How Minefields and Minesweeping Work

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[Hal]

There are always questions about mines that pop up here. Here is my general guide on how it works.

What happens during the tick:

1. Point Defense removes x mines from the total present on the system.
2. y number of mines are triggered to attack.
3. z mines hit doing xx damage


1. Point Defense vs Minefields

To make your minefields resist beam attacks, do the following:

• increase hull tech. This increases the hull points of your mines.
• increase stealth tech. This increases the stealth of your mines.
• play kreel. They have a racial bonus in this area.

To make your Point Defense more effective vs minefields, do the following:

• make your anti-mine ships pure beam. A pure beam ship with 10 beam slots gets 5 chances to kill mines (50% of slots), whereas a ship with say 8 beam and 2 missile would only get 2 chances (25% of slots).
• use sensors. As stated above, mines have stealth. You must have sensors in order to hit them (0 sensors has no chance to hit). An equation similar to that for hitting ships is used, but it is harder to hit a mine then a ship. The maximum chance to hit a mine is 60%. The minimum (if you have sensors) is 5%
• Increase beam tech. your beam damage is compared to the hull of the mine so more beam tech = better chance to kill it. Example: 10 slots beam, 200 beam damage, gives you 5 shots of 40 beam damage. Any mines you hit that have 40 or less hull are destroyed. If you hit a mine with more then 40 hull, you fail. There is no tracking of damaged mines, you either kill the full value, or you dont. This is the reason a fleet that had been performing well at destroying mines can suddenly get nothing...the hull of the mines went up.

2. Triggering Mines

To make more mines trigger per tick, do the following:

• build more mines. The more you have the more can trigger per tick. maximum likelihood is reached at 300+ mines.
• have more planetary scanners. maximum likelihood is reached at 50+ scanners.
• increase your sensor tech.
• The maximum number of mines that can trigger in a tick = the fleet size of the enemy.

To make your fleet trigger fewer mines, do the following:

• Put stealth on your ships. Stealthy ships can sneak past mines.
• Use smaller ships. Capitals trigger mines more often then SOTL, and SOTL trigger more often the Escorts.
• Use smaller fleets. Fewer ships means fewer chances to trigger a mine.

3. Mines Impacting Ships

Once triggered, mines still misfire 40% of the time. Kreel mines misfire 35% of the time.

If they do not misfire, then your mines will impact a random ship. To increase the damage your mines do:

• increase your stealth tech. This increases the base damage they can cause
• play kreel. They have a racial bonus in this area.
• increase your missile tech. If the enemy shield tech is better then your missile tech, some damage may go to shields instead of hull. If your missile tech is better then the enemy shield tech, 100% of mine damage goes to hull.
• the minimum damage done by a mine is 6% of the max hull of the impacted ship, apportioned based on missile and shield tech.

To decrease the damage your ships take from mines:

• increase your shield tech. As stated above, if your shield tech is better then the enemy missile tech, then some of the damage may go to shields instead of your hull.

Any ships killed by mines yield kills and salvage in the normal fashion. Any questions please ask

[Petrocity]

Increase beam tech. your beam damage is compared to the hull of the mine so more beam tech = better chance to kill it. Example: 10 slots beam, 200 beam damage, gives you 5 shots of 40 beam damage. Any mines you hit that have 40 or less hull are destroyed. If you hit a mine with more then 40 hull, you fail. There is no tracking of damaged mines, you either kill the full value, or you dont. This is the reason a fleet that had been performing well at destroying mines can suddenly get nothing...the hull of the mines went up.

There's no randomness involved?  I don't suppose we could weasel the equation for the HP of mines from ya, huh?  =)

To make your fleet trigger fewer mines, do the following
Use smaller ships. Capitals trigger mines more often then SOTL, and SOTL trigger more often the Escorts.

Just wanted to point out that by using smaller ships instead of bigger ships, you will have a LOT more ships due to the fact that they are so much cheaper.  Because of the increased number of ships, you will end up triggering far more mines than normal.  In my experience, fleets with a lot of small ships get rocked by mines far more than  heavy cap based fleets.

[Hal]

well, obviously a fleet with more ships will trigger more mines I suppose I should add that

As for formula, no you can't But a future feature of space may display what Hull your mines have.

[Critter]

a future feature of space may display what Hull your mines have.

Make that one of the Premium benefits.....

[gerappa]

what is the base damage of mine? what is the dmg bonus for kreel mines?

[Dugalle]

If I remember correctly mines do 27 base damage, not sure if that is kreel or not, but if its not 6% of their hull, it does 6% instead.

[gerappa]

27 sounds familiar to me too, but i'm not sure. does kreel have a higher min. damage?  for ex. instead of 6% of their hull 8%?

[Dugalle]

No, I am pretty sure 6% is the max for any species. Though kreel mines do have less chances to misfire.

[Hal]

6% is the MINIMUM, not max. they can do more, and yes kreel do have a higher base damage.

[gerappa]

and can't you tell us exactly how much damage they do?

[Gallomimia]

a future feature of space may display what Hull your mines have.

Make that one of the Premium benefits.....

This man smart.
S-M-R-T

[somguy]

To make your fleet trigger fewer mines, do the following:
Put stealth on your ships. Stealthy ships can sneak past mines.

Is this based on stealth or evasion?

[Hal]

stealth.

[somguy]

make your anti-mine ships pure beam. A pure beam ship with 10 beam slots gets 5 chances to kill mines (50% of slots), whereas a ship with say 8 beam and 2 missile would only get 2 chances (25% of slots).

For odd slot numbers, for example 9 beam slots, does it round up or down?

[Hal]

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