCING BUT ARE ALTERNATIVE OPTIONS -phew all caps cause its yelled loudly
Then again, I think having the Advent and TEC Starbases move at 0.5-1% of the speed of the Vasari starbase such that it would need to begin moving 10/20/30minutes before a fight in order to get into position. And if the phase lane you need to defend changes during the game your able to shift your front line defenses EVENTUALLY. Or if you updgrade your red button and see that the extra range means all your hangers will explode, then you can shift that tiny bit in about 5-10minutes or so but too late during the fight. Therefore the fight tactics will remain the same, but the
tl;dr It is a fine idea for the purpose of shifting a starbase between combat, but only moving at 1% of the speed of the Vasari Starbase. This option would be the easiest to implement as at that speed it wouldn't even need movement animations and wouldn't really change any race balances
