new to Space Age

[Boogie]

Ok so I'm pretty stable on Navis. I want artilery, so I want to go to Vulcanus first.

1. can I drop stuff from orbit without landing pad?
2. if not do I have to build everything from scratch or can I use some resources from Navis?
3. how do I prevent ship damage?

thanks for tips

[gilith]

1. yes, you can - the stuff will land in the same general area where you first land. Just be careful, you don't want it to land on your head :)
2. it is possible to build from scratch even if you land naked on Vulcanus, but sure, you can drop stuff from orbit
3. turrets (regular ones, lasers are useless against asteroids), you can produce ammo on the platform from asteroids. Nauvis orbit is safe (those tiny asteroids won't damage the platform), but you'll need turrets on V. orbit and while in transit

[Fel]

1/ Yes, there will be pods near the spawn point on the planet if there is no landing pad.
Be careful, they can kill you when landing.

2/ All 3 of the initial planets you can go to are designed in a way that allows you to clear them (up to the rocket launch at least) without needing any external resources.
Of course, dropping resources means having an easier time setting things up, but it is only required for the last planet.

3/ Gun turrets do a good job at destroying asteroids into chunks, you can use asteroid collectors to grab the "chunks" (smallest ones like those around Nauvis) and process them into fuel and ammo.
Later on you will also need stronger turrets to deal with larger asteroids (rocket turrets first and railgun turrets for the biggest ones), but that's for beyond the initial planets.

[Boogie]

thanks! that explains a lot!

one last question: is it worth it to build 2 ships? one for white science one for travel?

[Fel]

You will be making more than 2 eventually since you will need some to automate the transport of resources between planets.

Having your factory on Nauvis build a second platform for white science packs while you are travelling towards Vulcanus (and while you are there) is not a bad idea.

[gilith]

IMO yes, I have one platform just for white science (it doesn't even have any thrusters so it won't ever leave Nauvis orbit). You'll probably use more than 2 platforms later, for automated deliveries (kinda like space trains)