Any use for mines?

[Charlemagne]

I loved mines in FO3. I would run backwards in front of a deathclaw or radscorpion, "feeding" them mines until they fell. However that tactic doesn't work in FO4 because monsters teleport behind you. I have found that I can use mines only in rare occasions when I know exactly where a monster will appear (having previously played that part).

My question is, can mines be used to protect settlements? I never use them after one time when I made a caltrop and dropped it on the ground, just to see what it looked like, then I could no longer pick it up. Trashcan Carla stepped on it and attacked me. So I never again placed anything in fear of a settler, a provisioner or a wandering Minutemen stepping on it. But, will common land mines attack friendlies?

[FunFact216]

Originally posted by DouglasGrave:

Originally posted by Fun Fact:

Ah, didn't make sense in my head. I was imagining him getting his power armor in Concord and the Deathclaw suddenly stabbing him in the back with a katana.

Nothing personnel, kid.

There are also a few scripted cases where enemies "magically" turn up when you walk to specific points (offhand, I remember the Corvega Factory and Dunwich Borers both doing this).

The way he types it makes it seem like he has trouble keeping his enemies in front of him somehow.

[Charlemagne]

Originally posted by Fun Fact:

They're best used indoors, enemies walk right into them. As for enemy teleportation, do you have a framerate of one frame per minute?

I mean like ghouls, molerats, radscorpions, that take less than a second to travel 300 feet and pop up behind you. You can't set mines and lure them to walk over, like in FO3. I once was on top of a high building about 7 levels up and sniped some molerats down below. About 0.3 seconds later I had them at my feet after they tunneled through several levels of concrete. Even most monsters that don't tunnel tend to be too fast to use mines, they will be in front of you before the mine lands and detonate it in your face.

[Alugere]

Originally posted by Charlemagne:

Originally posted by Fun Fact:

They're best used indoors, enemies walk right into them. As for enemy teleportation, do you have a framerate of one frame per minute?

I mean like ghouls, molerats, radscorpions, that take less than a second to travel 300 feet and pop up behind you. You can't set mines and lure them to walk over, like in FO3. I once was on top of a high building about 7 levels up and sniped some molerats down below. About 0.3 seconds later I had them at my feet after they tunneled through several levels of concrete. Even most monsters that don't tunnel tend to be too fast to use mines, they will be in front of you before the mine lands and detonate it in your face.

Ghouls can't teleport behind you. They can spawn if you hit a trigger area or wake up (when sleeping, they look dead unless you target them in VATS) after you pass them, but they can't move as quickly as molerats or radscorps. In fact, ghouls are my favorite target for mines since they have a high chance to blow off one or both legs and leave the ghoul unable to move or attack. That applies even to legendary ghouls so if you pop a leg, even when they hit 50% hp and heal with a buff, they can't attack you.

As for the Radscorps and molerats, those are significantly less common than raiders, super mutants, gunners, and ghouls. All of whom are great targets for mines.

Also, while you can place mines at settlements if you want, they only help if there is a raid and you positioned them correctly. Given that they don't affect the defence rating of your settlement (which is what affects how frequent raids are ranging from frequent with 0 defense to almost never when defense is higher that food+water), turrets are far better at keeping your settlements safe.

[FunFact216]

Originally posted by Charlemagne:

Originally posted by Fun Fact:

They're best used indoors, enemies walk right into them. As for enemy teleportation, do you have a framerate of one frame per minute?

I mean like ghouls, molerats, radscorpions, that take less than a second to travel 300 feet and pop up behind you. You can't set mines and lure them to walk over, like in FO3. I once was on top of a high building about 7 levels up and sniped some molerats down below. About 0.3 seconds later I had them at my feet after they tunneled through several levels of concrete. Even most monsters that don't tunnel tend to be too fast to use mines, they will be in front of you before the mine lands and detonate it in your face.

I'm not getting the "and pop up behind you". If a melee based enemy is directly in front of you on a direct path and you put a mine down, that enemy will hit your mine. Sounds like you need to do surveillance before entering an area and you can predict where to lay mines or hold a defensive point. Getting surrounded is usually a side effect of running headfirst into anything with no prior knowledge.

