A small built-in limpet storage for limpet controllers

[Luftwaffle_]

Limpets kinda suck for exploration right now because you need to use one of your precious optional slots for a cargo rack that is empty like 99.99% of the time and is only used when you synthesize limpets and then immediately becomes useless again when you deploy the limpets.

I propose making limpet controllers work like weapons and heat sink launchers, that is, they should have a small (equal to the controller's max active limpet capacity? so 1-4 depending on the class) internal limpet storage space and should just grab more limpets from the ship's cargo racks when needed, and limpet synthesis should target a specific limpet controller, refilling its internal limpet storage.

This would not change the existing functionality much apart from giving you an extra 1-4 limpets on top of what you have in your cargo hold and letting you refill the controller all the way with a single synthesis, but it would make limpets a lot more practical for exploration and other activities where every optional slot is valuable.

 

[Azmuth Divarchchron]

Limpets kinda suck for exploration right now because you need to use one of your precious optional slots for a cargo rack that is empty like 99.99% of the time and is only used when you synthesize limpets and then immediately becomes useless again when you deploy the limpets.

I propose making limpet controllers work like weapons and heat sink launchers, that is, they should have a small (equal to the controller's max active limpet capacity? so 1-4 depending on the class) internal limpet storage space and should just grab more limpets from the ship's cargo racks when needed, and limpet synthesis should target a specific limpet controller, refilling its internal limpet storage.

This would not change the existing functionality much apart from giving you an extra 1-4 limpets on top of what you have in your cargo hold and letting you refill the controller all the way with a single synthesis, but it would make limpets a lot more practical for exploration and other activities where every optional slot is valuable.

I could go for this, i buy 256 limpets on my T9 when I go mining, 1-4 limpets is tiny in comparison.

 

[Gauntlet]

I'd rather see limpets handled more like the ship launched fighter system.

So you'd purchase a universal limpet controller, these would come in various size classes. These controllers would have a number of slots for filling with a limpet type dependent on the size of the universal controller, so a class 1 controller would have 1 slot, a class 3 would have 2 slots, class 5 - 3 etc, or whatever numbers game balance passes would settle on.

You could for example have a class 5 controller with 1 slot for a prospector and 2 given over to collectors or 1 for fuel, 1 for repair and 1 for decon. Each slot would be able to fabricate a limited number of limpets of that type much like SLFs do now and synthesis with the appropriate materials could fabricate a fresh set of reloads.

This would allow a more varied loadout, open up spontaneous play and not require any cargo space at all.

As an explorer for example, I'd like to be able to carry at least 1 collector for material gathering from asteroids, a hull repair limpet and/or a fuel limpet for emergencies or assisting fellow explorers

 

[Luftwaffle_]

I'd rather see limpets handled more like the ship launched fighter system.

So you'd purchase a universal limpet controller, these would come in various size classes. These controllers would have a number of slots for filling with a limpet type dependent on the size of the universal controller, so a class 1 controller would have 1 slot, a class 3 would have 2 slots, class 5 - 3 etc, or whatever numbers game balance passes would settle on.

You could for example have a class 5 controller with 1 slot for a prospector and 2 given over to collectors or 1 for fuel, 1 for repair and 1 for decon. Each slot would be able to fabricate a limited number of limpets of that type much like SLFs do now and synthesis with the appropriate materials could fabricate a fresh set of reloads.

This would allow a more varied loadout, open up spontaneous play and not require any cargo space at all.

As an explorer for example, I'd like to be able to carry at least 1 collector for material gathering from asteroids, a hull repair limpet and/or a fuel limpet for emergencies or assisting fellow explorers

This would also be an acceptable solution. I'd settle for anything that would do away with the ridiculous requirement of sacrificing not one, but two (or more!) optional slots if you want to use limpets.

 

[Misty_Dark]

Limpets kinda suck for exploration right now because you need to use one of your precious optional slots for a cargo rack that is empty like 99.99% of the time and is only used when you synthesize limpets and then immediately becomes useless again when you deploy the limpets.

