"Wood burns more slowly when its extremely cold"

[Metanoia]

Is this a real mechanic in the game? I haven't noticed any difference in wood burning rates, but its something I saw on the loading screen, I thought firemaking levels were all that changed the rates.

[Funnerific]

I never noticed the connection to the cold but I guess that's why sometimes when there's 1 hour left on the fire and you go to sleep for 1 hour, then wake up and see like 20 minutes left or more.

[funguy]

There seems to be a broken bit of code that makes fires burn longer if you are in an area where the ambient temperature changes a bunch (outside). It’s been there for years. Rather than fix it they have declared it a feature.

[Metanoia]

I just finished episode 3 btw, the gameplay itself was kinda meh, but the reworked valley is awesome.

[Foxen]

Originally posted by Metanoia:

... but the reworked valley is awesome.

And doesn't fit Will's story in any aspect...timeline is 'non existent'

[Diveyoc]

Yeah, you don't have to worry about it inside fishing shacks. Those fires will always burn longer than if you were inside a cabin.

The open air caves are a bit tricky. You want to watch your temperature gauge to see the exact spot where it goes from cold to warm, and then start your fire on the cold side so that your firewood will burn longer. If you just start it deep within the cave it will burn faster, same as in a cabin.

The bigger transition caves and mines that have loading screens are treated as indoor environments, so you don't get any bonus for fires inside them.

[Metanoia]

Originally posted by Diveyoc:

Yeah, you don't have to worry about it inside fishing shacks. Those fires will always burn longer than if you were inside a cabin.

The open air caves are a bit tricky. You want to watch your temperature gauge to see the exact spot where it goes from cold to warm, and then start your fire on the cold side so that your firewood will burn longer. If you just start it deep within the cave it will burn faster, same as in a cabin.

The bigger transition caves and mines that have loading screens are treated as indoor environments, so you don't get any bonus for fires inside them.

Wait, so is it specifically only when you start the fire that matters, or does it change according to the current temperature?

and do you have an idea of how big this bonus is?

[IFIYGD]

Originally posted by JayXL:

Yep, exactly. Outdoor fires burn longer than indoor ones, because of the cold.

Which actually makes sense. An indoor fire is contained. First by the stove or fireplace walls around it. Second, by the walls of the structure, and any interior architecture. The heat is reflected back at the wood, drying it faster, causing resins to become superheated, increasing their combustibility. The hotter and drier the wood is, the more easily, and quickly it burns, and overcomes ambient air temperatures.
Whereas outdoor fires dissipate heat, there is nothing to contain the heat, and dry the wood more rapidly, nothing feeding the heat back onto the wood, so it dires, and resins superheat less rapidly. So, it burns somewhat more slowly.

*blinks, remembering lessons and drills at the Fire Academy here in North Park... 35 years ago, interior staged fires vs exterior staged fires... and hating the super hot interior fire drills.*

Though, I do wish that fires in fishing huts would be timed slightly differently than an open campfire. Especially in a closed door fishing hut. But holy heck, the calculations for that would likely be a nightmare to try to write code for, that resulted in even "semi-realistic" burn times. So, indoor vs outdoor (simplified) makes much more sense.
I do have to say, I have never paid attention to the amount of time it takes for an indoor fire, with an ambient air temp of say 30°F, vs an open, outdoor campfire in an area with the same ambient air temp, to overcome that ambient air temp and start providing heat to the character. (Leaving Pilgrim out of the picture, of course, since fires in Pilgrim automatically and "magically" overcome ambient air temp instantly, once lit.) It would be interesting to test, but probably really time consuming and difficult, to have the same Fire Starting Skill level, the same "ingredients" for the fire, and the same ambient temps (with rise and fall taken into account).

I wonder if anyone out there has run those tests in a controlled manner (besides the game devs with a dev command console). Lots of women and men of Science on the online forums, I suppose I could spend time digging there through all of the "test" threads, to see if I find anything.

Okay, what was the thread topic again? (Whoops...)

[Diveyoc]

Originally posted by Metanoia:

Wait, so is it specifically only when you start the fire that matters, or does it change according to the current temperature?

and do you have an idea of how big this bonus is?

As far as I know, temperature doesn't matter. It's only indoor vs. outdoor. Outdoor temps are always colder than indoors, so that's the basic concept.

Not sure on the bonus but I'll try to test it out. Although it's probably in the forums somewhere or on the wiki. From my own game play, I'd guess outdoor fires burn 30% - 40% longer.

[Metanoia]

Originally posted by Diveyoc:

Originally posted by Metanoia:

Wait, so is it specifically only when you start the fire that matters, or does it change according to the current temperature?

and do you have an idea of how big this bonus is?

As far as I know, temperature doesn't matter. It's only indoor vs. outdoor. Outdoor temps are always colder than indoors, so that's the basic concept.

Not sure on the bonus but I'll try to test it out. Although it's probably in the forums somewhere or on the wiki. From my own game play, I'd guess outdoor fires burn 30% - 40% longer.

Very interesting, thats a very big bonus.

I feel like I'd have noticed that myself if its that big of a change, but you sound fairly sure of yourself.

[Diveyoc]

Actually, it seems to be pretty well covered in the wiki. Seems that temperature does in fact affect the bonus until it reaches a cap.

Take a look, some interesting notes here.

https://thelongdark.fandom.com/wiki/Fire

[Metanoia]

Originally posted by Diveyoc:

Actually, it seems to be pretty well covered in the wiki. Seems that temperature does in fact affect the bonus until it reaches a cap.

Take a look, some interesting notes here.

https://thelongdark.fandom.com/wiki/Fire

It seems to be based entirely on the temperature of the air in the area it is being made, but I wonder if enclosed fires like fire pits or fire barrels still recieve that bonus if they're outside, or if those as well count as "indoor" fires, because the wiki says they are uneffected by weather, and I wonder if that only means they cant get windblown, or if it means they don't get the bonus as well.

This could use some more extensive testing methinks, its an interesting subject.

[Metanoia]

I don't know how I never noticed this before, I made two fires on the lighthouse, one up at the top and one in the oven inside and gave them both 5 hours of fire time, the one on top had 1 hour 37 left, and the one in the oven had 53 minutes left after waiting 4 hours.

The math actually seems to check out, thats nuts.

[Metanoia]

I also can confirm that sheltered fires get the bonus as well, the ambient temperature in the area the fire is started in is all that matters, not the indoor/outdoor status.

[DsnowMan]

This was studied on the main site years ago. The outdoor bonus is really useful, and fires should be built on the warm /cold line in caves to take advantage.

There was a theory that it depended on where the player was, not the fire, but I can't explain your lighthouse experiment. So maybe they fixed it...

Did you make the fires at the same time, or at two different times?

[IFIYGD]

Originally posted by DsnowMan:

This was studied on the main site years ago. The outdoor bonus is really useful, and fires should be built on the warm /cold line in caves to take advantage.

There was a theory that it depended on where the player was, not the fire, but I can't explain your lighthouse experiment. So maybe they fixed it...

The Lighthouse experiment may not be terribly accurate. Keep in mind that with the extremely compressed time, the trip from the stove on the first floor to the upper deck of the LH(or vice versa) takes more in-game time than it does IRL.
And I knew it had to have been studied on the online forums, some really dedicated people of Science there. Any idea of how long ago, to see if I can find the thread? I hate doing spreadsheet studies myself, but I love reading threads from others who like to do them.