It sure would be nice if fire poles were worth something

[psusi]

I think the problem is that their downward speed bonus is additive rather than multiplicative.  In other words, by the time you have plenty of metal to spare on some long fire poles, your dupes already have high speed bonus from athletics, so the added speed bonus is something like another +2 athletics.  When they already have 20 athletics, another +2 hardly makes any difference.  It would be really nice if they could actually speed up high athletics dupes going down by a significant amount.

 

[SGT_Imalas]

that is a multiplier

[Tranoze]

What do you mean, file pole are op and build them is a must.

[asurendra]

Poles move speed definitely benefits from Athletics. And they cheap enough to build them like on cycle  10 or so...

[psusi]

Huh?  Build a 30 tile high plastic ladder, and a 30 tile high fire pole, and make two 20 athletics dupes race down them.  You almost have to go frame by frame to see the fire pole wins by only the smallest margin.

 

[Tranoze]

6 hours ago, psusi said:

 two 20 athletics dupes race down

Oh so you just naturally have your dupes with 20 athletics off the start? Pole are not late game items.

6 hours ago, psusi said:

 wins by only the smallest margin.

Those add up. 

6 hours ago, psusi said:

30 tile high plastic ladder, and a 30 tile high fire pole

 

Gotta say plastic are much harder to get than raw metal.
You either have to tame gekko to mutant, or finished oil biome to get plastic.

[psusi]

On 8/7/2025 at 2:42 AM, Tranoze said:

Oh so you just naturally have your dupes with 20 athletics off the start? Pole are not late game items

That was my point; they are only useful in the early game, at which time you don't often have an extra 5 or 10 tons of metal just laying around.  It would be nice if they had a use after the first hundred cycles or so it takes to get some good athletics dupes.  Then again maybe metal is more common than it used to be.  I've still got it ingrained in me that it is a precious resource that can't be renewed.  Before they added rocketry I only had one world where I found a metal volcano and I was to scared to try to open it.

On 8/7/2025 at 2:42 AM, Tranoze said:

You either have to tame gekko to mutant, or finished oil biome to get plastic.

Or use nectar.  Glossy drakeos have always been something I get pretty early so you can build a steam turbine.  Then you just keep shearing them and upgrading ladders to plastic over time.

[Tranoze]

16 minutes ago, psusi said:

That was my point; they are only useful in the early game, at which time you don't often have an extra 5 or 10 tons

all you need for 10 tons of RAW/UNREFINED metal is just dug 20~40 metal tiles. You can get them in first 5 days.
Unless you are playing in metal poor asteroid, which that the challenge.

16 minutes ago, psusi said:

Or use nectar.  Glossy drakeos have always been something I get pretty early

pretty sure it much later than 5 days.
For nectar, if you want enough nectar to actually produce enough construction plastic, you have to use pot exploit. And it still took more than 5 days to grow a full tree.

Edited August 9, 2025 by Tranoze

[SkunkMaster]

This is such a weird take.

Firepoles are good because of several things. 

1. cheap 

2. accessible early game

3. no matter how much athletics a dupe has, they are always the same high speed. - dupe is sick, badly hurt or any other debuff to athletics? no worries they go down just the same.

 

I don't think you can compare plastic ladders, something relative lategame, to firepoles which you can get so early in the game. 

Why don't you compare tubes with ladders, by your logic tubes make ladders obsolete, so why do we even have ladders? 

Edited August 28, 2025 by SkunkMaster

[Gurgel]

Fire poles can also be made out of renewable materials that will not melt in rocket exhaust. For ladders, there is only Obsidian. 

[Cmagik]

By the time we get enough metal they have high athletic? I must do something wrong because my base always have a firepole by cycle 20-30.

[Slvrsrfr]

i've almost exclusively not used them because the refined metal is so difficult in my play-style. Which makes it a me problem i realize,