Minefields ruin the game

[The Thwomp]

Every fleet gets ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up by mines. What is the point of spending any more time in this game? I had minesweeping dds that just do jack all. The game is totally unenjoyable at the moment.

Am I missing anything, can I remove minefields and subs, or is this just the main experience for people?

[Nitemares]

the ONLY thing I have found as a counter to minefields is to build destroyers with mine hunting kits installed. LOTS of destroyers.

To stop mine damage, the ratio "seems" to be 4 to 1...

You need 4 mine sweeping destroyers for every non-sweeping ship!

So if your task force has 10 battleships, and 20 heavy cruisers, you need 120 minesweepers to keep them safe.


Is this retarded? Stupid? Unrealistic? Annoying? Game breaking?



"Yes"

[Richard Dastardly]

Except most of the ships I've lost to mines have been destroyers, and not in active combat zones... I think I've lost three in combat this campaign ( a couple of decades now ) and 14 or so to mines in corners of the map. Places that'd be very well swept by then.

[TearierNutria6]

Man. I haven't been able to play the last couple weeks and was hoping they would have fixed this by now. Mines totally destroy the game right now.

[FrankieSan]

So Mine hunting ships is key, but the research, oh boy the research.. I focused solely on the bottom 3 ones form the start of my 1920's campaign and by 1922 I saw next to no damage form any mines i hit.
Avoiding them though, no idea how to do that.

[Richard Dastardly]

Originally posted by FrankieSan:

So Mine hunting ships is key, but the research, oh boy the research.. I focused solely on the bottom 3 ones form the start of my 1920's campaign and by 1922 I saw next to no damage form any mines i hit.
Avoiding them though, no idea how to do that.

It'll go up again - one campaign is up to 1941, I have up to date skills & destroyers are by now all based on Leader hull, triple hulled etc, Minehunter V, and I'm still losing previously undamaged destroyers to mines - again, usually in safe ( supposedly! ) transit areas, but the damage is enough to completely break ships still. Mostly they're just damaged though.

[Nitemares]

Originally posted by Sander Hydra:

well, just saw a report came by with about 20 ships just sunk to mines, just gone...

this is insane

Only 20??? Must have been a good day!
I have seen up wards of 80 ships from various nations go down on a single report!

Mines seems to be the game's solution to doom stacks, as when a Doom Stack enters a minefield, usually 1/2 to 3/4 of the doom stack sinks.

[Daikhan]

How do you manage to lose so many ships to mines? I have played two campaigns 1890 start, USA and Japan and have never lost a single ship to a mine though i got some mine damage, destroyers exclusively
1. I always evade mine fields. This is easy, they are shown on the map. AI ignores this of course and loses about 1/8 a deathstack per large minefield. Does anyone else do this? Seems like a no-brainer. Just curious
2. Task forces composition: 2-4 BB/BC, 3-4 CA/CL, 8 DD/TB. DD/TB come with mine hunters always as soon as they are available
3. There is a point in transition between the current map borders (Pacific) where a random magical mine field is located. It occasionaly damages my ships, both USA and Japan campaigns. I guess it might be a bug

I have personally never had a problem with mines as they are super easy to avoid. What do you guys do differently? Please describe a typical cituation when you get ships sink. I can't be the only player to simply not sail in a mine field

[wulf]

I won't even be near an enemy port, just transiting the Pacific, with no enemy fleets nearby, and take mass damage to mines. I don't understand how it works

[(KRA)Gray Wolf 3rdX0]

lol at least you dont have a sub around your fleet and get fored to skip losing your fleet to a battle you should have won lol

[Cool Douche]

Subs and mines are completely broken. They were not ready for prime time, and they ruin the experience of all the other fun parts of the game.

[(KRA)Gray Wolf 3rdX0]

so um 4 DDs to 1 ship so over 4000 dds for 400 ships give or take. add extra 6 for anti sub... Wich dont mater cause game forces you to skip ad you lose your entier fleet.

[Lucky]

Well, as I said in the discussion about "battlefleets being too op" - mine and subs will fix that. And they did.

For all who think that there is something unrealistic about it: read about what happened to German Navy 10th Destroyer flotilla in november 1916. This is the classic example of "lets ignore mines and see what happens" approach.

[hashishmaria]

Originally posted by Lucky:

Well, as I said in the discussion about "battlefleets being too op" - mine and subs will fix that. And they did.

I wouldn't mind mines around enemy ports, some bottleneck areas, or if I could actually see them and avoid them.
But loosing half my task force while crossing Indian ocean due to mines I can't see (And no idea who put them there) or running into a minefield in the middle of the Atlantic is kinda weird...

Anyway- how do you even set up minefields? I can't find any controls to do that...

[Mobzonk]

Mines get laid by ships in port. Not clear to me if ships and submarines lay them when at sea as well.

If you hover the cursor over a port you can see how far its minefield extends. I have ports with 300+ km minefields - realistically it should be more like 30km. Mines should be a deterrent to port strikes and weapon to deploy by visiting enemy ports and maybe choke points too, not just floating around 300km from home.

[jdog820208]

Between how mines and subs are being implemented, I cannot play the game anymore. They add a new layer to the game and I was looking forward to seeing them introduced, sure, but not like this. Both are absurd and here is why.

1. Mines--that you cannot see on the map outside of harbor defense and have zero control on where they are being laid out at sea--can destroy any fleet in existence. Are these mines nuclear or something? Cause that is the only way that can happen. Mines historically could never do that much damage to a fleet. They have always been more of a deterrent since after the first ship hits one the entire fleet stops moving. So a little more historical accuracy would help here.

2. What is up with the sub mechanics? If a sub engages something neither can escape until one of them is sunk and the level of sub vs sub action I am seeing is sickening. I just did the 1920's and there was ten times more sub vs sub action in a single war in the game than in real human history! Even during WWII, there was only one recorded sub vs sub kill during the entire war. Subs did not become a legitimate threat to each other until the atomic age and more modern torpedoes came along. So again, a little more historical accuracy would help here.

Conclusion:
At this point, why bother with a surface fleet at all? Just build mine layers and subs, cheap and easy win.

Suggestions:
1. Designate mine layers to mine certain areas on the map with the individual mines being very deadly--able to cripple or sink smaller ships with a single hit, but them hitting only one or two ships and forcing the fleet to stop until the field is swept or they try going around them.

2. Historically, subs are slow, especially while submerged. So a surface fleet should have little to no issue outrunning them and leaving the area. Also, drop the sub vs sub action, it is ridiculous on so many levels.