Universal Limpet Controller Module

[MarKr The Real One]

Hello!

I wanted to take a break from mining, REZes and deep space exploration so I was just jumping between systems, going after the more unsual signal sources - especially the distress signals and I started to run into a really frustrating thing.

I get to the signal position, find a ship and it gives me the "My ship is broken, can you help with repairs?". I wanted to help but hey...no repair limpet controler on my ship...I mean...I have 30 limpets in my cargo but my ship can only program them to collet stuff. Well, I turn around, get the "are you really leave me here to die you monster???" message, get back to a station, install a repair controler go looking for signals, find a distress call, jump in see a ship, come closer, switch my fire group to the repair limpets and I get a message "Hi, I ran out of fuel, can you spare some?" and I'm like "Yeah, I would but my ship has no idea how to tell the limpets to transport fuel...it can tell them to repair or collect stuff but carry a fuel? Nope.

Limpets with various functions is a really cool idea but it is rendered pretty pointless when you need a specific module for each limpet function. Also some types of limpet controllers are used a lot more than others - the collectors probably used the most, prospectors and repair are probably the second most used (at least for me), fuel limpets are only for the specific distres calls or fuel rats, decontamination, research, hatch breakers and recon limpets are highly specialized and I haven't used them yet at all. I mean...who is going to bring with them a decontamination controller just in case they run into thargoids in an exploration run, especially when it is not in a thargoid space? Similar goes for the others - will you bring with you recon limpets just in case you find some installation/megaship and want to hack their data points? The chances of finding some are relatively small so you would only bring them with you if you have some mission that deals with installations/megaships and even then the slot would probably be better used for something else.

It doesn't make much sense from the game-logic perspective either - you buy limpets. Not specific types of limpets, just general limpets which means that limpets are not pre-made for specific purpose, you just program them to do some specific task (even the ship PC says something like "Programming limpet drone" when you launch one). This would mean that the "limpet controler" is probably a machine with a software that programs the limpet for a task - why can't this machine have multiple software installed for multiple limpet roles?

This increase in utility could be compensated in some way - the "universal controllers" could cost a lot more, eat more energy, be somehow limited in how many you can have installed on your ship or whatever but the having a specific limpet controller module for each role is very impractical and makes little sense.

 

[Para Handy]

DRINK!

 

[gorankar]

This is one of the more common requests isn't it?
I am for it. We are talking about a software package for limpets.

 

[CMDR Corlas]

This has been needed for a long time, and if memory serves, even FD has said they would like to do it.

I think limpet controllers should be like SRV hangars, where each controller would have a number of sub-slots on them, allowing you customize controller software. In addition to installing multiple limpet software types on a single controller, you could also have software packages for things like a limpet speed boost or controlling an additional limpet. That way people who want to specialize still get some perks out of it.

 

[Atol]

Remember this game is about Sacrifice. Not asking I want to do it all Cobra.

 

[CMDR Corlas]

Good thing literally no one is asking for that, then.

 

[MarKr The Real One]

I think limpet controllers should be like SRV hangars, where each controller would have a number of sub-slots on them, allowing you customize controller software. In addition to installing multiple limpet software types on a single controller, you could also have software packages for things like a limpet speed boost or controlling an additional limpet. That way people who want to specialize still get some perks out of it.

I don't really care how they do it but this sounds like a good idea. At least the part with "should be like SRV hangar with slots to customize software". Bigger slots and more expensive would have more slots, sounds good.

I am not that sure about the "software packages for things like a limpet speed boost or controlling an additional limpet". These sound like things that would be better put on the module itself. Maybe the limpet speed but the number of limpets seems to me OK to stay connected to the module size. Or maybe they could keep the number of limpets connected to the module size and add the option to boost it further with a package?

My idea was more like putting a controller module on a ship, then you would see immediately in your firegroup options all the limpet types. You could assign them all to fire groups or just some of them that you expect to use the most often and activate the others only when an occasion arises when you need them. Modules would keep their current limpet counts.

However, your idea sounds better as it has more utility and would allow bigger ships with bigger slots to have more options than smaller ships, thus allowing more diversity instead of "every ship can do the same with limpets". Maybe even the "software packages" could have different grades where each grade could provide some bonus to the limpet e.g. one grade would give more speed to limpets, another grade would make them more resistant (more HP/armor or whatever makes them survive better), next grade would make them perform their action better/faster (probably only good for some limpet types like the repair, hack, decontamination...). etc.

