What's the best way to land to a new planetoid ?

[hthought]

I feel like many of the modules don't really provide interesting ways to land safely. The rover module I have no idea what good it's for other than maybe opening up some path to the core of the planetoid. The trailblazer one leaves you open to the planetoid even without oxygen.

I thought that the rover could build a rocket platform but this requires refined metal. I thought I could use orbital cargos to transfer those(they only hold 600kg ?? and the platform needs 800kg). But the rover can't build the platform ????

A trailblazer can maybe work on some planetoids but when they have no oxygen, what are you supposed to do ?

What am i missing ? Is there really a way to safely land or it's just bad design so far that may be fixed later by Klei ? 

[Electroely]

I'm not sure what people use, but here's a consistent strategy I've found that takes either 2 module slots or 2 trips:

- Bring interplanetary payloads and fill them with refined metal on the first trip
- Bring a Trailblazer Module made of THE SAME REFINED METAL on the second trip (if you can bring both modules at the same time that's better)
- Make sure your duplicant has a well-filled atmo suit (I usually bring an extra atmo suit on the rocket for this reason)

You deploy the payloads which contain 200kg each then deploy your dupe with the trailblazer module. The Trailblazer lander can be deconstructed for 400kg refined metal, so you just need to open 2 payloads and you'll have enough to build the rocket platform and call your rocket down from the platform's GUI (even if it doesn't have a dupe in it)

[sakura_sk]

What is "safe" in ONI..? 

A rover can build every "most essential to survival" buildings, the ones you usually start a new colony with (outhouse, cot, algae terrarium, oxygen diffuser, sublimation station, ration box) and set a primitive colony to let 1-2 dupes survive for limited cycles until you build something more permanent or abandon the planetoid.

After landing a dupe using a traiblazer you could build more complex buildings to produce refined metal for a platform or have a proper bathroom or fuel oxygen diffusers/coal generators. Or you could make multiple trips to drop several materials using the orbital cargo module to start that remote colony (glass, refined metal).

There are still some buildings missing probably (e.g. interplanetary launcher) but it was possible to colonize planets even before bigger engines were introduced. Safely though... I don't know about that..

As time goes by there will probably be a "safe" strategy that works consistently but until then... save-reload..?

[rataa]

I think the easiest way is to land two tailblazers (either put two of them on a rocket or build two rockets. On the nuclear planet you can also send the same rocket back for restock)

deconstruct landers and build a pad. and then have everything on the rocket to survive.

 

alternatives do sound much more complicated, payloads can land wherever requiring effort to retrieve and 600kg is too little, not sure on what the rover is good for. 

[greywizard]

I use the 2 rocket + 2 trailblazer method. Deconstructing the trailblazers gives you enough refined metal to build a landing pad and you can remote land one of the rockets to use as a lifeboat while you build a safe habitat for dupes. 

[Sasza22]

How i do it is with small steps. First i send a rover, maybe multiple (last gameit was 3). The rovers digs up to safe spaces on the planetoid, opens rooms with water and food. Make sure tolockthe entrance with a wall so oxygen won`t escape to space (rovers can`t build airlocks). Build basic things like the pitcher pump and microbe musher if needed. Then use the rovers to gather up some dirt and metal, maybe stray food resources too.

Next you send some refined metal via the rocket module that allows that. Rovers can open those if you order each one manually and then deliver it to the landing pad you order to build (they can`t build it though).

Finally you send a trailblazer, open up the entrance to the base rovers build, and the dupe just needs to walk a few tiles to get to safety. Next seal it with an airlock and after the dupe stabilizes the base he can finish the landing pad and call in the rocket.

[hipifreq]

I definitely use a rover to explore the planetoid and ID a good spot to land dupes. As others have mentioned you've got to close off the entrance once they're in and prioritize keeping the oxygen in. After that it's exploring a little and gathering resources for the first dupes on the surface. The advantage I find from landing a rover is that it reveals the planetoids special resources to the printing pod. I usually find that after a rover sets down on the forest planetoid the pod will offer me reed seed and/or dreckos. With a little luck and patience I can have exosuits before sending any dupes there. Just remember to take the suits off in flight to preserve the O2.

I've been really frustrated with the payloads so far. Dupes can't access the contents without a mechatronics engineer to build rails and the random drop locations mean that sometimes they're unreachable. It's just not worth the time to build it when a rocket can carry tens of tons of materials for free (I hope they restrict internal storage in the future).

[Electroely]

2 hours ago, hipifreq said:

I've been really frustrated with the payloads so far. Dupes can't access the contents without a mechatronics engineer to build rails

Not to say that I wouldn't like improvements for the payloads (I very much would), but you can open them without the payload opener:

There's an "Empty Storage" button in the bottom right that will make dupes extract the contents on the spot. It's a bit slow, though.

[EricS]

For what definition of best?

 

For me, I tend to drop rovers to do the initial digging, though I avoid digging into caverns with breathable air with them unless there's also a pocket of water that I can use to make a liquid airlock, which rovers can build.  In my most recent play through, I went a little rover-happy, and dug out much of the asteroid because there was an ideally located pool of water for a liquid airlock and no rock that the rovers can't dig through in the top 2/3 of the asteroid, except for around the volcanos.

 

I then dropped glass, algae, and refined copper with several orbital cargo drops.  I then laid out a landing pad and basic solar panel array.  The rovers couldn't build these, but they could deliver the supplies to them.

 

Then, when all that was done, I put a dupe in a rocket with a spare atmo suit and even more supplies, including reed fiber.  He lands, runs straight up to the landing pad and builds it.  The rocket lands, he now has access to the spare suit.  He then runs straight over to the solar panel array and puts together enough of it so that he'll have power, and then he goes inside to where there's already a breathable atmosphere.  He sets up an atmosuit checkpoint at the entrance using metal he brought with him so that he can charge his existing atmo suits, then builds a suit forge so he can keep them repaired.

 

Is this the best?  Not if you're in a hurry, but I liked it.  It took all the pressure off of initial colonization.  Well, almost all the pressure, my only source of oxygen was oxylite in the ground and what algae I had dropped/brought with me, at least until I'm ready to tackle the slime biome on this asteroid, so I wound up setting up purification/electrolization around a polluted water vent before I even upgraded the outhouses to piped lavatories or set up a food storage pit.

 

This won't work on some asteroids, as the latest worldgen covers them with abyssalite, making rovers useless, so I'll have to change things up when I get to them this time.

[ghkbrew]

I've been using a sugar engine with a solo nosecone and either 2 trailblazer modules or 1 steel rover and 1 steel trailblazer. If I use the rover, it gets dropped first to excavate and build ladders. Otherwise I drop 2 dupes simultaneously and they rush to build everything before they suffocate. Usually they can finish with just holding their breath, but you can drop them in suits to give them a full cycle of O2. I have them wear a suit into the capsule them take it off while flying and put it back on right before being dropped. They then refuel the rocket with sucrose and oxidizer from inside the capsule and fly home.

My second wave colonizing ship is then a fully stocked spacefarers module with as many as 8 dupes who can live out of the ship while building infrastructure.