Quote:1. Weapon platforms are too safe. There's no drawback to having them built. Perhaps change to require Munitions to sustain them would force players to consider their need.
Drawback is that it reduces 40k of potential Storage Space per Weapon Platform. As for their need, most Bases I am aware of do not have Weapon Platforms, and therefore I would suggest, using this as a basis to make a calculation, I would say most of the Bases, in the Game, do not have any. Now, if you are basing, your opinion on a very small amount of problematic (as you see it) Bases with Weapon Platforms, then I would suggest that it isn't a big problem.
Quote:2. Weapon platforms enables toxic gameplay such as constant running back to POB safety while refusing to admit defeat and yield by either blowing up or combat docking. People have high egos and would rather be toxic than humble.
What is this toxic gameplay that you keep quoting? It looks like that some people are denying you a kill message/docking message. Is your Ego that big, that you must be seen to win? (because, in my opinion, this is what this looks like). Will you next want guns removed, from NPCs Bases, because some Players hug them when they are losing? Learn to live with getting a moral victory that you effectively won a combat when this happens (not everything will/should go your way).
Quote:3. Weapon platforms act as area-denial. In case of mining field POB - it almost completely negates pirate threat. And pirates have no counter to that. "Go pirate traders" is not a solution to this, as miners are effectively taking themselves out of equation of activity cycle involving pirates.
Spookily enough, that is what they were designed to do, deny areas. Granted having them in Mining Fields, is a big problem, but how many Mining Fields have Bases in them, with Weapon Platforms?
Not all Miners run at the sight of a 'red' on scanners. Stop 'tarring everyone with the same brush'. In the same way that there are 'bad' Miners, there are 'bad' Pirates. I mine, generally, in a light Miner and the first 'sighting' of a 'red' I could be off and running at 425, it is unlikely to be caught, anyway, regardless of a POB or not. I have been pirated, as a Miner, by Cruisers, GBs, Transports etc. Learn to accept that there will always be both good and bad types in any Group and that everything shouldn't go your way.
Quote:4. They are not anti-siege. Sieging Core 1 or 2 bases with few platforms is not hard IF you have Battleships. Sieging Core 3 or 4 bases without platforms is hard even if you have battleships. As such, back to point 2 and 3.
With your greater experience, than a lot of Players, you know that WPs don't deter a determined Siege. But to some people, they give a sense of security (false or otherwise), so why restrict what they want to do?
Quote:Now please, tell me, when did Weapon Platforms ever created better interactions or gameplay?
As you should know, by now, you will have your opinion, on such things, along with some of a like mind, but you will, on the other hand, have people with a differing opinion. You idea of Gameplay, differs from other people.
You play this Game in a way that suits you and others play the Game in away that suits them. We all have differing 'wants' from this Game and as long as we all play, within the Rules, we should accept that and not try to enforce how we perceive the way this Game should be played on others.
'I would like to be half as clever as some people like to believe they are' Life is full of disappointments, it is how we handle them that helps to define us, as a person