Naval mines should not despawn after 15 minutes in Naval EC. The games can take hours to finish, 15 minutes is a flash in the pan for a Naval EC game, and naval mines were designed to last for months if not years. The mines should last for the entirety of the match unless swept or otherwise detonated, at least so long as the player that set them is still in the game, and they are still playing with the vessel that set the mines (you can die and respawn, but can’t change your vessel, so if you start setting minefields in a minelayer, you’re now locked into a “defense” role for your team if you want your minefields to stay).
Unlike other armaments, mines do not get reloaded at caps. The Drache can only carry 40 mines in-game, however, in reality, she could carry 240 naval mines (120 on deck, 120 in her hold forward of her stack which is currently just empty space). Source: The Royal Yugoslav Seaplane Tender & Minelayer Zmaj [Zvonimir Freivogel] [Warship International Vol. 38, No. 1 (2001), pp. 46-55 (10 pages)
The HMS Abdiel is similar, she could carry 158 mines but is also limited to 40 in-game. Allowing mines to stay for an entire Naval EC game until swept or otherwise detonated, giving players the ability to set the depth of their mines, and giving minelayers their full complement of mines would give minelayers and minesweepers a real strategic purpose aside from just being big gunboats. The Drache and HMS Abdiel should have their class changed to minelayers and given their full suite of mines. Other nations should get dedicated minelayers as well. There are numerous coastal vessels in the game already that were dedicated minesweepers in real life, such as the M-17, M-802, and USS Candid. Other vessels have the capability too, as you can see paravanes on their sterns.
This would also give players a reason to work together and use coastal vessels in Naval EC. Mines can also be detonated harmlessly with large HE shells, artillery strikes, depth charges, or aerial bombs with near misses, though all of that would be less efficient and more time-consuming than having a minesweeper clear a path through the minefield. As a downside to prevent excessive mine spam, mines could be made even more vulnerable to detonation when damaged (making it even riskier to carry them), have a lengthy “ready rack replenishment” from their holds and capture point resupplies, and limiting minelayers to 1-3 per team. In the attached pictures, there are explanations and the same suggestions on how to improve minelayers and minesweepers.
17 Likes
Yeah it’s a quite dumb mechanic that can be changed extremely easily
Mines have a single role that they can’t even fulfill because they just vanish after 15 minutes
7 Likes
They said it was a game engine limitation for them despawning so quickly in your bug report. I wonder why that is? Like what issues could mines cause if they extend the timer so they stay the whole game so long as you stay in the ship that set them? Causes lag or something? It’s unfortunate that they don’t stay the whole game, makes mines completely pointless in the one mode where they would work the best. Thank you for your bug report btw.
1 Like
Probably in incredibly large numbers but the netcode is so ancient nobody knows
1 Like
They could make it so only 1-2 players per team are allowed to be in a minelayer at any given time, and that you can only lay your full complement of mines once. Like the Drache and Abdiel would be limited to 240/158 mines and that’s it for the whole game, if you being laying more than that they begin despawning in the order you laid them, and if you respawn in a different ship the mines despawn.
I was thinking about Mine’s lately and honestly if there not even willing to change them to be even a slight bit more efficient I really dont see why they spent actual Dev time on this subject and even making/coding them honestly, Feels like a complete waste of time sadly
3 Likes
If mines were made more effective at their actual role, then Gaijin could add minesweeping abilities to the minesweepers in-game (and have a reason to add more) while creating an interesting gameplay dynamic
2 Likes
+1 from me mines shouldn’t despawn after 15 minutes.
they are building their own game engine.
If they want that it could do that, it could do that
like destroyers vc submarines
Im all for this, it brings new variety to the mode. IMO there would not be a reason to set a cap on how many players can spawn as it would already be rare to have a people dedicated there whole battle to mine laying. I also imagine there are ways to optimize the lag that would come from having that many mines exist at one time. However the only issue I can think of gameplay wise is it will be very few and often when mine laying will pay off and would prevent enemy ships from getting close, mainly because of the maps and there layouts.
But main I would love to be able to go around and set up a line of mines and get a kill that way it would so satisfying.
Because Gaijin believes that IRL the naval mines will disappear out of nowhere after 15 minutes, they call it “Relastic”.
This is as useless as them despawning after 15 minutes. Imagine placing mines for X amount of minutes just to be destroyed and your whole work disappear. Or placing them and then idling somewhere just to keep them alive.
They despawn after 15 minutes for same reason why items in online games despawn - you can lag server so much it becomes unplayable for all players (intentionally or accidentally).
1 Like
