Programmable Limpets

[Confidenze]

Hi guys.

I recently started mining and find it both relaxing and (relatively) profitable.
Thou my head starts spinning when I try to dump the least valuable rescourses back into space...
Because what happens is this:

My limpets gather those little worthless hunks of junk right back in!

I'd love an interface that would make me able to check some boxes off so that my collector limpets would ignore certain types of collectable targets.
Like for example when im mining the limpets would collect all the shards from the asteroid, but if I run out of cargo space I could uncheck the box in the limpet controll interface for whatever material, and then dump it without the limpets get all over it again.

Seems to me it would be an easy implemetation - what do you guys say?

07 - CMDR Confidenze

 

[CMDR Heisenberg B. Damned]

You can jettison the fragments before they get to 100% and the limpets won't pick them up or you can disable the collectors in the modules panel then jettison. That will kill the current limpets though so if you have a small number probably best not to.

Yep I'd like an ignore list for the refinery personally but it's not a massive priority.

 

[mugendo]

I dump the cargo I don't want and thrust down to destroy it. You can also dump unwanted stuff from the refinery before it reaches 100%, using these two methods reduces the 'junk' I end up with. Programmable would be a nice feature, but it's not essential. ..the micromanaging the refinery, looking for the next asteroid to mine, monitoring my collectors..listening to http://www.radiosidewinder.com/listen-now/ (shameless plug) keep me occupied enough.

 

[phi6]

Oh absolutely, the mining community has been after something like this for ages - but obviously its a fair amount of UI work. I'm hoping they will get around to adding this in eventually.

In the meantime, my work arounds are:

1. Keep a close eye on the refinery, and vent unwanted materials before they reach 100%

2. If I do end up wanting to jettison, there's a really quick and easy way to destroy them before the limpets collect them back up again.
When jettisoned, thrust downwards (without rotating the ship at all) as fast as you can. The packets will get destroyed when they collide with your ship.

 

[Deleted member 38366]

Agreed, it's been suggested alot in the past. Hard to tell if we'll get something like it though (haven't read a Dev response, just like getting i.e. selectable Preferences for the Refinery what to refine or discard permanently).

Hint :
If I'm running out of Cargo space, I reserve the removal of unwanted Canisters to times when no Collector Limpets are active, i.e. after they expire.
Just make sure you move some ~2km away from remaining fragments you still need to collect - and your Canisters will remain untouched by additional Collector Limpets you fire to finish mining.

Alternatively, momentarily Disabling the Collector Internal in the Modules page will instantly kill all active Collector Limpets.
That way, you can ensure at anytime your abandoned Cargo won't get scooped back in.

 

[Confidenze]

Really the solution to this is very similar to the controlling of the turrets on the hardspoints.

Different settings for limpets:

- Collect all
- Collect only mining shards
- Collect everything but jettisoned cargo

Then you could just rotate around those 3 options, just like turrets can rotate between fire straight, target only and fire at will...
Would make things so much easier.
And the funtion is already implementet (sort of).

 

[Sevanje]

we are asking for this for over a year now.
On the side note: Limpets or not, mining is too simplistic, and not really dangerous task. I hope something will be done, because shooting lasers, and limited number of chunks starts popping out of this static rocks, is not something to be proud of, and feels like a place holder, despite the fact that it isn't.