Assembly Hall

Hello there!

I've been thinking about new stuff we could enjoy to play with, when I came up with this idea. Before starting, let me clarify that I'm not trying to troll anyone, or post stupid, OP ideas. I write it here so we can discuss it, and see if you like it; if enough of us like the idea, perhaps CCP gives us a new toy in the future... Feel free to comment, but please write constructive posts.

That said, here we go:

Right now, the most 'unclean' -but funny- war tactics we have are warp bubbles (given by Interdictors), bombs (by Stealth Bombers) and, in general, cloaked ships waiting for preys. Well, that's my point of view. And as I also like to prepare traps, I came up with a new unclean tactic: mine fields.

The mines themselves would be a cross between warp bubbles and bombs, but less powerful than the latter. They would be small objects deployed in the same way as bubbles -right where the deploying ship is in that moment- and would be stationary. Once deployed, a short preparation timer would start (let's say, one minute): when it finishes, the mine is ready and active. As bubbles and bombs, they can be locked and shot at. As bombs, there would be one variety for each damage type. Perhaps, there could even be EWAR mines (pretty much like some bombs).

The idea is that mines would automatically explode when an enemy ship (war-targets, agressors to the deploying ship or the mines themselves, etc.) enters their detection range. That range would be equal to the explosion radius. Effects of the explosion could be the same as bombs: instant damage in all directions, but less powerful. Of course, they can do friendly fire, so ensure none of your friends are inside the area! Cloaked ships wouldn't activate them: this allows scouts to do their work, but they should be careful not to get too close to them, unless they want their cloaking device to deactivate and show themselves to the mines.

Once a mine explodes, any other mine affected by the explosion -inside explosion radius- would explode too, creating a chain reaction. As bombs, mines would be very resistant to the kind of damage they do, ensuring they're not destroyed -therefor, not exploding- by the previous mine. This allows deployers to prepare dense fields, where more than 1 bomb would be inside each mine's range. This also limits the variety of mines on a single field, just like a bomber squadron should shoot the same type of bomb for ensuring all of them will explode. If a mine is destroyed by enemy fire, it wouldn't detonate or make other mines explode. About the explosion-detection radius, I'm not sure about it. Perhaps it should be smaller than a bomb's: for example, between 5 and 10 km.

Perhaps there could be mine sizes: small, medium and large (X-large too?), each one with a radius, a damage output and a volume (inside cargoholds). That would allow trappers to prepare custom fields for different ship sizes, while limiting the number of mines they can carry (because of volume).

- Where mine fields could be deployed? Well, players shouldn't be able to deploy mines that would have an NPC structure within their range, such as stargates, stations and sentry guns. They wouldn't be allowed in highsec, but I think we could allow them in lowsec. In nullsec and WH-space, all the time.

-How much time should they be there floating? Well, perhaps they should consume fuel from the deploying ships. like bubbles, but in less quantities (I think a drifting bomb would require less energy than an EWAR device), allowing them to stay longer.

- Which ships should be allowed to fit Mine Launchers? I guess you've already though about Interdictors. I'd vote them too. They're designed to deploy stuff, and their pilots would already be deploying experts, so letting them launch mines would fit into their role. Unless CCP wants a new ship type...

- How a mine field could be destroyed? Area of effect weapons would be very effective against them, like big missile sizes and bombs. About drones... perhaps they could be used as kamikazes putting them inside mine range, unless they make drones 'invisible' to mines (excepting fighters and bombers).

- What would this addition make to the game? It would provide a fresh new tactic for gankers and for alliances that want to keep their frontiers quiet, without making the surroundings of gates an impassable area (an attacking fleet could use some cloaked ships to go there, get outside the field and shoot it, or use heavily tanked ships to make it explode). Also, I think many would like it.

Well, that was it. Please feel free to comment. Fly safe!

Not supporting.

Bother to do your research before you repeat ideas.

Thanks.

There were mines once upon a time. They were removed before I came into the game. The remaining mines and blueprints are collectibles (if any still exist, they were briefly purged from the game and I'm not sure if they were ever replaced).

In other words, they were tried before and taken out. Don't expect to see them again.

Hey, calm down; as I said, I didn't want to troll anyone. My first contact with EVE was in the times of Apocrypha, but I didn't get a full account until Incarna, so I never knew about pre-existing mine fields.

If it has been like you said, well then. It's sad, but I hope CCP will eventually find a better way to introduce them if they want. After all, EVE gameplay has improved greatly since then (about the lag, we now have the Time Dilation). But if there's no way for now, ok then.

I'm just curious about why they didn't work, apart from the lag issue you said...

Ok then, I'll do my research :) thanks for the info. I wrote the 'not trolling' thing because of much people starts to be annoyed by stupid topics (including me), nothing else. Thanks again :)

As I'm sure you are aware now, they were once in the game but no longer are..... blah blah...

But as to your idea, lets say you were at War and you seeded these somewhere, All a war target would have to do is sacrifice himself in the mine field, but also have a say 5 non corped alts in pods fly in at the same time.

Bam, instant -10 sec status.

If you can't stand the heat, feel free to biomass and spare us your drivel.