SIM Dispatcher is constantly evolving — this has been evident from the major leaps and turning points around version 4. But we all know: no simulation runs perfectly, and in the heat of the moment there are always corners where things get stuck or where we’re missing important features that would massively improve the experience.
I’d like to collect here in this thread where the shoe is pinching you most right now. To keep this focused and as tangible as possible for the team, let’s limit this to a maximum of 3 points per post, ideally prioritized according to the motto: “If three things were fixed or added tomorrow, then please exactly these!”
What bothers you most in your day-to-day work? Which bugs drive you crazy, or which feature would massively make your dispatcher life easier?
Please stick to the format:
Top 1: [Your biggest pain point / wish]
Top 2: […]
Top 3: […]
(Feel free to include a link to an existing bug report or feature request if one already exists.)
1.) Realistic incident progression.. the dispatched emergency personnel behave more realistically, traffic accidents with dispatched FD .. the FD doesn’t just leave, but provides support. Incident situations that definitely require accompaniment by the paramedic, in those cases the paramedic shouldn’t sign off. Requests for additional personnel by FD (dispatch increase) The RD often requests lifting assistance after the paramedic departs…in reality it’s then the crews from ambulance + mobile ICU who do it.
2.) Targeted requests…for example, requesting a helicopter from the paramedic for polytrauma, burn injuries etc. Request for helicopter from the hospital for secondary deployment. Hospital transfers by ambulance. Medical transport request with specification of diagnosis. For the FD..requesting additional units, requesting specialized vehicles etc..
3.) I’d like to see a significantly better inquiry and messaging system for phone and radio. There needs to be better and more intensive questioning capability and there also needs to be significantly more options for follow-up questions or providing information to the emergency personnel via radio.
1: Locating and/or addressing vehicles via right-click from the status page would be a priority for me. Currently, both options are unfortunately more cumbersome than they need to be and not even doable as a side task. The ability to quickly access the vehicle’s current deployment from there would also be nice.
2: Improvement of the query system for emergency medical service operations, including dialogs (new or revised). Often when asked “what happened”, you barely get a picture of what the patient’s problem is or what symptoms they have. As a first step, the arrangement of buttons could be made customizable — that would already be a noticeable relief if you prefer a different order.
3: Neighboring dispatch centers. Yes, certainly not easy to implement. Here, as a first step, I could imagine the ability to mark station POIs and their vehicles as ‘external’ (like with hospitals) and then build on that. The priority, I think, should initially be the ability to request external vehicles for a deployment. Later, you can think about requesting your own vehicles in foreign areas.
More possibilities with the API or more endpoints for editing and creation, including creation of AAOs via API (such as the DispatchGroups)
A more user-friendly admin interface. Currently I find it very tedious to edit multiple POIs or RMs at once, since you have to click through each point individually, wait for the page to reload, and then do the same thing again - in my case with over 3000 POIs of the same type, this is a considerable amount of extra work
Revised communication with the RMs: Currently - if set up - each RM reports its destination, etc., sometimes with reports that are too brief or non-existent, and it always transmits on a preset group. I would really like it if, on the one hand, you could communicate better with the RMs via radio, for example by requesting a situation report, or if in an operation with the SanEL, the SanEL really communicates the patient registrations etc. with the LST instead of the individual RMs. In this process, I also think it would make sense to have RMs change radio groups on the instruction of the LST, so that communication between RMs (e.g. in water rescue operations: EL WR communicates directly with the RTW), but also better and more realistic integration of external RMs (keyword: call group) is possible.
First of all, I’m sorry that our communication thread on “Concerns, Criticism and Suggestions” (or something like that) is no longer findable. Whether it’s due to the search function or because it was deleted, who knows. It’s a shame because such a thread allows for mutual and ongoing general exchange, and that can also be praise. I think that the direction taken with V4 is absolutely right, and the game generally runs very well and is truly fun to play. In the meantime, I’m looking very optimistically at the future of this simulation. I wanted to bring this up on this occasion simply because I was certainly among the harshest critics.
