realistic Campfire starting (as a minigame that needs some knowledge and skill)

[Honest]

Cold, Fire and to warming up is one of the biggest cores of the game, so fire starting is a very important task. Making a fire within a real survival situation can decide between survival and death. And firestarting, if you already tried it in real life and not using an accelerant and maybe just a firesteel and not perfect dry wood, you pretty fast find out that fire starting in survival situations is far away from a no-brainer.

Ingame right now, fire starting is just a probability, if you miss, you just retry and at least after 3 tries you most certainly have a stable fire burning. This don't gives enough credits to the task that firestarting is in real life.

My suggestion is: Turning firestarting into a minigame that decides if your get a stable fire or if the fire wont starts at all. You start deciding a fireplace like it is already in the game, but then you shift into a zoomed-in view to that fireplace and get a new interface that lets you to grab different kinds of tinder and fuel and let you to completely freely place them and staple it in the way you want and how much you want to use of them (for example you could just use 1 tinder and 2 sticks, or also 3 tinder, 10 sticks 2 books and 1 firewood).

It would need a physic engine that leads to firewood to tilt over and to calculate the flames and how they expand through your campfire build. This makes each fire unique and not just only something that has a remaining minutes timer and temperature. This makes it also a bit more complicated to take care about the fire as it usually would be the best method to start a fire with a few sticks and good tinder and to add more and bigger firewood as the flames become bigger.

Then there are different kinds of stacking the firewood and sticks that leads to different success or can also cause fires that for example burn faster/slower, producing more glow and so giving more warmth for a longer time and so on.

And finally this can lead to a better function of the research books, as it not only consumes time and increases skills, it also could need an overhaul: Each part of the book you read (1 hour) it additionally pauses the game and shows you a text and few pictures that explains you (in case of the fire starting) a few good techniques how to stacking the wood and so on

 

[k0s0ff]

Sounds like a great idea for a separate game.

I think that such a detailed action will require much more time. And my character will just die.

I understand why you want this. But I'm afraid this is unnecessary because such detailed actions will no longer be in the game. Personally, I don't want to waste time on tetris with firewood, and then cook rosehip in one click.

[Honest]

good criticism!

Normally I play the game as a custom setting sandbox with x4 longer daytime (so playing a full day without skipping any time would take 8 hours instead of 2) just because it gives me a more realistic feel like the weather not changes so often, and the sun/moon don't rushes through the air. And it also gives additional time to rest and to look around and make more detailed plans, not being always fighting against the time. I can anyone recommend to give this settings a try.

Of course it would need to slow down the current standard game speed for implementing such more detailed stuff, but I would welcome it

[Pimprle]

Much easier to make a fire place as container, where you load fire stuff and then calculate its probality for success. No positioning of course, but you can add more tinder, or more fuel from start to secure fire and its longer duration.

[Serenity]

Way too much effort to implement. And I think such a mini-game is out of place with the rest of the mechanics.

But I would like a more involved process than making a fireplace almost instantly. Be required to build the campfire out of wood and some stones first. And then have the lighting as the next step. That requires a bit more thought and preparation when you're walking somewhere away from your main bases.

Edited December 12, 2022 by Serenity