S1 Hofstede review
I had an opportunity to run this one on my prospector today, and it's a definite improvement over the standard mining head. I was able to transfer enough energy into a fairly big rock to crack it, and got a very nice 22k payout as my reward (not great, but not bad for one of the first rocks you find)
With the standard loadout, I would not have been able to crack this one. It just doesn't have the energy transfer needed.
That said...don't use this one for bigger rocks unless you know what you are doing and have really good and really responsive controls (I use an axis on my throttle specifically for this purpose as it's a long throw, but also has the ability to go from full on to full off in 1/4 of a second depending on how fast I need it.)
You are pretty much sitting on top of the rock when you first crack it, and even once you are down to your secondary cracks, it's still danger close in terms of overcharge. If the server lags even a second or two, it's pretty much game over for you as you won't be able to get to minimum safe distance.
I will make a few more runs with this, but this run tripled what I made on each of my first two runs when I was forced to go to smaller and less profitable rocks.
I also will be looking at testing out the Klein laser as well. Both of these seem like good "bang for the buck" mining heads. The Hofstede will supposedly give you a fairly safe experience, while the Klein has a larger power transfer and longer range available to it.
I would give this a 4/5 star review. Great for those that won't (often) overload their rocks, but 1 star is removed due to a slightly less powerful energy transfer rate, and needing to be danger close. Overall, a very nice value for the fresh player to use as her first upgrade in capability
