Increase mine field coverage width/density

[Resok]

So this suggestion is based on many hours of MP battles. The core issue is Minefields are currently far too easy to avoid... they don't overlap and they don't have full coverage. Even with my opponent deploying around 20 CP worth of mine fields (costing 10 cruisers), even when placed close to each other the mines there is a significant gap between each field that you can move through.

Added on top of this... at X2 speed, a Zuul command cruiser with Fusion engines can zip through the center of each field (Fusion Mines), and mostly escape to the other side unscathed. This should be the exact kind of counter (mines) to someone attempting to bypass defenses at X2 but currently at least with Fusion mines it's incredibly ineffective.

I'll follow up with a video of this occurring when I get it all setup.


-Resok

[cbone69]

i think the early mines need a damage boost. fusion mines do a pitiful 20 base damage/12 after cruiser resistance is applied. AM mines do more then 3 times that at 48 base/38 damage against cruisers. perhaps if fusion mines were boosted to 30 damage base/20 against cruisers it would balance out?

i tried playing with fusion mine COLs in a AOE bombardier role and its like throwing spitballs. youre better off just going full missile cruisers.

[Naja]

When I first heard there would be strategic minefields, I pictured a fortress solar system with an imposing barrier of death to all capital ships foolhardy enough to try to rush through without a careful strategy.

Instad, I see a pitiful square turf that can be easily evaded.

Minefields need to be far larger and more dangerous. They should feel like an actual barrier you need to think about.

[Mecron]

naja you need to buy everyone a new comp

[israelien]

I think the more sensible solution is to introduce 2 new mine variants.

1. The Missile Pod (fires 3-4 of the small missiles used by Rapidfire).
2. Blast Beam Mine

If you can engineer these sorts of systems into a missile payload their is no logical reason they couldn't be installed in mines as well, and if you're trying to use mines as an area denial weapon in something the size of a solar system its basic common sense to give them some sort of standoff capability.

[FiberGlassHazard]

What if... there was a toggle.. you could use the square, when people would take a specific path you want to deter them from... or you could set it to "spread" and it would fill the sector with the same amount of mines, but evenly distributed across it?

The other option... For some reason I was under the impression you could task a fleet with a mission to distrubute mines in the system. If we could circumvent the CP limits in this way... Well.. we still pay fleet costs and such.

I'm looking foward to seeing some sort of energy grid mines. If possible.

[JPowell]

I don't understand why mine layers are designed like combat ships: you can place the minefields before each combat, and then the mine layers seem to disappear during the battle. They are just as effective if designed with no armor or weapons (and the cheapest engines, etc.) as they are when upgraded to the latest equipment. Why not simplify mine laying and create mine layers like construction ships: very specialized ships that only set-up mine fields? Or, change the mine layer to a satellite, one that has battle-riders/drones that build the mine field in an enlarging circular pattern around the satellite, replacing mines as needed until the battle ends (or the riders/drones/satellite are destroyed.)

[Hawawaa]

My only suggestion is antimatter minelayers can also travel at normal combat speeds. Late game tactical speeds get ridiculous.