Fire you say?

[iEatRazorz 24]

Maxis posted a new blog on fire. I found it amusing. The message I took away from it, I no longer have to dispatch trucks. As we all expected the stations will modular. In the video he causally lets a set of houses burn down:

http://www.simcity.c...-fire-or-did-we

I look forward to burning a city down now... "The roof, the roof, the roof is on fire. We don't need no water let the !@^%$#% burn. Burn !@^%$#%, burn."

I can see many cities with traffic problems burning down.

[mrbisonm 1,620]

wow, that's gonna take a lot of computer "juice", to burn a whole town/city down.

mrb

[Dewm 177]

For a devs looking for "realism" with this new simulator...they sure missed the mark, by like 15 miles

I didn't care for how the fire spread, or how fast it spreaded. Very very un-realistic (And I know they can't make it in real time, but fire does not spread from house to house like that)

Heat goes up, hence the reason you can be 5 feet away from a bonfire.

[mrbisonm 1,620]

I suppose like most things, this will be "re-adjusted" by Modders. Maxis always had a few small things non-accurate and/or exagerated in their games. But let's not forget, we all have different aspects of things and different views. For some it will be just fine.

mrb

[VicRusty 74]

A very very unrealistic fire. It seems for children games. :|

As Dewm said, fire doesn't spread from one house to another like that. The grass needs to burn and be green-black after the fire passed. The fire and the smoke have to be different in many different circumpstances (gas, wood, fuel, country burn, forrest burn...)

Honestly, If EA wants to make a good simcity, please take years to develope a realistic game. Not put the 2013 goal.

[MINIggy03 227]

Don't you guys think they could be spreading the fires that fast for demonstration purposes? Same goes for dirty water/sick sims. They are likely just speeding up the process to show off how it all works.

[trek186 0]

Oooh. This is awesome! Just think how quickly your city will burn once a plane crashes in it!

"As Fire Marshall, I think someone should put out all of these fires I keep hearing about on the radio."

http://www.somethingawful.com/d/news/simcity-advisors.php

[~Dee~ 215]

Don't you guys think they could be spreading the fires that fast for demonstration purposes? Same goes for dirty water/sick sims. They are likely just speeding up the process to show off how it all works.

That's the impression I got too, that it was a fast forward to show the process.

Fires can spread from house to house pretty quickly if you have the right wind conditions, seen it here in Australia a few times.

[croxis 150]

I agree. I am sure they sped up the process as who would want to wait 30 seconds of video for the fire to spread to one more house. Kinda silly for a demo.

[Tarkus 6,931]

If you'll also recall, SC4 has a very similar mechanism of fires easily spreading from one building to another. It's pretty easy to have a neighborhood go up in flames this way.

[MINIggy03 227]

I'm just glad that there's a hint of possibility that fires happen even with good coverage. Knowing that they've mentioned they'll respond to fires on their own and tackle your road network/traffic gives me hope that you'll still have fires even after supplying your city with several departments. I always hated how once you got your fire stations going in Simcity 4, fires were pretty much non existent. Fires still happen even with a good fire department.

[CWLGAMER01 39]

Everyone needs to stop hating..... geeesh. I think the game is looking really great myself.

  Edited May 3, 2012 by CWLGAMER01  

[jacksunny 741]

I like that we don't have to send out the fire trucks ourselves, I hated having to stop what I was doing if a fire decided to start.

However, I would like some sort of notification to appear if there is a fire, in case we don't have any fire stations or we want to see how it plays out so things can be improved.

[T Wrecks 10,209]

Seriously, many people here seem to be trying their best to find something negative, just for the sake of it. I haven't followed the development of SC2013 that closely, but I remember they said that the graphics aren't really done yet, so everything we see so far is probably more or less a placeholder that only serves to demonstrate the general functionality. That's why comments about the flora not burning down properly and the lack of differently coloured smoke (how much would that add to the gameplay experience, btw, and what would the tradeoff between programming effort, resource usage and actual playing fun look like?) are probably premature.

BTT: Not having to send out fire trucks is a huge step forward indeed. It is always super annoying, and you don't have to show more talent than to click on a burning building anyway, so it was really pointless. Probably the worst is the option (thank god you can turn it off!) to jump to a fire site immediately. I remember how I once had spent a good time building something complicated, and I was just dezoning a small plot when all of a sudden the camera jumped to the most remote corner and I ended up dezoning 80% of my city because of that stupid fire.

[Dewm 177]

Seriously, many people here seem to be trying their best to find something negative, just for the sake of it. I haven't followed the development of SC2013 that closely, but I remember they said that the graphics aren't really done yet, so everything we see so far is probably more or less a placeholder that only serves to demonstrate the general functionality. That's why comments about the flora not burning down properly and the lack of differently coloured smoke (how much would that add to the gameplay experience, btw, and what would the tradeoff between programming effort, resource usage and actual playing fun look like?) are probably premature.

