Sangmi

3 minutes ago, Johhnnyy said:

I am literally emailing the Montana Highway patrol right now to see if POVs really do count as emergency vehicles, under MCA 61-8-102 (2)(a). @Sangmi

You know, that was probably a good step one, but I couldn't find a good email for them. 

4 hours ago, Johhnnyy said:

I found more info on MCA 61-8-102 (2)(a): "Authorized emergency vehicle" means a vehicle of a governmental fire agency organized under Title 7, chapter 33, an ambulance, or an emergency vehicle designated or authorized by the department.

The department is what confuses, me so I had to go to 61-1-101.

61-1-101 (17) says: (17) "Department" means the department of justice acting directly or through its duly authorized officers or agents.

So the Montana State DOJ has the authority to designate any vehicle as an authorized emergency vehicle. Also this firefighter guy here said POVs are emergency vehicles, if approved to be as such by the Fire Chief, County Sheriff, and Montana State DOJ. Which is confusing, because he said in another video that POVs are not emergency vehicles.

 

The more we read into this, the more I start to think that Montana lawmakers never anticipated on anyone looking into the statute this deeply! haha. 

That's very interesting. I wonder if the definition maybe changes unofficially depending on the warning system configuration of a given vehicle. 

On 4/26/2024 at 10:23 AM, Johhnnyy said:

Thank you very much, sir! And Ik it's a year late, but you are correct in saying that Montana POVs with reds and without sirens are not POVs. There's this person on the internet here who is a firefighter in Montana. He confirmed that unless a POV has been signed over to the state, it cannot be an emergency vehicle.

N150CZ - YouTube

I'm not good for much, but I do enjoy my research. I'm always happy to help solve quirky little mysteries like the ones that keep popping up in this thread. Looking through protocols is very fun to me haha. 
Without sounding too silly.. a POV that gets signed over to the state wouldn't be a POV anymore, right? 

On 4/24/2024 at 12:45 PM, Johhnnyy said:

Could an EMT in Montana call a death? I'm trying to look this up but nothing so far.

The Montana prehospital treatment protocols state that crews can terminate resuscitation efforts in the field under the guidance of their relevant medical direction, though it doesn't specify EMT vs Paramedic. My assumption is that either EMT or Paramedic can declare a time of death depending on the level of the truck (ALS vs BLS) and fill out the appropriate post-mortem paperwork, as long as they've contacted a doctor at the hospital that was going to receive them and gotten their permission to terminate resuscitation efforts. I'll drop a link to the document here. Pages 68 and 69 refer specifically to the cessation of resuscitation by EMS crews in the field. This is the best I could find. I'm an EMT in Indiana so the protocol here is different simply because we have greater access to hospital facilities. 

So it's... exactly how we thought it would be.

How disappointing. 

On 8/7/2023 at 12:46 AM, NoYes said:

This game wouldn't be that bad if it wasn't for the fact that we haven't had a real, fully new emergency game since what? 2014? the difference between em5 and em20 is just more campaigns and 1 or 2 new freeplay missions. There hasn't even been ANY game from sixteen tons since 2018. I don't get how sixteen tons hasn't made a better game since 2006 and depending on your opinion, 2014. At this point I would not be surprised if valve made portal 3, half life 3 and team fortress 3 by the time an actual game is released by 16T. A couple of years ago people on this forum, people pointed out job openings at 16T and rumors of a new emergency game being developed. If THIS was the game they were hiring those people to do, then I don't know when we will ever get a fully new game.

The problem now is that Sixteen Tons is owned by a publisher whose only real interest in the company is the potential for profit, something that is the downfall of most small game studios. Why spend a bunch of money making something great when you can make something okay that returns a huge profit? Though our community here keeps the game alive some 17 years after its release, our opinion matters much less in the eyes of the developer than that of the people who will casually play whatever free-to-play EMHQ style game they release next. EMHQ was released in 2008 and is still running strong today. It is clearly a revenue generator, and Phoenix Games (who bought 16T in 2020) is only concerned with continuing to improve the cash flow coming out of the game. 

Because I have no life, I went digging around while reading this thread and stumbled upon a case study on Phoenix Games' website and reads like so: 

Quote

Phoenix Games identified EMERGENCY HQ as an evergreen title with huge potential for growth, acquiring the studio in January 2020.

