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[infinity]

I noticed sometimes my dwarves would catch on fire when dealing with demons, and (stupidly) they'd continue their hauling task or run back to the barracks spreading smoke and destruction along the way -- only to die later from heat.

I was thinking that there should be a way to put out flaming dwarves.  I built a pond in the middle of my hallway, where the dwarves would have to run through on their way back  -- but that didn't seem to quench their flames.  I'm thinking it seems like a good idea for dwarves to automatically seek out water to stop being on fire, but  perhaps with the risk of drowning (i.e., they jump headfirst into the nearest river or pond.).

[mickel]

When dwarves become aware of fire, I believe putting fires out would be pretty high priority. I can even envision buckets of water at regular intervals, and perhaps the fortress guard, besides being a place to tuck useless cripples, would have the task of watching for fires and putting them out with those buckets.

[THLawrence]

I believe this is one of the many problems with dwarves and fire.
The game doesn't have dwarves act properly around fire yet. Specifically they ignore it and continue with their tasks as though it wasn't even there. Dwarves on fire will walk around and spread the fire. When they die other dwarves will loot the corpse and carry away items that are on fire. Then catch on fire themselves. The flaming corpses will be hauled away and light the hauler on fire.

Basically dwarves and fire don't mix right now.

As to putting them out from what I've heard and read a bit of walking over the cave river will sometimes put them out. Since you're having problems with demons this is probably out of the question. Steam can put out fires. So set up a steam weapon beside the magma river or closer to the fighting. Maybe try short floods. Flood an area for just a brief period of time. ex. Open the floodgate then close it as soon as the water starts to flow.

Anyone else have any suggestions.

Here's a wiki link: http://www.dwarffortresswiki.net/index.php/Fire

[ October 06, 2007: Message edited by: THLawrence ]

[infinity]

Good points!

Perhaps hauling buckets of water to burning dwarves (or burning sections of the fortress) could fall under the "Health Care" category.

[Tamren]

One guy put a flood trap in the corridor leading to the demons.

Soldiers go out, fight. Soldiers come in and get dunked in a flash flood that puts out all the fires. Since it is so quick no one drowns.

[JT]

Simplest interim suggestion I can think of: make tasks ignore objects which are on fire.  That could probably be snuck in within a few minutes of programming time.  Dwarves that are on fire should just run around screaming (i.e., each step is chosen in a random direction) until they expire.  Other dwarves can remain oblivious to those other dwarves for the interim, since a dwarf who is running around screaming won't be adjacent to a passerby long enough for the passerby to ignite (and in the rare cases where they are, it'd be more funny than bugworthy).

I propose the following tweaks:

One, a dwarf who catches on fire or who has any equipment on fire will immediately drop their current task and choose the "Jump In Water" task (per the OP).  They'll find the nearest body of water sufficient for total immersion and will dive in.  If there is no such body of water, the dwarf won't get the task and will simply run around unless the following task manages to douse him.

Two, any object that catches on fire will add the highest-priority task "Douse Object" to the queue, with the job object chosen as the nearest fire bucket to the fire.  A dwarf will then fetch the fire bucket and attempt to douse that object (a dwarf should abandon their duty to douse a fire only if there are no soldiers, unemployed dwarves, or fortress guards free).  Fire buckets are a new uilding item: to construct a fire bucket "building", the dwarf needs a bucket; instead of leaving the bucket at the building site, however, the dwarf fills that bucket, then hauls it to the fire bucket site with Furniture Hauling and "installs" it there.  After this, the implementation gets a little more hazy: when a dwarf grabs a fire bucket and douses a fire, should the dwarf refill the same bucket, or should the dwarf see if there are filled water buckets and just drop the empty bucket?  A dwarf could wind up going to refill a bucket from the outside river when there is already a full bucket nearby, or wind up going to grab a filled bucket across the fortress when there is a water source nearby; it would take some significant code work on the back end to allow "smart" tasks to choose between two possibilities.  An interim solution would probably be best if the dwarf opted to grab a filled bucket and drop the empty bucket, since players would probably cluster fire buckets around important areas.

Three, when a fire bucket has served its purpose and the fires are out, the dwarf simply drops the bucket.  Then the task "Refill Fire Bucket" takes over, where a dwarf with Furniture Hauling is given the task to retrieve the bucket, fill it, and put it back into the fire bucket building.

If no water is available, a fire bucket could be filled with sand or gravel instead of water.

[Turgid Bolk]

Think fast: you're on fire, what do you do?

Stop, drop, and roll, my friend. If there isn't a water flow within about twenty tiles, dwarves should roll or at the least try to pat themselves down. Other dwarves could of course try to help, at some risk to themselves. Running around screaming doesn't help much, though I suppose even the stoutest dwarf might start to panic once his or her beard catches.

If there is a water flow nearby, they should jump in or roll around in that, even if it's just a 1/7. Other than that, I love the fire buckets and fortress guard/fire brigade ideas. Of course, ideally dwarves will almost never catch fire 'cause they'll be smart enough to stay away from hot stuff. I'm pretty sure it's all in the works already; no doubt Toady already has some ideas of how to handle it.

Edit: Hmm, I was thinking more long-term. As for a short term fix, just about any change would help the current situation. Dwarves completely ignoring flaming things (incuding other dwarves) would be good.

[ October 07, 2007: Message edited by: Turgid Bolk ]

[Karlito]

quote:Originally posted by JT:
<STRONG>Simplest interim suggestion I can think of: make tasks ignore objects which are on fire. </STRONG>

This is already being included in the next release.

[Matias]

Oh, if we include fortress guard working as fire fighters, shouldn't we have also a new noble: Fire chief. He will come after miners reach magma river and he'll work like sheriff without punishing people and occasionally ordering fire buckets or something to be build...

-Matias

[mickel]

They could also have the fire chief dress up as a bear and teach the young dwarves fire safety. Remember, only you can prevent fortress fires!

[Anti-Paragon]

quote:Originally posted by Turgid Bolk:
<STRONG>
Running around screaming doesn't help much, though I suppose even the stoutest dwarf might start to panic once his or her beard catches.
</STRONG>

Turgid has been miserable lately.
His beard has been burnt off recently....