Posts by terry_a

Quote from Sparky

Does anyone know how ems works for LA county. Trying to figure out how to get my ambos set up.

Sparky

Yes I do.

To begin with: Los Angeles County Fire Dept does not operate their own ambulances. To be extremely specific, LACoFD only handles certain portions of Los Angeles county's emergency fire / medical responses. LACoFD has direct jurisdiction over only the areas that are unincorporated as well as incorporated cities which choose to contract FD/EMS services to LA County as opposed to creating their own agency. For example, the City of Los Angeles, or the City of Beverly Hills, has its own Fire Department which operates EMS in-house with their own ambulances.

To get a better understanding of what areas are covered by LACoFD, I recommend this map which shows the divisional boundaries of LACOFD.

https://geohub.lacity.org/datasets/8b361….205490%2C10.58

The Los Angles County Health Department does have an ambulance service however they are not attached to LACoFD nor do they handle emergency calls. Per LA County Health Dept website: "The Ambulance Services Section provides non-emergency transport of patients to county operated hospitals 24 hours a day." Source:

https://dhs.lacounty.gov/emergency-medi…lance-services/

So if you wanted units to handle interfacility transfers, maybe create some units with that designation.

As for actual EMS call handling within LACOFD: It is contracted out. They send a LACOFD rescue-paramedic squad vehicle and sometimes an engine/ladder to the medical call along with private EMS ambulance.

If you would like to know which ambulance companies are used, here is a convenient map showing the LACOFD divisions outlined by which companies service each division.

https://file.lacounty.gov/SDSInter/dhs/1…_EOA_101216.pdf

LACoFD does have some in house EMS supervisors, and these companies also roll their own supervisors. Each probably take care of their own EMS personnel.

LACoFD also operates some, but not all, of the lifeguard towers along the LA County coastline.

The LA Sheriff's Office also operates an advanced tactical/rescue team that flies multiple helos all around the county all day doing a mix of things from tactical response to medical evacs and search/rescue.

http://www.lacosar.org/

The LACoFD Wiki is a great place to get good general info and unit designations. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angel…Fire_Department

It's hard to find the right up-to-date documents for things like this when dealing with an agency this large. Companies and names change and these documents are sometimes buried in 500 page public reports. For example, one LACOFD contracted EMS agency ("Cole Schaefer Ambulance Services")

was closed years ago, though you may still find outdated references depending on where you dig.

If you want a good document outlining what private/public ambulance services operate in which jurisdictions throughout the state of California, here's the document for you:

https://emsa.ca.gov/wp-content/upl…9-Ambu-Zone.pdf

The links and knowledge here come from many many many hours of tiresome and boring digging so hopefully you enjoy them!

Quote from Barake

I am completely on board with selling vehicles and maybe buildings.

Where I have to disagree is adding a level of complexity by worrying about maintenance. I have over 1000 Type 1, rescue, utility, and ladder vehicles, and making a maintenance schedule for those alone would change this from a game to a job.

A small thing, if I buy an ambulance extension for my station, the only way you can add an ambulance, it can trigger ambulance calls.

Honestly I think the maintenance can be automated. It would just be a cost factor thing that you manage at a high level, not managing individual vehicles.

Secondly, part of the reason I made this post was that I recently discovered that my fire stations let me place regular ambulances in them without having an ambulance extension built, which really made me realize how silly the whole concept was (i.e. requiring it to make the right call).

I see many people defend the costs related to certain actions within the game as realistic; I for one do agree that many pieces of equipment, or the act of expanding parking space should cost a realistic amount. After all adding a garage spot to a fire station is quite a constructive undertaking realistically.

There are certain financial choices that irk me and I want to discuss them.

