Turreted Mining Laser?

Ashnak

Ashnak
Errrmmm.... what's the point of a turreted Mining Laser?

I mean, the asteroid is right there in front of you, it won't be trying to fly evasive maneuvers and try to get at your back, you won't be flying any fancy maneuvers, either, since that will make it unnecessarily hard on your limpets, and targeting more than one asteroid at a time from a single ship would require two worthwhile asteroids in extremely close proximity (too close for comfort).

So: why?
 

SxChuck

SxChuck
I tried em for a minute.

I don't know about the multi crew, but they are useless mining by yourself.
The turrets only fire while targeting your prospector limpets and they have to have a line of sight to fire.
 

Ashnak

Ashnak
Cmdr Eran Mintor said:
It's so multicrew gunners can use them. If they're fixed the gunners cannot.
Click to expand...

Thanks.

So, instead of watching someone keeping their finger on the trigger button, they get to keep their own finger on the trigger button.

Ok, ED is a big game - not every feature has to make sense for everyone. I could get some sense from MC mining if e.g. there was a worksplit between pilot (controlling ship and lasers) and engineer (controlling limpets and refinery), but taking someone on board to do a job that could essentially be done by a rubber band (or coffee mug, if you're playing KB/mouse) escapes my perception.

Maybe one day when I get a big mining ship I will understand it.
 

Comrade Napoleon

Comrade Napoleon
Ashnak said:
Errrmmm.... what's the point of a turreted Mining Laser?

I mean, the asteroid is right there in front of you, it won't be trying to fly evasive maneuvers and try to get at your back, you won't be flying any fancy maneuvers, either, since that will make it unnecessarily hard on your limpets, and targeting more than one asteroid at a time from a single ship would require two worthwhile asteroids in extremely close proximity (too close for comfort).

So: why?
Click to expand...

It is always a good idea to think things through before posting ;)
Multicrew by chance... Ring a bell? Does it invoke a sense of remembering ? Ah the gunner can suddenly have hand of those, while you at the helm is busy crashing into asteroids. ;)
Thats why.
(you dont HAVE to do the crashing part, its optional.)

Cheers Cmdr's
 

NeilF

NeilF
Ashnak said:
Thanks.

So, instead of watching someone keeping their finger on the trigger button, they get to keep their own finger on the trigger button.

Ok, ED is a big game - not every feature has to make sense for everyone. I could get some sense from MC mining if e.g. there was a worksplit between pilot (controlling ship and lasers) and engineer (controlling limpets and refinery), but taking someone on board to do a job that could essentially be done by a rubber band (or coffee mug, if you're playing KB/mouse) escapes my perception.

Maybe one day when I get a big mining ship I will understand it.
Click to expand...
Yep, the problem is when you try to break up an already "thin" mechanic into multi-roles, those multi-roles risk being super-thin. If time and effort had been invested in mining (or indeed combat) over the years, then multi-crew might have more to utilise...

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...ite-ED-in-the-boosters!?p=5227174#post5227174
 
Last edited:

Vivicector

V
Just another useless "addition". If they want to make mining any good, they need to:

1) Make mining more profitable.
2) Make mining harder.
3) Make multicre rewards much better.
4) Add mining turret.

Point 4) is useless without points 1-3.
 

Malkevin

Malkevin
If anyone is wondering, I posted some data on the new turrets in the mining subreddit.

They're as good for mining as fixed, so that's nice
You need to change your turret mode to fixed forward to use them though
 

Nixilius

Nixilius
I agree with Vivicector.

In the end the multi-crew is only for the bounty hunting and conflicts zone. The mining, trading and smuggling roles are useless ! Serious !
(And again ... saw how the BH MC gains are not profitable for the crew... what is the MC for ? I do not understand)

Sad :(
 

Lanceor

Lanceor
With Multicrew, you could technically mine two or more asteroids at once...

At the moment, multicrew mining may seem pointless, but sooner or later, someone's going to find a good use for it.
 
Last edited:

IndigoWyrd

IndigoWyrd
Gonna have to side with "Close to useless".

I say close because a mining ship gunner can operate more than just mining turrets - they could operate other turrets as well to fend off pirates.
But yes, overall, there isn't a whole lot for a multi-pew mining team to really do.

There really isn't that much for a single-crew miner to do - mining is one of the least demanding occupations. Prospect, deploy, blast, wait.
 

Deleted member 38366

D
I've fitted some and did my 1st Mining Trials using them today.

