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Testing Potential Improvements/Changes to Mines

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Testing Potential Improvements/Changes to Mines

from Sins Forums

As part of a mod, I am currently working on finding a way to make mines...better...

Here is a list of the following changes I have made:

  • TEC mines are farther apart (almost doubled placement radius, now at 1000m)
  • Vasari mines are farther apart (increase impulse of Ruiner's abilities from 560,000 to 750,000)
  • Vasari mines now spread out in all directions (instead of front 180 degrees)
  • Range of TEC/Vasari mines' detonate ability increased to 2000 m
  • Range of TEC/Vasari mines' detonate buff increased to 3000 m
  • Damage of TEC/Vasari mines increased from 750 to 1000
  • Range of Advent mine's detonate ability increased from 100m to 300m (note that tracking range is around 4500m, and this is what determines when the homing mine starts going for its target; increase to 300m helps prevent mines from flying past their intended target)
  • Range of Advent mine's detonate buff increased to 2000m
  • Damage of Advent mine increased to 2000 (applies only to target)
  • Damage of Advent mine's AoE increased to 500
  • Ruiner now deploys 15 mines
  • TEC now builds proximity mines in increments of 15
  • Advent homing mine squadron now deploys 10 mines
  • Vasari Gravity mines in general more powerful; decrease speed/increase phase jump charge up time by 100%; duration increased from 45s to 120s
  • Mine limit for ALL planets reduced from 150 to 60

In addition, I have changed how scouts detect mines...as of v1.2, the reveal/sense/decloak mines abilities were an AoE that revealed all mines (by taking them out of phase space)...this allowed any ship to target a mine, including SC and non-scout ships...though it was somewhat bugged (as range of buff was smaller than range of ability and range of weapons), when properly used it allowed minefields to be cleared really easily...a problem if the max number of mines is reduced from 150 to 60 and you are also trying to make them more useful...

What I have done instead is made the ability a targeted ability (range still 6000m) that instantly disables the mine's abilities and causes it to self-destruct in 10s (uses "MakeDead" instant action)...cooldown of scouts' ability is now 10s and it requires the scout to face its target...

It may seem somewhat counterproductive to make mines more useful by allowing less per gravity well, but the goal is to make mines more valuable without making them too powerful...placing 30 mines early/mid game should yield results or be a huge deterrent...

I'd appreciate anyones opinion/feedback on these changes as I'm trying to make mines as viable as possible given the current engine...even better, if anyone is willing to test these numbers or has tested previous numbers they think work better, please share!

54,879 views 32 replies
Reply #26 from Sins Forums Top

I think what Des really meant is the Empire needs Pulse lasers on Super Star Destroyers to combat advent homing mines due to a weak armor/hull. The issue is Advent homing mines are much to similar to an A-Wing suicide run which is the Achilles heal of all Empire Super Star Destroyers.

 

Reply #27 from Sins Forums Top

Lol, ZombiesRus.

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Reply #28 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting ZombiesRus5, reply 26
I think what Des really meant is the Empire needs Pulse lasers on Super Star Destroyers to combat advent homing mines due to a weak armor/hull. The issue is Advent homing mines are much to similar to an A-Wing suicide run which is the Achilles heal of all Empire Super Star Destroyers.
End of ZombiesRus5's quote

Lulz.

Reply #29 from Sins Forums Top

Lol. I never would have thought of that on my own.

Reply #30 from Sins Forums Top

The joke is that even if we put flak on capitals, it wouldn't defend them against bombers?

I would agree that flak should damage bombers more than fighters, it's what flak was for.  It would seem silly to deploy mines as a defence against strikecraft.  I'm sure that was the gist of it?

I never seem to play well when Zombies is in the game, win or lose.  Another player I encountered when he was just a new guy, on the usual 'you have this random noob as your ally and I'll have this noob I just played' basis.  I suppose he had already made his own contribution to my jaundiced view of humanity, in a very minor way.  Still, I have plenty of wins online, mustn't grumble.  Pah.

Reply #31 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting DesConnor, reply 30
I never seem to play well when Zombies is in the game, win or lose. Another player I encountered when he was just a new guy, on the usual 'you have this random noob as your ally and I'll have this noob I just played' basis. I suppose he had already made his own contribution to my jaundiced view of humanity, in a very minor way. Still, I have plenty of wins online, mustn't grumble. Pah.
End of DesConnor's quote

You actually weren't the target. It was more an opportunity to make fun of the Star Wars versus Star Trek thread...

Reply #32 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting DesConnor, reply 13
If it could be done, what would also help is if mines had maybe a 25% chance of exploding when they encountered a ship, except that once a mine had exploded all the mines in the well would be 'active' with 100% chance to explode for a set time.  Then the mines would allow a fleet to get deeper into a field before revealing their presence.    

 
End of DesConnor's quote

I'm not sure if this is possible but let's assume for a second that it is...on the whole I think it would be really good because it prevents mines from only damaging the first couple ships that enter (variable detonations also made mines really hard to trip and super effective)...however, I see one problem...

A human player will still know to go around the mine field, so how do I tempt a human player to actually go in the field?

If mines were "invisible" in that they didn't have, say, a mesh (or, their mesh was a single point), and then this was combined with giving them a variable detonation...hmm, now that is very interesting...

The debuff with gravity mines may be too powerful...the problem I have with mine debuffs though is that most players won't send their fleet through a minefield so it doesn't matter how powerful they are :-(

And then there's the poor AI which seems to be oblivious to mines....