torches

[junglegreen]

Just started todays playing  and found out that you can no longer get torches from a fire.  I was always a bit puzzled how they were so good,  I'm just glad I have a large stockpile of them .

Have not seen anything else new yet apart from the look of the frozen  lake   but all  looking really great.

[nicko]

you can still get Brands? (Fire sticks as I like to call them) from a fire! Torches no.

[Patrick Carlson]

3 hours ago, nicko said:

you can still get Brands? (Fire sticks as I like to call them) from a fire! Torches no.

You can also craft a torch right from the Radial menu now, provided you have the materials in your inventory. 

[SteveP]

1 minute ago, Patrick Carlson said:

You can also craft a torch right from the Radial menu now, provided you have the materials in your inventory. 

Torches still require cloth and kerosene to craft. This change makes it really difficult to use fire to combat wolves. It has upset the entire mechanism that players have been relying upon and flares also no longer keep wolves at bay if you drop them in order to equip a weapon. I must say I don't know why this was done except to appease a number of hard core video arcade style gamers.

We should be able to craft torches from natural materials such as dried grass, hay, straw, birch bark and other highly flammable materials. This game has just gotten a LOT harder and these changes are going to affect first time players the worst.

[Ruruwawa]

I've tried waving off a wolf with all three: flare, torch and brand.  With pretty good success.   

[Salty Crackers]

50 minutes ago, SteveP said:

Torches still require cloth and kerosene to craft. This change makes it really difficult to use fire to combat wolves. It has upset the entire mechanism that players have been relying upon and flares also no longer keep wolves at bay if you drop them in order to equip a weapon. I must say I don't know why this was done except to appease a number of hard core video arcade style gamers.

We should be able to craft torches from natural materials such as dried grass, hay, straw, birch bark and other highly flammable materials. This game has just gotten a LOT harder and these changes are going to affect first time players the worst.

I like not being able to take torches from fires, but I really don't like not being able to throw flares. Basically, flares are now a wind-proof torch. They used to be great at hunting and getting rid of wolves.

[cekivi]

I'll withhold judgement until I've had time to experiment myself. For instance, does brandishing a flare deter a curious bear? I always thew my flares to deter a bear and booked it to escape. If this is no longer viable than stumbling across one would be far more dangerous...

[Scyzara]

12 hours ago, cekivi said:

For instance, does brandishing a flare deter a curious bear? I always thew my flares to deter a bear and booked it to escape. If this is no longer viable than stumbling across one would be far more dangerous.

I've tried it four times so far with mixed success. Once I got mauled immediately (the bear might have been to close to me in this case, was a pretty unfortunate situation), three times the bear kept his distance and didn't attack. However, despite brandishing the flare all the time, I only managed to chase him away twice (took at least 20 seconds of brandishing). The other time I had to retreat, but wasn't mauled at least.

So.. yeah, carried flares (and presumably torches and maybe even brands) can still deter bears as long as you don't get too close to them. Better let the bear walk towards you until it has reached the threshold distance, not the other way around.

[Vhalkyrie]

17 hours ago, SteveP said:

Torches still require cloth and kerosene to craft. This change makes it really difficult to use fire to combat wolves. It has upset the entire mechanism that players have been relying upon and flares also no longer keep wolves at bay if you drop them in order to equip a weapon. I must say I don't know why this was done except to appease a number of hard core video arcade style gamers.

We should be able to craft torches from natural materials such as dried grass, hay, straw, birch bark and other highly flammable materials. This game has just gotten a LOT harder and these changes are going to affect first time players the worst.

Personally, I think these new torch/wolf behavior changes should be on Stalker mode.  I'd like Voyager returned to the way it was.

[Ohbal]

I'm quite happy with the changes. Fire is still a super-useful tool to avoid getting attacked in most situations. Its not longer a tool to freeze the predators and kill them without any kind of risk added to the situation. As they are no longer a cheat for easy kills, I'd agree that we should be able to craft torches without kerosene, give us more choices here and it should be fine.

17 hours ago, SteveP said:

I must say I don't know why this was done except to appease a number of hard core video arcade style gamers.

We should be able to craft torches from natural materials such as dried grass, hay, straw, birch bark and other highly flammable materials. This game has just gotten a LOT harder and these changes are going to affect first time players the worst.

I don't think this change has been made to appease the hardcore population. Its bringing the original vision back. We got quickly used to get easy-kills and now we need to get than ground back.

