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Make airlocks degrade over time, requiring maintenance


climax708

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What?!

You make airlocks degrade over time, making them do noises, open slower or with delay, and/or other nuisances based on RNG.

You also implement WD-40 for engineers/janitors to maintain the airlocks with.


But why?!?

To give 'em something to do! They don't have enough work to do as-is.

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I just have to say I love how the fix for malfunctioning machinery, even in hundreds of years in the future, is still WD-40.


Anyway I am kind of for the suggestion but it should be rare/require like 100 openings or something because otherwise it will make the station feel like it's practically falling apart rather than an well maintained and high tech research facility.


You could give medical more things to do if it had random shocking and safeties removed though, which would be nice.

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There are events that randomly break cameras, lights, and APCs to my knowledge. Creating a similar event that doesn't break airlocks, but rather makes them less effective/more inconvenient until fixed, is something I can get behind. That way it is not constantly happening to all the airlocks on the station, which would get very annoying very fast.

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Would the airlocks effected become completely inoperable? Or maybe they could still be pried open with a crowbar? Or maybe just make it so that a damaged airlock only opens slower (E.G. requiring a progress bar to complete before it opens), instead of locking it shut?


Because any event that can nullify doors seemingly at random could be extremely problematic for the vast majority of the crew that isn't engineers. Suddenly, every round you'd get instances where players become trapped in boring areas for no reason. Quartermaster want to check in the warehouse for a minute? Oops, guess I'm stuck here for 10 minutes until an engineer shows up - or for 30 minutes, until an engineer joins the game. Phoron researcher want to use the viewing room? Welp, now I get to stare out this window wistfully until one of my scientist coworkers escorts someone in.


There just doesn't seem to be a need for this functionality, even in the name of realism. It is, after all, a high-tech research outpost. And at the beginning of every round, it is ostensibly in perfect working order (excepting a few areas like the construction zone and the trashy maintenance tunnels). Why would it break in a couple hours? Or even a day?

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There just doesn't seem to be a need for this functionality, even in the name of realism. It is, after all, a high-tech research outpost. And at the beginning of every round, it is ostensibly in perfect working order (excepting a few areas like the construction zone and the trashy maintenance tunnels). Why would it break in a couple hours? Or even a day?

 

This same argument applies to all the lights, cameras, and APCs that randomly break throughout the round. It isn't necessarily a function of realism as much as giving engineering something to do besides initial engine setup and waiting for antags to break something.


That said, I definitely agree this shouldn't be something that completely disables the doors. Even broken APCs don't stop power flow, they just render the interface inaccessible until fixed (as I understand it). Broken airlocks would be a massive pain. I like the idea of a small progress bar for each time the airlock opens, if that's feasible.

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Broken airlocks would be a massive pain. I like the idea of a small progress bar for each time the airlock opens, if that's feasible.

 

Round Time 12:15 - "Okay, I set the engine. Maybe I should just wait until the doors and such starts breaking?"


Round Time 12:45 - 12 damages has been reported to Engineering Department - "Oh my God! You people don't know how to take care of your own doors!"


+1

I'm all for this just to see Engineering Department's reaction to this.

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  • 2 months later...

+1

Sounds fun. Waiting like 4 or so sec for doors to open is acceptable once or twice, but gets annoying quickly so you will call someone to fix it asap. Realism wise, it makes no sence to have lightbulbs in year 2460 yet we still have them for gameplay purposes. Make the acting up doors hapen

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  • 4 weeks later...

+1

Sounds fun. Waiting like 4 or so sec for doors to open is acceptable once or twice, but gets annoying quickly so you will call someone to fix it asap. Realism wise, it makes no sence to have lightbulbs in year 2460 yet we still have them for gameplay purposes. Make the acting up doors hapen


1) I'm not sure that even an annoying little timer like that would inspire people to call an engineer to fix it, unless it's on an essential door that receives high traffic. Because if it's not a highly trafficked door, they can just start using it less, making sure they take care of everything they need to before leaving again, or finding a new route.

2) Even if they do call someone to come fix it, I'm not sure an engineer will always be available to perform the repair. Since the functionality of moving through the door is technically not broken (just slowed), it's a non-essential repair. Which means it gets put at the very bottom of the priority list for engineers, right down there with repairing vending machines that are launching their contents. And the station is always covered in those broken vending machines. Low-priority fixes just don't get done because engineers have more important things to be doing, typically.

3) Why does it make no sense to have light bulbs in the future?

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As long as the door "degrading" isn't that it doesn't bolt/ID scanner fails/electrifies/plain and simple doesn't open, fine. Also please make it tied to events (probably hidden one however) and isn't based on usage or something.

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Instead of making the airlocks become randomly damaged over time, why not just make it so that airlocks are easier to damage manually? Then they become a tool for people to use instead of an RNG nuisance. If you're trying to make an escape from someone, bash the airlock with a fire extinguisher a few times, then the damage makes it take a few extra clicks to open, or if it's damaged enough, makes it only open half-way, so you have to crawl through. If you have a stronger weapon, you could bash in a door to stop the airlock from opening entirely - which you could use to lock someone inside an area, for instance. It's strategic instead of random.

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