Murderous thoughts

[Listy]

As is always the way with new Alpha's upon getting our grubby mits on it our minds turn to ways of making things murderous especially for those unpleasant chaps who insist on attacking me.

Remember they started it! They invaded Poland.

So I've been trying to work out a way to close auto doors behind an attacker. My initial thinking was based upon the concept of composite armour as used in tanks, and aimed towards the thought of: "How to deal with sappers?"
The concoction I came up with was a perimeter wall, five tiles across.
Tiles 1&5 granite walls, these are your exterior and interior walls.
Tiles 2&4 wood walls, these are your fuel sources.
Tile 3 occasionally place a fougasse trap.

So the plan is the sapper strolls up to your wall and begins singing the hi-ho song and burrows through. Ah-ha, thinks he, I've found this handy tunnel this will make my life easier and the entire enemy force piles into the opening. Followed quickly by an explosion and roasted raider.

But of course the opening in the wall will vent all the heat outside. Granted the raiders can still catch fire from burning walls, however its less than ideal. So I thought about held open auto-doors, however you can't operate an auto-door from standing next to it, the only way to close it is to physically walk through it. While not impossible, it could be a bit tricky.

It'd need a long tunnel of just auto-doors with a colonist at one end. When the raid passes through into the oven, the colonists sprints down his corridor stops at the end, blows a raspberry at the raiders and sprints back causing the door to shut. That's the only way I've come up with of getting this idea to work.

And that brings me up to starting this post. Obviously my ideas will need a bit more polish, but I figure I'm onto something. Anyone else got any more elegant designs?

Edit:
Oh I forgot to mention. I also tested out the Deadfall traps. They're pretty useless. I tested one guy out on them. He walked through about ten of them and was fine, these included about 50% plasteel ones. which did do more damage. Some of the steel ones were doing as little as two damage. So less than a pistol bullet.

[RickyMartini]

Traps deal around 20 damage, so from where did you get these numbers?

[Listy]

Traps deal around 20 damage, so from where did you get these numbers?

By spawning a Raider then god moding a corridor filled with dead fall traps and letting him wander along the corridor.
Open health tab, mouse over the injury.

[RickyMartini]

Base damage of the steel trap is around 30.

[Listy]

Base damage of the steel trap is around 30.

After I posted I figured some more experimentation was due:

The methodology is:
http://i.imgur.com/k2dCLWG.jpg

First two chaps out:
http://i.imgur.com/5kllOA6.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/94dBtO3.jpg

Then this little lady came out and got hit by six plasteel traps.
http://i.imgur.com/4C794NP.jpg

A 4th bloke only triggered one trap and it did no damage.

So considering:
A) Needing 50 of a resource (so 3 deadfall traps = a Gun turret),
B) that it might not be triggered,
C) Doesn't do anywhere near 30 damage for most of the time,
D) Needs re-arming,
E) Can be triggered by wildlife.
F) Only covers one square, a Gun turret has a range of 24.

I'll stand by my claim deadfall's are useless. If you can get more use out of them more power to you.

[jega]

Sappers will try to avoid all gun turrets. If they have to mine through 20 tiles of a mountain to do it, they will. If traps can weaken them along with an appropriate response then they have a place.

But I didn't find them really all that useful to be honest. And just like with mortars, I find the incendiary one the most useful.

[RickyMartini]

Yes, traps might be underpowered.

I think the stats are somewhere around this:

- up to 30 damage (it might have a statistical average around 20)
- 80% chance of triggering (always the same)

But we have to consider, traps weren't added to kill raiders. In your 3 examples they were hit pretty damn hard. 
One got his neck cut off (instant death), first one almost died do to head injuries, and the third lady is bleeding so hard, it will only take one more bullet to down her.

Also, traps don't get consumed unless you are unlucky and a trap is hit by a bomb.

[Kraehe]

I build wooden traps and lay them around my base and random over the map. I always find it funny when one then runs into one of my traps

[Listy]

- up to 30 damage (it might have a statistical average around 20)

Doesn't look like 30, or even an average of 20 to me

But we have to consider, traps weren't added to kill raiders. In your 3 examples they were hit pretty damn hard. 
One got his neck cut off (instant death),

What were they added to do? Give them hugs and make them a sandwich (Sorry for the sarcasm, but that was the first thought into my brain)? Yeah the guy got killed, took three traps to do it though.

[RickyMartini]

Well they were added to hurt the enemy (as an assistance) and not kill the enemy. Plus, a good idea would be to only use wood for the traps if you are on a map where wood is abundant.

Plus, even your pictures you posted show damage around 20 and somewhere.

[Play2Jens]

I agree that they shouldn't kill the enemy, just hurt them enough.
Also, I think that the normal traps should focus a bit more on the lower body of the pawn. Slowing them down significantly.

[Katorone]

I agree that they shouldn't kill the enemy, just hurt them enough.
Also, I think that the normal traps should focus a bit more on the lower body of the pawn. Slowing them down significantly.

Slowing them down would at least add a tactical benefit, so larger groups of attackers get a bit more evened out.

[Kraehe]

I agree that they shouldn't kill the enemy, just hurt them enough.
Also, I think that the normal traps should focus a bit more on the lower body of the pawn. Slowing them down significantly.

Slowing them down would at least add a tactical benefit, so larger groups of attackers get a bit more evened out.

+1

[RickyMartini]

Slowing them down would at least add a tactical benefit, so larger groups of attackers get a bit more evened out.

Good point. At the moment the "tactical advantage" is that you can bring some enemies down quicker after they stepped into your entrance.

Also, traps sometimes can cut the brain. 

[Devon_v]

Plus, even your pictures you posted show damage around 20 and somewhere.

But considering five traps were involved the expected average would be 80. (One trap wouldn't spring)