Ship launched...surface miner?

[Aekero]

As I was bounced mercilessly down the hill by the guardian tech drones, a thought crossed my mind.. Why, in 3300, are we driving a glorified Mars rover for all planetary exploration? I know some people like it...not saying get rid of srvs, but I'm not into the ground racing and for everything else the thing is a handicap. (Not to mention vomit inducing in an otherwise lovely vr experience)

Realistically couldn't we just outfit an slf with a cargo bay and limpet controllers? I would pay bucos credits for this...or money...or iou's for first born children..or an arm and a leg.

 

[Boff'in]

My god man,

That would mean the surface quality would have to be dragged up to some high standard you know like in some concept art.

And then what could the miner mine and how, all we got are those surface deposits for materials, and not refinable fragments

an all we got to find those materials is the wave scanner, which could be used for surface deposits, but it would be painstaking.

We would need some kind of massive wave scan, fired off in like a massive pulse that could scan the surface for deposits......call it a "pulse waver scanner" if you must.

So one could locate hotspots.

Then you'd need specific weaponry to blast out surface deposits, something that could file away the deposits, some kind of abrasive laser action(?)

Goodness me, but what about sub-surface deposits on planets,

prospecting limpets fired at the planet, could perhaps locate them,
but then we'd some kind of burrowing tool, with a warhead, some kind of missile, sub-surface missle(?) oooh what about about if we find a fissure or a rockface that we could blast open with like TNT, or something more science fictiony like a siesmic charge.

All that would be missing would be to locate the hot-spots from orbit via some kind of surface scanning probe system.


But come'on we haven't seen that kind of detail in the LIVE game yet in even the asteroid mining, let alone PLANETARY mining.

Next you'll want Bigger Vehicles to buy, larger hangers, the ability to swap out weaponry.

or even a Ship Launched Miner to zip around and blasting rocks, tethering and extending limpet range, as a the primary vessel prospects and collects.


All that would really be missing is a turreted "harpoon/vacuum" module/hardpoint/utilitypoint that a gunner could operate to suck up stuff from around the ship.

 

[aardappelianen]

If only we had small ships that fit in the slf bay like the anaconda's flavor text states that it can carry a sidewinder

Realisticly to me it seems the current srv is only good for forest or cave exploration
For scouting around the slfs we currently have would be more suitable but a small ship with some utilities would be best
I really hope we get more vehicles to deploy someday hopefully next year

When we get spacelegs and fps planetary warfare it would be nice if ships with slf bays could deploy things besides vehicles like artillery pieces or something

 

[Dagwit]

A Surface Reconnaissance Skimmer as an alternative to the SRV.

A Space Reconnaissance Vehicle to pick the teeth of cracked asteroids, and explore and loot abandoned space structures.

I love flying around in ED's spaceships, but more options for things to do when you arrive somewhere would be nice.

 

[avow555]

We have NPC crew maybe it's about time they were put to use in that stupid buggy.

Alternatively, it's about time we had the mining rig reintroduced.

 

[Ceekay]

As I was bounced mercilessly down the hill by the guardian tech drones, a thought crossed my mind.. Why, in 3300, are we driving a glorified Mars rover for all planetary exploration? I know some people like it...not saying get rid of srvs, but I'm not into the ground racing and for everything else the thing is a handicap. (Not to mention vomit inducing in an otherwise lovely vr experience)

Realistically couldn't we just outfit an slf with a cargo bay and limpet controllers? I would pay bucos credits for this...or money...or iou's for first born children..or an arm and a leg.

Do you have PD turrets on your ship? a pair of top mounted PD turrets will take care of the Guardian missiles if you ship is parked close enough to the site

Something like this

 

[Lily from anim.o.v.e]

because Marsroverbuggy inc. has all the patents and don't give them out to others so that they can cashcow their 23th century model.

 

[Stealthie]

I was hoping the "mining update" would include deployable surface mining rigs (like the ones you find on planet surfaces).

If you were looking for, say, Selenium, you'd find a planet with a high concentration of it, land, deploy the mining rig and then leave it for a day, then you'd come back and (if nobody else had found it and looted/destroyed it) you'd have a heap of mat's including some Selenium.

But hey, we got a bunch of new ways to explode stuff instead, so it's all good, amirite? [sad]

 

[Factabulous]

I was hoping the "mining update" would include deployable surface mining rigs (like the ones you find on planet surfaces).

If you were looking for, say, Selenium, you'd find a planet with a high concentration of it, land, deploy the mining rig and then leave it for a day, then you'd come back and (if nobody else had found it and looted/destroyed it) you'd have a heap of mat's including some Selenium.

But hey, we got a bunch of new ways to explode stuff instead, so it's all good, amirite? [sad]

Given how much selenium you can get from geo & bio POI now I don't see the point - you'll be able to max materials in a few hours. Not passive income, but we know FD don't like that.

I like the explody mining, it's quite well done, but POI harvesting will give you better mat returns, so .. not sure what you're complaining about...

Edit: And as for the OP - how would an SLF with limpets help with the Guardian Sites? Limpets aren't great for picking stuff up from the surface. And after a few visits the sentinels become much less of a nuisance anyway...

