Author Topic: Emp minefield vs the bigger ships.  (Read 1652 times)

Offline Trandrin

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Emp minefield vs the bigger ships.
« on: September 15, 2011, 06:38:40 am »
I have tried using these "upgraded" mines and they don't seem to be to impressive. The description says it is good for zapping and stunning bigger ships, stuff like starships. Most likely stuff a tractor beam can't grab, so it would seem to serve a purpose. The problem is I see most of the things I would like the emp mines to slow down are immune to paralysis attacks, like those raid starships which dart through my entire minefield track wrecking the mines so ships behind can waltz through. So the mine is just a normal mine for most purposes. The stun against normal fleet ships really isn't needed at a bottleneck due to tractor/grav turret coverage so I am having a hard time even considering using these in most games. Even at their 1.5k knowledge cost. Maybe I am just not seeing the value these things possess?

Offline x4000

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Re: Emp minefield vs the bigger ships.
« Reply #1 on: September 15, 2011, 06:58:25 am »
These predate version 4.0 and haven't really been rebalanced since, as they were never that popular. It may be time to reexamine them.
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Offline Trandrin

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Re: Emp minefield vs the bigger ships.
« Reply #2 on: September 15, 2011, 07:54:41 am »
Oh I can see them being usefull and desired if they stunned the bigger stuff like spirecraft/golem/starships. Would have a answer other then the gravity turrets vs those then. More options=win :)

Offline orzelek

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Re: Emp minefield vs the bigger ships.
« Reply #3 on: September 15, 2011, 12:09:43 pm »
Sadly grav turrets are not an option against anything larger also.
Something that is dead doesn't help - and time that grav turret stays alive near hybrids or exo waves is short.

I didn't try emp mines - they seem to be quite large knowledge investment for not so usable gains.
Area mines are similar - very small damage and one of these can't really hit that many ships.

Offline Coppermantis

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Re: Emp minefield vs the bigger ships.
« Reply #4 on: September 15, 2011, 07:15:38 pm »
I remember getting EMP mines just to boost my mine count, since my defensive strategy required monkeyloads of them. Of course, I never actually saw them stun a ship, not sure why.
I can already tell this is going to be a roller coaster ride of disappointment.

Offline TechSY730

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Re: Emp minefield vs the bigger ships.
« Reply #5 on: September 15, 2011, 07:40:19 pm »
I still use mines, and they do their jobs, barely. However, they seem to die after way too few hits, like 5-6 full heath ships or something, which considering that waves and incoming forces can easily reach the hundreds, is not all that great.

And the unlockable mines are most certainly not worth their knowledge cost in their current state.

Offline Hearteater

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Re: Emp minefield vs the bigger ships.
« Reply #6 on: September 15, 2011, 07:47:25 pm »
Just want to agree, base minefields do appear fairly weak.  You can place a lot of them, so maybe that compensates, but they just don't feel very satisfying to use :( .

Offline snelg

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Re: Emp minefield vs the bigger ships.
« Reply #7 on: September 16, 2011, 06:46:13 am »
Always placing mines at my wormholes, though it's the normal ones. I'm not sure how much of a difference they make. There's too much stuff going on to see when the ai appears but I'd like to think it helps.  :P

I think I researched the area mines once but they weren't very impressive and there is usually other things to spend the knowledge on.