Forbidden Doors and Crafts

[Billy Rueben]

It has always bugged me that when I want my colonists to stop making stone blocks, or metal from slag, that I have to go in and suspend the bill. It would be a lot faster and easier if I could just forbid the crafting tables and furnaces to keep the colonists from continuing their work.

It would also be convenient if doors could be forbidden. For example, during a siege by an enemy I can't yet handle, I evacuate all of my colonists in to my "safe fort" on the inside of the mountain. It would be great if I could forbid them from opening the doors in to the fort, rather than have them wander away and attempt to put out fires or haul something where they can be shot at.

[BetaSpectre]

There are too many exploits for doors that can be selected to be closed or open. Unless Allied NPC's and Hostile NPC's aren't affected by locked doors any differently than normal doors. Even letting a normal colonist manually close/open doors is inherently problematic for the AI.

I do like being able to lock/unlock doors though.

[Damien Hart]

I agree with Billy Rueben's point about forbidding workstations, at least ones that don't use power, as it would be far more convenient than suspending individual bills.

As far as exploits for non-hostile NPC's go, they could be mostly negated with some changes to NPC group AI; if when they search for an exit, they can't find an open path, they can bust down players' locked doors to make one would mostly overcome the issue. Enemy NPC's already treat the doors as if they're locked anyway, so there would be no difference there.

Obviously there would be issues with the ability to block off one side of the map, forcing the NPC visitors to cover a longer distance by returning the way they came, and causing them to starve before leaving, but this is already an issue on larger maps with travelling groups moving from one side to the other, so once Tynan works out a solution to this, for example the ability to carry food, this would also be negated.