Posts by Epsilon

Quote from EMS-Chief

See an example on this thread:

ALS Medical Training for Fire Apparatus

This vehicle is based on the real life apparatus that is a transporting ALS fire engine.

Yes, South Ogden Utah has one, it definitely serves a purpose in real life but I do not think that it is necessary to have in the game. Actually i think it is a hindrance to have one and I probably should have just bought regular transporting ALS ambulances rather than 4 ALS transporting engines, I never use them because they are super impractical and cause issues with patient transport and mission requirements.

Quote from EMS-Chief

So the ask is to change the EMS Engine/Ambulance to NOT transport?

I think he is talking about having BLS and ALS patient types for calls, all fire engines would be able to treat BLS but not transport (so assume its like a lift assist, a BLS run but likely will end up with a refusal and thus doesnt always need an ambulance). ALS patients would need an ALS ambulance or some sort of engine with ALS providers.

Honestly, and this is a personal thing, I really dont like the inclusion of EMS transporting fire engines, in the game acting as both a firetruck and a transporting ALS unit, it gets in the way with a ton of shit, especially when there are patients at a call that requires lots of enignes, it ends up getting in the way when i go through my transport requests and accidentally send that engine to the hospital and thus require another engine from somewhere else, or I would need to consciously choose not to send it, and then just get another ALS unit to the scene which by that point I could have just sent 1 ALS unit and 1 engine rather than the ALS transporting engine. It eats up assets instead of freeing them like squads and quints (attempt) to do.

If it were up to me, and the way I read this chain, all engines should be able to treat BLS without an ambulance, and ALS transporting engines should be changed to just ALS treatment but no transport (in essence, treat the patient fully and then have it come in as a transport request, even better, have it tell you beforehand that transport will be needed. Example is cardiac arrest, an ALS engine could start working on them, get them prepped for the ambulance, and when the ambulance gets there they just stick the guy in the back and cook it all the way to the hospital).

I kinda went off on another tangent of a topic but let me know if I got that wrong, and what people think about that.

Makes sense, thank you

I am not sure if it has always been like this, but I remember all fire stations costed 100k, probably because I only have 25 stations and have only recently noticed the price increase.

My take:

Heavy rescues do more than just SAR. I am in rhode island so we call them "Special Hazards" (no its not hazmat, its a rhode island thing dont ask). The hazards jobs include: Search (at fires), rope rescue, MVAs, tech rescue, medicals, RIT, service calls, hazmat (usually tech level guys, not an actual hazmat team although most guys on hazards are also on hazmat tech teams), SAR, and basically anything else a ladder company would do. We have specific teams and vehicles that are state and locally run that are for SAR. [Blocked Image: https://www.firenews.org/ri/p/providence/ProvidenceRISH1-2022.jpg]

Here is a picture of the special hazards from Providence.

[Blocked Image: https://www.firenews.org/ri/w/warwick/WarwickRITechRescue-2020.jpg]

Here is the state USAR/Heavy Rescue task force located in warwick. This is what a SAR unit would be considered in the game, and what would actually carry all the equipment.

[Blocked Image: https://www.firenews.org/ri/efg/eastprovidence/EastProvidenceRITechRescue-2023.jpg]

Here is another picture of another "SAR/heavy rescue task force" unit from East Providence, also part of the state HR task force.

So, TL;DR: Dont change the name, but maybe put the equipment on it, and maybe require training to use it as a SAR vehicle.

Quote from ChiefBoden61

53 years in the business and I have NEVER seen 10 show up on one rig

As i said, unless you are an in an industrial fire brigade that is purposely riding 10 on a rig, you likely will not see it.

If you want a real world example, look at Vestal, NY. They have a rescue with 10 spots on it.

Like I said, extremely uncommon but it exists.

I would like to see more settings for the ARRs primarily a dispatch order. What I mean by this is the ability to dispatch certain units or unit types first before another.

Right now I am having an issue where the ARR is sending squads (rescue engines) to calls where they are not needed. I would like the ability to still dispatch them as an engine but I would like to be able to dispatch actual engines first, then dispatch squads as engines after all have been dispatched. It would also be nice to set a max distance for that so that it doesn't dispatch an engine 40 minutes away (example as the last engine available) when there is a squad 2 minutes away.

Edit: I have been thinking more about this and I think this can be achieved with a dispatch priority section of the ARR or some sort of ordering system.

Animal control is just not something the average police department deals with, usually it is a separate state or private agency that deals with that. Plus I think we have enough niche stuff for PD atm (like riot control)

Quote from Alasizon

In part because they set the headcount max to 10 which became extremely unrealistic.