I propose making limpet controllers work like weapons and heat sink launchers, that is, they should have a small (equal to the controller's max active limpet capacity? so 1-4 depending on the class) internal limpet storage space and should just grab more limpets from the ship's cargo racks when needed, and limpet synthesis should target a specific limpet controller, refilling its internal limpet storage.

This would not change the existing functionality much apart from giving you an extra 1-4 limpets on top of what you have in your cargo hold and letting you refill the controller all the way with a single synthesis, but it would make limpets a lot more practical for exploration and other activities where every optional slot is valuable.

I do not buy that it would be useful for explores. Since we are talking about 1-4 limpets, and then use synthesizes to "reload", News flash, we can already synthesize 4 limpets with basic materials, that should be easily found on most planets, Iron and Nickel. What use would limpets be to explorers?


if you have space for a limpet controller, you should have room for a small cargo rack.

 

[Luftwaffle_]

I do not buy that it would be useful for explores. Since we are talking about 1-4 limpets, and then use synthesizes to "reload", News flash, we can already synthesize 4 limpets with basic materials, that should be easily found on most planets, Iron and Nickel. What use would limpets be to explorers?


if you have space for a limpet controller, you should have room for a small cargo rack.

That is not the point. The point is that the current system requires you to install a module that is literally only useful for a few seconds (or however long it takes for you to deploy the limpets after you've synthesized them) even if you're out in the black for weeks or months, and spends the rest of the time just sitting there, doing nothing but blocking a slot that could be used for something more useful. That's not good design, it's just stupid.

Implementing my proposal would change nothing for those of you who are going to carry tens or hundreds of tons of limpets in cargo racks anyway, but it would be a huge quality of life improvement for us explorers. Freeing that extra slot would give us so much more flexibility. Instead of the useless cargo rack, you could carry a second type of limpet controller, or an extra fuel tank, or a fighter hangar, or a second AFMU, or a HRP to make your ships more resistant against ganks, or or or.

I, for example, would gladly divert from my planned route to provide repairs or fuel to a fellow explorer in need, but I cannot do that because many popular exploration ships simply do not have enough optionals to carry both a limpet controller and a cargo rack on top of the standard exploration loadout. So it would not only be more convenient, but it would also encourage player interaction.

 

[space voyager]

I'd love to see all controllers have some cargo space. Dependent on controller size, preferably.

 

[Lestat]

Limpets kinda suck for exploration right now because you need to use one of your precious optional slots for a cargo rack that is empty like 99.99% of the time and is only used when you synthesize limpets and then immediately becomes useless again when you deploy the limpets.

We can use on anything you added not just Cargo rack. Unless you are flying drunk or under the influence or not paying attention you don't need AFMU or Hull repair unit. You also don't need Fuel Transefer because your not likely to find someone in 400,000,000,000 systems that needs fuel. Or do you think you can win that lotto of finding someone who need fuel? Unless you are in a group or part of Fuel rat Fuel Transfer unit is not needed while exploring.

I propose making limpet controllers work like weapons and heat sink launchers, that is, they should have a small (equal to the controller's max active limpet capacity? so 1-4 depending on the class) internal limpet storage space and should just grab more limpets from the ship's cargo racks when needed, and limpet synthesis should target a specific limpet controller, refilling its internal limpet storage.

I think it comes down to using your own common sense to determine what useful on your trip or not.

This would not change the existing functionality much apart from giving you an extra 1-4 limpets on top of what you have in your cargo hold and letting you refill the controller all the way with a single synthesis, but it would make limpets a lot more practical for exploration and other activities where every optional slot is valuable.

I think the game fine the way it is. Part of the game is finding what is really need and what you don't need.

