So obviously one of the big forum bugbears at the moment is infinite bomblet VI/Genius/Advanced Sensors/Nym, who can drop bomblets either before or after he moves with near full knowledge of the board state. Personally I think this guy would be fine if Genius was tweaked so if can't be used if the user overlaps an obstacle, bumps or is ioned. (and potentially stress, but that's another conversation entirely).

But what about action header mines? Conner Nets, Proximity Mines, Clusters etc? While not infinite, these are also contributing to the scarcity of low health/high agility ships in the game at the moment. We know Advanced SLAM is expected to be revised in the near future (which hits Miranda specifically), but how would people feel about a change to mines' detonation rules as a whole?

Specifically if - while still being triggered by overlapping - they detonated at the end of the activation phase, like bombs, so you would only take damage from mines if you finished the activation phase still overlapping the mine template.

High PS bombers lke Miranda would still be able to drop mines on lower PS ships with impunity, but higher PS ships - talented pilots - ike Soontir, Carnor, Corran etc would would be able to avoid the effects with skillful flying. You could trigger and avoid mines by flying over them with a fast maneuver, or avoid the effects with a post move action like Boost or Barrel Roll.

This way, mines could still be used to hinder high PS, low health Aces, albeit by causing them to spend their actions on repositioning moves instead of token stacking, rather than just by being potentially instant death.

Obviously a change like this would mean mines would be nowhere near as effective as they are right now, but they would still be dangerous to low PS pilots or ships with no native repositioning, and still useful to excercise a degree or movement and action control.

Any thoughts?

There's a lot wrong with how bombs work, mechanically, but this isn't really part of it. Having two different types of bombs is one of the things that I think they've got right.

The advance slam thing is going to kill action bombs' prevelance.
Bomblet is king.

I think your suggestion would kill a ton of the more tactical use of action bombs, where you clog up lanes with bombs and force your opponent to either face the bombs or avoid them in an extremely awkward way.

I have won several games like this.

This is also how rebel nym employs bomblets, by leaving them inbetween asteroids to cut off ways of entry.

Your suggestion would kill the last part of action bombs, while leaving bomblets as the even better alternative than it is today.


What is wrong with your suggestion is that activation bombs are specifically made to deal with lower PS ships than the bomber, while
activation bombs are specifically made to deal with higher PS ships than the bomber, if not as a lane-clogger.

It's actually not the point. The point is

1. Sabine crew upgrade is broken.

2. Nym has super flexible movement and can throw his bombs with perfect information most of the time.

No just let us shoot them, it's that easy.

31 minutes ago, Hannes Solo said:

It's actually not the point. The point is

1. Sabine crew upgrade is broken.

2. Nym has super flexible movement and can throw his bombs with perfect information most of the time.

Did you actually bother to read the post before your replied? Nym is not the subject of the discussion, and was covered in the first paragraph anyway. Sabine is very powerful, but would be nerfed considerably if mines could be avoided by moving off the template - as per the very suggestion made above!

14 minutes ago, Hannes Solo said:

It's actually not the point. The point is

1. Sabine crew upgrade is broken.

2. Nym has super flexible movement and can throw his bombs with perfect information most of the time.

That's not the point either, though it's closer. It's not just about two cards (Sabine & Nym) but about the underlying mechanics of unpreventable damage and post-dial repositioning allowing precise bomb deployment.

Unless you identify and cut to the root cause all you're doing is reliving symptoms instead of curing the underlying condition that's causing those symptoms.

3 hours ago, ModernPenguin said:

I think your suggestion would kill a ton of the more tactical use of action bombs, where you clog up lanes with bombs and force your opponent to either face the bombs or avoid them in an extremely awkward way.

Of course the effects would be a net downgrade to mines - that is the intent. However, I think you're overstating the negative impact this would have.

The effects on ships which have already moved or who have no native repositioning would be unchanged - you're still going to be able to land damage on them reliably. You would also still be able to use mines to effectively clog up asteroid fields or shut off movement lanes.

It would now just be a calculated risk to dial in a move which you know would cross over a mine template rather than certain damage, as you would run the risk of being blocked back onto it or prevented from barrel rolling or boosting away, and aces barrel rolling or boosting to avoid damage are aces not target locking or focusing (or potentially even attacking).

So another mechanic that hurts generics? Yeah no thanks.