n00bingtarget

From what I read / saw on Youtube, YES. But you have to admit, a pink firetruck will draw the eye!

Well, I'm going to take the plunge and announce officially my attempt at a mod. This is mostly a reskin of LA Mod, but I'm hoping to change the vehicles spawned and if I do this right, changing out a few models along the way also. FIRST - THANKS TO HOPPAH and EM4Life. Thanks for letting me use your original stuff as the starting point for my mod. I have some ideas for where I want to go, so I may need to get some other permissions down the line, and I will be only to happy to credit where credit is due. If I accidentally use something you created and I didn't ask for permission, PLEASE let me know and I'll happily either remove it or give credit (whichever you choose). As of now, I'm only reskinning the LA Mod, with EM4Life's light mod as my starting point, so for now I'm pretty sure I'm safe. Hometown, USA will be a Wisconsin based mod just because I need to pick a state for the state police, and since I live here, it's what I know. Here are some of the units I've reskinned so far. Most of the vehicles you probably recognize. The Red Cross Hummer, I'm retasking as a EMS Special Response Unit, and added Jaws and Chainsaw to the equipment. Idea is this is sent along to Mass Casualty incidents as support Paramedics to help with Triage and Rescue operations. This is just a start. Along the way I may need some help as my scripting experience is NON-EXISTENT, but with the support the members here have shown, I know I'll get some advice to help when I get stuck! Thanks for looking!

http://www.pinkfiretrucks.org/ This group visited my area recently. I didn't get to go but saw a news spot about it so I did a little research. Supporting Breast Cancer awareness, this group brings awareness by driving pink fire trucks. It seems like a pretty interesting organization. Check them out and search for Pink Heals on Youtube. Pretty cool!

in the freeplay games I've played, it might make a little difference, but in my opinion it would make faster responses if there was a way to script the traffic to PULL OVER for emergency vehicles instead of stopping where they are and making the vehicle go around them. Don't think that would be an easy thing to script.

Thanks MERCT1! I'll PM you when I'm a little closer to that point. Right now I'm still figuring out numbers and doing the reskins. Figure I want the look so when I place things, I know if it is right or not.

Thanks Handsup! I'm figuring for now I'll stick with using models already in LA Mod and just renumber/reskin them as extra units. Lots of fire departments and police departments buy in multiples anyway, so it's not far off. For the siren, I added the VCMD thing to the editor, and edited the LASiren.script to point to the hummer, but when I put that script in I ended up with an error message (forgot to write it down) and a CTD. Replaced with the original script and the reskin works fine. Still playing with that. If anyone knows of links to FAQ/Tutorials for my questions, I tried searching but there are SO MANY topics it takes FOREVER to go thru them all. I don't mind doing the reading, but it gets very depressing to read thru 8 pages of posts and find no info towards my goal. I'll post some pics soon of my other reskins.

So first, THANKS to HOPPAH and EM4life for permissions to use their creations in my own custom reskin/mod. I'm making my mod, currently called Hometown, USA. Making it based on a generic non-existent city/county in Wisconsin (just so I can pick a state police & license plates). I want to change the mod so that I don't have duplicates of the default vehicles on the map. Example: Station 1 normally has 3 of the Ambulance2, I want to use 3 different Ambulances, so the models are slightly different (I.E. Medic 2, Medic 3, Medic 4). Same for the Engines. Can someone either post or PM me some info on how this is generally done? I am willing to figure out some of the scripting, but I've never really done scripts. I'm trying to add a siren to the Red Cross Hummer but that hasn't worked yet, but I have an idea on that. I am not asking anyone to take this totally on for me. I want to learn how to do this also. I love reskinning the vehicles, and am playing with some "easter eggs" in my vehicle options if I can get this to work right. Also, if I do this with individual vehicles, can I make the vehicles you call from off map still be duplicates? Example, if I call additional ambulances, they would be private and wouldn't have to have the different "Medic" numbers. Hope I'm not going over my head on this. Thanks for the read!

For your new computer, what is the Processor, amount of RAM memory, and the Video Card please? These definately play into lag, as I just upgraded my computer and the little lag I had is GONE.

Thanks. Playing with it now. First try didn't work, but I agree on the BACKUPS, prevent big oops! Will keep trying!

So if I understand this right... In my custom mod I'm playing with, I am reskinning the Red Cross Hummer to be a Special Response Vehicle for my EMS. I have added lights and the Command in editor already, but for the siren, if I basically edit the LASiren.Script file and wherever I find like AMBULANCE02 I copy that line and add the appropriate changes to reference the E4P file for my Red Cross Hummer, it should have the same sirens as my Ambulance? I don't want to blow up my mod, and I've NEVER scripted before. Please advise if this sounds right!

Yahoo had what they call the "top 10 tricked out police cars". See if you agree... http://autos.yahoo.com/news/the-10-coolest-high-performance-cop-cars-011049791.html

Is this it? Glastonbury Engine 12 - 1993 Spartan/Marion - 1500 GPM / 750 Gallons Water Couldn't find the station if I'm right. First time I've tried to find one of these. This is in Connecticut if I'm right.

