Like the idea of Mines....But then you would have to bring in dedicated "mine sweeper" either another robot or module / s to help clear a mine field / detect / plot / map.

What ever "new" item / mechanics that you bring into a game, you also have to bring in a means of control / counter to it. Otherwise you would just sow an entire island with minefields with no way to counter it. Do that to every Beta island, no matter who owned it and there goes Beta life.

If it is only outpost owners who are only going to be allowed to do it, then the checks and balances of the game are ruined. If all can do it, you would end up with a grotesque mess of having mines everywhere, and Beta Islands would be a death trap for anybody and everybody, checks and balances are again wrecked. So, the way I see it being implemented are:

1.  ANYONE can lay mine fields on any Beta Island, but within stipulations (area minefield covers is 100 x 100 Meters - no other mine field can be laid within X amount of meters of another minefield.

2. Mines have to be sown by a specialist BOT. The bot / mech  is very lightly armoured, it is very slow, so it needs protecting.

3. A differing type of mine layer (actually a Booby Trap Layer) which can lay a quick SMALL (5 x 5 or 10 x 10) mine field but no closer to an existing standard mine field (X amount of meters suggestion is 1000) and 500? Meters from an existing booby trap.

4. ALL MINES / BOOBY TRAPS ARE TIME BASED AND HAVE A EXPIREY TIME FROM THE MOMENT THEY ARE FIRST DEPLOYED (2 hours) Fore thought and planning in where its going to laid etc will now come into it

5. Mines can be sensed / detected by certain modules which can be fitted to any bot / mech, and can be swept (cleared) by specialised Assaults / Mechs (utilising extensions of the EWAR side of the tree)

6. ARTY can wreck / negate a Mine field in very short time once detected and fired upon (one salavo, maybe 2, up to the devs on that one).

ARTY would be the most powerful weapon in the game, but you would have to make it the hardest to deploy (time based to set up in a location from arrival), the easiest to counter (movement), the slowest rate of fire, and you shouldn't be able to direct fire onto an individual, but to an area (area effect, similar to the present explosion effect for damage, hence being able to clear minefields real quick).

It must be time based between firings / salvos and like the Mine Layers, Slow Moving / Light Armoured.

For Artillery to fire on a target area, the area has to be lit up (like EVE's target painter modules maybe which can only be fitted to EWAR BOTS/ MECHS)

There must be a time delay between firing and impact of rounds (or rockets if we go down the path of rocket artillery).

To re-site / re aim will cause a further delay to rate of fire with artillery.

If the forward observer for the artillery is taken out, then the artillery has been nullified, and cannot be brought back into operation until another Forward Observer (target painter) has established an in game protocol (time penalty) to simulate the establishment of communications between the artillery and the painter bot. Only one Bot / mech can establish the link at a time. Only one Bot / Mech can communicate at a time.

To make it worth its while, there can only be ONE target painter connected to ONE artillery Battery at any one time and there can only be ONE Artillery Battery PER PLAYER CORP (that will make the employment of such weapons as a game of strategic planning, rather than a game of BLOB FEST)

To even reduce the blob further, USER PAYS, you want ARTY, you pay, 4 times the rental cost of an outpost to be able to own one (it is a CORP ASSEST!!), 10 times the amount of materials to produce a T2 Heavy Mech. It will make ARTY the most valued tool on the block, but also the one where its employment needs the most thought and careful planning.

So basically to employ ARTY, you need planning, you need cooperation, and you need a degree of luck for it to be effective.