Bha, B srus plz
We have a french expression, I don't know if there is exactly the same in english, but I think it sounds rather self-explaining:
don't shoot the at ambulance
Yeah, okay, AI minefields are underwhelming. We get it. Now let's bring some ideas to it, shall we?
Note:
Just to be explicit: I'm totally not pissed off by two answers having fun of a minor AIW's quirk. I'm not actually reproaching you for that. I just felt the need to insist on the need of an actual solution for that underwhelming-ness. My way of saying "very fun; any serious ideas?" (You know, we all love this community because it's very respectful, and I wanted to make sure you clearly understand I'm actively trying to raining on your parade.) (And I think I overexplained it a bit.) (But you know I really wanted to make sure it's okay.)
So.
Reclamation mines? Zombie mines? Neinzul mines? Any comments? Any other ideas?
AIP mines might be on the other side of the spectrum. overwhelming. (+1AIP if it totally goes off; able to spawn only on MkIV or core worlds?)
Wave mines? Like multiple tiny one-shot Raid Engine? Targeting its own planet like a Raid Engine or a random human planet like a counterwave GPost?
Well, that sounds more like alarm triggers than mines. If the "theme" of mines is to harm the ships that fly through, I think I just get too far.
Ow, implosion mines dealing higher damage to big things could be interesting.
Or something like "arachnid" mines that only harm starships but cast big holes in them.
Listing through the (mental) list of damage types we have, I see engine damage (widow mines do the same already) and armor damage. Would be "corrosive" mines interesting? Maybe a bit underwhelming too.
Maybe we need some sort of "poison" damage. A ship with those would do very low alphastrike damages but much more damages on the long term. Like, for each hit, the target loses N hp, then after T seconds is loses M more hp, with N < M, and with X being an average damage for a ship of the same price/cap, N < X and N+M > X. The "poison" damage is a bonus in raw dps at the expense of a malus for killing with a delay, allowing enemy to fire a bit longer. ("You're dead but you don't know yet") A ship with poison damages could have two strategies: being bulky and armored, killing its targets slowly and tanking damages in the meantime. Or it could be tiny suicide craft that dies fast but does damages "after death".
Back to the mine topic: poison mines would have a much longer lasting time (for much bigger damages for a single strike) and could make up the kind of situation where a fleet walks on poison mines and the player goes "ow crap! poison! get back in friendly territory to repair before the loses are too high!" or "crap! my fleet's already dead! Let's charge now and try to deal all the damages we can in the meantime!"
Or, you know... "crap, this lame mines again. Let just scrap the fleet now. %#$ game."
*preview before posting*
That post got longer than I expected...
