Hello everyone,
As a long-term MissionChief player with a passion for realistic emergency service operations, I’ve been thinking a lot about how we can take the simulation even further. While MissionChief already offers a strong foundation for strategy and service coordination, I believe there’s massive potential to deepen the realism and make day-to-day operations feel even more authentic—especially for those of us who enjoy playing with real-life principles in mind.
I’d like to propose a suite of quality-of-life and realism-focused features that could benefit all three core services—fire, police, and ambulance—and elevate the simulation experience for those who wish to engage with it on a more immersive level. These features would be optional and scalable, so that casual and hardcore players alike could benefit according to their play style.
I already have custom scripts to do certain things - Allow appliances to go off the run, alerts if stations are uncovered etc, but there is so many limitations that i feel freedom from the developers or more realism options for the game would go along way.
1. Integrated Duty System Across All Services (Shifts, Watches, Staffing Variability)
In real-world emergency services, not every vehicle is always crewed or available, and staffing levels vary greatly depending on time of day, station size, and operational pressures. To reflect this, MissionChief could introduce a comprehensive duty system simulating staff availability by time and watch. For example, fire stations in the UK typically operate on a four-watch system (Red, Blue, Green, White), each with 12-hour shifts, while ambulance and police services often use shift rotas with staggered coverage throughout the day.
A duty system could automatically rotate staff in and out of active duty, determining which vehicles are available based on current staffing levels. For example, a police response vehicle might not be deployable during a night shift if there aren’t enough officers available to crew it. Ambulance services may face “crew drops” during handover times or night hours, reducing the number of ambulances on the road. This feature could also simulate minimum crewing requirements (e.g., 2 crew members per ambulance, 4 per fire engine), with alerts when those thresholds are not met.
Crucially, this would make incident coverage and planning more dynamic. Players would need to think ahead—ensuring they have adequate staff at peak times or adjusting station coverage through standby or mutual aid systems. Shift-based realism would encourage strategic decisions around station locations and types (e.g., balance between 24/7 vs. part-time bases), bringing a new layer of depth to gameplay.
2. Realistic Retained Duty System for Fire Stations
In many parts of the world—especially rural and semi-rural areas—fire cover is provided by retained (on-call) firefighters rather than full-time crews. Currently, in MissionChief, all appliances function as if fully crewed and instantly available. Introducing a realistic retained system would mirror real-life conditions more accurately.
With this system, players could designate certain appliances or stations as “retained,” meaning their availability would be conditional on simulated staff being at home or work within responding distance. When a call is received, a retained crew might be delayed, fail to mobilize due to insufficient turnout, or only become available after a short lag. This could be influenced by time of day (e.g., fewer staff available during weekday working hours), school holidays, or other customisable factors.
This mechanic would also include the concept of appliances going “off the run” temporarily when no crew is available. Players could be notified in advance when coverage is reduced, and the system could suggest sending other units or moving crews from wholetime stations to cover gaps. This would not only make the simulation of rural fire cover more realistic but also encourage better planning, backup arrangements, and intelligent station design.
3. Standby and Cover Movements for Fire Appliances
One major real-world operational practice that could enhance realism in MissionChief is the concept of standby relocations. In real life, when multiple appliances from a fire station are tied up at long-running incidents, nearby stations often send available appliances to “standby” at the empty station to ensure the area remains covered.
This could be implemented in-game as a flexible, user-activated or automated system. For example, if Station A sends both of its pumps to a major fire, the system could trigger a standby move where an appliance from Station B is automatically dispatched to cover Station A’s patch until its original units return. The system could prioritize coverage gaps based on geographic risk, call volume history, or custom response areas defined by the player.
Players could also be given manual control over standby logic—perhaps by setting thresholds or creating triggers based on appliance unavailability. This would reduce the micromanagement load during major incidents and add a realistic, dynamic edge to fire cover strategy. It also aligns well with the proposed retained system, allowing wholetime crews to temporarily backfill part-time stations when local staff are unavailable.
4. Advanced Triage & Holding for Ambulance and Police
One of the more overlooked aspects of real-life emergency service work is resource bottlenecks caused not by a lack of vehicles, but by delays at destination facilities. In the NHS and other healthcare systems, ambulance crews frequently face delays handing over patients at overcrowded A&E departments. Similarly, police officers may be required to wait with detainees at custody blocks due to limited cell availability or backlogs in processing.
MissionChief could incorporate this into gameplay through a triage and facility holding system. For example, when hospitals or custody centres reach a certain threshold, incoming units could be forced to wait, either in a queue or through a simulated handover delay. During this time, the vehicle would be out of service—realistically simulating how delayed discharges and capacity shortages can paralyze emergency response systems.
This could be expanded with a priority-based triage mechanism, where more urgent calls receive faster treatment or bypass queues altogether. Ambulance crews might need to make diversion decisions, rerouting to the nearest available hospital if their primary destination is full. Police may be redirected to overflow custody centres or forced to hold detainees in vans temporarily.
Such a system would challenge players to manage their resources more carefully, encourage building of adequate hospital/custody infrastructure, and simulate real-world pressures more closely. It would also bring new value to hospital and custody expansion, as these buildings become more than just capacity markers—they represent real operational throughput.
Final Thoughts
Together, these proposed systems would dramatically enhance the realism and strategic depth of MissionChief. By simulating the human elements of emergency service work—such as staffing shortages, shift changes, facility bottlenecks, and coverage gaps—we can create a far more immersive and operationally authentic experience. These features would especially appeal to players who enjoy creating detailed, region-accurate setups that mirror the realities of fire, police, and ambulance operations in the UK, Europe, and beyond.
I fully appreciate that not all players may want this level of detail, which is why I suggest these be toggleable features or tied to advanced game modes for realism-focused communities.
I’d love to hear the thoughts of fellow players and developers. Are these features something you'd be interested in seeing? How else could they be implemented in a user-friendly way?