BTT: Not having to send out fire trucks is a huge step forward indeed. It is always super annoying, and you don't have to show more talent than to click on a burning building anyway, so it was really pointless. Probably the worst is the option (thank god you can turn it off!) to jump to a fire site immediately. I remember how I once had spent a good time building something complicated, and I was just dezoning a small plot when all of a sudden the camera jumped to the most remote corner and I ended up dezoning 80% of my city because of that stupid fire.

hahaha true story, been there done that.

(but after like the 3rd time happening I figured out you can turn off "auto go to disaster"

and as far as the "being negative" bit, I have no problem with the graphics in the game, I do realize they are more of place holders then anything. But the guy giving the demo didn't say anything about it being "sped up" or "fast forwarded", and from the speed the agents moved I would say that was probably real time. And in my opinion the first house caught the second house on fire WAY TO QUICK!

[mrbisonm 1,620]

I remember how I once had spent a good time building something complicated, and I was just dezoning a small plot when all of a sudden the camera jumped to the most remote corner and I ended up dezoning 80% of my city because of that stupid fire.

Oh my, don't remind me.......shoooot, that happened to me once too and I almost "killed" the darn computer.....lol. Glad that experience never happened again........now, I have to knock on wood!

Fred

[GMT 389]

Heat goes up, hence the reason you can be 5 feet away from a bonfire.

actually, hot air goes up, heat - being a wave - spreads in all directions, hence you get pretty warm 5 feet away from a bonfire (or the sun is able to heat the earth, several heating devices work the same way).

and this is how things can ignite even w/o direct contact to the heat source, eg a fire.

further, like someone said already, favorable wind conditions aswell as sparks or small burning materials carried away by the wind or any other propulsive power are fairly enough to set the neighboring house on fire.

anyways, I'm wondering how this system will look like in practice. I hope they plan with 2 things: traffic and priority (or manual despatch if you want). the first for obvious reasons and the latter for the fact of containment... I'd surely love to see the entire neighborhood burn down cuz my fire fighters make sure the nuclear power plant remains unscathed.

[Dewm 177]

Heat goes up, hence the reason you can be 5 feet away from a bonfire.

actually, hot air goes up, heat - being a wave - spreads in all directions, hence you get pretty warm 5 feet away from a bonfire (or the sun is able to heat the earth, several heating devices work the same way).

and this is how things can ignite even w/o direct contact to the heat source, eg a fire.

further, like someone said already, favorable wind conditions aswell as sparks or small burning materials carried away by the wind or any other propulsive power are fairly enough to set the neighboring house on fire.

anyways, I'm wondering how this system will look like in practice. I hope they plan with 2 things: traffic and priority (or manual despatch if you want). the first for obvious reasons and the latter for the fact of containment... I'd surely love to see the entire neighborhood burn down cuz my fire fighters make sure the nuclear power plant remains unscathed.

Touche,

And yes I do agree with what your saying, I guess what I was saying is: while in the exact right conditions houses can ignite other houses...its unlikely, (Least where I live, even the town homes are around 50ft away from each other) that is one hell of a blaze.

And as long as the demo was sped up, I have no problem with this system.. but if its actually that fast in gameplay, no thanks.

[Ocram's Razr 963]

I think it is realistic if the time speed is on cheetah speed and not pause. I love it!

[GMT 389]

putting time scale on the plate, I really hope they re-enable us to change game speeds during desasters. I love to lay a fire and give it the cheetah thing in sc2000, totally miss this in sc4

[krbe 193]

For a devs looking for "realism" with this new simulator...they sure missed the mark, by like 15 miles

I didn't care for how the fire spread, or how fast it spreaded. Very very un-realistic (And I know they can't make it in real time, but fire does not spread from house to house like that)

Heat goes up, hence the reason you can be 5 feet away from a bonfire.

A very very unrealistic fire. It seems for children games. :|

As Dewm said, fire doesn't spread from one house to another like that. The grass needs to burn and be green-black after the fire passed. The fire and the smoke have to be different in many different circumpstances (gas, wood, fuel, country burn, forrest burn...)

Honestly, If EA wants to make a good simcity, please take years to develope a realistic game. Not put the 2013 goal.

Fire DOES spread to the sides. Why else would widening streets help in combat fires in a wall-to-wall environment? Yes, because the fire spreads ACROSS the street.

[Dewm 177]

For a devs looking for "realism" with this new simulator...they sure missed the mark, by like 15 miles

I didn't care for how the fire spread, or how fast it spreaded. Very very un-realistic (And I know they can't make it in real time, but fire does not spread from house to house like that)

Heat goes up, hence the reason you can be 5 feet away from a bonfire.

A very very unrealistic fire. It seems for children games. :|

As Dewm said, fire doesn't spread from one house to another like that. The grass needs to burn and be green-black after the fire passed. The fire and the smoke have to be different in many different circumpstances (gas, wood, fuel, country burn, forrest burn...)

Honestly, If EA wants to make a good simcity, please take years to develope a realistic game. Not put the 2013 goal.

