Wildfires

[Archswifter]

Is it possible for wildfires to go the way of disease? For me and all the people I know who play the game the two things that they would always turn off when starting a new world was disease and wildfires. I do sort of get why you'd want them as they're an incentive to base in oasis and the underground for the summer but at the same time it kinda forces you to chose either or else you need to place and use ice flingomatics in range of your base which, if you like base building can seem off or out of place.

Anyway, wondering what do you guys think? Are wildfires as bad as disease, is it possible for them to be removed like it? Or are they actually a good thing?

[Mike23Ua]

Its suggestions like this that makes me genuinely worried for this franchises future.. not to sound mean or anything but I enjoy a challenge, a REAL hardcore, brutal completely unforgiving challenge- It is what drew me to single player DS and hooked me on the franchise: the slightest mistake meant save file deletion.

I personally LOVE Wildfires, when animals are getting so hot they spontaneously combust into flames, obviously wildfires should be happening.

I like to screw around with my world Gen settings and I have played worlds where you get 6 days of Autumn before 24/7 non stop endless Summer, and for ADDED challenge I remove Ice Glaciers so I can not use any type of Ice to assist in saving my skin.

This game can be as easy or as hard as YOU PERSONALLY feel like playing it at the time, please do not ask for features that you may not enjoy to be removed, just because you dislike them doesn’t mean everyone dislikes them.

Disease on the other hand was a broken incomplete gameplay feature that I never Understood its design intention or purpose, I’m guessing it was used as a way of keeping players active, monitoring diseases plants, uprooting them to keep the rest from also spoiling- But NOW that is what clearing Debris and Weeds from your gardens so they do not turn into Rotting crops does.

If you dislike wildfires so much, continue to toggle them off for your worlds, but DO NOT ask if they should be removed, and besides: You can now easily extinguish Wildfires with the Watering Can.. introduced in the New Update. 

[Well-met]

This sort of demand was inevitable after what they did to disease

yes, you have good odds wild fires will be officially removed at some point because people are begging so.

[Easonade]

Wildfire mechanic is fair. There are various legit ways to counter it--you could easily base in the oasis or the cave during summer, or you could cover your base with flingos. It's just a matter of players thinking it's too much hassle to work with.

While disease is broken. You cannot counter it with a reasonable prevention method other than gathering all your replanted plants almost none stop.

At the end of the day you can choose to turn off game features if that's not your thing, but asking for something to be removed since you don't like it is, in my opinion, unjustified.

[Archswifter]

1 minute ago, Easonade said:

At the end of the day you can choose to turn of game features if that's not your thing, but asking for something to be removed since you don't like it is, in my opinion, unjustified.

I wasn't really asking for it to be removed, it was more of a question as to if it's possible and whether or not it's a good thing.

[Mike23Ua]

17 minutes ago, Well-met said:

This sort of demand was inevitable after what they did to disease

yes, you have good odds wild fires will be officially removed at some point because people are begging so.

People were begging for the rest of DS solo’s dlc characters after Warly and Wormwood made the cut into the game too, but I don’t see Walani, Wilbur, Woodlegs, Wheeler, Wilba or Wagstaff in the game yet even though people continuously beg.

I personally don’t feel like Wildfires will be removed, they are a fun fleshed out feature that has multiple ways of countering, disease on the other hand never really had a purpose beyond shoveling up the diseased plants before they contaminated the rest of the un-contaminated ones, they removed Disease as a Mechanic because The new RWYS gardens incorporates a BETTER version of it.

If Wildfires were removed just because people disliked them I would probably quit the franchise because it all goes downhill from there.

[W0l0l0]

Is it just me who thinks fire as a mechanic should be reworked? It is far too easy to initiate one to destroy structures, set other mobs on fire, and as a consequence it is unrealistically weak against mobs, and hence Willow isn't really able to use it as a main game plan, only a nice small bonus.

Personality, I'd make it more rewarding and difficult to set things on fire with lingering wetness and all year very short rains. And the condition that fire can only spread once the wetness has drained from heat. All mobs would have a trace wetness (dampness I guess) that would resist fire. By tweaking numbers it could be easy to maintain a base by keeping trees watered and only possible for fire to spread if the wetness decreases enough. 

But you know, I might be trying to fix something that aint broke.

[Well-met]

3 minutes ago, Mike23Ua said:

People were begging for the rest of DS solo’s dlc characters after Warly and Wormwood made the cut into the game too, but I don’t see Walani, Wilbur, Woodlegs, Wheeler, Wilba or Wagstaff in the game yet even though people continuously beg.

