Fire Trucks & Follow me Vehicles

[Dangerzone]

Really a low priority request, but if you're ever working on any of the units for an update, it would be great to have emergency vehicles/fire trucks and follow me vehicles with flashing lights as part of core DCS. If you do this, please make them so they can be controlled via Combined Arms (turn on/off flashing lights, and even spray water). 

I think it would make for a more immersive experience on MP if someone declares an emergency, and after landing is greeted by vehicles, along with getting water poured over them, not to mention that campaign creators could utilise this. 

Maybe this could also be considered if you're working on the new ATC - if the units could come out automatically if an emergency landing is declared? 

Obviously this isn't a high priority one, but if you're tinkering around with ground units... just adding it for consideration.

 

[cfrag]

12 hours ago, Dangerzone said:

I think it would make for a more immersive experience on MP if someone declares an emergency, and after landing is greeted by vehicles, along with getting water poured over them, not to mention that campaign creators could utilise this. 

No reason why this couldn't also be great and immersive for single player. If AI could do that, it would be truly excellent.

Unless you believe that people would love the idea of sitting around in a simulated fire engine for hours on end in the hopes that someone would declare an emergency.  They won't. It's pretty much like those manned guns on my helos (Huey, Hip, Hind). Everyone thinks 'hey that's neat if players can man them'. What they really are thinking is "that's neat if some OTHER players man them". Because, as I found out, manning guns in a helo is boring. I've more than 400 hours in the Huey. and some combined 30 minutes as gunner. I contend that riding shotgun sucks for 90% of the people 99% of the time. I've yet have to come across an interesting DCS mission written for gunners. A mission where people man a firetruck to wait for a disaster can't be much better.

 

Edited March 12 by cfrag

[sirrah]

27 minutes ago, cfrag said:

No reason why this couldn't also be great and immersive for single player. If AI could do that, it would be truly excellent.

For AI (emergency service) ground units being able to drive to a crashed aircraft/helo, we'd need something like this:

 

 

Edited March 12 by sirrah

[Dangerzone]

4 hours ago, cfrag said:

No reason why this couldn't also be great and immersive for single player. If AI could do that, it would be truly excellent.

Unless you believe that people would love the idea of sitting around in a simulated fire engine for hours on end in the hopes that someone would declare an emergency.

Absolutely - it would also be immersive for SP. That's why I mentioned that it could be used by campaign creators as well as having an option for it to come out automatically.

From the MP side - people in CA don't have to sit around for hours waiting. The beauty about combined arms is that you can control many different vehicles, so someone such as a game master can be controlling enemy units - but also control emergency vehicles to add to that immersion. Even a player in an aircraft has the ability to control units whilst in the aircraft from the F10 map - so even a wingman (if they had CA) could get the trucks to move on their buddy. We've had a lot of fun in MP using combined arms 'on each other' to add to the immersion.  There are a bunch of different options available for it's utilization - so there's no need for someone to sit around in a simulated fire engine for hours hoping someone declares an emergency for it to be effective with CA. 

I just understand that automation adds a whole new area of workload, so if it's too difficult to do the automation side of things, even just starting off with having these vehicles available and controllable by triggers and CA would be a great start.

 

Edited March 12 by Dangerzone

[Vortexstate]

On 3/12/2024 at 12:49 AM, Dangerzone said:

Really a low priority request, but if you're ever working on any of the units for an update, it would be great to have emergency vehicles/fire trucks and follow me vehicles with flashing lights as part of core DCS. If you do this, please make them so they can be controlled via Combined Arms (turn on/off flashing lights, and even spray water). 

I think it would make for a more immersive experience on MP if someone declares an emergency, and after landing is greeted by vehicles, along with getting water poured over them, not to mention that campaign creators could utilise this. 

Maybe this could also be considered if you're working on the new ATC - if the units could come out automatically if an emergency landing is declared? 

Obviously this isn't a high priority one, but if you're tinkering around with ground units... just adding it for consideration.

