BRAD'S COMMENTS:  This is a curiosity from the Franz Joseph Starfleet Technical Manual.  First appearing in 1975, that book has since been rendered largely apocryphal by the various Star Trek feature films, and the many television series.  Starfleet Headquarters is in fact not located in orbit, as Star Trek IV makes plain, but there has always remained a question regarding the mushroom-shaped Spacedock: is that facility independent of Starfleet Headquarters, or is it merely an orbital extension of San Francisco?  The same might be said of the "flying saucer" design from Franz Joseph's book.  If we use our imaginations a little we might view the orbiting HQ as a sort of precursor to the much larger Spacedock facility.  It's also possible that replicas of the HQ functioned as Starbases across the Federation, just as the mushroom-like Spacedock seems to have been replicated in orbit around other worlds.  Again, it's never exactly clear if these huge space structures are self-contained and independent, or if they are simply the orbital partners of ground-based facilities, the two of them combining to form a whole Starbase.  My hunch is that the latter is true.
      We might also imagine that the Spacedock is simply a "refit" of the Franz Joseph design, similar to how the Consitution Class was refitted between the time of TOS and TMP.  The HQ is only a little less large than the primary disc of the Spacedock, so maybe Starfleet used the old HQ superstructure as a starting point, re-engineered and refitted it, then built downward, adding whole new levels and capabilities until the design assumed its familiar mushroom shape.  Obviously there's no official evidence of this, just as there is no official evidence that the Franz Joseph HQ ever existed in the history of the Federation.  But in terms of importing this design into the STSTCS, I think it's helpful to try and make the HQ's story coherent with the rest of the game.  So, for game purposes, I've behaved as if the HQ is indeed the TOS version of the Spacedock; both for Earth and for other planets across the Federation that function as Starbases.  By the time of TMP the majority of these structures will have been refitted to Spacedock standards; and probably none at all remain by the time of TNG.
     As with the Spacedock, it's worth noting that an opponent doesn't necessarily have to exhaust this beast of all its superstructure in order to beat it.  Knocking down the power output with engine hits will eventually make it impossible for the Starbase to raise shields or arm weapons.  Similarly, if an opponent can take out all the weapons in one of the Starbase's three arcs, that arc then becomes a safe zone in which an opponent might hide, assuming no Federation starships are in the area.

Click the images below to see some fantastic artwork featuring this design!

* Denotes completely hypothetical model number and stats, devised by Brad R. Torgersen.

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