Broken fire barrels?

[Silverhour]

I've been busy the past few weeks so this is the first time I've loaded up The Long Dark since the latest hotfixes. I'm in the PV barn and went to cook on the fire barrel, and was surprised to see it let me place items anywhere on the grill, despite the two red circles being present. When I place a can of beans, for instance, it opens and starts cooking them, even outside the 'cooking zones.' It even says 'warming' food, and doesn't give me an' Until burnt' notice once they are hot. If I place a recycled can, even within the cooking circles, it won't give me the cook interface. Seems to me it's acting like I'm just setting them nearby rather than cooking.

I tested it on a campfire and they behave normally, but I haven't travelled to the farmhouse to test the oven or fireplace there yet. 

Any insights into this?

[NardoLoopa]

Yes, I've noticed the same thing in 1.37 (didn't notice it earlier -- doesn't mean it didn't happen).  You need to make sure the item you're placing "snaps-to" the "burner" position.  I seem to have luck doing this by crouching and RMB sliding the item over the circles until they snap-in.

I think the developers wanted to allow you to also warm items by the barrel fire (on the grill) as well as cook them.  They probably just need to increase the aggressiveness of the snap-to a bit so it prioritizes this if the plates are empty.

[Khan_Drichthyes]

I noticed that yesterday. 

Two things worked for me:

Back up until the item "snaps-to."

Or look towards the ground until it "snaps-to."

[White_SnowTree]

Yea with the stoves and fireplaces it’s easy- because you can clearly see the round circles signifying the cooking spots. 

 

With the firebarrel it’s quite different of course: there really isn’t any place where it could be in particular: I guess they can change the design of the overhead grill

[peteloud]

Today, in v1.36, for the the first time, my cooking can appeared beneath the the bars on the top of the fire barrel at the CH garage.

[NardoLoopa]

Yes, that happened to me in v1.36 as well.  I think it's when you place them on the burners (areas) then exit and return.  The meat drops below the grill.  Seems what they fixed in v1.37 (re: items placed one layer lower than they were supposed to be).

[White_SnowTree]

18 hours ago, peteloud said:

Today, in v1.36, for the the first time, my cooking can appeared beneath the the bars on the top of the fire barrel at the CH garage.

Were you using a pot, or just putting the meat on the grill? 

[peteloud]

6 minutes ago, White_SnowTree said:

Were you using a pot, or just putting the meat on the grill? 

I was using a recycled can.

But I had an earlier example, inside the dam, where both the can and the meat were below the support bars.

 

[White_SnowTree]

3 minutes ago, peteloud said:

I was using a recycled can.

Sorry I did not read your initial post the right way 

[Jolan]

Its weird that you have to look outside the firebarrels to get something to snap.  Except baked beans which seem to snap fine.

[Guest Support]

Thanks everyone for your posts about difficulty cooking on Fire Barrels! This is an issue we are looking into.

As previous posters have mentioned, you'll know any items are placed correctly if they "snap" into place. Walking your survivor around a bit while in placement mode seems to help with this. 

If you are seeing items seem to fall beneath the grill of fire barrels, please check that your game is updated to the latest version -- 1.37 [39488] . This version should have a fix to prevent this from happening.

[Wintermut]

I wish you could place items to cook anywhere they fit on the heated surface as part of the intended features of the cooking update. ....instead of one item per circle....

It's very limiting in many shelters....especially maps like Forlorn Muskeg with the furnace....

[wolkenwand]

I have same issue on ps4, notice it on fire barrels inside the wrecked train in forlorn muskeg. Hard to put the can on the grill, by moving back and aim slightly to the ground i can put it in cooking mode at last.