 

[Misty_Dark]

That is not the point. The point is that the current system requires you to install a module that is literally only useful for a few seconds (or however long it takes for you to deploy the limpets after you've synthesized them) even if you're out in the black for weeks or months, and spends the rest of the time just sitting there, doing nothing but blocking a slot that could be used for something more useful. That's not good design, it's just stupid.

Implementing my proposal would change nothing for those of you who are going to carry tens or hundreds of tons of limpets in cargo racks anyway, but it would be a huge quality of life improvement for us explorers.

What quality of life? Have you already discarded the free slot?


Exploration builds have always been a decision between available module slots and what you can add to these slots. So this comes down to what is the most important aspects on what are the most important features you want from your ship.
What is most important:

• Longest jump range?
• Best view from cockpit?
• Be able to bring alot different modules?
• Longest distance travelled before needing to fuel scoop.
• Is credits an issue?

And how you rank these priorities, will boil down to a narrow selection of ships.


So what would the use of these limpets be?

• Collector limpets? Seems useless, what would you find and collect anyway? And with no cargo racks then we are talking material...
• Decontamination limpets? Where would you get caustic damage from? So pretty useless...
• Fuel limpets? Might be useful, but if are out alone, then these pretty useless, so probably not that.
• Hatch breaker limpets? Without cargo rack to store the material, pretty useless...
• Prostspector limpets? Pretty useless if you do not have a refinery, and you talked about Explores, not long range miners. So useless...
• Recon limpets? Only useful if you find any megaship to hack into, so pretty useless for explorers, especially since, they tend to shoot at you for doing this.
• Repair limpets? Repair damamged hull, this can be sort of useful for explorers, but the only time you should take hull damage is if you bang you ship into the ground.
• Research limpets? Pretty useless without cargo racks.

So we are most likely talking about repair limpet here. And the use case for these are basically to fix your hull, and there are not many activities that will damage your hull

• Fly into "stuff" like stars and planets, and doing emergency stops will do small amount, but if you do this so many times that the need to repair because that, you are way to careless for flying a ship made of paper thin materials.
• Flying into asteroids,. why would you do that out on a expedition? Photo opportunity?
• Making mistakes landing on planets, basically, slamming the ship into the ground.

So in 2 of the 3 cases, the main defence is a shield. And if you skip the shield and decides to place limpet controller, then you have already made some interesting choices, if you want to visit asteroids fields and/or land on planets... and if you already have opted for the smallest D-rated shield that fits, your ships, then you might need to rethink your strategy on how prepared you are... as things most likely have gone horrible wrong if you need to use repair limpets. Perhaps test/train before leaving for your expedition, like smash the ship into the ground, like you could be doing when forgetting that you are landing on a high G planet instead of the usual low G moons.






So I fail to see the real use case for this, as the usefulness for this would be very limited, and and if this is so important, pick another ship with more modules slots, and this should not be an issue.

 

[Luftwaffle_]

What quality of life? Have you already discarded the free slot?


Exploration builds have always been a decision between available module slots and what you can add to these slots. So this comes down to what is the most important aspects on what are the most important features you want from your ship.
What is most important:

• Longest jump range?
• Best view from cockpit?
• Be able to bring alot different modules?
• Longest distance travelled before needing to fuel scoop.
• Is credits an issue?

And how you rank these priorities, will boil down to a narrow selection of ships.


So what would the use of these limpets be?

• Collector limpets? Seems useless, what would you find and collect anyway? And with no cargo racks then we are talking material...
• Decontamination limpets? Where would you get caustic damage from? So pretty useless...
• Fuel limpets? Might be useful, but if are out alone, then these pretty useless, so probably not that.
• Hatch breaker limpets? Without cargo rack to store the material, pretty useless...
• Prostspector limpets? Pretty useless if you do not have a refinery, and you talked about Explores, not long range miners. So useless...
• Recon limpets? Only useful if you find any megaship to hack into, so pretty useless for explorers, especially since, they tend to shoot at you for doing this.
• Repair limpets? Repair damamged hull, this can be sort of useful for explorers, but the only time you should take hull damage is if you bang you ship into the ground.
• Research limpets? Pretty useless without cargo racks.

