My mines started exploding on me

[LA7mary3]

So my googling has revealed previous issues with mines exploding during deployment. I have successfully completed several minefield missions without any problems until now.
Now even the first mine deployed explodes when I move away from it. No matter wether I move quickly, slowly, accellerate, change course, boost away. I even dropped one from travel mode at 3.500 m/s - still exploded.
I would have accepted and reported it as a bug had it not worked fine at least five times earlier.
What am i missing here?

[GCU Grey Area]

Have had much the same experience. Standard mines can be a bit unreliable - sometimes can get a clean deployment, other times not so much. Got fed up fixing the resultant holes in my ship & these days don't tend to use them, anyway a far better alternative is available. Friend/foe mines, although more expensive, are MUCH safer to deploy & just as good as far as minefield deployment missions are concerned. Also have the added benefit that if I'm asked to mine a gate my ships can continue to use that gate without risk, as long as I remain on good terms with the minefield's new owner.

[grapedog]

Every single time i mined a gate, the mines exploded within 60 seconds. Some random ship would come through and set them off. I don't much take those missions any more... too much self risk when placing, always has been tricky mining stuff at least for me.

[Alan Phipps]

Have you ever considered that for those mine-laying missions, the mission-givers might not necessarily want you to survive and have to be paid?

[LA7mary3]

Yeah, F/F mines work. It just bugs me how the regular mines worked fine and suddenly don't anymore.
And it's not because of random ships flying close to them. I tried dropping single mines in dead space 100km from the nearest object and they still triggered. It's clearly a bug.

[navyseal66]

Friend/Foe mines are better for missions, although with the standard ones you could do some great shenanigans if you place them in a heavy traffic region, or maybe at someones trade station, wait for someone to come buy something and then explode and collect the stuff. I hope they add some kind of delay when placing them or something.

[Bastelfred]

You should make a report in the beta forum, the bug should be fixed slowly. Mines should get a 30s timer.

[Falcrack]

Wouldn't it be great if mines worked OOS? That's on my wishlist for X4. That, and the ability to lay a minefield, where you could set a radius, number of mines to lay, and the AI would dutifully place the field spread out in the designated area.

[zakaluka]

in my experience the way to complete these missions
start just outside the zone you need to deploy mines, go to full throttle
don't change *anything*, don't boost, don't maneuver, or change throttle. just keep moving forward at a constant speed.
deploy mines
keep on not maneuvering or changing throttle, boosting - or you'll set the mines off; go about 10 seconds before it's safe to change course.

[ubuntufreakdragon]

mines should get a countdown till armed.

[gorgofdoom]

Use a ship with more shields than mines do damage. That way, you're sure you won't die even if it does go off.

P.s. that’s just a way to use them despite this issue... mines that regularly kill their deployer are definitely in need of some polish.

P.s.s. You can kill station traffic for drops in this manner with no rep penalties. Just grab a Teladi frigate & sit right on the launch pad, drop a mine, and profit. Rinse, repeat.

[darkstar12]

You can do it remotely

[spankahontis]

This was happening with my Asp, I found sitting at a station and just pooping out Mines at few second intervals got me a mission complete.

But yeah, I had to reload my save 4 times to finish a Deploy Mines Mission. Needs serious fixing.

[Pesanur]

Tip: Stop the ship, deploy the mine and strafe in the opposite direction of the airlock.

If you need to deploy multiple mines for a mission, pause the game and deploy all the mines at once, then use the above tactic to avoid the mines exploding in your face.

[Aedarin]

Wouldn't it be great if mines worked OOS? That's on my wishlist for X4. That, and the ability to lay a minefield, where you could set a radius, number of mines to lay, and the AI would dutifully place the field spread out in the designated area.

I would love this so much. Let the AI do it too with F/F mines for major factions and homing mines for pirates and laser towers for all. Lay the pain on us, but for the love of God let turrets shoot at mines within a certain range.

As it stands minefields are little more than a novelty only explored in some random missions and never really used for anything because they take forever to place and they don't work OOS. The only time I've ever seen laser towers used is when I'm attacking an M trader or miner. If the AI could fortify gates or try to create a beachhead by dropping laser-tower networks inside enemy territory by the gate to try to secure it that would be cool. Anything that creates a battlefield where lots of ships can show up for a big fight will lead to cool gameplay.