Anyway, as I said - I don't care how it is done as long as it is done.

Remember this game is about Sacrifice. Not asking I want to do it all Cobra.

I thought any game was about fun...What exactly are you sacrificing in the current setup? That you won't give fuel to those stranded NPCs in the Distress Call signals because you don't have fuel limpets because they are pretty much useless outside these missions? Yes, I am totally sacrificing a module slot for what exactly? 2500 credits? That is not a sacrifice. If such mission gave you like 2 500 000 credits then it might be considered sacrificing module for financial gain but the current way of usage of these limpets makes no sense - the limpet controller costs you more than what you earn from this mission and bringing it along when a distress call is an RNG and might require some other limpet type instead just makes it even more pointless. Same goes for the repair limpets and the distress call missions, although repair limpets might have a bit more usage in general for repairs during fights but even then I would rather pack collector limpets to faster collect the resources dropped by enemy ship than a repair limpet because if you're so badly damaged that you would consider using a repair limpet in a battle, it is generally just better to FSD out of there.
Anyway, with the idea that CMD Corlas had, you wouldn't be able to fit all limpet types to every ship so it wouldn't be "I want to do it all Cobra".

 

[Atol]

I thought any game was about fun...What exactly are you sacrificing in the current setup? That you won't give fuel to those stranded NPCs in the Distress Call signals because you don't have fuel limpets because they are pretty much useless outside these missions? Yes, I am totally sacrificing a module slot for what exactly? 2500 credits? That is not a sacrifice. If such mission gave you like 2 500 000 credits then it might be considered sacrificing module for financial gain but the current way of usage of these limpets makes no sense - the limpet controller costs you more than what you earn from this mission and bringing it along when a distress call is an RNG and might require some other limpet type instead just makes it even more pointless. Same goes for the repair limpets and the distress call missions, although repair limpets might have a bit more usage in general for repairs during fights but even then I would rather pack collector limpets to faster collect the resources dropped by enemy ship than a repair limpet because if you're so badly damaged that you would consider using a repair limpet in a battle, it is generally just better to FSD out of there.
Anyway, with the idea that CMD Corlas had, you wouldn't be able to fit all limpet types to every ship so it wouldn't be "I want to do it all Cobra".

I look at building your ship around what you are doing at the time. If you are doing trading, then do trading if you are doing combat do combat or if you are mining do mining if you want to help NPC or players It best to setup your ship to help them and sacrifice something. If you want to do it all buy a bigger ship. This idea when a player think the game should do the thinking for them is a pipe dream.

This idea of having a Sidewinder do every task because of Universal controller is a bad idea.

 

[CMDR X]

21st century "limpet controller".

Problem?
X.

 

[Xmerwynd]

21st century "limpet controller".

View attachment 157919

Problem?
X.

Long live eproms and eeproms

 

[MarKr The Real One]

I look at building your ship around what you are doing at the time. If you are doing trading, then do trading if you are doing combat do combat or if you are mining do mining if you want to help NPC or players It best to setup your ship to help them and sacrifice something. If you want to do it all buy a bigger ship.

With this approach the limpets you will intentionally use are the collectors and prospectors for mining and hatchbreakers for pirating. The others have such a situational use that it is in general better to equip anything else.

You say to prepare my ship for some role. Making a "support" build to help others is currently similar as if you wanted to do mining and collector limpets had different controllers for, let's say, collecting "low value" minerals, a different one for "high value minerals", a different one for "non-mineral" items (biowaste, clothing etc.) and another one for collecting engineer materials. You could still prepare your ship for specific mining but it would be a real pain in the ass because if you were surface miner you would probably equip the "low value minerals" controller but if you ran into an asteroid from which you can surface mine LTDs or Painite, you would need to scoop them manually because your limpets would be useless for that. You would be forced to change some cargo rack for anothe controller that will collect different type of things (actually this is still less pain in the ass because you actually CAN scoop these different things manually but you simply cannot manually transfer fuel to another ship).

How can you prepare your ship for the "I need fuel" or "can you repair my ship?" missions when you need a specific type of a limpet for them yet you cannot know which one you will get or IF the RNG will give you the mission where you can use a limpet at all (sometimes the distress calls can be ambush or a combat mission where you don't use any limpets)? In the usage of some of the limpet types are simply involved too many "IFs" and "WHENs" and "MAYBEs" and the payoff for many of them is simply too low.

