Make collector limpets more reliable

[Alecz]

I recently dipped my toes into mining, and by far the most frustrating aspect of it is the unreliability of the Collector Limpets.

I fill-up my 256T cargo with 80% limpets and I am run out of limpets before filling it up with canisters.

- Sometimes, I launch 8 limpets and they all expire withing seconds. I suspect they smash in the asteroids or something?
- Also, the mining lasers have very short range, so maybe sometimes I am too close to the asteroid and the collectors don't have enough room to access the cargo hatch?
- Sometimes limpets wander too far and expire because of Max distance. Why do they even go beyond max distance?
- Some asteroid rotate faster and the fragments get scattered making it difficult for the limpets to collect

Constantly supervising these suicidal limpets, adjusting position, and trying to figure out why they expire is getting frustrating.

For the price of using them (collector modules, cargo space), they should be more reliable. I should at least be able to convert 50% cargo filled with limpets into 100% cargo filled with goods. (and this while using 6-10 limpets continuously).

 

[Flimley]

The limpets have a collective navigational ability of Mr Magoo. ....They’re quite ditzy.

A quick Flimley tip.... centre yourself to the rock at the point of least movement. The fragments that you knock off want to be flying downward! (So roll your ship accordingly). Then tip the nose of the ship down a bit and get in real close. The limpets will then have plently of unencumbered space to manoeuvre around.

Flimley.

 

[Alecz]

Hmm, I was actually tipping the nose of the ship upwards to get the fragments below the ship thinking the limpets would have an easier shorter trip time.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

For the faster-spinning or more irregular asteroids, definitely line yourself up to the axis of rotation. Then do get as close as you can - the mining lasers are good to several hundred metres, but nose-to-the-rock is better. You should find then that your collectors are able to pick up the fragments as they come off the rock, and you very rarely lose any. (If you're finding it difficult, practice in a belt cluster for a little bit, as the asteroids don't rotate there)

Yes, aiming so the fragments go below rather than above is generally slightly better, but at point-blank range so long as they don't fly straight into your ship it doesn't really matter.

Then don't move on until they're all picked up (you can turn to launch your next prospector) - if you leave a fragment behind and on the edge of range, you'll get a limpet going for it, which will then end up going out of range as you move in the other direction.

Better collision avoidance and "return to ship if target is now out of range" would be nice, but with a bit of practice it can be worked around.

I'd generally go for about 70% limpets to 100% hold, but that's because I fire off a lot of prospectors and only mine the better rocks - if you're just mining every rock you come to, 50% limpets should be absolutely fine.

 

[Konnivar]

I agree with the OP, even have my own thread here about it! I'll be severely disappointed if the FF on mining does NOT include major updates to limpets; they are by far the bottleneck for mining, and other tasks like salvaging and piracy.

 

[Alecz]

Good point about salvaging.
Quite frustrating when all your limpets expire trying to get the same material close to the ship in a salvage USS. It's like shooting blanks.

Can't speak about hatch breaker limpets except that point defense should remain relevant.

 

[Maymo]

Maybe they should simply be made invincible vs everything apart from point defence...

They can’t salvage from planet surfaces either which is a shame when checking out POI.

I’m a big fan of the salvage career option and I really hope that some of the improvements to mining will overlap into salvage.

I also wish limpets were simply ammo housed in the collector rather than cargo you have to buy separately. When you consider that an SLF hangar is capable of holding 6 ‘ammo’ it really isn’t breaking the game to allow the limpet collector module to do the same...

Clunky.