Vacuum them pods!!

[Holygun]

Playing the other day I found the remains of a melee; no ships and about 20 cargopods out there, and thought 'oh I can't bother, takes too long'. Then instead of scooping them one by one, why not sweeping them all at once?
If you had some equipment that could vacuum/attract them all without your ship moving at all. Would that be difficult to implement?
As usual, make it expensive and/or available for big ships and/or take some cargo space.
But don't make it instantaneous. Just that you see the pods moving slowly towards your ship.
Comments, please.

[Lucidor]

There is already a tractor beam, but its range is quite short. I don't think we should have a fully automatic cargo scooping, but maybe a double range tractor beam.

[jonnycuba]

Playing the other day I found the remains of a melee; no ships and about 20 cargopods out there, and thought 'oh I can't bother, takes too long'. Then instead of scooping them one by one, why not sweeping them all at once?

After any battle there have always been scavengers picking the bones of the scene...

Imagine an olde crone in cloth rags on the field after the battle of Naseby turning to her turnip nosed companion saying 'ah my lovely, I wouldst spende 'till sundown wrenching the golde from the mouths of these poor dead fools but I cannot be arsed'.

you'd think she's mad right?

[Holygun]

But for God's sake, it's 34th century, not Middle Age!!
By the way, that witchspace of yours must be a weird place indeed, look at yer English, by heck!

[jonnycuba]

But for God's sake, it's 34th century, not Middle Age!!

Same Sh*t different millennia

[Draco_Caeles]

<Monty Python>Oooh, there's some lovely dirt over 'ere!</Monty>

[Commander Gralen]

Actually i think it's quite an idea. and it's NOT same sh*t different century thingy whutevayusaid, cuz it's harder piloting at ship that would only go forward and turn and twist a bit, than walking around and bending down...

Wait a minuite.. did someone say tractor beam?

...Did i miss something?

[Lucidor]

Wait a minuite.. did someone say tractor beam?

...Did i miss something?

Haven't you noticed that sometimes when you scoop, there's a sound that goes "wupwupwupwupwup", and the things you try to scoop comes closer and closer? That's the tractor beam working.

[Cmdr Monte]

Is that why sometimes, it takes a very long time to scoop something. I get the wupwupwup sound almost every time, I guess I'm a rubish scavenger. Often canisters appear to circle my ship, flashing in front of me before being finally colected. It can take up to 10 seconds

[Lucidor]

Yes, that's it.

[Lupin Thief]

Cool.. Learn something new everyday

Dont know how I managed to get that, as far as I knew the fuel scoop always made the "wupwupwupwupwup" noise..

I did wonder why metal fragments seemed to get sucked right at me though.

Must have been on the Josher when I bought it. Will have to check out its plist.