Possible tweaks to Fire-lighting

[EternityTide]

One of the things I'm quite impressed with in the game is the fire starting mechanic - its come a long way from its predecessors. However I have got a few ideas which I feel might improve the mechanic a little bit.

First off, this is not an exhaustive list, so feel free to add you own ideas as well.

• Blowing - When I start my fire at home, I build a little "shelter" of kindling over the tinder, and then light it. Once a flame is established, I like to blow gently on the flame, to give it a boost. It speeds up the lighting process, and it increases the chances of a fire catching if your fuels are slightly damp. I think that whilst fire lighting, holding the space bar should make the character blow on the fire. The space bar is held to provide a continual stream of air, but be careful, blowing to long or too early might put the fire out.
  The player can blow on the fire for a maximum of six seconds before having to take a breath, and start again.
• Damp and drying - you will find a range of fuels in a variety of locations with a plethora of storage conditions, but the game treats a piece of cedar wood that has been sitting in a snowdrift for god knows how long, as superior to a piece of fir wood that's been inside a dry house. I don't know how many of you have your own fire at home, but I'm pretty sure we can all agree that a damp piece of wood will burn poorly and with a colder flame than a dry piece.
  I would like to introduce a status system for fuels. Fuels will be graded on their water content (ranging from dry to damp and finally, waterlogged) The greater their water content, the shorter they will burn, or they will reduce the chances of a fire starting session being successful. In order to give people a fair chance, they should be able to leave fuels to dry by a fire, similar to the "cure" mechanic for saplings and leather. The stipulation is that they must be within the heat radius of an active fire for a certain duration for their status to improve.
  This also applies to matches.
• Fuels have permanent attributes - Wood harvested from various sources would also have an unchangeable condition applied to them. This includes conditions such as Rotten (poor fuel, burns quickly, but lights easily when dry), Varnished (burns hot, lights easily, but burns out quickly, only found on reclaimed wood), Green (hard to light, burns poorly, very little heat output, but produces lots of white smoke, found especially in harvested limbs found on the ground or saplings)  and Solid (The ideal wood, good all rounder, burns hot, for a long time)
  Coal would also have a variable status, depending on where it was found. It too is affected by the damp mechanic, but can also be Dirty (encrusted with mud, burns poorly), Shiny (Anthracite, burns hot, but hard to light) and Fractured (broken into small bits. Hard to light, burns hot, but also chokes the fire with ash, so burns out quickly)
• Variable accelerant - I'm not much of a user of accelearnt in-game, but when I have to, I find I dislike using up as much accelerant as I do. In the real world, I like to soak a cotton pad or piece of tissue paper in methylated spirits to get the fire going when I need to - the amount expended per use in-game is far in excess of what I would use IRL.
  I have two solutions for this:
  Either A) reduce the accelerant amount used when it is used as fire starting skill goes up, OR
  B) allow the player to choose the quantity of accelerant used, with a variable multiplier on the speed and chance of success of the fire lighting being calculated based on the amount they choose to add.
• Fire aesthetics - when lighting a fire at home, I don't see sparks until the fire is well under way. In the animation in TLD, sparks start up almost immediately, rather than the expected trickle of grey smoke that burst into flame much later in the firestarting process. Additionally, the model for external fire places should represent its constituent parts. A cedar log fire should BE a cedar log on the ground. The place marker for the fire should be a shallow pit, not a fully fledged tepee of sticks that come from the same magical realm that the ubiquitous plastic bottles for carrying water.
  Long lasting fires which have had multiple items added should build up an ash layer. say if you've been hunting and processing a carcass for a good few hours, your fire will have been burning for a while, and so would be full of ash and charred wood. This would contrast with a small twig fire which would be tiny in comparison.
  The smoke column should also reflect the burning materials. Damp materials would produce a thick column of dense white smoke, whereas dry materials would produce almost invisible clouds of blueish-grey smoke. This would have advantages, as players could leave damp fuels on a fire and create beacons to help them navigate back to a non-mapped site (for example, a bear kill, and you have to haul some meat back to a base, and return to the site to retrieve the rest)
• Heat persistance - boiled water should stay hot, and impart the same boons as other hot beverages do when drank, if drank immediately after boiling. Same with heat in a house. I'm fairly certain Canadians insulate their homes quite well, otherwise they'd be downing antifreeze during the night so they don't seize up before morning. After a roaring fire has been going in a house for a few hours, the ambient heat should remain high, slowly trickling down over time - entering and exiting a house will speed up the process, as you let warm air out. Stoves should also retain a heat radius after the fire goes out, which slowly dissipates over time.
• Ambient effects on fires - indoor fires will have an increased chance of success when lighting, and will burn hotter if it is windy outside. Conversely, still weather will decrease this chance. Outdoor fires should extinguish if the wind suddenly changes direction and sweeps under that little outcrop you are sheltering under. If it is snowing, the fire should hiss and spit slightly as snowflakes melt and evaporate in the fire. Heavy snowfall will reduce the lifetime of the fire, ensuring that players keep an eye on their combusting compatriot.
• Ability to add fuel whilst cooking and melting water/boiling water

These are just a few ideas, but I think they will improve the fire mechanic immensely.

[Canadian Beaver]

28 minutes ago, EternityTide said:

I'm fairly certain Canadians insulate their homes quite well, otherwise they'd be downing antifreeze during the night so they don't seize up before morning.
 

 

Nah, insulation is WAYYYY too expensive. The sweet, sweet taste of antifreeze is obviously the preferred solution

[hauteecolerider]

Said antifreeze being 180 proof Canadian whiskey or some such . . .

[EternityTide]

So aside from general sniggering at my joke, what's the consensus on my ideas? Anything you want to add? Anything you would improve on?

[isidro_basta]

I think that your ideas were all well-rounded and really interesting to add in game, so i understand that there's not much to add aside from a few jokes :^)

Though, I do have an idea that has been on my mind for quite a while. Why not add some light burning hazard when your character has poor fire-making skills? Not the severe burning you got when you accidently step on your fire though, (that happened to me a few times hehe). I definitly see myself frozen to the bones to the point I can't feel my hands, clumsily burning myself with a fiery log.