Even if i don´t have it at the current point (still a lot of parts left to go for) i would say the following
Considering that it is a “mining ship” that is designed espacially for “mining” the Exclusive weapon really should give a perfect drop all the time without the need to watch for the color. Basicly hold the attack button Astro “overheats” and explodes with max yield.
The grind for this ship is one thing and it makes sense that we have to “watch out in order to get the best extraction rate” while a mining ship has the necessary tools that basicly should “remove this process” cus otherwise you can go with the best strat that gives a guranteed drop even when it takes longer.
I wouldn´t even mind if the ship would be useless in PvP or PvE activities with the Weapon and tech it can equip so that it really is only usefull for mining in OS. Don´t know if the 16 cargo slots are now already the preset or if you use cargo hull but i assume that the module for the cargo drone will not really be needed in most situations if you go for pure mining and ignore all other containers in space.
So i would suggest the following for this ship to “fullfill it´s purpose”
- Using the exclusive weapon will gurantee the best drop of an Astro cus it keeps the “perfect heat point” (basicly hold fire until Astro explodes)
- As alternative when the “perfect heat” is reached the Astro directly explodes and give the drops (cutting the time)
- If using the Mole it gives an sepcial small sector that is instanced for each player with the following benefits
- No NPCs in the sector
- Due of the instance no competition for Astros to prevent “stealing” and keep them out of OS for mining and making it harder for “non Mole users”
- The sector is filled with a bunch of Astros (maybe 100) so that travel times are small (distance between the Astros is 2000 units at best)
- Respawn of Astros is 30-60 seconds
- Replace the Cargo drone with a “mining drone” that will fly from one Astro to another and mines them (perfect drop) and returns after 1 minute to deliver the drop into the Mole´s Cargo hold
Would it turn OS useless? Not really considering that OS is mostly just used for the Missions or Mining so it would just shift the mining part to another instance with the Mole. In my case i normaly only fly OS when there are missions that can be done or if i need to mine for materials while the rest of the time i hang out in the PvE part of the game (skirmish and/or Spec Ops). In the end a miner is not meant for combat and should stay away from battle releated activities or locations where it could be attacked so i assume that this might be the best solution for it
