Snooker, that’s pretty cool!

I haven’t put a lot of thought into TFA lately because of TROS, but when I think about of fan editing it, I also have felt the urge to remove the super weapon aspect of the base.

Those images are cool! I just figured one could just totally replace the planet with a regular ice planet, but the big canyon is a cool trait that sets it apart from other worlds. Maybe in scenes, like Rey scaling the walls of the base, you could add factory noises, like the droid factory on Geonosis, to imply there is some construction going on offscreen.

I think the idea I had was to make Han and Finn go to the Base to find the other half of the map to Luke (to keep the third act focused on the macguffin). The “oscillator” would be a planetary tractor beam they have to destroy in order for them to escape. And then you would cut it in a way so the planet doesn’t blow up.

But I think what you have in mind would require less changes. If you implied the planet is being mined to build a fleet, perhaps the sun-draining aspect could be kept to imply it is like the Star Forge.

Anyway, I’ve thought about this a lot if you need some help brainstorming ways to make this work!