Emergency Services Mod

non-violent rescue RTS game

Information and discussion for custom maps and mods.
Matt
Posts: 1144
Joined: Tue May 01, 2012 12:21 pm
Location: Germany

Emergency Services Mod

Post by Matt »

There are few RTS games where you save lives instead of playing war.

The http://www.mobygames.com/game-group/eme ... ers-series is a German real time strategy game where you play as rescue service. I always liked the idea, but the implementation was quite terrible. The graphics were always dated and not very high-quality (few animations). Controlling the units was very annoying because there was zero AI, terrible path-finding, a lot of micromanagement and a bad interface. Imagine extinguishing major fires with controls that are as effective as unit ordering in Dune II. It was slow paced, but as there was also a time limit when something explodes or people die you are still stressed. Not very joyful to play.

Fire Department http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTuyzkrAGWg does this a little nicer: orchestral music, fast paced gameplay, easy interface, nicer looking graphics. Story was awful but who cares.

I always wanted to do something like this using C&C Generals. Combine the ease of the interface and unrealistic Hollywood style physics to make playing as the fire brigade actually fun. However I am bad at doing graphics and commercial games are usually not that flexible to mod.

Maybe this could be done using OpenRA: The idea is to train firemen instead of mini-gunners and let them fight flames. Flames usually have a "HP" bar indicator in those games. Just color the flame thrower "projectile" blue and rename the unit. To make this actually fun the flames have to look a little more impressive (Dune 2000 ones are nicer) and fire needs to spread somehow (not just AttackWander). There are already medics in the game so they just need an ambulance car or helicopter. Make some maps and voila. I wonder if people would play this and how easy it could be done.

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Harisson
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Joined: Sun Jan 13, 2008 10:03 pm

Post by Harisson »

I realy like doing mods especialy for OpenRA. I can help with graphics, but I don't know 3D.
Realy nice idea of mod, but why just don't add rpg system to this ? Still I'm dreaming about Sole Survivor mod, where you control one unit and you'll get $ and EXP to level your unit, late for buying some vehicles and with friends inside complete some co-op quests againts AI or to kill another players (like GTA :oops: ).
I remember some SNES games:

Code: Select all

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wqdw-KZFAQo
or

Code: Select all

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wn3FuXBHQHs
they have nice 2D graphics for mod.

Matt
Posts: 1144
Joined: Tue May 01, 2012 12:21 pm
Location: Germany

Post by Matt »

Using the Cargo: and TransformOnCapture:/TransformOnPassenger: you can make a mod that allows changing vehicles already. I also saw some RPG elements in the Generals style pilot system that CombineC did in Advanced Conquest where you can rank up vehicles if you rescue your men.

Maybe an ambulance car or medivac helicopter could also be used in the RA mod even if I don't manage to get this one done.

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BaronOfStuff
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Joined: Sun May 22, 2011 7:25 pm

Post by BaronOfStuff »

Co-op compatible recreations of the original missions (or as close to) are what I'd love to see. Especially those ones where you only get a few units and have to face off against a seemingly insurmountable force to achieve an objective.

chrisf
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Joined: Mon Sep 06, 2010 4:59 am

Post by chrisf »

Matt: if you do this well, I will not only play it, but I'll ship it in the official package.

xan2622
Posts: 80
Joined: Fri Mar 15, 2013 9:27 pm

Post by xan2622 »

It could worth asking permission to use it but this firetruck looks good:
http://www.ppmforums.com/viewtopic.php? ... 4c1d98a292

Or this one:
https://clara.io/view/beaa2f71-a56e-45e ... 22ef5754af


Btw, the latest Emergency 5 game looks good too:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KfDgpmfT0g

Matt
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Joined: Tue May 01, 2012 12:21 pm
Location: Germany

Post by Matt »

I found some nice voxels at http://www.ppmforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=8986 but was a bit uneasy for not reaching the author and no official license agreement. It is a bit weird to just harvest from those forums, especially if you come from the open content and free software world.

At least for http://www.ppmforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=15820 I got a vague reply that I am allowed to use those voxels in my mod.

Yeah, now there is just a whole urban tileset, fires and burning objects missing. =)

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Graion Dilach
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Joined: Fri May 15, 2015 5:57 pm

Post by Graion Dilach »

You should have noticed it by now that I love doing civilian eye-candy lately, so I could prolly craft a voxel or two if you're that interested.

Matt
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Joined: Tue May 01, 2012 12:21 pm
Location: Germany

Post by Matt »

It would be great if you would let me use your http://www.moddb.com/mods/attacque-supr ... showcase-2 preferably under the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ terms.

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Graion Dilach
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Post by Graion Dilach »

Some of those are not fully mine, but I'll create a package from what I can.

xan2622
Posts: 80
Joined: Fri Mar 15, 2013 9:27 pm

Post by xan2622 »

To make this actually fun the flames have to look a little more impressive (Dune 2000 ones are nicer)
Does that mean that, if this mod ever gets done, will be based on the D2K engine?
Now that OpenRA plans to support TS/RA2 mods, wouldn't it be better for this Emergency Services mod to be based on one of these two "recent" games instead?

TS has nice fire/explosions effects:

Image

Image

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Graion Dilach
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Post by Graion Dilach »

xanax, neither screenshots are valid.

The first is not the TS you know. Yes, it's a TS promo post, but Westwood always photoshopped the explosions into the pictures.

The second is from Twisted Insurrection - practically the TS modding flagship - which remade the palette for the animations from scratch to get such excessive explosions looking good - needless to say, they replaced all the TS default explosions with other ones.

xan2622
Posts: 80
Joined: Fri Mar 15, 2013 9:27 pm

Post by xan2622 »

I have just discovered this similar game:
RESCUE 2: Everyday Heroes - http://store.steampowered.com/app/339210/

just wanted to share :)

Matt
Posts: 1144
Joined: Tue May 01, 2012 12:21 pm
Location: Germany

Post by Matt »

I tested Rescue 1 and it essentially suffers from the same gameplay flaws plus an unnecessary Sims like "buy microwaves for your department". You don't feel like an operator in headquarters coordinating when you need to micromanage tasks like "pick up a fire extinguisher from the fire truck", because otherwise when you order your fireman on a fire he doesn't know what to do.

xan2622
Posts: 80
Joined: Fri Mar 15, 2013 9:27 pm

Post by xan2622 »

I just discovered really nice civilian vehicles and ships made by MadHQ (scroll down to see the ships):

http://www.ppmforums.com/viewtopic.php?p=541100#541100

The good part is his permission and FAQ pages on his website. :)


EDIT: I just found out that you already knew about them. link

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