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Well, just take a look at the basic history and how ports affected economy, wars, trade, science, development, basically everything. A colony with a spaceport has the opportunity to become a major interstellar hub for traffic going trough the region.
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Spaceport access is by planet (actually by system), not by facility. Without a spaceport, zero resources, research or intel points reach the empire.
You seem to be imagining Spaceport City as a very different thing than I am.
To me, a City on a colony with a Spaceport in the system has very nearly as good spaceport access as a Spaceport City. It's just a matter of useful/optimal space/infrastructure utilization. The Spaceport City is a City with a Spaceport integrated into it from the planning stage. The effect is on the number of slots used, which is really a major effect, without altering the generation or multipliers of the city at all.
In developing a colony on an alien planet, it seems to me there would be local details, both indigenous and evolutionary as the planet goes through stages of development, where it would be more or less efficient to build population and spaceports and infrastructure. The choice between building a Spaceport City first, or building spaceport and then a city, or other combinations at different times, abstractly represent those.
However you imagine it, though, it is pretty clear that having two extra facility slots on a planet is a major advantage, especially once a multiplier is in place. On the other hand, having a space port available immediately is also a big advantage.
Perhaps what you meant is that having a spaceport on a planet, as opposed to using a spaceport from some other planet, should have an advantage for that planet? In that case, that's something I hadn't really considered, and I do think that is a good point and would be something to work into the economics. It would add an (annoying ?
) decision about whether or not you should add space ports to every planet or not. I still wouldn't make it something special for Space Port Cities, but for all spaceports - add some planetary modifiers and/or production from all spaceports. Hmm.
PvK