The Mod Explained - Part 1: Minefields news - Yuuzhan Vong at War mod for Star Wars: Empire at War: Forces of Corruption

Throughout the history of the Expanded Universe, minefields have been used to secure or block off worlds. They are a powerful tool, almost invisible to sensors until it's too late and the first ships of an armada die an awful fiery death, with the commander having to watch helplessly and ordering an immediate stop to the offensive moves, only to tediously clear out the blocked path by carfully scouting the area, giving the opponent enough time to prepare a devastating counterattack.

In the mod mine fields will be featured in several ways. We decided to include several different mine types, fulfilling different roles and purposes:

1. Mine Type A:

   The Type A mine is a general purpose and widely available mine type, being used since the early days of the Empire. Some of you might remember this little bugger from the X-Wing games. This mine type is as simple as it is effective. It is almost invisible until it blows up. And most likely takes a ship with it.

2. Interdiction Mine:

   The Interdiction mine is a more sophisticated piece of technology, most commonly used by the Hapans. If a ship happens to come to close to one of those, it will blow up with a strong enough ionic explosion to take out the systems of almost all ship classes immediately, but only for a certain amount of time. In addition to that, as long as the mine exists, it creates a small interdictor field, preventing ships from jumping in from light speed in a small area around them.

3. The Conner Net:

   Whilst the Conner Net is not strictly speaking a mine, it still fulfills a similar purpose. First used by the Chiss and during the late Old Republic to early Imperial era slowly becoming popular within the known galaxy it is a truly nasty weapon. A Conner Net is able to take out the vital systems of almost all ship classes immediately, effectively freezing the affected ship in place, leaving it defenseless and blind.

With that preview of what to expect, we'll go through each of them in detail, giving an deeper insight to those new weapons.

The mod will feature two ways for you, the player, to use minefields:

• Some ships will be able to deploy minefields during the battle. Depending on the ship and the storage they have available, the size of a minefield, or being precise the number of mines the field consists of, and the overall number of minefields the ship can deploy during one battle are limited. A Broadside Cruiser for example will only be able to deploy one relatively large minefield, whereas a fighter squadron will only be able to drop one or two mines per fighter.
• Fortress worlds (e.g. Borosk, a world fortifying the border between the Imperial Remnant and the New Republic) are able to build minefields as a defensive structure. Similar to turbolaser towers as ground structures, building this command centre creates several minefields in strategic places on the map.
• These defensive structures will - similar to the turbolaser towers - only count as destroyed, once all mine command centres have been destroyed. Just to make it clear: You won't have to take out all mine fields, taking out the command centres is enough.

Apart from the generic aspects mentioned above, each mine type is unique in the way you will use it in game, so the following paragraphs will provide some more details on those type specific aspects.

Mine Type A specific gameplay

• Type A mines are simple explosive weapons: A unit comes too close -> BOOM!
• The mines are destructible, so you'll be able to clear your path through them.
• Type A mines will also destroy other mines in reach, so if you're lucky and manage to take out the right mine, the whole minefield will disintegrate itself.
• Mines will not be triggered by friendly units, but damage them, if an enemy unit triggers the mine, whilst a friendly unit is also in range of the explosion radius.

And here is some gameplay for you:

Interdiction Mine specific gameplay

• Interdiction mines disable a ships vital systems, they prevent movement for a short time. Fighters will be disabled completely for a short time.
• The mines are destructible, so you'll be able to clear your path through them.
• Mines will not be triggered by friendly units, but disable them, if an enemy unit triggers the mine, whilst a friendly unit is also in range of the explosion radius.
• An intact mine prevents a ship from jumping in from Hyperspace in a certain radius around them. The radius per mine might be small, but a minefield can block off a vital area of space and force the opposing faction to jump in reinforces further away from their intended destination.

Conner Net specific gameplay

Despite not being mines in a traditional sense, Conner Nets are still listed here. They might be the most nasty surprises in your arsenal, although not able to damage ships on their own.

• Conner Nets are being deployed by ships during tactical combat, depending on the ship's storage you will be able to drop a different amount of Conner Nets.
• Conner Nets are usually used to catch ships. They electrocute a ships systems, forcing the crew to perform a hard reboot of all systems, basically taking a ship out of play without actively destroying it.
• A ship trapped by a Conner Net will loose the ability to move, fire and is strapped of its shields, leaving it very vulnerable for bomber attacks.
• The only way to recover a trapped ship before a battle ends is by destroying the Conner Net which is trapping the ship.

And again, some gameplay for you:

That's all folks!

But we'll be back soon with the next part of our series: The Mod Explained - Part 2: Project: Planet Death.

The Shapers - YVaW