Limpet Controllers. They need a rethink.
- Thread starter cometcruiser
- Start date
You could come up with some explanations as to why that volume is being consumed by the module. Maybe the limpets are being programmed, or customized after being taken from the cargo hold but before they are released. After all, we buy and carry blank limpets, but when they exit the ship they are specialized for certain roles.
However this does not change the fact that a miner / scavanger / rescue ship has to sacrifice a lot of internal space just to be able to perform a task which does not constitute a major profession. For example I've ran across distress signals and ships out of fuel a couple of times in my mining rig and was never able to help them despite having limpets to spare. Running an efficient miner requires a big ship and all the internals have to be used for that purpose. Having an all-purpose limpet controller with additional bays for specialized limpet roles is a much more elegant solution and could also create some entry-level efficient mining setups which would popularize mining among newer pilots.
We have a winner.
OP, you can't really think that 32 tons of hardware is a ridiculous weight for something that controls multiple SPACESHIPS. It launches them, sends them on impossibly difficult missions, then lands them back to our SPACESHIP .
The infrastructure it takes to complete a Predator mission weighs a far sight more than 32 tons. I promise you.
Hmmm. I'm sure it does. However a Predator drone has a range of over 1,500km, can fly for about 14 hours and can do photo recon or deliver air to ground missile attacks. A class 5A collector limpet has a range of 1.5km, can fly for 12 minutes and can err... pick stuff up and bring it back to you. In terms of relative complexity (even without factoring in the whole 'we're a thousand years in the future' aspect) it's more like the route-finding technology from a Big Trak.
This is a really good idea.
This gets my idea of the week.
Agreed as others have. This really is a must. Lets face it the module is the bit that controls the limpet. The different functions of the limpet would just be software not hardware. I personally think there should just be a limpet controller module that always gives all the function options, but the better classes would have better range and more simultaneous limpets. Combat functions really should be added too. If they can target and break a cargo hatch, why not a canopy or hardpoint?
Hearing the words "limpet detected" could actually induce a bit more fear instead of the current 'meh'.
Great idea for multi-role ships, similarly for dedicated mining ships integrate the prospector/collector controller software into the refinery, bigger refineries have more drone software slots and could probably have mass too (never understood why a refinery processing tonnes of ore could have zero mass)
I would love to see that. And I'm not sure if this is the case but the better refinery could be more efficient at refining the ore, possibly yielding more per chunk or something.
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Oh my god yes. I don't know how this hasn't crossed my mind. We do this today with operating systems and programs on our computers. There's no reason why we couldn't buy better software for our refineries. Unless they've got some next gen anti mod support going on.