Suggesting this on another post gave me a few ideas.

To add to the 'differentiation' of planets, why not have specialized buildings that take an extremely large amount of power, people, and built time?

For some of the structures, the pop requirements should limit them to the none-Barren planets, or a Barren planet willing to sacrifice some other structures for this kind of structure.


STRUCTURE: Power Satellite
FACTION: All
POWER: 3x Solar
WORKERS: 4
TECH: 40
BUILD TIME: Four times Solar. Requires Build module.
MATERIALS: 150 Cyrometals, 2000 Metals, 250 Urdanium.
VULNERABILITY: Can be shot with Ship-to-Ship weaponry and destroyed.
FUNCTION: Heavy-duty Power production for safe worlds. Watch out for raids, though.
VISUAL: A satellite placed in space (coded like very tall structure?). Projects blue beam downwards to 'base station'.
STUFF: Solar power satellites provide far more power for peacetime pursuits, as they receive far more light-per-area and are much less limited in terms of the amount of area they can deploy, and are also not weather-dependent. They are very popular in the frontier sectors. Unfortunately, most planets cannot construct them, as they lack the spacelift capability. They are also very vulnerable to attacks, and so are not used in sectors that need to be fortified.
NOTES: same system as orbital defensive grid? or simplified one noted above.
ADDNT'L: Remove blue beam, have satellite gravitate torwards the side of the planet facing the sun?


STRUCTURE: Orbital Defensive Grid
FACTION: All
POWER: -100
WORKERS: 12
TECH: 75
BUILD TIME: Six times Fighter Base. Requires Build module. ONE PER PLANET.
MATERIALS: 4000 Metals, 150 Darkmatter, 1000 Heavy Metals, 100 Oxygen.
VULNERABILITY: Also vulnerable to Ship-to-Ship weaponry. However, it is hardened. Every Satellite has the approximate hull value of a Destroyer. (? all together=4xdessie?) ** K'luth sats suffer a 20% reduction in hull value to compensate for greater firepower.
FUNCTION: Constructing the Orbital Defensive Grid basestation enables you to put a ring of up to 4 satellites placed equidistant around the planet. Each satellite is armed with: 1 AR Missile (Psi for K'luth.) 1 IT Missile. (Another Psi for K'luth?.) 1 CL1000 Laser ('Ruptor for K'luth). Satellites cannot be tractored. They count for ff points if they are shot by friendlies. The deactivation of the base station causes the satellites to go inert but not be destroyed. If the base station is destroyed the satellites self-destruct.

Satellites: The Orbital Defensive Grid base-station has an option to construct a Satellite. Each satellite costs 500 Metals, 10 Urdanium, 100 Cyrometals, and takes 7 minutes to build. They may be queued.
STUFF: Bleh!
Note: Base-station in orbit???

Shouldn't Be Hard?

STRUCTURE: Advanced Training Center
FACTION: All
POWER: -25
WORKERS: 4
BUILD TIME: Five times Barracks. Build module not required.
MATERIALS: 300 Metals.
RESEARCH: Defense Base
VULNERABILITY: Normal for planetary structure.
FUNCTION: Doubles the training rate of infantry produced on a world with a training center. (reach elite in half the time, based off however many barracks there are. Alternatively, training can be based entirely off ATCs, and building more of them trains faster.)
VISUAL: Normal for planetary structure
STUFF: Blar de blar de blar.

Is This Even Possible?

STRUCTURE: Orbital Shielding Grid
FACTION: ICC
POWER: -120
WORKERS: 8
BUILD TIME: Six times Fighter Base. Build module required. ONE PER PLANET.
MATERIALS: 6000 Metals. 2000 Heavy Metals. 200 Darkmatter. 100 Cyrometals, 50 Hypermatter, 100 Oxygen, 100 Hydrogen.
TECH: 90
VULNERABILITY: Shield-generating sats are very vulnerable, having the hull value of a Scout. BUT:
FUNCTION: The Orbital Shielding Grid fulfills a function that is subtley different than the anti-bombing Shield Generator. Every satellite (Same method as defensive grid) generates the equivalent of 3 Reinforced Shields (cruiser-strength), though with a sortof-different recharge rate. ( if the reinforced gen gets 1% every 10 seconds, say, the sattellites would generate 6% as a _burst_ every 60 seconds. Or maybe quicker than that. Point is it regenerates in bursts. Because...) The Orbital Shielding Grid extends beyond the normal domain of the Shield Generator, though it is vulnerable to ship-to-ship-weapons because of this. However, it provides a 200 GU _from-planet-surface_(shrink that? I only put it so big to fit in Stations.) sphere of shielding. However the slow recharge rate means that the shields remain down for a period of time after collapsing, leaving anything inside (Satellites, ships, planet.) vulnerable. During this time the shield-generating satellites _can_ be destroyed rather easily.

