"Bean counter" airlocks

[The Plum Gate]

I have been mulling over the particulars of access restrictions on doors, and think it would be nice to have doors that only let a set number through them in one direction until that many have passed back through. In other words a door that will only let a certain number through until that many come out. So a bean counter door would allow, at most x number of duplicants to enter or pass through an area at a time.

edit: Applying this feature/game mechanic to the mechanized door lock only when it has power would be a good reason to actually plug the door in and power it.

[AlexRou]

What would be the use case for such a door?

[goboking]

3 hours ago, AlexRou said:

What would be the use case for such a door?

You could prevent too many dupes from entering your bathroom at once, preventing them from overwhelming the wash basin.  Likewise with whatever room has the ore scrubbers in it.  Other than that, I don't know.

[The Plum Gate]

Personally, I would use it on a slime mine entrance - only two ( or some number befitting the sanitizing facilities I can build in said location ) dupes in at once, so no one passes by an ore scrubber, washbasin or hand sanitizer, etc. It would save me the trouble of deciding who goes in, specifically.

I imagine it as a sort of intelligent door, in that it it's meant to be sealing off a location in general to only allow a specified number of dupes to pass in one direction, then that many go out.

Basically it locks after 'x' number of dupes have gone through from the right, then only allows 'x' to go through from the left.

Using the bean counter with a value of three. Then three could pass from the right, then it locks from the right, but isn't locked from the left thus allowing no more to come from the right. If one passes from the left, then 1 can pass again from the right. It's basically a traffic control door ensuring only three dupes are in a given place, or pass by a given area that is.

This doesn't solve the problem of two dupes passing through at once - I imagine this mechanic would cause some buggy doors. However, if it kept track of the dupe by their name/id and set the doors' permission accordingly, then it would function in much the same way as the mechanized door lock when it comes to permissions - it would just be automatic with a fixed number of passers by. 

[brummbar7]

Could be useful.  I think the game definitely needs more specialized doors.  I've mentioned in other threads a 'medical' door that keys of of disease/no disease, immunity stat, and immunity level.

I think in this case it could be called something like a 'zone access' door.  You could add the bean counter feature, and it might also be good to work it into the clothing system.  So the door requires a certain type of clothing (maybe skill level?) in order to go through.  If the dupes find a job on the other side, they change into those clothes and go through the door.  This would include space suits, for eventual asteroid surface access.  When they go back through they change back into their 'default' clothing - default meaning what the player has assigned to them (usually snazzy or nothing). It could get a bit tricky, in that they could possibly waste a lot of time moving back and forth, storing materials, changing clothes each time.  Possibly they don't automatically change back.   The player could put doors on the dormitory area that require 'regular' clothing, so they change back into them at night, at least. 

[The Plum Gate]

I like this idea regarding clothing. It could be solved with a pass by station acting as a locker ( along with the door access requirements ). I was going to mention that as it's own idea in the suggestions, but it seem to be implied thinking among many of us - right now, clothing the dupes, setting the permission and so on is a micromanaging task for sure.

Generally speaking I don't even bother with clothes - and for some reason, it takes forever to make them to begin with, not sure what skill it uses either - hopefully they address this when looking into the hazmat suit requests.

[Kasuha]

For disease management, direct access right and selecting healthy dupes to enter is better approach. And if the reason is so that dupes don't overload your wash basins or ore scrubbers, then the problem is with wash basins and ore scrubbers and should be solved there, not with doors.

I agree that clothing and washbasins/scrubbers are similar kind of mechanic. When a duplicant crosses a zone boundary, he needs to change and/or disinfect. For that purpose, direct setting up of zones would be much more useful than extending functionality of doors. Actually, there already is some kind of zone/region support in the game (credit: @Risu), maybe it just needs extending/finishing to be useful.

[The Plum Gate]

I think I kind of got my wish for a pass by locker station and a bean counter door with the new exosuit system. Didn't see this coming in such a grandiose fashion, ..well played, I say!

[Kasuha]

4 hours ago, The Plum Gate said:

I think I kind of got my wish for a pass by locker station and a bean counter door with the new exosuit system. Didn't see this coming in such a grandiose fashion, ..well played, I say!

I hope they'll extend it to washbasins/sinks/scrubbers too. And to clothes change.

[Executive_Lurker]

if we are ever able to craft ancient ruin items this could be a feature of the advanced doors.

[Executive_Lurker]

On 9/4/2017 at 12:52 PM, brummbar7 said:

clothing system.  So the door requires a certain type of clothing (maybe skill level?

plastic keycards possibly as well. love the idea of color coded dupes. very trekky