mines and fighters

[PeterD]

I did deselect them in the game setup.
I used to get overwhelmed by carriers in the early
game.

The post I was reading said that by removing mines
the AI wouldn't waste time building mine layers
and sweepers.

Any opinions on this?

[Unknown_Enemy]

If the AI cannot research mines, it won't have minsweepers and minelayers.

So it won't build them if that tech is disabled.

[PeterD]

my mistake, the AI had many ships called
mine sweeper and mine layer (class name)
it didn't build the actual layers and sweepers
on the ships.

Does anyone have an opinion on whether mines
are better in or out of the game.

[Lord_Shleepy]

Originally posted by PeterD:
my mistake, the AI had many ships called
mine sweeper and mine layer (class name)
it didn't build the actual layers and sweepers
on the ships.

Does anyone have an opinion on whether mines
are better in or out of the game.

Every tool of destruction is a friend...a friiieeend...yessss yessss! **Ahem** Mines and fighters can sometimes be like those friends you never wanted, but at the least they make for more interesting role play.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

Good thing you stopped yourself before you said 'precioussss'

[raynor]

Originally posted by PeterD:
Does anyone have an opinion on whether mines
are better in or out of the game.

For their roleplay effect, mines are awesome. But the AI does have some problems dealing with them. If a human player encounters a mine field blocking access to a warp point s/he wants access to, the human player will likely shift production to solely build ships with mine sweeping components on them. The AI does not have this capability. The AI is designed to maintain a certain number of mine sweeping ships in its fleet. As those ships are destroyed, the AI will build more. But it is doing this because it has been coded to always keep a certain number of mine sweeping ships in its fleet and not because it has encountered a mine field.

When the AI bonus is set to low or none, I think the human player can severely hamper the AI players through the use of mines. On medium and high bonus, the AI researches faster and builds faster, and mines are less effective, in my opinion.

[Suicide Junkie]

Mines can be fixed by reducing the limit per sector, cutting down the damage each does, and removing sweepers.

Then you can plow through them and take some damage in order to secure territory, instead of either being wiped out or sweeping them all harmlessly.