So maybe they could stay as they are but the payoffs for the fuel, repair, recon and decontamination controllers would need to be a lot higher to justify their use.

 

[Broken_One]

This has been needed for a long time, and if memory serves, even FD has said they would like to do it.

I think limpet controllers should be like SRV hangars, where each controller would have a number of sub-slots on them, allowing you customize controller software. In addition to installing multiple limpet software types on a single controller, you could also have software packages for things like a limpet speed boost or controlling an additional limpet. That way people who want to specialize still get some perks out of it.

Seems like it would throw the ships out of balance. Now a ship with a 5 slot could hold the same equipment as a ship with two 1's and a 3? (multiple controller modules etc) --- Idk

 

[Broken_One]

Hello!

I wanted to take a break from mining, REZes and deep space exploration so I was just jumping between systems, going after the more unsual signal sources - especially the distress signals and I started to run into a really frustrating thing.

I get to the signal position, find a ship and it gives me the "My ship is broken, can you help with repairs?". I wanted to help but hey...no repair limpet controler on my ship...I mean...I have 30 limpets in my cargo but my ship can only program them to collet stuff. Well, I turn around, get the "are you really leave me here to die you monster???" message, get back to a station, install a repair controler go looking for signals, find a distress call, jump in see a ship, come closer, switch my fire group to the repair limpets and I get a message "Hi, I ran out of fuel, can you spare some?" and I'm like "Yeah, I would but my ship has no idea how to tell the limpets to transport fuel...it can tell them to repair or collect stuff but carry a fuel? Nope.

Limpets with various functions is a really cool idea but it is rendered pretty pointless when you need a specific module for each limpet function. Also some types of limpet controllers are used a lot more than others - the collectors probably used the most, prospectors and repair are probably the second most used (at least for me), fuel limpets are only for the specific distres calls or fuel rats, decontamination, research, hatch breakers and recon limpets are highly specialized and I haven't used them yet at all. I mean...who is going to bring with them a decontamination controller just in case they run into thargoids in an exploration run, especially when it is not in a thargoid space? Similar goes for the others - will you bring with you recon limpets just in case you find some installation/megaship and want to hack their data points? The chances of finding some are relatively small so you would only bring them with you if you have some mission that deals with installations/megaships and even then the slot would probably be better used for something else.

It doesn't make much sense from the game-logic perspective either - you buy limpets. Not specific types of limpets, just general limpets which means that limpets are not pre-made for specific purpose, you just program them to do some specific task (even the ship PC says something like "Programming limpet drone" when you launch one). This would mean that the "limpet controler" is probably a machine with a software that programs the limpet for a task - why can't this machine have multiple software installed for multiple limpet roles?

This increase in utility could be compensated in some way - the "universal controllers" could cost a lot more, eat more energy, be somehow limited in how many you can have installed on your ship or whatever but the having a specific limpet controller module for each role is very impractical and makes little sense.

I feel like you are missing out on the RP portion of this. While I agree that the distress call shouldnt change (and I have noted other issues with the instancing ) I feel like that is a seperate issue. --

If universal controllers are allowed it takes away from the specialization. If you want a decked out pirate ship you can have it. But if you want to change that specialization? LoL you are not just going to drop into port, unless you have all of the engineered parts already. -- Same thing for limpets. -- From the RP perspective you have to remember how insignificant each Cmdr is. Sometimes yea.... you just gotta let them die. -- Makes it way easier emotionally when you are dropping in to Deicat in your brand new conda for your engineering and you get roasted by a random cmdr testing out his new gear. The galaxy is big. Like almost inconceivably big.


Edit: Like if a rescue ship is what you are running you can drop a fuel repair and collector limpet on a most medium ships. Idk what other types of obsticals you might face but checking signals you might want some extra scanners and weapons or speed if its an ambush.

 

[CMDR Corlas]

Seems like it would throw the ships out of balance. Now a ship with a 5 slot could hold the same equipment as a ship with two 1's and a 3? (multiple controller modules etc) --- Idk

You speak as if the ships are currently in-balance.

