Frontier, the absence of a Universal Limpet Controller undermines your own good work

[Sterling MH]

Let’s recap your nonsense and evasion

Ad hom. An assertion meant to mean you do not have to rebut my argument because you don't have to. The arguments I made, being impossible for you to refute, has been abandoned to ad hom instead, proving you have nothing.

Argue the points, don't poison the well by proclaiming ex nihilo that they are nefarious and irrelevant arguments. This isn't AIG, you know.

 

[Blackcompany]

The simple truth is there is no logical, sane reason why we need anything more than a single limpet controller. Or even the innate ability for our ships computers to control the things. Not being able to partake of game play is not an interesting choice; its shooting your game in its own foot design wise.

People want to have fun. That is, chiefly, why most people play games. And constantly leaving a USS because you dont have the correct limpet controller thanks for your psychic medium outfitted having taken the day off, is simply not enjoyable. Whether to pack scatter weapons or machine guns on a combat ship; whether to hull or shield tank (shop choice)...these are meaningful decisions. Whether to drop a cargo hold from your mining trade/ship or protection from your combat vessel in favor of a fuel limpet controller, on the OFF CHANCE you MIGHT need it, is not meaningful. Its just locking useful ships out of fun but niche game play for literally no valid reason whatever.

 

[jacozilla]

Ad hom. An assertion meant to mean you do not have to rebut my argument because you don't have to. The arguments I made, being impossible for you to refute, has been abandoned to ad hom instead, proving you have nothing.

Argue the points, don't poison the well by proclaiming ex nihilo that they are nefarious and irrelevant arguments. This isn't AIG, you know.

Whatever sermon that was, honestly understood none of it.

Simply refer you back to post #80 above where you still can’t answer the original question asked - why does an integrated limpet controller, which is just more software packages, need to be bigger and heavier as you asserted?

 

[Anubite]

A single, universal limpet controller needs to happen. Even better, do away with controllers and make controlling limpets something a ship's computer can simply do natively. Like the FSS is, and the DSS SHOULD BE.

Either way, I get so tired of passing up scenarios that offer some game play variety because I cant fit every single limpet controller type and still have a useful, functional ship.

"So much 'content,' what even is a multi-role anymore?"

I was thinking this the other night as well. You can't even "multi-role" well, now, and controllers are a part of that story.

 

[Strangepork]

A gameplay anecdote: yesterday I was flying around with my all-purpose Asp, which is equipped with a Collector Limpet controller, to snag the materials I find in USSs and various places. During my travels, I see a new contact, one of the many new kinds of installations and megaships you've put in the Bubble. I decide to stop and take a look. The asset itself is impressive. I scan it with the Datalink Scanner. It highlights the cargo hatches and the data points I could break/hack. Except, I cannot, because I lack the two different kinds of limpet controllers required (Hatch Breaker and Recon). Oh well, I leave without interacting with the megaship. About half hour later, I find a new distress signal. I drop in, and there's a stranded ship needing fuel. I'd like to help it, but I cannot, because i lack the Fuel Limpet controller.

I suppose the same could happen with someone meeting a Thargoid (which can be interacted with by means of Research Limpets) or a damaged ship in needs to repair (Repair Limpet).

The moral of the story is: you've worked hard to introduce new assets and new scenarios for us to interact with. But more often than not we will not interact with them, because we don't have the tools for it. Could I have flown over to the nearest station and bought the three kinds of limpet controllers I needed? Sure. But (even assuming that the station had them in stock) that would've taken me quite a bit of extra time, between going there, outfitting it, and then coming back to put back in my Asp the modules I regularly want.

Now, before someone says "well, but I do". Good for you. There's also people who go to Beagle point in a Sidewinder. But I think it is a pretty uncontroversial opinion that the game should, on average, help you perform the actions you want without extra and unnecessary hoops to jump into, especially for new or inexperienced players who aren't even aware of the 8 different kinds of limpet controllers they might need to equip. They are just too many.

We need a Universal Limpet Controller.

Yup, is it on the list?

 

[Stealthie]

Can anybody think of a module that is capable of carrying out more than one function?

The closest thing I can think of is turrets, which can fire in various modes.
Controlling the modes is a function of your ship rather than the specific module.
I'd guess that there's a problem with the code that prevents FDev creating modules with multiple functions.

If it was possible, the solution would seem to be fairly straightforward.
A C3 multifunction controller would be able to deploy up to 2 different types of limpets, one at a time.
C5: up to 3 different types of limpets, one at a time.
C7: up to 4 different types of limpets, one at a time.

