Mines kills the game and makes stale mates

[Blade]

I have always had a beef with how the mines are involved in our game play. I think it’s simply bulls that we use them to hide behind, and the fact they do not blow our own ships up is complete mess, mines care for nothing, they are laid to make it awkward for attacking foes to attack a certain point and from behind that mine wall or field the defenders defend. But mines laid should kill anyone with 2 exceptions.

Here is my reason to the above madness, before you all go pfffttt!!

Let’s use modern warfare for now, mines laid out in the ocean, do they let allied ships through? NO they will blow up anything it touches, so what is their purpose, well the allies know where they are laid and know the route through the mine field, it slows the attackers down as they have to navigate slowly through.
Mine fields kill the game, always have always will, it makes the game boring, now all you do in the alliance is seed and replenish mines, to many people stop playing because they are forced to lay endless sectors of seeds taking up their playing time.

All mine fields should be strategic, not just 50x50 sectors deep, and they should be planned. So my proposal is.

Mines damage all ships expect human boarder cruisers and boarder cruiser, because these ships are equipped with a special power consuming gadget that allows them to pass through mines, the amount of mines you can drop is 500 per sector by all so only 500 mines can be in a sector at any 1 time, because they hit everyone including ships that drop them for hunting purposes if they leave the sector it makes no sense to have lots dropped as you will die. Will also make no sense to mine up a port as your own people can die.

Bring in a second mine type, EMP mines, but these are capped to 25 in a sector, EMP is as they say once they hit they reduce manoeuvrability, this being the hunters mine.

This will mean alliances have to think about their mine fields, while leaving a path open to their planets/ports in planet galaxies, it slows down attackers. Makes mine fields fun not boring game killers that annoys they hell out of people because they spend hours laying mass mine fields that are cleared daily for dumb amounts of exp.

Now, plot course should include a bypassing allied mine fields, because I know you lot will say it makes it harder to move, this option should be included, leaders tell the miners where to mine plot course looks at the tag of the mine and plots the course avoiding the mined sectors, this way as leader you have to plan and upkeep your mine field, it’s a leadership quality, you might have to get the miner to regularly change the path as enemies learn your path to the planets/ports, alliances will have to protect their traders, at the moment it’s far to easy for alliance folk to trade in mass mine fields with treat.

[Page]

I'd like to make both mining and clearing easier really. As it is they both take so much time for very little reward and it does just turn into stalemates.
However I don't like the idea of being able to die to your own alliance mines, mainly because it would likely cause a lot of confusion, especially for newer players.

Therefore what I'd suggest is maybe a cap of mines allowed in a sector to limit the amount of seeding/mining neccesary, and also reduce the amount of clearing. However to balance this out we could have unlimited CDs and have CDs IS shoot with the defending ship (CDs doing less damage than usual or something to try to stop it being overpowered) - so that a couple of ships can try to actively defend with CDs to help them. Along with this maybe only allow CDs to shoot if ships IS are below a certain point or unbalanced - don't want to increase the likelihood of standoffs. Or stop people from being able to jump a bust because of huge stacks of CDs to deal with on top of the ships.

It's not a perfect suggestion but I'd like to see more ship vs ship action than more mines killing at random. (Ship vs ship is more fun, right?)

[Kahless_]

I like to think that these space mines are a darn site more advanced then any other mines going around so that explains why they only attack enemies and not allies.

The idea is kinda cool, but im not sure if it would have a positive effect or not. My gut feeling is no, but cause its only a gut feeling im not gonna talk the idea down anymore.

I think simpler solutions could work..making mines more expensive is a start, then have the price increase exponentially according to how many mines your alliance has..dont really need to change the mechanics of how they work.

[Blade]

My idea on mines was kind of OTT, but it needs to change, like Page said and my idea is we need more open warfare, this is mixed with it being to easy to make money so mine fields are now put up quicker so we dont have the early planet warfare like we use to.

There does need to be a sector cap on how many mines can be laid, as this game currently is nothing more than mine warfare, with some warp killing and a few trader deaths.

[Infinity]

I gotta agree with Kah for both mine "intelligence" (like... your alliance ships have special devices that tweak engine signature so that mines do not respond to them) and the price of forces. I'd have to think twice if I had to give 700-800mils per day instead of 300-400 for remining. And that would only be for doubling the price.

[Kahless_]

i still maintain that heaps of problems in the game could be fixed if money was balanced, oversized ships, easy planet busts, overkill mine fields etc.

Just my 2c.

[Blade]

i still maintain that heaps of problems in the game could be fixed if money was balanced, oversized ships, easy planet busts, overkill mine fields etc.

Just my 2c.

Game is to fast (as in gaining of experiance) and to much money floating around, and too few players sitting behind massive mine fields. That's my biggest creep on the game as it stands.

[Kahless_]

Alot of which comes from moneys..

People get big xp cause they can afford to upgrade too easily and repair too much too cheaply..Theres too many mines because they are too cheap, plus there is too much money left around to look after the fields..

Port upgrade money needs to be upped, building costs need to be upped, upgrade costs upped..ship costs need to be upped. Oh..and money from trading needs to be dropped If more money is being pumped into more things that just mining then the minefields will be diminished.

In SMR 1, 1 big bust/fleet encounter could take out an alliances entire funds in reshipping, remining, rebuilding, reupgrading ports..I just think that we should be avoiding major mechanics changes before we try easier avenues

[Edgecrusher]

You're forgetting one big thing Blade, and that is that mines are used for far more than hiding behind them. I used to rely heavily on mines to hunt traders as well as slow down fighters or decloak them. I'm not a brilliant fighter, but put me in carapace and I can deal with any warbird. Because of being able to walk over singles, these qualities of mines have disappeared and it's a damn shame. EMP mines would not solve this, unless you can't walk over them.

As to the reason for your post: mines can be cleared easily and they are supposed to offer some protection against busts. I think force stack size has gone completely overboard: the average stack size of EE is, I think, somewhere around 150, which is three times the size of old stacks. Clever of EE, but I think stacks should never be larger than 100.

As to your suggestions: I also dislike the idea of mines hitting anyone, even friendly alliances. It is more real, more logical, but I think it is a step too far from the spirit of the game. People sabotaging your ship, but not stealing the cargo also isn't real.

As to EMP mines, as well as some of Page's suggestions: I like the idea. Emp mines are not just a hunter's tool, they can also very well be used in combat.
I would suggest that instead of removing the mines or altering them, we introduce a mine "function" which can be set by its owner. We can have:

Repulsion forces - they are the old fashioned mines that go off when you enter or leave sector
Supporting forces - These forces defend their owner, and attack anyone that fires at the owner when he is in sector.
EMP forces - When hit, these lower your maneuverability, Blade's idea

More functions pop up in my head, but as it is a new idea, let's stick with these three first.

[Freon22]

Repulsion forces - they are the old fashioned mines that go off when you enter or leave sector
Supporting forces - These forces defend their owner, and attack anyone that fires at the owner when he is in sector.
EMP forces - When hit, these lower your maneuverability, Blade's idea

Very good ideas. In old SMR mine fields were put down to keep the small group or lone hunters out. To burn up an attacking fleets turns when they are coming in to PB. Now there are no turns, a small group of attackers can take down a planet. The only defend any alliance has is the mine fields when they are off line. So I think that before any major changes are done to mines, Planets needs to be balanaced, Money in the game needs to be balanced, Exper gain needs to be balanced, Ships needs to be balanced, Weapons needs to be balanced.

When you no longer have these super ships flying around. When it takes a good fleet to take down a planet. Then you can weaken mines.