Orbital Radio Use

[Lazyayye]

So I've had several ships fly by the planet and I went to use the radio and none of my survivors went to use it, Im curious if its one of the skills I need with higher priority? I've used it 3 times before without changing anything.

[N00B]

just manually ask them to use it.

[Sterling Archer]

Way not to be helpful NOOB. Left click on the portrait at the top of the screen of the person you want to use the Orbital Radio, after a ship has been detected. While their portrait is highlighted right click on the Orbital Radio (desk looking thing) a menu will appear with the contact ship option. You can do this with other work stations in the game as well. I went most of a game without using this option until I got to this point, so don't feel bad if this where you are.

[Jaggid Edje]

For them to do it automatically, it is probably prioritized by the "Handle" task.

[Team Triss]

I don't think it can be done automatically, handle is always my top priority and i always had to direct them to use it.

[Jaggid Edje]

Originally posted by LoR Team Triss:

I don't think it can be done automatically, handle is always my top priority and i always had to direct them to use it.

I thought that too before this thread, but OP implies he had people do it automatically in the past. Maybe I just drew the wrong conclusion from his words.

[Actual Malice]

Lol, I did two whole playthroughs before I discovered left-click, right-click -- and I had some hairy moments while waiting for the survivors to answer the radio, especially if the signal overlapped a sleep period. But they always eventually did. Phew!

[Jaggid Edje]

I finally got the radio built in my True Solo achievement run, and I can confirm that they DO use it automatically, but you have to select the radio and click the "contact" button before they will do so.

Also can confirm that it is the "Handle" activity that controls how they prioritize it.

[Bearsuit]

Originally posted by Jaggid Edje:

I finally got the radio built in my True Solo achievement run, and I can confirm that they DO use it automatically, but you have to select the radio and click the "contact" button before they will do so.

Also can confirm that it is the "Handle" activity that controls how they prioritize it.

I just finished my True Solo and I couldn't manually click the radio fast enough when the first signal came through haha

[Lazyayye]

Thanks for the input, been a while since I played a map, but man, did I wait a long time before they went to that thing to use it lol.

[pgauthi]

So, does it have to be turned on to get a notification that a ship is near? It uses a lot of juice. Can I just turn it on when a ship is near?

[Jaggid Edje]

Originally posted by pgauthi:

So, does it have to be turned on to get a notification that a ship is near? It uses a lot of juice. Can I just turn it on when a ship is near?

There is another thread here from back around the same time as this one where someone said you don't have to have it on to get the message that a ship is near, but when I tried that in my game I never got any notifications when I had it off, so I just leave it on now when I'm trying to finish the crash scenario.

[wcbarney]

Originally posted by Jaggid Edje:

Originally posted by pgauthi:

So, does it have to be turned on to get a notification that a ship is near? It uses a lot of juice. Can I just turn it on when a ship is near?

There is another thread here from back around the same time as this one where someone said you don't have to have it on to get the message that a ship is near, but when I tried that in my game I never got any notifications when I had it off, so I just leave it on now when I'm trying to finish the crash scenario.

I am reasonably certain that you cannot detect or communicate with any of the passing spacecraft unless both antennas and the radio are on.

Slightly off the main topic: When the orbital antennas are operating, sometimes there will be herds of animals (usually ulfens or camels) spawn inside your base. They will make a bee-line to your antennas, and are capable of doing a considerable amount of damage in a short period of time. I have learned to build concrete fortifications closely around both antennas, with metal gates so that they can be repaired if needed.

[wcbarney]

Originally posted by tiamats4esgares:

Originally posted by wcbarney:

When the orbital antennas are operating, sometimes there will be herds of animals (usually ulfens or camels) spawn inside your base. They will make a bee-line to your antennas, and are capable of doing a considerable amount of damage in a short period of time. I have learned to build concrete fortifications closely around both antennas, with metal gates so that they can be repaired if needed.

And concrete is harder to sustain. Wood works fine from my experience, just saying.

We have had this little discussion before, a couple of times. Your experience simply is not sufficient to draw such a conclusion and to recommend it to others. Wood fortifications have an integrity value of 250, versus concrete fortifications with integrity = 750; carbon fortifications are even better. You shouldn't conclude that, because your wooden fortifications have never been penetrated, they never will be. When your wooden fortification gets hit with a determined attack, it will be penetrated in seconds. If your concrete fortification is attacked, it will hold out a little while longer -- usually long enough for your survivors to flank the attackers and kill them off before the fortification is penetrated.

[Jaggid Edje]

I suspect the difference of opinion has to do with experience in terms of the different types of enemies.

If you play on lower difficulty, and focus only on "winning the game" you can pretty easily get by not building any fortifications at all and using only fences.

The AI is easy to exploit, and there's only a few enemies that will even attack walls/fences if you build specifically with the intent of funneling them along a specific route. On lower difficulties in a shorter game, you may never see those enemy types.

[Jaggid Edje]

Originally posted by tiamats4esgares:

Building concrete fortifications is a waste because most enemies ignore you fences if you have an opening to your base.

I mostly agree with you, but I still think you are 'playing to win' and not dragging your game out at all. On higher difficulty, if you have dragged your game out at all, you are going to want concrete fortifications at the very least for protecting your antennas, imo.
(Unless you use multi-layer defenses to the extent they just aren't going to be able to go for the antennas, which also does work).

On other scenarios than the crash landing, I often don't build any fortifications at all and just use brick fences.