So we are most likely talking about repair limpet here. And the use case for these are basically to fix your hull, and there are not many activities that will damage your hull

• Fly into "stuff" like stars and planets, and doing emergency stops will do small amount, but if you do this so many times that the need to repair because that, you are way to careless for flying a ship made of paper thin materials.
• Flying into asteroids,. why would you do that out on a expedition? Photo opportunity?
• Making mistakes landing on planets, basically, slamming the ship into the ground.

So in 2 of the 3 cases, the main defence is a shield. And if you skip the shield and decides to place limpet controller, then you have already made some interesting choices, if you want to visit asteroids fields and/or land on planets... and if you already have opted for the smallest D-rated shield that fits, your ships, then you might need to rethink your strategy on how prepared you are... as things most likely have gone horrible wrong if you need to use repair limpets. Perhaps test/train before leaving for your expedition, like smash the ship into the ground, like you could be doing when forgetting that you are landing on a high G planet instead of the usual low G moons.






So I fail to see the real use case for this, as the usefulness for this would be very limited, and and if this is so important, pick another ship with more modules slots, and this should not be an issue.

Okay, then let me put it this way: Limpets are the only deployable/fireable item in the game that requires cargo space. If you're going to make the argument that we should have to make compromises, then you should also be complaining about the fact that stuff like ammo (which is HUGE, by the way), shield cells and heat sinks have zero size and therefore do not require you to make the same kind of compromises. You don't need a cargo rack so you can carry ammo or shield cells or heat sinks. Why should limpets be an exception? In the name of consistency, they, too, should require zero cargo space. But I am not asking for that. I am merely asking for limpet controllers that have a small built in limpet storage so that a separate cargo rack is only required if you need to carry lots of limpets.

Besides, why do the limpets need to go in the cargo rack anyway? Why can't the magical limpet-synthesizing factory that comes standard on every ship just program the limpet and throw it out the airlock as soon as it's ready? It makes no sense.

 

[veryDead]

If you're using limpets while exploring, you're doing it wrong.

Limpets have no place on an exploration vessel. Ever. No. Stop. You're wrong, accept it.

Just kidding. Not really.

 

[Gauntlet]

What quality of life? Have you already discarded the free slot?

...

So what would the use of these limpets be?

• Collector limpets? Seems useless, what would you find and collect anyway? And with no cargo racks then we are talking material...
  .

• 
  
  Just to take issue on this point, Collectors are great for collecting materials released from asteroids. That point alone would justify me fitting a small collector controller, however to fit a cargo rack to hold the limpets would preclude fitting an AFMU (based on my current fit priorities) and well that would make Neutron hopping unviable, so not a choice available for me.

 

[Misty_Dark]

Just to take issue on this point, Collectors are great for collecting materials released from asteroids. That point alone would justify me fitting a small collector controller, however to fit a cargo rack to hold the limpets would preclude fitting an AFMU (based on my current fit priorities) and well that would make Neutron hopping unviable, so not a choice available for me.

So what materials do you expect to mine from asteroids while exploring? The rate you would get material at is roughly 1-2 per asteroid, and the most common is the low tier materials, like iron, sulphur etc, and very small chance to get high tier material. So that alone makes mining a very bad activity to collect material.

And if you think that having the suggested collector limpet controller with 1-4 limpets, and I would guess this would be the "smallest" D-rated collector limpet controller, so 1 limpet, that has a max life time of 600 second, or 10 minutes, how many asteroids can you mine in 10 minutes? Assuming it did not self destruct by ramming the asteroid. So you would either be spending material to keep synthesiozing more limpets or end up manually scooping the material anyway.


Comparing to having an SRV onboad instead, which I think most explorers already have. Is in almost all cases more efficient way collect material, and if you are looking for a specific material then you can narrow it down and if you are lucky you have found a planet with a high % of the wanted material. The only time it is worse is when there is no suitable planet with the needed material available, and now we are talking about alot of bad luck and poor planing.

