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http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/dreaddrop.htm

So I'm lookin at this and I'm thinkin: Do Marines bother to go back and pick up their drop pods at the end of a Battle/Fight?  If so that would be a collosal waste of time and resources.  If not, they why does this one have scraped paint and weathering?  and if they don't where do they keep getting reloads.  Just a thought....

For the sake of this response lets say they don't go pick them up after every battle.

Why wouldn't they reuse them? In the forgeworld fluff for the chaos drop pods They mention that they had problems with the older drop pods during the herasy getting too smart, so perhaps they're worried about the spirit becoming uppity again.

The reasons I could see for scratched paint are stuff like micro meteorites, test firings, and ranomly using them to scare the new initiates.

This method of landing on a planetary body is known to rocket scientists as 'meteoric reentry'.  Think about what a shooting star looks like.  Now think about your car going through the same process.  Now remember the hullabaloo over the US Space Shuttles (did you see diagrams/pics of the normal amount of damage?).

Now the question seems to become: why don't they look worse?  Especially if they are in fact disposable, because then the issue becomes that they should be just barely expensive enough to guarantee a safe landing ONCE.

Look for the Space Marine Drop Pod Recovery Vehicle available in the near future, because you guys will buy anything.

In the thunderhawk transport there describe a drop pod recovery sling.

and I am sure that 4 mm x 120mm piece of resin rubber band is gonna cost around 25 pounds sterling?

Plus p&p. But it probably has some photoetched buckles and a machine spirit to make sure the drop pod doesn't fall(although it totally wouldn't hurt it), and a signed certificate that states that: "this bloke did pay 25 pounds for a rubberband OMGLOL!!1".

Well worth it, I'd say.

I was reading through the Dreadclaw entry in my Imperial Armour book tonight and found a little gem. It went something like "Unlike their Imperial counterparts the drop pod, Dreadclaws are not one use vehicles."

Which maybe conflicts with the Thunderhawk recovery sling. So, interesting...

I find it very strange that they wouldn't come back to pick it up. all this talking about how damn holy even the Bolt Pistols are, and that they have been passing from Marine to Marine for Millenia but the Drop Pods are a Mass product. I very much doubt that

probably one use only, disposable. how many would they lose if they had to retreat?? i would be nice to think that as they left the planet a servitor thingy would come and clear there mess up. otherwise imperial citezens could have a nice souvineer for the back yard. i would not mind findin a discarded drop pod, specially if i was homeless, i would have a house then. actually maybe thats why they leave them, for the homless.

I'm gonna go with it being on a chapter to chapter basis, maybe. I mean when the IG loses a tank, they strip parts off and leave the rest to rust.

i actually believe they leave them there, they are for fast deployment in heavey enemy areas, they would not really bother to go back and start taking panels and nits off it. imperial gaurds tanks are worth more top them than the soldiers but its the opposite with marines

One could argue, because its physically impossible to drop that fast and stop the descent safely without INSERT ANTIGRAV TECHNOJARGON HERE they probably do recycle them, or at least those systems.

what if it a quick retraction? then what? "oh hold on nice nid guys let us take some parts of our pods before we go, now where did i put that spanner"?

I think not

Marines retreat?

it not called a retreat they fall back to asees the situation, and yes they do retreat they are not thick enough to waste valuable lives on a hopeless mission, they would just vius bomb the planet instead, along with thier droppods

Which leads to the question if drop pods can catch colds.

its not a cold its a virus, it makes them scatter of the board

Im not sure about the normal drop pods..but in regard to the Deathwind pater drop pods( the ones that land unload their ammo and stuff dies) in the imperial armour update it says that even thought they are considered expendible all of them that survive the battle are picked up by the companies techpriets for reusage...i dont see why they wouldnt do the same for normal drop pods...cause there is still alot of techy things inside them....

A Drop Pod is a Grav-couch in a chunk of really strong metal, with retros to slow it down. They can literally drop them on the enemy if they want, because they hit fast enough to crater into concrete/solid stone. But all in all, they are ridiculously simple things, the cogitators and machine spirit probably consisting of little more than a IFF sensor, some aiming softwear, and the reentry calculator. They are not very precious, and when you have forgeworlds that put out more production mass in one day than all of America has done in its history, wasting a few hundred tons of metal isn't a big deal.

It can't be rediculously simple though. If you're dropping at speed through the atmosphere, creating nice craters when you land, the G forces would turn anyone inside into jelly inside their armor. There has to be some high tech inertial dampeners or (insert star trekkie mumbo jumbo). So there would be an obvious motivation to retrieve that tech.

Else my hydras would blow those puppies right out of the sky...

