I am not sure really what to title this suggestion, nor do I think I have a perfect solution, but I have had a recent issue come up with my stations and I am not sure if there is an easy fix or not.
I am playing in central iowa and have numerous departments that I am using, most being small rural departments. This worked well as each department was still a separate entity and using resources from another department worked well in a mutual aid aspect. I have since moved into Des Moines Fire Department and now I have a small issue. I use the response plans to set up quick response buttons in the dispatch menu. I have buttons for single engine, truck, rescue, ect response, as well as buttons for fires requiring multiple apparatus. I personally do not use groups due to it specifying specific apparatus. The issue is, if I have a structure fire in Des Moines, there are instances where just using these buttons with call apparatus from another departments station (because they are technically closer) however I would prefer to use the Des Moines apparatus to keep from draining an entire district of a smaller department.
My suggestion is as follows:
Create a "department" system as a way to link stations together to identify them as one agency. This way when doing the response plans instead of having the choice of a specific station, or global unit selection, it can be limited to a department (which would consist of multiple stations).
If I was playing with just one metro department this would not be an issue, but now that I have expanded into different demographics this can cause large issues. I have not used the groups system due to it making me select specific apparatus, and that apparatus may not be in service at the time, thus to me it does not function well. However due to my metro department (as with many metro departments) running numerous small stations vs my rural departments which run single (larger) stations and cover larger areas. I cannot justify just sending the closest apparatus.
I hope you guys understand what I am trying to portray here. I am also interested in hearing how others handle the situations.
Thanks