Does anyone know how mine-launchers are supposed to work? They don't seem functional.

[Archvillain]

I equipped my biggest slots (class 2) on my Asp with mine-launchers in case of pirates. A pirate (NPC) Eagle interdicted, so I tried to use them, and it was baffling how utterly useless they were. Since his eagle was no threat to me, I dragged out the combat for aeons to try to get the mine launchers to do any damage, but no. It was weird.

If I was using a single weak and useless class-1 weapon, I could have taken down his shields, but TWO mine launchers, both class-2, couldn't scratch him even through I dropped a four-figure ammo expenditure, even though he was dumb as bricks.

One of the things I tried was getting him to chase me, then using FA off to fire mines at him while drifting away, so he would fly right into them. Not a scratch on his shields.

Weirdly, I would fire mines, watch them drop behind me in the scanner, then after a few seconds, before he reaches them, they teleport IN FRONT OF ME, and my mines keep hitting me! Even though I was flying away from them when I drop them! I don't understand what's going on - it's like the mines were pacman exiting one side of the screen and appearing on the other side, except instead of pacman it's the ghosts teleporting and running straight into you.

And when they hit me, they didn't do anything. I have a point defense (which I've also never used), so I initially though the sound of the mines hitting me was the sound of the point defense taking them out before they hit me, then I noticed a blue shields-were-hit spot on my instruments, so I was getting hit, but apparently only with feathers and marshmellows.

My shields didn't even notice they were getting hit. No matter how many mines hit me, it's like nothing is happening, but I'm cranking out mines as fast as they'll launch and they're all drifting away then teleporting into me.


Why are my mines teleporting into me?
Why don't they hit the targeted ship flying towards them?
Why don't they do any damage?
What on earth is going on?!

 

[Surly_Badger]

I'm glad you asked and I'm interested to see what people say. I tried mine-droppers too and they appeared to be useless.

There was one time I was super close-up on an NPC, swapping hurts, and my shields were down -- suddenly: MINE! BOOM! But that was it. I suspect they are useless except if you're running from someone with low shields (which seems unlikely)

 

[Deleted member 38366]

--- Deleted ---

 

[Commander Dave]

OK.
Mine launchers work perfectly. You just have to understand what they're doing.
They are a delivery mechanism for dropping, note the word dropping, a mine into the path of another ship. The mines do not seek, they can't move. It's like dropping a brick out of your car window and hoping someone else runs over it.
Your Asp and my T9 both have mine launchers. The "main" hard points are on the front of the ship either side of the cockpit.
Think about that positioning for a moment. It's like you in your car having no windscreen and being able to drop that brick out of the hole where the windscreen was.
So you chuck a brick out the windscreen at 70mph and what happens? The brick goes out, loses ejection momentum after a moment and comes right back at you. I'm ignoring gravity here for the moment.
That's exactly what's happening when you drop mines out the front of your ship.
They get ejected by the mine launching mechanism a short distance away and then you slam into them.
On the T9 you can add them to the three rear hard points but on the Asp all the hard points are forward. So mine layers aren't going to be much use to you unless you're going backwards.

Watch this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2-MMofG-7w
I get the target behind me and launch the mines. The target evades and is stupid enough to let me get him in my sights. Zap. Dead Viper.
T9 vs Viper.
T9 FTW!

 

[Archvillain]

OK.
That's exactly what's happening when you drop mines out the front of your ship.
They get ejected by the mine launching mechanism a short distance away and then you slam into them.

No, this is not at all what is happening. I drop the mine. I watch it on the scanner as it fall further and further behind me as I drive a few kilometers up the road, then when it is a few kilometers behind me, it teleports a few kilometers ahead of me on the road, so now I am driving towards it instead of away from it, and eventually, if I don't try to avoid it (turn onto another road) I drive right over it.

You describe launching mines into my direction of travel, and this cannot explain it because I had flight assist off for much of the testing and this mine behavior was happening regardless of whether the hardpoints were facing towards or away from my direction of travel when I dropped the mine. Ie, yes I was going backwards, with the NPC chasing me, and the mines were still bafflingly useless.

 

[777Driver]

OK.
Mine launchers work perfectly. You just have to understand what they're doing.

Op pointed out that he was flying with FA OFF (drifting backwards) Also in that video you are fighting an NPC viper with no shields, Mines are completely ineffective against shielded targets.