In each case, you'd buy the limpet controller and it'd have a "limpet type" sub-category and then you'd buy the required "limpet software" in much the same way that you can buy an SLF hangar and then select different types of SLF to launch from it.

Maybe SLF hangars could provide the basis of a system capable of launching multiple types of limpet too?
You use the bottom-HUD to select a limpet type from the available choices (in the same way you select an SLF) and then launch it via a fire-button.

 

[Captain Willard]

Of course only pre game release LEP owners can get the universal controller. OH open only too.

 

[Sterling MH]

Simply refer you back to post #80 above where you still can’t answer the original question asked - why does an integrated limpet controller, which is just more software packages, need to be bigger and heavier as you asserted?

And post #80 did not say that. It is right there, remember. So your assertion is a lie. Moreover, the assertion "just more software packages" is also an assertion. For which I am 100% viably allowed to claim it is NOT just more software packages. And, unlike you, I have reason to know this: a prospector digs into a rock with a proble to determine the constituent. None of the other limpets need that invasive probe. A hatchbreaker needs to either interface with the ship to bust the lock or burn it open. None of the other limpets need that. Collector limpets need to handle an undefined lump, so articulated grapple of a smaller item, something none of the other limpets need to have. Fuel limpets need cargo space to hold fuel, none of the other probes need it, including a pipe to mate with the fuel port of a ship.

And so on and so forth.

Lots of PHYSICAL changes there.

Where's software to do that????

 

[Stealthie]

And post #80 did not say that. It is right there, remember. So your assertion is a lie. Moreover, the assertion "just more software packages" is also an assertion. For which I am 100% viably allowed to claim it is NOT just more software packages. And, unlike you, I have reason to know this: a prospector digs into a rock with a proble to determine the constituent. None of the other limpets need that invasive probe. A hatchbreaker needs to either interface with the ship to bust the lock or burn it open. None of the other limpets need that. Collector limpets need to handle an undefined lump, so articulated grapple of a smaller item, something none of the other limpets need to have. Fuel limpets need cargo space to hold fuel, none of the other probes need it, including a pipe to mate with the fuel port of a ship.

And so on and so forth.

Lots of PHYSICAL changes there.

Where's software to do that????

You know there's only one type of limpet available for purchase, right?

 

[Sterling MH]

You know there's only one type of limpet available for purchase, right?

You realise that is not a counter, right?
Counter my poits. CLEARLY they are not the same AFTER programming by the specific limpet controller. So unless you can explain why it is not being reformed with the required bits to do the specific job, my answer still holds.

And if you want to go all meta on me, it's a game. So the reason why it is heavier is GAME BALANCE.

But, yeah, all of you, thanks for showing FD that they are right not to try to make a universal limpet controller: you don't WANT one, you want the current limpet controllers removed and replaced with just one. If they try and do it, but it isn't just flat out BETTER than any controller or all of them together, you'll refuse to accept this universal controller and about it. So best to not bother. Complaint will be made by you about limpets either way.

 

[Stealthie]

You realise that is not a counter, right?
Counter my poits. CLEARLY they are not the same AFTER programming by the specific limpet controller. So unless you can explain why it is not being reformed with the required bits to do the specific job, my answer still holds.

I just countered your poits [sic].
You just don't realise it.

Limpets are generic.
The Controllers do "stuff" to modify a limpet for it's intended role.
A complete C1 limpet controller weighs 2t so there's no excuse for any incremental increase to be more than 2t per limpet type.

Which is quite handy because every controller capable of launching multiple limpets already has that dead-weight built into it.

 

[Sterling MH]

I just countered your poits

No.

If they are generic, why does the hatchbreaker limpet not manage to collect objects as well? Just upload the "use the grabby arms" on it.

Where is the probe on the collector limpet, you can see them fly past. Nothing more than the jet and the grabby arms with a rock stuck in it. Where's the probe? Where's the space for the 1t of fuel?

The limpets are not the same AFTER programming. they have different physical things on them. Things that not only would not be needed on other limpets after programming but would get in the way.

And none of that appeared in your one liner.

Which means your assertion you HAD countered my points absolutely a lie.

Hey, a busted keyboard is fixable. get a new keboard. A busted argument is not so easy to come by. I know which I prefer. Sic.

 

[Captain Willard]

WOW Another I want thread. Maybe FD has plans and won't tell you.
Kinda like they won't cave to whines about empty seats in your little ship.
So far ED keeps amazing me where they go in this game. You don't like it? To bad,

 

[Hacker#451563]

It'd work well for the "a bunch of collectors for materials and synth the others if it comes up" situation but I think it would be very inconvenient for miners who would need to guess before they set off what collector/prospector balance they needed.

