"Spaceflight and air superiority form the foundation of terran dominance in the Koprulu sector. And the very cornerstone of our areospace capabilities is the modern starport"
Starports can function both terrestrially[2] and as space stations.[3] At least some feature a flight school.[4] Starports are known to have many amenities for their pilots, including a lounge stocked with beer, much to the ire of frontline infantry.[5]
Along with featuring a number of landing pads,[6] a control tower may be attached to coordinate the upgrading and construction of advanced vessels,[1] though in more recent times, these functions have been taken over by the tech lab and fusion core. Starports contain an advanced fueling system, as well as a versatile, retractable landing pad.[5]
Dominion Special Forces starports carry their crew and cargo into orbit after a mission is complete. In deep space, these starports can function as fully operational space stations.[7]
Protoss plasma shields have finally given us the ability to fit the tech lab and the reactor into a single structure add-on. This new add-on, known as the tech reactor, replaces the old tech lab and reactor add-ons, and allows us to train two of any unit type simultaneously.
All structures repair themselves to 50% life. All structure fires are automatically put out.
This all-in-one safety system automatically dispatches robotic drones to put out any fires and perform basic repairs on damaged structures. Although these drones are effective at doing basic repairs, they do not have a strong enough AI to perform the more delicate repairs needed to restore a structure past half life.[10]
Barracks, factory, and starport units are delivered directly to the structure's Rally Point via drop pod. Passive: Reduces the production time of units, produces from Barracks, Factory, and Starport, by 2.3 seconds.
Speed Increase for Drop-Pod units Mastery: All combat units, after being dropped by Orbital Drop-Pods, gain +2% to movement speed, attack speed, cooldown reduction and energy regeneration per each mastery point for 30 seconds.
Usage
Cost
3
Notes
Mastery: +2% per Speed Increase for Drop-Pod units mastery point. Up to a maximum +60%
The following section contains information from a previous version of StarCraft II which is no longer valid.
In early builds of the game, the starport was capable of being upgraded into the star base, but the building was scrapped.[11]
The development team wanted to revise the starport and some other terran structures from the first game, but there wasn't enough time for this. The starport underwent only by a couple art revisions, the second revision done to realize the structures properly in 3D with all the flight animations and moving parts the placeholder art lacked. These versions were done two or more years or more before Wings of Liberty shipped, and didn't get the benefit of a texture unification pass.[12]