Ships & Modules

So, just had the thought with some other Unistas, but would space mines even be a good idea in this game? Just think of the ambushes you could pull, or just how loaded the Goon borders would be loaded with it. I personally would love dragging my enemies through a mag mine field and watching them burn.

They still exist in game, you can buy them from the market.... just can't use them any more.

Why not? Lag - a few dozen mines dropped at a few gates in a few thousand systems checking every second if they're next to a ship and should blow up is a massive server load.

For the Emprah!




... oh, misread the title.

Not really. The old lag arguments don't work so well with all the changes and it doesn't need to "check" like you describe at all. It has less impact than bubbles in this respect.

Where I see problems is elsewhere -- AFK PvP. That flat out needs to be prevented and here's a scenario for you.

Living in a Wormhole...

Warp to each celestial at 0 and drop a bubble. Fly off to the side a bit and set a book mark. Via that book mark you can warp to that celestial safely.

Now warp to the celestial and begin filling the bubble and area around it with mines.

Repeat for each celestial.

ANYONE warping to a celestial is warping directly at a bubble and unless they've been to that WH before, with safety bookmarks as describe, they will have issues trying to navigate around due to all the bubbles + mines.

Now go to your POS and deploy mine fields all around it in between 50km and 255km. Leaving your POS and you can be in warp long before you come close to them but coming to a POS? ...

Nullsec - rarely visited systems. Do the above with celestials.

Log off and check your KB every now and then for your freebie killmails for having done nothing but deploy mines days or even weeks earliler.

No, I don't think enabling people to do things like this is a good idea.

• Give mines a 2 hour timer as mentioned above.


• Make a hard limit on how many mines can be placed on-grid at any one time (50?)


• Mines can only be triggered by another ship if the pilot who dropped them is still in system/undocked/something

My 2 pence anyway.

It wasn't server lag. It was the fact that early in the game we abused them. Also.. any mine u set would trigger concord when it went off in empire. Even if you weren't in system. Also the mines were used as an advantage in early fleet fights. If you dropped 13,000 mines on a grid. The fleet warping in would have their clients lock up. Mines were pretty cool, I was upset when they removed them. Use to drop a 1000 at a highsec gate then dock up and wait for the killmails to roll in.

Cloaked mines would be interesting

Different yields and sizes. One big enough to blow a Cruiser or Battlecruiser but won't be set off by a Frigate. Another made for small ships that is easy to lay. Another big one that produces blast waves that can kill small ships or drones that grouped. Maybe drifter mines that detect and approach the hull very slowly so going AFK somewhere isn't a great idea but moving makes it hard to be hit.

You could have a special ship for deployment, Cruiser sized with a slow align and minimal defense or utility. It takes time for a Minelayer to lay each cloaked mine in like minute or two depending on the size of the mine, the larger the mine the longer the anchor time. While the mine is being deployed the Layer is vulnerable like with a Triage Module, unable to move, warp or cancel. A weak but large Mine Field can be set quicker, a powerful but small one slower. If you want to lay a large mine field you will need a fleet. After a set amount of time like 6, 12, 24 hours, maybe days and then they run out of fuel and self terminate. That time is also a factor in how powerful the mine is. Long term fields are weaker than short term ones but still take a long time to deploy.

Then you have the Sweeper which can find the mines, the smaller the harder of course. They slowly get the signal first being able to tell the area it is in, then where it is then and finally destroying it.

I could foresee a bunch of different strategies for something like this. Gives a whole new definition to a Mining Fleet.

I think making them massive AOD weapons could have some interesting results. IE, there is a deployment timer (1 minute?) afterwhich nobody can approach it within a fairly large radius. Turn them into a double edged sword, much like a real minefield. Sure, you can fill a system with them to keep your enemies away, but you will make it useless to yourself as well. I think a hauntingly deserted system left for a while after a massive sov fight (Until unassuming newbies stumble upon them) would add a good deal of immersion and gameplay options.