1.3 buff will hopefully make them worth carrying

 

[Commander Dave]

No, this is not at all what is happening. I drop the mine. I watch it on the scanner as it fall further and further behind me as I drive a few kilometers up the road, then when it is a few kilometers behind me, it teleports a few kilometers ahead of me on the road, so now I am driving towards it instead of away from it, and eventually, if I don't try to avoid it (turn onto another road) I drive right over it.

Ah. You mean this bug:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGn3VbFtkOQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGiP9up-FwA

I found it myself ages ago. I thought it had been squashed. Clearly not. Raise as ticket.

 

[Vornskyr]

Apologies for linking one of my own videos, but this is my experience with mines in this game. They appear to either be either very broken, or badly designed.

Spoiler

[video=youtube;CYGY7agwnYs]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYGY7agwnYs[/video]

 

[Commander Dave]

The mine launchers work as advertised apart from the weird wraparound space issue.
They're not very powerful because they're not very big. The size is obvious when you look at the launchers. They're more like large grenades in size. I reckon the class two launchers chuck out a mine that's about the size of a waste paper basket. Pretty small when you consider that anti-sub mines can be two metres across and most depth charges are about 1.3m tall. Magnetic anti-ship mines are also pretty big. Much bigger than a waste paper basket. But then again there has to have been advances in explosives tech. That said, as they are now, mines are not very powerful.
They are extremely easy to evade as expected. All mines are easy to evade. You see them and you move yourself to avoid crashing into one the same way you'd avoid stepping in a dog turd.
They don't move, mines don't move. That's why they are called mines and not missiles or rockets or something else that can propel itself in a guided or unguided fashion. You drop 'em and they stay there. That's how mines work. Mines are passive devices that wait for the target to come to them.
That's the key. If the target doesn't know they're there then they might blunder into one and boom. A kill for free.

They're useful for getting an inexperienced pilot off the tail of your cargo ship and giving you time to charge the FSD. They can take out small targets that are stupid enough to have no shields. They're not effective against anything larger than an unshielded Cobra or anything larger than an Eagle with shields and not very much even then.
Small, passive devices, that are useful for getting idiots off your back so you can get away. They could be more powerful but they are currently at iteration 1. Plenty of time for things to change.

Were people expecting something more from a mine?

 

[nikos]

The mine launchers work as advertised apart from the weird wraparound space issue.
They're not very powerful because they're not very big. The size is obvious when you look at the launchers. They're more like large grenades in size. I reckon the class two launchers chuck out a mine that's about the size of a waste paper basket. Pretty small when you consider that anti-sub mines can be two metres across and most depth charges are about 1.3m tall. Magnetic anti-ship mines are also pretty big. Much bigger than a waste paper basket. But then again there has to have been advances in explosives tech. That said, as they are now, mines are not very powerful.
They are extremely easy to evade as expected. All mines are easy to evade. You see them and you move yourself to avoid crashing into one the same way you'd avoid stepping in a dog turd.
They don't move, mines don't move. That's why they are called mines and not missiles or rockets or something else that can propel itself in a guided or unguided fashion. You drop 'em and they stay there. That's how mines work. Mines are passive devices that wait for the target to come to them.
That's the key. If the target doesn't know they're there then they might blunder into one and boom. A kill for free.

They're useful for getting an inexperienced pilot off the tail of your cargo ship and giving you time to charge the FSD. They can take out small targets that are stupid enough to have no shields. They're not effective against anything larger than an unshielded Cobra or anything larger than an Eagle with shields and not very much even then.
Small, passive devices, that are useful for getting idiots off your back so you can get away. They could be more powerful but they are currently at iteration 1. Plenty of time for things to change.

Were people expecting something more from a mine?

You keep missing the bit about the lack of shield damage. If the main use case is for fleeing trader and you have to drop the target's shields before launching mines then there is no use case.

 

[DubbleTwice]

Ah. You mean this bug:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGn3VbFtkOQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGiP9up-FwA

I found it myself ages ago. I thought it had been squashed. Clearly not. Raise as ticket.

I have been bravely trying to use mines for a while. I have only ever experienced them as having the teleport wrap around bug. I have never seen them operate as they did in your video. have never once seen them operate without the teleport bug.

(which means I have to avoind my own mines when running from an emery)
(It also means the mines get multiple "passess" at hitting the enemy.)

Bizzare, broken, should be fixed