Following the implementation of a tailored plan of operational uplifts, Sixteen Tons Entertainment saw a 42% increase YoY in revenue for EMERGENCY HQ in 2020, alongside a more than 125% YoY increase in game contribution. Sixteen Tons Entertainment is using some of the additional profits from its work with Phoenix Games to develop even more free to play games in the EMERGENCY universe and to ramp up their live ops capabilities for existing and future games. (Sixteen Tons Entertainment - Phoenix Games - Founders Unleashed)

So, to kinda come back and non-rhetorically answer your question (and this is really just my two cents)...

Sixteen Tons hasn't made a better game since 2006/2014 because they haven't needed to. Unfortunately, they'll most likely be swept up in the "free to play/gacha game that makes tons in microtransactions" hysteria and devote all of their development time to this premise, and you can't even say that they were forced into it by the publisher because the CEO of 16T himself is on board with it. I don't like to be a pessimist, however.. I'd say this will be 16T's business practice until they get acquired by another studio, or go under.

Who knows, when the game releases it may not be that bad. However... I've seen a lot of studios sacrifice their passionate fanbase in exchange for easy money, so I'm on the fence. 

Will the police have access to Batman as a deployable unit? This is, of course, critical to the setting. lol 

On 6/20/2023 at 12:46 AM, Johhnnyy said:

You sir are a blessing! A million thanks to you. Shame POVS in Montana aren't legally considered as emergency vehicles. But please do contact MHP when you can. But as I've said, you are a blessing. A million thanks to you.

I like doing this kind of research, I am a stickler for realism in all forms of 911 simulation. Can't mod to save my life but I can sure dig through legalese with.. ease. 

I've been trying to get in contact with MHP but their website appears to be offline and I can't seem to find a phone number that works. If anyone has an email address or phone number for MHP handy, I'd be happy to use it.

However, I'm pretty confident that they wouldn't tell me anything that I didn't find searching through Montana's emergency vehicle statute. 

Pre-Wedworth-Townsend ambulance services are really interesting. 

On 5/22/2023 at 6:30 PM, AwesomeFireman2500 said:

Saw this on an episode of Adam-12, is this an ambulance specialized for the use by the LAPD of transporting downed officers to Central Receiving Hospital?

I had to do a little research because I was curious, but no, these weren't special to the LAPD. These were LA's first paramedic ambulances, prior to the Wedworth-Townsend act authorizing the paramedic squads of Emergency! fame. Besides operating out of Central Receiving, they were also stationed at certain police stations, presumably because they weren't part of the fire department yet. They were all repainted red and white by the LAFD in the early 70s. 

On 5/26/2023 at 10:15 PM, itchboy said:

I've been looking too and so far didn't find much.

I did see some youtube videos that showed their POV's as having only front/rear lighting and very basic setups. I also found another response video where no siren was audible however it is not conclusive proof of sirens not being allowed.

If I were to interpret the law literally, POV's are only allowed red lights. The statute lists nothing on siren amps and it could be interpreted as "beyond the scope of the law" or it's a legal loophole.

Maybe somoene from the state can confirm.

Back from another long hiatus from the forums to give my interpretation of Montana statutes, cause I'm weird. 

Montana vehicle code 61-9-227 seems to imply that not having a siren is what differentiates a volunteer firefighter's POV from an authorized emergency vehicle. (61-9-227. Blinker-type or revolving red light on certain private vehicles -- use -- identification card, MCA (mt.gov))

Quote

(1) Firefighters, when authorized by the chiefs of their respective departments, and search and rescue and volunteer emergency medical personnel, when authorized by the county sheriff, may use a blinker-type or revolving red light or both on the front or the top of their privately owned motor vehicles.

Montana vehicle code 61-9-401 "Horns, Security Alarms, and Warning Devices" describes the conditions for use of a siren as this. (61-9-401. Horns, security alarms, and warning devices, MCA (mt.gov))

Quote

(2) A vehicle may not be equipped with and a person may not use upon a vehicle a siren, whistle, or bell, except as otherwise permitted in this section.
(4) An authorized emergency vehicle may be equipped with a siren, whistle, or bell capable of emitting sound audible under normal conditions from a distance of not less than 500 feet and of a type approved by the department. The siren may not be used except when the vehicle is operated in response to an emergency call or in the immediate pursuit of an actual or suspected violator of the law, in which event the driver of the vehicle shall sound the siren when reasonably necessary to warn pedestrians and other drivers of the vehicle's approach.