 

[Lestat]

Just to take issue on this point, Collectors are great for collecting materials released from asteroids. That point alone would justify me fitting a small collector controller, however to fit a cargo rack to hold the limpets would preclude fitting an AFMU (based on my current fit priorities) and well that would make Neutron hopping unviable, so not a choice available for me.

Here a tip. All you need to collect Materials is 2 things. Mining lasers and SRV and a little skill :O.

So I don't have Collectors and I don't have Cargo Rack. Which opens up my ship to extra Modules.

 

[Misty_Dark]

Okay, then let me put it this way: Limpets are the only deployable/fireable item in the game that requires cargo space. If you're going to make the argument that we should have to make compromises, then you should also be complaining about the fact that stuff like ammo (which is HUGE, by the way), shield cells and heat sinks have zero size and therefore do not require you to make the same kind of compromises. You don't need a cargo rack so you can carry ammo or shield cells or heat sinks. Why should limpets be an exception? In the name of consistency, they, too, should require zero cargo space. But I am not asking for that. I am merely asking for limpet controllers that have a small built in limpet storage so that a separate cargo rack is only required if you need to carry lots of limpets.

Besides, why do the limpets need to go in the cargo rack anyway? Why can't the magical limpet-synthesizing factory that comes standard on every ship just program the limpet and throw it out the airlock as soon as it's ready? It makes no sense.

Did you run out of argument? Because if you are going down that specific rabbit hole about consistency, there are some that are even more problematic, like how we can finite speed on our ships... How come our SRV falls down WAY faster when we are out of ENG capacitor, compared to the material we just blew up into the vacuum? With no atmosphere, they should fall down at the same rate. So there are quite a few of physics inconsistencies in this game, but I do not see you raging about that.


And on the topic or 3d printing, why can we print SLF, but not SRV? why can our ship take off and land without a pilot when you are riding in your SRV? but if you launch in your SLF without a NPC Pilot onboard, your ship is incapable of following you, and if you goes past 20km the telepresence stops working, but we can multicrew without any distance limitations, we can be at opposite sides of the galaxy and still telepresence in the same ship.





So back to the limpet thing. what limpet would you use and why. Because wasn't that the entire argument, that you "need" limpets, but you do not have space for a cargo rack... because I do not think you have any reasonably use case for this that I have not already covered, in my previous post, then I rest my case.

 

[Gauntlet]

Here a tip. All you need to collect Materials is 2 things. Mining lasers and SRV and a little skill :O.

So I don't have Collectors and I don't have Cargo Rack. Which opens up my ship to extra Modules.

yeah, funny thing that, because that's what i'm currently doing.

The point really is that i'd rather not be obliged to install a cargo rack in order to be able to use the odd limpet. I mean let's face it there's really very little skill involved in scooping up a couple of materials from an asteroid, it just gets pretty boring pretty quickly.

In order to use limpets of any variety you have to dedicate 2 optional internals to do so. 1 for the controller and 1 for the limpets. SRVs and SLFs don't behave like this so personally for QOL reasons I'd prefer a more streamlined, consistent limpet system.

But then I'm firmly in the camp of Limpets are an unwieldy mess of varieties that need to be gathered under the umbrella of a universal limpet controller

 

[Lestat]

yeah, funny thing that, because that's what i'm currently doing.

The point really is that i'd rather not be obliged to install a cargo rack in order to be able to use the odd limpet. I mean let's face it there's really very little skill involved in scooping up a couple of materials from an asteroid, it just gets pretty boring pretty quickly.

In order to use limpets of any variety you have to dedicate 2 optional internals to do so. 1 for the controller and 1 for the limpets. SRVs and SLFs don't behave like this so personally for QOL reasons I'd prefer a more streamlined, consistent limpet system.

