Alright, Fdev: Let's talk collector limpets. You either love them or hate them; there is no gray area. Why? Funny you should ask.
It's because limpets are lemmings--and that's giving normal lemmings a LOT of credit.
Scenario: High res area. Beaming a rock. See a valuable rock. Target it and fire a limpet. Limpet gets rock, then pops. Seriously?
Same scenario: No target, fire limpets. Limpet goes to get something behind me, produced from...some other source I didn't know about. Turns out it's "stolen." Now security is murdering me. WHAT THE HELL??
Same scenario, AFTER I've cleared my damned bounty: Limpet runs into a ship while making a beeline for it's target...and pops. Now that ship is shooting at me. ARE YOU BLOODY KIDDING ME?!
I know the "beyond" update has some serious changes in store, but there are some things that honestly shouldn't wait. The above series of unfortunate events just happened. It was a no-win scenario that still defies belief. Whoever designed the limpet behavior had better have been severely reprimanded for terrible design choices. Apologies if I'm "being negative," but the lack of sense in this gameplay feature simply had to be pointed out.
NOW, for three suggestions that will solve this AND add depth of choice and consequence to our gameplay: First, stop self-destructing our limpets on targeting a piece of salvage. There's no excuse or logical reason for that behavior, ever. As an aside, I would gladly pay considerably more for less suicidal limpets. Second, prevent limpets from grabbing stolen or illegal items unless we target them (this would REQUIRE the first suggestion to work.) Third, tie improved limpet behavior to higher grades of controller. As it is, E-A only improve silly things like limpet lifespan(largely irrelevant when the above scenarios happen) and max range (also irrelevant, since getting closer reduces limpet travel time anyway) and eventually, the maximum number of active limpets, which is the main stat most of us probably care about when upgrading our collector.
Instead, tie the max limpets directly to the size class, one for one, and tie the untargeted limpet behavior to the module grade.
E grade: Current behavior (sans self-destructing and grabbing stolen stuff)
D grade: Prioritize materials, then cargo that's worth the most credits
C grade: Actually divert around large obstacles instead of going through asteroids
B grade: Maneuver around weapon fire
A grade: Prioritize minerals that will complete a refined sample first, thus making room in your refinery bins rather than just sitting there with resources you can't allocate
In general, the lower limpet grades will be suitable for those who just don't want to scoop loot after a kill, while the highest grade is exactly what a dedicated miner wants for christmas. A few notes:
The D grade will be good for those who don't have tons of cargo space, but want to farm engineer materials. The C grade will eliminate, or at least mitigate, all those situations where your limpet beelines for a target and plows into the first bit of slag or rock in it's way. B grade will mainly attempt to steer away from the front of ships passing along it's path, keeping it out of the path of your beam and any passing ships or projectiles. A grade will save miners a lot of headaches by trying to finish their bins and keep the minerals flowing, reducing the need to vent ore quite as often.
The behaviors are aimed at making the limpet more independent and discerning as the grades increase. This set of changes would largely remove the frustration of using collectors, while allowing players to choose how much convenience and performance they want to pay for. It will obviously behoove the devs to increase the price/power draw for each grade and the weight of each size class to compensate for the added functionality since the module will ACTUALLY DO IT'S JOB rather than turning "Elite Dangerous" into "Limpet Manager 2017."
It should be noted that I am not a dedicated miner; I occasionally do it to gather some materials for engineers. That said, the situations I encounter are completely illogical, but I believe quite solvable. Some variation of the above proposal would add a lot of consistency and value to limpets, even at considerable price and power increases. Perhaps other pilots have had different experiences and have different suggestions; discussion is welcome if someone wishes to rearrange my chart or add a function I haven't thought of.
It's because limpets are lemmings--and that's giving normal lemmings a LOT of credit.
Scenario: High res area. Beaming a rock. See a valuable rock. Target it and fire a limpet. Limpet gets rock, then pops. Seriously?
Same scenario: No target, fire limpets. Limpet goes to get something behind me, produced from...some other source I didn't know about. Turns out it's "stolen." Now security is murdering me. WHAT THE HELL??
Same scenario, AFTER I've cleared my damned bounty: Limpet runs into a ship while making a beeline for it's target...and pops. Now that ship is shooting at me. ARE YOU BLOODY KIDDING ME?!
I know the "beyond" update has some serious changes in store, but there are some things that honestly shouldn't wait. The above series of unfortunate events just happened. It was a no-win scenario that still defies belief. Whoever designed the limpet behavior had better have been severely reprimanded for terrible design choices. Apologies if I'm "being negative," but the lack of sense in this gameplay feature simply had to be pointed out.
NOW, for three suggestions that will solve this AND add depth of choice and consequence to our gameplay: First, stop self-destructing our limpets on targeting a piece of salvage. There's no excuse or logical reason for that behavior, ever. As an aside, I would gladly pay considerably more for less suicidal limpets. Second, prevent limpets from grabbing stolen or illegal items unless we target them (this would REQUIRE the first suggestion to work.) Third, tie improved limpet behavior to higher grades of controller. As it is, E-A only improve silly things like limpet lifespan(largely irrelevant when the above scenarios happen) and max range (also irrelevant, since getting closer reduces limpet travel time anyway) and eventually, the maximum number of active limpets, which is the main stat most of us probably care about when upgrading our collector.
Instead, tie the max limpets directly to the size class, one for one, and tie the untargeted limpet behavior to the module grade.
E grade: Current behavior (sans self-destructing and grabbing stolen stuff)
D grade: Prioritize materials, then cargo that's worth the most credits
C grade: Actually divert around large obstacles instead of going through asteroids
B grade: Maneuver around weapon fire
A grade: Prioritize minerals that will complete a refined sample first, thus making room in your refinery bins rather than just sitting there with resources you can't allocate
In general, the lower limpet grades will be suitable for those who just don't want to scoop loot after a kill, while the highest grade is exactly what a dedicated miner wants for christmas. A few notes:
The D grade will be good for those who don't have tons of cargo space, but want to farm engineer materials. The C grade will eliminate, or at least mitigate, all those situations where your limpet beelines for a target and plows into the first bit of slag or rock in it's way. B grade will mainly attempt to steer away from the front of ships passing along it's path, keeping it out of the path of your beam and any passing ships or projectiles. A grade will save miners a lot of headaches by trying to finish their bins and keep the minerals flowing, reducing the need to vent ore quite as often.
The behaviors are aimed at making the limpet more independent and discerning as the grades increase. This set of changes would largely remove the frustration of using collectors, while allowing players to choose how much convenience and performance they want to pay for. It will obviously behoove the devs to increase the price/power draw for each grade and the weight of each size class to compensate for the added functionality since the module will ACTUALLY DO IT'S JOB rather than turning "Elite Dangerous" into "Limpet Manager 2017."
It should be noted that I am not a dedicated miner; I occasionally do it to gather some materials for engineers. That said, the situations I encounter are completely illogical, but I believe quite solvable. Some variation of the above proposal would add a lot of consistency and value to limpets, even at considerable price and power increases. Perhaps other pilots have had different experiences and have different suggestions; discussion is welcome if someone wishes to rearrange my chart or add a function I haven't thought of.
