Roof Collapse is super annoying and ruins my day

jpwrunyan · July 23, 2015, 02:20:05 AM

I like the idea of roofs being able to collapse due to over-mining, but I don't like it when they collapse on a worker who's simply deconstructing a small 9x9 outdoor room because I forgot to use the tedious "no-roof" zone tool--and it is tedious. It's not only annoying, it breaks immersion. The reason I always forget to de-zone is because it's not intuitive. It's not intuitive because why, in reality, would anyone ever pull down a wall and let the roof fall on them? It doesn't even occur to me when I play. Shouldn't the colonists be a little smarter than that? Well, regardless, my argument is that the game should be.

This is the #1 annoying thing in the game for me. It's like the game is trolling me. "Ha tricked you! You forgot to do that one thing in that one menu and now I killed your colonist!" Yeah, that was fun.

Suggestion:
The "please de-zone the roof" should be implicit in the deconstruction tool. If I drag "deconstruct" over an area, please remove/de-zone the roof simultaneously by default--that seems to be the simplest way to implement my suggestion. If the roof gets built by default when I construct a wall, it makes perfect sense to me that it gets automatically deconstructed when I deconstruct the wall. Just combine "no roof zone" with "deconstruct" for every square I drag over.

PS
Honestly, I would prefer roof collapse be entirely removed from the game than have it remain in its current form. But that's not my suggestion. I guarantee you, though, that if nothing is done about this, many new players will experience the grief that I do (and I'm not a new player).

Toggle · July 23, 2015, 03:01:54 AM

Eh, every outdoor room I've seen never had a roof.

Sempie · July 23, 2015, 05:40:06 AM

Quote[...] I guarantee you, [...] many player [...]

I hate such statements. They occure in every forum related to a game. Often enough, the TO is mad about something, valid or not, and wants to force the dev(s) to change something in TOs way by generating the pressure with a "so many player have to suffer from this" statement.

This is statement is untenable and lacks of credibility, as well as good behavior.

Also, I can't comprehend. Never got such a problem. If a roof breaks, I did a mistake. This is for sure not the games fault.

Adamiks · July 23, 2015, 06:41:12 AM

I don't like this mechanics too, so he is right. There is also another part of players that build outdoor storages so i think this should be optional.

MrWiggles · July 23, 2015, 06:42:18 AM

Pawns don't know your intentions. They can only do what you literally tell them to do.

pigman999999999 · July 23, 2015, 07:45:25 AM

how i just *face plam* you want a difculty try playing the game on hardmode with imbolized guy and i only have 3 guys with goddam trade ship case the game hates me right then and there welcome to living hell with anly 1 hunting rifle and 1 pistal fighting off waves of 15-20 tirbes and every once in a while pirates and burn all my food down and now they have to eat these tribals for a few days then a ship lands in base this is the game hahahahahahhahahahaahhaahhaahhahahahahahhahahaahahh that is welcome to hell and then i say to hells face i was alredy in hell and then all my guys died they end hahahahahahahaahhahahahahahahahahahahahha i got you. wel that about hell was just bull shit but i still had fun even tho it was that stiped.

Sempie · July 23, 2015, 09:26:49 AM

'the f**k did I just read?

JimmyAgnt007 · July 23, 2015, 09:48:56 AM

artificial roofs shouldn't collapse except maybe in combat. Its annoying. When you mine a mountain? Sure, that makes a lot more sense.

zandadoum · July 23, 2015, 02:40:35 PM

i think the whole roof mechanic needs an overhaul

to me, it makes no sense that i build a room with just a small opening and it stays "unroofed" until i put a door there. are you telling me that a 1x1 door is what determines if something can have a roof or not? doesn't make sense.

also, like op said, deconstructing something on purpose, should automatically take care of roofing so it doesn't collapse on you. i like micromanaging. but micromanaging stuff that makes sense, please.

having to keep a column here and there while building roofs or mining is ok, that makes sense.

also, something that might need to be rebalanced, is the "abuse" of putting a gun turret next to a support column so enemies kill themselves with roof collapse. maybe make enemies smarter (like they are with traps now) about this?

hairlessOrphan · July 23, 2015, 03:36:49 PM

Yeah, deconstruct should have an auto-unroofer on it. That's a pretty obvious UX improvement, and I don't think we really lose anything valuable in terms of gameplay from it. It isn't like any of us design colonies or even parts of colonies around the idea that a deconstructed wall will cause a roof collapse.

Note the difference between deconstructed and destroyed.

But on that note, for players who DO design parts of colonies around the idea that *destroyed* walls will cause a roof collapse, I also think abusing the AI by putting turrets next to support columns is pretty bogus. Even though I've totally used it, myself.

hairlessOrphan · July 23, 2015, 03:37:16 PM

Quote from: Z0MBIE2 on July 23, 2015, 03:01:54 AM
Eh, every outdoor room I've seen never had a roof.

Every house you've ever seen is an outdoor room, though.

Bob_Namg · July 23, 2015, 03:45:32 PM

I was thinking Tynan would eventually make roofs a thing you had to construct piece by piece, with supports and everything. I mean it's pretty early in development so he'll be getting on to that topic probably at a later date.

TLHeart · July 23, 2015, 04:01:28 PM

Quote from: jpwrunyan on July 23, 2015, 02:20:05 AM
Shouldn't the colonists be a little smarter than that? .

Should the colonist be smarter than the average construction worker in real life?

Just do a quick google search of all the roof collapses that happen during demolition of buildings due to not so smart workers.

here is a video of colonist not removing the roof first....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMVrt5zHpOg

and a worker died in this roof collapse...

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865574273/Roof-collapses-kills-worker-in-Brigham-City.html?pg=all

so roof collapses need to part of the game. Could there be a better depiction that an area is roofed, yes.

For a player to forget about an area being roofed, well a dead colonists is the risk.

hairlessOrphan · July 23, 2015, 04:38:03 PM

Honestly, finding exceptional examples of carelessness and casting that as the "average" construction worker is kind of ... let's not do that kind of thing. The average construction worker is fully capable of realizing that you need to remove the roof or check its supports before knocking down a wall.

Also, while construction accidents are a real-world risk, I have to ask whether that's enough to justify its inclusion in the game. See, it's just that when I'm watching my bionically enhanced space castaway fire a plasma rifle at mechanical centipedes to protect a solar panel he built by hand out of raw iron ore, "realism" isn't high on my list of must-haves.

Toggle · July 23, 2015, 04:56:28 PM

Quote from: hairlessOrphan on July 23, 2015, 03:37:16 PM
Quote from: Z0MBIE2 on July 23, 2015, 03:01:54 AM
Eh, every outdoor room I've seen never had a roof.

Every house you've ever seen is an outdoor room, though.

Just don't, don't be a smart ass.

The system seems to work fine for me. I've only ever had a colonist die from a roof collapse due to it being a hard roof so it would always require something supporting it. Ignoring their intelligence or not, it doesn't really need to be changed.