Mining fighters would be another very fun way to mine asteroids. There could be two types of mining fighters:
A laser mining fighter with a prospector limpet controller and a mining laser. I dont laser mine myself, but it would be incredibly useful to scout out available asteroids for mining and it could also act as another whole mining laser for more efficiency
There could also be a deep core mining fighter with an abrasion blaster and seismic charge launcher. and a pulse wave analyser as then one utility mount. i found this would be the most useful to me because i use the imperial cutter as my mining ship. as you all probably know the cutter is a very big and slow ship. but if it had a mining fighter, the fighter could go around setting charges and shooting of surface deposits with its abrasion blaster in small areas, and with its incredibly agility could do this very efficiently.
A whole fighter would have to be designed it could just be another variant of the imperial fight or taipan, by just adding these hardpoints and utility mount it can easily be inplemented. although with npc crew this could be the hardest part to implement into the game. I think the player shoudl be able to target an asteroid fizzure and tell the ai crew how high the charge should be set, so that it is not all automatic. In the same way as abrasion blaster, the player would have to target the surface deposit and press the attact target button like they do in combat. and then the ai crew will shout at it.
this would also be insanely fun with multicrew aswell. i could invite my friends to pilot the fighter, go ahead to find a good motherload asteroid that contains a core, and then it would blow it up. then i would come along with my many collector limpets and cargo bays to pick up all the ltds that my friend has just mined.
to make this not super op, i think the fighter should not have a lot of capacity of prospectors or seismic charges. and it should have to go and re dock with the mother ship many times to restock on those required limpets and charges.
althou a newly designed fighter especially designed for mining would be cool, it is definitely not necessary. the hardpoints can easily be put onto the existing fighters like the imperial fighter, taipan and condor.
hope this idea becomes a reality!
A laser mining fighter with a prospector limpet controller and a mining laser. I dont laser mine myself, but it would be incredibly useful to scout out available asteroids for mining and it could also act as another whole mining laser for more efficiency
There could also be a deep core mining fighter with an abrasion blaster and seismic charge launcher. and a pulse wave analyser as then one utility mount. i found this would be the most useful to me because i use the imperial cutter as my mining ship. as you all probably know the cutter is a very big and slow ship. but if it had a mining fighter, the fighter could go around setting charges and shooting of surface deposits with its abrasion blaster in small areas, and with its incredibly agility could do this very efficiently.
A whole fighter would have to be designed it could just be another variant of the imperial fight or taipan, by just adding these hardpoints and utility mount it can easily be inplemented. although with npc crew this could be the hardest part to implement into the game. I think the player shoudl be able to target an asteroid fizzure and tell the ai crew how high the charge should be set, so that it is not all automatic. In the same way as abrasion blaster, the player would have to target the surface deposit and press the attact target button like they do in combat. and then the ai crew will shout at it.
this would also be insanely fun with multicrew aswell. i could invite my friends to pilot the fighter, go ahead to find a good motherload asteroid that contains a core, and then it would blow it up. then i would come along with my many collector limpets and cargo bays to pick up all the ltds that my friend has just mined.
to make this not super op, i think the fighter should not have a lot of capacity of prospectors or seismic charges. and it should have to go and re dock with the mother ship many times to restock on those required limpets and charges.
althou a newly designed fighter especially designed for mining would be cool, it is definitely not necessary. the hardpoints can easily be put onto the existing fighters like the imperial fighter, taipan and condor.
hope this idea becomes a reality!