in alpha 8, instead of a killbox, i plan to have a tiny room with lots of heaters in it. raiders enter and are burned alive. mechanoids are reduced to a silvery puddle of molten metal.
what about you?
I've been thinking of this for awhile now, though with a focus on, say, freezing temperatures in the desert.
For heat, I'll be interested to see is how susceptible the heaters are to heat. Eg, if they'll burst into fire too, or catch fire from all the sparks flying around. That's the main downside I see to using heat to defend. That, plus enormous energy costs and lack of containability (once raiders break the door down, heat dissipates).
Sorry to say this, but according to the changelogs, Raiders and colonists will try to avoid areas with either too high or low temperatures.
Meaning that if the only way into your base is through a killbox that's burning at 40�C, the raiders will most likely avoid it and try to find another way inside. Like banging their heads against some of the many Stone walls out there.
Also, if the entry to the killbox is opened (ex.by a destroyed door) the heat will come out and merge with the outside air.
Unless you're able to plan ahead and create a long hallway with a lot of Heaters that can quickly heat up the room while the raiders are still inside, AND close the entrance they came in, you'll have a hard time killing anyone by using temperature alone.
Thus far the only applicable use of temperature when it comes to killing stuff, is making a 'guest room' for the visitors that show up.
Make the furniture out of stone and once they start asking questions about the weird smell... just barricade the doors and turn on the temperature. ^^
Leave them nice and toasty~
PS: Of course, my argument will be entirely void if Tynan adds doors that you can automatically leave open and close via the UI.
Just imagine, a large, automated stone door slowly coming down from the ceiling, closing you and your friends inside a large room... a room that is slowly heating up the longer you stay there.
After poor Greg fell to the floor and began to combust, was the moment when you were finally able to tear down the massive stone door... but all hope was lost when you found out that the colony had built a second door, erasing any hope of you surviving that death trap of a room.
(( Welp, that was dark... <.< ))
I actually haven't tried this, but just thinking about it:
-Heaters won't do it because their efficiency drops as the temperature goes up. You could get the room to a point that wasn't survivable, but not to autoignition temperature. The only problem would be that it would take some time for the raiders to die - and during that time, they're likely to knock down some doors or walls and escape.
-You could get the temperature all the way up by setting fires in the room. There's no real limit to the temperature a raging fire can make, and if you get the room to 400C the raiders will die quite quickly. Now your problem is that everything in the room is autoigniting, including any heaters or fuel you've left in there. You won't get much loot this way. Also, to execute this you'll need to place a bunch of burnable stuff in the room and light it with molotovs just as the raiders enter. Your molotov guy might get shot to death.
I'll be interested to see how these strategies play out though!
Boomrats just got mega scary. Had one stuck in my base, forgot about him, he starved...only YOU can prevent base fires..kill boomrats...outside
what about the opposite, freeze them to death? say you have a room full of prisoners you dont want, or raiders, or visitors, and you lock them in then drop the temperature, if they dont have the clothing they should freeze and be nicely preserved for the butcher table.
...what is it with me and cannibalism recently?
Quote from: skullywag on November 27, 2014, 02:37:49 AM
Boomrats just got mega scary. Had one stuck in my base, forgot about him, he starved...only YOU can prevent base fires..kill boomrats...outside
... That's weird. I understand boomrats exploding from violent death, but exploding from starvation?
If the boom-rat thing is ever changed....what about giving it a gas sac like organ which is responsible for the explosion, which can then be extracted as a resource, maybe even set down as a shootable explosive? Could make them a nice resource, if difficult to obtain.
This is something I'm going to extensively test when A8 drops. There has to be some way to kill off those pesky 30+ raider attacks. I foresee setting up a freezing maze as the only entrance to my desert-based colony, with double plasteel airlock-esque entries protecting my armed and waiting colonists.
Even if the raiders do make it through, I'm certain that their sudden onset of frostbite would prevent much resistance. ;)
The real issue I see here is power, solid walls of freezers can't be efficient.