Flares, Flare Arrows, Colored Fire, and You:

[WanderingStoryteller]

Use Cases for Flares:

Would you like to fire a flare arrow off to light up a distant area farther than you can throw a torch or flare?

Would you like to signal where the latest hole you fell in is for your friends coming to rescue you? Strike your handheld flare against the wall next to you and let the smoke rise up.

Would you like to wield a flare in your hand to potentially scare off wolves/hyenas? (Rot monsters, bears, etc. are unaffected.)

Would you like to mark an entity/player with light and a smoke trail to track them (that marked players can remove by submerging themselves in water)?

Imagine yourself seeing a griefer fleeing on a pvp server. Imagine striking a flare arrow on the wall next to you then letting that flare arrow fly towards your target, the trail of smoke starting two seconds later after sparking to not obscure your vision, before arching over and hitting said target. A faint trail of smoke lingers over the treetops, showing where they’re heading. You must start tracking them as the end of the smoke trail will fade soon.

 

Flare Crafting:

Suggested Pyrotechnic Composition: Blasting Powder + 5-10% pyrotechnic colorant powder

Suggested Casing: rolled thick parchment

Easy Pyrotechnic Colorants to Add to the Game*:

• Gold - Charcoal powder
• Green-Yellow – Borax powder
• Green – Boric Acid
• Blue – Cuprite (Copper (I) Oxide) powder
• Silver/White – Titanium powder
• Orange – Iron powder or lime**
• Yellow – Halite powder
• Red - Potentially Celestine or Strontianite powder***

*All of the above compounds are already in the game except boric acid and cuprite. Boric acid is an acid of borax. UPDATE: Celestine and Strontianite are also not within the game.

 

**Calcium-based flares may be able to be used underwater. For realism and to save on graphics, flares used underwater do not produce a smoke trail. Mind, though, that I could not confirm that calcium carbonate is the particular calcium compound used to create underwater flares. I tried looking but couldn’t find the info beyond “use of calcium compound”. It at least makes a nice orange color.

 

No Red Pyrotechnic Colorant?:

We'll need a strontium or lithium compound. For strontium, we'll probably need strontium nitrate or strontium chloride. Ideas for how to incorporate are welcomed. 

 

***Strontium Minerals for Red Colorant:

Okay, for strontium compounds, we have two naturally occurring minerals, celestine (SrSO4) and strontianite (SrCO3) which are also among the strontium compounds for pyrotechnic colorants.

And as a bonus, it was reported that stable strontium isotopes “don’t pose a significant health threat”! They’re even really beautiful crystals!

I’ll list both so options are available.

• About Celestine:
  • A very beautiful, pale blue crystal. Also used in jewelry.

  • The mindat.org website says: “Occurs mainly in sedimentary rocks such as bedded deposits of gypsum and halite; also in bedded limestone and dolomite, in cavities.”

 

• About Strontianite:
  • Forms as a pale grey or pale green but can be pale red or even brown.

  • From mindat.org: “Forms in low-temperature hydrothermal deposits in limestone and marl or as a gangue mineral in sulfide veins; as geodes or concretionary masses in limestone or clay.”

  • An interesting tidbit is that it fluoresces under UV.

 

Useful notes from traugdor:

1. “Making boric acid is actually easy, just dissolve borax in water and add sulfuric acid. The boric acid will precipitate as a solid.”
2. “Cuprite can be made by adding a copper ingot into a barrel of quicklime and sealing it for a bit.”

 

Long-Distance Signaling using Flare Arrows Sequence:

1. Attach flare to arrow. Coding-wise, this would create a different type of arrow with slightly different despawning mechanics compared to normal arrows.

