1: Keymapped /follow to my "F" key. I run pretty free of macros, but watching for green dots on my radar, pressing the "x" key till I have an Asteroid Chunk targeted, then "F" works pretty well for me so far... and it means I have something more to do than just pull a trigger every so often. I fly to fly, not let my ship do that for me
2: Toggle tractor beam to on then forget about it. After a while the graphic of the beam will quit working, however its still on and dragging those precious rocks into my cockpit. >.> <.< That *CAN'T* be good for the paint job. When I break up an asteroid into tiny bits (on /follow I'm nice and close to the rock) what my blasters don't eat my tractorbeam will help with, even when one blows into ten bits, most I have to chase down are 2-4 hunks. When I chase down a chunk I just let my tractorbeam drag it to me since /follow doesn't lead the target at all, and tractorbeams need to NOT lead the target, it's a win-win and I'm up 40 resource rather than 20.
3: I use a three-gun Kimogila for mining. W0 (2 barrels under the cockpit) = Class 2 mining laser, W1 (wings) = an RE-V or VI blaster (who wants to shoot at upwards of tier 4's with a blowtorch, I mean really?), and W2 (above cockpit) = Tractorbeam. Yeah there's a lot to love with that bird, and she moves like a mack truck (on its roof), but she's always treated me right, and I can easily fill her 5k cargo hold in just under a half hour (total, travel time included).
I'd love to make a solid try at mining with my Y-8, only there's a few issues that would make that pretty frustrating for all involved... Since the chest turrets are similar to the normal gun mount (gimbal at the bottom, turret moves up 90, down 0, with 180 rotation) but forward motion of the ship is at the mount's 90 degree up angle, if a chunk gets froggy and goes the wrong way there's no constant glide to keep tracking it-- the turret has to physically rotate and your track has to now follow down vice up. (layman's terms: target going into your turret's blindside =
). If I were smart, I'd instead use a turret type more similar to the tail gun on a lambda shuttle (which I think is how the tailgun in an Imp gunship works anyway). Then there was the muzzle-flash that needs a warning label: "NOTICE: You SHALL develop siezures upon pulling this trigger." Fix in place, thank you Fyonna for linking that mod.