2008-04-03, 22:55:03
If mines could be triggered by the mine-laying player, and would not explode automatically when someone steps on them, the possibility to counter them by setting them off on purpose, piece by piece, would be gone. I was a demo in my last game, and played against a shredder, who went into one mine at a time and then retreated, so I could never pile up enough mines to kill him, and he couldn't kill me either, since he had no weapons. The shredder would have a major disadvantage if he could not sweep mines anymore in such a situation, and it would be even greater for low-hp tanks. Therefore, I don't think it's a good idea to enable strategic triggering by the mine-laying player.
Edit: I agree that mines should do collateral damage to everyone around them, it's just not logical/fair otherwise. Earlier, I had a game in which a tinker held mid and heavily mined their cp with two mine-laying kits, he literally put tons of mines on their cp (I have no idea how he could even put so many of them so closely together), thus it was impossible to conquer it even with high-hp tanks, since the defending enemies took no damage at all, while we lost half our hp (or more) to mines. If they had had a suicider, he might have teleported in and killed us, but he would have damaged his mates as well.
Edit: I agree that mines should do collateral damage to everyone around them, it's just not logical/fair otherwise. Earlier, I had a game in which a tinker held mid and heavily mined their cp with two mine-laying kits, he literally put tons of mines on their cp (I have no idea how he could even put so many of them so closely together), thus it was impossible to conquer it even with high-hp tanks, since the defending enemies took no damage at all, while we lost half our hp (or more) to mines. If they had had a suicider, he might have teleported in and killed us, but he would have damaged his mates as well.