Fire Safety Hard To Manage

[jmcdona6]

I am having an issue where my cities are constantly running a huge negative fire safety balance. Like -1,500. I have added aqueducts. Wells on just about every corner. Fire houses all over. The city status debuff is just enormous.

The only thing I haven't tried is spreading all my fire risk production buildings (furnaces, foundries, etc.) around the island. I think the fire safety area affect is compounding which is some of my problem. However, that is a very tedious mechanic if that is what I have to do.

The city status debuff to happiness is an issue too but there are more tools to counter it.

Am I missing something here?

[the7thguest]

I am struggling to keep it in the positives too, but -1500 there seems to be something fundamentally wrong with your layout.
Remember that some buildings have a fire safety debuff and spread it to all buildings around, so make sure to put those somewhere with as little buildings in the area as possible.
Other than that, aqueducts got me back into positive numbers again, but you seem to be using those already.

Maybe share a screen of your city layout?
Also hover your mouse over the fire stat and it will list all buildings and stat that go into it, helps a bit identifying issues.
Oh and I also use specialists that reduce fire risks.

[New Shoes]

Fire risk is probably too hard to control. But yes, all negative debuffs from structures are compounding. If you're putting all your potters, bakeries, etc. in your cities then you're screwing yourself. You should only do that if you have specialists or other buffs that increase the positive aura or reduce the negative aura. Even then place them sparingly and carefully.

[electro_dynamo]

i believe the fire safety is balanced towards the higher tier populations. I was struggling with fire safety until i unlocked aquaducts and baths. then after that my population ballooned and my fire hazards went down tremendously, eventually getting 5+ islands to have +values on happiness, fire safety, and healthiness. This is while having 2k+ pop on each of those islands

[jmcdona6]

I'll see if I can screen shot later.

I had my production spread out in production chain nodes across the island. In an effort to improve fire safety without running aqueducts all over the island I consolidated all the fire safety debuff production chains into one area and basically painted the area with wells, fire stations, aqueducts, etc. It helped but not by a lot (~1500 down to ~1200). But I think the way the debuff zones work they compound negating all the excessive fire mitigation.

I can redesign to get around this I guess.

Just seems to me like the compounding debuffs of the fire safety zones need to be nerfed a bit or the impact from things like fire houses should be buffed. Interesting mechanic but I don't love having to design my islands with fire safety as a primary consideration.

[GrimRita]

The one thing about Anno games, is that the base building is never done, especially as we all get used to new structure sizes. Personally, I am now on my third attempt on my main island as I have a better understanding and reached T4.

The fire risks will always be there I guess due to the era we are in. Place wells around and watch towers to help but I've had buildings like a wheat farm catch fire for no other reason than 'why not?'.

It's also wise to spread medic tents around your main industrial areas too, not just in your city.

[Hurricane]

After beating the game i have like -20k fire safety... it doesnt matter buildings auto repair in this game! just make sure you have stations so it doesnt spread everywhere.

youll lose like 2-5 buildings even on -20k and they rebuild auto or you can rush them.

I have 40k pop on my main island.

Theres zero punishment in this game, its shallow and zero depth

[Friggles größter Fan]

The issue is that only (negative) debuffs stack, but (postivie) buffs do not stack (which means that spamming wells does not help at all). So, in order to maximize your fire safety, you should probably surround a debuff building with large buildings, so that the debuff of a building only is applied to a very few other buildings.

[Maddin]

Just have fire stations reach everywhere. Fires are a normal part of a big city. So long as they can be kept down it is not a problem.

[jmcdona6]

Yes I could just let it be. Its only slightly annoying. Most fires are contained due to my excessive fire safety measures. And of course buildings auto repair if I don't see them first to expedite.

It would just be nice if the game reflected those excessive fire safety measures in terms of the score and how many annoying notifications I get about it. I shouldn't have to ignore a key mechanic of the game...poor design. There are things I could do I guess to mitigate...but they seem more like workarounds that lead to unrealistic and/or visually unappealing gameplay.

And it would be one thing if it was just my debuff buildings against by buff buildings. But its this crazy city status score. I feel like its out of balance.