If I'm installing/breaking a lock, can I leave the room/pick up items/A&A/etc while installing/breaking the lock? Or do I have to do nothing while
installing/breaking?
Quite redundant in your question, however, concerning the lock installing/upgrading (wich is basically the same thing).
You can't move.
you can pick up items, drop them, and interact with NPCs (maybe this will be removed).
If you start an action like crafting a key card you will sotp working on the lock.
Concerning the break of the said locks, no clue, but we can guess the process will be the same.
So basically the lock will continue installing as long as I stay in the room?
What happens if I leave the room? Will the timer stop until I come back,
or will it cause me to fail lock installation?
Unless things have changed very recently, once you start you can move around the ship(or building). As long as you stay in the entity you are installing the lock in you are free to move about.
“...once you start you can move around the ship(or building). As long as you stay in the entity you are installing the lock in you are free to move about.”
Does me looking at the code qualify as important enough for the mighty Bromley?
You know you could always give it a go if you were that impatient Philip. If it does stop building, you know you can't move. If it does stop, you lost a few seconds/minutes of the build time - nothing.
“As long as you stay in the entity you are installing the lock in...”
So, when I start installing a lock in my 1300 then fly around in my 1210 till it's completed, that's a bug? (Though when the time was up, I got a message about installing a lock on my 1210...)
It's not a "bug" right now because there's nothing in the code stopping you, but I am fairly sure that it will soon be coded to ensure that you will be unable to move when installing a lock.
It is indeed a bug that is allowing you to move. When locks were first released, you could not leave the room nor do another personal action such as crafting, however; there was also an issue with production and such. While fixing this, I broke the original stuff, hence why you can move... It will be fixed with the next sync.