Mine Layers?

I think having vehicles that could make mine fields might be nice to slow down enemy vehicles.

When you click the mine layer you get a rubber band box up to so big.
The vehicle would construct the field like the engineers building things.
Bigger the field the longer it will take.

Could be T1 and T2 Mine Layers.

T1 mines would destroy or heavily dmg T1 vehicles but only do like %33 to %50 dmg on T2 vehicles.

T2 mine field would destroy a T1 vehicle.

The fields would have up to like 20 mines per.

Something like that.

Hidden D is always nice to have.

What's the difference between Basic and Advanced mines?
Other than Adv. being, in your example, a direct upgrade to Basic? (which is bad)

Well said.

An interesting idea would be to have the T1 minefield be your basic explosive mines. T2 minefield could be more specialized to include EMP mines, time delay, plasma (which would do more damage against heavier vehicles). That way it isn't the fact that T2 is better but rather hinders enemy units rather than blowing them up.

You could also look in to an air minefield. Not sure how viable that is but if we are going to discuss this we might as well go all out.

'splosions!

How does this work without an armour system and some arbitrary definition of what constitutes a 'Heavy' vehicle.
PA lacks such gimmicky arbitration. Let's not have it creep back in.

You could perhaps have a mine that does Damage over time, so a slow, large unit is exposed to it for longer than a small one. But that's due to an emergent behaviour, rather than just saying it does more damage to a specific unit... just because.

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However, with mines like the one's you suggested, the significant role that a Basic minelayer can provide is completely overshadowed by the advanced one. Why even bother having the Basic version at all?

I defiantly feed like mines are an extremely boring mechanic.

"Oww now I have an area of land that randomly explodes! That's a fun system defend myself and for the other player to fight! Now he has to build an arbitrary anti-mine unit to deal with this threat instead of you know, just going around the other side of the planet, or to simply mine clear with bot unit cannon fodder!"

That is boring, really boring, like name games that have done mines in a fun an successful way that are frequently used.

And then I'll believe that they should have a place in a game where details like units randomly exploding really matter at all. A game of this scale would be brought down by having players respond to such a micro-incentive mechanic that usually does nothing beneficial other then wasting money.

I agree, I don't see it being a fun added feature, mines require mine sweepers, more micro and more time if there is to be any counter play to them, I would not like them in the game at all.

I think mines are actually cool, and they worked like a charm in c&c generals zero hour. Also, there was an upgrade that killed only the tankdriver and let the tank undamaged.

The issue with mines in various different games has always been that they are a pain to maintain without large amounts of micro. I don't think any situation where the player has to build each mine, or even minefield, manually will ever be a fun mechanic. Unless Neutrino has something very clever planned with the UI developments, which should not be ruled out.

However, there are other interesting ways to do mines and to clear them. I think cloaking so far been discussed as having the simple concept of a decloaking radius. E.g. if an enemy unit is inside a set radius of a cloaked unit, then it will decloak and be visible.

With this in mind, my prefered type of minefield would be to merge the idea with the old "walking-bomb" type unit concept. The idea is that there would be a small, cheap, fragile and fast walking bomb suicide unit, which will automatically cloak itself when stationary. Bam! Instant minefield unit. Simply build a few of them, and leave them in a choke point. Satisfying explosions are guaranteed when an enemy unit unwittingly blunders into them. It's also automatically replaceable with a factory and a move command.

Furthermore, sweeping has dynamic counterplay too. For example, a player could run some scampers in front of an army (or other dirt-cheap unit), an watch the minefield get wasted on taking out a handful of cheap units (assuming the bombs are a little more expensive than the scampers). Alternatively, one could send forth a big meaty unit that can take a few hits, and have fabbers on constant repair duty. Or, one could carpet bomb the suspected area, or use air transports to bypass it, or shell the area...

Need I go on?

Mines can be introduced effectively for the developmental cost of a single unit. Sounds like a reasonable idea to me.

The Chinese mines in zerohour are especially bad as a kind of point blank weapons that could have easily been on the structures themselves.

If they were to add mines there should be no difference between basic and advanced. A mine laying unit is already pretty specialized unit. They should fit into

• small damage small aoe
• large damage small aoe
• medium damage medium aoe
• large damage large aoe

They should be capable of setting of chain reactions. Meaning you cant have clusters of big aoe mines.

I can't see any reasons for more types of mines.

I don't see much of a need for mine sweepers. If implemented correctly mines will only be worth it in small choke points, or possibly in no mans land.

They won't wipe out huge armies, they will thin out attackers before they crash into your army/defenses.

Or you know.....use basic static artillery to achieve the same effect?

I think static artillery is vulnerable against air, or just scouting and walking around it, mines on the other hand can be cloaked, build faster and be immume to air (maybe because of cloaking, or because of burried). Also, somewhere i read some ideas about crawling bombs, wich is totally awesome aswell.

So T1 kills the enemy and you never have to worry again, while T2 mines can't kill shiat? That sounds like a direct downgrade to me. (Protip: Advanced does not mean "bigger numbers".)

The most difficult aspect of mine laying is trying to get the mines placed in a spot where they can be useful. IRL this is accomplished with mine laying aircraft or artillery. Starcraft does this with walking mines. Aircraft benefit because they can threaten ground forces without contending with enemy AA, and artillery adds a form of field control that doesn't excel against bases for once.

In game, mines are proportionally useful to how fast the enemy is. A faster enemy naturally covers more ground, and thus has more chances to hit a mine. However, the fastest units in the game are aircraft, which are quite special in that they don't give a **** about things on the ground. Incidentally, the most effective type of mine is going to be a type that attacks air.

Consider if you will, an artillery piece that shoots anti-air mines. It would be the only artillery piece that specializes in killing air units. Bretty damn cool if I say so myself (as is normally the case...)

I think mines creating craters could give an interesting dynamic. You could create your own island if you blow up mines all around your base.

Only one tech level should have on mines and I agree with different aoe with the smaller aoe naturally being a higher damage mine. As for mines in the air......I think its called a flak gun....

A flying flak gun, huh? I think you just invented the most powerful ASF that has ever existed.

It isn't totally unfounded, as modern anti-fighter missiles tend to be pocket nukes...

You guys make a good point about my ideas for T2 mines.

To be honest after thinking about it, mines seem rather pointless in PA. One of my jobs is to place minefields. You only do that to kill an enemy or force them to maneuver to certain areas or avoid others all together. Also, minefields are usually meant to delay the enemy long enough for your forces that are watching to call it up and then ambush the enemy while they are clearing the mines.

In PA I can't see there being many choke points where you would need to have mine field there. As for defense, build turrets or even better units to defend your base. Also using mines as early detection is pointless assuming you are scouting and using radar as you should.

The only way EMP mines would be worth it, is in combination with some kind of reprogramming unit. Outpost 2 had this, and it made some fun defense moments involving heavy lightning tanks turning against their peers.