Mine Stacks

[Infinity]

If you take out influence of the number of exits... walls become useless when choosing a galaxy and it's warp surroundings. It's a part of the strategy, don't take it away.

[Edgecrusher]

Well, until recently, no one bothered to tell me that the number of exits mattered. Yet, I have chosen galaxies based on their layout for years. Of course walls matter:

- They determine how well you can build routes in your galaxy
- They determine how well you can defend parts of your galaxy, mainly the entrance: corridor entrances are easier to defend, because the enemy's clearing route is predictable and you have to mine less.

If you suggest we take out MGU, people will also yell "How can we play the game without it?". But there really was an SM(R) before MGU.
You may have grown to be addicted to using huge stacks of mines, but really, if the effect of mines determine your strategy, I think there is something wrong.

[Infinity]

Not addicted to anything, tho I admit EE has had number of advantages (tho disadvantages too, we have 1 active Ikky for instance, was a drag for both us and him at times) which I've enjoyed, but those all came accidentally. I didn't tell people to go Human in those numbers, my only request was "don't go skant", as you may imagine. It just makes sense to me that sectors with less exits hurt more, maybe a habit... I don't know.

I can play without MGU

[canff]

I think in nuteral space we need to max the time on sacks so we don't have mine wars like now.....10 min for any stack with mines in it...you can sit and reload the time if hunting but no need to kill the game like it is now... and no need to mine all warps or 1/2 a gal so only 1 alliance can use it... we do need the defence stations coded in though.....for more alliance space defence..

[Page]

I think in nuteral space we need to max the time on sacks so we don't have mine wars like now.....10 min for any stack with mines in it...you can sit and reload the time if hunting but no need to kill the game like it is now... and no need to mine all warps or 1/2 a gal so only 1 alliance can use it... we do need the defence stations coded in though.....for more alliance space defence..

Well the times can be limited, but it has to be set on universe creation - so next game it needs to be limited.

[Blade]

can you sperate planet galaxies, racial and neutral ?

If so maybe have that planet galaxies have the standard normal mine expire time, neutrals 1 hour and racial 30 mins, and this can not be overridden by combat or scout drones?

[Page]

It is done on a per-galaxy basis, so every galaxy can have different times. There are no differences this round because Spock didn't add any when creating the map.

[Blade]

ok good we just need to agree a timing now

[Blade]

It's an extreme strategy, and when you refer to "you guys" your poiting at EE amd myself? Because you could not be further from the truth, as I pointed out on the EE message board, mines are far over used now, even we we had 300 players we did not have 200 sector seed paths, nor did we lock down the warps with mine fields. Your ok Sterl, as are EE members as generally it's only FE or EE mines on the warps and you move through them freely, but the rest of the game cant move, meaning yet again another mine fight between EE and FE and not much else going on because nothing can breath.

Mines need to be pulled back out of the game a little but, or it will be one of the biggest downfalls in players leaving, because it chokes play.

[Wizard64]

I tend to agree with Blade/canff on this one. While protecting CA/UNO is a valid strategy it means that minefields are becoming larger and larger. EE had a good portion of salzik mined for a long while and it made it hard just plotting courses between galaxies having to avoid salzik as much as possible. Now FE is mining liv and such which effectively cuts off access for any solo players or players in smaller alliances.

The main reason for mining in a planet galaxy is to protect a route or a planet. Once planets are completely coded they won't need as huge of a minefield to protect them so mining in a planet galaxy may be sufficient. It would be hard to protect a port effectively without an extensive minefield especially with port defenses so low but maybe that's something that could be added later on...the ability to link a port to planetary defense in some way like planets sending defenses to other planets. (sorry went offtrack there) Limiting the time on stacks in neutrals/racials would prevent the mine wars we in now while still allowing hunters to use mines effectively to hunt.