So in other words, there's no value whatsoever in defending a planet until it reaches a certain level? And this is why a Sentinel has no value as an early base defender, because nobody wants to defend low level planets. So if that's the case, then the problem is not so much that the Sentinel isn't effective as a base defender, the problem is that the game as it's currently played doesn't favor defensive positions early on. Resources are so cheap that there's no disincentive for throwing a 40K cr Photon on a player every hour. That certainly makes sense. At the pace games are played today, I think it's probably just a fact that an early-game ship like the Sentinel is obsolete. Changing that would involve slowing the game down a bit as much as making changers to the Sentinel.

I'll continue to look at the bigger picture on that. If it's not possible to restore the Sentinel to its intended role, if that role is just no longer needed, then the next best thing is to establish its role and make sure it's not overpowering or ineffective in its stock state. And that should be easy enough to do.

The stock version is obsolete, not the edited versions.

I have to disagree with Stoneslinger on having unoccupied ships defending planets. It would be too simple to drop 5-10 or more Sentinels in sector to prevent invasions. In that event the invading corp would attempt a sector overload. The HVS version possibly explains why I ran into a player a few years ago that had 3-4 defenders in each base, and didn't xport into any of them when I was invading.

I wonder if the Sentinal could be made to do the intended corperate planet defence, but have a function added that it can be the one and only Tholian in any given sector, rather than the ship max per sector.

Sure, require the ship to be occupied. That's
the way it is now.