As many have noted on both sides of this idea, reality and this game are different areas of thought. But nonetheless it is the pratical idea of any such game to keep getting closer to reality. For that, my thought is two-fold:

1) Thinking back to ST:TNG where one mission has the Enterprise falling into a hidden trap inside a asteroid field. Likewise you could build units that would look like asteroids from the outside but have all the essentials inside. The aspect of homing mines though is not good since to make them move at any decent speed to avoid being shot would make them too large to be mines in the first place. More of a drone or missle launching device inside would be better, since they could move fast enough not to be hit.

2) Is the latter aspect from above, creating stealth type drones. While not totally invisible by sight, they would be hard to detect as anything other than debri or asteroids. They could either be one use types (missle like) or hold cluster launchers inside.

So, reality or not, space does not lend itself to the idea of mines; 2D or 3D. Their only practicle in the since of using them to block off a very restrictive area that cannot be traveld around, only through. Otherwise an attacking force would send a fake attack up to or into the mines, while the actual attack force goes around them. Likewise with my first thought, would could also create asteroid like sensor probes that could be dropped off and be your eyes at longer distances. So give these some real thought and see what might actually be added, practically.

What are the use of mines if you can just fly your ships around them?

Area denial.

Build a wall around planets or routes the AI usually takes. You don't put mines in the corner of the galaxy where no one will find them.

The original Galciv had Antimatter Missiles.

Couple that with the auto-attack function and you had yourself a mine.

Interplanetary Missiles would have been a neat feature in GC2..

Reality ?

Having designed many things for the millitary, I can say with certainty; that If there ever is a space war, you can be certain that it will involve automated space mines. Man is too expensive to put in space. A computer on the other hand is cheap, does not eat or breath or produce waste.

Anti-satellite missile systems are already in orbit around our planet.

The game could mimic those auto missile systems. They sleep most of the time of course. They are woken up by a sensor array that detects heat, mass, vibration, radiation and light. They also have a spread spectrum receiver/decoder that can be signaled by friendly ships. Once an unknown mass gets within "X" distance from the "mine" satellite and is tagged as dangerous by the onboard protocol software, a missile is fired at the target.

This could be an effective weapon and welcome addition to the game. Since the mines have an effective defensive radius of "X", they would make long range sensors a very usefull components for ships. ( I find that sensors are useless in the present game). If mines were made available with different ranges, (longer range mines would cost more of course), and, if they could only be seen by sensors, it would add a very interesting twist to the game. If the mine's sensor has a longer range than your ship's, your toast. This would certainly force players to escort all troop transports with long range fighters, and even provided an alternate way to play, by deploying lots of mines to secure your star system and reduce the number of ships. Of course, your mines can also be shot to bits! If the enemy has more sheilding than maybe the mine will not destroy it, but weaken it enough for your fighters to finish off. Plus, it would be a very cool thing to see the enemy get cought in your trap and get shot at from 3 or 4 different mines.

Anyway's I'm a yes.

Yes - don't you remember the one that washed up on Gilligan's Island? The Germans unleashed mines along the U.S. coast, because they didn't have much to worry about in terms of the things floating back to them.

The kinds of drones you guys are talking about would be extremely unreliable. They would rely on external guidance or internal circuits, both of which could easily be jammed or disrupted by enemies with a minimal tech level. Plus, I heartily agree with the poster above who said they would just be another micromanagement headache. All you need is a good space fleet. You're not going to win the game on defense.



Spore. When you absolutely, positively got to kill every motherfrakker in the galaxy. Accept no substitutes.

i dont know. i mean it sound like the perfect kamakazi vessel. but a wall of mines? this mean that you'd have to cut all income from trade.