I personally don’t feel like Wildfires will be removed, they are a fun fleshed out feature that has multiple ways of countering, disease on the other hand never really had a purpose beyond shoveling up the diseased plants before they contaminated the rest of the un-contaminated ones, they removed Disease as a Mechanic because The new RWYS gardens incorporates a BETTER version of it.

If Wildfires were removed just because people disliked them I would probably quit the franchise because it all goes downhill from there.

The lack of DLC characters is not a gameplay mechanic that forces people to undergo additional precautions. The comparison does not work.

1 minute ago, W0l0l0 said:

Is it just me who thinks fire as a mechanic should be reworked? It is far too easy to initiate one to destroy structures, set other mobs on fire, and as a consequence it is unrealistically weak against mobs, and hence Willow isn't really able to use it as a main game plan, only a nice small bonus.

Personality, I'd make it more rewarding and difficult to set things on fire with lingering wetness and all year very short rains. And the condition that fire can only spread once the wetness has drained from heat. All mobs would have a trace wetness (dampness I guess) that would resist fire. By tweaking numbers it could be easy to maintain a base by keeping trees watered and only possible for fire to spread if the wetness decreases enough. 

But you know, I might be trying to fix something that aint broke.

It rather sounds like you're trying to nerf fire because of griefing.

[Hornete]

Nahh, I really dont want wildfires to be removed. Maybe a rework would be cool but removing wildfires would be removing one of the few dangers summer has. If they do remove wildfires I would like to see another danger added in its place.

[W0l0l0]

4 minutes ago, Well-met said:

It rather sounds like you're trying to nerf fire because of griefing.

I will try acknowledge biases I have, but I almost exclusively play alone. My main motivation is realism and power with fire and I play Willow quite a bit. I guess this would be a good bonus though, right? 

[Mike23Ua]

6 minutes ago, Well-met said:

The lack of DLC characters is not a gameplay mechanic that forces people to undergo additional precautions. The comparison does not work.

It rather sounds like you're trying to nerf fire because of griefing.

Actually your right, the comparison was pretty bad sorry bout that, also- the new watering can will extinguish any object that’s up in flames, and also any nearby objects starting to go up in flames.

I know this because I was curious enough to intentionally build a science machine and then torch it a blaze then try to use the new farming tool watering can on it, the results is no more burnt down bases causing forced server rollbacks.

[Grim the]

Once we remove wildfires, summer becomes bare. Winter is a good "hard season" freezing, a boss, klaus, mctusk, ice, etc. Summer?  WIldfires and Antlion and Heat. That's it. Without wildfires, all we have is Heat and Antlion, effectively making summer nonexistent. They're easily countered by the oaisis and rain and caves, and I like them. I want wildfires to stay. Just Build a Flingo. DIsease was removed because there was no counter, but there's a myriad of counters to wilfires. Even a literal watering can works.

[Intrepidpioneer]

37 minutes ago, W0l0l0 said:

Is it just me who thinks fire as a mechanic should be reworked? It is far too easy to initiate one to destroy structures, set other mobs on fire, and as a consequence it is unrealistically weak against mobs, and hence Willow isn't really able to use it as a main game plan, only a nice small bonus.

Personality, I'd make it more rewarding and difficult to set things on fire with lingering wetness and all year very short rains. And the condition that fire can only spread once the wetness has drained from heat. All mobs would have a trace wetness (dampness I guess) that would resist fire. By tweaking numbers it could be easy to maintain a base by keeping trees watered and only possible for fire to spread if the wetness decreases enough. 

But you know, I might be trying to fix something that aint broke.

I agree that objects with wetness should be fire immune until their wetness dries off. And furthermore applying wetness to objects with water balloons ( or a mud salve, think about it klei!) Keeps them safe for some time. This will make spring rain deadly to those who are not prepared with the only fire exception being lightning strikes

[Choosechee]

57 minutes ago, W0l0l0 said:

Is it just me who thinks fire as a mechanic should be reworked? It is far too easy to initiate one to destroy structures, set other mobs on fire, and as a consequence it is unrealistically weak against mobs, and hence Willow isn't really able to use it as a main game plan, only a nice small bonus.

Personality, I'd make it more rewarding and difficult to set things on fire with lingering wetness and all year very short rains. And the condition that fire can only spread once the wetness has drained from heat. All mobs would have a trace wetness (dampness I guess) that would resist fire. By tweaking numbers it could be easy to maintain a base by keeping trees watered and only possible for fire to spread if the wetness decreases enough. 

