Analyse fireplace

[miket 92]

Some people have suggested in the past that eating a can of food should leave an empty tin can behind. This would enable players to track other players around the map by following the trail of cans left behind, unless they're carefully hidden.

Well I think it would be nice to take this kind of idea one step further by adding the ability to analyse a placed fireplace.

An option in the scroll-wheel menu to analyse it would appear when looking at it, and it would give you a variety of outcomes.

For a fire that has just been put out in the last few minutes, it would say "The embers are still glowing." For one that's been out for half an hour, it would say "This fire has gone completely cold."

There would be varying messages between these, perhaps for each 5 minute interval since the fire was put out.

So if you went up to a fireplace and it said "The embers are still glowing", you would have decent evidence that someone is somewhere within 5 minutes travel of you. Of course if they landed in their chopper, cooked some meat, then took off again, this could be just about anywhere.

Edited August 16, 2012 by MykeMichail

[notdahangoverguy 19]

I like you way of thinking, I've always mentioned to friends there should be methods of tracking players and especially bandits. The information we would need is how many there was, how long they stayed and the direction they head.

Nice thinking, my beans are yours.

[Grodenn 53]

Good idea! beans too you, also this could be mixed with the dog feature and would allow tracking people from a fireplace for x amount of minuets after the fire was put out.

[miket 92]

I like you way of thinking, I've always mentioned to friends there should be methods of tracking players and especially bandits. The information we would need is how many there was, how long they stayed and the direction they head.

Nice thinking, my beans are yours.

How long does grass stay down after people have crawled over it? It would be nice if you could tell where someone had crawled or sat by the depressions in the grass.

[Fraggle (DayZ) 15720]

Wow, an original (I'm probably wrong) and well written suggestion!

I like it! And I would imagine it would be pretty simple to add to the game (although I know absolutely nothing about this). I'm looking forward to seeing how dog's track and these two mechanics could work well together.

[Womb Raider 92]

How specific would you be able to analyze the fireplace like time wise.

Hour wise, minutes wise?

[notdahangoverguy 19]

I'm guessing it would have similar investigative mechanics as you would approach a survivors body. You clear the camp incase anything hostile is there. One thing that could be good as a give away of the location of the camp which could be hidden well is a pack of wolves or a bear scavenging for food. Thus, there had to have been people there to eat the food.

Clear the camp, and approaching different parts of the camp would provide different pieces of vital information.

So, if you scroll click on the camp fire itself, it'd tell you how long the campfire has been out, or if it is still lit, how long it's been on.

A similar piece of information could be gathered from the ground around the campfire, the numbers of empty tin that could spawn around the campfire when a number of people sit in close proximity over a certain amount of time would give away their number. So, 3-4 empty cans mean there is 3-4 of them.

Now, giving direction will be tricky to implement given that campfires, empty cans and a bear cannot talk. However, discomfort and distortion of some sort in the grass leading away could. So, in terms of coding this in you would have a typical proximity which could be the radius of the heat emitted from the fire, which will not only provide the heat but also trigger how many people are within that radius. When ALL players leave this radius and the fire is out this could trigger (on the ground) distortion of the grass somewhat pointing the direction they head.

Sorry for babbling on, but I love this game.

[romeobob87 5]

I like it man, I'm thinking of making a really realistic woodsman post at some stage. If your up for a brain storming session PM me up.

[notdahangoverguy 19]

I like it man, I'm thinking of making a really realistic woodsman post at some stage. If your up for a brain storming session PM me up.

Sorry, I didn't know who you were speaking to me or Myke :P I prefer it when people reply either by quoting or by name. Sorry for getting confused :)