Fence

Fences are structures that are passable by all pawns except farm animals, and can be used in combination with walls, doors, barricades, and fence gates to enclose a pen.

Humans may slow down when passing fences.

Acquisition

Constructing a fence requires 1 Stuff (Metallic/Woody/Stony, 10 for SMVs) and 70 ticks (1.17 secs) of work.

Summary

Fences, along with other options, can be used to enclose a pen. Pen animals, wild or tame, will not be able to cross over the fence even when manhunter or being lead by a colonist. Note however that, like walls, trapped wild animals will still attempt to break them down if starving. All other pawns can cross over the fence at will, but will be slowed down.

Predators will not hunt animals inside the pen unless they are also inside the pen at the time. Non-pen predators can move across the fence while wandering, and then target its occupants, but will not intentionally do so.

Analysis

Fences provide the cheapest way to create a pen and are more accessible than walls, though the latter benefit is shared by the barricade. They are however extremely weak and can rarely enable predators to eat your farm animals. This risk of predation increases as pen sizes goes up and the chance of a predator randomly walking in gets higher.

Fences slow movement and cannot be stood on. This can be useful for slowing the enemy without providing much cover, and for blocking one side of walls, barricades or sandbags to deny their usage to the enemy. However, fences are not durable and can be easily destroyed during firefights. Not so useful for the mouth of a killbox, but useful in the pathways leading up to it.

Beauty

Fences cost only 1 Stuff (Metallic/Woody/Stony, 10 for SMVs), but have the same beauty as a wall of that material. Jade fences cost 1 jade and give +10 beauty. In contrast, a normal quality, jade small sculpture costs 50 jade for +135 beauty, 27% as much as 50 fences. It takes at least a masterwork sculpture to match the beauty of 50 jade fences. Regardless, sculptures take more Work to Make, and check for the Art skill. And, in general, sculptures are worth more wealth - especially for a masterwork one. This also applies to silver and gold fences (but not any other material).

However, fences take up a lot more space than sculptures. Even if you have a large, single-building superstructure, fences are worse at increasing the beauty need. Pawns check for beauty within an 8-tile radius. It is much more difficult to fit all 50 or so fences within 8 tiles than a single sculpture.

Therefore, valuable fences are one of the better ways of increasing a room's beauty stat, assuming the room is large enough. Note that these should ultimately be compared to sculptures of cheaper materials, like wood or stone. If you have a decent Artist, wood / stone sculptures can fit into small rooms and are better at increasing the pawn's beauty need.

Stats table

Fence	Beauty	Work to Build	HP	Flammability	Market Value
Material	Beauty	Work to Build	HP	Flammability	Market Value
Bioferrite	0	000,175 ticks (2.92 secs)	80	75%	1.35
Gold	20	000,063 ticks (1.05 secs)	24	40%	100
Granite blocks	0	000,560 ticks (9.33 secs)	68	0%	2.9
Limestone blocks	0	000,560 ticks (9.33 secs)	62	0%	2.9
Marble blocks	1	000,525 ticks (8.75 secs)	48	0%	2.8
Plasteel	0	000,154 ticks (2.57 secs)	112	0%	9.6
Sandstone blocks	0	000,490 ticks (8.17 secs)	56	0%	2.7
Silver	6	000,070 ticks (1.17 secs)	28	40%	10
Slate blocks	0	000,560 ticks (9.33 secs)	52	0%	2.9
Steel	0	000,070 ticks (1.17 secs)	40	40%	2.2
Jade	10	000,350 ticks (5.83 secs)	20	0%	6.3
Uranium	0	000,133 ticks (2.22 secs)	100	0%	6.5
Wood	0	000,049 ticks (0.82 secs)	26	100%	1.4