Campfire

Campfire

Cooks meals and produces heat, and burns out after a few days. As with all heat sources, it must be placed indoors so it has a closed space to heat. Refuelable.

Base Stats

Type

Building – Temperature

Market Value

25  ^[Note]

HP

80

Flammability

0%

Path Cost

42 (24%)

Building

Size

1 × 1

Minifiable

False

Placeable

True

Passability

pass through only

Cover Effectiveness

20%

Terrain Affordance

Light

Light Radius

7.17

Heat Per Second

21

Stops Heating At

28 °C (82.4 °F)

Efficiency

50%

Creation

Work To Make

200 ticks (3.33 secs)

Resources to make

20

Deconstruct yield

nothing

Destroy yield

nothing

The campfire is building that produces light, temperature, allows the execution of simple cooking bills and the burning of apparel, weapons and drugs. It also functions as a social gathering spot.

Acquisition

Campfires require  20 Wood and 200 ticks (3.33 secs) of work in order to be constructed.

Summary

A campfire can be placed either indoors or out, under a roof or not, but must be on terrain that supports at least "light" construction*. Although it serves several functions, it is found under the Architect/Temperature tab.

(* This property can be made visible on the map via a toggle in the extreme lower right of the game screen. Most every type of terrain except water and mud accepts light construction.)

A campfire, in good weather, consumes 10 wood per day as long as it is lit. If lit while unroofed in the rain, it consumes an additional 0.0006 wood per 1 tick (0.02 secs), or a total of 46 wood per day.* It can hold up to 20 fuel at a time, for a maximum run time of 2 days, and has a full fuel capacity starting the moment it's constructed. Fuel is delivered to the campfire by a haulers as long as "refueling" is enabled. Campfires can be deconstructed to salvage wood that hasn't been consumed yet.

(It should be fairly easy to build a 1-tile wooden wall nearby, and extend a "roof area" (under Architect/Zones) over the fire. )

A campfire outputs light in a 10 tile radius, with the nearest 7.175 tiles being above 50% light level and considered "lit" enough for no penalty to tasks. It heats the room to a maximum temperature of 28 °C (82.4 °F) at a rate of 21 heat per second.^{[Exact mechanic unclear]} As with all heat sources, it must be placed "indoors" so it has a closed space to heat. When placed "outdoors," no heating will occur, but the other campfire functions will still work.

A campfire is set by default as a gather spot, colonists will gather here to socialize, especially when idle. It can be toggled off (menu bar at bottom of screen when campfire is selected), and it's recommended that you only have one active gather spot (campfire or table), in your preferred "recreation area".

Bills

The following items can be crafted at the campfire. Note that the campfire has a Worktable Work Speed Factor of 0.5, meaning that all bills will take 2x longer to execute than at other work stations.

Name	Materials	Work to Make	Required Research	Type
Psychite tea	4	000,400 ticks (6.67 secs)	Psychoid brewing	Drug - Social drug
4×  Psychite tea	16	001,600 ticks (26.67 secs)	Psychoid brewing	Drug - Social drug
16×  Pemmican	0.25 Nutrition (meat) + 0.25 Nutrition (vegan)	000,700 ticks (11.67 secs)	Pemmican	Food - Meal
64×  Pemmican	1 Nutrition (meat) + 1 Nutrition (vegan)	002,800 ticks (46.67 secs)	Pemmican	Food - Meal
Simple meal	0.5 Nutrition (any)	000,300 ticks (5 secs)	–	Food - Meal
4×  Simple meal	2 Nutrition (any)	001,200 ticks (20 secs)	–	Food - Meal
10×  Baby food	0.25 Nutrition (vegetarian)	000,450 ticks (7.5 secs)	–	Food
40×  Baby food	1 Nutrition (vegetarian)	001,800 ticks (30 secs)	–	Food

Burning

Burning ills are worked by haulers. All times are scaled only^{[Worktable Speed?]} by the General Labor Speed of the hauler performing the bill. In all cases, the item is completely destroyed leaving nothing behind.

Apparel requires 60^{[Ticks or Secs?]} work to burn regardless of the item or material. Shield belts and smokepop belts cannot be burned.

Weapons require 60^{[Ticks or Secs?]} work to burn regardless of the item or material. Only burnable weapons can be burned.^[Which?]

Drugs require 60^{[Ticks or Secs?]} work to burn but will be burned in entire stacks.

Analysis

Its wide array of uses makes the campfire a vital tool in the early game.

It can be used for light, but given it has a similar light radius to the torch lamp while also consuming considerably more fuel, it should not be used for this purpose unless it is a secondary benefit from another use, such as temperature or cooking.

For heat, the campfire is generally not resource and work-time efficient to use after Electricity has been researched, however its grid independence and immunity to power outages and solar flares make it very useful in niche applications even beyond this point. Unlike higher tech replacements, the campfire requires no steel or component to build (or later to repair). While these are legitimate considerations, upgrading to higher tech is usually the better path. Campfires cannot be set to a specific temperature, meaning colonists are more likely to receive unhappy moods from being slightly too hot or cold when the room is heated with a campfire instead of a higher tech heater.

Similarly for cooking, the campfire should be replaced by stoves to avoid its workspeed penalty and to gain access to the other cooking recipes they offer. The electric stove is generally significantly more efficient, while the fueled stove replaces the niche in grid independence and solar flare immunity the campfire would otherwise have.

Version history

• 1.1.0 - Refueling is now toggleable.

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Architect

Temperature

Campfire • Heater • Cooler • Passive cooler • Vent