Fire not affecting my temperature... at all

[TWM]

Okay, so I just saved a run in which I got stuck in a blizzard, ran to the nearest fishing hut freezing my butt of, started a fire, spent one and a half hours working with the stove while it's blazing, melting snow and boiling the water, and coming away from the stove still freezing, as if I wasn't standing next to a fire at all.

This has happened to me before, frantically moving to and fro next to a fire (be it a campfire or stove), because the program didn't register that I was standing next to a heat source. I had though they would fixed this by now (v244)

Heck, I've even stepped *into* a fire once, and sure enough, I got burned for it. At least it then it picked up I was in a heat source...

This time, I lit the fire - first try, no change in body temp; freezing all the way; second time I made myself some hot rosehip tea, which spiked my temp, but still the program refused to see I was standing next to a heat source. I had to dance around quite a bit before it picked up on that.

Fished some, ate some, slept some, and then hurried to a fishermen's hut on shore when I saw the storm wouldn't let up.

So that's that. Cost me 39% health, which wasn't necessery at all.

output_log.txt

[nicko]

I posted a sim question a while back. From what I found it was my clothes where basic, since then I always upgrade/maintain my clothes from day one. Haven't had an issue since!

[TWM]

My clothes are far from basic, I have almost all animal hide stuff, and I can walk through the day without getting cold (except for maybe the first three hours early morning).

Anyway, one's clothes should affect whether or not the software registers that one is near a fire. It should register 'warmer' and then one's body temperature should go up regardless of the quality of ones clothes.

And normally, it does. When I enter a room, the cold-factor goes down. When I light a fire, the cold factor goes down.

So it's a downright fluke that when I'm freezing, I can stand next to a fire stove for 1½ hours without any effect whatsoever.

[octavian]

That's how fire is balanced, it's a well-known fact that you freeze to death in a blizzard inside a fishing hut even if you make a fire and players discussed it at length.

[TWM]

Yeah, except I normally don't freeze to death in a blizzard inside a fishing hut. In fact, I get quite warm and comfy. I even managed to do so in this run after a few tries and some dancing around.

Same hut. Same stove. Same blizzard. All of a sudden the program recognized I was near a heat source. I fished for several hours and I even took a nap - during the blizzard - with my cold-factor down to zero all the time.

So no, your explanation is not an actual explanation of what occurred in my run.

[Kaisentlaia]

If you observe the difference in temperature when standing near a lit stove, you'll notice that the temperature will rise (slowly at first) by about 20 degrees.

If you are in a fishing hut and it's night, there's a storm, it's cold like hell and there's a lot of wind (worse of all, coming through the door), let's say the temperature is -30°. If you light the stove, it will rise by 20°, so it will still be -10° and if your clothes don't give you a warmth bonus greater than 10° you will go on freezing. Which is reasonable IMO, when it's really cold and you are in an open/not insulated place the fire will warm up your hands and feet, but your core and your back will still be freezing.

To avoid this, you have two options:

1. don't run around at night or during blizzards
   
2. if you get caught by a blizzard when it's really cold, start the stove and then a second fire outside the door. The total warmth bonus will go up more than 20 degrees and the temperature will probably rise at more than 0°

[elloco999]

There are a few aspects to fires you need to take into account.

1. When you light a fire, it takes a while to warm up the air, so it takes a while until you feel the full warmth of the fire.

2. A fire only gives off so much heat. Say a fire raises the air temperature by 20C. If you're clothes give you another +15C and the air temperature has dropped to -50C you will get -50 + 20 +15 = -15C "feels like" temperature. So you're still freezing even though you're next to a fire. If the air temperature was at -30C, you will end up with +5C and you're not freezing anymore. So even if you're in the same hut, using the same stove you can have different results depending on the starting temperature. Not all blizzards drop the temp to -50...

3. Different woods give different heat bonuses (and different burn times).

4. Multiple fires give more heat than 1 fire. If 1 fire is not enough to stop you from freezing, start another fire. In a fishing hut, I use the stove and if necessary I start another fire just outside the door.

I've never had any problems with the game detecting that I'm close to a fire. You can easily check if that is indeed happening: before starting the fire check the air temp, then start the fire and check the air temp for a while (say 1 in game hour). If the air temp doesn't rise significantly (10-20C) in 1 in game hour, the game indeed doesn't detect you're close to a fire. But I suspect it is detecting it just fine, just not raising the temperature enough to stop you from freezing.

Hope that helps.