If you place a mine, can you be the victim of it? I haven't figured out how to effectively use mines yet. Essentially if I place a mine in a hallway and run further down to lure an enemy towards it and I cross over the mine will it explode on me? OR can I freely pass it since i placed it there and should, in theory, know how not to trip it?

You wasted your time typing all of that when you could've just made a quicksave and tested it out yourself? Weird.

To be fair, the OP could be using a computer from a different location than where his/her Fallout 3 is located.

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To the OP, you do NOT have to worry about accidentally setting of your own mines. You can run across them with impunity, but you can still get hit with their explosion if the "baddie" sets it off with you nearby.

No you won't trigger your own mines but can still be hurt from the explosion if an enemy triggers it.

And for the record, in the time it took you to type that you could have just answered the guys question!!! Weird!

Thanks that was what I was hoping.

And yes I am using a diff computer. I'm at work currently and they oddly don't allow us to d/l and play FO3 on their comps.

Also, if you have the Light Step perk you'll never set off any of your opponent's mines either. Or any of their trip wires. You'll essentially be immune to any traps in the game, aside from getting caught in the blast if your enemy sets one off.

That's handy to know. Not sure if I have that perk unlocked yet or not. Though I did get pretty good disarming all the traps in the one tunnel I was in yesterday. I wish the promot would say "Do you want to disarm?" not "do you want to activate?" To me activate = set it off.

You are quite welcome.

Light Step, like Belanos mentioned, is a very good Perk. Unfortunately, you can't choose it until Level 14 and by then you may have other choices that you might find of more use.

Sneak + setting up your own mine field + lure enemies by attacking/appearing = lots of really annoyed (and dead) enemies.

Others have posted some good pointers. I'd add that you have to keep in mind that the mines can be set of by explosions such as frag grenades or missles (i.e., if a raider throws a grenade or fires a missile and your in the middle of your mine field, well... it's not pretty).

Mines are great when you are being chased. Throw them down into the path as you back up and the enemies run right over them. Be far enough away that you take minimal damage, though.

Mines are great for exploring buildings, when you have multiple areas to cover. For example, when I first enter a building, and say there's 3 doors, I put a mine at the 2 doors that I'm not traveling, in case an enemy "activates" and starts coming at me from a different direction. Also, as I advance forward, I'll drop a mine every so often, in case I run into something and need to retreat/regroup...if they chase me..Boom. This works well with mutants/ghouls...

NOTE: Make sure to collect your mines once you've cleared the area.

To me, the biggest use I have for mines is ammo for reverse-pickpocketting because I actually use grenades although I've found that in certaion missions, such as the one where you have a "dramatic last stand" with Desmond in Calvert Mansion in Point Lookout, mines can actually come in handy for their intended purpose

One thing I hate about mines(and any explosive material, actually) is the fact that any items around the area go flying. For example, a skill book or holotape could go flying and end up in a location that you can't see or even reach if you did know where it ended up.

Had that happen before, that's why I don't clear rooms with grenades anymore.

Well, if you're on PC, you can always use console TCL and get the item from its unreachable position.

But you still need to know what was in the room in the first place before you begin looking to try to find where something useful got launched to via explosives causing HAVOK physics to live up to its name.

Jenifur Charne

Not really. If you have no collision (with TCL) you can check out anywhere and everywhere in the room and pick up whatever is there. It doesn't matter where it was originally; you didn't know its original location but you're just picking up everything anyway, so it doesn't really make any difference.

That is, unless you only want to look for very specific items... I never do that, though. I just pick up everything and then decide what I'll keep.

Anyway, I was just pointing out that it isn't a big deal. I use explosives and have never had any trouble picking up whatever is there.