Frontlines and mines

[wiseman239]

Friends and I enjoy vanilla Frontlines mode vs AI, but can AI mine placement please be toggled off? They just feel like RNG where I would have an entire squad be wiped out by a minefield that seemed to have miraculously survived a artillery bombardment, only to have another squad be wiped out by more mines in the same spot where I know I had just seen mines previously explode.

They seem to be next to big boulders, on outskirt edges of the map, in shallow rivers, etc. It feels like every route to a point will eventually have a mine that will kill your squad or knock your tracks at some point.

The real gem is watching your tank's track get knocked by a mine and then watch a tankman exit the tank to start repairs only to step on another mine as he makes his way around the tank to repair.

Does anyone else feel like mines are RNG in Frontlines?

[MDCCC]

Yeah the excessive mines in front lines is really annoying. To the point often spawning units that require DP is more of a hazard then any. As you spend DP on something only to have it simply die on a random mine not long after it being spawned and moved.

The alterantive is to use engineers to be on anti mine duty but thats way too slow and often not an option with how unit cap can be.

[underd0g]

I thought the AI dynamically laid these mines but was disappointed when I realized that they are randomly picked from a map preset.

[LazyTiger]

Is there a mine clearing vehicle? It's easier said than done to have an engineer on foot with a mine sweeper.

[MDCCC]

Originally posted by underd0g:

I thought the AI dynamically laid these mines but was disappointed when I realized that they are randomly picked from a map preset.

I've tried pvp on front line and seen mines already in place. And done good portion of the front line maps and mines are abundant so my assumption is mines are auto set on that mode.

[MDCCC]

Originally posted by LazyTiger:

Is there a mine clearing vehicle? It's easier said than done to have an engineer on foot with a mine sweeper.

It's under engineers, forgot what button, but you click it, and then it opens up another selection of items. There, you find mine sweeper. But to do that, you have to click an area, and the engineer walks around. Mines are then high lighted in red.

[Ale82]

Originally posted by underd0g:

I thought the AI dynamically laid these mines but was disappointed when I realized that they are randomly picked from a map preset.

WTF!? I did not know that ... So the AI laying mines animation was just for show SMH ... no wonder the amount laid in such short time was possible. And here I am pissed that I can't even get half way done fortifying and building defenses. Might as well give us the ability to just plot mines, obstacles etc to be on the same playing field as the enemy AI. Or Allow some sort of preset for us as well if that is what we're doing.

[Ale82]

Originally posted by LazyTiger:

Is there a mine clearing vehicle? It's easier said than done to have an engineer on foot with a mine sweeper.

The US faction has one I believe. Looks like a Sherman with two giant ugly a$$ rollers in the front of it. That is only available in Conquest I want to say as I have not seen it available in any of the US Doctrines ... Or I may have missed it IDK.

[underd0g]

Originally posted by Ale82:

Originally posted by underd0g:

I thought the AI dynamically laid these mines but was disappointed when I realized that they are randomly picked from a map preset.

WTF!? I did not know that ... So the AI laying mines animation was just for show SMH ... no wonder the amount laid in such short time was possible. And here I am pissed that I can't even get half way done fortifying and building defenses. Might as well give us the ability to just plot mines, obstacles etc to be on the same playing field as the enemy AI. Or Allow some sort of preset for us as well if that is what we're doing.

Yeah, it looked neat and was hoping to try to port that AI behavior to conquest. But alas...

[shogomad]

I don't like the Mines. I just make sure I have a good Defensive Line before I call for Engineers.

[DJSatane]

Originally posted by underd0g:

I thought the AI dynamically laid these mines but was disappointed when I realized that they are randomly picked from a map preset.

They do place the mines meaning, actual ai bot soldier must be alive and performing mining in area for the mines near to randomly be placed near him. If one soldier is killed the mining it stopped pertaining to area he was mining. So while, they don't mine physically themselves, they have to have soldiers present performing the mining at each location as they fall back. Amount of mines bots can plant vary by difficulty and slight random element.

Hence, there are large preset areas where ai bots designated for mining will mine but they are not instantly done and require ai bot visually present performing actual mining functions, mines are spawned near this soldier, yes but its not happening instantly or without bots presence.

[underd0g]

Originally posted by DJSatane:

Originally posted by underd0g:

I thought the AI dynamically laid these mines but was disappointed when I realized that they are randomly picked from a map preset.

They do place the mines meaning, actual ai bot soldier must be alive and performing mining in area for the mines near to randomly be placed near him. If one soldier is killed the mining it stopped pertaining to area he was mining. So while, they don't mine physically themselves, they have to have soldiers present performing the mining at each location as they fall back. Amount of mines bots can plant vary by difficulty and slight random element.

Hence, there are large preset areas where ai bots designated for mining will mine but they are not instantly done and require ai bot visually present performing actual mining functions, mines are spawned near this soldier, yes but its not happening instantly or without bots presence.

Alright, good to know. Would be really fun to see this on other game modes including conquest.

[Captain Rex]

Originally posted by DJSatane:

Originally posted by underd0g:

I thought the AI dynamically laid these mines but was disappointed when I realized that they are randomly picked from a map preset.

They do place the mines meaning, actual ai bot soldier must be alive and performing mining in area for the mines near to randomly be placed near him. If one soldier is killed the mining it stopped pertaining to area he was mining. So while, they don't mine physically themselves, they have to have soldiers present performing the mining at each location as they fall back. Amount of mines bots can plant vary by difficulty and slight random element.

Hence, there are large preset areas where ai bots designated for mining will mine but they are not instantly done and require ai bot visually present performing actual mining functions, mines are spawned near this soldier, yes but its not happening instantly or without bots presence.

Please use a similar system so the AI can fortify certain places with sandbags, trenches and other defensive means

[DJSatane]

Originally posted by Captain Rex:

Originally posted by DJSatane:

They do place the mines meaning, actual ai bot soldier must be alive and performing mining in area for the mines near to randomly be placed near him. If one soldier is killed the mining it stopped pertaining to area he was mining. So while, they don't mine physically themselves, they have to have soldiers present performing the mining at each location as they fall back. Amount of mines bots can plant vary by difficulty and slight random element.

Hence, there are large preset areas where ai bots designated for mining will mine but they are not instantly done and require ai bot visually present performing actual mining functions, mines are spawned near this soldier, yes but its not happening instantly or without bots presence.

Please use a similar system so the AI can fortify certain places with sandbags, trenches and other defensive means

It's definitely something we would love to do.

[Everything is Deliberate]

One of the reasons why I stopped playing Frontlines against AI.
I only could bother with de-mining ONCE. This took a great deal of patience. And if you don't de-mine - you just can't advance without losing 3/4 of the vehicles. Thus I never played as attacker anymore after that.
"Great decisions" upon the "Great decisions" over "Great decisions" peppered with "Great decisions" make the game absolutely intolerable.

[wiseman239]

Originally posted by DJSatane:

Originally posted by Captain Rex:

Please use a similar system so the AI can fortify certain places with sandbags, trenches and other defensive means

It's definitely something we would love to do.

I would take increased defenses in terms of sandbags, barbed wire, etc over any amount of mines. I do hope its worth considering for a future update to swap AI mine placement for other defenses. As it stands now the pacing of Frontlines just isn't suited for slow mine sweeping.

I have thought of making a mod to remove mines from all infantry unit inventories. Would that prevent mines from being placed or would the AI still be able to place the mines so long as they have a unit that is supposed to have mine placing abilities?