Large area devastated

[Galadge]

So I got eaten by a bear, and on my way running to my body I came across this. There were a bunch of dead animals Chickens, deer, a wolf, and a different bear. As you can probably guess by all the markers on the map I've been through here a few times as it's near my base and it was just like the woods you see at the edges of the screenshot. Anyone have any idea what could have caused this? I've got a decent amount of hours and I've never seen anything like this.

I am playing with mods, Meteoric Expansion being one of them, however I didn't change its config to allow this and I can't find an example of one of that mods destructive meteor impacts.

[LadyWYT]

Just now, Galadge said:

Anyone have any idea what could have caused this? I've got a decent amount of hours and I've never seen anything like this.

Welcome to the forums! Lightning strike would be my first suspicion. If the option to allow them to start fires is turned on, one could've easily started a forest fire and caused something like this. Aside from that, it could have been a mod thing that a recent mod update might've caused. But I still suspect a lightning strike.

[Galadge]

8 minutes ago, LadyWYT said:

Welcome to the forums! Lightning strike would be my first suspicion. If the option to allow them to start fires is turned on, one could've easily started a forest fire and caused something like this. Aside from that, it could have been a mod thing that a recent mod update might've caused. But I still suspect a lightning strike.

Possibly? I did mess with the world gen settings some. Do animals not run away from fire?

[LadyWYT]

Just now, Galadge said:

Possibly? I did mess with the world gen settings some. Do animals not run away from fire?

They do not, as of the time of this writing. I've had several bunnies roast themselves in my pit kilns, and I believe it's also a strategy to burn down a swath of forest to get large amounts of meat/deal with predators.

[Zane Mordien]

23 hours ago, LadyWYT said:

They do not, as of the time of this writing. I've had several bunnies roast themselves in my pit kilns, and I believe it's also a strategy to burn down a swath of forest to get large amounts of meat/deal with predators.

Forest fires make for good eating early game. Forest fire roasted wolf is especially good.

[Ernie Pippin]

There's a server configuration setting which allows lighting to cause fires.  You probably have this enabled.  If you do, be aware that this includes flammable building materials!