3 replies to this topic

[Popek]

couldn't find anything buried in the forum regarding this... so here goes

Fire doesn't stick around very long. It would be interesting and tactical if some weapon types could create longer lasting fire (napalm and flame thrower varieties).

As it stands fire isn't much of any deterrent whatsoever, perhaps if flaming tiles behaved differently, by causing small amounts of harm as a unit runs through it instead of at the beginning of a turn? While I do admit to feeling some bravado as I charge a sectoid armed with a knife through the smoke and flames, it would feel even more brazen if there was some danger to such manuevers.

And fire behaviour, likely the trickier part to code up would be for fire to spread and persist at burning down structures. Combined with causing harm to units as they pass through it, it could create some very interesting methods of gameplay. Setting buildings on fire to essentially 'smoke out' opponents. Blocking pathways and alleys with flamables in effort to better guide and direct your opponent.

just some speculation.. discuss

[bamb]

And barrels exploding after being in a burning house for a few turns!

In theory one could have some fire proneness/persistence/violence tag for each tile and you'd have to calculate how long it would burn until destroyed, also if the burning is violent it would splash some fire to neighbouring tiles while it was burning. Somewhat randomly perhaps too.

Edited by bamb, 09 August 2007 - 08:18 AM.

[Brick-To-Face]

And barrels exploding after being in a burning house for a few turns!

In theory one could have some fire proneness/persistence/violence tag for each tile and you'd have to calculate how long it would burn until destroyed, also if the burning is violent it would splash some fire to neighbouring tiles while it was burning. Somewhat randomly perhaps too.

That is a lovely model!
Chance of tile A catching fire from tile B is a function of A's Proneness, B's Violence, and how long B has been burning.

This system is a bit complex though, I like to advise simplification:
Combustibles catch fire from adjacent tiles a set % of the time (50?)
Non-combustibles simply don't
Burning objects have a set chance of going out, (50?)

Any type of change would require a LOT of work (think about how many more variables terrain would need), so I wouldn't bet that this is going to happen any time soon. Still, a man can dream... Since there already is fire in the game engine, I do think a few simple changes to make fire a tactical tool would be feisable in the near future.

[Stubbs]

Can somebody explain exactly how fire works... it's not clear. I have played about 10 rounds, all have involved copious Incendiary spamming... and I would like to know exactly how dangerous fire is, and for how long.
I would also like to know if smoke smothers fire (does fire still exist when smoke goes over it?).
Finally... I know incendiaries can "chain-react" grenades on one's person when a shell hits. Can burning tiles do the same?