I know that not a lot of people actualyl enjoy mining that much, and most of the mining areas are more often used to hunt for pirates than to gather stuff. So I have a bunch of suggestions to make.
1) Make a dedicated mining ship (Name: MOLE. Probably a Lakon design, based off of the Keelback or something bigger)
This ship would either have a bunch of size 2 weapon slots (5 maybe) that would be in a small area at the front of the ship so it can't really be used for attack, and 2 size 1 weapon slots near the back for turrets (so you can do coop mining). It would have a size 4 emplacement (for the refinery), several size 3 and 5 for different limpet controllers, an emplacement for a basic shield and a large emplacement for a cargo hold. Basically, a ship optimised for mining.
2) Engineering the mining lasers to provide different bonuses to allow more range, to drain more resources from the asteroids...
3) Bigger size mining lasers. This could allow for some ship designs like the MOLE I asked for to have... Dunno... A single size 5 mining laser instead of a bunch of smaller lasers, for a different kind of designs. Also, turreted mining lasers, for cooperative mining: One driving by, the other one shooting around.
4) Ability to "code" your refineries, so they automatically vent some ressources you don't want. I know it's part of the mining experience, but I always feel my pilot would have a sore neck just from all the time he spends looking at his right screen, dumping stuff back into space. And if we have an auto-dock, I don't think an AI would have trouble managing an auto-vent.
1) Make a dedicated mining ship (Name: MOLE. Probably a Lakon design, based off of the Keelback or something bigger)
This ship would either have a bunch of size 2 weapon slots (5 maybe) that would be in a small area at the front of the ship so it can't really be used for attack, and 2 size 1 weapon slots near the back for turrets (so you can do coop mining). It would have a size 4 emplacement (for the refinery), several size 3 and 5 for different limpet controllers, an emplacement for a basic shield and a large emplacement for a cargo hold. Basically, a ship optimised for mining.
2) Engineering the mining lasers to provide different bonuses to allow more range, to drain more resources from the asteroids...
3) Bigger size mining lasers. This could allow for some ship designs like the MOLE I asked for to have... Dunno... A single size 5 mining laser instead of a bunch of smaller lasers, for a different kind of designs. Also, turreted mining lasers, for cooperative mining: One driving by, the other one shooting around.
4) Ability to "code" your refineries, so they automatically vent some ressources you don't want. I know it's part of the mining experience, but I always feel my pilot would have a sore neck just from all the time he spends looking at his right screen, dumping stuff back into space. And if we have an auto-dock, I don't think an AI would have trouble managing an auto-vent.