Fire Extinguisher Research

[f12michael]

As we all know, fires in Rimworld are EXTREMELY lethal, and its time consuming to put people to either cut all the grass in the world or beat it out, so I propose the idea of adding a fire extinguisher research that would add the construction of fire extinguishers.  Any thoughts of my idea?

[UrbanBourbon]

I fantasize of fire extinguisher frequently in RimWorld.

Either that or Tynan needs to rework the extinguishing logic. Colonists have a bad tendency to walk away from partially extinguished fires. The 'home zone' system also creates an additional issue, since fires can spread outside home zones. I think that colonists that are assigned as firefighters, should just keep on trampling fires as long as there is a burning tile next to the one they're extinguishing currently. Much simpler, much more effective. Pathing distance checks should also be implemented, so that they always go for the nearest fire, and not for the fire that's burning behind the wall.

Fires also always consist of several burning tiles, so the game should also consider a group of burning adjacent tiles as a single fire, and as long as one fire is even at least partially in the home zone, colonists should focus on putting out that fire (group of burning tiles), even if it goes outside home zone.

Perhaps then we wouldn't be asking for fire extinguishers.

[sparda666]

Also I dont know the AI in deciding who does what, but it seems like it decides the guy on the opposite side of the map is the best guy to fight this fire.

I also notice this behavior when people are building structures. one guy will drag the metal to the blueprint and start it, and then immediately leave while some other guy way off in the weeds is assigned to finish it. And when I try to tell someone closer to prioritize it, it says it is already assigned to someone else.

what would be really nice is that if we manually want to tell someone to prioritize a task (say putting out a fire), if it is already assigned to someone else, why can't it just automatically relieve the other guy from the task so he/she can do something else while we assign a closer person to do the task?

[emraldilian]

One thing I've noticed on the topic of fires is that I can't get a colonist to extinguish another outside of their homezone, so they just have to burn until I can carry them back.

On this topic I'd say just make the research cause colonists to put out fires faster, or if it would be feasible to add fire extinguishers, give them some range. A lot of my big buildings go down because my colonists can't reach the fire in the middle of it, I've even had a fire from a stray bolt in a dry storm slowly destroy my steam generator.

[UrbanBourbon]

One thing I've noticed on the topic of fires is that I can't get a colonist to extinguish another outside of their homezone, so they just have to burn until I can carry them back.

Pause and draw some home zone over the burning colonist. Assign someone to put out the fire on him. Unpause. Bothersome? Yes. Better than watching him burn? Yes... probably.

A lot of my big buildings go down because my colonists can't reach the fire in the middle of it, I've even had a fire from a stray bolt in a dry storm slowly destroy my steam generator.

Sounds like you have to work on your designs then! Focus on the fire safety and accessibility as well. I think of it as one of the gameplay elements.

[emraldilian]

Pause and draw some home zone over the burning colonist. Assign someone to put out the fire on him. Unpause. Bothersome? Yes. Better than watching him burn? Yes... probably.

Well now I feel stupid.

you have to work on your designs then! Focus on the fire safety and accessibility as well. I think of it as one of the gameplay elements.

Actually, I'm talking about big structures, your colonists can't walk into the structure to put out the fire. Like a steam generator, or nutrient paste dispenser. Now I know roofing is an option, but if fire spreads towards the middle naturally or a raider with a molotov gets to it, it's gone, no fighting that fire.

[Monkfish]

Yeah, the whole buildings-burning-in-the-middle thing is a pain. If a solar panel or geo generator shorts out or otherwise catches fire in its middle, it's toast. It's a bit... game breaky really. I've lost several panels that way even though I had the entire colony fighting fires due to them being unable to do anything about it. Either colonists need to be able to fight fires two squares away or some other form of fire fighting needs to be implemented.

[Thunder Rahja]

If one of my colonists decides to walk through tiles covered in fire, I just watch them burn. They kinda deserve it anyway.

Also I tend to build paved tile 2 tiles out from buildings to prevent them from being lit by grass fires, and extend the home zone to include the extra tiles. I've seen sparks jump over a 1-tile gap, but never 2.

[Wex]

what would be really nice is that if we manually want to tell someone to prioritize a task (say putting out a fire), if it is already assigned to someone else, why can't it just automatically relieve the other guy from the task so he/she can do something else while we assign a closer person to do the task?

This is a problem that is plaguing a lot of activities; like in hunting, people keep waltzing in front of a shooter to kill something else. That modification of the AI is pretty necessary.