Topic: Minefields?

Seems to me thematically relevant, opens new tactics (detection, removal), new techs. It might be a bit of a pain to track them dynamically for the game engine, and they might make defense too easy (just surround the teleport gate with them, that kind of cheesy tactics), but there might be ways to make them enjoyable. Or not. What do you think?

Re: Minefields?

Awesome concept... tooling up factory lines now in hopes this gets added smile

3 (edited by commiedic 2010-12-18 07:53:18)

Re: Minefields?

Don't sell yourself short with just thinking damage type minefields. I would love some sort of static defenses. Some different types of mines like ECM or Demobilize mines. When set off they create a bubble around them for 1-2 min and have a diameter of like 100m or something. Not too crazy but enough to ruin someones day.

Example:  haulbot moves from teleporter on a route that he has been using all day. Pirate has demobilizing mine places on route. haulbot triggers it in a 5m radius and now has 50m in all directions field of demobilization. Two things happen at this point. haulbot panics and is slowed making a great opportunity to ambush.

Now comes in some questions about mines. Do they disappear from landmarks once set? If so do they become neutral at that point? Meaning can the original placer of the mine trigger it and have the same negative effect as any target triggering it? How long do they last before disappearing? Because having them last forever could cause lag issues with server when you start calculating in 10s to even hundreds of mines.

Re: Minefields?

They would need to be veryvery ineffective and/or veryvery expensive and most importantly their use should be veryvery restricted.

And if not, we would soon be playing minefield online..

Re: Minefields?

Static defenses would need to be expensive, inconvenience allies in a way too,  or damage rather than kill, if play  balance is not to shift too much in favor of defense. Obviously "too much" is subjective.

Re: Minefields?

Mines sounds awesome but they need to last 2 hours or less per mine, have a small yield and be limited to 1 every 200m with an exposition radius of 75m.

The mine laying module needs to be heavy so that a light robot wouldn't be able to just tact one on to the side of its normal setup. Mechs could fit them but it would limit their tank or speed. smile

Nice idea.

The Game

Re: Minefields?

I think specialized mine-layer bots would be cool personally, with bonuses to how long the mines last, effectiveness, ect.

Re: Minefields?

Dedicated bots for laying/removing minefields, dumb mines triggered by a certain weight, programmable ones that identify friend or foe,  a minefield defined  as a random chance of suffering damage, that's the sort of things I would ideally have in mind, if the engine can support it.

9 (edited by Arga 2010-12-19 21:16:50)

Re: Minefields?

Strategically, mine fields are used to limit enemy movement; either to slow or redirect an advance.

Mines range from anti-personnel to anti-tank.

If mines are introduced, obviously some players will want to use them as ambush/tactical units. Using external devices for directed combat by passes the limitations of the bots and makes it much more difficult to balance the game.

Mines are strategic elements, it should take time and effort to deploy; specialized modules and skills, not a unique bot.

The different properties of the mines should be by tier, and come in small, medium, and large; the cost and skill needed to deploy increasing with size of course.

Size equates to damage, tier to abilities.

Tier 1 - Visible effect on the ground
Tier 2 - No ground effect, stil detectable with module (Geo Scanner)
Tier 3 - No ground effect, IFF
Tier 4 - Undetecable, IFF

This is just an example of tiered effects.

edit: I'm against tactical use of mines, hence the need to make them hard to deploy and easy to spot/detect.

10 (edited by Thierry 2010-12-20 00:38:57)

Re: Minefields?

The issue with strategic mining, desert war-style,  is that there are lots of bottlenecks already on the map, so it would be fairly easy to interdict those.

Re: Minefields?

Thierry wrote:

The issue with strategic mining, desert war-style,  is that there are lots of bottlenecks already on the map, so it would be fairly easy to interdict those.


Well, exactly.

Putting mines in the middle of nowhere isn't strategic.

Invading armies typically don't use mine fields if they are using a blitz, because the front is moving too quickly.

Fields would be especilly strategic in the early game, when alliances don't have enough troops to cover all the approaches, but still useful later to slow advancing mechs and limit the effectiveness of light-fast bots.

... yeah, they aren't going to add mines.

Its a nice thought though.

Re: Minefields?

Dount they will make it in, but it's a cool idea. Sadly I see them either being overpowered, or somewhat useless.

They would either be 1-hit kill. Or not really make an impact. (Doesn't take long to rep damage.)

It would be very effective at keeping advancing tacklers at the back however, and having the heavy stuff up front to take the damage. I really do thing it would make an awsome addition, so long as they are only usable on player conquerable islands. (aka the new full pvp islands.)

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Re: Minefields?

Mines, planting automated turrets (which could damage, slow nearby units(, destructable walls etc.. let's get better use of terrain

Re: Minefields?

We are much more likely to get POS turrets/launchers or tackle unless the minefield generator too is stationary. The ability to drop mines anywhere is either going to be totally useless with weak yield or too easily exploitable.

I wish it wern't so, because I like the idea of mines, but balancing them would be really difficult.

15 (edited by Olepi 2010-12-26 00:55:08)

Re: Minefields?

I would like to see tripmines in the game. In some games, you can set many tripmines, even on top of each other, and they can cause a huge amount of damage when tripped. This does take time, and they don't last very long (in the minutes). These are buried, and cannot be seen without a scanner. Trip mines can sometimes be tripped with weapons fire.

I would also like to see something like caltrops, where crossing them incurs a penalty, like movement, etc. These could be EWAR type penalties, based on the chemicals used to create them. Basic model slows movement and causes light damage. Caltrops are visible obstructions on top of the ground. Caltrops cannot be removed, they have to decay.

In real war terms, mines were carried and set by almost any kind of vessel. Special minelayers did exist, but almost any PT boat, submarine, warship, even plane, could drop mines. It did require a special minesweeper to remove them.

I would propose that light bots, and even industrial bots, be able to set mines and caltrops. This requires a special minelayer attachment that is similar to miner or harvester equipment. A specialized minelayer bot could be X amount better, and lay better mines. Mines can be detected with scanners, and neutralized with minesweepers or weapons fire.

So, what's the schedule? smile

edit: I would not be in favor of permanent static mines.