Any shots (from inside OR outside, excepting the Orbital Defense Grid and planetary Defense Bases) that strikes the shield is absorbed by the shields.

Note that ships within the shield radius can fight normally.

The Coding, it doesnt work!

STRUCTURE: Orbital Psionic Web
FACTION: K'luth
POWER: -60
WORKERS: 12
BUILD TIME: Six times Fighter Base. Build module required. ONE PER PLANET.
MATERIALS: 4000 Metals. 1000 Heavy Metals. 50 Darkmatter. 100 Cyrometals, 100 Oxygen.
TECH: 90
VULNERABILITY: Psionic satellites are very vulnerable. However, their hull value is similar to that of a frigate+30%.
FUNCTION: The Orbital Psionic Web functions ina manner similar to the Orbital Defence Network, though its effects are different. Any None-K'luth (INCLUDING friendlies) ship that approaches within 350 GU of an Psionic satellite begins experiencing malfunctions due to psionic confusion. Target locks cannot be maintained, as all contacts begin to blink in and out. Additionally the ship begins to respondly sluggishly to commands (Half turning speed, half acceleration) , and systems randomly take damage due to impossible tasks put to them by confused crew members. Crew numbers drop due to accidents. Weapons fire at random. Psionic satellites cannot be detected from further out than 400 GU by any means excepting visual. The sensitive nature of the psionic effect involved precludes cloaking on the satellites.

That sounds good. I'd still like maybe one beam though.

I think it would also need more exotic gasses in the gas giants.

Also all mining stations should look like the are projecting mining beams down into the Gas Giant. All stations require that you have 6k metals, 1 unit of Cryometals, 1 unit of Darkmatter, 1 unit of Urdanium, and 2 units of Heavy Metals. This means that

A.) You must be a station or
B.) You must make a few trips to unload minerals unto the gas giant (if that's possible- if not, reduce the amount to where a Command dreadnaught could carry it.)

Doing some faction differentiation:

ICC:
4 Interceptor Fighters, and 3 Assault Fighters.
2 Fusion Torpedo launchers.
3 IT Missiles
2 AR Missiles
2 Drone Bays
Equivalent of 8 Reinforced Shields- Vulnerable to Bombs.
2 Pulse Beams. (PD)
1 CL1000.
35 'mining' capability.
Starport functionality.

The ICC Cloudscoop-class mining station is a marvel of the modern age. A humungous project, the construction of Cloudscoops in the local gas giants signifies that a system has become a major power. Able to defend themselves from all but the heaviest assaults, they ship valuable shipfuel and rare gasses to local ship construction facilities.

UGTO:
4 Interceptors, 5 Assault Fighters
2 Proton Torpedo Launchers
4 AR Missiles
2 Drone Bays
Equivalent of 6 Ablative Armors- Vulnerable to Bombs
4 Cl300s (PD)
2 CL1000s.
35 'mining' capability
Starport functionality.


The general design of the UGTO Skyhook class mining station dates back to the very first station on Jupiter. Significantly upgraded, both defensively and in mining capability, it is an emblem of prosperity for any star system able to construct one.

K'LUTH:
4 Interceptors, 4 Assault Fighters
3 AMTorpedo Launchers
5 Psi Missiles
2 Drone Bays
Equivalent to 4 Heavy Armors- Vulnerable to Bombs
4 'Light Disruptors'? (PD)
2 Disruptors
35 'Mining' capability
Starport functionality.

The K'luth's ????-class represents a considerable investment by the K'luth and is protected accordingly. They are a miracle of Shaping skill, representing something that had no base template to draw from. Found only in secure systems, they are unfortunately not able to effectively cloak in the harsh environ they must operate in.

It would be in conjuction with droppods.

ANd yeah, the second bit would be sorta like in the starship troopers movie...the 'freight containers' of troops...lol.

Lemme clarify.

Droppods would still the standard method. A Shuttle would be a type of fighter that you could purchase, albeit very slow and lightly armed. It is heavily armored (shielded?), however. Under the first method, a Shuttle would load a unit of infantry from the parent vessel when launched and then fly towards the target, so it would be kind of an 'enhanced' droppod. It would still have disadvantages, however... the shuttle bays would recharge slowly, so you could not launch an entire hold of inf in shuttles unless you were a Carrier vessel, which would mean you sacrificed your offense capability to launch infantry shuttles, which makes good sense. Under the second method, this shuttle would carry a droppod of infantry that would then launch like standard when it gets close enough.

I personally still favor the first method. It wouldn't be TOO evil, so long as the shuttles were slow enough. (20-25 speed.) Note that currently fighters and PCMs are the same speed, and both are slightly faster than a scout, I believe. (~35)