 

There's already asset packs for DCS that have fire trucks and follow me cars, and I bet you can do some neat trigger work with those follow me cars to actually guide you once you're at a specific point of the airport. This would still be neat for DCS: Core

[upyr1]

I would also add a tow vehicle to help when I get my dumb self stuck running off the runway 

[draconus]

1 hour ago, upyr1 said:

I would also add a tow vehicle to help when I get my dumb self stuck running off the runway 

No chance that aircraft is flying that day.

[cfrag]

29 minutes ago, draconus said:

No chance that aircraft is flying that day.

Not IRL, no. Luckily, DCS is a game and provides the "three-minute-repair" that can bring a FUBAR Mudhen to stellar, flight-worthy condition. So why not a plane that accidentally was driven off the ramp by an unlicensed pilot? Remember -- this is a game, and we can do stuff that isn't realistic (like flying a jet fitted out for Armageddon without being licensed nor authorized). Actually, that's one of DCS's strong points. So even if it wasn't realistic, IMHO it's still something worthwhile to discuss.

[draconus]

7 minutes ago, cfrag said:

Remember -- this is a game

Yes, but of study combat flight simulator genre. Take another slot and watch the aircraft taken out of the mud

btw: Our simulated pilot is all licensed and enlisted. We can get rid of that fast repair and rearm, if you ask me.

[sirrah]

4 hours ago, Vortexstate said:

There's already asset packs for DCS that have fire trucks and follow me cars, and I bet you can do some neat trigger work with those follow me cars to actually guide you once you're at a specific point of the airport. This would still be neat for DCS: Core

I think the OP is asking for a few emergency service units to be added to the core game (a wish I wholeheartedly support btw).

You are probably talking about an unofficial user made mod.

 

(there's some true mod gems out there, for sure. But many of us stopped using mods all together, as they can cause trouble/errors after official DCS updates and require troubleshooting to fix afterwards)

[cfrag]

7 minutes ago, draconus said:

Yes, but of study combat flight simulator genre.

That's a distinction without meaning to me. You are either paying for an FAA (or other) licensed 'real' sim for your job (or advanced hobby), or you are playing a game to entertain yourself and spend your quality time. If you want to 'hardcore' it in your quality time, by all means, have at it. But if I don't want to, please don't make me. I happen to like the option of hot-starts, labels, external views and field repair. They - to me - make DCS a better game.  

12 minutes ago, draconus said:

Our simulated pilot is all licensed and enlisted.

So we can completely fantasy our way around that (a multi-year education, medical and mental fitness, political and national affiliation), but we should not fantasy about some grass-lenient gear? Seems a bit arbitrary to me. To me, it's "whatever makes a better game". And let me bring up the "Progressive Overlay" that people enabled for me when I had the opportunity to PIC in a (fully licensed, full motion, and prohibitively expensive) A340 sim. That overlay is not available in reality, yet it helps sim pilots (during training) to find their way around unfamiliar airports without stressing the Tower guys (who, as sim crew, aren't familiar with all airfields either). So even professional sims can bend reality. That's exactly why we use sims: because it is possible to do so there. So, as long as it's optional, I feel it's great to have things that are not 100% realistic - as long as it increases enjoyment for some.

[Dangerzone]

22 hours ago, upyr1 said:

I would also add a tow vehicle to help when I get my dumb self stuck running off the runway 

+1 - Brilliant suggestion!

[Dangerzone]

20 hours ago, sirrah said:

I think the OP is asking for a few emergency service units to be added to the core game (a wish I wholeheartedly support btw).

You are probably talking about an unofficial user made mod.

 

(there's some true mod gems out there, for sure. But many of us stopped using mods all together, as they can cause trouble/errors after official DCS updates and require troubleshooting to fix afterwards)

You replied exactly what I was thinking. Thanks.  

As mentioned in the OP - this is a low priority suggestion, but given that ED sometimes have a few spare resources for a bit of the more 'fun' stuff (like the halloween mods) - I figure it can't hurt putting these suggestions up to see if some of them gain traction.

I'm just also now thinking of some of the high quality cinematics that are made with DCS, and the kids of stuff that could be done with emergency vehicles at the airfield too now.