Equipment stands

[me911]

Iv been playing since A9 if I remember correctly And there's one thing that has always confused me. Equipment stands, WHY? what is the benefit to them over just designating a stockpile? From what I can see sure they look better than just a pile on the floor, but they mostly just seem like a waste of resources and construction time.

[b0rsuk]

Have you tried reading the text description of equipment racks ?

Interface annoyance: when you want to exchange a sniper rifle with a LMG which is on equipment rack, you can't do that directly. If you make a colonist equip a weapon from an equipment rack,  he will drop his previous weapon (if any) on the ground, driving all perfectionists crazy. You can order a colonsit to deposit weapon on empty equipment rack, but it requires an empty spot... and it will soon be filled by a dutiful colonist.

[me911]

Yes iv read the description, stops deterioration even if outside,but for the same price as a few equipment racks I could just build a small room with more storage space and it would stop deterioration aswell as preventing lightning, a boomrat or some other accident from destroying my weapons which might happen if their are outside.
Is the deterioration thing the only benefit? I thought I must have missed something because that doesn't really make them worthwhile in my experiences of the game

[ChimpX]

Having equipment lying around on the floor also impacts Beauty & Space, which could impact your people's Mood. I believe storing stuff on racks does not.

Other than that the only advantage is to prevent  deterioration.

[skullywag]

Racks, outside, with no roofs. Thats what they give over stockpiles.

[me911]

I was really hoping I had missed a trick which would make them really good, but apparently no cheers for clearing that up though guys

[Goldenpotatoes]

The addition of allowing people to build roofs manually has all but pretty much destroyed any use of equipment racks. You can literally just make a stockpile near a wall and make sure you create a roof that goes over it. Boom, deterioration is gone and it didn't cost me a single resource.

Equipment racks really need some sort of benefit for extra storage or else they're just plain useless now.

[Dread Zep]

i *assumed* they improved the desirability of a room by allowing you to stack the value of the items in the room. 

eg: (2x assault rifle $)/ (2x cells) <  ((2x assault rifle $) + (equipment rack $)) / (2x cells)

and given that you can make an equipment rack out of anything, you can see how this improves the utility of having a storage space which adds value to its surroundings