Past updates have overhauled mining and exploration very much for the better. Yet limpets still feel like an oddly implemented part of the game.
To stock limpets, you need to go to the advanced maintenance screen; even with the new quick buttons for refuel/repair/restock, you need to go into starport services and pull up the maintenance menu. So that's weird and clunky.
And then to use the limpets, you need to install a controller. But there are like seven different kinds of limpet controllers, some of them far more useful than others, and they each occupy an internal compartment, and each controller can only be used for one thing (repair OR fuel transfer OR collection OR prospecting, etc.). Huh? Does a controller for programming two limpets really need take up as much space as an 8t cargo rack or a small passenger cabin? Sure, it's a game mechanic, but still -- why would anyone ever equip a Class 7 limpet controller?
Limpets are universal, but the controllers are specialized. Seems backwards to me, and since each different type of controller occupies its own internal slot, parts of the game like search and rescue that require several different limpet controllers are unpopular. With all of the internal requirements, basic mining demands a more specialized (and expensive) setup than deep core mining, which hardly seems right.
It seems like the most elegant way to fix this would be to make the limpet controller module universal and the limpets themselves specialized. CMDRs would configure each controller in the field to manage a certain limpet type, then reconfigure them for a different type to do something else. A larger controller could be set up to manage more than one type of limpet at a time, better justifying its space requirements because a Class 5/7 limpet controller would be effectively 3-4 controllers in one.
Part of the fun of this game is getting to do different things and experience different aspects of working as a space pilot. This change would breathe new life into S&R especially and also make multirole builds more viable. Plus, it just makes sense.
To stock limpets, you need to go to the advanced maintenance screen; even with the new quick buttons for refuel/repair/restock, you need to go into starport services and pull up the maintenance menu. So that's weird and clunky.
And then to use the limpets, you need to install a controller. But there are like seven different kinds of limpet controllers, some of them far more useful than others, and they each occupy an internal compartment, and each controller can only be used for one thing (repair OR fuel transfer OR collection OR prospecting, etc.). Huh? Does a controller for programming two limpets really need take up as much space as an 8t cargo rack or a small passenger cabin? Sure, it's a game mechanic, but still -- why would anyone ever equip a Class 7 limpet controller?
Limpets are universal, but the controllers are specialized. Seems backwards to me, and since each different type of controller occupies its own internal slot, parts of the game like search and rescue that require several different limpet controllers are unpopular. With all of the internal requirements, basic mining demands a more specialized (and expensive) setup than deep core mining, which hardly seems right.
It seems like the most elegant way to fix this would be to make the limpet controller module universal and the limpets themselves specialized. CMDRs would configure each controller in the field to manage a certain limpet type, then reconfigure them for a different type to do something else. A larger controller could be set up to manage more than one type of limpet at a time, better justifying its space requirements because a Class 5/7 limpet controller would be effectively 3-4 controllers in one.
Part of the fun of this game is getting to do different things and experience different aspects of working as a space pilot. This change would breathe new life into S&R especially and also make multirole builds more viable. Plus, it just makes sense.
