Zones are extremely important, but restricting colonists to them is cumbersome. Here's a mod/dev idea to improve it. RimWorld

First let me say that zones are extremely powerful and important, and so far work great as they are. I don't think the way zones are drawn or their options should be changed. The only problem I have found is the way that colonists treat the 'allowed zones'.

The Problem: If you want to restrict a colonists from the kitchen and an additional area, you need to make an allowed zone unique for them and exclude both the kitchen and the new area. If you're heavy on zone management like me, you end up with 5 or 6 allowed zones that are unique to a single character. This doesn't seem sane and is quite a hassle.

Additionally, you cannot restrict colonists from a zone if they need to work their occasionally. For example, cleaners need access to everything, so their travel paths cannot be restricted. This further complicates work delegation and zone management.

The Solution: Make an 'allowed zone management' menu that works exactly like the "restricted" menu. Keep the y-axis as your colonists, but make the x-axis for each of your zones (instead of hours of the day). The states that you can set for each colonists/zone block would be "never, work, travel, and always".

When set to never, the colonist cannot enter that zone. Just like normal.

When set to work, the colonist can enter the zone if what they are working on is inside of it. They still cannot enter it to get to a task on the other side, though.

When set to travel, a colonist may not work in the zone but may travel through it.

When set to always, they are not restricted by the zone.

The Benefits

Custom pathfinding adjustments can regulate dirt build up in areas that you want in-line with the rest of the base. You can have quick access from outside and inside (refrigerators and hospital rooms) without colonists dirtying them up with daily foot traffic.

The ability to restrict each colonists from a group of zones, rather than only allowing a single zone means you can have a sane and minimal set of zones and still have specific restrictions for each colonist.

Thanks for reading! If I modded games, I would give this a shot myself, but sadly I have not the skills nor the time. Hopefully this idea will get picked up or integrated into the game or a mod in the future.

Submitted March 23, 2017 at 11:04PM by SirNanigans http://ift.tt/2nVUdN0 RimWorld