Mines

[woodelf]

Has anyone tweaked mines to make them less damaging? I don't use them anymore, for better or worse, but I do miss them just not their unbalancing effect.

Ideally I'd like a max on the number allowed per sector, a % to avoid altogether per mine/per ship, a random damage per hit, and less damage per hit.

Also, does a minefield attack just one ship in a fleet until it's dead or are all of the ships subjected randomly? Do long range scanners see a minefield sector? If you know a minefield is there, why can't you avoid the mines? I understand "smart" mines, but what about good piloting?

I think there's a mod where point defense weapons work as sweepers. Can someone tell me how good it works?

Sorry about the number of questions, but being a turtle type player I like mines, just not the way they are implemented now.

[Emperor Zodd]

The upcoming patch will address this problem.

[jimbob55]

To make mines less damaging, go into the Components.txt file and search for warhead. There are a series of values (100 0 0 0 0 etc) change that 100 to a lower value to get lower powered mines. Warhead 2 and 3 are just after that record, so mod them as well.

To change point defense + other weapons to sweep mines go into the components.txt file and search for the component you want to add minesweeping ability to and do this:
Change the value after Number of Abilities := ... to one more than it already is.
add :-
Ability 1 Type := Mine Sweeping
Ability 1 Descr := Can sweep 1 mine per use.
Ability 1 Val 1 := 1
Ability 1 Val 2 := 0

This section to the weapon's data BEFORE the Weapon Type entry. Having looked at a few weapons, they mostly don't have abilities other than their weapon type.
The Ability Type is the special thingy you are adding to the weapon (there is a list of valid types at the top of the comps file).
The Ability Descr is what appears on the component description picture. The Ability value is the level of effect of the ability (in this case the weapon will sweep 1 mine)

Assigning a maximum number of mines / sector would require some hard coding (I think), or at least I don't know how to do it.

I think a minefield will attack one ship repeatedly until it is dead. The ship's shields and armour (if organic) recharge between hits.

The mod that makes PD cannon sweepers as well is good, it makes mines pretty useless though because the AI is modded to mount 20% or so PD cannon on every ship. You need a minefield of over 100 to kill each ship pretty much... Mines are more expensive to produce making them even more useless.