Its not entirely unrealistic to see 10 on a rig, however you are likely only going to see this on industrial rigs and not on "normal" fire trucks

Quote from JRKPirna

That is true, however there should be an option in the vehicles to switch that off. I don't want to have them respond as those, and I do not want to create an extra vehicle category and assign it to all the units I'm going to add.

I had the same issue and the solution I found is to dispatch it as its own vehicle class called "car" or "arson" or whatever, make that the custom vehicle class. Then create an ARR that dispatches 1 of those and now when you go to dispatch it, just click that button and it starts the closest one.

I do this with all of my vehicles. I used to manually dispatch units and I would color code each of my stations. Each unit in the station had a custom class of "Station #" with whatever number, and then I would set the color so I could easily see it in the dispatch window. I have since changed to dispatching single units. I have an ARR for every unit type I have and each unit type is set to its respective type in the custom class. Engines are dispatched as "Engine", ladders are dispatched as "Ladder", etc etc. On the dispatch window, I just click the button that says "Engine" to dispatch 1 engine. I just click the button however many times for however many engines a mission requires, I do the same for all other units. I find that this way is much simpler than having station based custom classes.

Quote from Gooochy

I think copyright ©️ is the reason why .

Not sure why copyright would have anything to do with that. Someone could make we will rock you the sound for a new call and nothing would happen to the game legally speaking. Even if it was, at the very least give us some way to change the awful noises the game makes right now.

Why are FBI units not able to transport prisoners? I have seen very few arrests made by FBI that the prisoner gets taken by local PD, most of the time the FBI takes whoever they were after back to the FBI building and processes them federally right there.

We have graphics packs, why not audio packs to change the game sounds? Change the dispatch noise from that radio scratch to something like a beep, or a new call coming in as pager tones or whatever.

Quote from ChiefBoden61

It is not realistic and some jurisdictions do not use mandatory transport by air... If you want helicopter transports, buy the stations, buy the birds and set them up in your response protocols...

Thats not what im suggesting. I am suggesting that we have a mission update to require it to make it act like IC called it. Random chance with some missions.

Quote from ChiefBoden61

Not sure about others, but in the area that I work in.....Tampa Bay Region in the US...there is no "required" use of a helicopter for emergency transport.. It is at the discretion of the on scene IC or Paramedic

Tampa bay is also a metro area. Lots of places out west, more rural areas, and even some suburban areas would grab a heli if there was a major car crash, fire, other accident with massive injury and transport like that. I have been involved in several incidents where the only reason a patient made it from car crashes was because we had a heli to transport them. Cuts transport time down by a lot especially for an extended extrication. However, you are right in the fact that there isnt any requirement for it, but i think the point the OP is making is that the "IC" in the game should be able to request it (by updating the mission to have it as a requirement).

What is this unit for.

Also, if anybody has a master list of what units are what and what they do, if you can link it to me that would be great.

Part 2:

This may or may not be a really good addition to the game to expand the mission types and what actually happens in each but I want to hear your guys opinions on it. Same thing with the other post I made about the NFIRS system for POIs, maybe have that same system for missions as they spawn? Same thing I will explain how each series works and the general structure of the numbering system:

