What are the intended uses for drop pods?

[Wicked Clown Luv]

I like the idea of caravans, I haven't reached drop pod tech yet but once I saw it on the tech tree the idea of just flying instantly to wherever you need to go kind of dissapointed me. For all I know it could be not feasible to do so due to cost or whatnot, but yea wanted to ask how and when these things are typically used?

[Astasia]

They do have a cost. They are one time use pods that break apart when landing, which is a bit of a steel sink, they also require chemfuel to launch, and they can't move that much cargo. Since they are one time use this also means if you want to return without walking you will need to build new pods and launchers and fuel them up, which isn't always viable. So you use them when you can spare the resources, or the distance is too far to travel by caravan.

I've only used them when there was a mission I wanted to complete that I probably wouldn't reach on foot within the time limit, or to send resources to a caravan that needed more foods or meds. Other people use them more often, sometimes to ship resources between multiple colonies for example.

[WarWise]

They are quite usefull and there is a learning curve about them that I havent mastered yet.
They are great to send pawns on trade missions and also ro replenish caravans.
THe travel is almost instant, so its really helpfull.

[Morkonan]

Drop pods are outstanding for resupplying caravans and for the small caravan missions that don't end up with you having to haul a lot of stuff. Otherwise, for standard trade caravans and some rescues, like "prisoner rescues," a standard caravan with some draft animals is the best way to go.* (Provided its in growing season unless you're willing/able to haul animal feed.)

I always keep several drop pods fueled and ready to go, just in case they're needed.

*Note: With rescue missions, assault, etc, you may end up finding some valuable stuff you'd like to haul back, which is difficult to do without draft animals. Though, I have had pawns carry large-screen televisions all the way back to base by themselves... Big pockets, I guess?

[kevinshow]

Originally posted by Turd Ferguson:

I like the idea of caravans, I haven't reached drop pod tech yet but once I saw it on the tech tree the idea of just flying instantly to wherever you need to go kind of dissapointed me. For all I know it could be not feasible to do so due to cost or whatnot, but yea wanted to ask how and when these things are typically used?

I use them for several reasons:
1) to cut down 1/2 of the trip of a caravan, with the outgoing trip being almost instant. Now I just need to return home. this is helpful if a particular location is too many days away (I've had round trips that took 15 days total..a whole season that my colony was without some colonists). or for quests, if you do not have time to travel there but the drop pod can get them there very fast.

2) to help a caravan. maybe it ran out of food or i need to get other things delivered to it, such as clothing. sometimes i rescued a new recruit but his clothes are not good enough for the current temperatures.

3) sometimes I arrived at an enemy base and I realized I needed more people. no problem. send the reinforcements by drop pod. another similar idea here is to do like the raiders do -- once you can see the map tile because your colonists are there, then you can send materials to build long-range weapons.

4) the following thing I used to do more often in the early days of learning this game, not so much now (since nowadays I can depend more on merchants or deep drilling options). I used to send a caravan to a nearby tile, whether it was because of quest or resources found. once there, I set up additional drop pods to send resources back to the main colony. as you know, steel and other resources are pretty heavy, so sending back so much via drop pod was better than mining all those resources and not being able to carry them back.

once I strip mine the tile, then I leave. IIRC, there were some tiles that you could stay at for 10 days in earlier versions of the game, so I did all that I could in those 10 days and left (this was also enough time to grow some rice to keep that group fed, so they were pretty much self-sufficient once arriving at the tile).

[Silverbird]

For all I know it could be not feasible to do so due to cost or whatnot

eh? all they cost is steel and chemfuel...
when you get chemfuel researched too, all chemfuel costs is wood or whatever...
Idk if the same holds true for others, but steel veins are HUGE compared to before 1.0...like...the average size of a steel vein is 30 blocks it seems! Thats over 1000 steel per vein lol

[Geno Cidal]

I use em to launch 4-5 people to start a new base within the range allowed, theirs now a mod that allows them to go even farther which help establishing bases all over the planet

[kevinshow]

Originally posted by Silverbird:

For all I know it could be not feasible to do so due to cost or whatnot

eh? all they cost is steel and chemfuel...
when you get chemfuel researched too, all chemfuel costs is wood or whatever...
Idk if the same holds true for others, but steel veins are HUGE compared to before 1.0...like...the average size of a steel vein is 30 blocks it seems! Thats over 1000 steel per vein lol

Chemfuel is renewable as well as buyable from traders. Steel is buyable and maybe eventually will run out but not before having thousands in stock to the point where you can even turn your base into metal tiles and metal walls, so at the least, steel is plentiful. Oh, that's just at your starting tile. Move over to the next tile and get some more steel if you need to.

So at some point, making and replacing drop pods is not too much of a problem.

[WarWise]

Anyone ever lost their initial base and survived by sending colonists far away to a diferent place through drop pods? That would be amazing.

[Deatheagle]

Drop-pods have their ups and downs compared to caravaneering, even more so if you got giddy-up installed (makes your caravans a lot faster)...

There will be a lot of math involved if you want to figure out, if sending drop-pods instead of more pack animals is really worth it on a case to case basis, but there are sometimes easy ones...

Just today for example I had a quest to deliver 820 Uranium for 2 Archotech parts to a far off base. I let you do the math on that one.

[EPK]

You can use drop pods for dealing with sieges or raids too.
Fill them up with boom rats or boomalopes then poof! Drop the on the raiders and they're smoked.

[NickU]

Originally posted by Hououin Kyouma 👑:

You can use drop pods for dealing with sieges or raids too.
Fill them up with boom rats or boomalopes then poof! Drop the on the raiders and they're smoked.

Can you drop them on to the same map they are fired from then? Also can you select where on the map they land? I've only fired them from one map hex to another and I thought you only got the option of map edge or map centre if you got an option at all.

[TotallyAverageGamer]

I use them to attack bases. Often times I’ll walk my guys over without anything but meals, meds and chocolate. Then I’ll use the pods to drop in whatever they may need, like rocket launchers, steel for sandbags, mortars and rounds etc. in severe cases I’ll drop in more meds, food, anything they may need to last till injuries are healed before they head out. Then I just drop pod the rest back or leave it.

[Sir Doggy Jvla]

Ypu can give presents to faction that are not pirates by sending the drop pod on a faction base (it says how much relation it gives) and if u guve like 10k silver u get like 90 relation points

[Silverbird]

Originally posted by NickU:

Originally posted by Hououin Kyouma 👑:

You can use drop pods for dealing with sieges or raids too.
Fill them up with boom rats or boomalopes then poof! Drop the on the raiders and they're smoked.

Can you drop them on to the same map they are fired from then? Also can you select where on the map they land? I've only fired them from one map hex to another and I thought you only got the option of map edge or map centre if you got an option at all.

You can select where they land specifically if you have the map revealed already.

[Sir Doggy Jvla]

Originally posted by NickU:

Originally posted by Hououin Kyouma 👑:

You can use drop pods for dealing with sieges or raids too.
Fill them up with boom rats or boomalopes then poof! Drop the on the raiders and they're smoked.

Can you drop them on to the same map they are fired from then? Also can you select where on the map they land? I've only fired them from one map hex to another and I thought you only got the option of map edge or map centre if you got an option at all.

Yes you can, when ur on world map click on a loaded zpne (like ur colony and it will show the map and ask u where to land on it