I think Gold Aliens should be able to pick up limpets if they are capable of other things like whacking figs in open space, running into armid mines, running into q-cannons and get blasted.

Follows is a screen cap showing they don't pick up limpets. I deployed 10 limpets and not a single one was picked up.

Done on my local machine running latest public version. I'm sure the Beta server is the same way.

Deployed Fighters Report Sector 3533: Alien Trader Qufu Thoalir's Furbie entered sector.
Your fighters in sector 3533 lost 1 attacking Alien Trader Qufu Thoalir

Command [TL=00:00:00]:[776] (?=Help)? : K
<Mine Scanning>

 Scan which mine type, 1 Armid or 2 Limpet ? :2



      Deployed  Limpet  Scan

 Sector      Mines     Personal/Corp
====================================
  3533          10      Corporate
                10 Total

Activated  Limpet  Scan

 Sector    Personal/Corp
========================
                 0 Total

I then warped to the sector next to 3533 and did a holoscan.

Sector  : 3533 in Alien Traders Space.
Ports   : Cygnus Primus, Class 4 (SSB)
Alien Tr: Menace 1st Class Qufu Thoalir, w/ 225 ftrs,
           in Odiom Taxilut (IonStream Furbie)
Mines   : 10 (Type 2 Limpet) (belong to your Corp)

It would be nice to track down an alien if he picked up the limpet when I'm not at keys and he has a particular ship that I want, especially if the ship is unique.

At one time they did pick up limpets, but if the move chance is high, the'll clear out a lot of limpets in a short amount of time is the reason it was changed.

So?

Players clear out a lot of limpets in a short amount of time themselves. Same thing.

If Gold Aliens are to perform some actions similar to human players, they should be able to do a simple task like picking up a limp.

I'm not agreeing with you OR disagreeing with you. I simply stated what happened in the past. It was JP's discision to change it. There was a thread at the time this change was made, but it was so long ago that it's probably lost in another forum somewhere.

Think of the logs, if you were playing G or H on the beta server (3 alien races and 12 alien races)

If you were figging and limping every sector and aliens picked up limps, then every limp hit message you see in addition to the 2 fig hit messages just cost you 10k credits. Wouldn't you think that fig hits are enough to locate an alien?

H

Good point.

I have to agree with Timberwolf on this point. The aliens can wear down your q-cannons, attack your figs and get blown up by your aramids. I see no reason why they should not pick up limpets as well.

Just my 1.2 cents worth. (#@&$%# inflation!!!)

The players would adjust to the new economics of it and scripts would adjust as well. I was just pointing out the obvious. A change like this would not affect tourney style games because they dont normally have aliens.

H