best weapons on WP\'s
 

I would like everyone's opinion on what weapons best to use on Weapon platforms's, small, med, large. Taking into consideration the AI's special weapons (orgainic, etc). I know, missles in beginning but what else and what to upgrade to. Is it best to use cargo and build more wp's and lose buidling especially on small income planet (5 or less). Just curious as to what everyone uses.

Also anyway of getting around ships sitting out of gun range and just hitting your planet with missles? This causes you to use missles on your WP's.....

just some ideas Mac

[This message has been edited by mac5732 (edited 20 August 2001).]

Re: best weapons on WP\'s
 

Two 'strange' weapon platforms I am starting to use.

1: Engine Destroying weapons combined with Wave Motion guns (or Acid Globs, etc)...Stop them and then hit them at a distance.

2: 'The Turn Stopper': ie, just keep them away from the planet for combat, a wp platform of nothing but WormHole beams, Repulsar beams(or engine Destroyers) and multi-tracking/sensors. Destroy the Engines and then warp them away.

(and a 3rd of course: the Defender: Weapon Destroyers and TONNES of point defense)...

some ideas to think on...

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"And what the hell would you know about sanity?" demanded Beatrice. "There are depressed lemmings on the edge of cliffs who've got a better grasp on reality than you have. And more common sense."--Simon R. Green 'Deathstalker Rebellion'.

"We are all...the sum of our scars"....(paraphrased) Matt. R. Stover-'Blade of Tyshalle'.

Re: best weapons on WP\'s
 

Lot's of PDC of course. Missles yes, but not exclusivley. I have found a WP with PDC and DUC to be quite nasty when the enemy forgets to change ship strategy to maximum weapons range before attacking my planets. http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/ima...ons/icon12.gif
And if they do remember, usually my missles don't hit them often anyway.

Geoschmo

Re: best weapons on WP\'s
 

If you worry about ships keeping their distance, and the ships have PDCs so missiles don't work, you either need to go with LOTS of fighters and accept the losses, or use mines, ships, or pref. a starbase. A starbase with massive mount weapons gets a +6 to range, and especially combined with a Religious Talisman can be a fearsome, inexpensive (half-off maintenance) defense compared to the cost of the DNs it'd take to neutralize it. Just don't expect WPs to be much of a deterrent in a very long game -- non-Deeply Religious WPs will have a very hard time hitting highly experienced, high-tech ships in experienced fleets.

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-- The thing that goes bump in the night

Re: best weapons on WP\'s
 

I specialize my WP's. I have long range ones that I put WMG's and short range ones w/ Graviton Hellbores. And I ALWAYS have at least 1 or 2 WP's with nothing but PD. I usually play Religious - the Talismans ARE well worth it IMO, folks - so they all have one. Early game I usually rush-research for PPB so I usually have those to start, then migrate once I get the later techs.

And late game WP's are almost exclusively built on my RW's or SW's unless I PPP a planet deep in enemy territory - then I'll build a few there.

Re: best weapons on WP\'s
 

I think we all agree that PDC are very important for weapon platforms. As offensive weapons I use in the early game missiles. In the later game IMO the weapon platforms have the same problem as satellites: If your enemy uses long range weapons and does a "dance" with his ships, you might never get the chance to fire your weapons at all! So for sats and weapon platforms to remain interesting even in the late game you should create weapon mounts with incresed range and hit chance for them. Not so high as for the bases, may be half of their values will be adequate. I use this in my games since the the release of the mounts for bases and I am very satisfied with that modification. My choice is then phased polaron beam or later anti proton beam.

Re: best weapons on WP\'s
 

Q, how is your enemy ever going to do the "dance"? I've only seen the AI do it a few times, and unless you're playing hot seat, that's the only way to do it. Email and PBW- no tactical, so you have to rely on the AI anyway. And when it DID "dance", it spent a turn in weapons range firing before it moved back out.

Phoenix-D

Re: best weapons on WP\'s
 

I haven't tried this, but one way to avoid the dance might be to use tractor beams in a large enough mount.

Re: best weapons on WP\'s
 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Oggy ben Doggy:
I haven't tried this, but one way to avoid the dance might be to use tractor beams in a large enough mount. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Unless your playing with a mod which increases WP weapons range alot, I don't think this would work. Tractor beams have an infuriatingly short range http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: best weapons on WP\'s
 

Planets are terribly vulnerable because they are immobile. WPs need long range weapons, at least in games against humans. The AI is usually stupid enough to charge right in and take on a planet at close range. And yes, the PDC is absolutely vital to protect a planet. The surest way to destroy most planets is to just sit at the edge of missile range and fire away until the WPs are destroyed. If the planet has enough PDCs to counter the missile capacity of the attacking fleet then there is no option but to approach within direct-fire weapon and and risk losses. With mounts for WPs equivalent to mountsfor bases, that is very expensive.

I've also modded my AIs to use "High Energy Discharge Weapons" or the equivalent in special weapon platforms. These long-range weapons are even longer ranged with the WP mounts and absolutely devastating. Sometimes a ship can be gutted by a single hit.

The tractor/repulsor beams are an interesting weapon choice for a planetary defence. With ships, the size class of the ship determines what it can move. Does a WP get compared to the size of the ship it is trying to move or does the planet count as the firing 'vehicle' and any size ship can be moved? If the latter is the case then this has some real potential for defense. You could fling ships half-way across the map and break up the attacking fleet, or pull in one at a time from extreme range into close range where you could smash it.