So I had a thought (Mines?)

Xenorak

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Jul 12, 2016
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Xenorak
Dangerous, I know, but I've been up for just shy of 24 hours now and stopped caring.

Now I may have missed something mentioning this in the past and I'm probably not the first to ask, but missiles and torpedoes are already a thing, so why not deployable space mines? (Think Dead Space 3)
I think they would provide an interesting mechanic for piracy and combat in general, plus it would allow for new ship designs dedicated to the role of mining and area denial as well as mine detection and clearing.

If I had to give a base idea
They would be small mines about the size of a soccer ball, and be attracted to a ship by its IR/EM signature and slowly move towards the vessel. They would either latch on to the ship and detonate, or go off at a set proximity, and individual mine would be equal to a potent S1 missile, maybe S2. They would also be detectable at range by strong enough sensors or once you drifted close enough, and be destroyed by ship weapons.
Different types would also be nice, aside from an explosive type, an EMP type could be used for piracy to disable a ship for a small amount of time, something like a fraction of a second per mine? The canister they would be dropped from could be mounted in place of a missile rack on other ships (S2/3?) and would carry a fairly limited number. This would prevent single-ships from causing to much trouble but allow a nice way for squads to work together for certain game-play aspects.
For example, taking over a space station, you could basically barricade the station and hinder incoming ships. Or of course laying an ambush on a trade route, pulling a ship out of quantum with an interdiction vessel right into a field of pain.

Granted the idea isn't perfect and could probably be easily abused, I think it would be a fun option.

What say you fellows?
 

Ammorn

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I think the problem with mines is that space is so vast that it would be highly unlikely to hit one.
Mines are an area denial weapon. They're not deployed to get kills, they're deployed to keep enemies out, slow them down, or funnel them into a route that is easily defended or a good ambush. Like CrudeSasquatch said, you could put them around strategic areas like jump points and landing pads. In fact, the Mark 60 CAPTOR sea mine is basically just a torpedo in a launch tube with sensors that listen for targets and fires at something if it gets a lock on something within range. You could have the same kind of system for mines in Star Citizen, just have modified missiles/torpedoes or standard missiles/torpedoes in a launch tube with sensors that just float in space fire at something that's within range.

 

CrudeSasquatch

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Mines are an area denial weapon. They're not deployed to get kills, they're deployed to keep enemies out, slow them down, or funnel them into a route that is easily defended or a good ambush. Like CrudeSasquatch said, you could put them around strategic areas like jump points and landing pads. In fact, the Mark 60 CAPTOR sea mine is basically just a torpedo in a launch tube with sensors that listen for targets and fires at something if it gets a lock on something within range. You could have the same kind of system for mines in Star Citizen, just have modified missiles/torpedoes or standard missiles/torpedoes in a launch tube with sensors that just float in space fire at something that's within range.

Muy bien! I like.
 

NaffNaffBobFace

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We had an idea for spacemines raised in the TWRL Test Weapons Research Lab thread around the time Jousting was a big problem in Arena Commander.

Self guided short-range proximity mines would have killed jousting FAST, you joust and fly past a guy and cross his flight-path, but he has kicked a keg of explosives out the back of his avenger and now your arse is on fire.

I was going to call it the Party Keg.
 

Xenorak

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Aside from being able to drop them manually 1 at a time from smaller ships, new dumb-fire torpedoes could be made that would act like cluster-munitions. Deploying a field of mines at a set distance, this could be used somewhat offensively against larger ships that would have a hard time steering clear of the sudden minefield deployed in their flight path.
 

maynard

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there are problems around persistence and instances

if you lay a mine, does it exist in all instances of that location, or just the one?

will it still be there years from now if it isn't hit in the current battle?
 

NaffNaffBobFace

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Aside from being able to drop them manually 1 at a time from smaller ships, new dumb-fire torpedoes could be made that would act like cluster-munitions. Deploying a field of mines at a set distance, this could be used somewhat offensively against larger ships that would have a hard time steering clear of the sudden minefield deployed in their flight path.
I think you need to get yourself to the TEST Weapons Research Lab.
 

Carlos Spicyweiner

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Dangerous, I know, but I've been up for just shy of 24 hours now and stopped caring.

Now I may have missed something mentioning this in the past and I'm probably not the first to ask, but missiles and torpedoes are already a thing, so why not deployable space mines? (Think Dead Space 3)
I think they would provide an interesting mechanic for piracy and combat in general, plus it would allow for new ship designs dedicated to the role of mining and area denial as well as mine detection and clearing.

If I had to give a base idea
They would be small mines about the size of a soccer ball, and be attracted to a ship by its IR/EM signature and slowly move towards the vessel. They would either latch on to the ship and detonate, or go off at a set proximity, and individual mine would be equal to a potent S1 missile, maybe S2. They would also be detectable at range by strong enough sensors or once you drifted close enough, and be destroyed by ship weapons.
Different types would also be nice, aside from an explosive type, an EMP type could be used for piracy to disable a ship for a small amount of time, something like a fraction of a second per mine? The canister they would be dropped from could be mounted in place of a missile rack on other ships (S2/3?) and would carry a fairly limited number. This would prevent single-ships from causing to much trouble but allow a nice way for squads to work together for certain game-play aspects.
For example, taking over a space station, you could basically barricade the station and hinder incoming ships. Or of course laying an ambush on a trade route, pulling a ship out of quantum with an interdiction vessel right into a field of pain.

Granted the idea isn't perfect and could probably be easily abused, I think it would be a fun option.

What say you fellows?
Oh please, no. Not another thing that makes me wake up in the ezhab wondering WTF happened!
 

Blind Owl

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there are problems around persistence and instances

if you lay a mine, does it exist in all instances of that location, or just the one?

will it still be there years from now if it isn't hit in the current battle?
Yeah, I can see that sucking up a ton of memory or bandwidth or some other computer thingy I don't understand.

They'd have to have timers on them for sure. Something so they expire/detonate after x amount of time.
 
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