So, I dug a little more. I found Montana code 61-8-102, which provides a definition.. of a definition of what Montana considers an authorized emergency vehicle. (61-8-102. Uniformity of interpretation -- definitions, MCA (mt.gov))

Quote

"Authorized emergency vehicle" means a vehicle of a governmental fire agency organized under Title 7, chapter 33, an ambulance, or an emergency vehicle designated or authorized by the department.

However, the statute that specifies a volunteer firefighter being permitted a light on the front or top of his vehicle does seem to provide a description that wouldn't allow the vehicle to meet the conditions for having a siren and being classified as an emergency vehicle. Montana code 61-9-402 describes the signaling equipment for an authorized emergency vehicle as such. (61-9-402. Audible and visual signals on police, emergency vehicles, and on-scene command vehicles -- immunity, MCA (mt.gov))

Quote

(2) An authorized emergency vehicle must be equipped:

(a) with a siren and an alternately flashing or rotating red light as specified in this section; and

(b) with signal lamps mounted as high and as widely spaced laterally as practicable that are capable of displaying to the front two alternately flashing red lights located at the same level and to the rear two alternately flashing red lights located at the same level. These lights must have sufficient intensity to be visible at 500 feet in normal sunlight.

The raw legal definition of an authorized emergency vehicle as described in Title 7, Chapter 33 appears to not have been published online or is hiding in a section of the statute that is marked as reserved, because I went through every single article in the chapter and couldn't find it. So, in short, I don't think that POVs in Montana would meet the other signaling requirements of the law to be able to be classed as an authorized emergency vehicle and then use a siren. Though I am tempted now to contact the Montana Highway Patrol and find out.

Hope this is helpful. Otherwise I typed a lot to look like a moron. 

Lovely thus far! I haven't encountered any noticeable bugs, but I would suggest maybe making traffic a little less dense. A lot of the roads seem to get clogged up pretty quickly.

36 minutes ago, Squad 65 said:

There is but people will still tend to ignore it. Its been an issue in the American and German Communities. 

Ignoring the legal action?

Not to sound goofy, but isn't there some kind of legal option to prevent one from stealing a bunch of your stuff for their own mod?

4 hours ago, DavidBomBastic said:

Shut yer mouth you stupid wank

That's unnecessarily rude and not helpful in the slightest.

On 10/26/2022 at 1:59 AM, AgentSmith6 said:

Forgive me if it's too off-topic, but does anyone what the LAPD Broncos and Blazers and the blue and white livery were used for? Were they used as patrol vehicles or part of a special unit like SWAT or EOD?

If I had to bet those probably belonged to the bomb squad. Maybe on Catalina Island as well? I know LASD has a presence out there, not sure about LAPD though.

On 10/20/2022 at 10:37 PM, itchboy said:

Oh hey man. Welcome back.

I might try something similar to 51, but not exactly the same rig. I don't want to do the TV rigs unless it's for a specific vehicle pack.

Long time no speak. Had to move back to the states and life just caught up with me for a while.

I didn't mean 51 itself but moreso just a Dodge paramedic squad. Something about that truck just really does it for me.

Would love to see Squad 51 end up in the mod.

Beautiful work as always, I use this more often than regular LA mod now.

I think part of it too would have to deal with the fact that there's not nearly as much of a fixation/interest in the emergency services of the Middle East compared to Europe and the US. I don't think there's much of a buffing scene in most of the ME, just because the jobs are viewed differently over there than here. 

Always love stumbling in here once a century to glance at things people are working on.

Great content as always, Itchboy.

5 hours ago, itchboy said:

On that topic, I discourage people from using LA mod vehicles in 2018 just because the textures haven't aged well. They often have distortions caused by the dds texture format that was commonly used...10 years ago.

I was lurking for a long time, just like you. Nothing to be ashamed about. I just wish I had come sooner because maybe better mods could have resulted from my presence.

I ended up making my own UV templates for the LA Mod vehicles because of that distortion. 

The only thing I could suggest (I'm very new to this website, but I've modded the game and stalked these forums in anti-social fear for years) has already been suggested. 

One of the first things I ever did in Emergency 4 was take the unmarked Crown Victoria from LA Mod and turn it into a slicktop Homeland Security car. It was generally terrible and I ended up corrupting the model on my first five tries, but I got it eventually.

Christ, that's been about six years now. 

I'm not much of a modeler or a coder, but if you ever want some Photoshop advice, I'm happy to give you all the help you need.