Fire Surpression Systems

[CanadianWolvie]

Couldn't you use foam to supress fire without negative effects? or do we need the drawback for the gameplay?

Why wouldn't there be a draw back like the crew having to clean up the foam afterwards and slowing crew that pass through a room with foam in it until they do clean it (see: repair). Main benefit of such the suggestion could be for a room would it being like extra health for a room in the specific case of a fire that keeps it functional for the ship just a bit longer. The foam could even work a different benefit as well, slowing enemy boarders.

[Ninetailed]

Between sending in crew to fight the fire (presumably with handheld extinguishers?) and venting the compartment, I think the fire-fighting bases are covered. In the real world, there are two main ways of fighting a fire: depriving the fire of oxygen, and cooling the burning object below its ignition point so the reaction does not have enough energy to continue. The basic firefighting technique - dumping water on it - combines both of these approaches to an extent. Most other techniques, like the application of foam, powder, CO2 or gas dispersal systems operate entirely on the oxygen-deprivation principle.

Let's apply this to space. First of all, we already have the oxygen deprivation system in the form of venting a compartment. This is quick, easy and requires no special equipment. A foam dispersal system would operate primarily on the oxygen-deprivation principle, meaning you're effectively adding an extra piece of bulky, expensive equipment that is just one more thing to draw power and break down at inconvenient times to add an ability you already had.

You could certainly argue that the foam system would fill a gap when your doors are malfunctioning or your oxygen plant is down. I argue that it's entirely possible to add extra system points to the above and buy yourself a "buffer" against attack, keeping those systems running longer.

The fire suppression system is a lovely idea, but in my view it just doesn't make sense on a spaceship. I'd rather see development resources focused elsewhere.

[Gorlom]

Since CO2 can cause frostbit doesn't that work both as oxygen depriver and coolant?

[Adam Taylor]

I've not had a chance to play the demo, but I do have some general comments.

Firstly, multiple ways of dealing with fires is good. Options are always a good thing for games like this.

Fire extinguishers is a good general method to use for minor fires. Having your crew run around and take care of the little ones should cover general problems.

Venting the rooms (while sealing doors) makes sense. It would quickly douse any fires in those rooms and kill off people in them. Venting rooms would also be a good way of quickly killing invaders.

A gas suppression system would a good thing to use as well. It would basically do a quick douse of the fires. It should be more of an automatic system that could kick in as long as there was no one in the room (though like venting should be able to be triggered for quick suffocation of enemies).
Making it a cost per room (increasing with room size) would make sense.

There could also be some races which don't need air to breathe. Like synthetics. They could survive in vented or gassed rooms.