Horizons Random Collector Limpet failure -- common?

[ChipStar65]

--- Note to admins: This is not specifically about Horizons though that is the game I am playing. Feel free to shift this to a more appropriate forum section, I could not find one I thought more appropriate. ---

To the point: While Mining a Resource Extraction Site in some metallic rings, for no apparent reason my Collector Limpets started self-destructing. This was my third trip to this ring and they had worked flawlessly before. Once launched, they would simply fail, often before collecting even a single sample. I made sure I had not selected a floating ore sample before launching (the "one-shot" scenario). After six failures I decided to stop using Collectors and scooped the remaining ore, at least those that did not expire on me. Later, mining another part of the ring, the Collectors once again performed perfectly.

Has anyone else had this problem? Does his happen under certain conditions I need to be aware of? The cost was negligible but the lost time and lost ore was annoying.

 

[kpmop]

I've noticed similar - I think sometimes you or the chunks of ore (or both) are just in the "wrong" positions relative to the asteroid for the collectors to find a path without hitting the asteroid. If it happens again trying moving away from the asteroid so that there's more space for the collectors to manoeuver.

Of course it could be something else completely! ;-)

 

[ChipStar65]

Yeah, the rings can get pretty crowded at times, I'll try that. Thanks!

 

[Lightspeed]

The ideal approach to mining a medium or big asteroid is to approach it perpendicular to the axis of spin. That way, the asteroid doesn't interfere with the limpets as it rotates, nor with you of course.

 

[ChipStar65]

Yes, but even then, if the area is crowded (as it was in my instance) I think it can "confuse" the limpets. I do try to use the spin axis to minimize the need for laser tracking, and also to not get bonked when the "cigars" swing 'round

 

[d8veh]

The limpets travel in straight lines to the thing they want to collect. If there's anything in the way, they crash into it and explode. To avoid that, do not move your ship while mining. You can rotate it on any axis to point at nearby rocks if you want to deploy prospector limpets, but if you move the ship forwards, backwards, up, down or sideways, you can bring the rock between you and the fragments.

 

[ChipStar65]

@d8veh -- Good info, thanks. In this particular situation, that is exactly what happened, I had to maneuver some to avoid a pirate (RES-LO, but why be a sitting duck?), and this produced two problems with LOS retrieval -- 1) I did not return to exactly the same position relative to my rock, and more importantly 2) the ore samples had drifted enough that in close quarters like the rings the neighboring rocks occluded them. Next time I'll knock off a few new chunks for the limpet to chew on while getting back into a proper position for the outliers.

 

[d8veh]

When you arrive in the rings, keep boosting until you see the pirates come and disappear from your radar, then you won't get bothered while you're mining

 

[ChipStar65]

I usually have no problems with pirate harassment at RES-LOs, the Feds are frequently present in force (making them great places to get assist-kills if you're looking to build early combat rank & bounty returns), but in this case, the schmuck popped in while they were off dealing with one of his cohorts, and managed to begin his attack before they could respond. Once he started to drop my shields I decided to bug out & out-maneuver him until the Federales woke up to the situation. They did, we scotched him, and I was able to backtrack to my rock (Prospector Limpet), but I took a poor position on it when resuming mining. Live and learn.