Limpets need an overhaul

[Konnivar]

I'm not talking about the limpet controllers; we already know that there are plans in the works to over haul those. Limpets themselves on the other hand have no update news. In lieu of this I've made a wish-list of things I'd like to see implemented with limpets to make them not just tools, but downright useful and enjoyable to use.

From most, to least important:

1. Improved limpet pathfinding: It's no secret that limpets are the stupidest things in the game; they'll attempt to take the shortest path to a target regardless of any obstacles that might be in the way. I remember the detail in which the Thargon AI was described and how it was optimized for low CPU useage. Implementing a basic version of the Thargon AI to limpet pathing would allow for smarter limpets that don't blow themselves, or the cargo they carry, up due to positioning or speed. This leads the second point.
2. Improved limpet delivery: The whole reason I bought a limpet controller is to have it deliver cargo to me without needing to manually scoop it. Speed should not effect a limpet from delivering its cargo, especially since limpets can match my ship's speed up to 200m/s. Collection at speed currently works for materials and fragments, but will instantly destroy any cargo you try and collect if your ship is moving more than 10m/s (even less in bugged ships like the Cobra MkIII and Asp Explorer).
3. Improved limpet speed: Following up from 200m/s mentioned above, collector limpets and prospector limpets are painfully slow. Coupled with bad pathfinding requiring limpets to fly 100-300m below my ship sometimes it feels like I would be better off manually scooping. Limpets have a very difficult time keeping up with the launching ship, or a target ship in any situation requiring even the smallest amount of maneuvering.
4. Better Engineering for Limpets: The Engineer mods available for the limpet controllers currently are bland and don't actually improve the core element of the module: the limpet. I made a few suggestions for possible mods for limpet controllers here, although with the future changes to limpet controllers they may be less applicable.
5. More Utility: There are some things that would be nice to have for some of the other limpet types. For example, assigning my collector limpets to collect for a different ship in a wing, the ability for multi-crew gunners to deploy prospector limpets at any angle, if a manifest scan is performed the target ship's inventory should be individually targetable for hatch breaker limpets, Recon limpets could be used to hack valuable data from ships, prospector limpets could be used in a more meaningful way with new mining mechanics (read: heatmap of asteroids for higher element concentrations), Research limpets could be used with the improvements to exploration, etc.

For a bit more context on some of the shortcomings of limpets here's a video I made on some NPC piracy I did not too long ago:

[video=youtube_share;NYdhh1Qok6w]https://youtu.be/NYdhh1Qok6w[/video]


If you agree with the points I made above or have more requests please leave a reply; The more attention this Thread gets the greater the chance it gets seen by a developer and these requests become a reality!

 

[Limoncello Lizard]

Improved limpet speed: Following up from 200m/s mentioned above, collector limpets and prospector limpets are painfully slow. Coupled with bad pathfinding requiring limpets to fly 100-300m below my ship sometimes it feels like I would be better off manually scooping. Limpets have a very difficult time keeping up with the launching ship, or a target ship in any situation requiring even the smallest amount of maneuvering.

I tested the collection speed of limpets in my Type-9 recently. Dropped into a USS, fired off a couple of limpets and then tried to see how many mats I could manually scoop before the limpets returned. I scooped two mats before the first one returned, and a third mat before the second limpet returned. The Type-9 is hardly an agile ship, yet it managed to do better than the limpets. Gives you a good idea of just how slow and clumsy they are.

 

[space voyager]

I tested the collection speed of limpets in my Type-9 recently. Dropped into a USS, fired off a couple of limpets and then tried to see how many mats I could manually scoop before the limpets returned. I scooped two mats before the first one returned, and a third mat before the second limpet returned. The Type-9 is hardly an agile ship, yet it managed to do better than the limpets. Gives you a good idea of just how slow and clumsy they are.
[/LIST]

Which limpet controller was that? There are differences between classes.

Though even if I WAS able to scoop faster than limpets, the ease of use in mining etc...

 

[Orvidius]

Totally agree with the points in the OP. I don't use limpets often, but when I do, they're frequently infuriating. They're fine if I'm just picking up some materials from a USS, but in many other instances they're difficult to use effectively. One of the situations in which I found them just terrible, is trying to get Thargoid tissue samples with the research limpets. If you time them badly, they can't keep up with the thargoid ship. Frequently they die for being out of range, even when you're less than 1km away. Sometimes they die on invisible geometry, if it's one of these locations where the thargoid ship is checking out a destroyed capital ship. The limpets sometimes die when returning cargo, without an error message, just simply vanishing into the ether.

If the circumstances aren't perfect, they seem extremely buggy and unreliable, for no good gameplay reason.

 

[Konnivar]

Which limpet controller was that? There are differences between classes.

Though even if I WAS able to scoop faster than limpets, the ease of use in mining etc...

At the moment, they're only really any good at picking up materials and fragments. Trying to collect cargo is a pain with collectors and it shouldn't be. There are differences in range and the # of active limpets depending on the controller type and grade but nothing modifies their travel speed (i.e. collectors are always​ 200m/s).

 

[space voyager]

You are correct, the range varies. The only thing that REALLY helps with limpet collection is that you stop the ship with all the desired items under your belly. Then the collection is very fast and manual collection can definitely not compare.

 

[Seizewell Warrior]

I would like to be able to craft limpets straight into the controller.

It was a bit late to discover 10 kylies from the Bubble, that I needed a cargo rack to store them.

