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Original post by Wavinator Do you tell the player, "You can only build 1 base or X bases?" If you don't tell them that, then don't you have to provide management screens for keeping track of them? What do you do if a base is threatened and on the other side of the star map?

If I were in your position, I wouldn't design complex base creation into it. Building a home sort of conflicts with the explorer mentality. I would prefer to feel like my starship was my home, as well as my base. I wouldn't want to be tied down to any location.

Perhaps simple isolated and automated facilities would be a compromise. Something small and self managed. For example, if the player knows they'll need to pass by a certain sector frequently, they could set up a fuel mining/drilling facility (entirely run by automated bots) on a moon in that sector. When the player passes by, they collect free fuel from it, then go on their way. If it's destroyed, it's not a big loss.

If you're looking for ways to control the number and placement of such facilities, resources would probably be the most reasonable. Whatever the facility needs to do, it can be made to rely on certain resources of the planet's environment, giving you authority to limit or unlimit it in specific areas.