Are Forests Really This Flammable?

Started by BasileusMaximos, December 01, 2017, 02:33:42 PM

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Euzio

Any forest, even in the tropics, are actually pretty flammable. I've experienced how bad it is even in a tropical region in which during the dry season, a tropical jungle can just turn into a full own forest fire in which even if it rained for half a day, would not be sufficient to snuff it out.

In Rimworld, if you wish to secure your base, you can actually construct roads to act as firebreaks. I did it in the past to prevent my geothermals located outside my bases from catching fire. 

Jibbles

I think the rate at which fire spreads is fine.  You can lay down non flammable floors to help prevent the spread... cut grass and bushes between mountains in a pinch can also help. 

I rather have devices that helps with putting out the fires than leaving it up to the rain.  Firepopper and grenades are there but...   

Snafu_RW

Quote from: Jibbles on December 04, 2017, 04:41:45 PMI rather have devices that helps with putting out the fires than leaving it up to the rain.  Firepopper and grenades are there but...
Don't forget in B18 you can now also make firefoam mortar shells..
Dom 8-)

sadpickle

Quote from: Shurp on December 03, 2017, 05:15:20 PM
So having your colonists put out the fires by hand (it *can* be done if you're disciplined about it, but it takes a lot of micromanagement) or relying of the mandatory deluge are your best options.
Easiest way to do it and it requires no micro: Firefighting mandatory priority 1, draw a home zone around the fire, draft and release everyone.

This won't work for excessively large fires, but it can prevent say, a boomalope explosion from burning down half the map.

Vlad0mi3r

Fire spread and speed of immolation is subject to several factors.

The primary factors are:

Ambient temperature 20C verses 40C makes a big difference.

Fuel condition/make up. So are we at the end of summer? Is there a lot of canopy material being dropped to the forest floor. What tree types are present, for instance is the forest mainly eucalyptus trees? (they are highly flammable).

Gradient (not present in Rimworld) the speed a fire moves uphill is drastically increased due to preheating of material ahead of the fire front.

Wind (Also not present in Rimworld) is the most critical of all when dealing with a wild fire situation. The wind will determine your safe point of attack as well as critical danger zones that should not be entered.

So to answer the question are forests really that flammable? Yes depending on the circumstances. The rate of spread however should not be a standard rate of spread but increase in speed and intensity adjusted by wind direction.

Do fires cause rain? Yes they can. I have watched a spinifex fire race up the side of a hill with such heat and intensity that it broke through the hot inversion layer that was sitting quite low that day and formed its own cloud system above the hill. Took all of about ten minutes to burn the hill to ash. If fighting a fire however you certainly would not be banking or hoping on rainfall caused by the heat rising into the upper atmosphere. 

If you wanted to put a real kicker into the mix you could have a difference between a forest floor fire and a canopy fire. A canopy fire (Where the tops of the trees are on fire) in Rimworld in a forest Biome would destroy everything in its path but would take time to get off the ground ;).

Hope this helps.
Mods I would recommend:
Mending, Fertile Fields, Smokeleaf Industries and the Giddy Up series.

The Mod you must have:
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Hans Lemurson

Making trees low (but non-zero) flammability I think could simulate "ground-fire" versus "canopy-fire" to some degree.  Truly large fires would still consume everything around them, but the trees wouldn't all instantly go up like torches.  That takes a little time.
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Headshotkill

I made a suggestion a while back proposing a humidity factor that would determine vegetation density and flammability.

SpaceDorf

A simulated Wind directection would be great, not only to prevent the strange circular spread of fires, but would also to give Wind Generators a more Natural feel, act as rough guidance system for tornados and other weather conditions. It would even have an effect on cold snap and heat wave.

And I support that trees should have a higher resistance to fire than grass and bushes.
The humidity of plantlife can be easily put in a single value per map, that gets calculated by the biomes base value and changed over time by local temperature, wind and rain.
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Morrigi

It is kind of silly that all forests go up like matchsticks all the time. Without the firewatcher, it's basically Space California with less taxes! Even something dead simple like changing the severity of fires based on season and biome would be an improvement.