Useful things to do with probes?

[Loues.S.Cat]

And I don't mean the kind that require dropping your pants.

I do love the idea of sending off little unmanned craft to scout ahead for useful sites and to gather data.
Unfortunately reasons to do so are kind of limited.

For one thing, the in game script has no access to the ore detector so you can't really automate scanning for ore deposits, and since the small ship ore detector is all but useless in terms of it's short range it is barley even worth sending a player controlled small ship scouting for ore anyway.

Another convenient use once upon a time, was to send a small ship ahead to scout out obstacles and send back information about the path ahead so a large ship has time to hit the breaks or adjust direction but then we got ray-casting which is far cheaper and easier to use than a scout probe and much more reliable.



So... what can we use probes for at the moment?

Right now, as I sit on the mars world surface I can think of one thing...
According to my ship capacity calculator I have 94% of the needed thrust to take off.
According to my inventory sorter I am out of ice, thrust components, and platinum.
Now, if I had dropped a probe down to the surface first, it could have informed me of the engine efficiency & gravity at ground level and I would have known going down was a bad idea.
But I didn't. So now I am stuck on mars thinking of how I wish I had sent a probe in first.

Now I just need to work out the best way to mount them on my ship which would allow for automatic renewal.

[DrEarlInsanity]

my old pattern ore ship carried 8 tiny ore drones and 2 relay stations.

would send out the relays then park the ore drones by the area's asteroids to get the lay of the land before getting in the mining ship.

[Honestly though]

currently making little drones and probes that i control via remote controls so i can safely and easily mine nearby ore, or defend my base without getting my hands dirty

[Loues.S.Cat]

I hope your base defenders are large ships because the turrets for small ships have a max range of 600 rather than a large grids 800 :p

Though if you are using the fixed gatts and launchers... you'll probably waste a lot of extra ammo, but at least you wont be impacted by the range limit ^.^;

[Lystent]

Expendable assets for sieges; probe may end up getting all shot up, but stands a chance of softening the enemy's deffenses before you bring in your more expensive ship.

Edit: and if the probe fails to hit anything, atleast it would help enlighten you of the base's deffenses.

[DrEarlInsanity]

Originally posted by Lystent:

Expendable assets for sieges; probe may end up getting all shot up, but stands a chance of softening the enemy's deffenses before you bring in your more expensive ship.

Edit: and if the probe fails to hit anything, atleast it would help enlighten you of the base's deffenses.

hell...I make sleeper railgun sats with enough ammo in them for 10 shots. ya may be at my base but ya have 5 or 6 guns i can aim then turn on the automated firing

[Lystent]

Originally posted by DrEarlInsanity:

Originally posted by Lystent:

Expendable assets for sieges; probe may end up getting all shot up, but stands a chance of softening the enemy's deffenses before you bring in your more expensive ship.

Edit: and if the probe fails to hit anything, atleast it would help enlighten you of the base's deffenses.

hell...I make sleeper railgun sats with enough ammo in them for 10 shots. ya may be at my base but ya have 5 or 6 guns i can aim then turn on the automated firing

I'd imagine that the feedback from the probe would be a distinct feeling of being hated; dodging massive projectiles (assuming that they are noticed soon enough to be dodged).