Jakethejake

EM4 has been out for a while. From my standpoint, there are only a few things left to perfect in this game. Building interiors, interior fires, ladderable floors, and the fire mechanics. Some of the later versions have addressed some of these issues, but as a whole, the series really hasn't progressed to add these enhancements. So where does that leave us? From where I sit, most mods will be reskins, or a variation of a reskin mod. For those who kill Dyson and Raff, understand that they have added some things that have kept this iteration of this series going. Unless someone comes up with some ways to get inside of buildings and fight fires, or keep the fires from turning on/off, all there's really left are reskins of the stuff that we have.

Well I agree that dudes can't just take stuff without crediting the author. That's just wrong.

I see your point. Here is my proposal. Start a file cache of things that are open for modders. Anything in the cache is fair game. Anything not in the cache is off limits and is considered stealing, and subject to repurcussions. That way there is no grey area.

I think maybe I'm being misperceived. My intention was not to suggest that modders start "stealing" each others' work in a spiteful way, but rather that the community as a whole comes to the understanding that anything released is fair game. If you need an above ground subway system, you shouldn't have to build one from scratch. It should be understood that you can use the Brooklyn teams' subway system. If a modder wants to do a DC mod and needs Seagrave engines and trucks, then the ones that exist can be used. Some of the LA mod offshoots were just changes that guys made to station assignments and things like that. If you are doing a NY style mod, it is silly to think that you would have to either use buildings that belong in LA, or build your own city. Why have to go through all that when there is a template already out there? Need a midmounted Seagrave tower ladder? Great! Someone built one. I understand that you guys put an awful lot of work into your mods but at this late stage of the game, the mods should be rolling off of the shelves. I'd love to play an LA mod with their newer fireboat and some heavy industry and coastline. Maybe an aerialscope tower ladder or two thrown in for good measure and the need to hook up to hydrants. The only thing that should have to be built is the new fireboat. Everything else should just be piecing things together. There are a million and one mods for this game. To build one from scratch to me seems like doing it the hard way. Finally, I'm gonna defend Dyson and Raf a bit. I can still remember back years ago when Tut and some other guys were showing their NY Mod. We all know that it never panned out. Dyson actually took the lead to begin making NY style mods. In the beginning, it was buggy as hell, but they kept going until we have what we have now. They've listened to feedback along the way. I don't know how much stuff they "borrowed". I do know that Brooklyn has kept me playing this game. I've been to Brooklyn many times, and I appreciate what they have done. It's a good fun mod to play. In the end, it's a shame that everyone can't see eye to eye, but it is what it is. Life goes on. Hopefully this isn't the end. If it is, then take a bow. All of you modders have stretched this game far beyond its potential. I certainly have enjoyed hundreds of hours of fun because of your hard work. I certainly appreciate it.

I'm not a modder, but isn't that what a "community" is? I'll take the various NY style mods. Honestly, they are the only reason that I still play the game. But they weren't built in a vaccuum. Many different people collaborated to build them. In the end, I feel that the Brooklyn Mod may be the best in the game. I loved the LA Mod, and the various offshoots as well. It seems to me that you guys want to take the "community" out of modding. That is your right to do so. It's your work. Do with it what you will. However, whom are you modding for? Yourselves or the community? Because when the good mods stop, this whole community goes away. Isn't the community the reason why we're here? I say that all modders come to the understanding that what is being released is for anyone who wants to use it. That saves everyone from reinventing the wheel, and the whole community benefits from it. How good would a Boston Mod look with some of Brooklyn's buildings? Perhaps some of their stuff can be used in your mod as well. Dispatch scripts and extra alarms and such? Ultimately, guys like me embrace the five or six awesome mods. That's what makes the whole community better. If y'all feel that the Brooklyn team isn't playing fair, then beat them at their own game. Release a better mod with more features. Use their stuff to do so. Hell, Hoppah put this game on the map. Now you're all just gonna up and quit? I don't get it. The rules of the game are changing. I say use these "new rules" to your advantage. The modding community is all that this series has left. As an American firefighter from the northeast, I can say that the mods are the only thing that tickle my fancy. The newest versions of this game don't do anything for me. When the good mods for this community stop being released, people may eventually lose interest. If this series has run its course, then that's fine. But if you guys are breaking up a good communty over a beef between factions, then that's a shame.

