Help a starving survivor. It rains ALL THE TIME (and other fire issues)

Game Talk The Bunker
1

This is experimental version: 8a35cf1

I can barely cook or craft anything because it either rains, drizzles, thunderstorms or lightningstorms all the damn time. I set a lot of zombies in my game, so cities are off-limits. I’m on day 8 now, spring, and I get maybe 30-60 minutes of non-rainy weather every day (unless the rain happens to stop often right after I’ve fallen asleep - I can’t know that). My character is now pretty much starving and dying of thirst, because I refuse to eat raw meat or drink unboiled water. I have plenty of food ingredients, and I have a bunch of other crafting to do that needs fire, too. Hunger and thirst are at -60% or so, so he’s pretty much famished and parched all the time. The problem is made worse due to my character having the traits “High on thirst” and “High metabolism”. He also has “Gourmand”. I expected him to get very hungry or very thirsty regularly but the amount of rain is killing me. For some reason I wasn’t able to cook near a burning building that I accidentally set on fire… Much to my surprise my campfire started to spread outside the pit I had dug for it, so that’s gotta be a bug… or did I do something wrong? I simply dropped a two-by-four on the pit tile and set it on fire.

What does a nomad have to do to cook food while it rains? Or how to contain fire in the wilderness? I don’t know what to do anymore. Is it unusual to get that much rain in spring?

2

I don’t suppose you’re lacking a cooking utensil? I can cook just fine outdoors even when it’s raining.

3

[quote=“BeerBeer, post:1, topic:9571”]This is experimental version: 8a35cf1

I can barely cook or craft anything because it either rains, drizzles, thunderstorms or lightningstorms all the damn time. I set a lot of zombies in my game, so cities are off-limits. I’m on day 8 now, spring, and I get maybe 30-60 minutes of non-rainy weather every day (unless the rain happens to stop often right after I’ve fallen asleep - I can’t know that). My character is now pretty much starving and dying of thirst, because I refuse to eat raw meat or drink unboiled water. I have plenty of food ingredients, and I have a bunch of other crafting to do that needs fire, too. Hunger and thirst are at -60% or so, so he’s pretty much famished and parched all the time. The problem is made worse due to my character having the traits “High on thirst” and “High metabolism”. He also has “Gourmand”. I expected him to get very hungry or very thirsty regularly but the amount of rain is killing me. For some reason I wasn’t able to cook near a burning building that I accidentally set on fire… Much to my surprise my campfire started to spread outside the pit I had dug for it, so that’s gotta be a bug… or did I do something wrong? I simply dropped a two-by-four on the pit tile and set it on fire.

What does a nomad have to do to cook food while it rains? Or how to contain fire in the wilderness? I don’t know what to do anymore. Is it unusual to get that much rain in spring?[/quote]
To me the strange part is how you weren’t able to do anything when that building on fire. Or was that because you didn’t have a stick or something?

4

Have a cooking utensil, be it a frying pan, pot, or even pointed stick. Also, i you can find a brazier in a church, you’ll be able to start indoor fires without risk of them spreading.

5

You could set a fire underground, for example in a shelter.
It will smoke a lot, so you will need mouth protection. Total of 9 environmental protection on mouth would be enough. That is: 2 long patchwork scarves, 2 patchwork scarves and a bandana.

Drinking river water is mostly safe, unless your torso is heavily hurt. It can make you vomit (and lose nutrition and water), so drink slowly (a sip every minute or so) and stop drinking if it causes poison.

Rain is semi-random, based on humidity.

6

[quote=“BeerBeer, post:1, topic:9571”]This is experimental version: 8a35cf1

I can barely cook or craft anything because it either rains, drizzles, thunderstorms or lightningstorms all the damn time. I set a lot of zombies in my game, so cities are off-limits. I’m on day 8 now, spring, and I get maybe 30-60 minutes of non-rainy weather every day (unless the rain happens to stop often right after I’ve fallen asleep - I can’t know that). My character is now pretty much starving and dying of thirst, because I refuse to eat raw meat or drink unboiled water. I have plenty of food ingredients, and I have a bunch of other crafting to do that needs fire, too. Hunger and thirst are at -60% or so, so he’s pretty much famished and parched all the time. The problem is made worse due to my character having the traits “High on thirst” and “High metabolism”. He also has “Gourmand”. I expected him to get very hungry or very thirsty regularly but the amount of rain is killing me. For some reason I wasn’t able to cook near a burning building that I accidentally set on fire… Much to my surprise my campfire started to spread outside the pit I had dug for it, so that’s gotta be a bug… or did I do something wrong? I simply dropped a two-by-four on the pit tile and set it on fire.

