So I recently bought myself a Junker Salvager and immediately set out to test its' abilities..... there is something seriously wrong with the way it behaves in asteroid fields.
First off, flying into a mineable fragment whilst moving seems to cause it to divert its course in a random direction - and I'm not talking some small bump as you'd expect - it's as much as a 45+ angle diversion. Quite annoying if you're flying manually for whatever reason.
I suspect the issue may be the complicated shape of the ship, with all those arms jutting out, 'catching' these mineable fragments inside the ships' collision box and messing with the physics engine.
I've also noticed the ship is incapable of averting asteroids when on autopilot - much moreso than other ships of the same size (ie. my old Pirate Transport). It appears to not 'notice' asteroids until it's basically on top of them already.
Now, I had a look through the coding for this ship and I couldn't find anything which immediately raised a flag, so as I mentioned above I think it's either the model or collision box at fault.
It's very frustrating flying this thing through what it's meant to be the best at collecting, and I spent so much money on it.:(
I can't be the only one who's a bit miffed at the way this ship behaves?
the "model" ( the parts you see ) have no effect on the behaviour - the game only recognizes the hitbox. - and the hitbox works and fits quite well ( doesn t include every little detail of course )
small pebbles can have a great effect on some ships ( like a small pebble pushing even a juggernaut vertical ) - but that doesn t happen everywhere in every situation.
the reason why the salvager might not "see" asteroids when in autopilot is due to its very flat shape.
although it sounds harsh - but at this time, i d have to say "you gotto live with it" - cause we won t be able to fix it in the very near future. - but maybe other salvager pilots can provide some information ( cause i don t fly one myself )
Rather than live with it, I'm just going to re-purchase a Pirate Transport. It has another interesting interaction with the pebbles - its' flat face causes many of them to end up flying almost parallel to me in front... quite amusing to watch.:)
Only thing I noticed with the Salvager is that it has a strong tendency to pull up whilst flying through asteroid/debris fields. This can be easily countered by flying "nose-down".