Bulkhead Doors (Warning: 6mb GIF)

[SimoRoth]

Standard bulkhead doors are one of theseveral door types in the game. They are not attached to rooms, but are build rock-to-rock. They are very hard wearing and are a good way to isolate sections of your base from danger.

[randommonicle]

Looking good. Gotta love the smaller locks that slide out first.

[Ortwin]

Looking good indeed.

I sure hope these get manual controls as well (and the ability for us to pick what side gets 'manual' as option).

Though, as far 'isolating sections from danger' goes, I prefer my doors closing downward... If the power fails before the locks engage, this thing will be 'default open'.

[SimoRoth]

Yeah this was agonized over at length. But a bottom opening door has some advantages.

Things like it stopping flowing liquids or pesky animals faster. Plus the whole getting trapped because the power went out with the 5 tonne door down seems like a poor design feature.

Plus it's visually interesting, feels much better this way.

[DerRidda]

But, but, but how will we get dramatic moments such as these without a door that closes by going down?

[Codename 47]

We'd get dramatic hurdling or high jump moments instead!

[Studdart]

Yeah this was agonized over at length. But a bottom opening door has some advantages.

Things like it stopping flowing liquids or pesky animals faster. Plus the whole getting trapped because the power went out with the 5 tonne door down seems like a poor design feature.

Plus it's visually interesting, feels much better this way.

Should there be a way to release the hydraulics or something then, as an emergency open for the doors, but which means they they're permanently open then, until someone comes along a fixes the hydraulics?

and also que cheesy one liner:

it's nice to see you've got the *BULK* of the work done!

[b0rsuk]

We'd get dramatic hurdling or high jump moments instead!

But floor is always on the same level. You'd have to make an animation which can work if the door is 50cm high, 100 cm high, etc. Probably not going to happen.

The door looks functional, but a bit plain. I think it needs either some extra geometry, or a nice image or company logo. Bonus points if the door image is customizable and you choose your image at the start of the game.

[Ortwin]

We'd get dramatic hurdling or high jump moments instead!

But floor is always on the same level. You'd have to make an animation which can work if the door is 50cm high, 100 cm high, etc. Probably not going to happen.

The door looks functional, but a bit plain. I think it needs either some extra geometry, or a nice image or company logo. Bonus points if the door image is customizable and you choose your image at the start of the game.

Actually, I think it would be a great idea to make at least one jump-like animation. Why? Let me tell you:

Because imagine the impending frustration when you colonists are incapable of walking through a door that is only starting to close. Seriously that might be a #1 irritation with those older games that were far more restricted in their animation and path finding options.
I know, back then we simply took a deep breath and accepted it when a game character could not take a 20 cm (8") hurdle.

However, with current tech that doesn't have to be.
In stead of 2 states (open and closed), the door might have 3: open (acceptable path), partially open (acceptable path by jump), and closed (no path). Obviously the 'partial' state will only last for a second, but having the possibility will save us from (perhaps a lot of) situations when we are inclined to scream "#$%^&* He could have totally made that!" during disaster-like situations.

It might even be a simple 'fence jump' animation that can also be used to traverse a single row of ~1 meter crates, mitigating another source of silly frustration when a colonist 'can't find a path' just because he/she can't climb/jump over a lowly crate.
(Though, a run-jump-dive-roll animation would be awesome as well )

[SimoRoth]

I was tempted to add vaulting to the game. Even climbing (when I got way too frustrated with the path finding errors!).

A fence jump is something that may happen. These doors are likely to be automatic and open as the character approaches so the frustration factor should be low.

Also these doors are rare so that specific problem is something I will think about when I am in a polishing phase.