Weapon Platforms @ Warp Point - Newbie Question

[tbontob]

Up till now, I've been playing my games with attack ships to deal with assaults on my systems.

That can be expensive because of the maintenance costs.

Then I came upon a thread discussing the relative merits of mines, weapon platforms and satellites at warp points.

So, I started a new game, built some small weapon platforms, loaded them into a transport, went to a warp point and........couldn't unload the platforms!

What did I do wrong?

[sachmo]

Weapons platforms can only be present on a planet, not in space. You can unload satellites, mines and drones into space, however.

[SlamrFest]

well this seems to be a small problem for me too
where do the weapon platforms sit ?? in Cargo ?? how do i get them to work ?? sry im a real noobie ) all i have is the demo right now waiting for them to get it back in stock and send me a copy of this WONDERFUL game ) .

[ckotchey]

This is one of the concerns I had when learning this game as a newbie myself. I had downloaded the demo Version of the game, and had to play through 5-10 games simply to answer questions like "what is a weapons platform" and "how do I use them" and so forth. Then, I played a game to learn about fighters. Then, I played a game to learn about troops, then I played a game to learn to use satellites.
Now I own the game.
And I play a game to learn to create planets. And I play a game to learn to create wormholes.
And I play a game to learn about boarding parties.
And I play a game to learn about psychic technology.
...
Sooner or later I'll have to play a game to learn what ringworlds and sphere worlds are - and how to use them, and how to build them, etc. etc.
Sometimes, such learning is fun, but when there are so many aspects of the game that one has to learn (since they aren't mentioned or even hinted at in the manual and tutorials), you could easily go down the path of a bad assumption and totally ruin your current game.

[ckotchey]

FYI - the weapons platforms simply sit takign up cargo space, and they "just work" when they are needed.
Satellites, however, only take up cargo space when they are on the ground. Once launched, they do not take up cargo space. Note that they do not WORK unless they are launched.
One more tip: You can't scrap WP's like you can a ship or a facility. You have to use the planet's "jettison cargo" orders.

[Suicide Junkie]

Weapon platforms sit in a planet's cargo space.
They will give the planet extra hitpoints, and weapons which it can fire out into space.

The only way to get platforms at a warppoint, is to have a planet on top of the warppoint.
With Warppoint openers, you can easily do that.

Only one platform per planet needs combat sensors and ECM, since a stack of platforms will share the bonus.