Dude, every freaking civilian pinnance in 40K has inertial dampening Grav couches. Inertial dampening, Anti-grav, artificial gravity, super high thermal resistant materials, all of these are common civilian technologies. There is nothing on a Drop Pod that is specifically valuable, except the Machine Spirit, and they can use the slowed machine spirits in them, because all they have to do is fire the storm bolter at the enemies and not the friends.
Despite the mysticism and sometimes impractical simplicity of 40K tech, it is still tens of thousands of years beyond what we field modern day. They have materials that have tensile strength that is thousands of times better than anything we have today (hive cities are built of these), ceramite can withstand temperatures that melt brass at multiple feet (literally as hot as smelting blast furnaces) and quite literally be cool on the other side, plasma weapons have more firepower than a battleships 16" gun and are considered to be useful against heavy infantry and light vehicles only, and don't forget that they have planet destroying Naval vessels by the thousands.

***Dude, every freaking civilian pinnance in 40K has inertial dampening Grav couches. Inertial dampening, Anti-grav, artificial gravity, super high thermal resistant materials, all of these are common civilian technologies. There is nothing on a Drop Pod that is specifically valuable, except the Machine Spirit, and they can use the slowed machine spirits in them, because all they have to do is fire the storm bolter at the enemies and not the friends. ***<?xml:namespace prefix = o />

 

Dude, show me where you?re getting this fluff.  No codex I have read, no book I have read, has reflected inertial dampening, anti-grav, artificial gravity  as any sort of common civilian technology.

 

*** Despite the mysticism and sometimes impractical simplicity of 40K tech, it is still tens of thousands of years beyond what we field modern day. They have materials that have tensile strength that is thousands of times better than anything we have today (hive cities are built of these), ceramite can withstand temperatures that melt brass at multiple feet (literally as hot as smelting blast furnaces) and quite literally be cool on the other side, plasma weapons have more firepower than a battleships 16" gun and are considered to be useful against heavy infantry and light vehicles only, and don't forget that they have planet destroying Naval vessels by the thousands. ***

 

And none of that, absolutely none of that, is relevant to the discussion. Their pods will be fine.  I am assuming their armor will be fine.  But they, fragile beings made of meat and bone that they are, will be turned to a fine mist from the G forces of landed absent some sort of (again insert trekkie technobabble) device.  

 

An M1 tank could likely survive falling from a 6 story height.  Battle Brother Bob sitting in the turrent going ?Woe orsy woe!!!? isn?t going to make it.  The G?s from a drop pod slamming into the ground, would be factors higher.  Anything slower then it would take several minutes for the pod to reach the surface, more than enough time to be picked off.

common civilian technology.

 

Read the Eisenhorn Trilogy, or the Last Chancers Trilogy, or Space Wolf, or the Soul Drinkers trilogy.
Yes, inertial dampeners are technobable, so are plasma guns, meltaguns, bolters, lasguns, tau pulse rifle, everything necron, Ork technology in general, etc. etc. etc. They have to have them, otherwise ships would never make it anywhere intersystem, no shuttles would leave any world, hive worlds wouldn't exist, etc.
Please, think about the scale of technologies that have to be omnipresent to allow Imperial society to function. Think of how many semi-conductors and microprocessors you use per day, and yet you never notice it, just like you don't notice the high tensile aluminium in your engine block, or the complex artificial fabrics that make up your underwear.

Read the Eisenhorn Trilogy, or the Last Chancers Trilogy, or Space Wolf, or the Soul Drinkers trilogy.
Yes, inertial dampeners are technobable, so are plasma guns, meltaguns, bolters, lasguns, tau pulse rifle, everything necron, Ork technology in general, etc. etc. etc. They have to have them, otherwise ships would never make it anywhere intersystem, no shuttles would leave any world, hive worlds wouldn't exist, etc.

Jeez, I am not arguing this is not possible. Indeed, its required for the drop pod to work.  What I am saying is that its not common technology.  You only see these things on speeders and ships.  Ships are cherished AM items, they are not throw aways.  If its cherished they will attempt to retrieve it if possible.  Remember this is the same culture that makes a big deal about a glorified taxi (rhino) and retrieving damaged rhinos.

Please, think about the scale of technologies that have to be omnipresent to allow Imperial society to function. Think of how many semi-conductors and microprocessors you use per day, and yet you never notice it, just like you don't notice the high tensile aluminium in your engine block, or the complex artificial fabrics that make up your underwear.

Anda again. Absolutely nothign of this has anything, anything to do with the issue.  Either they have inertial dampeners of some sort fr they don't. I've only seen that sort of technology mentioned in BL fluff for ships.  There is no codex or basic book mention of antigrav technology being common (indeed its noted that marine M30 plates on skimmers are hard to build and maintain).

If they don't have the antigrav junk on the pod the occupants of the pod go splat. If antigrav is not noted as being common then its uncommon.  If its uncommon they are going to attempt to retrieve it when conditions permit.

