Emergency Broadcast System warning about severe thunderstorm

[Wren]

On a recent play through, There was a countdown (ETA in days) on the emergency broadcast system to an upcoming severe thunderstorm.  On the day of the "event" my house caught fire in a completely unexplained way.  No generator (because no magazine), no cooking, and no campfires or anything.  Is it possible for your house to be struck by lightning?

 

If not, are there other severe consequences from this event that would make sense for EBS to be running a countdown?

[Papa Juliet Whiskey]

Fires burn continually if you stray so far away from it. It basically pauses the fire, so if you had one lit up a while ago, then had it wander back into the reality bubble, then it may light other stuff on fire.

 

 

Only thing I can think of, outside of lightening starting fires, which I don't think it does. But maybe it is a thing.

[Wren]

Thanks for replying.  I hadn't started any fires even remotely close to the house.  The house in question is one of the three mansions close to Riverside, right on the river.  The one with the high steel fence, specifically.

 

I first noticed the fire outside the door to the laundry room, where I had just been.  I was putting away some cleaning supplies.

 

The fire start location is interesting because the kitchen was completely uninvolved when I first noticed the fire.  I think the stove is out of the question.  The generator is out of the question because I didn't know how to hook it up.

 

So unless you can start a fire by misclicking and putting some stuff away in a dryer (maybe?)  I am completely stumped.  I am honestly guessing lightning strike because otherwsie there's no reason for the emergency broadcast system to be running a live countdown to the severe storms.

[Papa Juliet Whiskey]

Not sure what the cause is. The warning.does have useful info. Unless your screen brightness is turned to 11, visibility can take quite a hit during the storms. I usually take these times to hunker down and read some skill books, if available.

 

The thunder claps can also cause Zs to migrate randomly, so if you've cleared the area around your base of Zs in a high population area, it might be beneficial to take a road trip elsewhere, or you may be forced to do more zed clearing than you want to handle.

 

And with a characters boredom level shooting through the roof while indoors could potentially leave the player to choose between staying dry and bored, or sitting out in the rain to avoid bordom, while risking catching a cold.(I really hope the boredom system gets tweaked or reworked)

 

These aren't really big issues, but not things to be ignored either.

 

But who knows, maybe the devs made it so lightening can start fires.

 

 

Of course, if it is multiplayer your dealing with, it could have been some ass pick looking to cause trouble. Or limited visibility used for your own PVP mischief.

[Wren]

Yeah, that would have made sense but this was a single player game.  I'm still at a loss to explain it.

[Laker]

Odd.  Were you at the house when the fire started?  You said you had no fires.  Is it possible you had a fireplace or the wood stove running that you forgot about?  Papa Juliet Whiskey may be correct - maybe the devs added that to the game.

One sees enough burned houses in the game that random housefires might be a part of the game.  

[ZombieHunter]

It could also be a bug - game can pick random houses to catch fire as part of meta event. 

Normally it avoids any property with player built structures inside though