Matchbooks - simultaneous fix for dark nights, keeping warm, and regaining blood

[curiousepic 1]

Situation: Balota Airfield. Moonless night. Bandits around the corner. I freeze, not daring to make a sound... I want to reposition, but I'm terrified of giving away my position by moving on this gravel. Where is the grass? I don't have a chemlight, and flares are just right out.

Situation: With the new temperature system, I need to stay warm, but matchboxes are just so damn rare.

Situation: I'm at extremely low blood pressure, deep in the wilderness away from any hospital, and even if I did have a blood bag, I'm alone and can't trust anyone to transfuse me. I'd love to hunt, but matchboxes are just SO DAMN RARE.

Matchbooks (small numbers of matches) or lighters should be one of the most common drops from any zombie. Surely everyone in Chernarus smokes. Half these zed are probably dead from lung cancer (they certainly sound like it). Matchbooks could be like roadflare items, with a small, random amount (3-10). You could strike them to start a fire, or to produce a very small amount of light for about 5 seconds - just enough to determine your immediate surroundings, navigate a pitch dark house, etc.

[oktyabr 53]

I like the idea. Even more that you might find a lighter that is superior to a (limited) number of matches.

Of course you really need to think it through a little deeper... if matches/lighters are made more realistically common then so should knives... what house any where in the world doesn't at least have a knife in it??! Ok, so then you have fire and knives more readily available... and everyone is hunting. Now there is a shortage of wildlife. Ok, find a way to bump the wildlife spawns up. On the other hand just implement one of the many "regain blood = ((food+water)*time)/X ideas that have been posted. This would decrease the amount of hunting done solely to regain blood and +1 for more reality at the same time.

Eh, too much coffee this morning ;)

[GIGABIT 1]

I really like how you would be able to light your immediate surroundings for just a moment. If you've ever seen a match lit in complete darkness you know it gives a surprisingly big amount of light at the moment of lighting. Of course the actual fire doesn't really light up anything other than your hand.

Your character could light the match, then immediately drop it. The spark from the ignition would produce a very quick, relatively quiet and quite bright flash just for a few seconds.

Awesome idea. +1.