Allowed area

== Creating an area ==
Go to Architect > Zones and click the 'Expand Allowed Area' button. Choose 'Manage Allowed Areas' and click the 'New Area' button. Give the area a meaningful name like 'Toxic' or 'Chinchilla Avoidance' to help remember the purpose of each area. Click again on the 'Expand Allowed Area' button and choose the name for the Area you just created. Use the mouse to draw out a rectangle for the area.
The "Invert" button swaps the area you've selected, making that area not allowed and everything else allowed. This can be very helpful when creating an area that allows everywhere except for a specific place, for example, to keep colonists out of threats, or to keep hauling animals out of the prison.
== Managing areas ==
Clicking 'Manage allowed areas' allows the player to create or delete areas, rename areas, or invert an area. Inverting an area allows a player to effectively paint the entire map except for the area as drawn by the player. Colonists may still travel through an unallowed, unpainted void of an area. They just won't perform any activities there. 
As many as eight areas may be created.
The Home area does not count towards this total. By default, Home area is automatically added around any player-created structure, stockpile zone or growing zone. It can be manually expanded or removed from the architect menu.
== Restricting to areas ==
In a colonist's inspect pane they may be assigned to a single allowed area. By default it is 'unrestricted'.
Tamed, unpenable animals can also be assigned to an allowed area. This can be useful for keeping animals from eating high-value crops, accidentally triggering spike traps, or wandering into the path of raiders who will attack them.
== Recommendations ==
It is advisable to pause and do a "zone check" whenever a threat arrives. This will help avoid having colonists or animals wander into danger.
These are examples of some allowed areas you may wish to create.
* Indoors - A good place to restrict nuzzling animals, colonists with a disease or infection that requires timely tending, or pacifists during a raid.
* Roofed - Good to set up in advance for use during Toxic Fallout. Pawns under a roof will gradually lose toxic buildup, even if the roofed area is outdoors.
* Threat Avoidance - A zone to stop your pawns from running into range of an infestation, manhunter pack, or a mech cluster when trying to accomplish a task. The zone can be painted by drawing on the area you want to avoid, then inverting it.
* Animal Emergency - A small zone in the dining room or somewhere similar in the middle of a base to place your free roaming animals in earlier in the game, before walls can be constructed (even after then, the zone should be kept, as drop pod raids may also spawn).
=== Temporary allowed area ===
A technique to create a allowed area or home area (with single colonist) specifically to restrict a colonist to a very certain area, in order to force them to perform a task.
As an example, let's say you want a colonist to smooth the floor in your freezer in the next few days, and do nothing else. In this case, you will create a new zone for them, containing exactly these areas in your base:
* the area where the work needs to happen (freezer in this example)
* the colonist's bedroom (so s/he can go to rest as usual)
* the recreation area and dining table
* a place where food is stored, so they can get their meals (maybe not necessary in this example, because the freezer is already covered, but critical to include)
These areas do not have to be adjacent (connected). The zone can be composed of several disconnected areas.
Now you use the "Schedule" tab to restrict them to this newly created zone. S/he can still move freely between those areas, but will not perform any "task" unless that task is inside the designated zones. This means s/he will not use any skills outside the temporary zone, and you will not need to manipulate her work tab to keep her from doing anything but smooth the freezer floor.
This is a very effective method, not just for training, but for prioritizing important work in general. For instance, if you have several colonists assigned to Construction, you can assign all but your best away from your new dining room furniture that you're building.
== Version history ==
* 0.11.877 - Added.
* 1.3.3066 - Farm animals may no longer be restricted to allowed areas and can only be controlled through pens.
Category:Zones