But you know, I might be trying to fix something that aint broke.

I like these changes. But can you explain some changes that would help Willow? All of those would nerf Willow.

On a related note, better wetness for mobs could mean that water balloons could work on them, and morning stars and electric darts would be better. That being said, it would also buff volt goat jelly, so IDK.

[Sub-Maxwell]

I personally don’t play with wildfires, but removing this option seems kind of... unnecessary? Disease was more of a nuisance than a challenge so I can see why it was removed, but wildfires actually make the game harder for people who want it. 
 

Instead, I propose a way to make it more manageable. My main issue is that flingos need to be refueled a lot depending on what you use as fuel. When you get to the point in late game where you need 5+ flingos just to cover your base, it gets pretty taxing. Maybe if there was an upgraded flingo you could make that lasts longer and has a bigger radius, wildfires might become more manageable as you expand your base.

[W0l0l0]

37 minutes ago, Choosechee said:

I like these changes. But can you explain some changes that would help Willow? All of those would nerf Willow.

Thank you for the kind words, and sure. I'm trying to not get into too much detail with the whole idea, because it should probably be its own topic. Also I have had this on my mind since before Willow's rework, so it's probably much less feasible under the current circumstances. 

For starters, I think the fire rework idea would probably require a lot of testing so the character that I believe should control fire actually has a working mechanic to her name before even touching her.

My take on what I think Willow should be is more along the lines of her cinematic: being able to start meaningful fires as a utility and/or weapon. If Wortox is allowed a lazy explorer 24/7, I think the ability to control by putting out fires remotely and start them at the cost of sanity and/or other resources (perhaps even along the lines of the lighter from Harry Potter that steals fire and can use it later in a burst) wouldn't be too unreasonable. These changes would be in place after a fire rework, so fire staffs would be ideally less effective at igniting targets, at the cost of much more harmful flames. The general thing I am aiming for is more damage, that is harder to achieve, using mechanics that try to be realistic (setting the bee queen on fire should be difficult right?). 

Torches I think should behave like enraged dragonfly; setting targets on fire if they're in the proximity too long (obviously much weaker however), but no ignition on hit.

 

 

[BeeClops]

I don't think wildfire mechanic will be removed. But i think we will have better ways to deal with it in the future, probably a better way to produce rain.

Personally i think it's an ok mechanic, it can be annoying but i'm fine w it.

[Captain_Rage]

Indeed, the disease mechanic felt silly, cumbersome and simply tedious. I wouldn't compare it to wildfires. I am also in favor of challenges and wildfires are manageable with some planning, without feeling stupid and pointless like flora getting ill. If you know the game and plan accordingly you should not get overwhelmed by fires during summer.

[wkjdfx]

There IS one type of wildfire that has no counter to, and that is off-screen fire. While I think that wildfire in general is a legit mechanic that can be countered with reasonable amount of preparation, the fact that it can actually spawn right out of your sight is what breaks the mechanic for me. Off-screen wildfire completely invalidates living in a non-oasis mega base during summer. Any fire that spawn on-screen is actually extremely easy to deal with using luxury fan, water balloon, or water can. The off-screen fire that turns all your building into ash and charcoal by the time you go to that part of your base is what's fundamentally not fun to deal with. 

[Mike23Ua]

26 minutes ago, wkjdfx said:

There IS one type of wildfire that has no counter to, and that is off-screen fire. While I think that wildfire in general is a legit mechanic that can be countered with reasonable amount of preparation, the fact that it can actually spawn right out of your sight is what breaks the mechanic for me. Off-screen wildfire completely invalidates living in a non-oasis mega base during summer. Any fire that spawn on-screen is actually extremely easy to deal with using luxury fan, water balloon, or water can. The off-screen fire that turns all your building into ash and charcoal by the time you go to that part of your base is what's fundamentally not fun to deal with. 

Maybe this is my own personal selfish highly biased opinion here but if your going to build a Massive mega base expanding across several of the games biomes, and completely forgo the games original design intention of Uncompromising Wilderness Survival, then maybe play in a less harsh mode dedicated exclusively to mega base builds or turn some of the features that interrupt your mega basing fun off..?

I personally have never built a base that needed to be any bigger than a single Ice-flingo range.. I have built multiple small bases like this all over the map, but never one truly connected massive time sink of a mega base, the game was not designed with the intentions that you would turn the entire constant into your personal mega house/city, and I don’t think Klei should make changes to the core survival aspect of the game based on those wanting to mega base.

