Emergency Services Mod
Posted: Sat Jul 28, 2012 7:50 pm
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.
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.