Battlestation Proposal: Make these dependent on "Command" Tech

[zeusalmighty]

Background/Problem
In addition to being mobile and carrying munitions (turrets, mines,etc) they have a special utility bonus effect

Current Battlestations:
Bubble-Shield Battlestations: Provides similar shielding as a standard bubbleshield
Engineering Battlestation: Provides several engineers worth of production capacity 
Ensnarer Battlestation: Provides x250 (alot!) tractor beams -- (good for kidnapping)
Revealer Battlestation: Provides  mid-size decloaking
Gravity Battlestation: Provides area slow
Minelayer Battlestation: RNG specializes in mines

Pros:
Nice RNG for extra defense options to help shore up important planets
Having a variety of the *kinds* of starting choices promotes replayability (more variables to experiment with) 
Cons

• These have no tech associated with them and are generally gather little Exp compared to your main fleets--they do not scale over a full game, rarely getting to mark 5
  They are difficult to keep alive as they are slow and modest of health
• In practice, they feel like a citadel without weapons. They don’t really add much depth in the utility they provide, since their abilities have all been cloned from something pre-existing. In other words, they feel like the combat factories were before they had drones

Proposal: Classify "Battlestations" as a Mobile version of one of the unique types of Command Stations (Econ/Logistics/Military)
 
In effect, the battlestations would be classified according to the command station tech. They would mark up any time you spent science on its corresponding tech. This means examining the sorts of roles that players can currently use these.

These can be used to set up beachheads, since you can build turrets et al on a planets you don’t control
Distribute turrets and defenses according to their relevant function across you planets.
Useful niches with current utility options, such as kidnapping lots of AI forces to soften the AI before assaulting using the ensnarer battlestation or protecting your mobile combat factories with the bubbleshield battlestation

My proposed new battlestations would still their basic RNG functionality
Revised Battlestations

Mining Rig -- Economy
This is the engineering battle station which also provides a scaling boost to the metal generators on the planet it’s currently on. (*Defensive only;to work offensively, this would require an effect letting the Rig to target mining stations on enemy planets...hmm, like letting it target a specific neutral mine on non-player planets with a massive bonus to its econ rate… that would be neat)
Mastermind Battlestation-- Logistics
Merges “ensnarer” and “revealer” battlestations abilities. In addition, this acts like a normal logistics and grants the watch status to planets it is currently on. (I still think this needs something unique: Disrupt things that depend on “how many units are present on the planet. This would in practice keep eyes from waking up no matter how many units you have on the planet.
BunkerBuster -- Military:
This is the bubble shield battle station that gains the temporary defense buff when traversing wormholes. In addition, all of its munitions have an uninterruptible x10 build rate
This would require adjusting the starting options accordingly, but I think this would be a much more intriguing way to open up gameplay specializations

(Note: Non-exhaustive list; roles should be roughly symmetrical (in threes: econ, military, logistical)

Further Considerations:

• Command Station tech isn’t particularly enticing on its own right, but only by necessity-- Integrating tech will make high-marked "station-specialization" builds possible and worthwhile.)
• Battlestations and combat factories have far fewer levels in victorious games. They do not have associated tech and are dependent on other fleets for protection so generally gain exp at a lower rate.

[kasnavada]

Thing is, since command stations and battlestation gain XP, there is just no way, as I player, I'd boost them using research. That's just how I play though.
Also, if I wanted to boost battlestations with research, I'd just buy the research of the turret they build.
Last, battlestation gain xp even when the remains of their turrets are on a planet. So just building inactive turrets on your planets and wherever you're attacking gives them insane amount of XP. I don't do it just because it removes XP from other fleets & command station and I think I have more to gain when giving XP to fleets & command stations.

I'm not against the idea of making them more powerful though, but I'm not really sure how they stand balance-wise.

What I think is that XP is an interesting mechanic that needs to be refined further.

[zeusalmighty]

Thing is, since command stations and battlestation gain XP, there is just no way, as I player, I'd boost them using research. That's just how I play though.

I similarly predisposed, but over the course of a full game, in my experience, this isn't compatible with having a sustainable economy. I'm actually more inclined now to get mark 1 of each command station, as I'm finding myself using all three, sometimes swapping for military command stations when a major wave is incoming.

But I would certainly be even more inclined to go this research tech if this benefited "mobile (battle) stations" since these I can directly use to various ends