Why does my mine sweeper get killed by mines?
 

I have a sweeper with 10 sweeping components. When I cross a warp point where there are apparently mines, it destroyed 10 mines but was destroyed in the process.

What gives??

Re: Why does my mine sweeper get killed by mines?
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">First, please read section 8.4 of the Newbie FAQ:

http://www.shrapnelgames.com/cgi-bin...;f=23;t=005518

But to answer your question, a minesweeper component level X sweeps X mines. You had 10 minesweeper level 1's which swept 10 mines. Apparently there were more than 10 mines in the sector so you swept 10 and got bLasted by the remainder.

The highest level of minesweeping component in the default game is 5, which means that each MS5 component will sweep 5 mines.

The default maximum number of mines in a sector is 100 per empire. It is best to make fleets capable of sweeping at least 100 mines. If more than 1 empire allies together, they can heavily mine a sector with 100 per empire.

Slick.

[ February 18, 2003, 00:52: Message edited by: Slick ]

Re: Why does my mine sweeper get killed by mines?
 

Don't think of minesweepers as "carving a path through the minefield"; they remove a specified number of mines, then become overwhelmed by the remaining mines in the sector.

Minesweeper pilots have one of the crappiest jobs in the galaxy when asked to go out alone...
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif

They are inefficient in this way, and somewhat costly to build. Unless early in the game you should, as a rule of thumb, assume the field has 100 mines.