There may be some confusion about what I am saying. I believe that in the FDNY, a squad company operates as a straight engine company if they are going to be first, second, or third due to the box. Hence why I am saying that Squad 1 should be in the game. Because on the map, 252 would be operating as an engine co. Being that their first due area is very close to 214/111. I also believe that Squad 288 responds with Hazmat 1, since they are housed together. So say that I was gonna send 4-2 the Rescue and a Squad plus a Batt, it may be 214, 235, 252, 217, 111, 102, R2, Squad 1, and the 37. Do we need 3 squad companies? No. Would it be realistic for that part of Brooklyn? Yes.

Yeah I understand. The map is very close to their first due area. Realistically, Squad 1 would be coming in as the squad co., and 252 would be acting as an engine. Maybe 2nd due. It's cool bro. I get where you're coming from. No big deal. This mod is awesome, and I appreciate your hard work.

I'm gonna officially lobby for a second squad company. Realistically it would be Squad 1. If 252 goes in as a first or second due engine, then they are replaced as a squad. So it is realistically possible to have 2 squads on the assignment. Squad 288 should really be in the game too since they respond as a hazmat squad as well. So I guess I'm lobbying for 2 more squads........

Where I work in MD, it's called "laying out". The first due engine "lays out" from the hydrant by wrapping the hydrant with the humat valve, and then driving to the fire building. The second due engine will hook up the humat, open the hydrant, and pressurize the hydrant if necessary. I'm not sure that it's needed in game. I put my first 2 trucks in front of the fire building, and get my first 2 engines as close as I can. My chauffer just hooks up. Every now and then he has a long layout, but it's not like he gets tired! Plus the hydrants are pretty close together.....

Great stuff. I guess the only suggestion that I have is regarding the station alerting. It would be nice when we hit the bells if the firefighters geared up and jumped on the rigs. Maybe even the bay doors opened? I guess for 214/111, the bells could be engine-medical, engine-fire, ladder-fire, full house? This would save me some time getting out the door. It would allow me to spread my guys around the firehouse and keep the firehouse atmosphere a bit more realistic. Right now, I keep my guys on the rigs because it's just quicker that way. I run 2 and 1, the BC and the Rescue on my 10-75s. It's a lot of work to manually staff each rig, gear everyone up, open the bay doors, and position the apparatus onscene. The new callouts look great!

I think that most issues don't need to be patched. I think that they are performance based issues. If you lower your graphics settings, or turn shadows off, or eliminate some of the smaller objects on the map, you should be fine. When I first started playing, my biggest issues were the chauffer, the satellites and getting the crash into the building. By tweaking the game, I have eliminated the top 2. I ended up removing that accident in the editor. I was also able to make some parts of the map driveable. Particularly the area with the tanks that explode. I can now get my engines, trucks or satellite back in there. It wasn't hard to do once someone told me how to do it.... Give these guys a break and try to do some of this stuff yourselves. This has been by far their most stable version. I can play for hours with no issues. If you mess up the map, just reload the map. Simple. I have enjoyed hours upon hours of fun on this mod without a patch. I'm not saying that they shouldn't make one, but not having a patch doesn't mean that y'all can't play this great mod. Just learn how to fix some things.

Hi guys. I have a question about the ladder pipes in this game. In the Brooklyn Mod, there are a few buildings and objects that the ladder pipes don't work on. Is this a performance based issue? Or is this something that I can configure? Basically, I'd like to use the ladder pipes and tower ladders on more objects. Especially on the gas explosion at the junkyard. There are a lot of objects that are not coolable or extinguishable. Any thoughts on how to change this? Thanks in advance.

That was it. Thank you!

Not sure what you mean by flattened. It's not anything that shouldn't be driveable. When I pull up the editor, the total area is surrounded by a blue highlight. I noticed that the non-highlighted areas are driveable. I can put my fire apparatus on the grass at the bottom of the map. There are sidewalks and parking lots that would be nice to be driveable. I'm wondering if I there is something that I can do to change these areas to make them driveable? It would change my tactics greatly.