When I was a new player, I didn't knew about this torche mechanics and I survived. Honestly it's getting a bit tiring to hear that everything making the game harder will affect new players. When you are a new player you don't know all the tricks veterans are using, so you are screwed (which is what we look for in survival games, right?) from the start until you learn. If I could survive without exploiting (cause that was exactly what we were doing: exploiting a system) the fire mechanic for 50 days, I'm sure I can get myself to play the way I did before learning those easy-tricks. 

Fire and flares will keep the wildlife at a distance most of the times. Even for crappy shooters as myself, If you have a bow, shot a wolf and miss, there are many chances that it will flee. Give it time. Adapt!

[Salty Crackers]

I think that torches shouldn't have an affect on wildlife, but flares (a non-renewable resource) should. They are much brighter and louder than a torch, so throwing one should scare it.

[cekivi]

7 hours ago, Scyzara said:

I've tried it four times so far with mixed success. Once I got mauled immediately (the bear might have been to close to me in this case, was a pretty unfortunate situation), three times the bear kept his distance and didn't attack. However, despite brandishing the flare all the time, I only managed to chase him away twice (took at least 20 seconds of brandishing). The other time I had to retreat, but wasn't mauled at least.

So.. yeah, carried flares (and presumably torches and maybe even brands) can still deter bears as long as you don't get too close to them. Better let the bear walk towards you until it has reached the threshold distance, not the other way around.

Good to know. Usually my bear encounters are of the unfortunate variety of cresting a hill and seeing the bear immediately on the other side...

[Pillock]

5 hours ago, cekivi said:

Good to know. Usually my bear encounters are of the unfortunate variety of cresting a hill and seeing the bear immediately on the other side...

This happened to me earlier today. I was only on about 35% condition due to being caught out by a blizzard and having to spend the previous night on the mountain, and the bear was only about 30 yards away when I crested a hill - it immediately reared up and roared at me and I completely panicked. Expecting to die, I lit my one and only flare as fast as I could and ran in the opposite direction on to a hill and behind some rocks. After a short distance I looked behind me, and the bear was sort of lumbering after me - it didn't seem like a full-on charge, but I don't know if bears now have an intermediate speed between walking and charging, do they? I continued to run away, and the next time I looked back, the bear had taken fright and was making off in the other direction. I didn't brandish at any point.

Not long later, I heard barking and growling nearby. Having no flares or torches, I ran to a nearby rock so as to be sheltered from wind and lit a fire using accelerant, then stood next to it holding a lit brand. The wolf approached slowly, and then ran off before getting particularly close. Again, I never brandished at any point.

I had to do this again within a few minutes with another wolf, but this time I had no accelerant. I had time to light the fire (luckily first time), and again the wolf didn't get too close before running off. I think perhaps because the wolves approach you more slowly at first now, you have more time to react - but it seems to pay to be more defensive against them than in the previous version (and always carry sticks and tinder!).

Finally, I have had one encounter that I initiated on purpose, in order to steal a deer kill. I just ran at the wolf with a lit flare - initially it started towards me, growling, but then ran away when I stopped and brandished the flare. So far so good! (Except that I died in my sleep the following night due to utter stupidity on my part, but that's not the point.)

Really, really happy with the new predator AI and fire mechanics! Have I been lucky, or is this typical?

[Scyzara]

24 minutes ago, Pillock said:

Really, really happy with the new predator AI and fire mechanics! Have I been lucky, or is this typical?

Pretty typical as far as I can tell so far.

 

Wolves always run away from campfires (doesn't matter whether you stand beside it or not), bears on the other hand completely ignore campfires.

All predators ignore flares and torches dropped to the ground, but are deterred by the player carrying a burning flare/torch in principle.

However, burning torches/flares aren't 100% secure any more. Under certain circumstances (low condition/exhaustion/encumbrance and possibly other factors) predators might attack you despite a torch/flare.

I'm really happy about the new predator AIs, too. 

[elloco999]

On 22-4-2016 at 6:37 PM, cekivi said:

Good to know. Usually my bear encounters are of the unfortunate variety of cresting a hill and seeing the bear immediately on the other side...

I haven't encountered a bear yet since the update, but unless this has been changed I can always hear a bear way before it's close enough to initiate an attack. If I hear that sound I start looking for a different route

[cekivi]

19 minutes ago, elloco999 said:

I haven't encountered a bear yet since the update, but unless this has been changed I can always hear a bear way before it's close enough to initiate an attack. If I hear that sound I start looking for a different route

I was doing the hopeless rescue challenge and was running out of time so I was sprinting towards desolation point. It was night time and I was using a flare to see so I didn't notice the bear until I bumped into it. I would have been OK... if my flare hadn't run out...