1st case is when a frigate moves too fast. Frigates have very small exclusion area, and speed-buffed frigate can end up in situation when even perfect
reaction is not fast enough to avoid the mine. Player can manage this by intentionally slowing down around Dooms, but AI ships are *doomed*, lol.
You know, trying to blow up enemy frigates with Doom mines is actually pretty frustrating because the AI has lightning fast reactions, and knows EXACTLY how much he has to dodge to avoid the collision. I usually have to completely box them, otherwise they'll *** ninja-dodge around them. It is really rare indeed that I can nail a frigate without spamming mines, and that's just one tiny *** frigate. I end up having to use like 4 mines to kill one lousy frigate. Even if I do kill one, woo, I killed a Hound, that was going to be a threat to anyone. Frigates chew up way more than their fair share of mines to kill. The only frigates that are seriously threatened by mines are the ones YOU fly, because you probably don't have the reaction times of a 6 year old. And frankly, you probably shouldn't be flying those ships. You can barely even see them and they blow up if anything sneezes on them. Outside of the specialist models, which aren't rushing headlong into battle anyway, you only bring them out for pursuits, they almost always die in pitched battles.
Nope, a fast frigate with speed-optimized character is simply too fast. You don't have enough acceleration to alter your course enough in available timeframe to avoid running into the mine, it's not a question of reaction timing.
You actually DO have enough acceleration, but you need inhuman reflexes. Since the typical human response time is on the order of 100ms+, this is simply inadequate to react to such a threat in time, but an AI pilot totally will ninja dodge that.
Another proposal: mines are forced to remain phase cloaked for 1-2 sec after deployment. This still allows to insta-kill fighters by placing mines ahead of them (no PD fire opportunity, since mine is phased), but allows ships to take defensive actions.
That will actually make mines DEADLIER since now enemies cannot do anything about them.
2nd case is even worse: when friendly fighters move near the ship and run into a freshly spawned mine. Short of raised 360 shield or active phase cloak, nothing can prevent damage in this situation. In fact, friendly carriers will do their best to setup you exactly for this kind of problem with their insistence on using fighter escorts.
Maybe you should mark the opposing Doom for Fighter Attack. That's what I always do, and it tends to keep them out of my hair since the AI doesn't want come out when he's being harassed by fighters.