Orbital Probes

[PaulMClem]

Kinda stopped using these (other than a couple) but I think that was a big mistake. Last game there was a ton of resources a couple of cells away i.e. I would not have settled where I did if I'd probed the area. Moving forward I think I'll use at least 4. Just seems better to find a good site rather than saving a few Mars dollars and ending up in a desert by comparison.

What do other folks think of probes, pre-first landing.

 

[Lt Loco]

I'd rather bring more drones or resources. Two probes are 5 sensor towers of electronics. Imagine how fast you could scan the map if you had 10 sensors towers rather than your 4 probes.

There's nothing keeping you from simply building sensor towers and a fuel refinery/vaporator at your first landing, and only taking stuff you can move otherwise. If you cut down on all the extraneous stuff, you can pretty easily take one of each rover type, plus enough resources for sensor towers, a concrete extractor, and either wind turbines or solar/batt to power your fuel-water complex. Once you find an actually suitable location to build a dome, you land a second rocket with the resources you need to build a dome, and use your transport to ship concrete there and take whatever resources you need for maintenance back.

 

[MylilPwny]

Or you could pick the map you want to play, bring 70 orbitals, scan the entire map, and write down the location that looks best to you. Then remake with the sponsor and commander you want, and land your rocket in the location you wanted, setup a sensor tower and start your concrete+fuel

 

[Lt Loco]

Or you could pick the map you want to play, bring 70 orbitals, scan the entire map, and write down the location that looks best to you. Then remake with the sponsor and commander you want, and land your rocket in the location you wanted, setup a sensor tower and start your concrete+fuel

This actually is possible, and it bothers me. I'd much rather have randomized resource locations on each map restart. But I can get that by just simply hitting RANDOM til I achieve the difficulty threshold I'm looking for.

 

[Xeorm]

I'd rather bring more drones or resources. Two probes are 5 sensor towers of electronics. Imagine how fast you could scan the map if you had 10 sensors towers rather than your 4 probes.

There's nothing keeping you from simply building sensor towers and a fuel refinery/vaporator at your first landing, and only taking stuff you can move otherwise. If you cut down on all the extraneous stuff, you can pretty easily take one of each rover type, plus enough resources for sensor towers, a concrete extractor, and either wind turbines or solar/batt to power your fuel-water complex. Once you find an actually suitable location to build a dome, you land a second rocket with the resources you need to build a dome, and use your transport to ship concrete there and take whatever resources you need for maintenance back.

That's really good advice. Even without autonomous sensor towers, it's trivial to build a small solar panel and put a cable + sensor attached and spread them across the map. Or a big panel to allow for remote recharging sections. Not sure it's the quickest method, but it's still a very strong move, especially if the initial scan isn't amazing.

Only time I'll bring probes is if I start with the deep scan from probes tech. That makes it just a little bit better.

 

[Promethian]

I typically bring 2 in my initial rocket to get the ground metals at my chosen location from the start. I choose maps based on the overall terrain and the disasters present and I do the scouting trick Mylilpwny described.

 

[PaulMClem]

Or you could pick the map you want to play, bring 70 orbitals, scan the entire map, and write down the location that looks best to you. Then remake with the sponsor and commander you want, and land your rocket in the location you wanted, setup a sensor tower and start your concrete+fuel

Lol.

 

[Jaol]

I take one or sometimes two, just in case the initially scanned spot is in a small, cut-off portion of the map. I really want to be able to land in the largest area on the map

But the first landing site doesn't matter much. It's nice to immediately set up a concrete and fuel production facility there, but even that is optional. Build a sensor tower and start scanning for good deposits. Then build where they are. So long as you have a transport and rover, you can move easily.

 

[MontharKragan]

I usually don't take probes with the first rocket. However, once I research cheaper probes I buy a few and use them for early deep scans to make sure I'm not plopping a dome on top of a deep resource. Plus it helps with finding a few more anomalies before unlocking the deep scan tech.

 

[MarQan]

I'm with Lt Loco on this one for sure, stopped using Probes long ago.
A Probe effectively costs as much as 5 Sensor Towers atm, and you'd need a few of them anyways to guarantee a certain level of success. Since you can easily run into 1 or 2 completely empty tiles. And even if your initial Probing is successful, even if you only used 1 Probe, when the Deep Scanning phase comes you're effectively down 5 Sensor Towers.

Probes need a buff for sure with maybe a hint of nerf on Sensor Towers.
I actually think that Scanning/map reveal is one of the well balanced progressions in the game: it doesn't need to be overall slower or faster.

 

[MontharKragan]

Two things I think would make the probes more worthwhile. First, since they are scanning from orbit, they should scan multiple sectors (3x3 block) at once centered on the sector you choose. Second, since they only get one use, they should leave debris in the area they scan, such as 1 electronics, polymer and metal.

 

[EEE_boy]

When I play Paradox as sponsor and bring two sets of moistures and fuel refineries, my starting location will be critical to have rare metal and preferrably high ground for wind turbine boost. If I still want a rover and explorer in my first rocket, I tend to give up drones, polymers and transport, so I can bring in 8-10 probes to maximize the chance of getting a good quality rare metal deposit on the high ground, and possibly some water in the next sector. This will minimize micromanagement of transport later to move fuel/food/rare metal around from the initial landing site.

If I play Astrologist as commander, I will bring 2 probes, so I can settle the inital sector for rare metal no matter what the scan reveals later, the initial landing spot is good for at least the first dome to start with.