Flint Rocks

[panda_gamer87]

Firestarting is a crucial aspect of survival mode. From what I've observed, there are only 2 fire starting materials that are available in the game: metal fire strikers and matches. In most cases, you're likely to find decent stashes of matches. Even on the easiest settings, fire strikers don't seem to spawn often. However, I've experience play throughs where I ran out of matches and couldn't transition to a new area to look for supplies and the character died because they were unable to cook, melt snow, or warm up. I think flint rocks should be added as an additional fire starter. 

[oplli]

9 hours ago, panda_gamer87 said:

From what I've observed, there are only 2 fire starting materials that are available in the game

There is also magnifying glass that you can find pretty often (more often than the firestriker) everything in the game is affected by a loot table so it is never random there is almost always one of everything in every maps (of course it depends on the difficulty) but for stalker and lower i think that what is said is pretty accurate. ususally small items dont spawn right where you can see em, like on top of a table. when you loot a place, search in every corners, underneath all beds, behind every furniture etc. it takes some time but when you find bullets, firesteel, matches, socks etc you are happy. a lot of times, Outside, there are knives and hatchet stuck in wood fences or wood logs etc. Hinterland really like to hide the loot. i do think that another firestarting method is needed but i prefer the idea of making friction fire wich we disscussed in a recent post. it is harder and takes more material. beacause it would be an unlimited use item it would be better if it is hard to make fire with. i am not against flint rocks thought i think it would be a nice toutch to the game it would be nice to have a primitive firestarting method. i just prefer the friction method but flint is fine too  

Edited October 21, 2020 by oplli

[DPHG]

If flint rocks are added, I would suggest that firestarting with them should require:

• Flint rock
• Knife (for steel), or scrap metal
• Charcoal (you need charred material to catch the spark)

Only if you have all three could you start a fire this way. I would also suggest that the charcoal is consumed in the process, but that the flint rock and knife just lose condition.

[Willbonney]

2 hours ago, DPHG said:

If flint rocks are added, I would suggest that firestarting with them should require:

• Flint rock
• Knife (for steel), or scrap metal
• Charcoal (you need charred material to catch the spark)

Only if you have all three could you start a fire this way. I would also suggest that the charcoal is consumed in the process, but that the flint rock and knife just lose condition.

First, coal (which I think you mean, not charcoal which is left over after burning woods) not coated in fluid to make it easier to light, does not light on it's own usually.  It's a fuel source, not a fire starter. Dry grass, small tinder (tinder plugs in game already), or paper (newspaper in game) works well for starting fires with flint.  Second, you're better off with a small wood or nail file, or even the hacksaw or axe would work better creating a spark than a small knife.  Even a flint rock against a regular rock works okay.

When using flint, you rub off a decent amount and make a small pile of flint on whatever you're trying to start fire.  Then you need to create a spark using the flint.  Steel works best and you use hard downward striking motion, but rough surfaces , not smooth, definitely helps.  A normal "flint stick" you can get, one side is smooth and the other side rough, to give you that friction for spark.  That spark then needs to land on the pile of flint shavings you made, to create a small flash and flame, which then ignites your paper or grass, and you then feed small dry sticks and twigs into that before adding logs or coal to it.

[oplli]

43 minutes ago, Willbonney said:

First, coal (which I think you mean, not charcoal which is left over after burning woods) not coated in fluid to make it easier to light, does not light on it's own usually.  It's a fuel source, not a fire starter

coal too is a fuel and taking with me coal everytime i want to light a fire is just useless. a charcoal yes. it will become a resource and will be consumes once you lit your fire

[Willbonney]

Charcoal briquettes you buy at the store, aren't the charcoal pieces you'd find in a fire...  The outer layer, the charred part I think you're referring to, wouldn't take a spark.  Keystone briquettes, which are often coated in lighter fluid, might.  Not ones from a fire.  You'd have to scrape off the "charred" part to get to the dry wood to be able to ignite on its own.  That black outer layer, it doesn't burn.

[oplli]

2 minutes ago, Willbonney said:

Charcoal briquettes you buy at the store, aren't the charcoal pieces you'd find in a fire...  The outer layer, the charred part I think you're referring to, wouldn't take a spark.  Keystone briquettes, which are often coated in lighter fluid, might.  Not ones from a fire.  You'd have to scrape off the "charred" part to get to the dry wood to be able to ignite on its own.  That black outer layer, it doesn't burn.

it does not really matter. the long dark is not 100% acurate to reality. when you boil water you always pop up from heaven some plastic bottles and when you make ammo you just put gunpower un the shell and put the bullet in top of it and you have an bullet. when you put a bandage on you your wound magically heals. i dont see being able to light charcoal as a problem  

[Willbonney]

19 minutes ago, oplli said:

it does not really matter. the long dark is not 100% acurate to reality. when you boil water you always pop up from heaven some plastic bottles and when you make ammo you just put gunpower un the shell and put the bullet in top of it and you have an bullet. when you put a bandage on you your wound magically heals. i dont see being able to light charcoal as a problem  

You're right, it doesn't really matter.  Personally not a huge fan of finding the term "charcoal" you pull from fires as we do, but eh, is what is.

