Improve the mining lance! And add gimballed to all mining gear.

To start with no fixed point mining gear would exist in real life unless it need to. The easiest thing to do would be to have gimbaling and auto tracking missiles etc. Although I guess both could logically exist at different price points. Maybe they could all gimbal if you aim at a prospecting limpet attached to the asteroid. The other things could gimbal and even smart fire around the asteroid when aiming at other nodes. Maybe not in all circumstances or speed of asteroid turning but in a way you could time it to get a node easier. You could also choose to dumb fire them if needed. This would make fissure and new mining easier in larger ships. Or any ship and be nice and convenient.

Either way, my idea is to improve mining lance by giving an increased chance to get materials over other objects. This would apply to both with and without prospecting limpets. It's one advantage besides range is to get mats for exploration and limpets. If we could effectively farm limpet mats it would be perfect for self sufficient long term mining. And it would be extraordinarily useful over normal mining gear.
 
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What would the gimballing do? Normally it allows you to keep on a target despite changes in ship direction, but you don't target anything when mining....

Yes you do target things. If you use a prospecting limpet you can target it. Every new type of mining you target a node of some type. The only type of mining you don't target something is when using no limpet with regular mining lasers. So, gimbaling would help. You could let them gimbal when mining looking at the limpet(this could help allow wider hardpoint usage also). You could also add non dumbfire to help get around roids for easier lazier fire abilities. Abrasion blasters already have slight gimbaling on them. Do the same to mining and gimbals with normal lasers. If needed make a new set of mining lasers and make it default on the mining lance already to save grind. Or add it to all mining lasers. They could be super lazy and just have it follow and fire at where the limpet is for normal lasers. Basically fire in it's directly and let it hit the surface however it lands.

Also adding in the ability for the lance to get relatively more materials(The ones we can hold for free. Iron, nickel, etc.) would make it endlessly useful and desirable. In fact didn't it have this feature at some point?!
 
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Mining lances are a bit rubbish.
They need something.
Anybody use them?:unsure:
I do, simply because they have better range than regular mining lasers. They could probably use the ability to engineer them.

As for gimbals, I'm note sure what that would do ? All I want is a dot as targeting help on the mining tools. That would really help my T10 a lot.
 
Yes you do target things. If you use a prospecting limpet you can target it. Every new type of mining you target a node of some type. The only type of mining you don't target something is when using no limpet with regular mining lasers. So, gimbaling would help. You could let them gimbal when mining looking at the limpet(this could help allow wider hardpoint usage also). You could also add non dumbfire to help get around roids for easier lazier fire abilities. Abrasion blasters already have slight gimbaling on them. Do the same to mining and gimbals with normal lasers. If needed make a new set of mining lasers and make it default on the mining lance already to save grind. Or add it to all mining lasers. They could be super lazy and just have it follow and fire at where the limpet is for normal lasers. Basically fire in it's directly and let it hit the surface however it lands.

Also adding in the ability for the lance to get relatively more materials(The ones we can hold for free. Iron, nickel, etc.) would make it endlessly useful and desirable. In fact didn't it have this feature at some point?!
You really need to look at what happens when laser mining - you are really confused.
 
I use them on the wide wings of a cutter. So, the gimballing might help at longer range. Plus it would help use them in combat when needed. They are pathetically weak across the board and impossible to aim. Gimbaling would give them minimal viability in combat.

You really need to look at what happens when laser mining - you are really confused.

Please explain where I'm confused.
 
I use them on the wide wings of a cutter. So, the gimballing might help at longer range. Plus it would help use them in combat when needed. They are pathetically weak across the board and impossible to aim. Gimbaling would give them minimal viability in combat.



Please explain where I'm confused.
Well, fair point.
If they improved them in other ways I might consider them.
Maybe some engineering options.

Edit: Hmm. Most peeps are probably doing core Mining or double Painite, so interest may be lacking. :unsure:
 
No, I haven't used them yet. But I wanted the for the range on my cutter. Not sure if gimbal would help with mining. Also needed it badly since I added mining lasers and don't have my long range tier 1 beam lasers anymore. Those are fun. I wish I cold have some 2k mining lasers with the ability to actually hit something. It's about the same DPS.

I also want them to be able to get matts when needed. So, having extra mats from the rarer laser would be nice. that makes them about minimally viable for mining equipment. it would do nothing but help miners defend themselves in the most basic sense. And maybe make people life easier after spending a month getting something.
 
Just let me engineer mining lances and I’ll be happy.

Or buff them, too, I’m all for that lol.

