Pneumatic Airlock Clamps

[Farquaar]

I was watching some gameplay of Alien: Isolation, and I noticed that there are these little orange doohickeys on various airlocks that hold them shut completely unless removed.




Wouldn't they be a cool item for SS13? Want to delay baddies (or goodies) from passing through a given airlock? Slap one of these guys on it, and they'll either have to beat the tar out of the clamp or have a wrench on-hand to disengage it. If they're stocked on weapons but not spare time or tools, they might just opt to destroy the airlock completely.

A pneumatic clamp would take a few seconds to set up, making it difficult to use in a chase unless you have a good head start. It is best used to fortify an area. Whether you're a hapless CMO barricading yourself in your office until help arrives or an evildoer who wants a few extra seconds warning in case security comes down at your door, a pneumatic clamp might be just what you need.

You need to weigh your decision to clamp carefully. You may prevent a foe from passing through, but you also might just be cutting off your escape route, giving you a nasty surprise if your foe can travel through vents or an environmental hazard arises. If you're a stealthy antag, you may just be leaving incriminating evidence behind.

Summary of How Pneumatic Clamps Function:

• They stop a given airlock from being opened until disengaged or destroyed.
• They can be disengaged with a wrench. This takes several seconds.
• They are sturdy, but can be broken with enough damage (more damage than a standard airlock).
• They can be printed at the security and engineering protolathes. Not common, but not so precious that they can't be used to lock down a department.

Thoughts?

[Mice World]

We already have these. I've never used them but I believe they basically work the same way.

https://github.com/tgstation/tgstation/pull/53114

From the pr:

Adds door seals to the game, inspired by the ones used in Alien Isolation and SOMA. Trivially easy for a human to remove, but makes it a nightmare to try and smash through if you're an alien, an evil robot, or don't have hands. I also slightly changed how airlock reinforcement works, as now there are two ways to increase the integrity, the previous way of just resetting the max_integrity after the removal of the plating wouldn't work.

[Farquaar]

We already have these. I've never used them but I believe they basically work the same way.

https://github.com/tgstation/tgstation/pull/53114

From the pr:

Adds door seals to the game, inspired by the ones used in Alien Isolation and SOMA. Trivially easy for a human to remove, but makes it a nightmare to try and smash through if you're an alien, an evil robot, or don't have hands. I also slightly changed how airlock reinforcement works, as now there are two ways to increase the integrity, the previous way of just resetting the max_integrity after the removal of the plating wouldn't work.

This is cool. It's basically beat-for-beat what I suggested in OP. I'm surprised I've never seen them used before.

I guess I'll leave this thread open for public discussion of pneumatic seals/clamps and how neat they are.

[Mice World]

I'm surprised I've never seen them used before.

I can count the times I've seen them used on one hand, all just to seal the door under the Head of Security's office on meta.

I think they get overlooked for a few reasons.

• Most people don't know they exist.

• Welding the door is much easier than printing them.

• They're bulky.

• In situations where you would use them (Malf AI, Xenos) It's too risky to go get them and usually you won't have any printed.

Even when you do use them, they're not great at stopping threats. Most departments have too many doors to effectively use them. Borgs can just RCD down the walls anyway.

They could be buffed, but I'm not sure they ever will. Making some spawn round start or reducing their size would be good. Or welding doors could be nerfed to make printing them more desirable (Doubt this would change much).

[Jacquerel]

I think they also just don’t quite work, IIRC jaws of life or an arm blade or even a regal rat can pry a door open on click regardless of whether one of these is stuck on it.

[Misdoubtful]

I think I'm one of the rarities that will actually print and carry one with me. I've always liked the idea of using one or two of them to preemptively seal someone off from their route while they are being chased by other seccies, but, it doesn't really happen much. When I say much, I mean I've managed to do it once in a long maint passage. I'm usually better off welding the door. They were intended to be easy on the people side.

They just don't have the kind of impact that you would expect in say, Alien Isolation. It was also intentional sure, I'm just left feeling that the timers and environment involved make them suck enough to get little use when there are much bigger priorities (Things that provide more value) when it comes to aliens, malf, etc.

Their usage is yet another thing I'd love to get the figures on, but they'd be cool with a buff of some sort.

[JustRandomGuy]

Oh no a cool item/mechanic locked behind prining? it's GONE. Half the players (me included) refuse to use anything you have to print late in the round. IMO if you want this to see some use put some in the armory and engineering foyer. Alternatively we can nuke tools from orbit so that a small sized welder no longer so good, 90% of players have one on them at all times.