Can an actual geologist explain to my why the underground ice plates defy science? Won't you hit permafrost even on Earth if you dig deep enough?
The opposite. Geothermal processes result in intense heat at the depths that DRG typically takes place in. It's too warm at those depths for ice to form. The deeper you go into any terrestrial planet, the hotter it gets, until you get to the mantle, which is molten stone and metal. On Earth... Going even 4km underground (the deepest staffed mine on Earth) produces temperatures of 60 degrees C, enough to kill an unprotected human in 10-20 minutes. The deepest borehole on Earth is 12km deep (about the depth of the Magma Caverns in-game) and the temperature was about 180C, a fairly common cooking temperature.
If the glyphids lack eyes due to their subterranean habitat, then why do the mactera, loot bugs, huuli hoarders, etc. have eyes anyway?
Divergent evolution. In addition, those eyes may be different in terms of sensory abilities. They could see heat instead of visible light.
How are the engineer's platforms always perpendicular to gravity rather than to the surface they're fired at?
The goo is deployed from its glop by a small shaped explosive. As a result it always comes away from the surface struck and dries in a position most suitable to traversal.
They're insta-hardening platforms used by space dwarves who have access to laser cannons, cryo weapons, power armor, and plasma guns. It's sci-fi future tech.
The glob of platform material actually conceals a small device that serves to anchor and expand the glob when it hits something. This device can sense the direction of gravity (probably with a simple gyroscope) and uses that to tell which direction to expand the material in.
One of the voice lines when recovering a data cell is: "If this data had left the planet, Hoxxes would be swarming in other mining companies in no time!" Why is that? The promotional material for the game says Hoxxes isn't a big secret. It's well known to be rich in minerals, it's just also so dangerous that no other company considers it worth the hassle. Sure, the information would be useful for whoever this rival company is, but why would it attract other mining companies, especially those who have already tried and failed?
Perhaps the data contains something that proves Hoxxes IS capable of being profited from with the right amount of equipment and precise excursions. Remember, none of the Rival Tech enemies are organic; it could be that the Rival Corporation's incursion is more of a forward scouting party to determine if Hoxxes really is as dangerous as they say, and they may have chosen to send out robots to keep their organic employees (if they have any and aren't just staffed by other robots) safe from harm. Whatever is in that data, it must be valuable enough for the Rival Corporation to dedicate fairly big installations and Facility Caretakers to guard the Data Racks inside. The Data Cells themselves may be marking sites to put Facilities in at a later date.
It's possible they contain data revealing the presence of the mysterious 'error boxes' that sometimes turn up in missions. Nobody knows about them because nobody bothered digging in Hoxxes before Deep Rock Galactic did, but now that they've cracked the planet open and discovered these things they don't want anyone getting wind of them because every research company in the galaxy would pay a fortune for them.
Everyone knows Hoxxes has minerals to be mined. However most of the galaxy though doesn't realize how rich Hoxxes actually is because DRG is the only company to have operations on Hoxxes and they're deliberately keeping the details secret if not propagandizing about how incredibly awful it is. If others found out just how rich Hoxxes actually is they might consider claim jumping. Keep in mind Hoxxes is so mineral rich that native Morkite and Gold are in literally every cavern.
Why do Glyphids not attack the Rival Corperation and vice versa? While I understand that the Glyphids wouldn't be keen on some other life forms stealing their eggs, they are also attracted to and attack sources of noise (noted by Mission Control during Hacksy's hacking on Rival Corp. power stations/data deposits, the mobile refinery in On Sight Refinery missions, and Doretta grinding through rock). If the Glyphids are attracted to sound, shouldn't they also be swarming over the "THUNK... THUNK... THUNK" of a Rival Corp. power station or data deposit? It's not like the Glyphids are adverse to attacking anything inorganic/robotic, as evidenced by their swarming of Doretta, Hacksy or pipelines.
Who's to say they don't? After all, there are plenty of turrets and plasma-armed defender drones, not to mention shielded power relays and the Caretaker itself. Even if this rival corporation thought another company was on-planet and would actively try to sabotage them, it's alot of ordinance for a simple scouting mission. I think it's reasonable to assume that the glyphids DO attack the rival corporation's items, but as soon as our dwarves land, their priorities change—or better yet, the glyphids are smart enough to have realized that the dwarves are also going after the rival corporation, and need only focus on hitting them while they're distracted killing the rival corporation. Either way ,at least one intruding group is dealt with.
Glyphids seem to be smart enough to zero in on particularly clever dwarves by Cutting the Knot to prevent pointy-eared leaf lover tactics. They are smart enough to know that Rival Corporation are considered 'low priority'. Rival Corporation also has no need to attack the glyphids, as they are just scouting with relatively disposable robots.
My theory is that there's something in the rival corporation's bots that wards away Glyphid aggression, presumably radiating some sort of signal that tells the Glyphids that they're not a threat. It could be something technological that Deep Rock Galactic would LOVE to be able to replicate, but either due to complexity, or the device that creates it self-destructing at any sign of disabling to prevent tampering, they haven't been able to do so yet. Alternatively, they could be magical wards. A popular theory is that elves are the ones behind the rival corporation. What are elves known for? Magic and a close connection to nature. A simple 'calm animals' spell is probably quite simple to them, but not something that could be replicated with technology.
How do the drop pods get lost on salvage operations? They are always seen leaving whether on insertion or extraction.
The entire crew died, which granted DRG will leave people behind, and their M.U.L.Es got destroyed so the pod couldn't retrieve them to unlock the departure procedure.
The missions our dwarves do are likely not the only mining operations being conducted. Our dwarves are the elite, and accept high risk, high reward missions, where we accept the drop pod leaving us behind and not returning until we're done. I presume the drop pod from Salvage Operation missions were sent down with greenbeards (Or humans) and the mini-mules were for a smash and grab where they run out separately, grab what minerals they can, and then run back to the drop pod quickly. The drop pod doesn't leave because those employees would refuse to even get on the pod in the first place if they knew they were being left behind without an escape route. Unfortunately, sometimes the bugs swarm before they can get back, and the drop pod ends up left behind. It gets drained of power, loses connection with the space rig, and gets 'lost.' They know the general cave it was in, but they need to pinpoint its location to send down fuel cells and reestablish their connection with it.
It's hinted that those missions happened a long time ago, which is why both the drop pod and supply pods are rusty, damaged and malfunctioning. It also explains why those missions are so different from those the players can do (mini-mules, drop pod staying on site, having to deploy an uplink that was already there when we arrived...) and why there are so many salvage operations to be done : they took place when DRG first started prospecting Hoxxes, and the way mining operations are done have changed since then due to how high the failure rate was.
