Mines, Visibility, Warp Points |
Couple of thoughts on mines. I've no idea if modders have allready tried them or not or what.
So here goes.
Visibility: Currently mines are visible all the time no matter what your sensor level so you can plan way way ahead for them. This is because the stealth in their construction doesn't work as I understand it. But.... from what I see the Cloak for ships does work.
So what if you took the cloak from ships, made it a 0 ton component with 1 ton of structure for mines only or something(or a 1 ton and add 1 ton to every mine size). Made the AI put one on every mine. Then forced launched mines to allways turn their cloaks on. Would this make a mine no longer be able to be seen without high enough level sensors to see through the cloak?
Warp Points: I've noticed that if you mine a warp point, and the AI looses ships to it, the AI will never again try that warp point. I'm not sure of why but I suspect it's because it marks it as a system to avoid. But it means defence can become very easy once the AI stops throwing ships through that warp point (sometimes takes a while). This seems to be a rather cheesy way to stop attacks, with the AI unable to deal with it. Somewhere this needs fixing in the AI code I suspect, though not a clue where.
If someone working on a Mod can spot where but doesn't have time to do it themselves feel free to point me at the right section and I can try.
Think we really need some more options for how to mark a system.... "Hostile Colony" "Mined System" maybe one or two others, to get the AI to send appropriate style fleets through to it.
Re: Mines, Visibility, Warp Points
My experience as recently as 1.17 was that the AI kept rambling into the minefield one ship at a time. The same with a warp point stack with missile sats. Some of the ships were colony ships because they had an optimal planet in the system but others were exploratory destroyers. I did notice that over the time it took me to build up my fleet to go eradicate them that they had continuously improved shields and beam weapons to attempt a better attack.
Re: Mines, Visibility, Warp Points
And I fully agree, a proper fix to mines would be nice, but in the mean time, why not mod a work around to make them work if it can be done.
There is a new code that was added in 1.25 that stop the AI from sending ships in known enemy territory.
Re: Mines, Visibility, Warp Points
Also note that the current AI doesn't currently mark any systems to avoid, which includes minefields...
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Re: Mines, Visibility, Warp Points
I never quite liked how SE handles mines. All mines automatically hit unless swept. How do these mines move and seek their target? What prevents them from being shot down like seekers? I'd dare say remove mines altogether and replace them with drones. They can serve the same function (especially if given stealth armor... Imagine an intergalactic stealth planetary bomb... Bwuahahahaa), but the defense against them makes more sense.
Re: Mines, Visibility, Warp Points
Drones, like everything EXCEPT mines, don't attack unless uncloaked.
Re: Mines, Visibility, Warp Points
I'd prefer a proper fix rather than a workaround for mine cloaking. It was hull-based in SE:IV, no reason why it shouldn't be the same in SE:V. But your suggestion would work fine.
The AI will actually send Mine Sweepers there to clear the mine field - how effective would it be at this time? It would depend primarily on the size of mine field, larger ones would cause more headaches. Telling the AI to include enough mine sweepers (ie 100+ mines swept per turn) in a fleet? A little tough but doable, although it be an approximation.
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