The Scavenger.

4 cu
1 phase blaster
1000 hull
heavy engine, med battery.

flies in squads of 5

it runs around, catching all ore it can find, and runs off into space with them.

some point is that they have a specified "exit strategy" and will only leave when all members are full, and will always leave by the same path. if you wanted to kill them , you could spend the time camping them at the same place.

They attack when provoked, not unless.

They will avoid areas with more than players within a 2k radius.

so if there are more than 5 players in a 2km sphere, they run? cool. Pirate training drones!

That would ruin my smiley faces in space but I think boxes automatically disappear after a time incriment anyway.

15min was what it used to be. I have heard (unconfirmed) that it was reduced to 5min.

Celkan: yep, basically. :)
The idea was to add some more bot-content to the game, spawning more variety for how things happen (tm).

Theese could very well be a nuisance if you're fex. mining Heliocine ore.... ;)

Well, I've noticed that if you're mining a roid that has more than one type of ore and you jettison the ore, you drop one crate for each type...

.. so why not drop, pick up the Helioscene ore crate, drop, repeat?

I really do like the idea of training drones for pirates though... it's kinda cute.

aye. and they shouldn't hassle you if you have 4 buddies just sitting around with you while you mine.
Sounds more fun than having cargo "magically" disappear before your eyes as they time out

you do that too, but really, its more fun to mine it all at once and then start shipping off the 1000+ units of ore ;)

The one thing this game lacks is exploding barrels. The greatest games have all had them, so let's have crates blow up after their timer runs out, and have it be like an actual security timer to deter pirates (though picking up cargo will render it harmless). Volatile chemicals crates should produce an extra bang, and would be great for baiting minefield traps, or as emergency firepower when attacked by pirates.

I think you're in the wrong thread, lowguppy.

This is the one you want:
http://www.vendetta-online.com/x/msgboard/3/7525

I actually made my post before that thread was posted... (though I posted my suggestion there too just a few minutes ago)