And I'm tired of being told things that I disagree with as though they are gospel, so I think its for the best that you do. But I don't like to allow conversations to end mid-way so I will respond to what you have posted in a way that attempts to wrap it up and we can call it quits. Mines are stronger than booby traps as they exist so far in this thread, but thats is ok. Not every piece of gear needs to be exactly equivalent in power; for example, rifles are just bad combi rifles for a lower cost. The traps are designed with the idea that units who would not normally have mines may have access to a similar but worse area denial item. They are allowed to be 'worse mines' within that context since they have the upside over mines of being available to certain units (namely warbands) who otherwise would not get area denial deployables like this. They could also receive higher damage or better ammo types as a trade off for their limited range, which would change their role from 'weaker mines available on different profiles' to 'stronger mines with more niche circumstances'.
Noted. I remain unpersuaded though. However, bringing any furher arguments would be just dragging it at this point. Therefore, if you'll excuse me, I'll see myself on the other side of the door.
But you still have to overcome an important hurdle: Every other mechanism for hurting a friendly model with an attack has been removed. Not even "Explode" can hurt a friendly model any more. (And, frankly, I'm expecting the negative consequence of a failed doctor roll to get removed eventually as well...) A mine with a "round blast template" area of effect instead of the teardrop? Mines with other ammunition types? But "I'm trying to make using this weapon complicated in a way that the rules have now completely eliminated?"
If someone would definitely want to see a mine with a round blast effect in the game, I'd suggest making it into a more sophisticated device. What our unit deploys doesn't explode itself, but it throws the explosive on enemy unit entering its ZoC, and said explosive then explodes on impact. Imagine 1-shot GL or Flammenspeer. It'd be a fairly radical change though, as it'd require giving the device a BS score and it would make its activation an FtF roll, instead of a DTW attack. But it'd make it much safer for the operator.
You could make an argument that CB wants to remove friendly fire because of how they removed fall damage and the interaction of friendly fire and classifieds (though I'd argue just remove the classifieds!). However, Gizmo/Medkit/Doctor/Engineer can still hurt a friendly model as can shooting into close combat. Until those are changed I'm fully open to a piece of equipment that can hurt friendlies and I am not yet convinced that that this concept is "completely eliminated" from the game. This would be a really interesting weapon and I'm all for it. I'm not sure how radical a change that actually is - its very similar to the gun turrets in current ITS.
