How to Mine (or how to not be banned from mining)

[voltex]

I couldn't find this topic any were even though it could be very useful for new players (and maybe some veteran players) so I thought I would make one, I'm not good at explaining things but I'll try.

The Basics

Currently the preferred method of mining is 3 per door, not next to it but a little ways back so vehicles cant hit them and infantry cant take them 1 at a time.

Never place mines outside of the base and only rarely place them outside of buildings.

If there is ramps then 1-2 on it is enough.

The exceptions

If the Barracks sandbags cant be jumped over (if it doesn't have any raised terrain/rocks or ramps to bypass them)  then mining the sandbags is enough.

If the Airstrip has ramps then placing the mines inside closer to the MCT so they can't be bypassed is preferred and possible 1-2 at the top of the ramp as an early warning/deterrent. Otherwise the usual 3 per door.

Now to the Hand of Nod which is the hardest building to mine.

Always 3 per door, If there is ramps then never mine them as they can be bypassed by parachuting in or jumping from above instead mine inside next to the side windows or the ramp leading down to MCT usually 2-3 per side depending of the amount of mines left. The best thing to do is mine the whole base first and place the remaining mines in Hon.

Mining outside of the buildings

This depends on the map, its good on some bad on others and has lead to many mine bans. The maps its accepted on is Field, Mesa, Goldrush, Canyon and Under.

Field - This one can be difficult but usually for Nod place excess mines by the rocks behind strip or the rock by Ref entrance. GDI place the mines by the rocks behind barracks and refinery, maybe a few on the side of barracks, it really just depends on the situation. Never place mines inside of the tunnels.

Mesa - Pretty easy just place excess mines behind the PP near the rocks, works for both sides.

Goldrush - Also easy, place excess mines at the bridge.

Canyon - Place excess mines at the tunnel entrance.

Under - Place excess mines next to PP but not close enough were a single emp can disarm them and pp mines, or near the pp tunnel entrance.

All the other maps are situational and can depend on how many buildings are lost but you usually just want to place all excess mines in the remaining buildings.

Now for some general tips

As always keep an eye on the mine count even if your not defending if you see mines dropping just start spamming MINES in TEAM chat, if your the one checking mines don't always assume the most likely buildings check them all.

If you spot an engineer trying to get inside a building or c4 on the MCT don't waste time typing it in chat just QQ spam the building or c4 in chat.

When leaving a building especially one towards the back of base take a few seconds to run around it or any place someone can hide, who knows you might be one of the lucky few to spot a Quinc3y in its natural habitat.

Always pay attention to your surroundings, if you spawn inside or run past a building and you hear beeping there's a good chance its coming from the c4 covering the MCT, I myself have saved a few buildings this way and also could of easily been caught if other players were more observant.

I think that's all I can think of for now, if you can think of any ways to improve this or anything I've left out please say so.

Edited September 8, 2016 by voltex
Updated Barracks exceptions to make them more clear.

[Quinc3y]

who knows you might be one of the lucky few to spot a Quinc3y in its natural habitat

Hahaha I hate being spotted by random people spawning or whatever.

Some more tips from me:

Maps where it makes sense to mine the sandbags of barracks: Field, Islands, Mesa, Complex, Valley, Grassy Knoll, Snow, Tomb. On all other maps you should mine the doors.

When mining the front door of the refinery, it's usually best to put the mines a little bit forward from the door, so that the disarming person cannot hide behind the little things around doors. Especially important with Nod refinery on Field, where those things can cover from the Obelisk.

It also makes sense to place mines very very close to each other, so that the disarming person has trouble aiming at mines one by one, taking them down to ~5% each and then disarming them at once. That's an useful trick when infiltrating a building and placing the mines extremely close to each other can deny this tactic.

Eyes is the only flying map where it makes big sense to mine the door of airstrip. That's because you can infiltrate it and not get hit by obelisk only if you run inside from the front door and not jump in via the tower. It's exactly the same thing with airstrip and turrets on Lakeside, but there it's not that important.

Not the smartest thing from me to give tips to the defenders but oh well, doing it for the cause

[boxes]

who knows you might be one of the lucky few to spot a Quinc3y in its natural habitat

Maps where it makes sense to mine the sandbags of barracks: Field, Islands, Mesa, Complex, Valley, Grassy Knoll, Snow, Tomb. On all other maps you should mine the doors.

Field and Complex you should mine the doors over sandbags. Techs can disarm sandbag mines without getting shot from the AGT on field, and you can jump over the sandbags on complex from the rocks.

[Canucck]

There should probably be visual aids for mining. Something simple liked painted squares inside doors, tunnel entrances, etc. Have a hologram/transparent shell appear before you lay them down instead of the mines just being shit out of your ass after a timer, the mine goes where you aim the shell. The shell is green in places mappers/server owners think are good mine spots, yellow everywhere else, red after the mine limit is reached.

