Improved Starbase Design (3.14.x)

This mod started out as a personal fork of the Designable Starbases mod by Xaneas, but has since evolved the functionality of the original mod alongside adding in its own new features and functions alike. Even the original code has been entirely rewritten from scratch, so the issues plaguing the original mod no longer exist with this one!

• Designable Starbases – Now, instead of relying upon the game’s janky auto-generation system to customise your Starbases, you can directly design every aspect of your Starbase designs directly in the ship designer menu. This includes brand new sections that have been added to greater expand the customisation options.
• Reworked Starbase Modules – As you now directly control your own Starbase’s design, the associated weapon modules will no longer provide their intended sections upon being built. Instead, mod-specific weapon modules have been added that will provide a flat buff to what your Starbase is capable of. This will not affect non-weapon modules, though!
• Vanilla Balancing – All of these baseline changes have been designed around vanilla gameplay balancing. That being said, due to how much this mod changes, it won’t be exactly vanilla-esque in its gameplay experience, so keep this in mind when giving the mod a try!
• Improved Sections – However, if you’re not too worried about vanilla balancing, this mod also introduces research options that allow Improved Sections to be unlocked for your Starbases, of which will make your Starbases even more powerful once unlocked. There’s also a number of miscellaneous technologies tied to the Improved Sections balancing.
• Bulwark Platforms – Most prominent of which are Bulwark Platforms; This mod’s ‘advanced’ versions of the standard Defense Platform tiers. Bulwarks are functionally just militarised versions of existing Starbase designs, with far greater firepower and survivability pairing with far greater economic, logistical, and research costs.
• Mod Compatibility – And, most importantly of all; This mod is designed to be as compatible with other mods as possible. New ship sets should be innately compatible, new technologies and starbase tiers will just need some internal compatibility sorted out, but otherwise, anything short of a total overhaul mod should play nicely with this mod!

Integrated Compatibility

Improved Ship Classes | Extra Ship Components NEXT | New Ship Classes (Season 3) | Starbases Extended 3.0 | Expanded Starbases | Dawn of Ascension | Additional Vanilla Components Revived

Planned Compatibility

Ancient Cache of Technologies | Zenith of Fallen Empires 4.0

Please leave any additional recommendations in the comments below! I’ll try my best to accommodate what I can, but it’s going to take time.

• Bug Fixing – Fairly self-explanatory, especially now that the mod has undergone a core rework. There shouldn’t be any game-breaking issues left to sort out, but it never hurts to be sure!
• Enable AI Starbases – Mostly just for the sake of bug testing, AI empires are currently not allowed to use the features of this mod. Once I’m satisfied that there’ll be no issues with it, I’ll let the AI have at it with this mod, too!
• Orbital Rings – Orbital Rings are due to get the same treatment as Starbases. This will be done as an entirely separate mod to allow for freedom of choice on what you’d wish to use, so stay tuned for updates!
• Habitat Starbases – Right now, the former Tier 1 / Tier 2 Habitats essentially just act as fancier versions of the typical civilian stations. I’m partial to giving them a do-over to make them proper military / economic assets to the Habitat Central Complex, but this will be done as a separate mod once I’ve properly mapped out how I want to go about it.

If you have suggestions / feedback, please leave them in the comments below!

• This mod may not work with intensive non-vanilla-esque mods. If you’re using this mod alongside any others, please keep in mind that this mod is not certified to handle any mod-related unexpected issues that may arise. If you’d like to help track down these issues, try disabling each mod until you find the one that this mod crashes on.
• Starbase weapon modules that aren’t compatible with the ISD Starbases will sometimes still appear even when they should be disabled. It doesn’t break anything to use or leave them – They just won’t give their weapon sections, is all!
• Whenever a starbase module / building is constructed, the starbase may revert to its vanilla version until the month ticks over. Not sure how to rectify this one, I’m afraid!

Save game compatible. Not Ironman compatible.

This mod can be configured in ongoing save games. If you wish to remove this mod from your existing save game, it’s important that you first disable it via the in-game ‘Improved Starbase Designs – Mod Menu’ edict. Once done, you can safely remove it as normal.