How useful are traps?

[falcongrey]

After having starter colonists die to them several times I never used them again. If the colonists were made a bit more 'trap smart' after sitting them instead of turning around and walking back through them right after sitting them I may consider using them again and trying new things with them.

Side note: This was/IS before the exclusion zones and now thinking of those thanks to this thread I may try them again using exclusion zones to mark the trap and the squares immediately surrounding them to try to force avoidance. However, with the need to 'reset' a trap once they spring this would create a lot of overhead in the way of micromanaging the traps and zones. This would be fine for a starter colony trying to survive with wild animals hunting them as well as random raids, but for larger colonies this kind of thing would likely become useless and extremely time consuming with micromanagement with the consideration of better ways to do this using remote turrets and power lines / remote power cells (setting up charged battery placings instead of mods with remote power transmitters and replacing the batteries when they run dry).

[Mossy piglet]

They are useless because of how they are built. When they are useful they are extremely expensive. If they were cheaper, that would be great.

[Grimandevil]

Hey guys, what do you think about gun braces and tripwires?

thats what i actually was thinking IED should be: explosive + wire, that u can place in wider areas, instead of landmine-like.
something like that:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
                      O                             
                       |                           
                       |                           
                       |                         
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

it would also greatly benefit, if the explosions in vanilla worked Combat Realism-ish..

[Tynan]

Thank you for the info everyone. I'm making some changes in response to this. I don't want traps to be OP, but they should be useful.

[asanbr]

I havent understood deadfall traps. I tried to build them several times but they are resource intensive and risky. Only use seems to be in narrow corridors, and then my own colnists will trigger them which reduces the only use to shut-off corridors where I expect raiders to enter. This can still be a use, but very limited.

I use IED's sometimes in similar places and they have their use. I also put IED's around alien ships sometimes and it can help do good damage on release.

So I think IED's are ok but underpowered/under-useful  and deadfall just a waste of time

[ximen]

In "real life", you can build traps that can, with a little effort and foresight, kill large game like bears and deer. They are basically the same thing as the traps designed in-game (read the info tab, the in-game traps apparently drop heavy weights on the head and shoulders of the target), except they..... well, you know, work.

Do you have any info on people killing bears or deer with deadfall traps? I've never heard of this trap used against something this large.

I've only heard of traps used against small game - from boar-sized on downwards. With some exceptions (giant cage traps, gun-trigger traps, bow-trigger traps, explosive traps, etc).

If you ever were to add pit traps, or hunting pit traps. That would certainly be something fit for big game.
In Norway we had these "moose pits" or "hunting pits" that they mainly used to hunt Moose / reindeer. It was so effective in fact, that it almost culled the moose population in the 1500's, and the government at the time tried to ban it. It wasn't until much later it was banned, however. But I remember finding traces of them in the woods near where I lived as a child.

article from Norwegian wiki (with some images):
https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fangstgrav

[JesterHell]

I've never used traps, but I do think that if gun's and turrets required ammo but traps merely required being reset then I would have motivation to use them.

[Gonorejus]

I find explosive IEDs in conjuction with regular shells scattered around to set off chain explosions very effective.
Deadfall traps and incendiary IEDs, on the other hand, are kinda meh when Cassie Extreme starts sending 100+ raids my way.
Bottom line: yeah, traps are pretty useful.

P.S. Forgot to mention that IEDs are godsent for destacking my shell stacks. Because of this, trap usefulness increasses to over 9000.

[Shurp]

I haven't tried traps yet, but I have thought about placing IEDs around a ship part before letting the mechanoids loose.  How effective is this sort of strategy?  What is the detection range on an IED?  If the mech has to walk on top of the shell to set it off I'm probably not going to get enough hits to make it worthwhile (I imagine it takes  a dozen to take down a centipede)

[TheSpaceKraken]

I use IED's as an opening gambit against crashed ships and 'preparing' raiders. Deadfall traps line specially placed walls and form barriers in front of turrets, and devastate manhunter packs and melee raiders trying to charge turrets.

[Shad]

I use IED's as an opening gambit against crashed ships and 'preparing' raiders. Deadfall traps line specially placed walls and form barriers in front of turrets, and devastate manhunter packs and melee raiders trying to charge turrets.

In my last incident, which I shared under "Stories", a muffalo manhunter pack powered through 7 steel traps and only downed 1 off them. Not quite what I was expecting from a fairly high steel investment,

[Grimandevil]

I find explosive IEDs in conjuction with regular shells scattered around to set off chain explosions very effective.

i use this tactic sometimes (esp when opening psychic ships), but that requires additional micro to place.

[A Friend]

How I use traps


I forgot to add doors leading to the IEDs though. Other than that, it's quite effective and safe too thanks to the doors on the side.

[asanbr]

How I use traps


I forgot to add doors leading to the IEDs though. Other than that, it's quite effective and safe too thanks to the doors on the side.

Is the tree part of the strategy? 
Why 2 paths rather than 1?

[A Friend]

I place CQC pawns in there during raids. Peeking out the doors to cut down incoming raiders. More doors there are, the better.

The tree just kinda grew there and I didn't want to risk cutting it down. But it does help make some of the raiders step on the traps.