TL;DR
Enable artillery to remotely deploy landmines, giving them a meaningful late-game use as an area denial tool.What?
I suggest introducing a new type of artillery shell — a **Mine Deployment Shell** — which spreads landmines (or poison mines) over a targeted area instead of dealing direct damage.This would function similarly to other artillery shells but would scatter a number of mines on impact, allowing for remote deployment deep into enemy territory or in front of incoming biter waves.
Key mechanics could include:
- Uses standard artillery targeting.
- Shell lands and disperses 5–10 landmines in a radius.
- Mines behave like standard landmines (explode on enemy contact).
- Could require military 4 or artillery shell range research as a prerequisite.
- Optionally allow different mine types (standard, poison, slow, etc.) with additional research.
Why?
Mines are heavily underused in the game, primarily because placing them is manual and dangerous. Their utility is limited to static defense, which becomes less relevant as mobile threats and artillery appear in late game.Allowing artillery to deploy mines would:
- Give mines a **strategic and scalable purpose** in the late game.
- Enable preemptive defense setups in new expansion areas.
- Add a **non-lethal tactical layer** to artillery usage (area control instead of destruction).
- Support automation-focused gameplay — remote minefields controlled by targeting logic.
- Make existing tech (mines + artillery) synergize better, without needing completely new systems.
This addition increases gameplay depth without overwhelming new players and aligns with Factorio’s philosophy of combining simple tools to solve complex problems.