What does a nomad have to do to cook food while it rains? Or how to contain fire in the wilderness? I don’t know what to do anymore. Is it unusual to get that much rain in spring?[/quote]

In the immediate term, if you have a cooking utensil, start a fire (even in the rain), and start your cooking. The fire will go out, but it will let you finish that recipe. Instead of just hitting enter on the boiled water, hit ‘b’ for “batch”, and it will let you do up to 20 in one go (with reduced time, even!), so you can get all your boiled water easily, even in the rain.

In the very-slightly-longer term, you need to make a fireplace indoors, then it won’t smoke or spread. Need to get construction up to… what, 2? I think it’s 2, and you need 40 rocks and a few tools.

I terms of utensils, a pointy stick, spear, or skewer will let you cook meat, and tin can or aluminum can will let you boil water.

7

Hobo stove solved all my problems. Just ate half a forest to sate my hunger. Got lucky I managed to even craft it.

Brazier isn’t doable because I have no sheet metal, nor a screwdriver (for deconstruction), nor its components. Can’t wait to get them.
Anything in a city is not an option, including churches. I had used roads previously in order to prevent fire from spreading, but even that’s just a crappy workaround. Pits used to work in the past, IIRC.
Lack of a stick might explain the inability to cook close to a burning building.
I had utterly forgotten that you could protect yourself against the smoke with scarves and such.
Underground shelter would be nice. I guess I should scout out the roads more aggressively… Assuming the shelters aren’t riddled with zombies. My spawn setting is at 20, (default 1, scale 0-50, IIRC).

Did I mention my character started as a firefighter…? facepalm

  • Burns down a building due to carelessness.
  • Doesn’t know how to protect against the smoke inhalation without his hi-tech PBA mask.

I guess I’ll use fire to get rid of the majority of the zombies, using myself as a bait. I mean, assuming the rain ever stops.

How does the weather work again? Wiki shows a weather table for each season. How does humidity fit into all that?
http://www.wiki.cataclysmdda.com/index.php?title=Weather

My assumption was that there’s a design flaw, because there are too many weather statuses that include rain, so it rains almost constantly. On the other hand, there are several dry statuses as well. I can’t get a feel for what the rain/drought balance SHOULD be but in my game it rains too much and it keeps sabotaging my plans. I hope the devs collect actual weather data during test gameplay to monitor the results of their work. I mean, you can’t just code something complex and NOT take equally elaborate measures to make sure it all actually works, right?

8

[quote=“BeerBeer, post:7, topic:9571”]How does the weather work again? Wiki shows a weather table for each season. How does humidity fit into all that?
http://www.wiki.cataclysmdda.com/index.php?title=Weather[/quote]

Wiki article on weather is outdated, the new system uses simples noise to generate a map of temperature, humidity and air pressure, then calculates a weather based on that.
The formula is too complex to bother deciphering.

Fire won’t spread more than 1 tile without fuel. It’s safe to cook in a basement if you take one step away from fire and have good mouth protection.

9

[quote=“Coolthulhu, post:8, topic:9571”][quote=“BeerBeer, post:7, topic:9571”]How does the weather work again? Wiki shows a weather table for each season. How does humidity fit into all that?
http://www.wiki.cataclysmdda.com/index.php?title=Weather[/quote]

Wiki article on weather is outdated, the new system uses simples noise to generate a map of temperature, humidity and air pressure, then calculates a weather based on that.
The formula is too complex to bother deciphering.

Fire won’t spread more than 1 tile without fuel. It’s safe to cook in a basement if you take one step away from fire and have good mouth protection.[/quote]

You should take 5/6 steps away: smoke won’t reach you there and you can still use the fire.

10

it knows you want to cook, so thats why its always raining. it will start clearing up once your food and drink situation is taken care of. that or you have an artifact.