How good are minefields?

[Paragon]

Title. Usually on my stations I put FTL inhibitors or repair fields depending on their purpose, but a friend recently told me of his success with minefields.

How good are they? You have to be within a small radius for them to take effect, and they're most effective versus large ships, which happen to have long-range weaponry. By the time you get to fortresses for 2 slots, you'll also likely have fire rate inhibitors take the 2nd slot, and your grand fleets will likely do battle outside minefield range most of the time.

Due to the (projected) reasons above i've never used minefields. What is the opinion of those who have tried?

[rfmacros]

Never used minefields (in combat), but I DO find stations a powerful asset outside FTL-inhibiting. What I do is place stations in spots I intend to retreat to in case I encounter a bigger fleet than I'm willing to fight. I've had fleets twice my size waste ammo on a station, as my ships giddily take pot shots at them.

So, um, I guess mines would help there. Of course, since dragging the enemy fleet in range of a spaceport or two is ideal, minefields are a pretty niche item even then...

[Terijian]

rfmacros are you suggesting that a spaceport is more able to deal with an enemy fleet than a fortress because that is absurd.

to the OP, I have no idea about stats or anything like that, but anecdotally Ive had good results from putting a snare and anti sheild feild thing (forget name offhand) in center then surrounding it with fortress that has minefeilds, and maybe anti sheild or whatever fits situation. All depends what you're using them for really. I just see the point of def structures as buying time until my fleet can get there. if they can wear them down a bit in the process so much the better.

I wonder of damage from mines shows up in post-combat report? never thought to look

[Gom]

Doesn't FTL inhibitor force enemy fleet inside the station's radius, putting enemy fleet inside the minefield range?

[Terijian]

I thought it was called a sub-space snare?
Anyway, yes, the snare or whatever puts them in range of mines

[Sarkin]

from there stats, they don't seem worth while its only like 10-15 damage thats evadeable , compared to reducing the enemy fire rate by 15% it doesn't seem that beneficial.

[Terijian]

The fire rate one is great sure but you need tech to unlock it. Mines, subspace snare, and sheild inhibitor are all available right off the bat. Thats comparable to saying jump drives are better than warp I

[Gom]

Originally posted by Terijian:

I thought it was called a sub-space snare?
Anyway, yes, the snare or whatever puts them in range of mines

Ah, that's right the snares.

[Sarkin]

Originally posted by Terijian:

The fire rate one is great sure but you need tech to unlock it. Mines, subspace snare, and sheild inhibitor are all available right off the bat. Thats comparable to saying jump drives are better than warp I

the shield weakining , and -regen is also better. than the mines. - also the fortress , also requires research. its like saying a battle ship is better than a corvette.

[Alugere]

One thing to consider is the regenerative nanites, not just for your ship, but the station itself. A fortress with all aug slots filled by regenerative plating from space monsters, a regen aura, and max armor is extremely durable, capable of delaying fleets twice its strength for months and easily managing to take on fleets of equal power despite costing less than a battleship. Put enough in your territory and you can turn any invasion into a slog where the stations win through attrition. This is especially true due to the AI not checking to see if their fleet can handle a station before jumping into its system, allowing you to easily cut off their reinforcements.

Plus, stations don't use fleet cap, so they are a cheap way to augment your fleets.

[rfmacros]

Originally posted by Terijian:

rfmacros are you suggesting that a spaceport is more able to deal with an enemy fleet than a fortress because that is absurd.

Nah, I'm specifically talking about early-mid game defense stations, which are comparable in power to a spaceport. The question was, is it ever worth using minefields instead of FTL-inhibitors? Yes, under these specific circumstances. Though, even then, FTL-inhibitors do the job better, when combined with spaceports.

P.S. Also, a spaceport AND a fortress are better able to deal with an enemy fleet than just a fortress, yes.

[Terijian]

ok that makes way more sense lol. I was a little confused by your wording.

Its worth noting you dont really have to choose, since you can put several def stations in the same system, and when fortress comes up can put both on it

[Alugere]

Originally posted by rfmacros:

Originally posted by Terijian:

rfmacros are you suggesting that a spaceport is more able to deal with an enemy fleet than a fortress because that is absurd.

Nah, I'm specifically talking about early-mid game defense stations, which are comparable in power to a spaceport. The question was, is it ever worth using minefields instead of FTL-inhibitors? Yes, under these specific circumstances. Though, even then, FTL-inhibitors do the job better, when combined with spaceports.

P.S. Also, a spaceport AND a fortress are better able to deal with an enemy fleet than just a fortress, yes.

If your enemy uses shields, it can be far better to use the anti-shield aura and park the station and the edge of the system the AI enters from. As for mines, they don't see to be worth it. For whatever reason, they hit way more infrequently than it seems they should.