Mine armor slots

I think small armour would fit its set up for units

Yeah, I definitely want armor on something whose job it is to blow itself up.

(Yes, I know why, but it's still funny if you think about it.)

just about the only thing I would put in a mine is stealth armour so it survives until I want it to 'splode and nothing without tachion sensors can see it

I don't use mines, personally, and have yet to find an AI who did, so I never bothered with them. So, do minesweepers still clear mines by count, or by tonnage? I can't imagine what use armor on a mine would have unless minesweepers cleared by tonnage.

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Give me atmopshperic manipulation cannons, or give me death!

Mines are great, but not because they're extremely effective, but because they intimidate the hell out of the AI. Once he hits a few and dies to them, he won't try that warp point again. You can convince him to entirely piss off and leave you alone with just a few mines. On the flipside, mines won't really intimidate YOU much at all. I don't use dedicated minesweepers, the AI's mines aren't good enough to necessitate the use of anything more complex than the Polish Minesweeper method.

By default? Nothing.
There was a mod where mines could be shot, and could thus actually have armor, but I've no idea what happened to it.

As is though, there's no reason for them. I think their only there for modding purposes.
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I'll make one later.

In Balance Mod, mines can be shot at with point-defense weapons, but I don't think they can carry armor.

In Capship Mod, mines can be shot at with point-defense weapons and carry armor, and there are no magic minesweepers. Mines in Capship Mod additionally have been modified in the latest unreleased version to act more like drones that cannot move outside of combat, so you can't just sit back and pick them off without risk of getting hit! edit: forgot to mention that they don't auto-detonate when you enter the sector either

Hopefully I'll get around to releasing the new version of Capship Mod once I figure out how to get capships and patrol (light) ships to do what I want (see the ground-combat improvement thread for details on that )

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The power of the ancients is now yours to command. You are truly the Master... of the obvious

I'm curious. How'd you get the mines to seek? Gave them an in-game afterburner type component, or?

Yes, I gave them thrusters which have the same Combat Movement ability as afterburners. Hopefully this doesn't require at least 1 standard move - I'm pretty sure it didn't in SE4 (Adamant style orbital fighters anyone?), so unless something's changed...

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The power of the ancients is now yours to command. You are truly the Master... of the obvious

Minor point of clarification: You've given them the stats but haven't tested it?

Heh, yeah...

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The power of the ancients is now yours to command. You are truly the Master... of the obvious

Mines are automatically stealthed.

I think what he's after is that they remain invisible in-combat, unless the ship in question has tachyon sensors or the like. I would presume the goal here is to have such vessels carry a limited range, and accordingly ships without it are helpless against the seeking minefield.

I don't think this is possible... but it would be extremely cool if it was.

Yeah, just remove the "Detonates When Enemies Near" capability from the Mine entry in VehicleUnitTypes.txt. This will probably remove their ability to detonate in combat as well as on the strategic map, so you'd better go the combat thrusters route as well

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The power of the ancients is now yours to command. You are truly the Master... of the obvious

A mine that needs armor has failed its purpose, in my opinion.
Take a look back at our real world. Why are mines such a problem? Because they are good at what they are doing. They are cheap, they are small (compared with their intended targets), they are effective, they are numerous, they are longlasting, they are hard to find - and they may be everywhere. They instill fear, they make you think at least twice before entering their territory. Do you want to loose an expensive ship and a well trained crew to a drifting chunk of high-explosives?
It costs only a few cents to produce and deploy a mine, you can literally depoly them by riding a bicycle down a road, and the mines might stop a company of tanks dead in the tracks.
Finding them is expensive, dangerous and time consuming. But once they are found, it costs only a few cents more to kill them. Thats why mines have no armor. It would not help them at all.

How about several types of mines? in tactical deployment of mines you mix them up with AT and AP (anti-tank and personnel) so you in effect protect the AT mines with AP ones. Same can be applied with SEV, just give several flavors of mines, the drone 'I'm looking for you ship' and stationary 'I'll blow up as soon as you enter this area' types.

It's possible to make mines usefull in tactical/strategical combat? I mean: now if you have mines, and an enemy ship attack you, FIRST he takes dmg from the mines, THEN you combat... I'm thinking about making mines effect DURING the combat... letting also mine layer laying down mines during combat... mines that once down ram enemy ship.

It's this possible to mod?

Mine layers do lay mines in combat

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The power of the ancients is now yours to command. You are truly the Master... of the obvious

Oh yes, mine-layers keep doing that sort of thing - until you disable the auto-launch feature in the empire options menue. Mines layed in combat are utterly useless, because they are seen by both sides and easily picked of by point defence weapons.

That's Balance Mod - I think in stock they're invisible and suddenly blow up on you and you go WTF why did my ship die?!? But I haven't played much stock so I'm not sure

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The power of the ancients is now yours to command. You are truly the Master... of the obvious

Hehe... I've noticed that mines hit shields and armor first. thus if you're like me and give your ships insanely strong shielding, you can use the "polish minesweeper" method without fearing the loss of ships.

For me, when I actually deploy them, I prefer the warheads for disabling weapons. crippling ships is easier than destroying them, AND as a bonus I can Hijack crippled ships later.

Heee heee heee!

Seeker mines are fun. Especially when they're fast. And a bit of a bastard to hit. And around a warp point.

It certainly encourages ships to have a heavier PDS grid on board - I modified Mine Sweepers to be a mines-only point defense weapon that does a good job at defending at close range, but a dedicated PDS boat can do a pretty solid job as well.

In a way, it simultaneously improves and weakens the things. Heck of a lot of fun if you use them in conjunction with Fighters, though...

Oh but they do. It is a pisser to have an alliance and get a ship blown to bits because you forgot to add the minesweeper code clause...makes you want to drop a nuke on them...