Edit2: But - I do like the idea of an SLM for asteroid mining, that's come up a few times now

 

[Stealthie]

I like the explody mining, it's quite well done, but POI harvesting will give you better mat returns, so .. not sure what you're complaining about...

I'd like activities that reward planning and understanding and which diverge from the ubiquitous "shoot things to make stuff happen" paradigm that FDev seems to rely on.

 

[Tarman]

I'd like activities that reward planning and understanding and which diverge from the ubiquitous "shoot things to make stuff happen" paradigm that FDev seems to rely on.

Me too, but I'm not sure "press button, receive bacon" gameplay elements are much better.

It really depends on the execution more than any inherent "anti-rig" position on my part; without more detail to the iteration, it sounds like just waiting around to collect monies like we're NPC pilots.

 

[Mo Ronik]

Me too, but I'm not sure "press button, receive bacon" gameplay elements are much better.

Wait!! What?? We have a bacon button????

 

[Tarman]

Wait!! What?? We have a bacon button????

It'll be under this instructional sign. You can't normally see it because we're magnetized to our chairs and it's somewhere in the back. Once we get legs it's gonna be all bacon all day erry day. Don't forget to enjoy it as per instructions.

An aside, every time I transport Animal Meat, it's 100% Terran-DNA-sourced unfrozen bacon. No other animal meat will do.

 

[Aekero]

Do you have PD turrets on your ship? a pair of top mounted PD turrets will take care of the Guardian missiles if you ship is parked close enough to the site

Something like this

I read this as well...after the fact but I mean that's a hack at best, give me a taipan with a limpet controller (heck even if it just had a cargo scoop it'd be easier than scooping mats with the srv I'd wager) and let me lay waste!

Given how much selenium you can get from geo & bio POI now I don't see the point - you'll be able to max materials in a few hours. Not passive income, but we know FD don't like that.

I like the explody mining, it's quite well done, but POI harvesting will give you better mat returns, so .. not sure what you're complaining about...

Edit: And as for the OP - how would an SLF with limpets help with the Guardian Sites? Limpets aren't great for picking stuff up from the surface. And after a few visits the sentinels become much less of a nuisance anyway...

Edit2: But - I do like the idea of an SLM for asteroid mining, that's come up a few times now

well, I suppose limpets with the caveat that they actually worked in that scenario? Or just a cargo scoop on an slf would be a huge qol improvement for me.

 

[xxThe_Dice_manxx]

it's about time we had the mining rig reintroduced.

Indeed, we need mining rigs.

 

[BlackSpaceCowboy]

A Surface Reconnaissance Skimmer as an alternative to the SRV.

I would love a skimmer or hovercraft type vehicle that flies smoothly over the surface.

Now fighiting other skimmers and guardians would be more like battlezone. It could be a really fun gaming mechanic where you move to avoid shots and missiles.

I also would love if they got rid of the magic cargo scoop and added a mechanical arm that you control and pick stuff up properly.

 

[Snarfbuckle]

We had mining robots in Elite II: Frontier and we could have that here too.

- Prospector limpets to scan the ground
- After scan, choose to purchase a claim on that deposit
- Launch mining robots
- We now have a location all players can visit, and steal if they want
- The location will be a small square area with the mining robots in and a control tower
- We can then send down turret limpets as a defense installation within the same area

 

[Simon Templar]

I'd love a heavier SRV with the ability to do a bit of surface mining, maybe mount a mining laser which could blast into the surface and give a higher quantity of engineering mats and tradeable ores per blast, backed up by a heavy duty scanner which would aid in finding these larger deposits. Could be an expensive bit of kit and take up both berths in a double SRV hangar maybe. I'd pay good coin for one of those in my T10!

o7

 

[avow555]

I was hoping the "mining update" would include deployable surface mining rigs (like the ones you find on planet surfaces).

If you were looking for, say, Selenium, you'd find a planet with a high concentration of it, land, deploy the mining rig and then leave it for a day, then you'd come back and (if nobody else had found it and looted/destroyed it) you'd have a heap of mat's including some Selenium.

But hey, we got a bunch of new ways to explode stuff instead, so it's all good, amirite? [sad]

I personally detest the current mining style of shooting rocks in space.
Fdev have a habit of pushing players into activities that they do not enjoy and the problem there is no alternative!

As an example a game I still play is Star Wars Galaxies which has some options.

1. Hand sampling
2. Placing harvestors
3. Buying from other players...
4. Space mining (like we have here)

The good thing about this is that if don't like an activity you can buy/trade it from another player.

Fdev in their strive to be unique (infexible more like) absolutely force one method of doing an activity which is bad design.

The problem is of course through lore we know there is a mining rig in Elites history which would allow an alternate to the current boredom called mining.

The new mining is just polishing a poop, give us alternatives and add depth for a change.

 

[Vardaugas]

A small ship, like the Viper IV, can pick up cargo and fragments from the surface, scan data points and both alert and shoot down skimmers. Very convenient when you're just hunting PoIs on a planet.