usefullness of mines

question would be how to do that

Mines low usage is because they cause lag (how much dunno, can be this 'superstition'?) . This is reason why players usually not use them. Technically was 1.8 top mine (dual) for 1.9 reworked (revelation) and mines amount was reduced.

Battleships imo are already overpowered. But for fighters i dont see why not; mine dropper with a max capacity of 1 mine, with very costly ammo which drops these so called "nukes". Only problem would be to make it generate a radiation field with a certain time span.
It would be really useful in ASF/CSF as you could drop one outside the enemy's docking ring, forcing them to wait inside the planet till the effect wears off. This will give the attackers time to strategically place themselves. For defenders, the nuke could be detonated near a jump gate or jump hole, blocking entry through there which gives the defenders a strategic advantage in cornering attackers jumping into the system.
I think this mine nuke thing is a good idea if we can make it work.

You will need a time delay on it as you don't want to drop a nuke and blow yourself up to kingdom come, rofl!:D
And with regards to making it work as we don't necessarily need to use a mine mount point for it.
Just say an ordinary weapon mounting point but in the place where mines would be mounted on the ship using HardCMP.
Anyone who mods ships here like OP and others will understand where, I am coming from.
And when you say nuke you mean a drop-able nuke like a bomb as weapons such as the nemesis and cataclysm already impacts quite high damages on ships.
Lol we could just create a bay that opens up underneath the ship and drops a high powered explode-able thruster but remodeled to look like a nuke based drop-able bomb with a time delay.
As I am not sure the structure of a mine would be high or good enough to create such a high powered nuclear bomb in Freelancer.

making a seperate harpoint and all for it is ok... but the effect should last and linger around in that area. We could use radiation fields with very high amount of damage, but as these fields are defined in ini files and are stationary in space, question would be on how to make them appear in a certain area when this "nuke" is detonated.

Guys, the usefulness of the mines is purely defensive in nature, to drive an attacker off your 6 and allow you to reposition against them in a dogfight.

In the case of CF in general, they will test most people's computer and internet connection due to lag, another side benefit in a way of sorts to the mine.

Beyond that... Yes, they are useless to most. Again, it's all in the application and situation it's used in.

Most will consider them cheesy or lame due to inducing lag, but will I say as been said before by others here, "LEARN AND ADAPT". All is fair in love and warfare I say.

In my past experience with the tactical nuke torpedo in mods like Battlestar Galactica, the nuke is something that can and will be abused and is waaaaaayyy overpowered.

IMHO, if you don't want something ending up being abused in the game, don't put it there.

Even with the nuke as a sole deterrent for the fighters against the massive battlestars and basestars in the BSG mod, it was easy to take out an entire area of ships with a single, well-placed nuke as well.

It would be interesting if some combination of contraband goods could be combined into a weapon of mass destruction, assuming that such a weapon had a use (in a destructible universe, for example). Some combination of Fusion Weapon Components, Quantum Bomb Components, Old Nuclear Device, MoX, etc, might be combined into a bomb that might be "dropped" outside a base or docking ring, and either have a time delay, or need to be detonated by a missile/torp. It would obviously take some coding, and I've no idea how that would look. It could be used as a means of combat in the Conquest Model; if a system's tribute money is tied to the system population, and one or more bases is destroyed for a time, the revenue would drop for a time. Just thinking out loud....

In old times, i liked the mines, especially EMP modification against battleships (and torpedoes after).

Or another tactic - sudden breaking the trade line after self escaping

So, it's a good idea about mines anyway.

An idea like this could be setup through an flhook plugin maybe?

have the required equipment needed in your hold to make a mine, and then lay it with a /mine command ?

problem is not to lay a mine
problem would be to keep it where it is even when a player is not near