Firefighting needs better handling

[mickel]

The situation with firefighting is just a disaster right now. A fire will break out, a colonist will be sent out there to stomp it out. While he's underway the fire will spread, but once he's stomped out the fire in the square he reserved, he won't move on to the others, because they will all have been reserved by other colonists, spread out all over the map... and once they have reached their fires they will of course have spread even more into areas that they completely ignore, allowing the fire to continue spreading even further.

The fastest and most economical way to fight fires at the moment seems to be to wait until it's consumed everything combustible and burns itself out, and then to rebuild.

There just has to be a better way to do this...

[HatesYourFace]

Until this gets improved you could try drafting, when a Colonist is drafted he will automatically stomp out any fires on tiles adjacent to him. So it is possible to manually fight fires with a few drafted colonists via micro managing them, it's not ideal but it's certainly better than letting them try to do it themselves. I agree that the automatic fire fighting job routine needs work as in addition to the problems you mentioned they also often set themselves on fire walking through squares that are burning but which other colonists have reserved, especially in tight hallways.

[mickel]

Ah, I wasn't aware they fight fires when drafted. I'll just do that for now. Thanks!

[HatesYourFace]

No problem. Glad to help!

[boothby]

If you lay down concrete it will act as a fire break preventing the fire from spreading.

[MoparGamer]

It helps a lot to have a small firefighting force rather than all your colonist (to prevent them from reserving everything)

[mickel]

If you lay down concrete it will act as a fire break preventing the fire from spreading.

That doesn't stop it from spreading along powerlines though. And powerlines seem to burst into flames as soon as there's the tiniest little spark within two or three squares, meaning that if there's a fire near a powerline, you can kiss your generators and solar plants goodbye within minutes.

[boothby]

I can't say I've ever had a fire that severve.

What about selling the power line before the generator so it doesn't spread as fast?

[bobucles]

There probably needs to be a case where nearby colonists can "steal" jobs that are waiting on long distance colonists. Or colonists should have a limited "vision" range on what kind of jobs they take.

[mickel]

Power lines don't automatically disappear when you sell them though, or that could be a potential solution.

In real life I would solve a situation like that with fire sectioning, but there aren't that many tools for that (yet).

[milon]

There probably needs to be a case where nearby colonists can "steal" jobs that are waiting on long distance colonists. Or colonists should have a limited "vision" range on what kind of jobs they take.

+1

[LordBloodpool]

Oh, I encounter this problem so, so much. It's not so bad when you've got a small base with a few colonists. Larger bases with more colonists seem to suffer much, much more. It's so irritating because these fires destroy so much because it takes so long for colonists to put it out.

So yea, the fire-fighting system needs a massive shake-up. Maybe a system where fires are only prioritised by colonists with line of sight on the flames would work better? It'd make more sense than the weird fire-triggered hive-mind thing the colonists seem to have going on at the moment.

[Reaper]

Agreed please fix the firefighting so that my miners on the other side of the map don't prevent people right next to the blaze from dealing with it

[bobucles]

One of the simpler ways to manage fires is to eliminate the job for most of your colonists. That way you won't have your entire colony crossing the map.

[UrbanBourbon]

Maybe firefighting should be handled differently from all the other jobs. It's an emergency job, and comes unexpectedly, as opposed to all the other jobs. Oftentimes a hungry or a tired colonist comes to put out fires, when in fact I'd allow him to rest or eat to prevent mental breaks. The firefighter selection should be a pool, and the AI should assign only the most rested, sated and happiest (least miserable) colonists to put out fires.

Player should then have a hotkey option to increase or decrease the firefighter team headcount, and the AI would then chuck the next (nearest) colonist to fight fires... Hmmm! A certain colonist could be skipped if he's "too hungry" or "too tired" or "too miserable". And even then, the player should have the choice to force even the most miserable guy to stomp flames with a push of a button.

On the other hand, the player could always take action, and simply just not assign the neurotic and depressed colonists to automated firefighting tasks, and instead assign all the sanguine and other sickeningly happy types to it, because they can withstand better the unexpected psychological punishment. I'd say 3-6 firefighters is the best practice currently. Use draft if a fire is especially large OR if it's especially small and far away.