• The cost mechanics related to different types of buildings do not seem fairly balanced. Whereas large vehicles like ambulances and fire apparatus are often stored in garage bays attached to a building, police vehicles are the size of a typical passenger car (except specialty vehicles like a armored truck). Why is the cost associated with adding a single parking spot to what is effectively a simple lot for police cars the same amount as adding a whole bay to a fire station building. It seems strange to me. I really think the concept of parking spaces vs sizes of vehicles should be reconsidered. It'd also be very nice to just have a spare vehicle lot; in other words: a building that is just a parking lot to store out of service vehicles (you cant have staff there and you cant respond to calls from there).
• Selling buildings, vehicles, etc.. I realize this entire game is about numbers and credits and coins; however I find it quite unfair and undoubtably unrealistic that you can literally pick up and move a building (not saying remove that feature, I think it's great) but that you are not able to "sell" a building or vehicle for a fraction of its original cost. Nobody will ever buy a used vehicle or used building for the same as its original purchase price, but it's silly to think that the emergency agency just abandons the building or vehicle when they're done with it as opposed to selling it for a partial return. Depending on the age of building, and/or the milage a vehicle has on it, you should be able to sell it for a fraction of its return cost, and the sell price will go down more with wear and tear.
  • Note that this will NOT defeat the purpose of coins being used to move buildings because using the coins allows you to move all the vehicles, building expansions, and level upgrades for that building. Whereas if you sell the building, you need to relocate personnel and vehicles, and you will take a penalty by losing a chunk of the original cost...it's realistic AND the premium feature is still worthy of being used.
• It seems only logical that a game like this will eventually include more complex vehicle management and if you keep reading you'll see why I mention this:
  • Vehicle accidents that put your unit out of service for days or even weeks (heavily emphasizing the need for a reserve unit parking lot, and the need to keep reserve units on hand, adds more complexity to fleet management)
  • Vehicle maintenance and breakdowns with 3 realistic options:
    • 1 - Simple static cost associated with maintenance and a random chance of a breakdown
    • 2 - A slider based mechanic where a player can select LOW-MEDIUM-HIGH maintenance and the game will vary the levels of breakdowns based on the quality of maintenance selected.
    • 3 - Complex implementation involving maintenance yard buildings and the option to send the vehicle for service with a private mechanic as opposed to your own building if you don't feel building your own maintenance building.
    • Note: Most agencies, except for the really big ones, do not have their own vehicle maintenance staff or facilities. Older vehicles will be more likely to breakdown or require maintenance.
  • Fuel Costs (self explanatory)
• "Expansions" vs. "Building Level Up" is rather poorly done in my opinion. If you put an ambulance into a fire station, then it should be able to generate medical calls. If I'm paying for the parking spot I should be allowed to buy whatever vehicle I want and put it in there. A majority of the expansions, except for a few like the 2 police expansions that add parking, do not contribute anything to the station other than checking a box that makes the game generate a specific call type.
  • It seems pointless and just a way to make the game more time consuming / more costly. I understand that I'm pointing out the obvious by stating that previous sentence but there are better ways to make the game "more expensive" and that feel more genuine and gameplay related than simply requiring an expansion that doesn't add anything of value and is set up like a very obstructive feeling like "please wait 7 days and pay 100K for medical missions." It feels cheap, like a very obvious paywall.
  • I provided a very good example above, related to vehicular costs, of how to make the game more expensive without making it feel like the devs couldn't think of anything other than "let's just make them pay to unlock the missions, on top of paying for training people, buying the vehicles, and buying the space and buildings to put them in."
  • There is nothing realistic about me paying for a figurative "unlock" that doesn't add any physical value to my station and does nothing other than permit the citizens in my jurisdiction to experience medical emergencies, floodings, or wildfires etc..
  • In short, buying the vehicle should unlock the potential to spawn the mission and the "expansions" should simply not exist for the most part. There are key types of expansions that actually make sense, such as building a literal jail cell, or building a literal specialty wing/section in a hospital, those things add real visible value that contribute to gameplay.

Quote from ChiefBoden61

Without a semi you can not transport the "trailer" to the mission.

Yes I am aware of that. That is not the issue here. If you refer to the original message of the post you can see I was referring to the fact that I was only intending to use the semi to move a water tanker trailer and that I didn't want to use it for the mass casualty trailer.

The issue is simply related to an odd purchasing requirement for the Semi itself when using small stations.

Thanks.

Listen I'm really not here to start an argument. I am simply here to report my findings.

Unless someone can point me to an actual development statement showing that this was intentional, I'm going to continue describing it as a bug because it simply seems illogical.

In my opinion, it seems logical that two different buildings that are capable of holding the same-exact type of vehicle should be able to move that vehicle between them.

Hopefully someone responsible for reading and responding to bug threads will eventually respond and factually answer for the issue.

