Primitive firestarting

[Tbone555]

I feel like this hasn't been talked about in a while. Usually there wouldn't be much need to have primitive firestarting but I found myself in such a need the other day in hushed river valley when I ran out of matches. Plus it would just be a new thing to mess around with anyway. I think it would tie in nicely to the firestarting skill. Perhaps matches and strikers and such would offer MINIMAL skill gain while starting fires primitively would result in much larger skill gain. The obvious way would be using the bow method, and there might even be a little minigame similar to Stranded Deep's firestarting. Ie, tapping LT and RT to drill the stick with your hands and create friction. Except I would like to see it much harder than it is in that game. Starting a fire by hand is not easy and until you're top level firestarting it should continue to be a pain. But it's there if you have no matches. Or you're bored and want to learn a new skill.

[SirSharper]

im in. although, it should take longer (obviously) and have a lower chance of success. (until you level up) 

 

[UTC-10]

Adding a new game mechanic to accommodate bow or hand drills, even flint and steel, is probably more time and effort than Hinterland would want to expend on something that would be used in Story mode which is where all this tends to end up. 

I have no objection to some alternative fire starting technique that I could do inside (thinking flint and steel) even with a permanent lower chance of success for that method since it means I do not have to expend a match and, in survival mode, once I get setup, I have lots of time. 

Something may still turn up.  

[odizzido]

I don't think a fire bow needs to have a lower chance of success. Make starting a fire that way take a chunk of time and calories. It can have a 100% chance of success, but it could take a few hours and burn 300 calories.

[ajb1978]

53 minutes ago, odizzido said:

I don't think a fire bow needs to have a lower chance of success. Make starting a fire that way take a chunk of time and calories.

It also takes knowledge.  Someone highly experienced knows where to use hardwood, where to use softwood, the optimal amount of force to use, how to transfer the ember to your tinder, and then actually start a fire from that ember.  Even highly experienced bushman might take a couple attempts to get it going.  Some guy off the street?  Probably wouldn't even know how it works in theory, let alone practice.

My take on it is I think it should be a -100% chance to firestarting.  So at level 1, your best case scenario would be using a book with accelerant, you'd have a 15% chance of success.  At level 5, that same scenario would be a 65% chance, or a 25% chance if you didn't use accelerant.  It might take you several attempts to get that fire going. That might take you a half hour, maybe longer before the dice roll in your favor.  But the tradeoff is you have renewable firestarting attempts that work indoors, and you don't need tinder at level 5 either, so you can afford to take your time.

[odizzido]

I am just thinking gameplay wise having a 15% chance to succeed at something would get really old really fast. I feel it would be better so simulate the failed attempts by having accelerated time and the time it takes can be variable. So each "attempt" takes like let's say 20mins. The first 20mins has that 15% chance, the next 20mins has 30%, etc etc until finally at 2hrs 20mins you're at 100% chance. This all runs as one go so you don't have to go through the menu and click over and over again.

 

The numbers are all of course open, I just pulled them out of the air for no particular reason. You can even have a maximum chance of starting a fire at each 20min tick. Whatever works.