 

It isn't uncommon though, that's the whole point. Any developed system, like Cadia, the Helican System, the Solar System, Ultramarr or others have access to some forms of A-grav and intertial dampening technology as a standard civilian technology. Some, like Ultramarr, generally don't utilize it a lot, while others, like the Helican System, make heavy use of them. A-grav skimmers are the most common transportation type on Gundrun for example.
Like I have said, A-grav in and of itself is not an uncommon technology, neither is Inertial dampening (otherwise the millions of rogue traders and private shipping companies wouldn't be able to do anything). So, the idea that anything in the Drop Pod other than it's machine spirit is rare is completely unjustified.
That being said, with the anal retentiveness of the Ad-mech, them picking up drop pods after battles probably happens anyway.
I just dislike the common misconception that the Imperium is just cold war tech with space ships. While they may take the KISS concept way to far, they are still thousands of yeats in advance of us in nearly every field of technology, enough so that many things we think of as a big deal aren't even mentioned.

Antigrav is common?

"The Land Speeder is the primary reconnaisance, scouting, resupply and fast attack vehicle of the Loyalist Space Marine Chapters. Land Speeders are based on STC data recovered in M31 and have since become widely produced and used throughout the Imperium. Land Speeders were also originaly used by the Imperial Guard, but since then the Plasma and anti gravity technologies required to use them have become increasingly rare and so only extremely resource rich planets or factions such as Ryza or the Space Marines can afford to create them. As they were rediscovered after the Horus Heresy, there are no Land Speeders in Chaos Space Marines armies. "

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Land_Speeder

The anti-grav plates for Land Speeders are far different than other A-grav systems possessed by the imperium. It's like saying a steam engine and a nuclear power plant for an aircraft carrier are the same. Same tech base, but the A-grav Plates of Landspeeders are far more advanced, more reliable (they seem to last thousands of years without repair) and capable of lifting the far heavier armed and armoured Landspeeder (think of the diesel engine in a truck compared to the diesel in an MBT).
The mystification of tech is nothing new in 40K, but they have flying cars, artificial gravity, holographic three-dimensional television, and many other extremely advanced technologies as civilian technologies.
Again, read the Eisenhorn Trilogy, it is highest level Black Library production (to the point that it defines the Daemonhunter/Witchhunter codeci to some degree, along with the Inquisitor sourcebook). All the techs I have mentioned are all mentioned casually in said books, as civilian technologies.

I put more reliance in the basic book, WD, and codexes than BL books. Didn't see it in Necropolis, 15 hours, or Lord of the Night. I only saw its use in naval vehicles in Execution Hour and Shadowpoint.

here's the deal though:

-If anti grav is so common why are they even riding around in rhinos? They are the Imperium's best after all, if there's easy antigrav they should have it. If pathetic scum like Tau have it in abundance, why not marines? Heck you'd think they'd even have marine jetbikes

-no antigrav suspenders for heavy weapons. Thats reserved for the elite of the elite-deathwatch. Wouldn't that be common? The force multiplier of a move and shoot heavy weapons atatchment for devestators and common tac squads would extremely positive.

I see antigrav and inertia dampener systems in use on larger naval vessels. But I do not see major use of it outside of those cherub things for civilian use.


Again my point is not that marines don't have it, but in a frame of mind where they venerate pretty much every bit of two pieces of metal bashed together, they would attempt to retrieve the pods, or major components, if conditions permitted.

Again, I don't doubt that the Ad-mech would try to retrieve the pods, however when push comes to shove the Astartes are ultimately pragmatists, and they would easily leave behind Drop pods rather than do anything foolish to retrieve them.
As for your dislike of the Black Library, tough, that is what defines the Warhammer 40K universe. The Codex Fluff, then Black Library, then other fluff, then Game Mechanics. This has been the policy for close to 5 years now, and I don't see it changing.

As for your questions:
1) The Rhino is chosen because it is simplistic to manufacture, can work on any world that has a solid (or semi-solid) surface (unlike speeders, which cannot work on many storm ridden Deathworlds, or on any world with sever magnetic or gravitic interference), and provides (unlike in game) an exceptionally tough layer of armour around the marines it carries. Ironically, Space Marines are faster on foot, but it doesn't mean anyhting if you get picked off by Griffens, Heavy Bolters and Heavy AP mines before you get there.
2)Suspensors are not as uncommon as you seem to make them out. The major thing is that most Space Marine barely need them, and there are simply too many guard to manufacture them. Suspensors also must be very small, and very light, meaning that a suspensor must be of much better engineering than what you would need to lift a car or bus (its harder to build small than it is to build big).
3)The majority of Imperial Citizens will never see war in there 100-200 year long lives. They have to have an entire civilian infrastructure that includes interplanetary transportation of people, food, and cargo. This means that even small vessel MUST have such technologies, because without such technologies intersystem travel would be impossibly slow.