Guess the Aegis ship going to be announced in Frankfurt Aug 24th

[NaffNaffBobFace]

Space is vast. Everything is moving. At interplanetary, much less interstellar distances, travel lanes are impossibly large.

While you might be able to mine minute areas to protect a specific target, a dedicated ship for that seems rather wasteful.

Well, I'm not going to say you don't have a point, because I don't know how they plan to implement it.

It could be the 24 mines this thing carries strung out over a grid of 2400 square KM sets up a distortion grid between the mines, that disable anything that flies into the net then all fly toward that target at 1000m/s, detonating as they reach the destination in a glorious deathblossom.

Could be a cap-ship killer. Again just theorycraft but it's not outside of the realms of possibility.

 

[Vavrik]

Well, I'm not going to say you don't have a point, because I don't know how they plan to implement it.

It could be the 24 mines this thing carries strung out over a grid of 2400 square KM sets up a distortion grid between the mines, that disable anything that flies into the net then all fly toward that target at 1000m/s, detonating as they reach the destination in a glorious deathblossom.

Could be a cap-ship killer. Again just theorycraft but it's not outside of the realms of possibility.

This is getting weirder and weirder. How are they detecting the ship from 500 km away, when our best in-game radar can't detect something 10 km away?

 

[Talonsbane]

Hopefully the spais of the other orgs will someday discover that the best "mine field" to use to slow down TESTies, will be a grid of hundreds of full BEER kegs to be drunk before arriving.

 

[NaffNaffBobFace]

Space is vast. Everything is moving. At interplanetary, much less interstellar distances, travel lanes are impossibly large.

Oooh that's actually very interesting come to think about it... With two orbital points in constant movement if you get your maths on, you should be able to find one predictable point to place your trap. This image should be able to explain what i'm thinking:

P1 green and blue on the inner ring is the same planet, green today in its orbital path, blue is tomorrow in its orbital path. Likewise for P2. The green line if the route you would take if you were going from the inner planet to the outer planet today, the blue the same but for tomorrow.

As you can see from the two lines, there is a point of convergence which at this point victims will cross regardless on if they travel today or tomorrow or even if the planets move while they are traveling. Do your pirate sums, place your trap, and catch victims.Pilots wanting less risk of being caught can QD to a point of less interest (like a comms tower) and then go from there.

 

[NaffNaffBobFace]

This is getting weirder and weirder. How are they detecting the ship from 500 km away, when our best in-game radar can't detect something 10 km away?

D'oh, I buggered up my sums there didn't I?

How many square KM could you make a 2D grid at, say, 10,000m (Edited originally put 10,000km so buggered that up again) between each mine? you'd never be less than 5,000m from a mine in that case and if they move at 1000m/s that's 5 seconds to impact.

 

[Talonsbane]

If you could pre-program the ships, then a few min before launching a caravan from 1 point to another, I'd send a lone Cat full of manure to trigger the trap & be caught by the interceptors so that the rest can pass by safely before the trap is reset.

 

[Talonsbane]

Or better yet, have that cat filled with explosives & programmed to explode when the group that interdicted it are within lethal blast range.

 

[Zookajoe]

Space is vast. Everything is moving. At interplanetary, much less interstellar distances, travel lanes are impossibly large.

While you might be able to mine minute areas to protect a specific target, a dedicated ship for that seems rather wasteful.

Actually, I think it might be used more for mining the jump points of a system, rather than try and mine travel lanes. A jump point is a known access/egress point, and as such can be rather easily contained using a few mines.

Just my thoughts on it.

 

[NaffNaffBobFace]

Actually, I think it might be used more for mining the jump points of a system, rather than try and mine travel lanes. A jump point is a known access/egress point, and as such can be rather easily contained using a few mines.

Just my thoughts on it.

I've seen some other theorycrafting that it could be used for booby-trapping your wake as you run from enemies too. Another interesting usage.

 

[Talonsbane]

I've seen some other theorycrafting that it could be used for booby-trapping your wake as you run from enemies too. Another interesting usage.

In that spirit, if ever I have 1 of these, I'll name it the UEE DD for its potential to booby-trap predators.

 

[NaffNaffBobFace]

had to get a piece of paper to try to work out how you could mine up an area:

8km coverage doesn't sound too shabby. if you imagine somewhere like the close space over Levski or GrimHex where you wouldn't need to cover the planet side, it might just be tactically viable, expecially if you could curve that coverage around?

