[rdouglass]

I agree except for the mothball idea - it takes a lot of resources to "un-mothball" them suckers. What I do is build the different component bases to within 1 turn of completion. Then I put the construction queue for that ship on hold. Then I wait for the generator component to get to 1 turn of completion, take all construction queues off hold, end turn, and generate the ring / sphere world. You end up paying zero maintenance on the bases and no resources un-mothballing ships.

I also don't agree with the planet building instead. I don't know 'bout the rest of you, but most of my asteroid fields are in the Med to Tiny range - there doesn't seem to be many large or huge fields to make large and huge planets. Then also you get a random world type / atmosphere. With a ring / sphere world, they are built with the same type / atmosphere your beginning species uses. I usually have a colonizer and a large transport full of pop waiting 1 sector away to instantly colonize the sucker. I also think they're easier to defend than 10-15 planets in possibly more than 1 system.