I wonder if there might also be underlying problems with a single module having multiple fire modes. Certainly I can imagine issues with a module controlling both prospectors and collectors at once regardless of how it does it.

Perhaps a solution would be to merge some of the limpet types.
- collectors => stay on their own
- prospector, recon, research => merged to "analysis limpet" and acts based on what it hits
- hatchbreaker => stay on their own (or alternatively have recon here instead as "hacking limpet", or alternatively make hatchbreaking another "analysis" task)
- fuel transfer, repair, decon => merged to "support limpet" and acts based on the target state - decontamination if needed, then fuel transfer if on fumes, then repair, then fuel transfer to the main tank

Then we're back to four limpet types (or maybe only three) which means there's still a bit of a choice and compromise over which to take, but it doesn't require an Anaconda to take one of everything if you want.

Yeah, I'd go with this sort of thing.

"Naughty" Limpet controller
"Info-gathering" Limpet controller
"Support" Limpet controller

Perhaps make the more combined ones heavier on the juice and have the muti-use limpets cost more, weigh more, have more limited availability or something else that would still make the standard varieties remain a good option for many pilots.


And to clarify, I'm not whinging about things, but as the OP stated clearly, FDev is making lots of cool stuff they've added really difficult to play with because most "functional" load-outs don't include things like fuel limpets or even recon limpets most of the time.

Sure we could change our load-outs but then why make the new stuff in accessible locations if normal situations make them inaccessible.

 

[Sterling MH]

Yeah, I'd go with this sort of thing.

"Naughty" Limpet controller
"Info-gathering" Limpet controller
"Support" Limpet controller

How about "mining" as one combined controller. Mechanism: only one prospector at a time. If you fire off with a prospector targeted, the next limpet will be a collector limpet. If there is no prospector limpet targeted, then you fire off a prospector.

Piracy controller would fire off a hatch limpet if you have a target selected. Otherwise a collector is shot off.

Don't see other alternative to include multiple modes. The point with these two is to work out how you mechanise the selection without getting a new button press for the new controller.

There's no need to have a replacement for limpet controllers being in only one complex controller.

 

[rrobes]

If you can "print" a fighter, a limpet synthesizer for the various limpets required should be possible.

All you would need is blank limpet material that the "controller" would modify for the particular task. Load up on blanks and off you go.

 

[Franc Kaos]

WOW Another I want thread. Maybe FD has plans and won't tell you.
Kinda like they won't cave to whines about empty seats in your little ship.
So far ED keeps amazing me where they go in this game. You don't like it? To bad,

Oh noes, someone is threatening my master, I'd better keep yapping like a demented Yorkshire Terrier until they go away.
Maybe, if FD have plans they should share them with their customer base. The proliferation of limpets and just throwing them willy nilly into the game kind'a shows a lack of both foresight and planning (especially for those customers who prefer flying small / medium ships).
Jeez, some people!

 

[Sterling MH]

If you can "print" a fighter, a limpet synthesizer for the various limpets required should be possible.

All you would need is blank limpet material that the "controller" would modify for the particular task. Load up on blanks and off you go.

That is what the controllers DO. The limpet is a pack of sintered metal to remould and some chemicals for a thruster. But your SLF bay prints only one fighter from the extruded material. If you want to print more, you need more bays.

The limpet controllers each build their one and only type of limpet out of a mess of parts. And if you want it to print out different parts from the "same bay", then the bay it is being printed in needs more space to hold the extra things that extrudes the extra number of parts needed to create multiple types on demand.

 

[Sterling MH]

The proliferation of limpets and just throwing them willy nilly into the game kind'a shows a lack of both foresight and planning

It wasn't willy-nilly until AFTER FD put in many things to use the limpets ON, meaning you now had a reason to take the limpet required. Until then miners took two types of limpet controller. Pirates took two types. Explorers took one type. Fuel rats took the fuel limpet one. Until there was a reason to have several of them because there was a scenario, it only required two slots.

The problem is that we're now losing out on new things to play with because we can't predict which controllers we will need.So we take them all or none.

Or you can ignore absolutes and just take what you like and if it doesn't pan out, skip the content.

It DOES make for a reason to take the Anaconda out.

 

[BL1P]

I agree with OP, I think

Rather than having various controllers.
Just have a single universal controller suite but sell different types of limpets.