Primitive fire starting


Cbarre23

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Except if you have access to the metal arrowheads, the flint ones really are not worth that much of an effort. Honestly, bone arrowheads would be more worth the while. 

I can understand why they dont add flint tools, because it would remove that giant gap of having to craft your own metal ones in order to do something on Interloper, or endgames.  Flint tools break easily and are really not worth much. But if they were added as a few times use material which will actually prolong the "harvesting" time rather then shorten it, yet allowed harvesting of frozen carcasses or logs, I wouldnt mind it. 

Simple flint shard, without being turned into a knife, would be enough to process a carcass. Additionally, a flint hand-axe would be enough to cut the logs in time - but both would have long processing times. Again, I feel like bones would be a better material. And again, I understand why they wont add them - what is the point of making iron tools if you can make bone tools as well?

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7 minutes ago, Mroz4k said:

Except if you have access to the metal arrowheads, the flint ones really are not worth that much of an effort. Honestly, bone arrowheads would be more worth the while. 

I can understand why they dont add flint tools, because it would remove that giant gap of having to craft your own metal ones in order to do something on Interloper, or endgames.  Flint tools break easily and are really not worth much. But if they were added as a few times use material which will actually prolong the "harvesting" time rather then shorten it, yet allowed harvesting of frozen carcasses or logs, I wouldnt mind it. 

Simple flint shard, without being turned into a knife, would be enough to process a carcass. Additionally, a flint hand-axe would be enough to cut the logs in time - but both would have long processing times. Again, I feel like bones would be a better material. And again, I understand why they wont add them - what is the point of making iron tools if you can make bone tools as well?

Well the improvised metal tools are heavier and take more condition loss upon use, and are just not as good as the tools they replace. Also you have to travel to one of two maps that have a forge and collect enough coal to utilize the forge to make them.

Flint tools would just give an easier option than all that. I would expect the flint knife edge to degrade at a faster rate....like 5 condition a use or 20 uses, and cannot be repaired if it degrades or breaks. So you would have to replace it. Making one shouldn't take that long, maybe a couple hours.

I would also consider the arrowheads as not recyclable, and once the arrow broke, you would have to craft a new arrowhead. Not sure how long it should take to make an arrowhead. Any idea?

So they would have obvious drawbacks too, but it would just possibly be a more convenient option at the start of a run....as opposed to gearing up for a run to a forge....

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I found a note somewhere in either Desolation Point or the Crumbling Highway, that talked about the ideal stone for sharpening (a smooth river stone about 6 inches long and 3 inches wide), and I thought it would've been cool if you could find stones like these (very rarely of course) so you still have some chance of keeping your gear when all the whetstones are gone, if you're prepared to scour every river regularly.

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3 hours ago, Hackfleisch said:

I found a note somewhere in either Desolation Point or the Crumbling Highway, that talked about the ideal stone for sharpening (a smooth river stone about 6 inches long and 3 inches wide), and I thought it would've been cool if you could find stones like these (very rarely of course) so you still have some chance of keeping your gear when all the whetstones are gone, if you're prepared to scour every river regularly.

I concur

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Well, hopefully this doesnt start another arguement.

I think some points and statements made about a bow drill fire starter have been pretty thoroughly trashed already, but I tend to agree that while it could be added as an option, the flint and steel method would be preferable.  It's faster, and easier and has less drawbacks overall when it comes to getting a fire going.  The only real "skill" involved with its use is getting the sparks to land in your tinder fluff.  Many outdoors people who use it carry a small metal tin(like an altoids tin) full of something very flammable, like oil soaked cotton, and simply direct the spark into the tin, then place the tin under their tinder, and remove it and close it to snuff it out once the tinder is burning.  So, it would be reasonable to expect it to only light a few fires before needing "repaired" some cloth, and a few drops of kerosene.  (Probably every 5-10 fires) The flint and steel part of it would last virtually forever. We already have scrap metal, and there have been numerous good ideas presented about other uses for flint. While making a flint arrowhead, or knife isn't technically difficult, it does take some skill, and even a skilled individual will ruin far more flint than they manage to turn into useful tools. That doesnt mean it should be precluded from the game as an option however.  I'd love to see flint added to the game as a material for a fire starter, a crude knife, and arrowheads. I don't know from personal experience, but I suspect that it would not be nearly durable enough to withstand chopping on frozen limbs, so hatchets are probably out.  Lastly, I'd like to add that although flint and steel is superior to a bowdrill, the bowdrill may be more accurate for the region. Theres probably a good reason why the inuits used bone for tools and bows for firestarting instead of flint. It probably doesnt occur in that geographical region. 

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For flint tools, I expect it would be a broken off flint shard which is sharp on one side, you put it in your fingers similarly like you would put the guitar piece or a cigarette - and that is what you use to process a carcass. It can even be better to process carcasses because knives in general are somewhat clumsy, at least from what I have heard, as I dont have a big experience skinning animals.
For axe, I think handaxe makes the most sense. Handaxe is one of the most primitive tools ever used, if I were to describe it - imagine the axe head, just that metal piece on axe, in your hand, no handle. That is what handaxe is. This would be a better flint tool, because a general person wouldnt know how to properly secure a flint piece in a stick and make sure it doesnt fall out. You simply put your fingers around, and you bash at it with your hand. The reason they add handle is because handle gives you more of a curve when hitting, so the axe falls with bigger force, but handaxe is a lot easier to make.

I think you overestimate the usability of flint tools, @Thrasador - I would expect they would be limited to 5, maybe 10 uses, no more. Maybe in reality they would have higher usage but for the sake of game challenge I doubt they would give flint tools more then that. In fact I highly doubt they will add flint tools at all, renewable / sharpenable or not.
By the way, you can "sharpen" flint tools. When flint tools are getting dull, you take a horn of a bone, and you press on the tool to make it crack off another flake of flint. the edge of flint tools is given by the properties of flint (or quartz) - because they "break" to be very sharp, sharp enough to cut off pieces of steel. So, sharpening means you simply need to break off that dull part from your tool. I expect this is something you would have to do after every use of the flint tool in TLD conditions.

TROY, I think I had more then enough the first time we argued, no worries I will behave :) Also, dont think there is much of a need for a tinderbox or some good fluffy tinders, we already actually have one like that in the game - the cattail heads can be broken and are full of cottony stuff. Kind of why I wish they were used to repair high-end processed clothing, like parkas and down vests, because the "down" material is very similar to it. 
We also have another tinder in game which is perfect for the job - the birch bark. Scraping off little bits, it will become like a paper, but a paper which is soaking with highly flammable oil. Birch is probably the most amazing tinder material readily available in nature. I always stuff some in my tinderbox as I come over it in nature.
But if there was a need to craft a special tinder, using tinders in game and a kerosene, in order to use them with a flint and steel and this way, make it more difficult to use that flint, I would be happy with that. Kerosene is obtainable from the fish, and in small portions could be used to make a number of tinder bundles a lot more effective. Like 0,05 liters of kerosene per 10 tinder bundles to give you 10 tinders for flint and steel would definitedly sound fair.

 

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