Mine-layers

posted on January 7th, 2012, 10:32 am

Concerning Klingons: Since TaQ'Roja is our Duras Avatar she could get mines easily. It would be interesting if she would use mines exactly like in the shows: cloaked mines, that attack even cloaked vessels and even her own ships. 

posted on January 7th, 2012, 2:20 pm

Cloaked mines for the less honor-bound avatar sounds good, the main body of the Empire often does go for the 'honor above reason' approach... Klingons are dumb that way.

posted on January 7th, 2012, 5:20 pm

Actually, the old Romulan mines were weak and rarely used, but that doesn't mean they were bad.  I once played an EPIC game against fallout where he was feds with Intrepid start and I responded with Generix Supports.  I had the extra energy, so I lay a HUGE field of mines around my expansion.  It was more a matter of patience than anything.

I wouldn't mind seeing mines for several races, although I expect the Romulans are the only ones it's planned for:

Romulans: a Generix refit that lays persistent, untargetable mines.  Perhaps they cloak when you get a Cloaking Generator?

Dominion: a station (or disruptor turret refit) that slowly creates/restores a minefield in a certain area around itself.

Feds: a mine special on the Defiant or another late-game ship.  These mines must have a duration, to prevent it from bolstering their already formidable base defenses.

Klingons: Perhaps a mine that only targets cloaked vessels and disables weapons, similar to the current Mass Seeking Missiles.  Must also have a duration.

posted on January 7th, 2012, 5:26 pm

Feds: a mine special on the Defiant or another late-game ship.  These mines must have a duration, to prevent it from bolstering their already formidable base defenses.

The Antimatter mines some Defiants have an unlimited lifespan (or close enough), but are resitricted to the Klingon Mixed-Tech version with about double the energy cost of Romulan Plasma Mines.

Not exactly short lived, but still rarely sees use.

posted on January 7th, 2012, 6:49 pm

Did you ever experience the old Generix mines in a shield disabling nebula? I did and lost a whole fleet of K'Vorts to it...
Problem with generix mines or a real mine field was that they could easily be taken out by Scouts that were send through them since every mine that followed a target was destroyed even when it didn't reach the target.

posted on January 7th, 2012, 7:43 pm

Did you ever experience the old Generix mines in a shield disabling nebula? I did and lost a whole fleet of K'Vorts to it...
Problem with generix mines or a real mine field was that they could easily be taken out by Scouts that were send through them since every mine that followed a target was destroyed even when it didn't reach the target.

That is rather annoying. Immobile mines with proximity sensors and some area effect would be nice.

But if mines will become more prominent some way to destroy a mine/minefield would be most welcome. Flood the area with warp plasma and ignite it. Specialized sensors and just blow them away with phasers/disruptors etc.

posted on January 8th, 2012, 1:59 am

I would agree that mines would be a good addition. Mostly a Romulan ability and I am glad that that is the only confirmed use of such weapons. I also agree that if mines make their way into the mainstream that there should be some counter to such fields.

On a side note - do you know of any replays where the Plasma Mine on the Generix was used? I would like to see that in action. Although I send condolences to those who suffered because of them.

[Tyler]

posted on January 8th, 2012, 12:47 pm

Last edited by Tyler on January 8th, 2012, 12:50 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I don't know of any Replay where Plasma or Antimatter Mines were used, though the latter probably because Mixed-Tech itself is so rarely seen.

posted on January 11th, 2012, 7:59 pm

Minefields could be done something like this?

Federation - low power mines
Romulan - cloaked mines
Dominion - high power mines
Klingon - grav mines?...or low power

Maybe instead of doing destructive mines for one of the races, have mines that knock out subsystems for X amount of seconds. It would keep things interesting hopefully

Just a thought for the Klingons a  Tractor mine  a mine that locks on to a opponent ship holds it in place and ALL other low power mines  for a certian distance around  the tractor mine go off causing damage .

posted on January 11th, 2012, 9:04 pm

Just a thought for the Klingons a  Tractor mine   a mine that locks on to a opponent ship holds it in place and ALL other low power mines  for a certian distance around  the tractor mine go off causing damage .

How do you envision something smaller than a shuttle/scout holding something like a Saber, Steamrunner, galaxy or Borg Cube in place..

Also there's already the E’Djen Scrambling Drone

posted on January 11th, 2012, 9:19 pm

If the Chargh can keep a Cube in place, then a Mine keeping a Sabre-level ship in place isn't much of a stretch. Probably only things around that level, though.

posted on January 11th, 2012, 10:10 pm

If the Chargh can keep a Cube in place, then a Mine keeping a Sabre-level ship in place isn't much of a stretch. Probably only things around that level, though.

Current messed up game mechanics are no excuse to let that happen again. It just seems like a stretch. The old B'rel mines which slowed down opponents by increasing mass.. ok, but a mine holding a far larger ship in place makes my skin crawl and not in a good way.

posted on January 11th, 2012, 11:01 pm

Current messed up game mechanics are no excuse to let that happen again. It just seems like a stretch. The old B'rel mines which slowed down opponents by increasing mass.. ok, but a mine holding a far larger ship in place makes my skin crawl and not in a good way.

happened in canon where the funny little mine buggers held the enterprise D in place in Booby Trap. it took many of them, but this tech was pretty old. it could be adapted for more recent use, less mines needed.

so these things could stop ships and cause crew loss due to radiation damage. ships with high system value/ranks could kill the mines faster and take less damage from them, or get slowed down rather than stopped completely.

posted on January 12th, 2012, 1:28 pm

Aceton assimilator - Memory Alpha, the Star Trek Wiki

I proposed that ages ago

It's still not a tractor beam and as you said it were a lot of mines.

posted on January 12th, 2012, 1:39 pm

i wasn't saying it was a tractor beam, but there are other ways to stop a ship.

and yes, lots of them, but also each was old tech and together they had a huge effect.

a more modern version could exist with less mines, better tech per mine and maybe reduced effect. ie balance could completely dictate the behaviour.