Please Make Proper Manual Airlock

[Calvin Valerian]

This whole time Manual Airlock unable to properly seal gases.

1 Manual Airlock isn't enough to prevent Hydrogen/Chlorine/Polluted Oxygen not to spread into my base; I need 3 Manual Airlocks next to each other to properly seal my base.

But this method will not work if dupes are always passing by the doors while someone is digging upper ceiling tiles atop the 3 Manual Airlocks, those unbreathable gases will still invade my base.

And what worse is passing through 3 manual airlocks is very time consuming.

Only waterlock does the job perfectly as shown in the image below but the downside will make Sopping Wet debuff.

Could you please make proper gas sealing mechanism because the game feels buggy.

[Tekky]

I agree that it should be easier to make reliable airlocks. However, I am undecided as to which solution would be best.

Maybe the existing airlock should be changed so that it consists of a small chamber with two airtight doors in series which do not open simultaneously. If the game treats these two doors and the chamber as one entity, it could enforce that there never is any gas leak.

On the other hand, it may be more interesting if such a setup were not a single entity, but if it were up to the player to design a reliable airlock using automation logic and already existing building blocks. For example, the player's automation logic could ensure that the two doors are never open at the same time and that the second door will only open after all the air has been pumped out of the chamber.

[Ixenzo]

11 hours ago, Tekky said:

design a reliable airlock using automation logic and already existing building blocks. For example, the player's automation logic could ensure that the two doors are never open at the same time

That would break pathfinding as the second door would be locked and dupes would not be able to go beyond it.

[Tekky]

Yes, ONI does, in its current state, treat a locked door as an invalid path. That's why a new state for doors would have to be introduced:

"temporarily locked"

This state should allow pathfinding through it, but cause dupes to temporarily wait in front of it and be unable to open it. In other words, it should behave exactly like a red signal for trains in the games Factorio and OpenTTD. Even though the rail track is temporarily blocked, trains are still able to pathfind past red signals.

[babba]

As a normal player without debug I used to build 2 or 3 doors in a row, to avoid that the base gets flooded with gases by messing around with lava at the map bottom, with having gases or fluid pop through. Now playing in debug I have things like 50000 kg hot steam and even building 6 to 10 doors in a row will releases gases through over time as dupes walk through the doors. I let my dupes roam everywhere, thats my playstyle and it also ensures a certain frame rate speed.

No fan of water locks, they also get unreliable in my maps over time if one has an open playstyle with lots of stuff going on.

The idea of having a kind of "Space lock" sounds great. What about having this as a building block, consisting of 2 doors and a guarantee default vacuum in the middle? The default vacuum in the middle could have an output, which needs to be connected to the "Void" at the map top.

I know some will say "Oh, you can build that in the game" > IMHO this is not the point of the initial thread post. I find the initial post good and would love to have that in the game - The manual airlock ( and/or an electric version )

[Sasza22]

52 minutes ago, Tekky said:

Yes, ONI does, in its current state, treats a locked door as an invalid path. That's why a new state for doors would have to be introduced:

"temporarily locked"

The duplicant checkpoint works that way. It holds the dupe until he is allowed to pass. It was supposed to be used for airlocks but it`s pretty late tech and it`s big giving you little room to fit a pump and a pressure sensor. You`d also need 2 of them for the airlock to seal off gas both ways.

[Tekky]

Thanks for pointing out duplicant checkpoints.

Another problem with player designed airlocks is that it takes a very long time for a pump to create a complete vacuum, especially for larger chambers. This would have to be changed if airlocks are to be designed by players instead of being premade entities.