[Q]

Originally posted by Baron Munchausen:
Note: You can mod direct-fire weapons for mines. I've done it and seen them work when deployed in combat much like satellites, but I never tried to lay those types of mines and see what happens when you cross into their location in strategic movement. Will the mines fire their weapons? Or will they fire and then ram like 'regular' mines even if they don't have warheads? Or will they just ram without using their direct-fire weapons? Would be really cool if they would fire their weapons but not ram. Effectively a bunch of 'ambush' satellites. Normal sats will just let you pass by when they are cloaked.

WARNING: ONLY SPECULATIONS, NO TESTED FACTS AHEAD

I think mines do not "ram" ships, because for ramming you have to move which is not possible for mines, but they explode and do the damage. And they always are destroyed by the explosion. The entire minefield damage is managed differently as a combat by SE IV. So I doubt very much that direct fire weapons would work as direct fire weapons in mines.
Another specialty of mines is that they skip shields. So if you put warheads with "engines only" damage, the damage should be done skipping the shields (in contrast to the combat effect now with the new patch) but also skipping armor because the damage is specific to engines only. That might be quite dangerous mines!