 

[Konnivar]

You are correct, the range varies. The only thing that REALLY helps with limpet collection is that you stop the ship with all the desired items under your belly. Then the collection is very fast and manual collection can definitely not compare.

While that's great for mining and passive cargo collection, as I mentioned above any amount of maneuvering causes collection to take considerably longer and causes issues with delivery. On top of that something changed with limpets in 3.0 that made it so now they have to fly 200-300m below large ships before they actually move in on their delivery track. With the increased reliance on limpets that FD are bringing with each update the limpet mechanics should be updated as well.

 

[Limoncello Lizard]

The only thing that REALLY helps with limpet collection is that you stop the ship with all the desired items under your belly. Then the collection is very fast and manual collection can definitely not compare.

This is correct, they are pretty fast when you have the optimum position. But still not at all a reason for keeping the current slow limpets with their meandering flight path.

My personal dislike is how slow prospector limpets are to deploy and fly. You press the button to deploy, then have to wait for ages for the limpet to finally deploy. And you can overtake them with a Type-9.

 

[shadowwar]

>>>>>>+1<<<<<<<

Fully agree with you OP on this initiative. I am fed up hearing Limpet Failed as a result of these dumb things crashing into rocks on the way back to my ship.

 

[Daish]

Too many limpets I think, should be one limpet to rule them all and can be changed out in stations only instead of the whole process of dumping one set to get another set rinse repeat and so on.

plus some limpets can be completely changed for better ways and reasons in game

Introduce ship scrap yards, buying second hand ships at a even more discounted price, ships would be in need of attention though bent failed modules etc.
, However with the introduction of the scrap yard mission system you can work missions to cover repairs, plus there are many other reason to have a scrap yard ship yard system.

salvage missions, salvage right now is in need of a serious buff, so why not have the ability to find wrecked ships both planet side and in space and have a docking clamp and bring them in for scrapping and credits, selling off modules and other items stripped from the ships.

Introduction of a new ship scrap yard element to the game a dock-able port with plenty of scrapped ships to be bought at used sale as seen prices.

For example:
Cracked cockpit
Damaged modules
FSD inoperative
Thrusters not working

Chances are that we have are own module storage already, so why not used those not being used modules to place in your budget second hand ship.

Basically second hand ship would be for those who don't have enough credits to purchase a brand new ship lets say a cutter to fully fit out, however lets say you found one at ship scrap yard for half the price however it's a little beaten up with some dodgy cockpit and damaged modules, plus comes with a nice ship kit or paint job and is properly weathered would you buy it I'm sure there would be plenty of players who would.
lets face it as well wouldn't it be nice to buy a old ship that already has a ship kit or paint job applied then we simply change it as we go.

having the ability to literally salvage ships by using are own (i.e medium or larger ships required to clamp on) for a whole new way of game play and making credits.

 

[Konnivar]

Too many limpets I think, should be one limpet to rule them all and can be changed out in stations only instead of the whole process of dumping one set to get another set rinse repeat and so on.

plus some limpets can be completely changed for better ways and reasons in game

Introduce ship scrap yards, buying second hand ships at a even more discounted price, ships would be in need of attention though bent failed modules etc.
, However with the introduction of the scrap yard mission system you can work missions to cover repairs, plus there are many other reason to have a scrap yard ship yard system.

salvage missions, salvage right now is in need of a serious buff, so why not have the ability to find wrecked ships both planet side and in space and have a docking clamp and bring them in for scrapping and credits, selling off modules and other items stripped from the ships.

Introduction of a new ship scrap yard element to the game a dock-able port with plenty of scrapped ships to be bought at used sale as seen prices.

For example:
Cracked cockpit
Damaged modules
FSD inoperative
Thrusters not working

Chances are that we have are own module storage already, so why not used those not being used modules to place in your budget second hand ship.

Basically second hand ship would be for those who don't have enough credits to purchase a brand new ship lets say a cutter to fully fit out, however lets say you found one at ship scrap yard for half the price however it's a little beaten up with some dodgy cockpit and damaged modules, plus comes with a nice ship kit or paint job and is properly weathered would you buy it I'm sure there would be plenty of players who would.
lets face it as well wouldn't it be nice to buy a old ship that already has a ship kit or paint job applied then we simply change it as we go.

having the ability to literally salvage ships by using are own (i.e medium or larger ships required to clamp on) for a whole new way of game play and making credits.

I appreciate your idea to make limpets more immersive, but I just want the limpets we have currently in game to work in a more effective manner.

 

[Teh Smoo]

It's a problem that's not getting better.

Do you realize there are EIGHT different types of limpets, now? Size 1,3,5,7. Some of them are A-E, some are just E, and that's just TWO.

That's a fairly large pile of different modules, all of which require a significant refit to change a program. The limpets are all exactly the same. We just need up to 128 tons of... something... to put a program in the limpet, and control a few more?

We wouldn't put up with this kind of nonsense NOW, why is it a thing 1000 years in the future?

 

[WastedAlmond]

+1 Limpets could use some buffs indeed. I like the suggestions OP puts forward.

 

[StalkerSStew]

thrusters

For the record, when his thrusters were gone you could have given him a little nudge just to stop him from spinning.

 

[Konnivar]

For the record, when his thrusters were gone you could have given him a little nudge just to stop him from spinning.

True, however piracy in Elite: Dangerous (both PvP and NPC) deserves its own topic. The video was meant to demonstrate some of the shortcomings of the current 200m/s dumb limpets.