 

[MarKr The Real One]

I feel like you are missing out on the RP portion of this. While I agree that the distress call shouldnt change (and I have noted other issues with the instancing ) I feel like that is a seperate issue. --

If universal controllers are allowed it takes away from the specialization. If you want a decked out pirate ship you can have it. But if you want to change that specialization? LoL you are not just going to drop into port, unless you have all of the engineered parts already. -- Same thing for limpets. -- From the RP perspective you have to remember how insignificant each Cmdr is. Sometimes yea.... you just gotta let them die. -- Makes it way easier emotionally when you are dropping in to Deicat in your brand new conda for your engineering and you get roasted by a random cmdr testing out his new gear. The galaxy is big. Like almost inconceivably big.

You make it sound as if the only way to specialize a ship is limpet controllers. Are you telling me that if you have your pirate build and switch a collector/hatch limpet controller for a (let's say) repair controller, the ship is suddenly a "rescue" ship?

This has nothing to do with roleplay. If you want to RP as a pirate, you will still use your limpets for hatchbreaking or collecting dropped stuff. I really doubt that when RPing you will
suddenly start responding to distress calls just because you have universal limpet controller. Especially when you talk about RP - because RP means you play as a certain role and act the way the role is expected even if you can do things differently so even IF you responded to a distress call and the CMDR would ask for fuel, if you play as a pirate you will blow them to hell or rob them even if you can give them the fuel.

 

[Broken_One]

You make it sound as if the only way to specialize a ship is limpet controllers. Are you telling me that if you have your pirate build and switch a collector/hatch limpet controller for a (let's say) repair controller, the ship is suddenly a "rescue" ship?

This has nothing to do with roleplay. If you want to RP as a pirate, you will still use your limpets for hatchbreaking or collecting dropped stuff. I really doubt that when RPing you will
suddenly start responding to distress calls just because you have universal limpet controller. Especially when you talk about RP - because RP means you play as a certain role and act the way the role is expected even if you can do things differently so even IF you responded to a distress call and the CMDR would ask for fuel, if you play as a pirate you will blow them to hell or rob them even if you can give them the fuel.

I dont think you understand my point. What I am saying is that he was RPing in the repair. the OP. --- So from his RP perspective it might help not to have the elder scrolls 'chosen one' point of view (otherwise I think Elite will let him down. There is no main story line) -- As far as the Limpets, yea. I think it should be specialized. Why would you make something that is a class three slot in to multiple class 1 slots. -- Just complicates balancing. Why do you need so many different controllers in the first place that you cant find the one you need?

I was trying to answer two questions though.
1) from an RP point of view commanders are insignificant. Or as significant as the community makes you I guess.
2) From a technical point of view (which the OP says it doesn't make any sense many times) I think the issue is balancing. I have been gaming long enough to know the impacts of making a size three slot in to 3 size 1 slots. It is not linear. Even if they allowed you two programs for one controller it could upset the balance either way.


With Fleet carriers on the way this all seems like it might be a non-issue anyways. You can just bring whatever ship you want with you.

Or from an RP perspective just deal with it. LoL -- Space is unforgiving.

 

[ARNUD SWAZZANEGGER]

They really should do something like this. There has been a ton of times i have scanned a system and seen Distress Call and so badly wanted to go help, then checked my modules and noticed i didn't have the fuel limpet/repair installed. To think that poor NPC commander probably died makes me feel sad.
Then again, the past few times i did have my fuel limpet installed and did go help people, i got zero thanks for it unlike the first handful of times i did it where they always said thanks. Now they just fly away and say nothing.

Just keep modules that are already in the game as they are, since for those just starting out or wind up broke, they can still be able to afford those ones quick enough.
Then add in a master limpet controller, then you have to buy the programs you want to install in the master controller and from there it's just a case of selecting how you want to program your limpets. So all types can be bought as a program and added into the master module. They could even only have master limpet controllers come in A class, that way they stay as a high tier item.

To impliment this, all they'd need to do is take the stats from each of the A rated classes. So if your master limpet controller is fitted into a Class 3 or even Class 8 compartment, then all your limpets would behave as Class 3A or 8A rated ones do.

While we're here, I'd also like to have a taxi service in place. It's MIND NUMBING to have to travel to a station to get your ship that you want to take around to get outfitted with better gear or to be engineered. I know you can have your ship delivered, but there are times where that money is cutting a bit too deep into your wallet. It wouldn't harm gameplay to just have this appear as a 5 minute or so warp loading screen, and the loading screen is already in place. Then when the loading screen stops you simply appear in your other ship at the Outfitting screen like when you log in. The cost of this could be 80% of what having your ship delivered would have been. Obviously keep the ship delivery system in place as is, for those of you who can afford it.
Howabout even let us use our AspX or DBX to scoot around quicker to collect parts for our big slow ships instead? Why can't we already use our cargo holds to buy that stuff?
That way you'd simply have to dock where your big slow ship is, then goto your cargo and add those modules to storage, then switch to your big slow ship and install them.