Hey guys. Looking for some help here. I have a few parking lots in the Brooklyn Mod that are not accessible to my fire apparatus. When I'm in the editor, this surface has a blue outline around it. Can I change this to make this surface driveable? If so, how? Thanks in advance.

I don't think that their mods are "buggy". I think that they are built with very large amounts of details. This adds immersion, but also leads to performance issues. I think that is a lot of what we are experiencing. When I first got this mod, it ran well enough. I had all of my settings on high, and when I got more than a few units on scene, my game would lag horribly. I had issues with my chauffers, and a few other things. Nothing huge, but clearly performance related. One thing that was annoying was that I seemed to get the same calls in the same places. I also got mostly EMS related calls. I went in to the editor. I deleted a lot of small things. Not because I wanted to, but to improve performance. I deleted the pedestrian spawn point the bottom of the map near the park. I deleted a lot of trash bags and trash cans. I also deleted the elevated subway. I didn't want to, but I play with it minimized anyway so.... The end result has been a super gaming experience. This mod as I have it edited is my favorite game. I get tons of fires all over the map. I get ems runs. I can put a full 10-75 worth of apparatus in one place, and still get acceptable performance. One thing that I have found is that when E222 and R2 have their engines running, their white scene lights come on. That uses a lot of resources. I shut down their engines and turn their emergency lights back on when they are on the scene, and that seems to fix the issue. I have cured my chauffer and Sattellite 6 issues. Also traffic is much more manageable. There aren't a ton of people or cars on my map, but the increase in fires has been well worth it. I suggest to anyone who is having bugs to go into the editor and scale down the map. If it fails miserably, just reinstall the mod. I am running a quad core processor @3.75ghz with 8g of RAM. My graphics card is 1ghz. There is just a lot to process. By taking some of the small stuff that you won't miss away, you'll increase performance dramatically...,

Hey Dyson, do you have the apparatus file for the updated 111 Truck? For some reason I have the older version with the red sign instead of the flag sign. Also where would I put it? I would just reinstall the mod, but I have my map edited just to where I like it...thanks in advance!

On the freeplay map look for a blue box where the steam is coming out. If you delete the box, no more steam.

It did for me. My game runs much smoother across the board since I did this. I didn't have to delete a lot of stuff, and I didn't delete anything that was critical to gameplay. Just small things that I felt wouldn't affect the atmosphere of the game.

I would delete anything that is using memory such as steam from the cement mixers or the small bugs that are flying around. If that us not enough, try some of the parked cars or some trees, trash, bikes, etc. I will say that I have not deleted much, but my game runs super smoothly now.....

After playing this game since the launch, my initial observations haven't changed. Great mod! I have found that like the other installments, I have had to go into the editor and delete some things to make this game run better on my PC. I started with getting rid of a lot of the trash. I left some, but in areas where there were multiple trash bags, I would delete maybe half. I got rid of any steam generators too. This game uses a lot of resources! My advice going forward is to find how to more efficiently utilize memory. My PC seems to work harder on this game than ARMA 3. To me, that's hard to understand. Other than that, I have had very few issues.

The way that I've gotten around the chauffer thing is to send another engine to help me unhook. Kinda strange, but it works. I played for a number of hours yesterday, and didn't get that bug 1 time. The 1 thing that I noticed is that my sign on the side of 111 Truck changed! I have a red sign with a Mr Peanut guy instead of the flag themed sign. I have played around with the editor, and was adding some hydrants. I must have deleted a file somewhere.... I played for a long time yesterday with the graphics and particles set to high. I had no issues at all. I'm wondering if the people having issues have low end graphics cards? All of the things that I have found have been very minor. Once again, great job guys!

Are your bay doors open?

This mod is as good as it gets for this series. I love the map, apparatus, new features. I've been streaming FDNY while playing. Loads of fun! Thanks for your hard work. Great job!

If it's not too much work, I'd like to see more game play video of both mods leading up to the release. Definitely helps build up the hype!