There are options to turn off the features you dislike in mega basing.. is that not enough?

Personally I want an even MORE Uncompromising Wilderness Survival Game I want challenges that DO NOT have a permanent solution, I want things like Wildfires, Tornadoes, Blizzards, Flooded plots of land, and IF elevated plots of land ever make it into the game things like Earthquakes and even Landslides can exist.

I realize that this reply could be considered as off-topic so I’ll just leave that as my example and instead discuss why the removal of Wildfires is a bad thing- I bought a game advertised and sold to me as an Uncompromising WILDERNESS Survival Game... and as Such, I would like a lot more Wilderness & Wilderness challenges that interfere with my ability to build a mega base.

(and as I pointed out if that’s not your thing there should always be a way of toggling it off to a more peaceful base building friendly mode.)

[wkjdfx]

9 minutes ago, Mike23Ua said:

Maybe this is my own personal selfish highly biased opinion here but if your going to build a Massive mega base expanding across several of the games biomes, and completely forgo the games original design intention of Uncompromising Wilderness Survival, then maybe play in a less harsh mode dedicated exclusively to mega base builds or turn some of the features that interrupt your mega basing fun off..?

I personally have never built a base that needed to be any bigger than a single Ice-flingo range.. I have built multiple small bases like this all over the map, but never one truly connected massive time sink of a mega base, the game was not designed with the intentions that you would turn the entire constant into your personal mega house/city, and I don’t think Klei should make changes to the core survival aspect of the game based on those wanting to mega base.

There are options to turn off the features you dislike in mega basing.. is that not enough?

Personally I want an even MORE Uncompromising Wilderness Survival Game I want challenges that DO NOT have a permanent solution, I want things like Wildfires, Tornadoes, Blizzards, Flooded plots of land, and IF elevated plots of land ever make it into the game things like Earthquakes and even Landslides can exist.

I realize that this reply could be considered as off-topic so I’ll just leave that as my example and instead discuss why the removal of Wildfires is a bad thing- I bought a game advertised and sold to me as an Uncompromising WILDERNESS Survival Game... and as Such, I would like a lot more Wilderness & Wilderness challenges that interfere with my ability to build a mega base.

(and as I pointed out if that’s not your thing there should always be a way of toggling it off to a more peaceful base building friendly mode.)

Thanks for the long text, but if you are trying to say that wildfire shouldn't be removed, then I should be clear that I didn't ask wild-fire to be removed in the first place. All I said was that wildfire is a legit mechanic that is broken by off-screen wild spawning. I wouldn't even want to turn off wild-fire in the first place because I think it is a fun challenge which also make luxury fan and water balloon more versatile. You seem rather fixated on how DST should be an unforgiving experience yadayada and how big of a hardcore player you are, and I think that's fine. All I'm saying is that off-screen wildfire has little to no counter just like disease. Or arguably even worse than disease? Grass tuft disease can be countered by penned grass gecko, sapling disease can be countered by spiky bush, stone fruit disease can be countered by sprouting stone fruit. All of these counters translate into challenges that, once resolved, don't turn into endless labor. Off-screen wildfire however, can only be countered by flingo coverage and endless fuel gathering.

[Mike23Ua]

11 minutes ago, wkjdfx said:

Off-screen wildfire can only be countered by flingo coverage & endless fuel gathering.

Yeah but, isn’t that enough? I don’t guess your understanding the fundamental gameplay challenges that it would impact if for example: leaving an areas rendering distance made that area immune to being able to catch fire to these off screen fires.

It would then just become exactly like Deerclops (people leave and go way away from base to combat it without it actually wrecking up the base when it spawns)

Wildfires that only happen on-screen would be pretty boring I think.. but like I said, turn them off if they interrupt your enjoyment of the game.  

[Grim the]

I feel like Summer actually needs something worthwhile. We have cactus flowers and Antlion. That's it.

[Muzarello]

Wildfires are fair, and in DST they aren't really that dangerous, you have some really long time before things turn into charcoal, Once my farms started burning, I had time to run to a chest and get Luxury Fan, and you can control it most of the time. I never turn it off cuz I like to see something in summer besides Antlion, I already put summer to short becuz I know that in long term worlds I'll be bored as hell waiting for summer to end if I'm not fighting any boss or fishing.

[Orange gear]

I wish there was an item similar to the howling conch to create rain