The mine field problem...

[Achriel]

The basic idea was for me to create a ship that dropped mines.. not just any mines but mines that used the PULL effect to draw the enemy ships (or themselves) into contact. The evil part being their hull is made mostly of disintegrator explosives.

Long ago we dropped disintegrators about and ran into them but with logic and some smart guys making repeating push effects to drive a small ship I thought "Hey, I could make a drone mine to 'home in' on an enemy ship". Turns out I'm not that smart.. here is as far as I got.

A small ship using an activator to turn on the PULL effect, for activation I made a 'net' around the mine at the PULL effects range, this net was trigger areas (hence invisible) and a trigger controller. It kind of worked but not well enough to be any type of threat.

So using this as an idea can someone make a usable mine; get close and it goes after you (or pulls you) and somehow damages your ship (perhaps a damage area weapon).

Have at it, I'm stumped.

 

[starhaiden]

you could make a device on your ship that pushes the bombs in a direction when you drop them

 

[Firrion]

Disintegrators being what they are currently sadly means that no matter what you do with them, a simple missile can do it better. Though i got to admit, logic mines are definately more interesting. Think i might build something similar, except with heat-seeker missiles instead... might even be useful in combat.
How big are your mines exactly? And how big are the ships you tested it on?

 

[Achriel]

Disintegrators being what they are currently sadly means that no matter what you do with them, a simple missile can do it better. Though i got to admit, logic mines are definately more interesting. Think i might build something similar, except with heat-seeker missiles instead... might even be useful in combat.
How big are your mines exactly? And how big are the ships you tested it on?

I'm expect disintegrators to be 'fixed' or removed but they have a 'classic' feel for a mine.
I'm trying to make them as small as I can, about 50 blocks not including the trigger net, the test ships are Isanth sized.

 

[FictionDragon]

I would rather use damage pulse than disentegrators. It should do more damage, with thursters and AI be able to get easily activated deployed and then attack enemy ships in it's range. +It would continue to bug any attacked until they would find some way to get rid of it :D

 

[Firrion]

Not too big, good. What FictionDragon proposed is also not a bad idea. Might fiddle with it, i don't know whether it will result in useful mines, but it should result in useful sentries. Mosquitoes in space - what could possibly go wrong?

 

[Megacrafter127]

Spoiler: Offtopic

Mosquitoes in space - what could possibly go wrong?

Spacemalaria.

However, I think a bobby AI would do this job better, because if it has no weapons, it becomes "ram"-bo.

 

[Achriel]

I'm thinking the Bobby AI and a Damage Pulse is starting to look like the go to mine configuration. Once disintegrators are un-nerfed they might become a better option but they'll have to do a lot of damage (suggestion: make disintegrators ignore shields, that'll make them useful again).

 

[NeonSturm]

A big problem for Bobby : zero-friction space

Maybe split the mine into two: a mostly stationary part with area triggers (BTW: seems very excessive at max pull beam range) and a 0.5s delay (rotating to target) triggered undock.
The undock event (not the same trigger that triggers undock) can push the mine into the approaching ship.


I wish we have a Bobby-settting to make something semi-stationary (even without friction) but at the same time let it rotate and wobble to avoid shots.


I would equip my mines with missiles slaving beams or pulsars -> most initial damage and they can often coop together before getting killed.