 

[Vavrik]

8km coverage doesn't sound too shabby. if you imagine somewhere like the close space over Levski or GrimHex where you wouldn't need to mine the planet side, it might just be tactically viable...?

Why don't you just do a 4 X 6 grid? you don't need it to be square, and you don't need a 3d grid either.
The math is kind of a problem if the fastest the mine can travel is 1000 m/s. What you want to do is detect the ship, then fire a missile to intercept it, so you need just a radar grid, and something to fire missiles at the incoming ship.

 

[Zapper Weisman]

As an owner of a Kraken, I am thinking the Nautilus might be good for protecting the Kraken if you have it in a place you plan to keep it in for a while. Maybe the mines could function as an alarm system of sorts. Set mines up in blind spots and when the guns start shooting or things start blowing up, you may have some warning against an incoming sneak attack. This comes to mind because of the Krakens large (not capital) radar system. Just spit-balling here.

 

[NaffNaffBobFace]

I was also trying to work out how to cover all sides if we assume there is a Tactical Asteroid base / other thing we'd need to defend:

Not sure how large the item in the middle would be able to be if we assume no more than 10,000m furthest distance from one mine to another.

 

[NaffNaffBobFace]

Why don't you just do a 4 X 6 grid? you don't need it to be square, and you don't need a 3d grid either.
The math is kind of a problem if the fastest the mine can travel is 1000 m/s. What you want to do is detect the ship, then fire a missile to intercept it, so you need just a radar grid, and something to fire missiles at the incoming ship.

I think I'm focusing on total coverage and how quickly a self guided keg of boom can move... If a ship can be disabled for a few seconds and a mine is close enough, a couple of seconds is all it needs... but that's not bad thinking. TEST Weapons Research Lab is not going to be dry of talent come implementation of Component tweaking / science mechanics.



I love theorycrafting but that's all I can do until they release how they function and what their intended uses are If they are purely self defense I'll load my 350R up with them so I can run away in style.

 

[Talonsbane]

I was also trying to work out how to cover all sides if we assume there is a Tactical Asteroid base / other thing we'd need to defend:

View attachment 13519

Not sure how large the item in the middle would be able to be if we assume no more than 10,000m furthest distance from one mine to another.

Then with 24 mines, I would suggest looking at the area that you wish to cover like a cube. At which point each side would be capable of having 4 semi spread out minds that would completely surround the area to be protected.

 

[Lorddarthvik]

To be honest I'm a bit disappointed. Mine layer doesn't seem that useful to PU gameplay, but ofc it's a pretty obvious ship to have in Squadron42. Again,.i feel.like they are catering for the whales and forgetting about their main player base...
Anyways, as for usage, I'd think it's more appropriate for mining in close proximity of points of interest, like jump points as mentioned before, or supplementing station defenses with a tight grid. Especially if the base is situated within a dense asteroid field, you could place mines between the asteroids and create a safe channel that is only known to those who should be there... there are lots of fun possibilities with mines, I just don't see them as very useful for player driven content, as you could just go around them... Once orgs can capture stations, it could become vital to prevent mass onslaught from rival orgs maybe? Who knows at this point.

Tldr.: love the addition for story missions in sq42, don't really see the point in PU though.

 

[NaffNaffBobFace]

Then with 24 mines, I would suggest looking at the area that you wish to cover like a cube. At which point each side would be capable of having 4 semi spread out minds that would completely surround the area to be protected.

Okay so with 24 you can have 4 grids of 9 mines per face in a cube shape:

EDIT - and no more thsan 5000m from the nearest mines on the top and bottom planes. You could easily move the middle mines on the top and the bottom layers inwards to be able to close those gaps, too...

 

[NaffNaffBobFace]

Then with 24 mines, I would suggest looking at the area that you wish to cover like a cube. At which point each side would be capable of having 4 semi spread out minds that would completely surround the area to be protected.

9x9 updated to indent the middle top and bottom mines to close up that hole in the sides of the cube that are missing the middle mine that 26 would cover but 24 don't:

 

[Talonsbane]

9x9 updated to indent the middle top and bottom mines to close up that hole in the sides of the cube that are missing the middle mine that 26 would cover but 24 don't:

View attachment 13521

Or, you could space them out as the central areas of what would be the shape of a 24 sided 3D polygon. It would be almost spherical in nature at that point.