[Lifeisagame]

Against Mole Rats and Scorpions they indeed absolute useless.. otherwise there is no enemy that has "Teleport", only you not expect them ;-)
Mines can be very usefull when you once understand the System behind NPC detection - Simply said they go after the last spot they Heard/Seen something..
So put a mine in a corridor, shoot once or do otherwise noise and the npc will come down the corridor investigate where you did that - Smart ones figured out your indeed somewhere total else in the Meantime ;-)

[Player#2201]

Regardless of playstyle, I still like to keep a few mines. I'd been playing the sneak/silencer build and had issues with a deathclaw in a close quarters basement. 11 frag, 2 battlecap, and 2 cryo all piled up almost killed it - 6 more frantic *holy sh#t* shots later did the trick. At the cost of a couple pounds of weight, they're worth it.

[Charlemagne]

Yeah yeah please forget I said 'teleport' it was an euphemism. NO newb here 2623 hours. My point is that the mine is in most instances a useless POC. I'm trying to find a use for it, so I wondered if they might be used around settlements, because I have in all this time abstained due to the incident with Carla. In battle you are usually better off using guns or grenades than fumbling with a mine.

[FunFact216]

Originally posted by Charlemagne:

Yeah yeah please forget I said 'teleport' it was an euphemism. NO newb here 2623 hours. My point is that the mine is in most instances a useless POC. I'm trying to find a use for it, so I wondered if they might be used around settlements, because I have in all this time abstained due to the incident with Carla. In battle you are usually better off using guns or grenades than fumbling with a mine.

If you know how to cheese the AI mines are much more useful than grenades because you don't have to play with fuses. Drop, boom, repeat. If you can aim a grenade and have more than 2k hours you it should almost be self explanatory.

[Geordy]

Reg. ghouls: At certain locations they can crawl out of vents and other spaces that seemed safe at first and when you passed those by ghouls might appear to appear "behind" you. =)

Oh and other than that: bring mines when you first go to the castle. ;)

[Charlemagne]

Originally posted by Geordy:

Reg. ghouls: At certain locations they can crawl out of vents and other spaces that seemed safe at first and when you passed those by ghouls might appear to appear "behind" you. =)

Oh and other than that: bring mines when you first go to the castle. ;)

The castle? You mean for the mirelurks? The mines could hurt some of my guys when they explode, I think.

[Brandybuck]

Originally posted by Charlemagne:

However that tactic doesn't work in FO4 because monsters teleport behind you.

What the Fudge? Get rid of your monster teleporting mod. Sheesh.

Seriously, monsters do not teleport behind you to avoid your mines. They do seem to be a bit more intelligent than FO3 monsters and will often walk AROUND them, but they do not teleport.

[Geordy]

Originally posted by Charlemagne:

The castle? You mean for the mirelurks? The mines could hurt some of my guys when they explode, I think.

You bring mines for the one Mirelurk. ;)

Brandy, Molerats do as do Radscorpions.

[Charlemagne]

Originally posted by Brandybuck:

Originally posted by Charlemagne:

However that tactic doesn't work in FO4 because monsters teleport behind you.

What the Fudge? Get rid of your monster teleporting mod. Sheesh.

Seriously, monsters do not teleport behind you to avoid your mines. They do seem to be a bit more intelligent than FO3 monsters and will often walk AROUND them, but they do not teleport.

See post #22.

[Charlemagne]

Originally posted by Geordy:

Originally posted by Charlemagne:

The castle? You mean for the mirelurks? The mines could hurt some of my guys when they explode, I think.

You bring mines for the one Mirelurk. ;)

Brandy, Molerats do as do Radscorpions.

Oh yes, the queenie. This is one of those few instances I say when you know where a monster will appear and can mine them. I also use it in the Boston Public House (don't recall exact name, a historic building near the Common) where another queenie appears. However, automatic rifle + psychojet does the job much better ;-)

[Geordy]

Oh mines - and especially pulse mines - become terribly useful when you first come against Assaultrons. For me that is typically when I persue Cait's quest (as someone else mentioned that is usually during midgame). At that stage in the game you are grateful if one of these mines cripple them so that all they have left is their slow charging beam.