2. Light flare and fire arrow at distant spot.
   1. You may have the options to light the flare arrow either in your hand or while on/in the ground with a torch. If the flare arrow is stuck in the ground, you can use a firestarter. For a quicker method for when time is essential, the player could hit the arrow against something nearby to spark it before shooting it.
   2. When the player begins using a bow, a flare arrow will be selected as the projectile if it is lit.
3. The arrow sticks into the surface it hits and its flare lights that distant area as well as generates its smoke signal for a set duration. Afterwards, the arrow despawns as normal.
   1. Maybe the arrow can also stick into entities so they can be tracked or marked. This would terrify animals and may enrage rot monsters and bears. Marked players can submerged themselves in water to extinguish/remove arrow. 

 

Additional ways to connect this idea to other aspects of the game:

Use Cases for Colored Torches and Braziers:

Would you like your cool underground temple build to have eerie green-yellow flame torches or braziers?

 

Additional Info about Colored Torches:

The recipe would be the standard torch recipe with a pyrotechnic colorant added.

Colored torches only produce the normal amount of smoke that torches produce.

 

Use Cases for Cuprite (Copper Mineral):

Would you like to turn flame and smoke a pretty blue?

Would you like a deep red gem for potential future jewelry making?

Would you like deep red glass for potential future glassblowing?

 

The Case for Adding Cuprite:

A deep-red mineral found in copper ore deposits oxidized by weathering or oxygen-rich groundwater and found near these places or hydrothermal veins. Cuprite has potential use in various features either already in the game or that are potential future additions based on the dev roadmap.

• Specimen collecting, buying/selling
• Color for ceramics, glassmaking
• Deep red gem for jewelry
• pyrotechnic colorant

 

I've added a couple pictures to help people see what I'm talking about. 

Thoughts about including fireworks along with flares:

Comparing flares and fireworks again, flares have a simpler construction than fireworks which would also aid in them being useable earlier in a playthrough, a time when they could be of more use because it’s harder to survive. Both have similar components but the innards of a firework are many cardboard sections of black powder, oxidizers, color enhancers, stars, fuses, etc. arranged in particular ways to make them not only propel themselves but then explode at certain timings and styles. If fireworks were added and we’re going for realism, I would put them (at least the type seen in other block game) as having a much more involved crafting process and requiring more material. I would see it something like first you create the core that propels the firework then you add in the sections or layers that produce the different effects. Top it off with a fuse then light it (outside). Also keep in mind that the flares and fireworks would differ in that fireworks EXPLODE and don’t produce continuous light or smoke trail.

For how to use them, I can see the firework being stuck in the ground or a holder, lit, and then left to propel into the sky to do their thing.

Flares do not propel themselves. 

 

 

 

Thoughts about fire arrows:

I’m still not going to add fire arrows to this suggestion when it comes to setting creatures on fire. They would not be very effective at that job.

 

 

!!!!  Instead of fire arrows, we could add: !!!!

Something more like a throwable, lit, thin-walled, small ceramic bottle filled with alcohol or oil from plants and strips of linen would be much more effective at that task. Like a variant of the bee grenade. Now that is something my friends would definitely cause trouble with.

Plant oils of note:

• linseed (made from flax)
• peanut oil
• sunflower seed oil

(A side note here: Linen and cotton are very flammable fabrics while wool is fire-resistant.)

Edited August 15, 2025 by WanderingStoryteller

[Calo-Mari]

I could see this getting lumped into the “this could be a mod” category, but I still like this idea a lot for something that could be added to the base game. Although I could see just having compounds to create the different colored torches as a much more likely addition.

[LadyWYT]

18 minutes ago, WanderingStoryteller said:

For Flares:

 

Would you like to fire a flare arrow off to light up a distant area farther than you can throw a torch or flare?

 

Would you like to signal where the latest hole you fell in is for your friends coming to rescue you? Strike your handheld flare against the wall next to you and let the smoke rise up.

 

Would you like to wield a flare in your hand to potentially scare off wolves/hyenas? (Rot monsters, bears, etc. are unaffected.)

