Newcomer / Intro Are mines worthwhile for trading vessels in 3.0.3.

[PlusP-Nx]

Upon being interdicted, I usually beat the “mini-game” & outmaneuver the pirate or submit and boost away. No problem. However, I saw a vid on YouTube recently and a trader was using shock and regular mines to either blow up or to throw off the attacker. I thought I would try it out for fun but after I sent off a few volleys the system authorities showed up and one “waked” right into a cluster that killed him resulting in me being wanted.

I was in a trading cutter doing A>B trading where I switch out my fuel scoop for a cargo rack. I had to drop off my load & sneak back to the station to pick up my fuel scoop after realizing that I had to travel a pretty good distance to the closest Interstellar Factors station and the fuel scoop was almost a necessity.

The newest patch notes state:

“From 3.0.3 you will no longer be able to access outfitting at any port whilst in a ‘hot’ ship, thus you will not be able to make any load-out changes. You’re required to first clean the ship by paying off fines and bounties issued against it. Outfitting services will then be restored.”

This was an accident. I know “stuff” happens but what I thought would be fun turned into a really big inconvenience.

Now mines are looking even less attractive. I am elite in trade and exploration and have never “needed” them before after being interdicted hundreds of times. I just thought it would be cool to try them out and I became accidentally wanted on the first try. Maybe it’s just bad luck. Does anyone have generally positive results?

I posted this on the newcomer forum since I know nothing about how mines work outside of YouTube and thought others may benefit as well.

 

[aRJay]

That video is probably a year or so out of date, there was a period where they were very effective,due to most NPCs flying directly behind you when in pursuit but after a while the NPCs learnt to fly smarter and not fly through several clusters of mines to get you. The big risk of course back then as now was mines are an indiscriminate weapon and will trigger on any ship in range you, cops, innocent bystanders.

The outfitting thing has been adjusted, outfitting in Anarchies will still be available to the wanted.

My top tip is always check how current any guides and tips are as the game has changed a lot over time.

 

[Monkey Pants]

The mines are really useful with the Ion Disruption special effect.
This reboots the attackers drives allowing you to escape while they reboot.

 

[PlusP-Nx]

Thanks for the replies and advice. There is a ton of info out there and it seems info can get outdated very quickly. o7

 

[Maka Gucci]

Mines are great, the only issue being that you have to roll with crimes off, so the authorities don't drop in and hit em. Problem then being, if you get shot by someone who isn't wanted yet and has crimes on, you'lll become wanted for defending yourself.

Depends on circumstance as to whether they will be useful to you. We always use em for PP hauling, since we are in Open jumping between the same systems over and over, with people specifically out to target us. We go the whole prismatic/mine route with crimes off and it does do the do.

But if I was jumping to lot of different systems, and would be less targeted. I'd maybe just leave crimes on, and not use the mines.

 

[Chris Simon]

Thanks for the replies and advice. There is a ton of info out there and it seems info can get outdated very quickly. o7

That is very true. Elite changes all the time, mechanics get overhauled and new ones are added. It definitely pays off the filter the google searches by date.
Or, well, participate here.

 

[Ted Striker]

Last time I tried mines I had an NPC pirate chasing me after I submitted to interdiction, with cops chasing him. The pirate avoided every mine and they hit the cops instead.

So yeah there's that.

 

[pzykozomatik]

So far my few experiments with mines (in 2.3/2.4) concluded that from most hardpoints you only hit yourself because you run over the mine you just dropped in front of you. The mines I actually managed to drop properly just floated past the pursuant enemy without doing anything notable. Has any of this gotten better?

 

[aRJay]

So far my few experiments with mines (in 2.3/2.4) concluded that from most hardpoints you only hit yourself because you run over the mine you just dropped in front of you. The mines I actually managed to drop properly just floated past the pursuant enemy without doing anything notable. Has any of this gotten better?

The hard points that produced self destructing mines still do unless you know just how to manoeuvre whilst launching, this is of course different for each ship type and pirate NPCs haven't forgotten not to run straight behind you.
So no.

This is all for conventional mines someone with any experience with them will have to answer for the engineered versions.