I've mentioned this in another thread, but I think it's legit enough to put here too:

I think it'd be awesome if there could be a tactical structure that could auto-deploy mines to a specified location for you. This structure would also have the capability of slowly replacing "used" exploded mines autonomously, but each of these structures could only maintain a certain number of mines. (10, 50, 100, whatever balances the best).

This makes mines less of a micro-management thing as well as the whole "OMG 1000s of mines" kinda thing that also take forever to clear and seem to bog down a lot of computers graphically.

As I said in another thread, allowing players to turn on/off mine deployment (like we can pirates) when setting up a game is a must. In larger longer games the mines make it a tedious chore to advance, and slow the game speed down a lot. (processing speed I mean, not just playing pace)

At the very least mines need to be changed so they are easier to clear, and there being a limit cap on the max amount of mines a player can have deployed over all if their systems. (this way you have to strategically choose which planets to protect with mines making them a more tactical weapon then a spamming one)

Also making it a prerequiste of only being able to deploy them in system you have colonized would help cut down on the mine spam we're seeing form the AI. (and any remaining auto destruct when another player seizes control of that system.)

Honestly if the option to turn them off isn't made available from the game set up screen then leaving them out all togther is the best alternative. Even though they're fun on small maps, larger maps are pretty much unplayable since their addtion. (and I suspect are the culprits behind so many desynchs)

i think mines are a great addition to the game because one of the majoy problems with the game on large maps for me its nearly impossible to win a game against a intellegent player. The mines allow for easy defence if your fleet is occupied elseware.

There does seem to be a problem with themines slowing down computers though and having graphical display errors when there are 100's of mines in a single system.

1. have a option to display/not display mines when viewing the galaxy, this way with nothing to display it wont effect the game play and cpu usage.

2. There has to be a option to dissamble your own mines because ships start deploying them as they come out of the shipyards which is messey.

3. As i said i love the mines - there does not need to be a limit but have one capital ship from each race have a special weapon where the capital ship just spams and fires its weapons randomly (loads of low powered blasts in rapid succession) as a method of clearing mines. It makes them less of a game stopper while still signifigantly slowing down enemy fleet progression

No, it'd be more like having the option to turn off pirates. If mines stay as game breaking as they are right now, turning them off should be an option.

It's never going to happen unless the people who really really despise the way mines change gameplay make it clear that they hate how mines change gameplay and want to play without them, no.

If enough people say that? Who knows. Most of the suggestions to "fix" mines right now don't actually fix any of the problems that make mines broken and not fun. They just automate the tedium, so instead of very slowly moving through a system to clear them yourself, the AI moves very slowly through a system to clear them and you can watch. That's not really fixing the problem: mines don't work that well with the rest of the gameplay in Sins.

That's where you could have stopped writing.  Mines will be in Entrenchment and IC has said nothing to the contrary indicating about how they've just given up, woe is them, they can't figure out any way to make them better than they are now.

Maybe the devs shoudl take a look at the homeworld series and mimic how they implemented mines? In homeworld you  could blast mines with pretty much any vessel that came within weapons range, however because 10+ mines could lock onto a vessel at a time getting them all before 2-4 got through and hit a ship they were still a threat. Combine this with some upper limit # of mines per gravity well and it might go a long way towards fixing the issue.