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H.I.V Semi-autonomous Mining Platform | Vanilla/NoMods/Scripts

H.I.V Semi-autonomous Mining Platform

Hello everyone!

I was browsing the workshop the other day and I came across Vendeta44's creation, which I found awesome, but thought it had some limitations and annoying quirks. Using the same concept I set out to improve it and also add features to it, while also keeping it vanilla/no mods/scripts.

What is it?

The H.I.V is a two piece semi autonomous mining platform comprised of the actual mining body and a carrier for transport. It latches on a surface and start digging, the arms latch onto the walls of the tunnel and it keeps going until you turn it off. It can be fully operated normally or remotely while you do other things(that's the whole idea really). It requires no input from the player after you start it, only needing to retrieve it after you're done.
It can be positioned manually or be launched from the carrier ship(it has parachutes, camera and correcting thrusters to land where you need it to)
It has 2 modes:
1- Mine for 50 meters, then return to the surface and stop once it is in a certain distance from the carrier ship connector(the carrier ship needs to be inside the sensor range and the mining body will only stop and return once it doesn't detect the carrier ship anymore)
2- Mining indefinetely until you tell it to stop(the carrier ship needs to be out of the sensor range to begin with OR connected to the mining body(so it goes down the tunnel along with it and doesn't trigger the return sequence because it never leaves the sensor range)


- Super fun to use

- Extremely energy efficient(small batteries last for 6h while drilling, also has 1 backup reactor to recharge batteries for long missions)

- It works in any surface or angle, even upside down as long as the inner arms are attached to a surface

- It can be left unattended for as long as you want. The only things that requires any input from the player are moving it to the location, landing/placing it and then retrieving later

- Decent cargo capacity and sorter/ejector system to keep only the ore you need, the carrier also scoops all the ore from the mining body when it's connected, allowing for re-launching before you go back to base to unload

- It has sensors and cameras set up to help you manually retrieve it easily. The sensors turn on the lights when you line up both connectors

- Easy to use. All the shortcuts needed are in the bars(1-2) already. See user guide below for reference.


- Since I commited to it being very energy/cost efficient it turned out to look ugly as balls. It did happen to look like a virus though, hence the name.



Tested it extensively, never had one of these break or act weird in any way. Left it running overnight many times and it was always working when I woke up.
No phantom forces either, the key hinges/pistons have low torque to avoid that, which makes the upper arms to look a little funky when it's operating fully loaded, but it's completely safe. Make sure experimental mode is ON(for the shared inertia tensor setting)
Also tested it in multiplayer, no problems at all.


Guide
9:20 is when I go over the shortcuts

Consider leaving a like if you enjoyed it!

Cheers