Sometimes, it's possible to choose where you down a shipping. This can be important because it allows you to avoid negative environments like hot and cold.
The terrain texture on the globe decides what kind of a map the ground battle takes place on. So a good idea is to either wait until a shipping is over a particular kind of texture, or possibly direct the shipping there.
I've attached an image which shows all the possible terrain textures, the ones on top are zoomed in, the ones on bottom are zoomed out. Underneath is a description and a chance of temperature-related environment effect. As you can see, if you down a shipping on the right terrain, you can be safe from having to bring gear to counter these environments.
Note that, even if you shoot down the shipping on a safe terrain, you can still get a bad roll and get a Nuke Zone map, which drains freshness unless your armor and plasma resists are high.
There are also further benefits. Some terrains can spawn rare magazines, even gold bars, but I'd argue the most rewarding are orchards with Apples. Terrains with a relatively good chance to get apples on are: The three Habitation terrains and Steppe, while Desert, Arid and Tropic have a small chance. Other terrains won't yield apples, but they have a small chance to spawn a crashed Necroplane, which would yield some Necroplane Parts. In terms of rewards, I think the best terrain is Medium Habitation, while the worst is Swamp.
