SV: FTL Mines

>      Nothing personel here, I JUST HAVE AN INTENSE DISLIKE FOR
> MINEFIELDS IN SPACE!	 
> 1) Lets face it, where/how do you hide a mine in space?

How long engagement envelope does the mines have? How good stealth can
you
equip them with - ie, can you make them difficult to detect at ranges
longer than their own engagement range? If so, you might be able to hide
them.

But you miss the main point with mines: they're there not as much to
harm
the enemy as to make him go somewhere else - ie, either where your heavy
guns are waiting for him, or where your vulnerable units aren't :-)

> 2) If you can hide a mine in space, the same tech that hides the
>    mine from detection can be used to hide a ship from the mine!

Except, perhaps, that the ship has more active emissions than the mine -
especially if it is trying to maneuver...

> 3) Mines in orbit around a planet can cause a lot of bad PR when
>    the mine falls out of orbit.

Not if they don't have warheads. These FTL mines cause damage by jumping
into hyper, not by a bomb - and if you program them to engage targets in
a
certain size bracket (or have IFF gear on your planet <g>) they'll
simply
burn up when they fall out of orbit. I doubt they'll accidentally drift
away from the planet :-/

> 4) Consider the amount of mass that would have to go into a mine-
>    field around the solar system (or even a few planets) and buying
>    a few thousand superdreadnaughts is much more cost effective.

Again, how long engagment range does the mine have? I see no real point
in
surrounding an entire star system with a mine shell (...the enemy might
jump to a point inside the mines, depending on your background...) but
as a
deterrent from getting too close to a planet, fine. You wouldn't need
that
many either, I think - a couple of hundred, provided they can damage
ships
far enough away... and don't tell me the mines cost more than ten
superdreadnoughts each <g>

Oerjan Ohlson
SDS Minefield expert :-)

"Life is like a sewer.
What you get out of it, depends on what you put into it."
- Hen3ry