Proximity mine that knocks out powercells for like 5 seconds.

There is a drain mine in existence already. Would this be a modification to the current mine?

Instead of just draining the energy like the drain mine it would disable the cell's recharge or maybe even shut down the cell completely, means no turbo or weapons, even when you have full energy.

good idea, but just modify the existing completely useless drain mines

+1 for Greenwall's idea.

5 seconds is a really long time to not be able to defend yourself outside of manuevers...

I'm not opposed to the item itself, just that length.

Well better not hit the mine then, luxen! lol

Sounds like a good anti persuit mine...

A very double-edged sword. Behemoths could drop these to get a decent chance of escape, or hit these and be doomed.

But let's face it, Behemoths are doomed in a fight even if they don't hit these...

If the mine disables a ship for 5 seconds, then I ask that the refill cost per mine be 500k. If that is the case, then i give the suggestion a +1 .

Reason for the 500k is that 5 seconds with no power cell is frankly more dangerous than a TU mine. Even a Prom, most rags, the mk1 moth and some Centaur's can survive a direct TU mine. With zero power, all ships would be sitting ducks.

Due to it being a power based mine, i would also suggest that 550 energy be required to deploy this mine. I am aware that this limitation would limit the ability to deploy this mine to 4 power cells: the Heavy, the Extreme, the goliath, and the trident power cells.

Requiring that much energy to deploy it makes this an offense-only weapon and completely unbalances it. These should deploy just like regular mines.

500k per refill is ridiculous for a mine that in-and-of-itself does no, or limited, damage. Again, this makes it a strictly offensive weapon if deploying it defensively costs more than the ship and cargo being defended.

Without that much to energy to deploy the weapon, that mine is already unbalanced. Count out 5 seconds anyway you like (one one thousand, two... or one mississippi, two...) and you'll see that is a lifetime to be dead in the water (so to speak). Three of the 4 power cells I mentioned will allow pilots to achieve infinitturbo, meaning they can deploy the weapon and then just fly out and get away.

Furthermore, i would like you to think about the DPS that a MkI Ion blaster has (2333). In 5 seconds the MkI ion blaster will do 11665 damage, which is enough to kill 44 out of the 68 ships listed in this table. So in 5 seconds this mine gives a user the potential to kill a significant amount of ships in the game with one of the weakest weapons in the game.

All of this indicates to me that this is a very powerful weapon. It is in the same class as the TU mine in potential power. That is why it needs to cost so much to reload and use so much energy to deploy.

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Edit: I need to clarify my opinion on this: I would love this weapon. If it got released the way Risk Everything want its, i would place these mines EVERYWHERE. Can you all imagine 100 of these mines per pilot per sector? It would be hilarious. So much to the point that after a few days people would be making suggestions that the mine be nerfed. So my modifications to the OP are preemptive nerfs to balance the overpowered original suggestion.

I see this as more of an anti-capship weaponry. Maybe it should only work on those? We already have a drain mine, albeit rarely used but is not as OP as this would be against fighters.

Make it require a high grid, have only a little ammo(3-4?) and increase the duration of effect slightly. Maybe a lifetime of 7-8 seconds after which it explodes, not a total of 7-8 seconds of effect.

We already have a drain mine, albeit *never* used

ftfy

Then reduce the effective length of time. A trade ship with anything but a Fast Charge Power Cell can't jump fast enough to keep a pursuit ship from closing. I recently had this issue with an Ultra Charge on my Moth not being able to get 1,000m away from a Warthog MKII with a fast charge cell, even when jumping through multiple empty sectors. It took me longer to reach 25% than him, so I was screwed.

For defensive use, it needs to be just effective enough to allow the running ship to get outside that 1,000m range and jump.

For offensive use, imagine leaving this at a wormhole and trapping ships there while you blast them!

Even with a slightly longer jump time, if you make enough jumps you'll eventually end up more than 1k from your attacker, and you can jump away cleanly. Or you could have jumped to a station sector. In your situation, dropping conc mines may have helped. Or paying off your attacker. etc etc, you had many choices.

