Transporting embers

[Casazzo]

I'll make it short, because it's a basic survival technique and most of the needed things are already in game:

Combine embers from a fire with a metal food can, some old mans beard and a (fishing) line to get a transportable ember box.

Edited for clarity:

My idea of the whole thing was more like for balance reasons.

- firepot as a craftable item like a torch maybe, with a durability (10 uses because the old man's beard gets burned with continuous use) but without fire in its base form.

- ignitable with every bigger fire only, because you need embers to use

- burning-time 6-48h linear with firemaking skill

- repairable with one old mans beard for 100% at max skill.

- broken status at 1% life like an broken arrow.

- no light, no animal scaring

[damuchi]

In what situation would you need this? when you don't have anymore matches?

[Casazzo]

To conserve matches, to conserve the embers for a longer time ....

(In reality you can conserve embers for up to 2 days this way.)

There are many applications .... and basically all things needed are already in game.

[sierra 117]

+1Great idea. Will be good for those people who like to play more than 200 days or so. Could maybe be an ability that we unlock when firestarting skill reaches 100. For when we will start to run out of matches.

[Casazzo]

Picture for clarity

[elloco999]

+1! I sure wouldn't mind a different way of carrying fire other than torches.

[Grimsley99]

+1! Fantastic idea, though there's no doubt that if it is added, it will be nerfed somehow into making it less efficient.

[Patrick Carlson]

I'll make it short, because it's a basic survival technique and most of the needed things are already in game:

Combine embers from a fire with a metal food can, some old mans beard and a (fishing) line to get a transportable ember box.

Yeah this could be an interesting way of visualizing this. Would you see this item being used differently than a simple torch?

--Patrick

[Killjoy]

Would be much simpler and more realistic to just make the cattail heads serve this purpose versus being used as tinder. Cattail heads are used in this way in real life, I learned they could be used as a punk (portable ember) in the Boy Scouts back in 1980. An average sized North American cattail head can burn holding an ember for 4-5 hours.

Speaking of simple torches...would you guys at Hinterlands consider making it possible to light a new torch with an old one?? (or punk if implemented)

[cekivi]

+1 I really like this idea

I'll make it short, because it's a basic survival technique and most of the needed things are already in game:

Combine embers from a fire with a metal food can, some old mans beard and a (fishing) line to get a transportable ember box.

Yeah this could be an interesting way of visualizing this. Would you see this item be used differently than a simple torch?

--Patrick

Well, the torch provides light and can scare off wolves but it dies out quickly. Your ember bundle would remain lit for 12-24 hours and can be used to start a fire without matches, fire striker or magnifying glass. The downside of course being that it doesn't provide light nor scare off animals.

A really neat idea. Especially if the fire bundle's success and/or duration is tied to the player's fire starting ability.

Edit: Note that for this to be practical a player must be able to make it with a variety of materials not just old man's beard or cattail heads. Both are finite in the game and you'd run out rather quickly if you make a ember bundle every day.

[Tigerskitten]

Great idea!!

[druffzilla]

...

Note that for this to be practical a player must be able to make it with a variety of materials not just old man's beard or cattail heads. Both are finite in the game and you'd run out rather quickly if you make a ember bundle every day.

Maybe cloth could work too?

I'd be happy to finally have some resources again I have to keep an eye on.

There is about 150 cattails on ML and PV together, I'd guess a similar amount or more of old man's beard are spread over all 4 regions, using those up would already take a lot of time...

[nicko]

+1 I also like this idea.

[elloco999]

+1 I really like this idea

I'll make it short, because it's a basic survival technique and most of the needed things are already in game:

Combine embers from a fire with a metal food can, some old mans beard and a (fishing) line to get a transportable ember box.

Yeah this could be an interesting way of visualizing this. Would you see this item be used differently than a simple torch?

--Patrick

Well, the torch provides light and can scare off wolves but it dies out quickly. Your ember bundle would remain lit for 12-24 hours and can be used to start a fire without matches, fire striker or magnifying glass. The downside of course being that it doesn't provide light nor scare off animals.

A really neat idea. Especially if the fire bundle's success and/or duration is tied to the player's fire starting ability.

Edit: Note that for this to be practical a player must be able to make it with a variety of materials not just old man's beard or cattail heads. Both are finite in the game and you'd run out rather quickly if you make a ember bundle every day.

Was going to respond to Patrick's question but you said pretty much everything what I was going to say so I will just agree with this

[Killjoy]

I like the finite nature of it, the only fire resource that isn't finite is wood & tinder. Not that I disagree that it would be nice to be able to make something like this out of scrap metal and sticks.

[cekivi]

I like the finite nature of it, the only fire resource that isn't finite is wood & tinder. Not that I disagree that it would be nice to be able to make something like this out of scrap metal and sticks.

This is an item that would be targeted more for the late game of the sandbox. Endurance players would use this as a match replacement and, as such, it should behave similar to a renewable one-shot match. By limiting the number of times you can make an ember bundle (by tying it to specific resources) it decreases its value versus the torch and magnifying glass. If the item doesn't compete with already implemented mechanics than it doesn't need to be added to the game.

The finite nature should come instead from your fire starting abilities. Again, in keeping with the theme of this being a late game tool, the duration of the ember bundle should be proportional to your fire starting ability. It should also have a penalty to use versus cardboard matches so that matches remain quicker and more reliable. This way, a player who "maxes out" their fire starting skill should be able to use an ember bundle with the same efficacy as matches and have it last a long time. The total duration would, of course, require some testing to determine and get the correct balance.

