Prefab doors - how do you like 'em?

What kind of door script do people like in their prefab doors?

I have a complex door script that I'm reluctant to release for use in prefabs because I think it's much more complex than most users will make use of, and might just make for more customer support requests than is justified by the few who will make good use of the features.

So, prefab sellers, buyers and renters, which do you prefer? Simple or feature-packed?

Do renters and prefab buyers insist on locks? I'm assuming they do.
Do they insist on access lists?
Do they insist on more than one person with the authority to change settings and lock/unlock the door?
Do they insist on remote control of multiple doors from a common controller?

Locks: yes
Access list: yes

The other two are really more specialty items. IMHO, there is absolutely a line in the sand between too many features and not enough. As a builder, I've stayed away from a lot of available products for that reason and stuck with a very simple script that does exactly what I need without excessive complexity that is likely to generate more customer service IM's.

You'll find two levels of customer: some want every possible bell, whistle, and shiny just because they think it adds value. On the opposite end are those who want a product that works, is easy to configure, easy to use, and doesn't create more customer service problems than added value.

You can also do what your competition is doing. I won't say who, but a successful company does this. They have anotecard driven script. With two notes inside. One is advanced, one basic. You just use which one you want. And I assume the notes activate strings in the code. So you can have the best of both. Just please use good instruction notes. They are rare, and so appreciated.

Black, like my men.

I'm a renter, I like simple

doors must lock (remotely.......don't care)
nice to have shared authority but I don't really care, married couples might
windows must tint
Access lists???

I am a little surprised that people find locks a "must". They have no functional purpose; only at most a social indication that people do not want to be disturbed.
Do people actually walk to their friend's place, find the door locked and go "Oh, well, I had better come back later"? Or does it keep out exploring newbies?

I like having a door script to open and close, simply for the visuals and "feel", but for me, anything more than that is overcomplicating things.

-And truthfully, I have a (bad?) habit of simply camming to where I want to be and sit on something there, so I rarely even walk through a door, locked or not.

My 2p's worth.

I recently rezzed 4 skyboxes, all the same type, and all over 100m apart from each other. I won't say who but doors have central controller, access list, etc, etc.

What it didn't say in the instructions is that if you add people to the access list using one central controller, they are automatically added to every other central controller in the same sim, as all the controllers rez out with the same password and they listen sim-wide. I've been running about adding and removing people for days, before I worked that out. I assumed they would only have a listen range of 20m or so. Now I know each set need a separate password, I have just spent 3 hours going round resetting all the lists/passwords/scripts, etc.

Obviously it's a feature for people with large houses or who have whole sims to themselves, but to a girly like me, it was all very tricky.

You are right about that one. I would even argue its looser than that. It's just a psychological 'nicety' in my opinion. But if you have even run an a rental building that is the 1st question. Do the doors lock?

Hi, I have built many homes and clubs for people and I have come to the conclusion, simple is best. The old adage applies; "Keep It Simple Stupid" or K.I.S.S.
More than that and more to your meaning, I find that in homes an automatic closing door is very nice...people tend to like them. Also group controlled doors are nice as well, but if someone wants in it isn't any different than a lockable door.
Show an experienced player a locked door and you will see that experienced SL player sitting in the home/room that is "locked".
It is nice to have a nice linkable door script..there are some out there with most requiring the use of hinge (pivot cylinder).
*So what you are really looking for at most is a group controlled door, linkable with automatic closing capability.
As far as clubs/business buildings you HAVE TO HAVE automatic doors...that creates interest and the majority of the time people will enter just to see it again when they leave.
Protection isn't a big thing with club doors, except in certain areas and I as well as others are in the process of giving residents total control of their property/homes/clubs/rooms access.
Hope this helps ya!!!

