Mine Field

Sounds cool. But would take the fun out of the game ya know.

Well, then you just build mine sweepers. I can just see the next guy on this post saying,,, we can have mine fields type II, that are undetectable. Then we can get mine resistant hulls or special modules. The arms race goes on and on.

Problem: you're talking about mines, in space. Each square is a parsec. That is a hell of a lot of room to fill up with mines...

Yup, space is big, and it's 3D space. I'd imagine to get enough mines you'd have to deploy the mass equivalent to several planets or solar systems.

You could deply them around specific points, say around planets or starbases. But then, that already could be part of the defenses starbases have. Not sure about planets.

In other games I've played minefields are tedious in the extreme - micromanagement h*ll. Best to absstract them.

Hydro

Mine field in space? like a chinese wall or something around your cultural borders? mass and energies required would not even be conceivable... (by me at least )

only place where a mine field would make sense is around a planet, as a good way to soften a bit invading ships.
I don't build all the stuff that can improve the defense of a planet, I rely on fleets to defend space, and prefer to save the precious tiles...

i'd vote for barbed wire instaed... A LOT of barbed wire

Space Mines are homing, according to Gundam and Star Fox.   

And thats the only way I could see them being remotely useful... they'd need to have their own sensor systems and hyperdrives, making them fairly expensive as a great many would be needed in a sector in order to deal sufficient damage and remain relevant. Even then, wouldn't the ship they're attacking have a very good shot at destroying them, even if the huge challenge of detecting, intercepting, and then accurately guiding the explosive to a target that is a tiny blip in the vastness of space were overcome.

They don't need to be particularly dangerous to be useful. If mine laying was cheap enough and flexible enough, you could do things like:

- Set them to attack any ship with a weapons level above X.
- Set them to allow but slow any ship of non-allied factions.
- Help route attackers where you want with a well placed minefield.
- Stake out a claim on those class 15 barren worlds and class 26 radioactive worlds scattered all over your empire at the start of the game.
- If a minefield has a small radar footprint for you to see, it allows you to police your border a bit better.
- A fast enough ship should be able to blow through a minfield unharmed and possibly even undetected if it moves far enough on it's turn. Higher quality mines could have higher caps on what speed ships they can detect and what speed ships they can intercept.
- Different and potentially more expensive types of mines can be multiuse things that have beam/missile/projectile type weapons mounted on them.
- Spys could temporarily disable individual mines or small areas of minefields.


Granted they are likely more of a GC3 or future expansion type of thing, but they would probably add a lot.

I was talking in a strict "how believable is this" sense. Fact is, space does NOT lend itself to minefields of any description, as it's just too damn large and the targets too damn small.

Maybe if they were able to be placed around planets, starbases, and resources. Perhaps as a sort of "suprise" trick. But for that to be viable they'd have to be speedy and buildable before constructors. I just don't see any point.

Whats the difference between a homing mine and a missile? You could just as easily call them missiles that wait in ambush.

Clearly, the homing mine has a chain that connects it to the ocean floor and a missle doesn't.

Oh, wait, we're in space.....

Mines don't work in space - unless you are playing Space Empires. And then, yes, they are a micromanagement drag. You don't need mines - just more fighters!

In WW2 Defensive mines were indeed tethered, I dunno if anyone was stupid enough to let offensive mines loose to drift freely in the shiping lanes? (what goes around, comes around!)

A missile would require a launcher of some form to cart it around and aim it at something that needs to be shot at, a mine is self contained. The "realism" argument of space being too big to place mines down doesn't hold much water given a ship can already block an area. A mine would just be cheaper and offer less functionality.

A missile by definition is a projectile object. So any mine that propels itself must therefore also be a missile and not a mine.

from m-w.com
Mine:
3 : an encased explosive that is placed in the ground or in water and set to explode when disturbed

Missile:
1 : capable of being thrown or projected to strike a distant object
2 : adapted for throwing or hurling missiles

A mine is left in a given place and waits till an external stimulus triggers it, a missile is thrown/projected at a target with the intention of an immediate effect.

Thus, the concept of an unmanned machine that has engine+sensors+explosives being used as a mine in space to react to threats in the same way that a small manned fighter would without the expense is perfectly reasonable.

That definition does not really allow for a 'mobile' mine,, although, come to think of it, they do exist in a sense....

I believe there is a type of mine that propels itself into the air befor exploding - so i guess that could be called self proppeled.

In consideration of that i am inclined to refute my earlier remark;

To be honest I'd say that's mainly because just about everyone quit using mines in the same way they did during WW2 so long ago and the technology behind them hasn't advanced in the same way ships/missiles/aircraft have over the last couple decades. Beyond the fact that I'm pretty sure it would be considered a warcrime in certain situations, there's no reason we couldn't make a ceramic/plastic mine built to float around underwater and propel itself at anything it detects that doesn't give a proper signal to the mine to allow passage. Enhancing on that and sticking it in space is just a small step

The only area denial system that would work is a weapons system of some kind, mounted on a mobile hull. Whether it is mined or not is beside the point... putting stuff into space is too expensive (a blank tiny hull takes about 50 billion credits!) to use any kind of solution like a minefield... you'd be better off just using some kind of local space station or ship.

That said, there's potential in really high tech (or drastic) solutions. Detonating a low quality (PQ 0) planet could result in an asteroid field to slow incoming fleets, and you could concievably convert the mass in the asteroids into cheap weapons systems. Some kind of artificial hyperdrive slowing tech could also work... some kind of temporary, localize rips in space time that force ships travelling near to keep their hyperdrives in check. Take it a step further, and you could do some drastic things to keep an area of space completely impassable.

A tiny hull needs to be shielded from solar radiation and structurally sound enough to support life inside. A mine simply needs enough to keep the mechanical bits from getting fried, an engine, sensors, and some explosives.

Galciv don't wan't you to have cheap units, thats why the sensor drone from galciv1 dissapeared and turned into a ship module.

You're all arguing realism in a game where space is 2D, factories are bigger than Japan, Venus doesn't exist and planets which don't orbit their stars are just a short hop away from each other.

Explain to me how mines wouldn't work in GalCivII's 2D plain.

Granted, but even unmanned space craft are expensive. Building enough to make a minefield would be incredibly cost prohibitive.

I like this idea of mines.

Make a fleet have to have essential ships to operate....or get blown up.