Thank you.

Quote from braydendavis101

Um i might be completely mistaken here but i have a small station with a trailer and crew cab. all i did was use up to of my 5 parking spots.

{(edit!!!!) I have the normal station lol sorry!!}

No worries! My simplest workaround to this rather strange bug was to simply buy the equipment in a larger station and move them to the small station that I wanted it at in the first place.

Quote from manfromcny

actually its not a bug - the building types are different - you can only transfer units between the same building type

So it would seem by current design but one might argue that it seems illogical to prohibit transferring between two different types of buildings if those two buildings are intended to hold the same types of units. Hence from my perspective it clearly logically seems like a bug.

Quote from ChiefBoden61

Report it to support then. But I think it has been discussed before and that is how it is intended.

Is it not the purpose of the "Errors, Bugs" forum section to report bugs? Where are bugs supposed to go?

Yes I'm aware as I mentioned, I am just reporting the clear bug. My intention was to use the water trailer only.

Quote from ChiefBoden61

Ummmmm... my recommendation is to buy the regular station. In the long run it is worth it and you can add whatever you want in terms of extensions and equipment. Solves all your problems mentioned above really. Also....remember.... better to buy the MCI Vehicle and not the trailer as the trailer does not transport.

Quote from ChiefBoden61

Why do you need an EMS Chief in a clinic? You do not need anyone to authorize transports to clinics. You send an ambulance and they transport. And you most certainly can move ems chiefs from EMS Station to EMS Station. I did it this morning. And if you want an EMS Chief in a Fire Station for fire based EMS, then just add one to the fleet there.

I don't need it there, that's just where I decided to put it. I'm simply trying to reporting a bug about being unable to move the vehicle. I have checked time and time again and I am completely unable to move an EMS Chief from a CLINIC to a EMS Station. I am aware that they can be moved between EMS stations.

Buying a Tanker Semi Truck Trailer in a Small Fire Station is impossible because you require a "Crew cab semi" which, for some reason, cannot be purchased in a small fire station unless you have a "Mass Casualty Trailer Extension." The Mass Casualty Trailer Extension cannot be built on a small fire station as that is a ambulance related extension.

These issues do not occur in a "regular / non-small" fire station because the Mass Casualty Trailer Extension requirement to buy a Crew Cab semi does not exist in those stations.

Seems like the developer tried to prevent people from using crew cabs in small stations but did it in a very odd and confusing way which makes it seem unintentional and like a bug.

To put it very simply, you should be able to move ambulances and vehicles like EMS Chiefs between Clinics and Ambulance Stations. The fact that you can't do that makes basically no sense.

Can a Forum Moderator please move this post to the US Bugs section, I didn't see it.

Quote from ChiefBoden61

Don't think that is a bug.... In the US version it has always been that way. And no one has ever had a problem with it that I am aware.

That definitely does not make any sense.

If a player is able to purchase a specific given vehicle type in two different types of buildings, then they should be allowed to move that vehicle between those two buildings.

If I can move an Ambulance from an Ambulance Station to a Fire Station with Ambulance Extension, I should be able to do the same to other EMS units.

Adding onto this:

3) EMS Chief vehicles inside clinics cannot be transferred to Ambulance Stations or Fire Stations with EMS Extensions.

4) Ambulances inside Fire Stations with EMS Extensions cannot be transferred to Clinics.

You can purchase and place a EMS Command vehicle into a Fire Station with EMS Extension, however you CANNOT send people from a Fire Station with EMS Extension to a EMS School Training course, meaning they cannot receive EMS Command Training.

You also cannot transfer a EMS Command vehicle from a Fire Station with EMS Extension to a Medic Station or Clinic, it will only let you transfer it to other fire stations. The programming appears to treat the EMS Command Vehicle as a fire vehicle HOWEVER...

You CAN purchase the EMS Command Vehicle within a EMS station or clinic...and then from there you can train those people with EMS Command Training.

2 Separate Bugs:

1) Employees within a Fire Station with EMS Extension CANNOT be sent to EMS Academy Courses

2) The EMS Command Vehicle cannot be transferred between a Fire Station with EMS Extension and EMS Stations or Clinics.

P.S. I lost 40K trying to figure out this issue so hopefully it can be fixed to prevent others from being confused

Thanks