They're a combination toxic waste dump/protective measure.

Hitting one breaks the tip causing a concentrated burst of waste to be directed at your ship. However, almost instantly, the loss of pressure causes the tip to recrystalize and the mine is sealed to wait for its next victim

Or they could just sit and stock up on solar energy, releasing it in violent bursts. Or they could all have mini-nuclear reactors in them. Or maybe they're a collection of points in a game, which when sharing space with any point on your collection of points or 'ship' decrease an integer variable in memory or your 'shield'... nah....

They run on a mysterious energy called "stupid". When you run into one and blow up, they mysteriously cause you to bash your head against your monitor and yell: "STUPID! STUPID! STUPID!"

But really, I dunno...they never seem to blow up or anything like mines should...I half expected them to track your ship, like the launchable ones, at first. I could just picture a whole field of those suckers coming after a little newbie's starflier, while he screams for help.

Reaper: $200,000,000.
Rockets: $100,000
The look on that pilot's face when you launch a full pod of screamers up his tailpipe: priceless

clangin together as they move sluggishly toward their target.
say a planet.
that would be funny.
not for the planet tho.

I talk like that cuz m punked out.

once, I parked next to a mine near the molly base to check out my nav map..

Boom!...
where that base?..hmm, I wonder.
Boom!
is it here, let see what's the base sells..
Boom!..
who is that idiot keep blowing up?.
Boom! Guns destroyed
what?...who was shooting at me?
Boom! Hull breach imminent.
Oh ****!!..that was me...move it! move it!!!

Apparently, when a mine in the mine field blows, it still stays there..

Did the OP mean mines (as in mine fields), or the mines you can equip your ship with?
The former definitely do some harm when going to close (I did not check if they only blow up and stay there, or blow up and do not stay there ).
The latter are still mystery to me. I have already tried several different mine types, but cannot confirm even a hit, nothing to say about the damage .
So I would ask, do you guys use the mines? If yes, how then?

I dabbled with ship based mines for a while but got fed up pretty quick. They definitely do hit people but only the higher class thus more expensive ones hit with any degree of certainty/significant damage.

Best to let one fly just as you are about to pass someone on a head on collision of if someone is chasing you. The are also good if you get jumped by 8 or 10 guys and you feel ur going to die - drop a cargo bay full of Rippers on them and it'll even things up a little.

In the end tho i stopped using them. Earlier on you cant afford the cash for decent ones, later on when u've got tonnes of cash u've probably got a beastly ship and a rear firing turret anyway so there's never really a need 4 mines.

They're like the volatile gas clouds...
They explode but don't go away... (Why is it that you BOUNCE off of the GAS clouds? They're made of GAS!!!!!)
Which reminds me, somehow a volatile gas cloud started exploding and never stopped... It became self sustaining... . It was pretty funny to watch...

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so it was like boooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooom?

I talk like that cuz m punked out.

The mines around the stations are designed to go off in proximity of any other metal object. I am pretty certain of this fact as you don't need to be really close and all of the sudden BOOM you get hit by one. This causes you to **** the mouse control away from the offending mine as we all know it doesn't really blow up and will return to reek havoc on you if you don't move! It seems however that by doing this you find the next one to be closer than you thought and well we all know where we go from here. Out of nano's and Sheild Batts? How can that be? I was full before I left the base just a few min. ago!

As far as Ship launched mines go they are NOT a waste of money in my opinion and yes you do need to buy the most expensive ones to do a good job but as I like to fly a freighter not a fighter they always keep the bad guys off my butt. Also I love to drop a few just as I go into cruise mode and retrieve my cargo I was forced to drop. It is amazing the amount of damage you can do to a group of ships that would love to chase you down when they get smacked in the face by a group of screamers.

Just some thoughts from the edge of space!

I saw a very nice guy who dropped lots of mine at the Colorado jump gate. I can attest that the ships didn't last long. He was nice to give us newbies the loot. I bought a new ship. Copper sells well at Bush.

I love those Corsairs who try to rob off me. They love to trail me and tell me to drop my cargo. Sure! Take my Mines! In the face!

-----------------------------------------------------------
War does not decide who is right, only who is left.

Hehe, i stand corrected by the 'trader boys'

I suppose ship based mines would be pretty damn handy if you're flying a space lorry and the only protection you have is an air gun and a big stick...

One of these days i'm gonna have to try trading, i'm obviously missing out on half the game.

**Warning this post many conatin traces of sarcasm directed at traders. However it is 100% free from 'trader slagging'**

Actually, because the exploding animation for the gas clouds take about a second, it would just continually replay the animation... And you would take damage every time the animation restarted, which was how I worked out the rate...
It was kind of funny to watch... like a minitature star.

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The Previous Statement is True.
ICQ: 175784556
MSN: [email protected]
Y!: mike81586
AIM: snipermike81586

Minefields are useful... I had a noob that refused to leave me alone, on a NON pvp server. He formed on me, and I could NOT get him off... He was begging for money too. Normally I am nice, but this nipplehead was really annoying. I decided to take him on a magical journey through a minefield. HEHEHE...


But what are mines? My theory is big pinty things. No explosions, but pointy as hell. BEWARE THE POINTINESS