Bases, they sux now :(

For the firing range, you can change that in the tactics. I have'nt play much with it but it might work.

Live by the sword, die by the sword...

Have you researched all the way to the top of base technology? Some of the largest bases are HUGE.

Have you researched weapon mounts and then to the top of Base Weapon Mounts? Not only do weapon mounts add a lot of damage, Base Weapon Mounts add RANGE as well, iirc.

My limited testing has found 1 base to be the equivilant of around 4 or 5 dreadnaughts, for a lot less maintenance.

It looks like your best base is missing weapon mounts, which is a significant omission -- they increase weapon range and double, triple, or quadruple weapon damage. This should make a big difference in base survivability, though I suspect it'd still be taken down by fighters.

That said, it shouldn't be too difficult to mod the game to the specifications you'd like.

What's with the 13 year old girl?

There's a pic of a girl in your links. And he's not the one out of line here...
_______________________
There are 10 types of people in the world:

Those that understand binary, and those that don't.

LOL, That is the funniest thing i read here.... Somebody find the report button!

Live by the sword, die by the sword...

Why include a picture of a girl if that is not the point of the screenshot?

Back On Topic, I think you are missing the largest benefit of building a base. Bases get powerful, range enhansing and damage enhansing mounts. If you don't take advantage of them, you are missing out. That means researching Base mounts to the top, and replacing your seeking weapons with direct fire, Massive Base mount weapons. If you try this, you will see your Bases become much more powerful.

and she looks at least 15.

getting back on topic seekers are primary weapons for bases until you develop heavy or better base mounts at which point they become secondary replaced by beam weapons with extended ranges and damages. Of course not all bases are designed for combat though all of them should be at least lightly armed and heavenly protected as loss of a ship yard base to a raider constitutes a serious economic loss. If you have fighter tech fighter launch bases are also to be recommended

Note to the original poster next time you post a screen shot crop of any thing extraneous as forumites are easily distractible

and bases dont suck any where near as much as vacum cleaners ;}

Here's a way to make bases usefull in combat: Place 'em right on top of the warp point
_______________________
There are 10 types of people in the world:

Those that understand binary, and those that don't.

bases on choke warp points are essentail, I tend to build 3 types, outright attack, fighter base with loads of shields armour a space yard, fighter bays and cargo bays, and a builder yard with moderate attack and defense.

Build an outright attack 1st as that will be placed closest to the warp point. Then a fighter base, have the fighter base building fighters till its cargo holds and fighter bays are full then set it building a 2nd fighter base. After my ship yard has built these 2 yards I build a builder yard. The builder yard just churns out attack bases. On my home system I like to have at least half a dozen space stations in orbit.

If you are feeling really cheesy and have plenty of resources to spare then build a dirt cheap big space station (with a space dock), and make series of more expensive versions that you can just step upgrade it too make a full blown space station. These are far quicker to build that the full blown one, and as long as you don't make any upgrade more than 150% more expensive you can upgrade to the next level.

Bases are not weak once you have a few levels of sheilds, PD and a decent ranged weapon. Also research base mounts, its a DIRT cheap tech that allows you to put direct fire weapons on the base that can outstrip missles in both range and fire rate. Just remember to give them plenty of supplies and ordinance, and if they are out side a system with a resupply depot some way of generating supplies.

One tip to help space stations is to build and launch lots of satalites in support of them that are loaded down with point defense. Space stations biggest weakness is Cap Misslies, so scattering a couple of dozen dirt cheap PD sats around really helps. As long as you have maxed out the mounts you ain't really gonna have to worry to much about beams, as any ship in beam range to hit you is going to get smote by the hammer of god from the space station.

Don't be afraid to build specailised Space Stations and Bases, I will custom build them to suit whatever needs I have. Its not unknown for me to have 6 or 7 different bases and the same in stations.

I will also build bespoke bases to do particular tasks, such as a base with loads of quantum reactors and ordinance vats to gaurd a gas nebula and act as a resupply base because it was a 2 system jump back to get back to a system with planets and resupply depots.

PD is only useless because its buggy atm. If it wasn't usless in stock, your missile basses would be raped by a fleet with PD ships. (hopefully the PD gets fixed eventually, in stock, it works decently in BM and IRM).

Also, if your beam weapons are missing 95% of the time, your doing something wrong. And, I've never had a problem with ships closing before firing, mine have always fired according to strategy.

Just to add my 2 cents you need to have combat sensors to increase your effectiveness.. I always keep figthers on my bases to keep fleets far away