Weapons are not classified as defensive/offensive weapons by the game. They just "are". How about you list some stats for this mine. Like lic levels, masses, lifetime, etc. So we can debate actual numbers.

Jumping into a station sector is a death sentence as well. I've been blown up in plenty of NFZs, very few of them Corvus.

As for dropping mines as I ran- I was already out of mines.

As for being 1000m apart, by enough that I could jump away cleanly, that doesn't often happen when you both jump into a sector from the same direction. Hence how certain forms of bot mining are done.

Talking numbers:
Large Port
1500 kgs
Capacity: 3 mines
Lisences: 0/0/4/4/0
Duration: 30 seconds
Detonation: 70m proximity fuse
Splash radius: 150m
Affect: Reduces power cell to 0 and prevents recharging for 5 seconds.

Note- you can still maneuver your ship in this state. A fighter can still effectively dodge fire. This does not create a "sitting duck" situation, unless a fighter uses it on a trader, anyway.

It could be named the EMP mine. It could even affect every ship within the splash radius, including the deploying ship, were it still in range.

1) 5 seconds is still an insanely long time to not control your ship; doesnt matter if your the runner or the chaser.you imagine runners using this to escape people, but as with anything in VO people will figure how to use these in other scenarios too. I myself like to use mines in an aggressive manner in fights, too...

2) f2p-accessible, AND no combat requirements outside of heavy? No. we don't need or want a swarm of freebies being used to cloud a sector with these things. 7/-/8/4/-, and maybe a badge on top of that.

1500: That seems a bit light for this weapon. Remember, you say this fries the electronics for 5 seconds. Clearly this weapon has a lot of hardware in it. Even an L-mine weighs in at 2400.

Capacity: Lower it to 2 mines. This is a powerful weapon.

License: So a drain mine can be purchased at 2/-/-/-/- BUT It only drains 250 per mine, and the power cell can start recharging instantly. I don't think a mine that can take out a power cell for 5 seconds (a life time in a dog fight) should be purchasable for low level licenses. You'll be able to disable a capship with this weapon (as you have described it). If you want the licenses to be low, then I suggest this be a manued item.

Duration: I can live with that

Det/splash: So question, are you saying anything within 150m will be the affected ships?

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For the sake of completeness, i'm including some threads of previous EMP suggestions:

Craftable Non-nuclear electromagnetic pulse (NNEMP) addons
EMP- large weapons slot.
EMP Style Jammer Rocket
Non-lethal weapons
EMP Missiles

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Beyond the scope of this thread, but leaving a reply here since this forum does not have a private message system:




It doesn't matter if you are on the same vector. I have been 20m behind someone who is jumping, and when we jump into the new sector, they have been 1500m in front of me.

At Luxen:

1) The ship is not dead in space. It can't turbo or fire energy weapons. It can maneuver and fire anything that does not require energy to use.

2) The duration of the mine is 30 seconds. I guess I should have said that the lifespan of the mine is 30 seconds, as in it will detonate after 30 seconds if it has not been triggered. Not really useful outside of active combat situations. No flooding of sectors with this. I like WAF's suggestion of making this manufacturable to keep F2P from having direct access to it. I still like keeping it equip-able by F2P players so they are not restricted from using something that might be an effective component of trading and fighting.

At We All Float:

Let me preface by saying thank you for doing a lot of due diligence with your response! A lot of great information is presented here!

Weight: An EMP is a pretty simple device, but I am fine with bringing the weight up to 2000-2500
Capacity: I figured if I said two, someone would say one. So, I said three. I'm fine with two :D
Det/Splash: Yes. Every ship within 150 will be affected. Including the ship that deployed it, if it is still within range. This aspect is very debatable, but I figured it would balance the item for those who feel it is too powerful in combat.

I would like to add that destroying this mine would not activate it.

Thank you for the information regarding jumping into sectors while near people. I do recall being separated from convoys I am escorting in similar situations.