Too fast for mines?

OnosFactory

Saw a skulk today, jumped *off my mine* .. didn't die ... can you even tell what's going on?

OnosFactory

PS: Design Principle of NS2: 'No Hidden Modifiers' ... where does biomass fit into this principle?

CrushaK

Biomass is about as hidden as Carapace, Weapon and Armor upgrades.

Design principles are something that you try to stick to, but they are not unbreakable and set in stone.

Ghosthree3

Did you just plant it? There's a 3 second arming time or something.

ritualsacrifice

You can detonate mines and not take full damage.

kalakuja

for 5 res you should really get a confirmed skulk kill

Roobubba

Several options:

a) moving fast and clipping the trigger radius
b) moving with celerity and clipping the trigger radius
c) leaping past the trigger radius
d) carapace
e) biomass
f) something else triggered the mine while the skulk was near it (eg spikes, bile bomb, parasite, hydras)

or any combination of the above.

matso

Mines does 125 light damage, so a carapaced skulk survives a mine explosion (with about 5 armor and half health left).

Also, the damage falls off with range, doing zero damage at 5m. Together with the 170ms arming time, this allows fast-moving aliens to detonate them and get away with less damage.

Grissi

A skilled skulk can take out 2-3 mines before falling, making the mines not worth their pres cost.

fraggler

Yes - Skulks will later in game survive mines.

So my experience is:
Mines are only useful in early game to hold a position or early phase gates.

ritualsacrifice

IMO mines are highly situational and I only research them when I get certain spawn locations.

Neoken

I think they're great for base defense, and for holding early PGs.

Kouji_San

I dunno man, it always brings an evil grin to my face seeing my name on the killfeed on someone that is on the other side of the map, random sneaky hidden mines is what gets them and usually they are damaged from combat and will meet mister mine on their way out. You just gottah think like a Skulk when placing them :P

"who the hell places a mine there" - Is just icing on the cake

undeadanimal

i believe the should cost slightly less than 15 res, say 12 ? i very rarely buy mines these day due to costing a lot and not gonna get me anything back, except potentially saving a structure from one skulk, but then im down about ten res unless im lucky and kill two, but still down res and the building will go down anyway in less than a minute when those fast moving skulks spawn and sprint straight back in....

i have no issues with damage or radius but cost is a bit high in my opinion.

Kouji_San

You've gottah factor in the troll factor, that stuff doesn't come cheap!

Nilar

I always figured mines had the same kind of "complementary defense" role as turrets, meaning they can't hold their own against an alien player, but if you have them down while a marine player is nearby as well - easy kills.

Know pain

Mine < fade
30 mines in 1 small spot < fade

If the biomass is affecting how much like aliens get then maybe it’s time for mines to reflect what the current damage level is for marines so a lvl 3 weapon damage would give a mine 162 damage.

It also needs to be understood that mines simply don’t go off fast enough. They did in one patch and fades were just dying by the wayside.

amoral

hahahha, just played a stomp where I was skulking through the last stand, and in this one corner is a marine standing, so I kill him and look down to see 9 mines latest out in a nice square. think about it for a second and just suicide on all of them. , skulky lives are free, and sometimes I don't even know if I'll die as a skulk, the biomass system is so messed up.

Andinagama

I think mines are most useful when Aliens are being impulsive. When I'm playing Marines I often notice that about 60% of the way into a game where things are going well for us (so perhaps around 12-15min) the aliens have figured out that they are losing. You know the time has come when the Aliens start attacking all your res nodes or bases at once, split up around the map, they rush in instead of going in slowly (great time to lose fades).

That's when you want your bases mined up, when the aliens start getting desperate and not looking out for them.

They can also be useful for forward attack locations (Y Junction for Cargo comes most readily to mind as a location I'm always happy to spend res for mines).

I do agree that mines should scale with weapon damage in order to counter biomass.

amoral

I'll still use them to mine vents early game to mid.