But then I'm firmly in the camp of Limpets are an unwieldy mess of varieties that need to be gathered under the umbrella of a universal limpet controller

Maybe you should read Misty_Dark Post.

So what materials do you expect to mine from asteroids while exploring? The rate you would get material at is roughly 1-2 per asteroid, and the most common is the low tier materials, like iron, sulphur etc, and very small chance to get high tier material. So that alone makes mining a very bad activity to collect material.

And if you think that having the suggested collector limpet controller with 1-4 limpets, and I would guess this would be the "smallest" D-rated collector limpet controller, so 1 limpet, that has a max life time of 600 second, or 10 minutes, how many asteroids can you mine in 10 minutes? Assuming it did not self destruct by ramming the asteroid. So you would either be spending material to keep synthesiozing more limpets or end up manually scooping the material anyway.


Comparing to having an SRV onboad instead, which I think most explorers already have. Is in almost all cases more efficient way collect material, and if you are looking for a specific material then you can narrow it down and if you are lucky you have found a planet with a high % of the wanted material. The only time it is worse is when there is no suitable planet with the needed material available, and now we are talking about alot of bad luck and poor planing.

 

[Gauntlet]

So what materials do you expect to mine from asteroids while exploring? The rate you would get material at is roughly 1-2 per asteroid, and the most common is the low tier materials, like iron, sulphur etc, and very small chance to get high tier material. So that alone makes mining a very bad activity to collect material.

And if you think that having the suggested collector limpet controller with 1-4 limpets, and I would guess this would be the "smallest" D-rated collector limpet controller, so 1 limpet, that has a max life time of 600 second, or 10 minutes, how many asteroids can you mine in 10 minutes? Assuming it did not self destruct by ramming the asteroid. So you would either be spending material to keep synthesiozing more limpets or end up manually scooping the material anyway.


Comparing to having an SRV onboad instead, which I think most explorers already have. Is in almost all cases more efficient way collect material, and if you are looking for a specific material then you can narrow it down and if you are lucky you have found a planet with a high % of the wanted material. The only time it is worse is when there is no suitable planet with the needed material available, and now we are talking about alot of bad luck and poor planing.

You raise a few points so I'll try and address each

I expect nothing in particular but low grade materials are useful for many synthesis recipes. Iron and nickel are all you need for limpets so it would be fairly easy to gather an endless supply of resources to synth more limpets! But more seriously I've had a real hard time finding Arsenic on planets, maybe just because RNGesus wasn't smiling on me those times, probably 90% of my Arsenic has come incidentally from laser mining other resources. But also, I enjoy the zen of a mining laser in a ring system and having options helps to break up the routine somewhat. Its not always about efficiency.

My prefered take on Limpets isn't the same as the OPs but we do agree on some mechanism that doesn't require dedicating an internal slot to cargo in order to have some kind of access to limpets, so the number of limpets per se is not necessarily relevant to my viewpoint. Limpets are easily synthesised with very common materials (iron and nickel are both readily available from mining) so lifetime is also largely irrelevant, especially as we can filter what our limpets collect and thereby only collecting the materials that are wanted/released.

I have an SRV and don't have any issue with using it other than the Arsenic scenario mentioned above, otherwise it's just nice to mix things up a bit and drop into a ring system for mat farming for a change of scenery

For me though, limpets have the potential to offer lots of alternative play scenarios but are handicapped by requiring a second internal slot to to use them, whereas no other game mechanic that comes to mind requires that degree of trade off

 

[Luftwaffle_]

So back to the limpet thing. what limpet would you use and why. Because wasn't that the entire argument, that you "need" limpets, but you do not have space for a cargo rack... because I do not think you have any reasonably use case for this that I have not already covered, in my previous post, then I rest my case.

Repair limpets and fuel transfer limpets. I think it's pretty obvious what I would use them for. Repairing my own ship, as well as repairing and refueling any other ships that are in the area and require assistance.