Turreted mining lasers are intended for multicrew mining I believe.

Edit: I use mining lances for the sole purpose of flexing on peasants who don’t have them.

There’s no use in mining a rock out of limpet range, but dammit, that ain’t gonna stop me!

Not bad for poking pirates just enough to collect bounties with police assistance, either.
 
I use them on the wide wings of a cutter. So, the gimballing might help at longer range. Plus it would help use them in combat when needed. They are pathetically weak across the board and impossible to aim. Gimbaling would give them minimal viability in combat.
They are as easy or hard to aim with as any fixed weapon. That's down to user preference and proficiency. They are certainly not impossible to aim with. What makes them almost totally useless for combat is the high distributor draw and heat versus the low damage.
 
Mining lances are a bit rubbish.
They need something.
Anybody use them?:unsure:

I gave them a try at some time. I was hoping that the improved range would compensate for the size disadvantage. It does not, the yield is much lower than on a C2 mining laser.

On a ship with only C1 hardpoints it might be an acceptable alternative, but who does any serious mining in such a ship? (Anybody who can spend the effort to get access to the mining lance also has access to better ships. )
 
I think most of the PP weapons could use some variants, but the mining lance is especially in need for some improvement. I have a few of them in my two universal mining ships. I idly got them, but they are not really worth it. I'd mainly want an ability to engineer them and perhaps a medium hardpoint one.
 
definitely support this. Why do turreted mining tools not act like turrets? they're fixed only unless you have multi-crew, which is not common.
it's because asteroids are not targetable objects, if they were, the turrets could pivot.

Fdev makes the asteroids targetable, at least the scanned ones.
 
Mining lances should've never been a thing. If they're not the worst powerplay reward in a given pilot's opinion, they're damn close. Regular Mining beams are already designed to cut through things as solid as rock; they should've been usable (though obviously inefficient and clunky) as weapons against hulls to begin with, with the downside of being highly ineffective against shields. Selene Jean should've been engineering THOSE instead of our stupid armor reinforcements that lead to the ridiculous defense stacking we have now. You know...an engineer that requires MINING offering MINING tools? WHAT A CONCEPT, RIGHT?

Gimballing mining beams/lances would ONLY serve a purpose in combat; it offers no aid in current mining mechanics. Now, if laser mining required you to concentrate your fire on a single spot continuously to secure better deposits or something? Say, if you could actually target a spot on a rock to keep drilling it? Or maybe if those subsurface deposits didn't require AN ENTIRELY NEW TOOL TO EXTRACT THEM, that would be a different story, but until targeting an asteroid actually matters, gimballed mining beams will be pointless.
 
Mining lances should've never been a thing. If they're not the worst powerplay reward in a given pilot's opinion, they're damn close. Regular Mining beams are already designed to cut through things as solid as rock; they should've been usable (though obviously inefficient and clunky) as weapons against hulls to begin with, with the downside of being highly ineffective against shields. Selene Jean should've been engineering THOSE instead of our stupid armor reinforcements that lead to the ridiculous defense stacking we have now. You know...an engineer that requires MINING offering MINING tools? WHAT A CONCEPT, RIGHT?

Gimballing mining beams/lances would ONLY serve a purpose in combat; it offers no aid in current mining mechanics. Now, if laser mining required you to concentrate your fire on a single spot continuously to secure better deposits or something? Say, if you could actually target a spot on a rock to keep drilling it? Or maybe if those subsurface deposits didn't require AN ENTIRELY NEW TOOL TO EXTRACT THEM, that would be a different story, but until targeting an asteroid actually matters, gimballed mining beams will be pointless.

Except if it's to allow them to be used in combat minimally. Which is part of the point. So, this would give them minimal viability in combat so they are not virtually useless. Even partial auto gimbaling as a fixed weapon where they can aim up to around 1k or something.

The other part of the idea was to give the lance the ability to gain higher concentration of materials over mining objects. This makes it good for explorers and anyone trying to fill mats for mining. I would use them on my cutter miner to get stuff to make extra limpets if I needed extra to fill up. Then they would have a distinctive purpose. hell they could mine something like 20% more of each if within range and have a drop off at range so you can choose what you want to do. Convenience or effectiveness.
 
The Mining Lance should only be improved if it can be obtained from a source other than Torval as a Power (ie Techbrokers or just bought outright at Synteini with Credits). I have enough problems dealing with Powerplay's endless bugs & broken mechanics without having to deal with a whole load of people actually wanting the thing & trashing the Power in the process.

CMDR Justinian Octavius
 
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