Wimpy Weapons

[Red Devil]

I'll be interested if there is a difference in frame rates between the two plasma streams.

[Killer AK]

Concerning the prox mine I agree with ZERO ANGEL that the blast damage is good enough. And not to increase it.
I don't want to be dealing with gay mine stacking that BZ1 players constantly do.
However increasing the longevity of the prox mine would be nice because it blows up after a few seconds of being placed and if you ask me it should last way longer.

[Red Devil]

I reduced the blast distance to 15, so try it out.

[Zero Angel]

Touching balance of already balanced weapons like blast is generally not a good idea. In 1.2, blast is at the top of the tech tree for a reason, one of the main points of the game (in strat) is to race to blast or arc/blink.

With blast, if you (eg) lower its attack distance, then you run the risk of unbalancing it. One of the dynamics of blast weapon is that it is powerful, but it drains ammo a lot and its weak against assault units and buildings -- lower its distance and you should tweak up something else, like making it consume less ammo. Thats risky though, if you want to tweak it in the first place, do so very carefully.

I kind of liked how in 1.1 it consumed less ammo and did more damage vs heavy units. But overall I think it is fine in 1.2 (even though it was balanced down) and hopefully wont be completely ruined in 1.3

[OvermindDL1]

Oh heck yes, it needs to last longer, that is the only reason I do not use mines, cannot create a minefield.  Heck, the old mine fields they found were thousands of years old, certainly the ISDF/Scion's can last more then a few freakin seconds...

[Red Devil]

Sorry, ZA, I meant the blast damage distance of the prox mine, not Blast Cannon.

I agree on the lifeSpan of the mines.  Way short, but that's probably so they aren't all used to form wall, okay, minefield, that creates an impasse.  Not sure though.

[OvermindDL1]

Well the mines can still be killed with weapons fire easily enough, there are weapons that could clear a minefield quickly enough.

[Steeveeo]

Well the mines can still be killed with weapons fire easily enough, there are weapons that could clear a minefield quickly enough.

*coughcough*My cluster bomber*cough*

[Red Devil]

Talking about stock here.

What do you guys think would be a good lifespan for mines?

[Steeveeo]

Talking about stock here.

What do you guys think would be a good lifespan for mines?

1e6, 30 seconds is way too short for setting a trap.

[bigbadbogie]

maybe 30 mins

[Warfreak]

naw........ 5 min tops, plenty of time for a nearby scav to fall victim 

[Feared_1]

If Prox mines last for too long, then you could basically cover the ground in front of your base with a layer of Prox mines before an enemy team would be able to attack, and vice-versa. The game would never end! Players would simply lay as many as they could, run and get a few service pods, then lay some more and so on.

Right now, however, they are used mainly in quick battles in case a unit happens to get clumsy in a dogfight and run over it (which never happens, so they are never used).

I would say 10 minutes (600 seconds) would be good, just in case a team wanted to prepare for an incoming rush of hungry units.

[anomaly]

True, but also take into account that when one mine goes off, it often destroys any others around it. So, large chunks of a mine field disappear at a time. And things usually move too quickly in team strat for someone to lay a whole carpet of mines.  So a mine field is only an issue in ffa, where you do generally have the time get rid of a field or the units to simply plow through.

And I also think 10 min is good.

[mrtwosheds]

I must disagree, 1 min max for the stock prox mine, it is essentially a combat weapon, if you want to lay mine fields, get a mine layer with its own mines. In 10 min 2 strat teams could lay hundreds of mines, the build up of mines could lead to frame rate issues, many strat games don't even last 10 min!

If the prox mine lasts too long, teams will use them to rec rush, planting them around the enemys rec early in the game, denying their opponent new ships and pods at the most critical point in the game.

Mines need to be carefully balanced, Daleks have a weapon known as Arczor, a mortar arc mine, you can fire one every 10 sec they last 20 sec, so you can only have 2 active per unit firing them, if they lasted any longer they would be far too powerful.