EMP Mines Useless?

[Spikey00]

I am finding that EMP mines are quite redundant--it doesn't offer much to the game because their intended "larger vessel" targets, ie. Starships, are immune to EMP.

They cost 2X for disabling enemy vessels that can otherwise be destroyed by normal mines, and require 4K knowledge to unlock.  It's not looking advantageous, unless the idea here is for EMP mines to disable enemy vessels, then allow defenses/etc. to pick them off, then I strongly suggest an AOE, or nullify the damage they do in return for a lesser cost, both knowledge and resource-wise.

[Oewyn]

I would like to see the EMP mines changed myself.  I think what might be nice is if they acted more like area mines, but had less duration.  Say maybe 1/2 or 2/3 the AOE of area mines, and each shot paralyzes ships for 5-10 seconds.  This way they are more useful than what they are right now, which disables 1 ship per mine for 1 minute.

[x4000]

I'm pretty happy with how the EMP mines work at the moment -- specifically, they are great defense against certain golems, and against a lot of the other new stuff like marauders and so on.  They are more of a niche technology at the moment, but it's a niche worth filling and I think that they will become more useful over time.  As it stands, they are useful some of the time now, if not all that frequently, and that's okay with me.  I like having a few edge technologies that can be used in creative ways but normally aren't the go-to units for any other purpose.  Kind of like Bean's twine in Ender's Game, basically.

[Oewyn]

Well, if it's not really /that/ useful in your opinion, then maybe consider lowering the knowledge cost by a bunch.   4000 for a marginally useful mine seems kind of overkill IMO.  That's a Mk III upgrade, or a MK II/III starship upgrade.  It seems like this one should be more candy tech range (250-750)

[x4000]

Hmm, you make a great point.  I'll lower it to 1500.