Citizens,
Torn’s 13th Crime has finally arrived. Arson is one of our most ambitious Crimes 2.0 releases yet, built with an extraordinary level of depth and complexity. Here are some tips to help you get started.
Fires
Arson involves much more than merely flicking a lighter and watching stuff burn. Every fire will behave differently based on the target, your actions, and the materials used. Here are the aspects of the fire that you’ll need to consider.
Intensity
Intensity determines how hot a fire is. Intensity can be applied to fires by using items, but it will also be generated from momentum with each tick.
Spread
Spread determines how an item's Intensity and Momentum is distributed across the target's areas upon use. Solids are low-spread, ideal for applying high intensity and momentum to smaller targets. Gases are high-spread, great for efficiently applying intensity across multiple areas. Liquids do a little bit of both.
Momentum
Momentum is also applied to fires by using items. An area's accumulated momentum will apply additional intensity to the area with each tick. Momentum will also decay each time it does this. Liquid accelerants like Gasoline provide a lot of momentum.
Overflow
When an area's intensity reaches the maximum level, any additional intensity will overflow into adjacent areas. An uncontrolled intense fire with lots of momentum will spread to other areas of the target.
Damage
Damage is applied to a target on a per-area basis, the rate of which is reduced by the target's flammability. Damage cannot exceed the level of an area's peak intensity (i.e. Damage cannot be applied to areas untouched by fire).
Targets
There are over a hundred different building types to be burned within Arson. Each building has three core aspects for you to consider. A target's size, flammability, and rurality, will determine the reward it provides upon successful completion.
Size
Each target has between one and five areas. The largest targets will become available after increasing Arson skill to a high level. Burning larger buildings will grant greater rewards than if you’re razing a shed or a shack.
Flammability
The target's flammability increases the rate at which it receives damage. Flammability also makes the target up to three times more susceptible to fire by increasing the rate of intensity and momentum applied to it by accelerants.
Rurality
Targets that are more rural - further from the center of the city - benefit from longer fire department response times. In many cases, fires take a long time to fully destroy a building, so you'll want to achieve that before they arrive.
Requirements
You’ll find 250 jobs waiting for you in Arson. Some are simple, letting you burn the target without limits or direction. Others come with more complex requirements that will test your ability to plan and react. Jobs that impose extra requirements offer higher rewards.
No requirement
A target with no specific requirements will pay out a percentage of the maximum reward based on the amount of damage sustained by the target. The player should aim to completely destroy the building to earn the biggest reward, but that may not always be efficient, depending on the accelerants used.
Insurance requirement
This means that an insurance investigation will be triggered upon conclusion of the fire. To be successful, the total accumulated suspicion must be kept low. In practice, this means favoring low-evidence items such as Potassium Nitrate, Kerosene, or Oxygen, or using Methane to create the appearance of a gas leak to shift suspicion away from arson. If successful, again, the payout is determined by the amount of damage sustained by the target.
Total Destruction requirement
This means that 100% destruction of the target is necessary. Any less counts as a failure. The total reward is provided to the player upon collection after successful total destruction.
Minimum damage requirement
A minimum amount of damage must be sustained by the target, or the job will be failed. The full reward value is provided if the damage sustained by the target is equal or over the required value.
Maximum damage requirement
The target must not sustain damage beyond this value, or the job will fail. If the damage exceeds the limit, even slightly, the job will be failed. The reward is determined by how close the outcome is to the maximum damage requirement without exceeding it.
Damage range requirement
In the case of damage ranges, the target basically has both minimum and maximum damage requirements. The final damage must finish within the minimum and maximum range to receive the full reward. Anything outside of this range is a failure.
Requests
On top of the damage-related requirements, some clients will make an additional request regarding the fire. Jobs with these extra requirements often pay out more. Jobs that impose extra requests offer higher rewards.
Plant Item request
Some targets will require that evidence be planted on the scene before starting the fire. This is usually a relatively cheap individual item that can be bought from the item market or found within Burglary.
Specific accelerant request
Some targets require the user to focus on a particular type of accelerant: Solid, Gas, or Liquid. If a different accelerant other than the requested type is used, the job will be failed.
Accident request
Similar to the insurance requirement, although not as strict, the accumulated suspicion must be kept low to prevent the job from failing.
High Suspicion Fire request
In exact contrast to the insurance requirement and the accident request, the accumulated suspicion must be high in order to successfully complete these jobs. Using a Flamethrower or loads of Gasoline will ensure the fire appears intentional.
High Visibility Fire requirement
The fire must be highly visible to successfully complete these jobs. Diesel will put out a lot of smoke, while Magnesium Shavings will cause a very bright fire that quickly draws attention.
Item Effects
Every item has its own attributes, but many of them also have special effects that can be applied to a fire.
Molotov Cocktail
Applies intensity and momentum directly to the target's least affected area.
Flamethrower
Increases a fire's intensity and momentum unpredictably.
Kerosene
Boosts a fire's momentum in a single area.
Diesel
Reduces a target's ignition risk.
Potassium Nitrate
Boosts a fire's intensity in a single area.
Thermite
Increases the rate of damage sustained by targets.
Magnesium Shavings
Reduces the effect of firefighters and dampening.
Oxygen Tank
Boosts a fire's intensity across all areas.
Hydrogen Tank
Spreads a fire's existing intensity and momentum across multiple areas in Arson.
Methane Tank
Reduces a fire's suspicion.
Additional tips
Risk
Igniting an intense, roaring fire with large amounts of placed accelerants is risky for those with a low Arson skill. Start slow, then stoke the fire as needed. Similarly, some items are riskier than others to stoke with. Gasoline, Magnesium Shavings, and Hydrogen are particularly dangerous. You should also consider how intense and broad the fire is when choosing to stoke it, as aggressive fires are more likely to cause greater injuries when provoked.
Placing vs stoking
There are benefits to placing items prior to ignition compared with using them to stoke the fire after ignition. Placing combustibles prior to ignition gives a 1.25x bonus to their spread, while stoking with combustibles after ignition gives a 1.25x bonus to their intensity.
Character introductions
There are four unique targets that will introduce special clients that will unlock additional, high-paying targets. These characters are: Ethan McChad, Chase Swindlehurst, Denise David, and Marvelous Mudenda.
Unlocking new igniters, accelerants and dampeners
There are twelve unique targets that will appear as you level up your Arson skill. By successfully completing these jobs, you'll earn the ability to start using a new item.
First Responders
If a fire has been going on long enough, firefighters will eventually be called to the scene. A target's rurality and the fire's intensity will determine the likelihood of them being alerted to the fire. The target's rurality will also determine how long it takes for them to reach the target. Once they arrive, they will rapidly begin tending to the fire, and no further actions can be made on the target. Any action taken as the First Responders are closing in carries a risk of arrest.
Rewards
Upon the successful completion of an arson job, once the fire has been extinguished, the reward can be collected. Most jobs will be completed quickly after the requirements have been met. When the job requires you to pass an insurance investigation, you must wait until this has taken place before receiving your rewards. Arson’s rewards start low, but more lucrative targets will begin to appear as your Arson skill is increased.
Other notes
Item pricing
The prices of accelerants will be up to the community, determined by supply and demand. It may be the case that some accelerants are priced disproportionately high, so much so that it may not be efficient to use them if the reward won't cover their costs. Prices should settle down over time as natural supply chains are built.
We recently added Focus Scouting to Burglary so that specific items can be farmed from their relevant areas. Many of these areas produce a high frequency of specific accelerants, up to 25% of the total rewards in some cases. If you want to make a tidy sum following the launch of Arson, this is the way to do it.
Thanks.