Personally, I would require 1-2 tinder plugs to be necessary when crafting an ember bundle. Tinder plugs are quasi-renewable (as you can find them in cedar branches) but it does increase the resource cost of the ember bundle to maintain the competitiveness of matches and other fire starting methods. An ember bundle, used right, means you never again need matches, etc. again in the game and can keep one fire going indefinitely (by saving an ember each time) at the cost of requiring much more tinder. That, I think, is the appropriate risk/reward for an item like this.

[elloco999]

I think using tinderbundles is a great idea. I think most people would run out of old man's beard way before they run out of matches anyway as most people get into quite a bit of fights with wolves.

[druffzilla]

This is an item that would be targeted more for the late game of the sandbox. Endurance players would use this as a match replacement and, as such, it should behave similar to a renewable one-shot match. By limiting the number of times you can make an ember bundle (by tying it to specific resources) it decreases its value versus the torch and magnifying glass. If the item doesn't compete with already implemented mechanics than it doesn't need to be added to the game.

The finite nature should come instead from your fire starting abilities. Again, in keeping with the theme of this being a late game tool, the duration of the ember bundle should be proportional to your fire starting ability. It should also have a penalty to use versus cardboard matches so that matches remain quicker and more reliable. This way, a player who "maxes out" their fire starting skill should be able to use an ember bundle with the same efficacy as matches and have it last a long time. The total duration would, of course, require some testing to determine and get the correct balance.

Personally, I would require 1-2 tinder plugs to be necessary when crafting an ember bundle. Tinder plugs are quasi-renewable (as you can find them in cedar branches) but it does increase the resource cost of the ember bundle to maintain the competitiveness of matches and other fire starting methods. An ember bundle, used right, means you never again need matches, etc. again in the game and can keep one fire going indefinitely (by saving an ember each time) at the cost of requiring much more tinder. That, I think, is the appropriate risk/reward for an item like this.

You can get a tinder plug from harvesting a stick, so basically there is no extra cost at all...

How about birch bark instead, that is more rare to find and you would have to make extra trips once in a while to gather some.

My fear is just that adding a item like this would make other items redundant, I never even had to use a fire striker once I ran out of matches because waiting a couple of days for good sunlight to use the magnifying lens has never been a problem.

[cekivi]

You can get a tinder plug from harvesting a stick, so basically there is no extra cost at all...

How about birch bark instead, that is more rare to find and you would have to make extra trips once in a while to gather some.

I'll admit, I've never tried harvesting sticks so I didn't know about this trick

My fear is just that adding a item like this would make other items redundant, I never even had to use a fire striker once I ran out of matches because waiting a couple of days for good sunlight to use the magnifying lens has never been a problem.

Well, an ember bundle shouldn't make things completely redundant because it can go out. Then you would need something else to light your fire anew. The other cost of using an ember bundle is you must light a fire at least once so many hours to get a new ember. I know that's not true for real life where you can add more tinder to your bundle but it would make it work in the game so there is a downside to using ember bundles: a need to constantly light fires. Plus, not everyone can find a magnifying glass. Without a magnifying glass you need some way to transport fire or you'll really be in trouble once you run out of matches/fire strikers.

[pistols12]

I had charcoal cloth as part of mine for tinders but yeah I think those two things go hand in hand. +1

[Scyzara]

I support the idea to transport and store embers in general, but for gameplay reasons I'd rather suggest a combination of scrap metal, cloth and birch bark (instead of Old man's beard lichen) as crafting material for such an ember can. The first two are abundant anyway and might imo benefit from crafting options that considerably increase their consumption. The latter might encourage people to travel a bit more often during lategame.

I agree that amber cans (or bundles) definitely shouldn't scare away animals, though.

[Casazzo]

My idea of the whole thing was more like for balance reasons.

- firepot as a craftable item like a torch maybe, with a durability (10 uses because the old man's beard gets burned with continuous use) but without fire in its base form.

- ignitable with every bigger fire only, because you need embers to use

- burning-time 6-48h linear with firemaking skill

- repairable with one old mans beard for 100% at max skill.

- broken status at 1% life like an broken arrow.

- no light, no animal scaring

[SteveP]

Speaking of simple torches...would you guys at Hinterlands consider making it possible to light a new torch with an old one?? (or punk if implemented)

You can already do that. Go into inventory and equip a new torch; the old one will drop to the ground; look at it and left click mouse button to light your new torch.

[SteveP]

We already have a means to transport fire (embers) via the torch so you can light fire outdoors using the magnifying lens and then carry it indoors for cooking. I use torches as much as possible but find it inconvenient that I'm always using up matches to light them. It would be handy to have embers for hours however then they would just give us fewer matches to balance things out. :-(

[cekivi]

We already have a means to transport fire (embers) via the torch so you can light fire outdoors using the magnifying lens and then carry it indoors for cooking. I use torches as much as possible but find it inconvenient that I'm always using up matches to light them. It would be handy to have embers for hours however then they would just give us fewer matches to balance things out. :-(

Personally, I would prefer fewer matches with the caveat that matches have MUCH higher durability. I have some matches that are almost a decade old that I can still light fires with

The ember bundle is also supposed to last far longer than a torch (1-2 days) at the cost of not giving off light. Fewer, higher matches would balance the abilities of the ember bundle without punishing players who can't find the magnifying glass. If your ember bundle dies out you can use a rare, treasured match to light a fire again and you'll know the match will still work even if you picked it up 100 days before.