Fire DOES spread to the sides. Why else would widening streets help in combat fires in a wall-to-wall environment? Yes, because the fire spreads ACROSS the street.

...Well I've never heard of widening a street to help combat house to house fires.. Wildfires? yes.. house fires no..

And there is definitely a difference..

[Cockatoo 2,256]

To be honest, I'm not quite sure what some of you are upset about.

Realistic or not, nobody is going to argue what we just saw isn't a 10,000x improvement over what we got in SC4. And I'm sure they'll be tweaking it even more. Maybe once they have props in place, we’ll be able to see the fire spread across the ground in a more realistic way…

[krbe 193]

...Well I've never heard of widening a street to help combat house to house fires.. Wildfires? yes.. house fires no..

And there is definitely a difference..

So how do you think the city fires of the past spread? Arsonists putting individual buildings ablaze? New building techniques, fireproof materials, effective alarms and sprinkler systems plus vastly improved fire services are what contain most fires to individual buildings today -- NOT the nature of fires itself.

The great fire of Warwick resulted in the 1694 Fire Act which mandated a certain street width in English cities to try combat city fires. In 1892 parts of the city of Kristiansand, Norway burnt to the ground, and in order to prevent future fires to spread to the mostly wooden residential sector, the main street separating the city was widened from 15 to 31 metres. If you want to know how fires spread in flammable buildings in areas with poor fire service coverage, take a look at the 1904 fire of Baltimore.

The simulation shown above, exhibits the same behaviour -- high flammability + no / poor fire service = razed blocks.

EDIT: Not to mention firestorms, which is a phenomena that also occurs in urban settings. See the aptly named WWII Operation Gomorrah, where the resulting fires created a 450 metres tall fire tornado and winds of hurricane speeds feeding the flames at the core of the fire.

  Edited May 5, 2012 by krbe  

[LivingInThePast 364]

I would love to see drought effects that would affect fires. In the Bastrop Lost Pines forest fire, which destroyed 34,000 acres and 1500 homes, that was primarily caused by the extreme drought in the area. Fire spread fast across dry lawns. And of course, fire suppression and building materials do a lot in terms of fire stations. And I'm worried about the "high traffic will burn your city down". Even in the worse times in driving to the community college: a twisted, busy, and slow four-lane road (Villa Maria Road, Bryan, see here), fire trucks were still able to make it through. Combine it with the fact that fire trucks often use less-than-legal ways of getting through (such as going straight in the turning lane). What WILL slow down fire trucks is things like one-way roads. When this GM Street View picture was taken, this fire station was still on the frontage road. It wasn't a big problem when the frontage road was two way, but when it went one-way, response times north more than doubled, as it had to make it's way south and make a U-turn at William D. Fitch Parkway (or two lefts, when the turnaround wasn't complete yet) or work its way up slower city roads to make it to an area where it could cross the freeway. The problem has since been fixed (fire station moved).

The other huge impediment to fire trucks is railroads. In many Eastern cities, the railroads go above or below the roads, but in most Western areas, train tracks cross the roads, even the bigger ones, all the time. This is a problem when the railroad is busy, and cars have to stop. The solution to this is to have underpasses or overpasses, which is expensive, but works. The same can be done in SimCity, where you should probably have one overpass/underpass for a railroad (to be fair, though, every city or town I know of that has a fairly busy railroad has ways to get around it)

  Edited May 7, 2012 by LivingInThePast  

[Lowkee33 5]

I remember how I once had spent a good time building something complicated, and I was just dezoning a small plot when all of a sudden the camera jumped to the most remote corner and I ended up dezoning 80% of my city because of that stupid fire.

Nothing worse than that. Sometimes my computer thinks I've moved the mouse' scroll wheel, think dezoning in zoom 4 and then have the game go to zoom 1

You can turn off the auto-goto-disaster if you want.

...Fires in SC4 are more likely to happen in summer, and the spread of them is effected by wind...

[Mark Waybill 242]

They mentioned wind affecting things somewhen. I wonder if this indicates heat and seasons?

[Sandis_van_Great 346]

A very very unrealistic fire. It seems for children games. :|

As Dewm said, fire doesn't spread from one house to another like that. The grass needs to burn and be green-black after the fire passed. The fire and the smoke have to be different in many different circumpstances (gas, wood, fuel, country burn, forrest burn...)

Honestly, If EA wants to make a good simcity, please take years to develope a realistic game. Not put the 2013 goal.

the problom is that they are dumbing the the game, and latly feels like alot of people wants it. It will turn out as societies and cities xl belive me, we will still play SC4 as we did now

[Craig-Abcvs 1,595]

Did those of you who are complaining bitterly about 'realism' hear the bit about 'these are NOT the final graphics'... ?

...the video was demonstrating how the simulation engine handles fire, not how the finished game will look.

Folks need to chillax.

[Ocram's Razr 963]

I agree, chillax. The simulation sends out heat agents and 'fire fighters needed' agents and your city will burn down if no fire fighters respond. That is a realistic simulation to me.