Well, for a single Ship they're indeed utterly useless.
If the Mining Ship's Weapons are also Turrets, they're even harmful - since the Mining Turrets need to be set to "Forward Fire" to work at all. Well, there go your self-defense Weapon Turrets into fixed mode as well... ;)

I was kinda hoping that I at least wouldn't have to "press & hold" the Trigger anymore, while the Turrets auto-deplete by firing center-mass of a Prospector-marked Asteroid.
Oh well, of course they didn't think that far (it's Mining, not PewPew after all). Silly me.

At least there's no performance loss on them, so a Mining Rig using i.e. Gimbal Weapons at least doesn't suffer from fitting Mining Turrets instead of classic Mining Lasers.
Still, zero benefit outside of MultiCrew, for as long as our NPCs don't learn to perform MultiCrew Tasks as they should have been able to from Day 1.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

dayrth

Volunteer Moderator
dayrth
Not actually tried it myself yet but...

Would it not be useful for a gunner to be mining and asteroid, while collector limpets pick up the fragments, while the pilot fires off prospectors and chooses the next asteroid to mine? You would need the ability to launch multiple prospectors for this to work though. At the mo I can only launch one at a time but an upgrade of the controller would fix that.
 

Malkevin

Malkevin
Lanceor said:
With Multicrew, you could technically mine two or more asteroids at once...

At the moment, multicrew mining may seem pointless, but sooner or later, someone's going to find a good use for it.
Click to expand...

That wouldn't be a good idea as the main bottleneck for mining is the travel time of limpets

The only advantage I could see to using turrets is to point your cargo hatch directly at the asteroid so the fragment go straight at it so the collectors can just shovel it in.
 

CMDR-AD

CMDR-AD
Last night I outfitted my Type-9 for mining, 5 Collectors, 2 Prospectors, and dual C2 Turreted Mining Lasers.

I really hoped that I could use the "Target Only" mode so I could point the ship nose elsewhere while lasing (to fire another Prospector, or aim the lower hatch at the asteroid to facilitate collection). The turreted mining lasers will certainly track the targeted Prospector Limpet on the asteroid surface, which looks excellent and it seems like everything should work perfectly. But unfortunately, the beams simply pass through the asteroid as though it's not even there, recovering no fragements at all as they track the Prospector.

Very disappointing.

The Mining Lasers do work of course, in "Fire Ahead" mode. This was my first mining trip in a Type-9, and it handled the job well. The ever present problem is that mining chunks expire quicker than limpets can collect them, unless I lase in shorter bursts. On my next outing, I'll try running 8 Collector Limpets and see if that helps. I left with 65 limpets and returned with a bit more than 100 tons of mined goods, which sold for $1.7 million on the Commodity Market.

More than anything, I really wish that the Turreted Mining Lasers would simply hit the asteroids in "Target Only" mode, while they track my targeted Prospector on the asteroid surface. It all makes so much sense that I wonder whether it's a bug that they aren't actually working that way.

Better still would be giving the Helm the option to enter the Turret control view, even if this means a loss of the main Helm controls while using the Turret.
 
Last edited:

IndigoWyrd

IndigoWyrd
I actually amend my previous position - if you're a skilled fighter pilot, you can operate a fighter and leave the beam-pointing to a crew member.
You can also set you turrets to "Forward Only" and use them yourself, just like Fixed mining lasers.
You can use them like laser designators for fixed weapons. It's a cool visual.

If you're manually scooping things - like cargo, the sight markers will move around your ship and help point you in the right direction.

So just a little above Useless.. more like "Marginally Useful".
 

Simon Darkstep

Simon Darkstep
Lanceor said:
With Multicrew, you could technically mine two or more asteroids at once...

At the moment, multicrew mining may seem pointless, but sooner or later, someone's going to find a good use for it.
Click to expand...



Form a wing with friends.

Each search for a spawn of really valuable ore. Whoever finds it yells the news.

One person from the wing goes multicrew to do drive-by mining. The rest join the instance with beaucoup limpets.
 

NeilF

NeilF
Simon Darkstep said:
Form a wing with friends.

Each search for a spawn of really valuable ore. Whoever finds it yells the news.

One person from the wing goes multicrew to do drive-by mining. The rest join the instance with beaucoup limpets.
Click to expand...

Why not just all fly mining ships of your own? Or is aiming a turret at a rock, and doing nothing else, that appealling?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom