Vac barrier

Vac barriers are buildings introduced in the Odyssey DLC that allow passage by pawns while containing vacuum and temperature.

Acquisition[edit]

Vac barriers can be constructed once the Orbital tech research project has been completed. Each requires 40 Steel, 2 Components, 2 Gravlite panels, 2,040 ticks (34 secs) of work modified by the construction speed of the builder, and a construction skill of 6.

Summary[edit]

While powered, a vac barrier is airtight without obstructing movement. If power is lost, the vac barrier is functionally the same as an open door. Vac barriers are not exempt from being disabled by solar flares or suffering component breakdown.

Vac barriers hold temperature^{[how much?]} very well, effectively able to insulate separate rooms. A room at 1,000 °C (1,832 °F) will not heat the room next to it if separated by vac barriers. Temperature will still bleed in and out through roofs meaning heaters are still required for maintaining temperature in orbit.

Although vac barriers are not impassable, they can be disallowed with the forbid tool to prevent colonists from crossing through them.

Vac barriers maintain full functionality planet-side.

Strangely, vac barriers cannot block gas flow.

Analysis[edit]

Vac barriers are useful due to their lossless nature in vacuums and the unimpeded nature of passage through them. This makes them the ideal way to exit pressurized areas and allows them to be used as emergency seals between rooms in places where normally-closed doors would be needlessly slow traffic outside of emergencies.

Vac barriers can be disabled by events and power outages and offer no resistance to enemy raiders however. Therefore critical barriers should be supplemented by doors made from an airtight material. These doors can be held open normally and closed in the event of a barrier failure or incoming threat.

In addition to its nominal purpose, vac barriers make ideal doors for freezers and other temperature controlled rooms, as pawns can freely pass through without the temperature equalizing. As this free passage also applies to raiders, these characteristics make them ideal entryways to burnboxes - killbox designs in which high temperatures down non-mechanoid raiders.

Gallery[edit]

Version history[edit]

Odyssey DLC Release - Added
1.6.4566 - Removed forced low-power mode for vac barriers when they're not in space, allowing them to still function while on the planet. Fix: Vac barriers not exchanging temperatures properly when off.

Architect