[SUGGESTION] On the topic of fire.

[trav 11]

Dont know how feasible this is, but wanted to put it forward. First, I know its alpha, so I know everything is subject to change, but this is a suggestion forum.... So I am putting in a suggestion!

Fire, and the means of making it seem far more difficult to obtain than it should be. I appreciate it as a method to add another level of realism to the game. Here are some thoughts on how to improve on it in future patches.

1) Wood should not be that hard to come by. It is everywhere in the game. I spend more time in the woods than I do in the towns. As has been discussed, even without a knife or an axe, a man could amass a good sized quantity of wood in a short period of time.

2) Sources of ignition are too rare (as Rocket himself noted). I dont know if it would stress the servers to do this... but including objects such as flint (say along inland waterways) that would require a person to actually search for (i would prefer it to not be easy to spot).

3) Add another survival knife type that would include some form of a firestarter in the handle.

4) Lighters/matches should not be an uncommon loot item. They should spawn about anywhere.

5) Starting a fire, without shelter, in the rain, should be problematic.

6) In considering having to pack firewood... I think a better idea would be to require tinder bundles. It would not be difficult to harvest tinder, but it would take an inventory slot.

7) In collecting the tinder, there would be different grades of it. If you have no knife or hatchet/axe, then you collect a bundle of tinder that will be more difficult to ignite. Having a knife/axe would provide you with a pile of finer tinder that would be much easier to ignite.

8) If you are lighting a fine pile of tinder with a lighter, there should be very little chance of failure in getting a fire started. If lighting a roughly collected pile with flint and steel, the chance of failure should increase. If doing either of the above in damp conditions (outside in the rain) there should be a significant penalty.

9) If you are in love with the idea of firewood, then once the fire is "deployed", then you should have X minutes to feed it with fire, to keep it going. This would be a rolling timer, so you can collect wood, and continue to add to it.

Just a few ideas I had for improving this one aspect of the game. I am not a survivalist, nor have I had any military or survival training. I realize that IRL (personally) without any REAL firestarting materials (lighter, firepiston, flint and steel, magnifying glass, etc) I would have little chance of making fire with a firebow, or any really primitive method of ignition.

Also note, I am not proposing these solutions as absolutes. Just another step in refining the survival aspect of the game. I think it would be a mistake to remove fire from the game. But I feel like it should be much more streamlined.

I am not asking to be called a carebear. I love that the game is difficult. I just believe that it should be difficult in degrees. Finding fire is one piece of the puzzle, it should not be the puzzle.

Thanks.

Trav