[panda_gamer87]

On 10/21/2020 at 11:06 AM, oplli said:

There is also magnifying glass that you can find pretty often (more often than the firestriker) everything in the game is affected by a loot table so it is never random there is almost always one of everything in every maps (of course it depends on the difficulty) but for stalker and lower i think that what is said is pretty accurate. 

I forgot about that. I do recall that in story mode you can find a magnifying glass in the safety deposit box in Milton. I don't recall spawning one in survival mode. Maybe I did one time. I spawned a firestiker in a recent playthrough, but even when I set loose item container and empty container modifiers to medium, I really don't get much. I usually end up with over 100 matches however. Matches are terrible though. Sometimes I have to try 5 or more times to light a fire.  

 

 

On 10/21/2020 at 9:47 PM, Willbonney said:

Charcoal briquettes you buy at the store, aren't the charcoal pieces you'd find in a fire...  The outer layer, the charred part I think you're referring to, wouldn't take a spark.  Keystone briquettes, which are often coated in lighter fluid, might.  Not ones from a fire.  You'd have to scrape off the "charred" part to get to the dry wood to be able to ignite on its own.  That black outer layer, it doesn't burn.

I don't think the developers intend to make a secondary charcoal item. Charcoal is already an item in game that can be harvested once a fire burns out. It's used for the surveying under the navigation menu. But if they did make a charcoal briquette, wouldn't you still need accelerant and matches to ignite it? 

[Willbonney]

3 hours ago, panda_gamer87 said:

I don't think the developers intend to make a secondary charcoal item. Charcoal is already an item in game that can be harvested once a fire burns out. It's used for the surveying under the navigation menu. But if they did make a charcoal briquette, wouldn't you still need accelerant and matches to ignite it? 

Wood charcoal does have a much higher burn and flash temperature than normal dry woods, so I would think so, yes.  1100 C or 2000 F if I remember my chemistry right, which is higher than the melting point of most iron based metals.  Thus why you would use charcoal as the heat source in blacksmith forges.

[k0s0ff]

I like the idea of making fire by friction. It looks more plausible in the framework of the game.  I can't say that I like the proposed idea. I don't want my character to go from survivor to miner. And in General, I want to say that I know when the matches ran out. The game is designed to challenge the player.

[panda_gamer87]

On 11/10/2020 at 9:13 AM, Willbonney said:

Wood charcoal does have a much higher burn and flash temperature than normal dry woods, so I would think so, yes.  1100 C or 2000 F if I remember my chemistry right, which is higher than the melting point of most iron based metals.  Thus why you would use charcoal as the heat source in blacksmith forges.

Who mentioned using charcoal as a heat source for blacksmith forges? Also, I do understand how wood charcoal works. It also has other applications such as using bamboo wood charcoal to obtain activated charcoal to create a lot of health products. However, I'm sure the developers are aware of how wood charcoal works. If they haven't implemented it already, they may not intend to because they  want it to be difficult to create high temperature and long duration fires. I noticed via some experimentation with fireplaces that you aren't allowed to create a fire exceeding 12 hours in duration and the max temperature reading was 80 degrees celcius. Since they created parameters with these limitations, something would have to motivate them to add wood charcoal to thee game and reduce these parameters.

Edited November 11, 2020 by panda_gamer87

[ManicManiac]

I think there are already plentiful ways to get fire in this game.
For those citing that matches and strikers are finite... I'd say, yes and no.

I think that this is a game about careful and deliberate action.  It's important to carefully manage what resources we have and can manage to find.  I think that the easiest way to ensure our survivor has access to fire for all the days of their life... is to only use it when it's really necessary (or when it's essentially free; i.e. mag lens).

I think it's also worth pointing out that even in the early game (when fire starting chances are lower), it's easy enough to conserve matches simply by using just one match to light a torch (then you have multiple attempts to light the fire while only using one match).

In particular, I really like game balance of the Mag Lens.
Yes, it gives us access to fire without using up a match or wearing down a fire striker, but the catch is that it's entirely dependent on the weather and only works "outside" (and of course, only in the day time).  This creates a interesting trade off, rather than just handing us an end-all be-all tool that would lessen the challenge and undermine that aspect of needing to carefully mange one's limited resources.

*It's also possible (though very rare) to find matches, and possibly even fire strikers while beachcombing (so in the unlikely event a player actually lives long enough to use up every match in the game world - even then it's still possible to find more).

Ultimately, I think that since we've had at least one player survive in an Interloper run for 10 in-game years... I think it's safe to say there is plenty of access to fire to last at least that long. 

In the past I've been in favor of the idea of a Hand Drill for friction fires (an ability that would hypothetically "unlock" at Fire Starting - level 5)... but the more I've thought about it, the more I think that while it might be a neat touch; it's just really not necessary.  I think the mag lens was the perfect way to give us access to essentially free fire, without putting us on "easy street."

Edited November 12, 2020 by ManicManiac