1. 100 series incidents are fires. This is broken down into 7 different subcategories of different fires each with their own determinants
   1. 11 series are building fires
   2. 12 series are fires in mobile properties being used as a fixed structure like mobile homes or RVs
   3. 13 series are fires in mobile properties (vehicle fires) like vehicles, campers, aircraft, boats, etc
   4. 14 series are fires in natural vegetation fires, brush fires
   5. 15 series are fires in outside rubbish fires. This is trash fires, dumpster fires, construction fires, etc
   6. 16 series are special outside fires, mailboxes, outside equipment, etc
   7. 17 series are agricultural fires like crops or tree fires.
2. 200 series incidents are overpressure, explosion, overheat, (no fire). Again this is broken in to 5 subcategories for each type
   1. 21 series are overpressure rupture from steam (no fire). This would be steam explosions
   2. 22 series are overpressure rupture from air or gas (no fire). This is pipeline ruptures, air tank explosions, etc
   3. 23 series are overpressure rupture from chemical reaction (no fire). This would be for process containers that exploded from mixing chemicals
   4. 24 series are listed as explosion (no fire). This is for every other explosion that is not an overpressure of some sort. Dust, munitions, fireworks, blasting agents, etc
   5. 25 series are for excessive heat, scorch burns with no ignition. This is for things like equipment failures where part of the equipment or electrical circuit fails and melts, etc
3. 300 series incidents are for rescue and EMS incidents. Broken down into 8 subcategories
   1. 31 series are medical calls
   2. 32 series are EMS scenes like car crashes with or without injuries, etc
   3. 33 series are lock ins, somebody locked themselves in vehicles, structures, etc (does not include lock out, thats a different incident type, 511)
   4. 34 series are searches for lost people. Either on land, in water, or underground
   5. 35 series are extrications. Can be from buildings, vehicles, machinery, elevators, trench/below grade rescues, high angle, confined space, etc
   6. 36 series are water/ice rescues.
   7. 37 series are electrical rescues like for electrocutions or people trapped by power lines/energized wires
   8. 38 series are standbys, probably not useful in the game
4. 400 series incidents are labeled as Hazardous condition (no fire). 8 subcategories.
   1. 41 series are flammable liquid spills/leaks
   2. 42 series are chemical releases, reaction, or toxic conditions. CO incidents, refrigerant leaks, chemical spills, etc
   3. 43 series are radioactive conditions, there is only one number for this 431, radioactive condition other as there can be so many different reasons for radioactive leaks and in the real world, it'll be federal incident managers and the NRC that do reports not a fire department. Probably not useful in the game.
   4. 44 series are electrical wiring/equipment problems. Shorts, arcing equipment, downed power lines, overheated motors/wiring, etc
   5. 45 series are biological hazards, like with radioactive condition, there is only number for this 451, biological hazard confirmed or suspected. Same reason, theres going to be government agencies that do reports on an incident like this and it wont be up to a fire department.
   6. 46 series are accidents/potential accidents. Building collapse or unstable structures, aircraft standby (ARFF alert levels), cleanup at a vehicle accident
   7. 47 series are bomb removals. Only one number again as other federal agencies will be doing reports. Not a bomb scare, there is another number for bomb scares, 721.
   8. 48 series are attempted burnings (arson), attempted burning/illegal burn, or threats to burn
5. 500 series are service related incidents. 7 subcategories
   1. 51 series are "person in distress". Lock outs, or ring removals
   2. 52 series are water emergencies. water (not people) evacuations, water or steam leaks (includes open hydrants)
   3. 53 series are smoke problems. Smoke or odor removals like for cooking malfunctions.
   4. 54 series are animal rescues.
   5. 55 series are public services. police matters, assistance to the public, assistance to other government agencies/police, etc
   6. 56 series are unauthorized/illegal burns (not arson)
   7. 57 series are cover assignments. This is more of a real world thing where when one town has a large incident they will call in other surrounding agencies to cover their district while they deal with the incident. Not useful in game because there is no cover assignments.
6. 600 series are good intent calls. 7 subcategories. Most of these are probably not useful for the game
   1. 61 series are dispatched and cancelled en route. Not useful for the game.
   2. 62 series are wrong location/no emergency found. Not useful for the game.
   3. 63 series are controlled burns. Prescribed burns.
   4. 64 series are vicinity alarms, this would be for a burglar alarm at another location but someone calls thinking it is the fire alarm. Not useful for the game)
   5. 65 series are steam or other gasses mistaken for smoke. Smoke scares, vapor releases that people think is smoke. Probably not useful for the game
   6. 66 series are EMS incidents where the patient was already transported. Not useful for the game
   7. 67 series are Hazmat release investigation with no hazmat. Possibly useful for the game?
7. 700 series are False alarms/false calls. 5 subcategories, maybe useful for the game?
   1. 71 series are malicious/mischievous false alarms. accidental activations of alarms, kids pulling alarms, someone smoking inside, etc. Maybe useful if we add mission downgrading or add a mission called fire alarm activation and then it is expanded to be one of these 700 series incidents?
   2. 72 series are bomb scares with no bomb. This would be useful as a mission if we addd mission downgrading.
   3. 73 series are system or detector malfunctions. Sprinkler systems, CO detectors, smoke detectors, suppression systems, alarm systems activation for no apparent reason or the malfunction of alarm panels, etc. Maybe useful for the game?
   4. 74 series unintentional system/detector activation, no fire. This would be accidental activations. Probably not useful for the game unless we add mission downgrading.
   5. 75 series is for biological hazard, malicious false reports only. Probably not useful unless we add mission downgrading.
8. 800 series are for severe weather and natural disasters. only 1 subcategory and is probably not useful for the game because these incidents will probably have higher levels of reporting and wont be handled by the fire department.
   1. 81 series are all severe weather and natural disasters. Floods, earthquakes, lightning strikes, etc
9. 900 series is the special incident type, and is probably only useful for fire investigation in the game.
   1. Incident type 911, citizen complaint (includes code violations).

