Collector

**Collectors** are special systems blocks that can gather floating items and store them inside itself. They are only for **solid** objects. To collect liquids and gases players will need to use the Fuel Scoop.

## Overview

Collectors serve an extremely vital role in Mining. They are designed to gather all the materials blasted into space by Mining Beams. While picking ore chunks by hand is possible, this process is prolonged and tedious. Collectors are the only way to efficiently harvest large quantities of ore in a short amount of time.

### Setup

Collectors can be placed on any entity. They can be scaled but not stretched. Only collectors of 1/2m and up can function adequately and collect ore. *They require no energy and do not produce waste heat*. Pressing **[F]** on the collector will bring up the Collector Menu, where players can meddle with various settings.

The collector's central opening, its "Mouth," will be facing up when placed down. This opening has a solid hitbox, so players can walk onto it without falling in. On each corner are lights. The color of which is determined by the power status of the collector. Green/Red for on/off.

### Storage

*See:Conveyor System*

Collectors have internal storage capacity. Items that the collector has gathered will automatically appear here. The storage capacity depends on the size of the collector array. When the collector's inventory is full, it will not be able to gather additional ore. The Conveyor system must move items to free up space.

Collectors are used extensively in the Conveyor System. Collectors are needed to remove items from Cargo containers and expel them onto Conveyor Belts. Collectors will re-acquire items, usually in their refined form, and place them back into storage.

### Collecting

Once placed, the collector will default set to **Collect** mode and begin to suck in any ore chunks within its range. The vacuum effect is spherical, meaning the collector will draw in items it isn't facing. There is a visual effect for when the vacuum effect is active. Ore chunks captured will be drawn towards the "mouth" of the collector and will be "eaten." The player can change the range of the vacuum effect in the collector menu.

Should the player need to, the collector can be set to expel its inventory. When the collector is set to **Expel** mode, it randomly draws from its stock and shoots it out from its opening. Items fired out of the collector have a natural spread to them. Players can change the speed at which the collector will shoot its contents in the collector menu. Currently, *the collector's expel mode is the only means of transferring items from one entity to another.*

The final setting for the collector is **None**. This setting neither collects nor expels items but instead vacuums them up. Collectors set to None will gather more chunks similarly to **Collect** mode; however, it will not move them into itself. The collector will hold the items in front of its mouth until deactivated. Items gathered in this manner will proceed with the collector, so this is a way of moving objects around.

### Menu

 Mode | Change the mode of the collector.
* **Collect**-Vacuum effect. Collects nearby floating objects and stores them in its inventory.
* **Expel**- Takes items from inventory and shoots them out.
 Storage Capacity | Displays current inventory capacity. Button with arrows determines where items will be pushed via the Conveyor System.

## Logic

   Button(Pulse) | System remains active as long as the button is pressed.

## Tips

* *The "Range" stat of the collector has no preset limit. It can be set to any number, no matter how large; making the collection range of the collector technically unlimited.*
* Due to the spherical range of the vacuum effect, it is unnecessary to use more than one collector to gather items. Doing so could cause issues with the collectors fighting each other's vacuum effect to collect items.

1. ↑ *Likely subject to change in the future*