Damage: 5000 concussive/3500 standard
Velocity: 0 m/s
Energy: 35 /mine
Delay: 5 s
Mass: 2000 kg
Splash radius: 150m concussion/90m standard
Detonation: Proximity (80m)
Ammo: 10
Lifetime: 5 min
Requirements: 7/-/7/10/-, +900 TPG standing, Basic Trader IV.
Cost: 25,000 credits.

Description: In its ongoing effort to supply merchants with the tools they need to make maximum profit, The Propeller Group has developed the Concussion-Proximity mine launcher. Con-Prox mines are expensive, heavy, and consume vital energy. However, their unique combination of concussive disorientation and explosive damage -- plus a wide range proximity trigger -- will terrify pursuing pirates.

Doesn't seem unreasonable. Seeing as the idea comes from someone who'd be stopped by it, it's fairly even in my opinion.

Maybe a bit much ammo, but for the most part it's pretty good. Might want to make the delay a slight bit larger to prevent misuse, but it's decent.

It'd actually be sort of neat to see these with a really short lifetime (say, 1 minute) so that they'd be most useful as anti-pirate weapons rather than area-control mines.

Should have a fuse instead of a prox. That way you could time when to drop it and it will go off in the pirates face if you've timed it right. A little more of a challenge then to just drop and run. This would also keep them from sitting there for 15 minutes and would keep them from being used at wormholes, etc.

my $0.02

kernel.panic

I agree with the lifespan drop and have edited it from 15 minutes to 5 minutes; mostly because I think area control with mines is just dumb, but partly because this is a specialized mine.

I'm less sure about the time vs. prox fuse, largely because I think it would make fast implementation very difficult, if not impossible. As a pirate, I'd much rather it be timed than proxed.

The ammo seems fair: it will allow a trader to handle more than one chase without stopping to re-arm, but the delay and energy drain will, like Screamers, prevent spamming. The energy requirement, however, is mainly to force the trader to think carefully about when to shoot, sort of like rails; they only have so many shots before they have to drop off infinboost (not to mention the delay for WH use, or even for sector jumping if they use enough of these).

I still hate traders, but given all the pirate ideas I've floated lately, it seems like a good thing (balance wise) to give them something to help keep their moths alive (and flying into Grey).

ok, how 'bout your mine now
and my depth charge soon...

hehe