I also would like them to reuse the model of the ship from the Shipyard store page to show where utilities and weapons are actually being placed, instead of those close up shots on the Type 10 for example which isn't clear at all in some places. I know you can check the free roam camera, but why make things awkward? I want to have fun playing the game, not have to endue a billion diffeent grinds each with their own 10 trillion levels of sub grinds.

It does get to a point where you got to question the MUH REALISMS mentality.
There's supposed to be multiple billions of stars, with potentially trillions of exo-planets, no one born today would be able to see all of that in this game, even if they were somehow able to play the game being birthed with a hotas in their hands and VR headset on and already logged in and playing as the doctor holds them up to say "it's a boy" or "its a girl" for 24 hours a day, continously, and living for 100 years. There's no need to have such mind numbingly tedious grindy grinds in any game, never mind one this big.

EDIT: Also add a Black Box option at the rebuy screen so you can recover all your cartographic data. It's a demonically cruel to die with crap tonnes of cartographic data that took many hours, or even days to collect, just to lose everything. It really does make you want to put the game down and neve pick it back up.

Before anyone mentions MUH REALISMS just remember, you are at the rebuy screen buying back the ship that was just destroyed, plus you also respawned so you could be at the buy back screen LOL.

 

[Broken_One]

They really should do something like this. There has been a ton of times i have scanned a system and seen Distress Call and so badly wanted to go help, then checked my modules and noticed i didn't have the fuel limpet/repair installed. To think that poor NPC commander probably died makes me feel sad.
Then again, the past few times i did have my fuel limpet installed and did go help people, i got zero thanks for it unlike the first handful of times i did it where they always said thanks. Now they just fly away and say nothing.

Just keep modules that are already in the game as they are, since for those just starting out or wind up broke, they can still be able to afford those ones quick enough.
Then add in a master limpet controller, then you have to buy the programs you want to install in the master controller and from there it's just a case of selecting how you want to program your limpets. So all types can be bought as a program and added into the master module. They could even only have master limpet controllers come in A class, that way they stay as a high tier item.

To impliment this, all they'd need to do is take the stats from each of the A rated classes. So if your master limpet controller is fitted into a Class 3 or even Class 8 compartment, then all your limpets would behave as Class 3A or 8A rated ones do.

While we're here, I'd also like to have a taxi service in place. It's MIND NUMBING to have to travel to a station to get your ship that you want to take around to get outfitted with better gear or to be engineered. I know you can have your ship delivered, but there are times where that money is cutting a bit too deep into your wallet. It wouldn't harm gameplay to just have this appear as a 5 minute or so warp loading screen, and the loading screen is already in place. Then when the loading screen stops you simply appear in your other ship at the Outfitting screen like when you log in. The cost of this could be 80% of what having your ship delivered would have been. Obviously keep the ship delivery system in place as is, for those of you who can afford it.
Howabout even let us use our AspX or DBX to scoot around quicker to collect parts for our big slow ships instead? Why can't we already use our cargo holds to buy that stuff?
That way you'd simply have to dock where your big slow ship is, then goto your cargo and add those modules to storage, then switch to your big slow ship and install them.

I also would like them to reuse the model of the ship from the Shipyard store page to show where utilities and weapons are actually being placed, instead of those close up shots on the Type 10 for example which isn't clear at all in some places. I know you can check the free roam camera, but why make things awkward? I want to have fun playing the game, not have to endue a billion diffeent grinds each with their own 10 trillion levels of sub grinds.

It does get to a point where you got to question the MUH REALISMS mentality.
There's supposed to be multiple billions of stars, with potentially trillions of exo-planets, no one born today would be able to see all of that in this game, even if they were somehow able to play the game being birthed with a hotas in their hands and VR headset on and already logged in and playing as the doctor holds them up to say "it's a boy" or "its a girl" for 24 hours a day, continously, and living for 100 years. There's no need to have such mind numbingly tedious grindy grinds in any game, never mind one this big.

