Explain Dropships like I'm 2

[WolfGary]

I'm playing almost exclusively on a single player, open world setup. I can research items in the workshop, but can't seem to retrieve them.
I place all my items into storage (just in case) and return to the Station. I can see the items, but can't transfer them into my inventory. Then I return to the game by using the "load" option.
I have also tried using the OEI as well, I saw a post saying this would work as well.
Neither of these seem to work....what am I missing?

[The Dutchman]

Brain cells apparently.

You dont need to return to the station unless you're changing enviro suits. Everything else can be sent down to you. All you do is craft the items in the workshop, drag them to the inventory screen, and send them down

[Spaceminnow]

This ---> is "U"...
This ---> is a "T"...
This ---> is a "U"...

This ---> is a "B"...
This ---> is a "E"...
This is gonna take a while... :(

[WolfGary]

Originally posted by The Dutchman:

Brain cells apparently.

You dont need to return to the station unless you're changing enviro suits. Everything else can be sent down to you. All you do is craft the items in the workshop, drag them to the inventory screen, and send them down

So, what you're delicately implying, is that if this isn't working then this is a support issue? Obvously I've tried that

[Rekal]

TL;DR Check your file permissions / hidden file status for your loadout.json file found here:

C:\Users\[WindowsUserName]\AppData\Local\Icarus\Saved\PlayerData\[SteamID#]\Loadout\Loadout.json

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There's a few ways to get items down on the surface and it sounds like you tried both. I'll go through them both and then you let us know when / if it stops working for you.

If you've ridden your drop ship up to orbit and are no longer on your prospect we'll start there. On the screen you can pick resume, new, load or join there's a tab across the top called workshop. In this workshop tab there's all the workshop gear listed on various pages.

Each item will start with an empty diamond in the upper right corner and clicking on the item will give you a popup confirmation to research the item. Once researched the empty diamond will fill with a check mark.

If you click the item again another popup confirmation will appear this time confirming if you'd like to craft the item. If you craft the item the item will appear in your loadout tab just to the left of the workshop tab.

On that loadout tab you'll see your orbital stash on the left and the items you have on planet on the right. This is where some people have issues - the game doesn't seem to have permission to write to the Loadout.json file so even though they purchase the item and spend the money/exotics the item isn't added to this loadout screen. Once you have the item here it's ready for your use.

Back on the home tab select LOAD. Your list of prospects will be on the left, and any prospect you're currently on will show a little drop ship symbol indicating you're already there on the ground. Pick your prospect and click join prospect to see your drop loadout screen.

The drop loadout screen will show your orbital stash and items on planet just like the other loadout tab. The difference is now you can rearrange the items - sort them here if you like. In the center of the screen is where you select your envirosuit for this drop, and further to the right is where you place up to 15 of the items you'd like to take with you. This is also where you'd select insurance for a mission. Pressing the confirm loadout button will drop you onto the planet with your selected gear.

On planet you access the drop ship inventory by interacting with it - you don't even have to step out yet - and the gear should be available for you to pick up right there. If not it's probably the same issue listed below for empty drop pods.

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On planet with an Orbital Exchange Interface should work pretty much the same way. When interacting with the drop pod there's a workshop tab to research and craft the items, and you can request items from your orbital stash. Which is just a case of dragging them from the orbital stash side into the drop pod side and then hitting the button to call it down. Once down the drop pod has an inventory you can interact with and pull your workshop items out of it to your inventory. Or put the workshop items back into the drop pod to send them back to your orbital stash.

This is where some other people run into issues. I'm not sure why but perhaps because of the same file permission issues again. Maybe the game doesn't update the loadout.json file by marking the items with the "On a drop" properly. So the drop pod arrives and then perhaps there's a secondary check to prevent item duplication that's supposed to be:

--- Prospect File: I received a drop pod request for items X, Y, and Z. Loadout, confirm?
--- Modified Loadout File: Confirmed. X, Y, and Z were sent from me and I'm marking that you have them.
--- Prospect File: Acknowledged, I'm placing the items in the drop pod.

But instead because of the permissions issue the interaction is like so:

--- Prospect File: I received a drop pod request for items X, Y, and Z. Loadout, confirm?
--- Unmodified Loadout File: Negative. X, Y, and Z are not on a drop.
--- Prospect File: Acknowledged, I'm clearing the pod to prevent item duplication.

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That should about cover it. So let us know where you're getting hung up.

[КрендельФигов]

First, disable Steam Clouds, close Discord and other background programs that may interfere with the operation of other applications (including any Google Drive if it is engaged in ‘backing up’ system directories)
If the problem persists, then more details of the problem are needed.