Hi everyone,

The new fire update (v0.4.075) is finally published and comes with a -30% discount.

It contains many new features like the new and almost everything affecting fire system, new weapons, new combat mechanics, new events and much more!

In addition, I have also created a new short trailer regarding the fire update:

Note:
The update translations for chinese, japanese & french will come in the next days.

Fire System

With the implementation of the fire system, a new and deep mechanic will now be part of the game. It can affect the vegetation, constructions, items, colonists, animals and more.

Fire On Vegetation

The fire system can set many objects in the default world on fire (or give it at least a burned effect) which includes the terrain, grass, trees, plants & rocks. While some objects will increase the fire power and with that its spread range, some can also decrease or even stop it. The following things have an impact on the fire and vice versa:

• Terrain Fire usually spreads and extends over the blocks which define the terrain. Grass blocks have here the highest impact, while dirt has a far lower one - rock and ore stops the fire immediately. Fire can also spread upwards over blocks, but not downwards.
• Trees If a tree is ignited by fire, it will start to burn and is during that phase no longer interactable by your colonists. If the tree is burned down a black trunk is left which can be cut by your colonists. Depending on the growth value, the fire will get more power on the tree block.
• Plants If a plant stands in the way of fire, it gets immediately converted into a burned plant which gives no resources. Depending on the growth value, the fire will get a bit more power on the plant block.

The vegetation & environment system has also a self recover functionality, which works in the way that after ~2.5 days the burned ground will fade away and the burned trees & plants will decay. Since burned areas can be large, the respawn rate of trees and plants there is greatly increased.

Fire On Constructions

Beside the vegetation, constructions can also catch fire, which in most cases are those made of wood.
But even if some constructions cannot burn directly, they can still get some damage + a visual burned effect. If contact with fire happens, it is often necessary to clean the component in question (the blocks on which it is located) in order to be able to repair it again.

It's important to say here, that wooden main construction elements (like floors, walls, roofs, etc) will not be destroyed by fire if they have full health. For these elements, I have added a maximum fire damage limit of around ~90% to prevent a simple fire from collapsing buildings.

Fire On Items

The item and resource system is also affected by fire now and has like other burned components, updated visuals if some kind of contact occurs. There are 3 different ways how resources will react:

• Burn Some resources can increase the power of the fire on its block and will simply burn away and despawn then. This is for example: wood, harvest, food, wooden weapons & more.
• Nothing Some resources have no effect on the fire which are often those made of metal. This is for example: stone, steel, machine components, weapons out of metal & more.
• Explode Some resources can not only burn, but even explode when they come in contact with fire or get in any other way damaged. This can also result in a chain reaction if there are other explosive objects nearby. These items are for example: ethanol, fuel, molotov cocktails & more

In addition, I have also added a new mechanic that allows you to aim your ranged weapons at explosive items to cause them to explode.

Fire On Colonists & Animals

This updates also brings a new functionality to the game, which can ignite any colonist or animal and force them into a burning job. If one of your colonists is set on fire, you will lose like with mental breakdown all control over him. The burn time depends on the causing weapon or source of fire.

While colonists or animals are burning, they will also lose constantly health in the form of burning wounds. I have to say here, when I tested around with the ignite mechanic, I often encountered that almost everyone was dead after a battle with fire, because immobilized colonists can catch fire too. Therefore I have added a modifier which deals only very low fire damage (from fire on blocks) to immobilized colonists.

Other Fire Related Mechanics

Extinguish Fire

Your colonists have the option to extinguish a block on fire, which usually takes 33% of the burning time. This can be done by a direct command (which should also force a colonist to extinguish nearby blocks) or is automatically done when a fire source is crossing the path of you colonists.

This functionality is also working for wanderers & traders, allowing them to put out fires near them.

Clean Ground & Constructions

In relation to the extinguish job, there is also a new job which allows you to clean burned constructions and ground blocks. This is not only practical to make your colony look after a fire good again, but also to be able to seed plants again, because they cannot grow on burned ground.

Important
At the moment, in the job section menu, the job for your colonists to automatically clean the area around your colony is located under the builder section. If prioritized, your colonists will automatically do the cleaning when there is no building or repair job left (or a repair job requires a cleaning at first).

New Weapons

This update also includes some new weapons and upgrades of existing ammo types to fit the new fire system.

Molotov Cocktail

What would be a fire system without molotov cocktails? Of course, these shouldn't be missing and so I have added 2 types of them which require ethanol (for the basic age) or fuel (for the modern age) as main resource.

The molotov cocktails are also introducing a new combat mechanic - the throw mechanic - which technically is a mix between the default colonist aiming and default artillery projectile mechanic.

Note:
At the moment, the molotov cocktail with ethanol gets unlocked with the crossbow technology, the one with fuel by the machine guns technology.

Flamethrower

This weapon gets unlocked by a new technology in the modern age and is located straight after the machine guns. A special functionality of the flamethrower is, that it can not only set the target on fire, but also (when longer hitting something at the same spot) the ground or floor.

It's the third heavy weapon in the game, which means that it requires resources as ammunition (in this case fuel) to be functional. At the moment, a colonist can hold 10 units of fuel with the flamethrower and 1 unit gives ~10 ingame minutes of fun.

Note:
It's also possible to aim with the flamethrower as well as with molotov cocktails at trees to set them on fire directly.

Updated Ammo Functionality

In connection with the fire system, I have also upgraded all existing ammo types which were already dealing fire damage (but that was only visible in the status menu). This includes the following items:

• RPG fire ammo
• Ballista fire ammo
• Artillery fire ammo

New Events

This update also introduces a new event scheduler, which handles a new type of event for environment related stuff, consisting of the forest fire & volcanic eruption at the moment. Additionally, there is also one new enemy attack event.