In an ealier comment, you pointed out that these limpets are nearly useless for explorers. Fine, call it roleplay or whatever, I don't care - but let me ask you this: Who uses them in populated regions?

The answer is nobody. Nobody uses them in the populated regions of the galaxy because stations are everywhere, and basically all of them have refuel and repair facilities. Only fuel rats and explorers use these limpets, because they are the ones who head out into the black, where there are no stations to refuel or repair at. So if you think I, as an explorer, should not use a feature that was clearly designed with my playstyle in mind, then FDev might as well remove them from the game altogether. But I'd rather they improved the game to make them more useful and flexible, and removing the ridiculous requirement of having a cargo rack (when gun ammunition of the same size does not require one) just so you can fire a single limpet would be a good start.

After all, no real world explorer would carry a huge cargo bay just so they can store a (relatively) small piece of equipment in it. No, they would carry a small cargo bay and fill the left over space with other useful stuff. So an alternative solution would be letting us split optional slots in half to turn them into two smaller slots.

I have nothing more to say, but I would like to know why you're opposed to the idea. How would implementing my original suggestion, or a variation of it, make the game worse?

 

[Lestat]

Repair limpets and fuel transfer limpets. I think it's pretty obvious what I would use them for. Repairing my own ship, as well as repairing and refueling any other ships that are in the area and require assistance.

Question who are you going to use the refuelling again in deep space? Remember after the 200 LY away from the bubble you will not FIND another NPC that needs Fuel. So the Fuel transfer unit is useless wasted space. Or are you still on that 400,000,000,000 to - 1 lotto hope you will find a pilot and have an another 300,000,000 in 1 lotto hyping to find that pilot who out of fuel? Seriously you will not find another Pilot without fuel. No matter how you try to twist it.

Now the Hull repair unit. It still not useful unless you are flying really badly or under the influence of something. Even out in the deep in the deep 22,000 LY, you can find a station and get repaired. Best idea is to have the Module ship to you at one of those points so you can fly to Beagle Point.

In an ealier comment, you pointed out that these limpets are nearly useless for explorers. Fine, call it roleplay or whatever, I don't care - but let me ask you this: Who uses them in populated regions?

Here the thing. We can call it roleplaying. But if you can't use the Module in Deep space then how can you role play with it? Unless you can do it in your mind only. Which in that case you already know you don't need that module to role play with it.

The answer is nobody. Nobody uses them in the populated regions of the galaxy because stations are everywhere, and basically all of them have refuel and repair facilities.

I use fuel transfer unit and hull repair unit in the Bubble it's mostly farming USS sites with NPC. So I have a set ship for that type of job just like I have a set ship for Exploration as well as Combat.

Only fuel rats and explorers use these limpets, because they are the ones who head out into the black, where there are no stations to refuel or repair at. So if you think I, as an explorer, should not use a feature that was clearly designed with my playstyle in mind, then FDev might as well remove them from the game altogether. But I'd rather they improved the game to make them more useful and flexible, and removing the ridiculous requirement of having a cargo rack (when gun ammunition of the same size does not require one) just so you can fire a single limpet would be a good start.

Thing is If you are not in a group or part of Fuel rat a fuel transfer unit is NOT needed. You are just WASTING space and complaining about it.

After all, no real world explorer would carry a huge cargo bay just so they can store a (relatively) small piece of equipment in it. No, they would carry a small cargo bay and fill the left over space with other useful stuff. So an alternative solution would be letting us split optional slots in half to turn them into two smaller slots.

I have nothing more to say, but I would like to know why you're opposed to the idea. How would implementing my original suggestion, or a variation of it, make the game worse?

This game is about choices that matter. My Second run on my Ship build which had the Hull repair unit and Fuel transfer unit. After 1,000 Ly I turn around and drop those modules for extra space which gave me extra jump range. See the Hull Repair unit might repair your Hull but still does not repair your power plant. The only thing that worth having for repair was AFMU.