Mining limpets suggestion

[Billexista]

My idea is to tune a collectors and prospectors a bit.

First of all class 1 should have 1 active limpet, 3 should have 3 limpets, class 5 should have max 5 active limpets... etc.
Each class should have internal limpet storage in addition to cargo bay so you can have extra 2 limpets storage for class 1, 8 extra limpets for class 3, 32 extra limpets for class 5 etc.
Prospectors should be a bit more helpful when using more than one.
1 prospector on rock: +100% fragments, 2 prospectors active +150%, 3 prospector active +175%, 4 prospectors +200% more fragments

I mean those limpets are dumb as hell, we should have switch to recall them and make them stop collecting stuff and wait until we push that button again to start working again to have better control over them, closing cargo hatch is working but they still have to fetch stuff around if they are not carrying something.

 

[G in the Fl]

Sounds like you might just be frustrated at mining

 

[Billexista]

Maybe when crafting comes, you could craft enhanced prospector limpets that boost +% of minerals and increase number of fragments too!
Just make them worthy and not another one of the spend 1M to gain 100k with loss of 900k

 

[Minonian]

Yeah they are dumb as hell with next to nothing path seeiking algorithm. I can agree onthis.
If nothing else, at least please make em smarter.

EDIT; The idea with limpet controllers internal storage is not a bad idea, but the way i see, the real problem with the drones is their cargo usage.

I meant one short lived tiny drone takes 1T (cubic meter?) worth of cargo space? C'mon!!!

 

[Billexista]

I guess large and huge mining lasers were already suggested?

 

[Minonian]

Yup, but there is not too much point of them, unless we have more serious drones, and drone controller, not to mention i don't think we going to have any of them. Because mining is already lucrative.

 

[Billexista]

Unless we get ship equipment limited by trade ranks military ranks etc we won't get proper tools because it would ruin frontiers idea of noobs not earning that much as guy with imperial cutter. So i think big mining lasers and better collectors and stuff should be limited to guys with big ranks to mine their way to even more credits.

Also mining is FAR from being lucrative i mean like really really far. I mine for fun mostly because i have much better ways to earn cash. I use mining to boost friend and teach him basics of how to make some starter credits and some mechanics.

 

[Sopel3pl]

Maybe frontier have an idea to not allow noob guys to earn much more like guys with imperial cutter but it's don't work. All of them can go to Robigo, take a lot of smuggling mission and take 2 - 5 mln in one station. New guy with small ship have to only sell slaves in Robigo and rebuy it in system with bubble.
There are 2 main problems with limpets.
1. You can't stop them collecting.
2. You can't allow or disallow them collect specific minerals or cargo.
Minor problems:
1. Time of their activity. They need fuel? Go back and refuel. Need fuel in cargo? Np i can buy it. I can't... hm why? ( because I can't )
2. Crashing while ship flying "fast". ..... In physical sense ship on orbit or simpler in space always have speed, more 200 km/h not give big chance. But if this ridiculous limit of speed to board must exist it can be solve in easy way. Don't allow drones dock where relative speed of ship is faster than...

 

[Minonian]

There are 2 main problems with limpets.
1. You can't stop them collecting.
2. You can't allow or disallow them collect specific minerals or cargo.

Agreed. The menu system of the game is really simplistic, there are no any kind of options to fine tune anything, related to your ship...

In the other end we have games like the X series. if any of you played with them than you must know what i'm talking about? That game was a nightmare in terms of options. Just to learn what you can and cannot do took weeks. So altrought i enjojed that game and i played with the X3 and X3TC with years, i seriously disrecommend to take elite to this direction.
That kind of game is for die hard harcore games like me. and not for the great public, you need to be 130% fanatical to waste your time and energy anything like this.

 

[Sopel3pl]

Too simply sometimes means just stupid. Because it lost almost all functionality because it must be simply. There is nothing bad with sophisticated if sophisticated is justified.

 

[Winterwalker]

I don't have a problem with drones we have at the moment being dumb .. It opens up the possibility of specialist (example: military) versions with higher Ai. These though would be harder to find, not available at every starport.

 

[Billexista]

Agreed. The menu system of the game is really simplistic, there are no any kind of options to fine tune anything, related to your ship...

In the other end we have games like the X series. if any of you played with them than you must know what i'm talking about? That game was a nightmare in terms of options. Just to learn what you can and cannot do took weeks. So altrought i enjojed that game and i played with the X3 and X3TC with years, i seriously disrecommend to take elite to this direction.
That kind of game is for die hard harcore games like me. and not for the great public, you need to be 130% fanatical to waste your time and energy anything like this.

I don't see any problems with game getting much more complex. We can still have both. New players would just pick up stuff with cargo hatch. Intermediate players would buy limpets and just launch new one when they expire. Advanced players will refuel and filter pickups. Master players would use multiple probe system to enhance gains even more, set limpet speed limits, set pickup radius to front 180deg sphere.

Also you could just buy dumb limpets, advanced limpets and smart limpets. It's no problem then to crash cheap ones that never refuel, but you'd probably care more for ones that cost a lot more but can refuel filter stuff and limit pickup for rocks that are at least 50-100m away from rocks.

All i see is more menus. You can even have options simple-advanced-complex so you can learn on easy stuff and move on to real juicy stuff when you get better. This can be done to every aspect of game. Explorers picking up surface samples, traders using advanced contacts that they gained during missions to access wholesale markets that sell cheaper for people who buy 250t+ bulks. Bounty hunters could get wings and get advanced missions that give you "boss" fights with huge rewards and huge risks. I don't see how complexity can hurt if you put some doors in between to allow new players to enjoy simple stuff and old timers to show their mastery in game and understanding of game mechanics.

In the end we can all suggest awesome stuff for the game but we still end up with crappy prospectors not deploying in order but launching 1 2 3 and then just last one will keep redeploying last one so you will get frustrated that you just wasted 1 prospector because even basic thing like that is bugged.

 

[Minonian]

In other words you 2 don't know the X series.

 

[Minonian]

Ok, to get back to the Complexity, simplicity question?

You boys know that old comics strip about microsoft, and apple car? That's explains everything.

If we talk about The X series? than add a 2 magnitude to the comlexity of the MS car. It is complex. Notoriously! As i said just to learn the keyboard layout, took weeks. A lil bit too much! In the other hand? It was not unecessarily comlex, that game to be what it is, demanded it. But it was still too much.

It's all about gui handling. The User interface must be simple and intuitive, so you don't have trouble with it. And yet... you must be able to fine tune it, at the same ease, when it's necessary. Like in Facebook. you can reach the necessary things at ease, and you dont need to care about the rest, but if you want to fine tune the whole thing you can do it with easily acessible hidden in plain sight sub menus.

And you must also able to work under the hood, and this is the 2 things where apple is lacking.
Where MS lacking is the easyness of the Apple's GUI.

Again... FB is the perfect example when you have both, and that's why so popular. You dont have to be a geek, or SW engineer to manage it.

Too simply sometimes means just stupid. Because it lost almost all functionality because it must be simply. There is nothing bad with sophisticated if sophisticated is justified.

See above.

 

[Psycho Romeo]

I don't see a need for any of the suggestions in the OP.

Though a devoted limpet module would be cool. Should occupy the same spot as the planetary suite, giving the player a choice there (and giving something non-horizons players can do with the space).