Quoting Bama498, reply 16

Quoting Ibnpatuta, reply 14The VR are now MUCH closer to being balanced with the changes to jumping starbases



I would argue that the switch over from the Warfare tree to the Empire tree is going to be a bigger deal than it would seem on the surface. The reason is Phase Missiles. If you rushed Starbase Mobilization before 1.04, you would have 8 Military labs and could immediately begin teching up Phase Missiles. With it now in the Empire tree, you have to build an additional 7 Military labs to get your Phase Missiles fully upgraded. And there just isn't another set of techs on the Empire side with the same punch as the Phase Missile upgrades.



So you now have to choose - you can quickly get Starbase Mobilization or you can quickly go for the Phase Missile upgrades. You just can't quickly get them both.

I don't know, to even build a Starbase you need two military labs, perhaps four if they go for assault deployment (Starbasing enemy homeworlds has become such a common Vasari move, though I'm not sure if its worth the extra labs to get it now). That's at least the first upgrade or two of phase missiles they'd have anyways. Also as powerful as phase missiles are, the Orkulus Rex is still extremely dangerous without any weapons research.

I believe the Vasari Rebels will still be banned. They might be slightly slower to get it out, and the fact that it only works while you have 8 civic labs means there is something the other players can do to try and stop them. That damage debuff seems pretty trivial, one of the main problems with Starbases is that they are so tough to take down, and if your fleet isn't already preparing for battle with it before it jumps it might end before the action even starts.

However, I do not think it is a tech that can be balanced while its a global research modifier. A one time cost to allow any number of starbases to jump is just obscene. It needs to be made a Starbase upgrade, so that it requires additional time and resources for each starbase you want to become jump able, while reducing the total upgrades available on the thing. Once that's done, with some additional fine tuning it might be possible to make them manageable.

Vasari Loyalists on the other hand could be in a good spot right now, the extra strip time will at least put something of a brake on VL expansion speeds, and gives players a window to try and stop it. Being affected by fleet upkeep means they'll get much less income once they start using their fleet of doom to take enemy planets, meaning it should be possible to eventually wear them out since they'll likely have a much smaller traditional economy that normal players, making it an economic tool early and then an area denial weapon once they have a large fleet. Of course I'm not a great VL player by any means, so we'll see how the pros react.