EDIT: Also add a Black Box option at the rebuy screen so you can recover all your cartographic data. It's a demonically cruel to die with crap tonnes of cartographic data that took many hours, or even days to collect, just to lose everything. It really does make you want to put the game down and neve pick it back up.

Before anyone mentions MUH REALISMS just remember, you are at the rebuy screen buying back the ship that was just destroyed, plus you also respawned so you could be at the buy back screen LOL.

Heck no that would be mind numbingly easy mode. Esp when you consider piracy, or other fights in the game. -- I think it shouldn't be so easy, otherwise we are going to end up with a bunch of 'best in slot' type people. ED is complex enough that you dont get that kind of 'best in slot' elitism. It is able to do that and still be really fun and playable. It might be inconvenient to do some of these things, but it makes sense. --- You know I took a repair limpet controller in to the galactic bulge the other day. I had to lose a few ly but I was glad I did when I bounced of a 2g planet. Did I go slower? yes. BUT because of that I also hit more systems. ---

I would hate to see them over-nerf limpets. - They are so useful, having a master controller would be unbalanced as F. --- Like you steal some cargo from a mining ship then they steal it back lol tf?



I would however like an demo controller so you could suicide limpets into an enemy if they attacked you. Would make mining HILARIOUS!

Or make Recon limpets work in pvp? Do they work in PvP? Like let me shut down someones drives.

 

[Stabby_Dave]

I wish people would use the "search" button before they post a suggestion.

 

[ARNUD SWAZZANEGGER]

Heck no that would be mind numbingly easy mode. Esp when you consider piracy, or other fights in the game. -- I think it shouldn't be so easy, otherwise we are going to end up with a bunch of 'best in slot' type people. ED is complex enough that you dont get that kind of 'best in slot' elitism. It is able to do that and still be really fun and playable. It might be inconvenient to do some of these things, but it makes sense. --- You know I took a repair limpet controller in to the galactic bulge the other day. I had to lose a few ly but I was glad I did when I bounced of a 2g planet. Did I go slower? yes. BUT because of that I also hit more systems. ---

I would hate to see them over-nerf limpets. - They are so useful, having a master controller would be unbalanced as F. --- Like you steal some cargo from a mining ship then they steal it back lol tf?

I would however like an demo controller so you could suicide limpets into an enemy if they attacked you. Would make mining HILARIOUS!

Or make Recon limpets work in pvp? Do they work in PvP? Like let me shut down someones drives.

What you are calling easy mode, I'd call a convenient quality of life addition, and as with real life anything convenient typically has a cost somewhere down the line. Like i suggested, keep the master limpet controller available in A-rated form only and the most expensive of the limpet modules and then you'd also have the additional cost of each program you want to add on top of that. That way peeps can gear up properly for their long range explorations without having to herpy derp and derpy herp their ship with having to use multiple modules that should be made redundant by a master module.

There really do need to be quality of life stuff done to this game. I've seen the comments from new and veteran players alike on youtube, steam, reddit and even here of course. Not everyone has whole days to pour in this game even on weekends. We have crap to get on with and some peeps only have a few hours to spare for themselves to put into a game they enjoy.

Don't we already have enough grinds, and then grinds within grinds, then grindy grinds on top of those grinds?
This MUH RREALISMS nonsense really just needs to stop somewhere. I'd say about 90% or more of this game is Not realistic already as it is. It's also funny how you see peeps babble about realism while at the same time so perfectly accepting of the fact that when you die you can respawn and buy back your ship that was just blown to bits. C'mon, enough of this nonsense already.

Ever looked at the weight of some of those limpet controllers, like the 7B? You ever wonder why a simple device that just programs limpets even has to weigh so much to begin with?
The answer is most likely because it involves forcing you into yet another grind. Well you want to reduce the ships weight to increase FSD range, so now you can grind on this too.

It's like the same nonsense with the mining nerf recently, i suspect it's just so not everyone will be able to afford a carrier, but instead of nerfing the profits from mining, they could have simply made the cost of buying a carrier into the hundreds of billions or even a nice neat trillion, or multiple trillions just to keep them top tier elite status only. Then of course you're going to have to buy upgrades for those carriers which will no doubt cost you many more billions.

It's all just designed to make you grind.

I like your idea of a using a limpet to sabotage someone's ship though, even though i don't play in open and I'm not into even attacking NPCs who aren't wanted.