Like with the occupancies list, there is also incident types UUU and 000. 000 being other, meaning it doesnt fit any of the incident types listed and UUU being unknown, you dont know what it is. These last 2 are probably not useful for the game.

I definitely think that the incident types isn't as useful as the occupancies/property use stuff for the POIs but I think it could allow more dynamic mission expansion. I also think it would be more realistic to have more missions that are unknown until units get there like fire alarm activations and stuff. Let me know what you guys think about part 2 of this post.

Here is the NFIRS incident code list. https://osfm.fire.ca.gov/media…ats_incidentcodeguide.pdf

Big post coming up, this is part 1:

Theres a lot of buildings/occupancies that could be added to the game to make it more broad and allow for more mission types and variations. The list we have is already very expansive but I think having something similar to the NFIRS property use system would be great. Maybe not all of them but at least some. For those that are unaware, the system uses numbers for each type of property that FDs respond to. Here is the general structure:

1. 100 series buildings are listed as assembly, this is stuff like movie theaters, clubs, ice rinks, arenas, and places where large groups of people gather in open spaces
2. 200 series buildings are listed as educational buildings, schools, classrooms, day cares, etc. This would expand on what is in my district in the game (i have a college campus in my district with a lot of different buildings that have different occupancies and hazards associated with them)
3. 300 series are healthcare, detention and corrections facilities, hosptials, jails, police stations, etc.
4. 400 series are the residential occupancies, this section is broken down into very specific types, 1-2 family dwellings, dormitories, sororities/frat houses, hotels, etc.
5. 500 series are businesses/commercial buildings, stores, banks, offices, service stations, etc.
6. 600 series are industiral, utility, defense, agricultural, mining buildings. Mines, flammables production, military bases, substations, computers, etc. Mainly occupancies with a large population of people and a large amount of hazards associated with the building.
7. 700 series are manufacturing and processing. Simple section, only one option because there would be too many different kinds of manufacturing facilities that make so many different things that it would make the list too long if we had one for every single type, so the only one is 700 Manufacturing and processing.
8. 800 series are storage buildings, warehouses, cold storage, chemical tanks, fire stations, parking garages, etc
9. 900 series is for special properties that might not fit the other ones like beaches, streets, rail yards, runways, tunnels, etc
10. The last section has 3 codes, "000 for property use, other" which is for properties that either dont have a clear use or areas that dont fit any of the other use cases. UUU is for undetermined, for places that you cant determine what it is or what it is used for, and NNN for none meaning nothing was there.

It should be said that all of these sections have an option for an "other" type, so if you have a building in your district in game that you know is a warehouse but dont know what kind or what its for, you can list it as an 800 (storage, other).

Seeing a system similar to this to list out POIs and different occupancies in the game would make it so much easier to start missions based off the hazards associated with it. Using my district as an example, we have a college with a lot of different buildings there. The dorms and the frat houses are a good example because I cant make a differentiation between the two with the current POI system, but if we had a more in depth system, I could list the frat houses as property type 462 (Sorority, Fraternity house) and the dorms as 460 (Dormitory-type residence, other). Same with different buildings on campus, some are classrooms but have chemical storage attached to them, which would change it from a "school" POI to one of the other types of occupancies on the NFIRS system.

Before you say that this system is too complicated for a game, its surprisingly simple, and doesnt require memorization of numbers or anything, just knowing what a building is used for. It would allow for different missions to spawn at different locations and make the game more realistic with the hazards associated with a certain area rather than having 1or 2 ways to describe buildings as is true with the current system.

Here is a list of all of the occupancy options as outlined by NFIRS: https://osfm.fire.ca.gov/media/2811/propertyuse.pdf

Quote from Smilee Smiles

I would think heavy rescue vehicles would carry small pumps for special operations (such as a flood) They can still be a dry truck just with some support pumps for the other trucks.

This is true, as far as I know thats a pretty standard piece of equipment for heavy rescues (at least in my state), a few small electric plug in sump pumps and then a bigger gas powered suction pump, but definitely not a 1500 GPM pump, thats on the more powerful end of pumps even for engines, most engines have 1250s not 1500s although they are becoming more common.

Quote from Smilee Smiles

I do agree that a lot of this isn't in rural America, some of this would be run by private organizations or DOT/Road crews, but I don't think it would be forcing it on someone since they are part of an extension (If you exclude that bug you are experiencing)

Even more than that though, a lot of these agencies that have all this equipment and responses are going to be state or federal crews that come in on request or order from a state government not just dispatched like regular units. These are all going to be specialized task forces that are assembled and sent out on request.