Fire
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This article is about fire mechanics. For damage type, see Incendiary. |
Many structures in the game can be on fire, which causes damage over time and prevents repairs until it is extinguished. The damage scales based on the intensity of the fire.
Fire Application
Fire-based ammunition can apply and start fires on structures:
Fire Stack
Each hit on a structure increases its fire stack by a certain amount that depends on the weapon used:
- Infantry Flamethrowers deal 0.075 units per hit (0.3 per second).
- Light Vehicle Flamers (O'Brien V.130 Wild Jack, T14 “Vesta” Tankette, H-19 “Vulcan”) deal 0.2 units per hit (0.8 per second).
- Heavy Vehicle Flamers (Noble Firebrand Mk. XVII, Flood Juggernaut Mk. VII) deal 0.6 units (2.4 per second).
- 3C-High Explosive Rockets deal 1.75 units per rocket.
- 4C-Fire Rockets deal 3 units per rocket.
The fire applied is only added to the stack at the end of every "tick" which is 5 seconds. The fire stack can reach 200 units but cannot go higher.
Whether a structure is on fire or not, its fire stack decays at a rate of 0.5 units per tick (5 seconds). If the stack reaches zero the fire is extinguished. This decay incentivises hitting a structure a lot over a short time to be more effective.
Rain Storms and Snow Storms increase the fire stack decay depending on the storm's intensity, making it harder to start and grow a fire.
Bunker Networks have a single fire and a single fire stack, either all bunker pieces are on fire or none are.
Fire Ignition
Adding units to a structure's fire stack does not automatically ignite a fire. Every hit has a chance to trigger a fire on the structure, that chance depends on the size of the fire stack. Hitting a structure a lot over a short time also has a higher chance of triggering a fire.
Fire Immunity
You cannot apply fire to structures owned by your own faction.
Most damageable stuctures can be set on fire (Bases, Garrisoned Houses, Trenches, Bunkers, Pillboxes, Facilities, etc...), however some are immune:
- Bridges, Field Bridge, Navy Pier
- Shippables
- Tiny structures: Sandbag Covers, Barbed Wires, Tank Traps, Deployed Tripods, Storage Boxes, Barbed Wire Fences and Fire Pits
- Dug Foxholes
- World Resource Mines (Salvage Mine, Component Mine, Sulfur Mine, Offshore Platform)
- A0E-9 Rocket Platforms and A0E-9 Rockets
- Husks of destroyed structures (Encampment, Bunker, etc...)
Fire Effects
Once a structures is on fire, the following effects apply to it.
Repair Prevention
A structure cannot be repaired while it is on fire.
Damage Over Time
A structure on fire takes damage every 5 seconds. The amount dealt is equal to the fire stack's value after being mitigated by the structure's fire resistance:
| Resistance Type | Fire Damage Mitigation |
|---|---|
| Tier1Structure, Tier1GarrisonHouse | 0.2 |
| Tier2Structure, Tier2BStructure, Tier2GarrisonHouse | 0.4 |
| Tier3GarrisonHouse | 0.6 |
| Tier3Structure, Tier3BStructure, Trench | 0.95 |
Example: a structure with a fire stack of 100 and a 40% fire resistance will take 60 damage every 5 seconds.
The damage boosting effects of still-settling concrete and devastation also apply to the fire damage.
The fire damage dealt triggers Alerts and turn the structure's icon orange on the Map Intelligence, just like regular enemy attacks.
For Bunker Networks, a unique fire damage amount is dealt. The fire resistance used for the calculation is the average of all bunker pieces. Example: a Bunker Network with one Tier 1 Bunker (20% fire resistance) and one Tier 2 Bunker (40% fire resistance) with a fire stack of 100 will take 70 damage per tick (100x0.7).
Fire Intensity:
The amount of fire damage (post mitigation) dealt per tick determines the visual size of the fire appearing on the structure but also the intensity of the fire.
There are five intensity levels: Low, Medium, High, Blazing, and Blazing2. Depending on its intensity, a fire contributes a certain amount of units to its stack every tick to help counteract the fire stack decay. However that amount is mitigated by the structure's fire resistance before being added to the stack.
| Intensity | Required Fire Damage | Pre Mitigation Gain Rate |
|---|---|---|
| Low | 0 | 0.5 |
| Medium | 8 | 2 |
| High | 16 | 3.5 |
| Blazing | 25 | 5 |
| Blazing2 | 40 | 5 |
Example: A fire on a structure with 20% fire resistance requires a fire stack of at least 20 units (20x0.8=16) to reach "High" intensity. The High intensity fire will increase its fire stack by 2.8 units (3.5x0.8) every 5 seconds. If we include the normal decay rate of 0.5 unit, the stack will overall grow by 2.3 units every 5 seconds.
Intensity is important to visually gauge the amount of damage dealt and to determine whether the fire is self-sustaining/growing or how fast it will die out over time on its own.
- Fires on structure with "Tier3Structure", "Tier3BStructure", and "Trench" damage resistance can never be self-sustaining no matter the intensity but they can be made to die out extremely slowly. Given the max limit of 200 units for the fire stack and the structure's 95% mitigation, the fires can never deal more than 10 damage per tick after the mitigation (120 damage per minute) and thus never reach intensities above Medium.
- Fires on every other burnable structures become self-sustaining and starts growing their stack (and thus damage) on their own once they reach the Medium intensity if there are no Storms and nobody attempts to extinguish them. Without external intervention those fires will reach Blazing intensity within a minute and keep growing.
Fire Spread
A fire at the High intensity or above has a chance to set the surrounding structures on fire. The structures that fire can spread to is heavily influenced by the wind direction, sometimes not catching buildings touching them if they're directly upwind from the origin. Wind direction can be determined by watching the direction of the fire and smoke effects, a deployed Wind Sock or the direction of the flags on certain structures. Neutral structures will not spread fire to other structures.
Heat
Burning structures produce heat, soldiers that are near them get hot 
. If they become too hot they become on fire 
and slowly burn to death unless extinguished(with Water Bucket, Fire Engine, or by swimming in water). The flames on burning soldiers cannot hurt other soldiers. This heat will also counteract the negative temperature effect from Snow Storms.
Vehicles and their unexposed crew are not affected by heat and will not catch fire.
Flames fired by the various fire weapons also produce heat around them.
Extinguishing Fires
A burning structure's fire stack can be reduced by throwing water on it using Water Buckets or Fire Engines. Fire Engines uses Water as ammo while Water Bucket must be reloaded from any body of water, water wells in towns, or with Water cans. A burning structure that is successfully hit by water will visually emit some steam. The structure's fire is extinguished when the fire stack reaches zero.
Fires without a self-sustaining intensity will slowly extinguish themselves over time due to the fire stack's natural decay.
Soldiers on fire can jump in bodies of water to extinguish themselves, or be extinguished by another soldier using a bucket or fire engine.
Incendiary Damage
On top of this fire mechanic, Flamethrowers and flame throwing vehicles also deal Incendiary Damage that can directly damage unarmoured vehicles and soldiers but not armoured vehicles or structures.
Gallery
A large fire burning through Tier 3 Bunkers and Facilities
A Colonial soldier firing with a “Molten Wind” v.II Flame Torch
A T14 “Vesta” Tankette and H-19 “Vulcan” lighting a Garrisoned House on fire
The Noble Firebrand Mk. XVII firing its flamethrower at maximum range
A R-12b - “Salva” Flame Truck extinguishing a fire on a Tier 1 Bunker
Water being thrown out of a filled Water Bucket onto a Tier 1 Bunker that is on fire
A slide from Devstream #107 explaining how the current fire system works