 

Would you like to mark an entity/player with light and a smoke trail to track them (that marked players can remove by submerging themselves in water)?

 

Imagine yourself seeing a griefer fleeing on a pvp server. Imagine striking a flare arrow on the wall next to you then letting that flare arrow fly towards your target, the trail of smoke starting two seconds later after sparking to not obscure your vision, before arching over and hitting said target. A faint trail of smoke lingers over the treetops, showing where they’re heading. You must start tracking them as the end of the smoke trail will fade soon.

I'd rather see fireworks, personally. Fireworks would give another use to blasting powder, and could be different colors depending on what minerals you stuff into them. They'd also be nice for fun aesthetic displays, as well as useful as signal flares or noisemakers. And of course, colorants for fireworks could give us more minerals to collect, as well as more uses for the minerals already present in the game.

I'm not sure about changing the color of torches and fire though. While you could do that with mineral mixtures, that seems more suited for a fantasy setting(Vintage Story is not that kind of game) or as creative-only blocks for free-form building. Given how heavily the game leans into realism, colored fire doesn't seem like it should be obtainable outside of creative mode, aside from coloring fireworks.

[Mrozak]

Fire arrows! YES!
Shoot them at enemies to set them on fire (together with everything else around :))
And a special variant to be used as a flare that slowly descends to the ground.
There is nothing i wouldn't like.
 

[WanderingStoryteller]

I would like people to please focus more on the utility cases that I talked about and less on the added fluff like colored torches for building that I added in an attempt to boost how interconnected with other features this idea could be.

This post is mainly directed at flares and how they could be useful for players.

This is not suggesting fire arrows as these do not set things on fire.

There are also already many chemicals already in the game that are pyrotechnic colorants, and blasting powder (technically called black powder, a mixture of charcoal, sulfur, and saltpeter) is used to make flares in real life and its use in the crafting recipe was already suggested in the post. Having different colored flares is also an addition to add interconnected with other features. Players can decide different flares mean different things, etc. The only two compounds listed that aren't in the game already are cuprite and boric acid. 

I say flares would be much more useful than fireworks. However, fireworks are a route that is logical to add in addition.

It would just be so cool to be having a siege of monsters on your fort with your friends, shoot off one of these arrows, and all of you stare in awe at the undulating sea of creatures before you.

 

I'm going to have to change the title again, aren't I...? I am bad at communicating...

 

Note to future self: organize suggestions so primary suggestion is discussed first (and mentioned first in title) before trying to suggest additional ways to link to more features within the game.

 

Also, to everyone that has already posted, I do appreciate you liking my suggestion. 

 

Edited August 12, 2025 by WanderingStoryteller

[Krougal]

Fire arrows? Yes!

Weaponize all the things!

[Katherine K]

I'm a bit confused about "And You" in the thread title. Are we suggesting setting self on fire as method of illuminating the environment? I have safety concerns about that. 

In general, I want more chemistry/alchemy. Incendiaries and colored flames are a good use case. Don't know how much practical use there would be in flare arrows, but they're fun, so they get my vote.

[Krougal]

9 minutes ago, Katherine K said:

I'm a bit confused about "And You" in the thread title. Are we suggesting setting self on fire as method of illuminating the environment? I have safety concerns about that. 

 

Fire marshal Bill

Edited August 13, 2025 by Krougal

[Teh Pizza Lady]

making boric acid is actually easy, just dissolve borax in water and add sulfuric acid. The boric acid will precipitate as a solid.

Sulfuric acid is a bit trickier. 

step 1, roast sulfur
step 2, add to sulfuric acid
step 3, dilute to make sulfuric acid

easy

You can also roast sulfur and just add to water, but it is very dangerous. However once you get a little bit of sulfuric acid, the dissolving process becomes a lot easier.

For game mechanics, roasted sulfur can be added to water with a high chance of causing poison damage over time until you cap the barrel. Once that's done, you can wait a few hours for it all to settle and then you have a barrel of sulfuric acid with which to make boric acid.

