Minefields

Figment · 2012-10-19, 09:07 AM

How many of you used mines in a minefield?

Note, a minefield is a FIELD filled with mines. I'm not asking if you layed a mine once, particularly not if you layed it under a tank that was already there. I'm asking if you created a minefield once. I'm not talking about Cfou... Boomers either.

So in the order of filling 20 square meters with mines would be a start. A small start, but a start nonetheless. Have you?

Next question, have you in fact ever filled more than 2 square meters with mines in PS2 thusfar?

Please state your reasons why. How practical and effective it has been for you so far and how often you've encountered mines at all and which type and in which environment and context (how many enemies present, time pressure, etc. Anything of relevance you can think of).

Traak · 2012-10-19, 09:41 AM

Mines? That has been seeming billions of Auraxibucks from being anywhere near being in reach. I've only once been able to even cert enough to get a repair Sundy. It's hard to critique a game where even the most basic stuff like being able to afford a Sunderer with AMS would take weeks of playing.

Here's my suggestion: Sony. Make all certifications available for anyone. How can we test stuff that is four billion Station Bribes from happening, or would take two hundred years of playing to finally crawl up to the point of being able to use?

Mostly, I spend my time being run over by friendly tanks and vehicles, and being killed by enemies that have, somehow gotten BR12 while I'm still struggling to do support work to get up to 2.1.

Beta is stupidly set up. The way you test stuff is make everything available, not by making nothing available unless you play way longer than any beta has ever been active to get.

So far, beta has been a frustrating and un-fun slog where the good support stuff is light years away from even being able to be affordable. The support guys are punished non-stop. I understand that for most, it's a brainless splatter-fest. But for some, as in, not none, it's a game of support. And Sony has made support downright unprofitable and almost impossible to advance in this given time-frame.

Mutant · 2012-10-19, 11:24 AM

A while ago before the last character wipe i fully certed mines so i could place 4 at a time.

After saving up enough resource to buy 4 mines, which were 75? orange resources at the time i stuck them in a line across a busy-ish road in the hope that an enemy might cross it at some point.

I did this a few times but I never had a kill by just placing the mines on a road hoping something would come along later.

The only kills i have had with mines (and only a couple of kills) where when i was targeting a specific vehicle maneuvering near me.

I soon moved on from tank mines as the resource cost was way too high to try my luck.

I have no memory of ever getting hit by a mine myself.

Captain1nsaneo · 2012-10-19, 01:26 PM

Mine are removed if you swap classes from what I hear. I too played with them, no proximity limiter on them unlike the old ones and I don't know if you can refill and place more than 4 and I don't know if they're cheaper now that we've had the resource change.

I've gotten 1 kill with AV mines and it was an ATV I got by luck (and a bit of positioning).

The only anti-tank weapons in the game worth a damn at the moment are the HA rpgs which are all carbon copies of each other. (side note, if you're hunting tanks pick up the anti-air rpg because it goes faster. Has a little less damage but the speed bonus outweighs that)

Oh yeah, I hear the anti-tank nades the HA can get are really bad. Never managed to hit anything with them myself. (No emp nades yet either)

Timealude · 2012-10-19, 01:45 PM

I played with them a view times, I figure the reason they arent used more is because they do less damage then the old HEs and also we dont really have bridge choke points (that i have seen.) Maybe once they add some water on continents and buff the mines they might be a bit more useful.

ringring · 2012-10-19, 04:57 PM

I laid 2 mines ..... I'm guessing that doesn't count.

I know where you're coming from on this and I am in full agreement. Combat Engineer is a role that is absent to all intents and purposes.

If the Devs added this back in it would be a buff to infantry gameplay versus the tank zerg and it would allow outposts and bases to be fortified prior to an attack giving a buff to spec ops play.

All the devs would need to do is.

Allow more vehicle and personnel mines to be laid per person, I'm talking more than 10.
Mines should not decontruct on change of class (some other method, e.g. 30 minute timer, or forever while the person is on the continent with 15 minute timer if not)
Show friendly mines on the map.
Do not indicate any enemy within a base/outpost until the hack has commenced (to allow preparation time).
Cost should be rebalanced

Do it, and do it quickly so that the imapct can be tested while still in beta!

PoisonTaco · 2012-10-19, 05:26 PM

Mines should be permanent, limited only by resources.

Counter to mines? Have a new cert for each MBT:

Hmr85 · 2012-10-19, 05:48 PM

I had mines a few times. I couldn't really do much due to only carrying 3. Gone are the days of laying enormous mine fields like in PS1. I haven't even bothered certing into them since the last wipe because they came across as worthless to me.

If they would up the damage slightly along with the quantity back to 20 then I would re-cert those bad boys again in a heartbeat. It would also help cut down on the armor spam we have been seeing.

Crator · 2012-10-19, 06:04 PM

Loved being a Combat Engi in PS1. The mine fields laid by players were large but so was the open landscape. It took knowledge to know where to lay the mine fields properly. And even then there was no guarantee someone would run over them or not see them and EMP. You often had to move your mines around the battlefield a lot as well.

Haven't seen much use in PS2 for them tbh. Not with the amount you can lay at one time and the fact that they disappear if you change classes. Too bad about that. Seems we actually had more diversity in role selection in PS1 as well. You could be a regular engineer that can only repair stuff but move further down the cert tree in engineer and become a combat engineer (with 2 different paths to choose from).

ringring · 2012-10-19, 06:12 PM

I will say I've been hit by mines twice.

The first time I was a passenger in a sundy which ran over 1 mine. There was a clang and a significant amount of damage, but it didn't really bother us.

The second was in a push on Indar. We were rolling south on the East side through a narrow canyon. It was quite a good fight tbh. The NC was defending the canyon hard and we could only get up by moving 2 tank side-by-side, which the the width of the pass, with engineers constantly repairing.

I got my tank through, as did the second front tank but immediately once we were through we hit mines. 2 took his tank out and thinking I was in the clear I moved forward but 2 more took out my tank.

However, all in all and despite that. Mines as they are now are not worth the effort.

Figment · 2012-10-20, 02:41 PM

Pretty much as expected. :/ bassically valued as an useless tool right now.

Soothsayer · 2012-10-20, 08:52 PM

Yeah, I used them in tech test a little bit, had about three out at once. I got a random bit of XP once or twice and it was mines. The placement was of zero tactical value, in that there was no purpose above and beyond getting a veh kill at some point in the night.

I stocked up on them but I found I could buy them faster than I could use them, which is a testament to their suck.

maradine · 2012-10-20, 10:15 PM

Have enough mines ever existed simultaneously in PS2 to warrant a field? I literally never see them, not counting the occasional betty at a cap point.

I like the idea of "as many as you can afford", but I have no idea how that would balance out. The passes into/out of the northern desert would be hell. Might be fun, though.

Timealude · 2012-10-21, 04:54 AM

Originally Posted by maradine

Have enough mines ever existed simultaneously in PS2 to warrant a field? I literally never see them, not counting the occasional betty at a cap point.

I like the idea of "as many as you can afford", but I have no idea how that would balance out. The passes into/out of the northern desert would be hell. Might be fun, though.

It would actually involve planning to set up those mines as well as to find a way around them.

Raka Maru · 2012-10-21, 06:50 AM

We need lots of them..I would like to be able to cert 25 like in PS1 and not have them disappear or go neutral if I died. I would like to also pick them back up, they cost money and they are not grenades.

Was having a good hour with them one night when we had certs galore. I had a 5 kill steak by having a sunderer nearby and laying them down on the hill to the crown. Very situational indeed.