I agree that people hopping selling modules for bases is causing unbalance. But what of those of us that put the effort in to get the research done. I personally researched defense only for about 8 weeks straight to get the best defenses, 3 others in my legion did the same with the other tiers. If costs were increased we would be penalized for the actions of a few despite the fact that we had done it legit. We just divided the research up, never used any of these services.

A top, legit researcher in your own legion certainly can maintain the base all by himself if he wants.. Heck, I can maintain Dysonian Base all by myself for added 11B if I want too.. It's not that much even maxed out lol. It's too cheap at its state.. I simply just switch to builder to do the job.. If I don't want a builder, I just ask one other person to split the upkeep 50/50 to do the job.. I'm certain that your top researcher by the time he is pretty advanced for tech legally would have decent mining income by that time..

If you find that your legion members never are helpful on any contributions and donation for upkeep then just screw them and respec your base as mining production and switch on contribution based on % so all mining resources can go to top contributor and have him/her to maintain the upkeep easily.. If your legion is very helpful then you won't see that current upkeep of the base as a problem anymore..

Hang on there is already tech caps on bases, it's just a poor excuse for easier kills. We have a level 3 base but I can't install the things i've researched untill it hits Level 4 which I think is unfair, so all this talk of people flitting from legion to legion upgrading bases is BS. base upkeep should be based on the size of the base not what's in it. what costs more to run? a 1 bed apartment with a 50" plasma tv or a 10 room mansion with just a radio. Just the big boys trying to exploit us little guys again for easier badges, pathetic

there is a tech cap on bases, using hull plates as a example a lvl4 base may have up to Fermionic hull (upkeep 25M a day) while a lvl5 base may have up to Syncopated hulls (upkeep 250M a day). on the subject of people jumping to other legions to help out i'll point out that i jump across to my friends legions to help build stuff that their base level allows but stuff they havent researched, but for some things it probably would be better to have a rule where the tech has to have been researched by a loyal member for it to be used.

to nocifer, on the idea of increased upkeep on bases, it is a bit bad if a starbase is cheaper to run/maintain than a ship is, but if only the higher legions could afford the upkeep it would mean that to be fair that those legions could/should only be able to fight bases of the same or higher level, unless as a passive thing like the passive hull/shield bonus that a base gets a in-built basic upkeep to take in the fact that the base itself has increased size, hence needs more cost to maintain power, life support, gravity etc.

I agree with Golgotha's idea that upkeep should be increased slightly if you have no-one in the legion able to build the tech and the more members you have with the required tech the cheaper it gets. I suggest that with no-one in the legion with the necessary tech the upkeep should be 50% higher, reducing by 5% per member with the required tech . So that with 10 members its at the current cost.

Edit: Beyond 10 members with the required tech would not reduce it further.

and with 60 members with the required tech, would the base be producing a profit of 1.5x the current upkeep, to be distributed to the members?

Sorry was unclear, have edited my previous post

aw shoot.. but i liked the idea of the base producing a profit!! lol

the only problem with higher upkeep is if your largest player leaves a smaller legion you could be stuck with a base you cant handle and will cost more than base can afford for replacement with lower level devices. The only fair way is to limit by base level as with specials.

So you're saying... If your rich brother was making the payment on your Porsche, then leaves town and stops paying it, you should still get to keep the Porsche because replacing it with a used Cavalier will cost more?

I would go with the idea of a higher upkeep on the top gear like boosting the cost to double current for the top mods down to normal at about halfway down the list.
Also for legions under a certain membership number say 30/60 or 25 to go without the extra mods you pay a bigger percentage so the army of 1 base has to pay 25x the upkeep cost, won't stop people from being able to do it but make them really pay for it.

As for the Black Box analogy, may I ask where you Konquls have your Lazuli auto and spaceship repair certificates that show you know the proper way to use a microfuser or a mind controller? How about the Sillixx's degree in Xenobiology to explain why they can nail the hide of a Slithon to their ship and make it work better? These go hand in hand with your argument about the researched mods. I agree with the 7 day waiting period to install the mods so it isn't just popping in the middle of a base attack to save the day but as far as maintenance, when you get devices they like to give you an instruction manual and in the cases of bigger items such as car basic maintenance is explain and more detailed books are out there all for those who don't have to research and build the item from scratch.