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My girlfriend is a pyromaniac. (help me) Anyway, jokes aside. She is, and she’s burned down the Rosewood prison more times than I can count. All while the power was still on. But one thing I noticed is that it was pretty easy for her to just set the place alight and horde up the zombies without much of an issue. I thought, MAN! We should really have a system for that. So, here’s my thought— —fire alarms. - Allow me to explain how this could work: When you use a Molotov to, let’s say, clear up a horde in central Rosewood. Or, you attempt to burn down a house in multiplayer that your least favorite person happens to be living in. SUGGESTED MECHANIC #1: THE BEEP-BEEP AND FLASH FLASH. When this happens, the smoke catches an alarm! Usually, at least— I don’t think trailers have fire alarms?? I could be wrong. Anyways, regardless of where they are, what ensues is a beep beep and a flash flash from the fire alarm until it’s either manually deactivated, burns up or the fire is removed. MAIN ISSUES: Now, I am not a programmer, but I feel like it might be a pain to add this to every single house. Maybe like civic structures or public locations?? I’m not sure. I imagine it’d be sort of like a house alarm, just for fires..? Another issue is epilepsy. I am not a doctor, but adding a flashing white light may not be a great idea for those with epileptic conditions. Again, not a doctor, I could be wrong, but it is something to consider. SUGGESTED MECHANIC #2: HEARING ISSUES I’ll make this simple. HEARING PROBLEMS! When a fire alarm goes off in somebodies face, and they have a trait that deters hearing (Not deaf, obviously, but you know what I mean) the alarm could cause a ringing sound to play or something of the sort, in your ears. This can also apply to house alarms. MAIN ISSUES: It might be hard to simulate perfectly, since it’s hard to get a realistic ringing sound. But that’s just me thinking, I’m not sure how sound design works either. SUGGESTED MECHANIC #3: BALANCING I am so sorry about how long this has gotten, over fire alarms for gods sake. This is the last one, I just wanted to explain in further detail how I feel this could balance the game. Molotovs are very good, and once you find a bar or something they’re essentially cake to make. Let’s say, hypothetically, you're a silly guy and start lugging a burning horde around Muldraugh. Okay, cool! But, one of them stumbles through the police station or pizza place— now there’s an alarm going off. Suddenly, a bunch of zombies are coming in from all sides of the forest and city! You either move your entire horde and escape the oncoming encirclement, or you’ve failed. In this scenario, fire alarms present a new challenge for the player during Molotov burning and motivates players to learn a new type of skill— not an in-game skill— zombie horde control. Let’s say you’re a silly guy and leave the oven on while you take a fat nap. Well, now you’ve got a horde knocking down the walls of your cute cabin in the woods, and you gotta book it and come back to clear it later! It’s little mistakes like those that keep the game interesting, throw you in for a loop and keep you playing with motivation. Finally, let’s say you wanna burn down your friend’s base in multiplayer. Maybe you could do it, but you’ll also have to escape the oncoming horde! Then again, it fuels a feud between you and your friend and creates further interesting drama when the horde shows up to slap you into oblivion. But… they can also be useful, too. Maybe setting a fire to get a horde off your back using a fire alarm, or attracting a large horde to burn them— even if it costs your life— also produces mechanics that can be used by the player. Similarly to house alarms. It also may alert a player to a fire somewhere in their area. MAIN ISSUES: I’m not sure how much of an effect this would really have on molotovs or on the game. Everything I’ve said there is completely hypothetical scenarios, and maybe it will never happen ever. Or maybe it will. CONCLUSION: Overall, my suggestion here is the addition of fire alarms to the game and mechanics related to hearing issues to go along with it. There’s plenty of issues with this suggestion I stated above, I acknowledge, but I stand by my suggestion regardless. Any add-ons or constructive criticism would be greatly appreciated!! (I am so so violently sorry about how long this is.)

If this is already a suggestion by another name, my apologies. Smoke detectors!! I just read this in another section. Something to alert you that the stove is about to destroy your base. Also (of course) another risk for giant hordes. Depending on implementation, maybe a smoke detector is near an open window and you start a fire outside... smoke alarm! Horde! Also could be a new random building state similar to burnt or boarded houses: fire in progress, alarm triggered, zombies en route. Also gives more content for electrical maybe.