Why not just have mining limpets.
They replace mining lasers (which dont really make much sense anyway) and ablation blasters. That frees up hardpoints.
The limpets can only do the ablation blasters job if you manage to launch one at the deposit and hit it. Otherwise their auto behavior will ignore surface deposits. (so no reduction in "gameplay" offered by the blaster method of mining)
Basically mining limpets move in a straight line to a roid you are facing and close enough to and attach to the rock at the point of impact and begin drilling/clawing into it and throwing off ore for collector limpets to pick up. So where you launch the mining limpets matters. They will continue to mine the roid until it's deplated and then return to your ship until you are either within range of another prospector drone (if any are active) or if none are active, within range of any roid and facing it. Once facing another roid, they will auto-travel one at a time to the roid (you must not overlap them or they will both die) at a predictable interval.
so where you place them matters a lot, since they could theoretically throw ore out on the other side of a rock that is spinning, etc.
The existing modules would still exist, but this would be an option for pilots wishing to consolidate hardpoints at the expense of some internal storage item. and be a bit more strategic than the current modules are while allowing the possibility of some tiny amount of skill factoring into yields.
This even makes better sense when used with prospector limpets to improve yield lore-wise vs the current behavior. Because we can say that the prospector limpet data can be read by the mining limpets to direct their drill method/process to better filter out the non-ore material.
Mining limpets > small seismic charges.
plus, destroying mining limpets can be used as a way to aggro miners (be them npcs or human) without triggering a direct warrant/fine.
They replace mining lasers (which dont really make much sense anyway) and ablation blasters. That frees up hardpoints.
The limpets can only do the ablation blasters job if you manage to launch one at the deposit and hit it. Otherwise their auto behavior will ignore surface deposits. (so no reduction in "gameplay" offered by the blaster method of mining)
Basically mining limpets move in a straight line to a roid you are facing and close enough to and attach to the rock at the point of impact and begin drilling/clawing into it and throwing off ore for collector limpets to pick up. So where you launch the mining limpets matters. They will continue to mine the roid until it's deplated and then return to your ship until you are either within range of another prospector drone (if any are active) or if none are active, within range of any roid and facing it. Once facing another roid, they will auto-travel one at a time to the roid (you must not overlap them or they will both die) at a predictable interval.
so where you place them matters a lot, since they could theoretically throw ore out on the other side of a rock that is spinning, etc.
The existing modules would still exist, but this would be an option for pilots wishing to consolidate hardpoints at the expense of some internal storage item. and be a bit more strategic than the current modules are while allowing the possibility of some tiny amount of skill factoring into yields.
This even makes better sense when used with prospector limpets to improve yield lore-wise vs the current behavior. Because we can say that the prospector limpet data can be read by the mining limpets to direct their drill method/process to better filter out the non-ore material.
Mining limpets > small seismic charges.
plus, destroying mining limpets can be used as a way to aggro miners (be them npcs or human) without triggering a direct warrant/fine.