Replacing firewatcher with humidity

Started by Headshotkill, November 02, 2017, 09:27:10 PM

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Headshotkill

Upon taking a sneak peak at A18 I've noticed the new swamp biomes are chock full of trees and vegetation, you know the stuff that burns.
I've noticed what happens in these situations using Kudzu's increased forest density mod which basically imitated this type of map, basically without the firewatcher (rimworlds build in fireman deity that looks down upon the planet from his palace in the rainy clouds and extinguishes large wildfires) you'll get to a point where there's a massive ball of fire somewhere expanding outwards devouring everything rendering most of the map a burned waste, including your base.

I've never liked the firewatcher as it feels very gamey and immersion breaking, and I'm also not a fan of how the swamp biomes have such a RADICALLY HIGHER CONCENTRATION OF TREES. Seriously, jungles are nothing compared to these even though they're right next to each other. I'm proposing a new factor for tiles on the world besides temperature, humidity. I've a feeling this factor already sorta exists in the game to generate the correct biomes and calculate the amount of rainy weahter but it should also influence each tile individually.

So to put it short and simple, the higher the humidity (rainfall) of a tile the thicker the vegetation, meaning in a situation where you have a coast with a swamp with more land in a jungle and then a desert, the swamp would be very lush and the jungle bordering the swamp would be very dense as well, pretty much as dense as the swamp, more towards the desert the humidity of the jungle decreases and so does the tree density leading automatically to a different kind of biome a savannah without adding new content really. Eventually in the desert the part closest to the jungle would have lots of cactus and further away the land would be more and more barren.

That's part 1 of what would happen with a humidity mechanic, part 2 is another result from this one addition:

The higher the humidity of a biome the less flamable nature is, fires should be smaller and rarer because of more rain alone but the humidity factor (which fluctuates throughout the year which I'll talk about next) influences the flammability of the trees and plants themselfs. So the biomes might be choking with vegetation but you shouldn't get a fireball of death. More towards the desert the humidity is lower and nature is more flammable but the vegetation is also sparser meaning fires can't spread as easy. That's instantly balanced by itself making the firewatcher system IMO redundant.


Finally you can start playing with this system, have an event in a humid area where suddenly a long drought comes along causing not a drop of rain for weeks and draining the ground from it's water reservoirs, now this lush jungle turned into a death trap waiting to happen.

freemapa

This would be great for heat stroke, etc., too. Heat in high humidity is much more dangerous because your sweat can't cool you as efficiently. But if it's dry, you can work outdoors in the heat for much longer. This would contrast well with the inverse fire risk: dry = safer to work, but more fires, humid = fewer fires, more risk of heat stroke. Also, the passive cooler should work much better in dry conditions. Heck... the humidity could even affect how food spoils.

Good call!

Sbilko

I like this idea because it would avoid having a very forested tile next to one which has a lot less trees. It brings balance in the amount of vegetation, and that's good to have.

Headshotkill

Quote from: Sbilko on November 03, 2017, 09:27:47 AM
I like this idea because it would avoid having a very forested tile next to one which has a lot less trees. It brings balance in the amount of vegetation, and that's good to have.

Exactly, I landed in a desert and only had to cross one tile to enter a fertile forest area, normally the forest bordering the desert would still be poorly vegetated.

protocol47

I totally agree about precipitation/plant density relationship.

However, I've grown to love the Rain God, and pray to him/her/it regularly.

I like to cull any undesirable species from my map. There seems to be a population cap for wild animals, so I take out all predators and boom-creatures to make room for more delicious animals (we don't eat predators, and boom-creatures taste like lighter fluid). I let the boom-creatures build up until there is a lot of them, then send out a squad to kill them all. This obviously cause a bunch of fires, but the Rain God has always had my back, putting them out before they get to my colony.

Please don't kill the Rain God.

Headshotkill

Another way this could influence a maps ecological system is the more vegetation a map has the more herbivores will be around and the more predators will lurk, effectively making the map more dangerous overall but with bigger food rewards.