Is that model specific? As you can see the Batt. Chief vehicle I edited didn't do the reflection. I'm still learning the editor, can you point me where I would find the Alpha Reflections thing? Thanks for the help! EDIT - I'm on the right track now. I found the Alpha Reflections in the editor, and turned that off and things look better, but I had also played with my Alpha Channel in the Photoshop file, and now my bucket is transparent. I think I have an idea what I did there. THANKS FOR THE HELP! EDIT 2 - OK, maybe I'm not totally on the right track. When I turn off the Alpha Reflections, the model looks fine, but the BUCKET on the ladder goes TRANSPARENT! I didn't know Scotty from Star Trek worked on Fire Trucks and made parts of them with Transparent Aluminium! ARGH! Anyone else have any ideas? Has anyone else run into this with reskinning the Ladder from LA Mod? Edit 3 - So the answer was staring me in the face - EDIT THE BUCKET! Then it got the same reflection, and turning off Alpha Reflections fixed BOTH of them! OK, think I'm done editing, hope that helps anyone else who runs into a similar thing.

How did you fix it? I'm trying to reskin the LA Mod Ladder Truck. I've done other vehicles, but the ladder truck is throwing me for a loop. I did the same settings as my other vehicles, but I'm getting that shine on the ladder when I don't get it on other vehicles. Using Photoshop CS5, I see that for example the Battalion Chief vehicle does not have an Alpha Channel - but the ladder truck does when I open it. I've tried exporting with No Alpha, with 1 Bit Alpha, with DELETING the Alpha Layer, all to no avail. Attaching a screen capture of the ladder and Batt. Chief vehicles I reskinned - you can clearly see the difference. Edit - new link for the pic Any Ideas? HELP!

When I was a Volunteer Firefighter / EMT, it depended on how many people were in the rig. 1 unit I drove frequently was a pickup truck we had a front mounted 750 GPM pump that we used to fill our tankers or pump water to the engine direct if close enough (no regular hydrants, we were RURAL). If I was by my self (yep, fun to run and setup by self but you do what you had to) I had to run the lights & sirens while driving. Same thing when I was driving the ambulance, if I didn't have an extra person, they were all in the back, I had to run the lights/sirens by self. If I had another person up front, I'd concentrate on driving and let them do the sirens. They also could help look for other vehicles and WILD LIFE (like I said - RURAL). When I was a Paid-On-Call Firefighter later in life, then we always had at least 2 people in the front, so the driver drove and the person in the "officer" position ran lights/sirens/air horns/radio/computer.

I went thru this entire post before I asked this, hoping I would find the answer, but either nobody asked or I am just blind and missed it. So I've successfully reskined my vehicle, and it shows up in game fine. How do I change the vehicle icon (when you click on it) that shows the health status of the vehicle? Will this also change the icon in the call out menu for getting more of that vehicle class? I.E. the LA Mod Ambulance 1 (Basic - white box) - mine is now a Blue unit, can I replace this "icon/thumbnail" of the vehicle with a pic of my reskinned unit? Thanks all for the help! This topic did really explain it if you take a min to follow the steps EXACTLY.

If worried about getting a photo of a person and getting in trouble, you can always "PIXELATE" out their face! like they do on TV. Just smudge over the face!

Sorry, wasn't submitting for the contest. I've been pretty good with Photoshop for years, so that part is easy for me, it was doing the scaling the first time and trying to figure out since I didn't have a template that showed the edges of the model totally. For the Gold Cross, when I websearched a photo to match for comparison, I found multiple across the country, so I doubt they are the same company. If I was submitting for the contest, I'd do the Charger, since it is my own "made up" department of Hometown, USA.

Yep! I live in Menasha (literally around the corner from Station 35), and did my intern when going to school for my degree in Fire Protection at Neenah FD. That was before the 2 FD merged and now are Neenah Menasha Fire Rescue.

Please don't count this as a double post - here's a police car I just finished based on the LA Mod CHP Charger

Let's try this again. Here's my reskin of the LA Mod Ambulance 1. I used our local Ambulance Service as reference. Not a perfect match, but not bad for my first time. Here's a photo of the "source"

OK, I must be out of it. I tried hosting a link on Flickr for my reskin, but it keeps coming up as a broken link. Where is the best place to link photos to?

What's the best way to capture a pic of a reskin or a video of a reskin? Is there a utility in the editor that I missed? or do you just use PrintScreen? I'm playing with some reskins, and want to see what you think.

That was my concern. I think for my first mod I'll go the basic reskin / submod route. Was just surfing while waiting for my double hernia surgery Monday and found those awesome pics and said to myself that would make an unique mod. But the more I think about it, the more work it would entail, not just the vehicles with odd things like non-standard wheels, but the smoke from the boiler, the theme specific civilians, the housing, and also the old forced air sirens and lots of clanging bells. Oh well, thinking outside the box! MAYBE some day!

I just started doing this recently, so I found it. Select the model BEFORE you hit edit, and RIGHT CLICK DRAG to rotate the model. That is for rotate on main screen. For in the edit window, it is same, using Right Click. I've had to play with getting things into rough position and then using arrow keys to zoom/pan. takes lots of patience. I recently redid the lights on the Basic Ambulance in the SCPD mod on my computer ( they were no where near right on my DL of them) and it took me lots of trial/error to get them almost perfect.