ok here is my idea, the ability to build space stations as special structures for both planets and whole star systems.



you could have economy ones for sci, dust, trade or production bonuses that could be attacked and destroyed by enemy raiders. which would give more of a reason to actually send raids into enemy space rather then just massive invasions.



then you could have military space stations that would drastically slow or even stop invasions progress, forcing the enemy fleet to attack the station itself and deal with the station shooting back.





different types:

orbital station: no more then 1 or 2 for each planet, would obviously have costs but provide bonuses to the planet it orbited just to squeeze out that little bit extra.

Starbase: taking up a planet slot for the system and being very expensive a starbase size orbital would be a prized asset for defending a crucial star system such as one sitting at the wormhole leading to hostile space. further more fleets in the system could hide behind the star base to force attacking fleets to go at the starbase before they could attack you directly.



starbases would need construction ships giving more use for transports that right now are only good for colonising.

The idea for space stations/bases has been suggested before (along with other system defenses and orbital structures), and the devs have it tracked as something to be implemeted after the game has been fully released. Likely in patches/updates/DLC expansions sometime down the road.



Still an interesting idea, though. I'm not sure if it's something I, personally, would want to see, but I can live with it if it happens.

Maybe a modular design like in Sins? Where you build your starbase and then customize it with limited number of upgrades (weapons, armor, strike craft or various support/economy options). It would fit with the other customization here like how you make your custom ship designs.

Orbital system defences/stations and alike have already been proposed here: /#/endless-space/forum/28-game-design/thread/12281-system-defence-and-orbital-structures

This thread has been linked to the former and is moved to the archives.