Insufferable Fires

[LordMunchkin]

Does anyone else hate fires? I actually just quit a 150 day game because of how frustrating they were. No matter how many guys I have putting out the flames, I can never stop it from spreading and I pray for the rain. My guys always catch fire and run in the opposite direction of help. I hadn't lost a single colonist to raiders. I lost 2 to fires. To compound this predicament, the bloody raiders set fire to everything. They even kill themselves with fire. I've seen raiders trap themselves in burning rooms (they burn the doors behind them).

For the love god do we need fire extinguishers. That or walls should not catch fire.

[ShadowDragon8685]

Does anyone else hate fires? I actually just quit a 150 day game because of how frustrating they were. No matter how many guys I have putting out the flames, I can never stop it from spreading and I pray for the rain. My guys always catch fire and run in the opposite direction of help. I hadn't lost a single colonist to raiders. I lost 2 to fires. To compound this predicament, the bloody raiders set fire to everything. They even kill themselves with fire. I've seen raiders trap themselves in burning rooms (they burn the doors behind them).

For the love god do we need fire extinguishers. That or walls should not catch fire.

Fires are by far the most asspain part of RimWorld as it stands. A lot of it is due to the terrible firefighting AI which is borrowed wholesale from the job AI, which is compounded by the fact that you can't manually override a "claimed" job with a rightclick from another colonist.

I don't even have anyone on firefighting duty anymore. I just have Forbidden grenades cached all around my settlement. If a fire starts, I draft the nearest colonist to the nearest grenades, order them to equip the grenades, and then order them towards the fire. I sell off everything within 2 tiles of any currently-burning object, and I have the guy with the grenades blast everything else to rubble, because rubble doesn't burn.

It's faster, cheaper, and safer than trying to put the fires out the "right" way.

[skiddyfisk]

You can make concrete firebreaks around your buildings so at least grass fires won't spread to them.

[ShadowDragon8685]

You can make concrete firebreaks around your buildings so at least grass fires won't spread to them.

The firebreaks need to be a minimum of two tiles wide to be effective, as embers can travel two tiles. Also, this is a double-edged sword; raiders will often see "Ooooh, concrete, faster walking space," and jump on the highway along your walls, and will then say "Hey, I'm right next to this flammable magnesium wall, I should set this sucker on fire!"

So you need to use rubble and slag to line the firebreak so they won't path through it, and even then it's not a sure bet.

[LordMunchkin]

Everything in this game goes up like tinder. I kind of like watching wildfires kill whole herds of muffalo and boomrats but stuff that is clearly solid metal or stone like doors and walls should not catch fire like that. I've seen raiders successfully use grenades to blast through walls but they shouldn't be able to do so much damage with just torches.

[LordMunchkin]

To add to my frustration, electrical explosions and fires. I just lost four people in my hydroponics room because of a fire caused by just six batteries.  I think I've sworn off using batteries forever. Hell, the way this game works, I'd rather use gibbet cages and grow my crops outside because clearly electricity is just beyond my colonist. 

Next game, I think the only electrical thing I'll build is a comm and a single solar generator. Back to the dark ages I suppose! 

[Darker]

Fire bothered me as well, but then, I started to enjoy it:


The fact that invaders follow highways is actually pretty usefull. You know where to place the mines.

[Coenmcj]

All those corpses, then a single Muffallo in the corner, poor thing must of been so confused.

[Headshotkill]

Fire bothered me as well, but then, I started to enjoy it:


The fact that invaders follow highways is actually pretty usefull. You know where to place the mines.

Looks like we share the same strategy burning corpses... >=)

[Daisil]

I like the rows of raider graves

[Untrustedlife]

I like fires and the game, once you get too many, it starts raining (in the current version) so maybe tehs epeopel s complaints were fixed.

[Darker]

But for some reason rain does not stop fire in your house...

Which is a problem since all walls are flamable, as well as chairs, tables and also food generators. It's luck that rock doesn't catch on fire too...

[Untrustedlife]

then have your citizens put them out, you should know (and probably do) that this game isn't supposed to be easy...
tis..well..dwarf fortress in space.. basically.

Maybe Tynan could add fire extinguisher objects that can put out fires and double as blunt weapons?

[Galileus]

then have your citizens put them out, you should know (and probably do) that this game isn't supposed to be easy...

Quote? Link?

This is not an argument. Especially taking into account that the game was not marketed as "hardcore, punishing and/or brutal" and the fact that "easy" is a very, very subjective matter.

And yes, fires can be quite out of control right now, combined with random nature of the game and lack of well-telegraphed fire-fighting strategies this is a problem. At the same time, this is a problem I would hardly think could be overlooked and will be addressed at some point.

[Untrustedlife]

Well, there is
Nothing super obvious but.

In terms of game design, the game draws most from the 800-pound gorilla of the simulation genre, Dwarf Fortress. We also take ideas from indie hits like FTL (our semi-random event format)

dwarf fortress isn't meant to be easy, and i believe based on experiences with this game, that it most likely isn't supposed to be easy, even on the easiest difficulties you can get wiped out rather easily late-game. Unless you create a choke point which seems to work on all storytellers currently.

But for those who like hardcoreness, randy random exists. Along with the other extreme.


as I said earlier
Fire extinguishers should be added. And possibly double as blunt weapons.