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Full Version: Buff Swatter Mines?
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I've included a TL;DR section at the bottom, since I realize I can be a long winded individual.

For a long time, we've had three different standard mine options.
Nukes: High damage, slow mines.
Rippers: Mid-damage, faster mines with higher ammo capacity.
Screamers: Anti-Shield mines with Ripper speed, but reduced explosion radius and Nuke ammo capacity.

I'm not entirely sure when the Swatter was attempted to be introduced as a fourth mine dropper, but its current characteristics leave it rather sub-par, and rarely if ever used. They travel no faster than a Ripper, and while they have a whopping 140 ammo capacity, their pitiful explosion radius leaves them useless for CD mine trapping.

Further comparions:
Hull/Shield/Radius
Nukes: 17,000/8,500/64m
Rippers: 9,400/4,700/64m
Screamers: 1,000/29,500/40m
Swatters: 2,700/1,350/16m

Since Swatters are sold on many bases, I believe it was intended for some folks to use them as an alternative to the old golden trio. I think whoever re-statted Swatters had the right idea by giving them a high ammo count and a 2.00 refire, but they could be taken a step further. Sometimes, the best solution is the simplest one.

Give Swatters a 120m/s travel speed. This would allow them to be used as low damage, consistently hitting mines that could startle enemies with their high tracking speed, thus forcing them to either evade or eat the low damage. This would also allow fighters who run missiles to have a mine they could rely on, as with a 16m explosion radius, the Swatter is not meant to mine trap like other mines. This would potentially allow folks who know they are consistently focused in group fights to run a mine that could get multiple enemies off their tail/contribute to damage even while having to spend all their time dodging. Lastly, it would give snub rookies/low skill players a weapon they could use to reliably deal damage with, even if they're terrible shots with guns.

TL;DR:
*Give Swatters a 120m/s travel speed. They deal less damage than 1/3 of a Ripper, and 1/6 of a Nuke.
*Swatters have a 16m explosion radius. They can't be used for standard CD mine trapping.
*High speed mine = Rookie friendly; missile load out friendly; allows group-focused targets to contribute to team fight damage/get some enemies off their tail/waste enemy CDs.
*Low-risk, low-reward mine that can be used for quickly scattering foes. Can still be exploded via CDs, but the radius likely won't catch anyone in the blast.
*This gives us a Direct-Hit style mine, while keeping the golden oldie trio (Nuke/Ripper/Screamer) as regular CD-trap style mines.

What do ya'll think? Yay or nay?
Sounds good to me. I really think we ought changeup the mine weapons to have some options.
In case anyone missed this, I'm giving it a bump. The results so far look stellar, but I'll wait and see if any more folks vote before submitting a Dev Request.
I'd like to see cluster mines, drops a spread of them at once to create a nice little explosive net for anyone chasing you
I want to see swatter mines swat snubs tbh.

Buff their push force to double of battleship flaks.

Now THAT would be a blast