PHD

* Locks & Access list - yes
* Multiple Authority - I'd say yes, if you are a couple
* Remote control of multiple doors from a common controller - Not neccessary for me personally. I lock them alll once and they stay that way.
* Ability to add a welcome message - nice, but not necessary

I've purchased some very nice prefab doors that I've used on some of my builds on my personal home & business land that are great. You can get ones already textured or one that you can add your own texture to. They use a command system that allows all of the above except remote/common and they also allow you to set the opening motion to in, out, telescoping, or slide and also the sound which accompanies opening and closing. This was great for when I wanted to use one for iron gates.

RE: To lock or not lock topic... Yes, I know that a locked door will only keep out a courteous resident, but it is still a must for me. I don't want just everyone walking in and making themselves at home unless I open the door and invite them in. My home is my home, and I wish for it to be treated as such. If I find that someone has forced entry, I will ban them from my property if they strike me in the wrong mood. Don't take me wrong... I am very friendly, and often invite explorers in for a look around if they want... key word "invite"

ie. the other day, I left my av, afk, and came back later to find that a person had tried the door several times. After a closer look, my windows had been untinted, a scripted curtain had been opened, certain sitting poseballs that were hidden were visible, etc. This av was 1 day old. Hell, I didn't learn about camming for months after I started, so I wonder if it was an actual newbie. Maybe he will never come back, but if he tries, he won't be getting in again.

I don't use anything like that personally or until recently when I had to with part of
rental I had. It sort of annoyed me.
I don't like doors. Doors are sort of annoying lag monsters it seems especially when
there is tons of them in a sim, and not really useful if people can zoom cameras through
walls.
And there are ways if they really want to get in through locked doors.

As a homeowner, I like doors that open and close (interior and exterior). However, after my first three or so months of playing SL, I gave up on locking the doors or any sort of home security. Now my house is unlocked and stays unlocked. If I'm not home, I don't care who comes wandering around, opening and closing things, jumping on poseballs, etc. If I am home (and I'm not doing naked type things) I'll generally ignore people if they are just looking around. If they are rude, I eject and ban. So, the ability to basically "unlock and forget" is my only requirement for a personal home.

As a landlord, all the prefabs I buy to rent out have locking doors and tinting windows. I prefer something fairly simple. Notecard driven where you have to edit the notecard or with /99 (or whatever) commands for the access list and individually locking doors (as opposed to one command for all exterior doors) are, I think, somewhat too complex for most new and newish people and time consuming and annoying for more experienced players.

So, my perfect door for a rental is something that the owner (me) can add and remove people (the renter) who can SET access for that home from a drop down menu with a "add/remove access permissions" type of command. Then, for the renter, maybe touch the door, get a menu with an "add access" choice then the renter types the name of the person in chat. Same for other commands like "remove access" "list allowed people" , etc. And, most importantly for me, the ability to clear out everything and everyone with a "reset to owner only" type command so I can clear the access list when someone moves out without having to type one name at a time, etc.

So, a tiered permissions door. As an owner, I give permission to the renter to set access to the house for their guests. When they leave I take control back until the next renter arrives.

I don't use the "group access" at all. I have multiple houses for rent and all the renters are in the same group but that doesn't mean renter A should have access to renter B's home, etc. But I suppose "group access" would be great for a private club or clubhouse or common area building or something.

Well, most of what I make is custom work, and not 'prefabs", but unless the client specifies they want otherwise, my doors simply open and close on command, and have an auto-close option.

Locks are so patheticly easy to bypass that I don't personally find them worth the effort of configuring. If you want to keep people out, use a security orb.

I don't even use actual door scripts anymore.
I use puppeteer for complex doors (porticulus gate goes up while drawbridge goes down and inner door swings open) or I manually set llSetLocalRot events.

Since all my land is set to group, I use a group check on private doors. I figure everyone in the group should have access, and everyone not in the group shouldn't. It saves a lot of setup. I've watched too many people put their new house down, then spend an hour configuring doors and elevators... then get booted by the system halfway through and have to do it all over again.




