Campfire Burntime

[Siegmaer]

So, I was roleplaying with somebody just earlier, and it really hit me.. what with it being freezing.

Campfires really don't burn for very long at all before more fuel needs to be added to keep it going, so this can be somewhat troublesome when you're looking to roleplay with people without needing to constantly feed the beast.

Would it be possible for the time that a fire burns to be looked at? It feels exceptionally short, trying to wink out just a minute after being lit after spending a minute or more just preparing it.

Also, there was a nice suggestion someone made in the past that I found interesting and handy:

[*] Campfire bundles - maybe tied to high logging or a survival skill? Or, one of the woodsmen guilds? But, this is made out of the ingredients needed to make a campfire.

This would be really nice to have, regardless of weight, as sometimes you need to set up a fire in a hurry and it also just seems like something a bushcrafter may have.

[Lun]

The problem here is you're likely trying to feed it with branches or foraged logs in small amounts. A campfire at max capacity lasts about a chime before it tries to wink out, you can see how it's doing on duration by looking at it. Even without logging, you can still forage up six or seven deadwood logs with some ease and luck. If it says "Looks like it's going to burn for a while," you're in a good place. Feeding two logs will set the duration to the maximum.


Campfire bundles can be done pretty easily, but it's weighty. You can carry all of the items needed in a package, stow the package, and take it out when you need to and transfer everything to the ground to assemble in seconds. You'll never be lightly encumbered though.

[Siegmaer]

I'm aware that it's possible to do that, albeit cumbersome. I'm more concerned for all the command spammage and an suggesting something for ease of use.

And I do know of deadwood logs, but we're talking on an RNG basis there. One player and myself foraged for a good half minute and found one, which extended the lifetime by 5 minutes tops.

This said, I don't believe a campfire you just lit should die in a minute without adding additional fuel.

[Edoras]

Chop down trees! Your fire will last forever.

I'm only being half sarcastic: One single tree will probably light a fire for an entire day if you wanted to sit there for 24 hours straight, although it obviously takes a lot of work to get it to the point where you can start adding logs.

[xavier]

speaking as someone who recently spent so much time standing in a cold area and kept a campfire lit for most of every day. I agree that camp fires are a lot of work to maintain. I want to add to this thread by suggesting perhaps that instead of increasing the amount of time a maxxed out campfire will burn, perhaps the quantity of wood be lessened. I had forage firewood so much during that time that i actually wrote a set of triggers for it that when turned on would automatically add fuel to the fire as I foraged it. It saved me a lot of typing but didn't signifigantly decreased the time needed to maintain the fire. I also want to add that you cannot douse a fire unless you are in an environment that supplies dirt. I had a campfire set up right next to a river but couldn't douse it when I was done because there was no dirt available. I'd like to suggest that requirement be removed as one there is dirt everywhere and two water is always an alternative near a river so it didn't make sense. Sorry if this rambled, I'm tired. Thanks

[Jirato]

We can definitely look at this.

[Jirato]

Looking into this, I've discovered the following:

You start getting the "Maybe you should wait for the fire to die down a bit first?" message when the remaining campfire burn time is > 1 hour.

Deadwood logs add 5 minutes of burn time.
All other types of logs (from actually cutting trees) add 10 minutes of burn time.

Regardless of type (deadwood or from a tree)...
Small branches add 30 seconds
Medium branches add 1 minute.
Large branches add 1 and a half minutes.
Sticks and kindling add 10 seconds
Tinder adds 5 seconds

I don't really have an issue increasing the branch times... But the whole maximum campfire length being about a chime comment seems incorrect.

[Siegmaer]

Ah, yes, I don't necessarily mean the burntime of existing things, although I do consider them quite low as it can take some amount of luck to even come across a deadwood log. Some people don't wish to fell a tree in order to start up a campfire (and my own personal experience as a scout can tell you that it is exceptionally easy to make a campfire that will burn for a long time without need of a tree felling, but game mechanics and all).

In my experience, I speak of, it's when you start the fire initially. It only burns for what seems to be a short period of time before needing to have wood added to it before it burns out. I've never actually been able to add enough to a fire in order to see that message, "Maybe you should wait for the fire to die down a bit first?", as deadwood provides very little time to burn. I don't fully understand why it is deadwood burns for a lesser amount of time, unless it's considered for the most part rotted away.

In any case, thanks for taking a look at it! It would be appreciated for the winter months that they are easier to maintain.

[Lun]

Thank you for looking into this, Jirato! You're awesome! Thanks for bringing it to everyones attention, Siegmaer!

[Jirato]

I've got some ideas for this. I do think firekindling skill should be a factor along with a varying degree of randomness. Will try to get it changed while it's still relevant (before the warm weather hits). I'm not going to be able to work in CLOK tonight though.

[Jirato]

Plans for tonight fell through (co-worker decided to hang out with other friends and get drunk rather than play Warframe with me...), so here you go:

-The base burntime of a freshly built campfire teepee from the CAMPFIRE command has been extended from 100 seconds to 6 minutes plus a random skill roll of the character's firekindling skill. -- Jirato 19:10, 11 January 2018 (EST)

-Fixed a bug with the CAMPFIRE command, where even though all the game text would indicate that you need 6 branches, 4 pieces of kindling, and 3 pieces of tinder, it'd let you make a campfire with 4 branches, and 2 pieces each of kindling and tinder. -- Jirato 19:05, 11 January 2018 (EST)

Also: I contemplated adding skillgain to the CAMPFIRE command too, but there's no challenge rating system or difficulty or anything, so I'm going to leave that to the LIGHT command only.

[Siegmaer]

Many thanks Jirato! I'll be sure to put it to use in the near future, as I do quite enjoy building a campfire (even when it isn't cold), it was just a rather.. tedious effort given that the initial burntime was so minimal. Six minutes makes it considerably more manageable and I'm glad to see it happen. Also, interesting tidbit about that bug. I had absolutely no idea.

Also, random fact, some few days back during roleplay, I was gathering wood for a campfire and managed to set it up and light it just in time to not freeze to death. If even one more tick came, I would've died! Talk about the nick of time.