Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Just an idea

But with a few minor restrictions I think space mines would be entertaining for low/null sec.
Rather than some anti cloak system proposed by others.
Tried and true naval styled mines ftw. Would come in handy for asymmetrical engagements .
I would think 2012 with all the vast improvements to EVE, space mines could be doable again.



Thoughts?

I too would love to see mines back but ...
1) They will either spam the database with thousands of new objects or have very short life. First would be huge problem for CCP, second for players that would be using them.
2) Since we are in 3D, mines would must be spammed in large quantites to be efective OR would must be stealth. Stealth mines would have their own set of problems (how to make them visible for owner - bookmarks?).
3) This would make gate camps uber or cant be used around gates.
4) Will mines attack everyone or would we make them somewhat controlable? Paswords for minefields?

Return of mines would create nice new roles for ships - miner, sweeper, detector (if stealth mines). And im deffinitely for the return.

If we see return of the mines, im deffinitely for creating minefields instead of deploying them one by one. Something like semi-autopilot deployment. This would solve problems 1 to 4 as minefield would be one object instead of few hundrets. Maybe this could be created in form of a minefield controll station - that would replace used mines automatically. I think this way mines could be implemented easy enought.

Definite concerns , but working with high end enterprise production environments in RL, I seem to think that
theres plenty of ways to mitigate the influx of SQL queries and transient table entries , especially in 2012 . Technical concerns aside on real time db stuff,

some restrictions could be placed on placing them too close to gates or stations in lowsec
(with fewer restrictions in null of course)

You could have large dumb mines that are individually laid and easily detectable , and still yet a whole semi hidden field
of floating mines with a chance based system of actually hitting a mine or 3 .(while not actually rendering 100s of individual objects/table entries)

In RL reflecting art, todays mines can be remotely armed and deactivated within certain ranges and similarly, disposed of
by the owner. Still yet being so far off in the future, you could even have a t2 type of mine that detonated based on standings/


From a role playing perspective, I could see space mines as a way insurgent navies operating in hostile systems could apply
asymmetrical force against a larger more conventional foe (ie one man's fleet is another man's blob nightmare)
Or a conventional force adding an extra layer of security .

And still yet, as you said minesweepers becoming an effective counter (though not completely as its very common to miss mines)
Lastly, space mines/fields could also work against cloaky ship types, as space mines/fields could be set to naturally spread out within a certain range / radius and decloak/damage any ship that stumbles across them.

"Cowardly" perhaps but just about every military/Navy in the world has used them , and Eve having some similarity to naval
combat, it would seem natural to have some kind of floating mine system.

Heres another scenario, a well known hot drop baiter comes into system looking to bait and drop. Bait lands in heavily mined area while the mines are deactivated . Your small fleet engages the hot dropper knowing full well a blob will come, and
when they do the mines are activated. Suddenly a "cowardly" Blob attack is countered with a "cowardly" mine field and no one really wins (As the mines go off like bombs damaging anything in vicinity ) but at least a nasty trap is countered with another nasty trap.