*edit because there's no "d" in "inner" ha ha ha
/me needs coffee

I own a L$10,000 prefab where I am just inches away from ripping out all the door scripts that came with it and putting in an open source script that I modified which does nothing but open, close, and auto-close when left open too long.

For one thing, if I click the existing doors the wrong way they bring up an administrative menu with (I kid you not) 12 damn menu buttons. It's a fricken door; why do I need 12 configuration settings? The other thing about the doors, is I think that whatever weird logic is used to bring up the administrative menu is very timing sensitive (and flawed), because half the time when I try to use the doors, they actually get into an infinite loop where they pop up several blue dialog boxes a second that just stack and stack and stack until I manually close the door and reset the scripts. I think this is a big-name door system too, but since I'm not in-world I won't mention the name, as I don't want to wrongly besmirch someone.

Hell I don't know what's taken me so long replacing those damn doors, come to think of it.

Anyway, renters use parcel access lists (where allowed) to control parcel access- and when not allowed to use those, they use security orbs. For just standard day-to-day rental purposes, I don't see much value in a single one of the features you mentioned in the OP.

I used to not build with doors at all but over time I had so many customers tell me they really wanted to buy one of my skyboxes but they wanted a locking door. I would always patiently explain to them just how little actual security is provided by a locking door in SL (none, actually) but it really didn't matter to them -- they just didn't feel right without doors that locked, even if it was only for show. Tinting windows is another one like that - everyone knows tinted windows won't stop anyone who's been in SL more than 2 days from camming in, but they still want the illusion of privacy created by "drawing the blinds."

Usually after about the third request for a given feature, I cave and add it. But I try to make sure it is as simple as possible for the end user. My worst nightmare as a builder is a system like what Wilde described above.

And I totally agree with what someone said above -- detailed instructions, please. Written so a 6-year-old can figure it out. Much as I love scripters, they are the absolute worst when it comes to instructions.

I keep mine simple with an open source script that has an access list and locks. Beyond that, I am the one who controls the design (slide/swing/auto-open) and the user doesn't need to know anything other than how to add people to the list, which the door will tell them how to do.

Is locking pointless? To a degree. It is an outward sign that someone is not wanted, without having security orb spam exceeding the bounds of the house.

As a rental manager, I like simple too.

I have some units with...um, doors from a famous maker starting with "N". They do everything. But every single new user must be added separately! Click door for menu. Chat on the appropriate channel, make sure the spelling is absolutely correct and no extra spaces. Do that whole process again for EVERY user you add or subtract. Then go do it again on all the other doors in that house.

Gimme an access notecard I can edit!

As a rental manager, I like simple too.

I have some units with...um, doors from a famous maker starting with "N". They do everything. But every single new user must be added separately! Click door for menu. Chat on the appropriate channel, make sure the spelling is absolutely correct and no extra spaces. Do that whole process again for EVERY user you add or subtract. Then go do it again on all the other doors in that house.

Gimme an access notecard I can edit!

As a noob I tended to wonder around the grid letting myself into peoples houses because I had no idea I wasn't allowed there. I was told if it's not locked or doesn't have security then you're allowed to enter. Morally though I guess you are entering someone’s personal space. I don't really want strangers wondering round my house or shagging on my furniture, so I like locks....peace of mind

Could someone explain how the tint doesn't work. I have tried to cam in on neighbors who have tinted windows, just to see that it actually works and my cam zooms in on the window right up close then stops it doesn’t go through the glass..........So can people really see through my walls when I have privacy tint activated?

yes. disable the camera constraints in the debug menu...or just change where you're standing to get closer and then spin the camera around using camera controls.

Not only that, if you have a fairly fast computer that can handle a draw distance of 400 or more, you can cam right into anyone's house from across the sim.

You just need to bone up on your cam-fu.

So waste of time tinting my windows when I get changed LOL........good to know, thanks guys