Goonhub
04-18-2022, 04:19 PM
Let's get straight to the point. Thindoors are bad. I don't mean the ones that you can use a screwdriver on and do things like a normal airlock. Yeah, those ones where you can't even packet-hacket open. The only way you can open those doors is by getting an ID with actual access to it or by emagging it, which only opens it like a normal door. I mean, look at the Quartermaster Quarters in Cogmap1. Everyone enters through the Central Warehouse because the door is simply unhackable. Really, Nanotrasen should invest in theses to defend the Armory if the only you you can break them is through bombs. The only problem is how it cannot bolted. That's right, not even AI can bolt thindoors down. I have to give it props for having an emag interaction, for being usable with the devices that change access and for having some style, but like I wrote, the only way to hack through it is with an emag. How do we fix the doors?
Solution 1: Make a separate and small hacking action
First we have to know that not many maps use this kind of door, and the moments they are used, it's very rarely as an actual door. It's more used as a window than anything else. So there could be a 10 or 15 second long action bar kind of hack action, similar to how lockpicking works. Except, instead of failing the pick, you could get zapped, sometimes bypassing the insulative gloves (if you are wearing those) and most of the times not. It could be triggered by simply attacking the door with a multitool. After the door gets hacked, it gets locked open for 10 or more seconds, bypassing door bolts (if they are added) and blocking off AI control and other methods of forcing it open. In that meantime it is hacked open, you could also allow for anyone to deconstruct the door with a Deconstruction Device, so you don't have to give up on life everytime you accidentally make a new thindoor in the wrong spot or orientation.
Solution 2: Make it work like a normal airlock
The doors could also just work like normal airlocks. It could get screwdrived and hacked open, or electrified by a rogue AI or a trickster, or actually bolt like any normal airlock in-game. It's a solution that would just require some minor sprite work to show exposed wires, and maybe some little workaround to not make a normal airlock appear out of nowhere when pulsing the ID Scan wire, but besides that, it is a very viable solution. It would solve most issues related to the thindoors.
Conclusion
In my opinion, anything is better than the current thindoors, sticking out like a sore thumb when used in anything that isn't a window. Solution 1 is more of a gimmicky solution, but it would flow more fluidly with how the door looks and how it functions as it is now. Adding a few universal features such as bolting the door or making it compatible with wireless packets would work well with both solutions, but electrifying the door would only work on the Solution 2. I'm posting this here because, as soon as my last PR gets either merged or closed, I want to tackle at this issue myself.