Forest Fire

This event spawns a small fire at a random tree in the world.
But it is much more dangerous than it first seems, because the fire has a very high power value so that it can spread very heavily and burn a huge area in a short time.

Volcanic Eruption

This is probably the most interesting & influencing event of this update. If it spawns, you will get an event message like for any other event and shortly after you can hear a big explosion which is far away. Then the weather starts to get a hot and orange touch and fire chunks will rain over the whole map for a few hours. The following chunks will enrich the lives of your colonists:

• Large Chunks If these chunks hit the ground, they will spawn a huge explosion which will set the area around the impact point on fire. In addition, they also spawn a new rock type (volcanic rock) which can be mined like normal rocks and give valuable ores (gold).
• Medium Chunks If they hit the ground, they will spawn a smaller explosion than the large chunks and will set the area around the impact point on fire.
• Small Chunks These are the most common chunks and they don't spawn fire on the ground at the moment. They only deal fire damage on animals, colonists, items & constructions.

Note:
At the moment the weather has no impact on animals or colonists, but it is planned to also give them later some kind of volcanic ash poisoning during this event. (If they are not in closed rooms)

Fire Fanatics Attack

The last event which I have added is the fire fanatics attack which is similar to the gatling gang attack and consists of enemies which are exclusively equipped with fire damage dealing weapons. This includes molotov cocktails, flamethrowers and rocket launchers with fire ammo.

Note:
It's recommended to target the members with rocket launchers at first in combat, because they have the longest range which make them especially dangerous.

Additional Updates

Updated Production Manager

I have finally updated the production manager so that it allows you to set a minimum and maximum limit now. That means, your colonists will now stop the production on the max limit and only start it again when the regarding resource count is under the min limit. In addition, you can also switch the mode when you are between the limits.

For example, in the following screenshot, you can see a yellow checkmark at meal (meat) which indicates that the production will be continued when the resource reaches the min limit. At meal (vegetable) you can see a green arrow which indicates that it will be produced until the max limit is reached. By clicking on the icon you can switch between these 2 modes. (The mode automatically switches when it reaches the regarding limit)

New Colonist Overview Menu Functions

In the colonist overview menu, I have separated the function to set your colonists into combat mode from the tools section in a new one so that you don't always have tool functionalities open too. In connection with that - and got often suggested - I have added the option that you can switch the positions of your colonists and pets in this menu now.

Predicted Enemy Position

With the implementation of the flamethrower and its slow moving fire particles, I really encountered the problem that colonists (which are simply aimed straight at their enemies) didn't hit their target when it was moving. This was also on the list of player suggestions and this functionality is now also finally in the game and affects all weapons.

Note:
This functionality works for enemies which aim at you too.

New Traits & Mental Breakdown

Of course, this updates also includes 2 new traits which are the athletic and pyrotechnician trait. In addition there is also a new mental breakdown event for colonists with the pyrotechnician trait which ... well ... can be dangerous when you store molotov cocktails in your colony.

Updated Start Resource Menu

Last but not least, I have updated the start resource menu which allows you now to use 2 buttons to change the count and informs you about the resource points of each slot.

If you hold Left Control you can change the count by 5 and if you hold Left Shift you can change the count by 10 + it automatically stops at the count where you would reach the max possible resource points.

Patch Notes

And here is the full patch list for v0.4.075:

• added fire system!
• added new weapon (flame thrower)
• added new weapon (molotov cocktail (ethanol))
• added new weapon (molotov cocktail (fuel))
• animals can be set on fire now
• colonists can be set on fire now
• trees & plants can be set on fire now
• buildings & constructions can be set on fire now
• some items can burn now (especially wooden ones)
• fuel, ethanol and other items can be focused and shot at now
• fuel, ethanol & other items can explode now
• production manager supports now a min and max production limit
• order of colonists can be changed in overview menu now (tools section)
• added new section to colonist overview menu (combat mode section)
• added new event (forest fire)
• added new event (volcanic eruption)
• added new event (fire fanatics attack)
• added new trait (pyrotechnician)
• added new trait (athletic)
• added new mask (gas mask)
• colonists can aim at predicted position of moving enemies now
• scenario start resources option 'gunslinger' has 5 molotov cocktails now
• updated new game menu start resources panels
• holding shift in start resource panel stops count on max limit now
• gatling gun can be upgraded now
• increased animal group respawn rate
• fixed that aiming at fences & battlements ignored constructions in sight path
• added new colonist breakdown (pyrotechnician)
• increased shotgun range to 10
• fixed bug that constructions to repair never got removed from hidden list
• decreased power consumption of time switch from 8 to 5
• decreased max fuel & ethanol per slot to 15 units
• decreased price for fuel from 7.50 to 4.85
• decreased price for ethanol from 4.00 to 3.50
• terrain rocks have description now + info window now
• lightning strikes can hit trees now
• traits prison experience & short-sighted share relationship bonus now
• fixed that barbed wire fence door slide mesh
• loading screen is updating background images now
• fixed pitch black background color on a few ui panels
• fixed that in coop tree spawn rate was decreased instead of increased
• fixed that cooking sound was not reacting to audio settings
• fixed that immobilized talking partner can cause infinity talk events when reached
• fixed bug when object pool max limit reached
• fixed some particle effect bugs on load
• fixed colonist breakdown melee attack switch bug
• added a button to open ingame main menu to settings menu

What's Next?

Because the fire system was a major update which took more time to implement, I will focus now on patches and more frequent updates again, to fix and add some stuff which you have suggested in the last months.

This includes for example to finally add the functionality to switch the cells of prisoners, to upgrade the path finding algorithm and and many other things which can be quick and frequent published.

I hope you all have an awesome day and fun with the update,
Cheers!