Re: Mines & Treaties
 

AIs make lots of blunders. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif Humans make for much more challenging opponents. Also, make sure to upgrade to the latest patch (1.84). There have been some improvements to the AI. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Re: Mines & Treaties
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Larger warheads certainly seem a waste, as they give no added benefit. Larger mines (200 or 300 kt)however, can double or triple the number of small warheads per sector. I think you are saying larger mines are also a waste, once sweeping is developed.

Thanks for your response

Re: Mines & Treaties
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Its on the list http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: Mines & Treaties
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Larger warheads do not cost more, just the (little) research to get the tech. Always use larger warheads if available. Larger mines cost more, so are not effective because of sweepers as below. IMO Small Mines/Large Warheads. As per the DSGuide, make cheap small mines with only one warhead to get more mines out.

Re: Mines & Treaties
 

I wouldn't advise to actually improve the mines, as usually a hundred small mines is more than enough to do damage on the opponent. It means something like 20,000 damage points, and if your opponent sends in a fleet having more than 20,000 armor points, you should win no matter what. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif (Researching mines could be useful in the mods where they are other types of mines on the other hand)

I have myself one or two questions on minefields, after Loser pointed out something to me in our game. How are working cloaked minesweepers under the following circumstances?

1) Cloaked minesweepers are going into an unknown minefield. Do they sweep the mines, do they get destroyed or do they make their way through the minefield without trouble? And what about a known minefield?

2) What happened with a cloaked fleet including cloaked minefields? Same question as above.

Just in case, I should uncloak my minesweepers, but it may be difficult when you don't know where are the minefields. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Re: Mines & Treaties
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Are you sure about that?

I believe they do cost more. But they do more damage.

I generally have two Mine designs. One Small Mine with a single Cobalt Warhead I for absolute cheap and fast mine production. One Large Mine with four Cobalt Warhead III for those situations where I want to maximized damage but I don't think the enemy will bring a minesweeper, like scattering mines in a random movement system, mining random sectors, mining colonizable worlds.

Re: Mines & Treaties
 

Larger warheads do cost more (slighty more at least), 100 mineral for third level warheads instead of 50 mineral for the first ones. (40 rad/20 rad IIRC)

Re: Mines & Treaties
 

That's a significant number when you're trying to build as many Mines as possible in a single turn.

Cloaked minesweepers will not sweep mines under any circumstances. Well, I'm not sure if the mines are already in the same sector as they are... you may be able to use the Sweep button.

Uncloaked minesweepers will sweep mines even if they are in a fleet with cloaked ships.

The limitation (per your question on the PbW forum) on Mines is one hundred per sector, not system.

Re: Mines & Treaties
 

Cloaked minesweepers will not uncloak and will not sweep mines when encountering a minefield.

Slick.

Re: Mines & Treaties
 

And I gather cloaked minesweepers do get hit by these mines? Hmm, yet another reason to such these expendable scouts, and their Stealth Armor powered counter-part.

That is what I saw Loser, don't ask me why I believe since I started the game the limit is per system. Now I feel really silly to have destroyed minefields on a given system to be able to launch 100 mines on another sector in the same system.

Thank to both of you for your answers, I should forego this scheme involving Stealth Armor and minesweepers. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

[ October 02, 2003, 15:53: Message edited by: Alneyan ]