Kicking/banning/minebaning people for mining is definitely one of the most retarded things I've ever seen. Even if they're fucking up the game, 99% of the time their intentions are right. Actual abuse is pretty rare, and getting fucked over for trying to help your team is very off putting. It's probably a lot of work but mining could be presented in a much better way

[Agent]

Actual abuse is pretty rare, and getting fucked over for trying to help your team is very off putting. It's probably a lot of work but mining could be presented in a much better way

I've suggested repeatedly that removing proximity C4 from hotwires/technicians, replacing them with a non-refillable purchasable item, and removing the mine limit would be a perfect remedy to this constant problem. This way proximity C4 could become a valid weapon to use in various areas of the map (crate spawns, bunkers, silo, rocks) rather than strictly doors.

[Canucck]

The current ~20 supermine limit is just as bad if not worse than the old 50-100 limit servers used. I don't think removing the limit could ever help no matter how you balanced things

[Henk]

There should probably be visual aids for mining. Something simple liked painted squares inside doors, tunnel entrances, etc. Have a hologram/transparent shell appear before you lay them down instead of the mines just being shit out of your ass after a timer, the mine goes where you aim the shell. The shell is green in places mappers/server owners think are good mine spots, yellow everywhere else, red after the mine limit is reached.

http://renegade-x.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=75969

Great minds think alike

[Agent]

High limit servers are awful because there's no cost to placing or replacing those mines. If there's a cost associated to mining it becomes incredibly cost prohibitive to do things like mining against vehicles. Additionally it'd finally create an obvious money sink in the game so that there aren't as many "oh we lost the refinery? it's okay, I've banked 20k" situations.

Restricting proximity C4 to specific areas is wonky at best, and you'd be better served by removing proximity c4 and replacing it with an entirely different mechanic.

As it is mine limits restrict the creativity and versatility of proximity C4 just as restricting placement locations would. They need to be removed, and a cost needs to be added just as there is a cost for every other purchasable object in the game such as vehicles and beacons.

[Henk]

It's not a restriction, just a system that suggests where to mine.

[EKT-Razmann]

Maps where it makes sense to mine the sandbags of barracks:[...] Valley [...]

Most people don´t know but its possible to use a rock besides the sandbags to pass them.

So i´d prefer to say: Mine the doors @ Valley although it might be painful with only 12 mines.

Also i wanna let you know my prefered HON mining. Defendet Walls or Eyes HON in some 2h+ games like that. I´m sure some don´t like it, i´d still strongly recommand it.

[EKT-Razmann]

I gotta admit a quite tricky jump is required to get up there, but especialy for coordinated SBHs it can be a save way to kill the Barracks.

Now i told enough of my secrets

hf & gl!

[Quinc3y]

Field

Okay, good point

Complex

Does it only work with characters with a speed bonus? I managed to do this with a patch but couldn't with a hotty.

Valley

Nice! Indeed it's possible, but very difficult to pull this off with anything but an SBH in the actual game

Also Razmann's way of mining HoN is probably best.

[DoctorB0NG]

The fact that all the best players in ren still have to discuss how to mine years after the game has been out shows how fucked up the mining system is in this game.

[Ryz]

The fact that all the best players in ren still have to discuss how to mine years after the game has been out shows how fucked up the mining system is in this game.

Or a matter of opinion?

Some mine as an alarm system, some to kill people. That's 2 different purposes for the same mine... Not to mention the places it can be placed and so on...

[Mystic~]

Good post, nice to see how people play and pro-tips that weren't confessed earlier.

I don't like to see people mining the ramps on the Hand because a Chinook full of engineers and it's toast, a few Orcas with passengers, it's toast. If two or more people have a difference of opinion when it comes to mining preferences then the whole team suffers.

I once suggested replacing building mines with laser tripwires and ceiling auto-defense turrets that could either be disarmed by engineers/adv engineers or destroyed and then either re-spawn or come back online after a short delay of down time.

I know it's a game, but you wouldn't seriously mine your own buildings. You'd be better off placing them in the field, and turn the visibility threshold way down so the only way to spot them is to crawl or slowly walk up to them without detonating in order for them to become visible.

[Lynxy]

Good tips. The only thing I would add to this is in the event your team loses a building, whoever mined that building should consider removing any leftover mines so they can be used in the remaining buildings.

[cncforever]

The Basics

Currently the preferred method of mining is 3 per door, not next to it but a little ways back so vehicles cant hit them and infantry cant take them 1 at a time.

If you place the mines very close to the doors then sometimes it will kill a tech as soon as the doors open. I think that's a worthy risk Vs the vehicles thing. So a tech creeps up to a building, slowly moves forward and the doors open...boink.

[cncforever]

who knows you might be one of the lucky few to spot a Quinc3y in its natural habitat

It also makes sense to place mines very very close to each other, so that the disarming person has trouble aiming at mines one by one, taking them down to ~5% each and then disarming them at once. That's an useful trick when infiltrating a building and placing the mines extremely close to each other can deny this tactic.

I always use that tactic with sbh and a rep gun (disarm down to 5%) but was denied it a few days back from that exact way of mining. I wondered if it was a tactic or a coincidence.

[ex_member]

...

Edited September 22, 2018 by ex_member

[voltex]

I could use some help updating this with the newer maps, since the update I have not played them much (played crash site once I think) and I also don't stay in base much anymore, so I don't know the best ways to mine the maps, I've tried to hop on and see how its done but I can never get the maps I want. Any help is appreciated, Thanks.