Cuprite can be made by adding a copper ingot to a barrel of quicklime and sealing it for a bit.

I can see this being a great addition to the game with fireworks and flares, but I would definitely like to see it become a mod if not!

[Krougal]

Well @traugdor we have sulfuric acid in the game already for making sturdy leather.

What do we need boric acid for though, we going to treat athletes foot and yeast infections?

 

[Teh Pizza Lady]

22 minutes ago, Krougal said:

Well @traugdor we have sulfuric acid in the game already for making sturdy leather.

What do we need boric acid for though, we going to treat athletes foot and yeast infections?

 

Boric acid reacts in the presence of flame to produce a green color.

[Krougal]

3 minutes ago, traugdor said:

Boric acid reacts in the presence of flame to produce a green color.

Oh...Right...I knew that

[WanderingStoryteller]

1 hour ago, traugdor said:

making boric acid is actually easy, just dissolve borax in water and add sulfuric acid. The boric acid will precipitate as a solid.

Cuprite can be made by adding a copper ingot to a barrel of quicklime and sealing it for a bit.

I can see this being a great addition to the game with fireworks and flares, but I would definitely like to see it become a mod if not!

I’ve added a note of your information about making boric acid and cuprite to the original post so that any important notes from these comments are all collected there. ( ° u °)7

Additional notes about fireworks and fire grenades have also been added for people to review.

Thank you for liking and reading my post!

[Katherine K]

1 hour ago, traugdor said:

Boric acid reacts in the presence of flame to produce a green color.

GREEN FLAME!

No? Nobody? Just me? Well, never mind then.

[WanderingStoryteller]

Honestly, walking into a cool underground build with green torch lighting with be AMAZING. 

 

The Resonance Archive itself is a greenish-blue when powered, and that first time you walk into there with it powered is such a cool feeling! I think players could love playing with the chemistry of this.  

[Teh Pizza Lady]

12 minutes ago, Katherine K said:

GREEN FLAME!

No? Nobody? Just me? Well, never mind then.

Well technically the boric acid isn't producing the game. In other words, it flamen't. It however does react to produce a green color that causes the flame to give off a green light. #nerd

 

13 minutes ago, WanderingStoryteller said:

I’ve added a note of your information about making boric acid and cuprite to the original post so that any important notes from these comments are all collected there. ( ° u °)7

 

Additional notes about fireworks and fire grenades have also been added for people to review.

Thank you for liking and reading my post!

Also salt might be a good way to get sodium which can also color a flame yellow.

 

EDIT: I am blind

Edited August 13, 2025 by traugdor

[WanderingStoryteller]

1 hour ago, traugdor said:

EDIT: I am blind

It's fine, doc. X D 

 

Smaller details like that can be easy to miss, especially when you're probably more use to seeing the word salt than halite or NaCl. (I had originally put it as NaCl fifty billion edits ago.) 

[Fistandantilus]

On 8/12/2025 at 11:48 AM, WanderingStoryteller said:

 

**Calcium-based flares may be able to be used underwater. For realism and to save on graphics, flares used underwater do not produce a smoke trail. Mind, though, that I could not confirm that calcium carbonate is the particular calcium compound used to create underwater flares. I tried looking but couldn’t find the info beyond “use of calcium compound”. It at least makes a nice orange color.

A deep-red mineral found in copper ore deposits oxidized by weathering or oxygen-rich groundwater and found near these places or hydrothermal veins. Cuprite has potential use in various features either already in the game or that are potential future additions based on the dev roadmap.

• Specimen collecting, buying/selling
• Color for ceramics, glassmaking
• Deep red gem for jewelry
• pyrotechnic colorant

I am absolutely all for the idea of underwater flares and colored fire, as it would aid me in my dream of constructing Carcosa someday, not to mention i am for any and all vanilla aquatic feature updates to this game.