On my three main topics:
Missions and mission mechanics: in its current form, this is in my opinion the biggest immersion killer - you already have this on your radar anyway, so there’s nothing more to say about the details
Neighboring dispatch centers: you also have this on your radar; missing neighboring dispatch centers are also an immersion killer and certainly problematic for mission tactical considerations
Automation: with increasing functions and increasing realism, the workload also increases; real call volumes are already barely manageable in single-player today, so there would need to be options to automate certain activities - e.g. call taker, fire department dispatch, emergency medical dispatch or command center dispatch - in the sense of fictional colleagues.
BMA Tool: I would like there to be a field in the dispatch mask that displays the registered BMAs (Burglary & Fire Alarm Systems) from the various POIs (Points of Interest). When a BMA is triggered, the respective POI flashes red and you have to reset it after the operation, or it turns off automatically when the fire department on-site resets the alarm.
Dispatch Mask: I would like the dispatch mask to be expanded somewhat so that more information can be entered or displayed, such as for point 1. For example, showing which detector/line was triggered, or an additional tab next to the house numbers for naming the floors. Or simply blank fields that each admin can add to the dispatch mask for their control center. And regarding the dispatch mask, I would like the required fields for an alarm to be highlighted in red or yellow or to stand out visually. For example, if the address has been entered, the tab looks normal again. You can only trigger an alarm once all required fields like address and keyword are filled in.
Events/Large-Scale Operations: I would like there to be severe weather situations or also major heat waves where rescue services as well as the fire department are requested. Or also various events like Carnival in North Rhine-Westphalia where medical services have to be deployed, or festivals.
Scalability of all windows and their contents independent of other windows and contents. Expansion of the deployment mask, particularly regarding patient data (age, gender, medication, pre-existing conditions, emergency contact, etc.) and operation (intuitive keyboard navigation).
BMA tool (see previous speaker) and pre-planning of patient transports based on timeline or similar.
Expansion of interaction options for radio and telephone: It must not be immediately apparent upon call acceptance that it is a patient transport when the call comes in via 112. Expansion of interaction options for GIS: Ability to “retrieve” information from the vehicle menu in the GIS: service times, call counter, destination, etc.
Hello there ! Thank’s for taking some time to read our thoughts. Here is my idea of how the future of developpement should go first.
Fix the behaviour of firedept on calls. For example, the chief officer sould be the one passing messages. There should be at least a small message when fire service is not needed ect.
Rework the hospital panel with services that really matter in emergency situation (Helicopter Platform (helos can only land is there is one), Stroke Center, Trauma Center, Coronarography, Intensive Care, Psychiatry Admission etc.). Maybe add a “non urgent” medical service (Oncology, dermato, eyes, CT…) separate for non-urgent transport. And please find a way for dispatcher to choose where the patient is going. Maybe it would be nice to have a way to transport to local hospital that does not have the service and a doctor would call a few minutes later asking for inter-hospital transport.
3. Add a way for doctor to ask for an helicopter if transport route with light and sirens is too far away.
4 .Add a way to link vehicles. Allowing for simulated “trailer” or “kit”. And a way to make vehicles status depends on another vehicle availability.
Thank’s again for your really hard work sir ! Please do not simplify this sim too much, complexity is what makes this game amazing. But maybe it would be a good time to work on some tutorials for new players.
Top 1: Vehicles & Rescue Equipment:
I would like to see the introduction of a revised vehicle taxonomy:
Roll-off containers and trailers with towing vehicles (and possibly expand this to rescue equipment as vehicles for operational functions (district fire chief, organizational leader, incident commander, technical advisor, etc.).
Define organizational affiliation
Vehicles should be assigned an affiliation to organizations (fire department, ambulance service, THW, operational units, etc.). Currently, a GW-L is always displayed as a fire department vehicle, an MTW is always displayed as a fire department MTW, even if it’s a GW-L from the Red Cross or an MTW from the DLRG. As possible affiliation categories, I would like to suggest (order irrelevant):
Fire Department
Ambulance Service
Medical/Disaster Protection/Operational Units
Technical Relief Organization - THW
Custom definition of standard vehicle types:
It would be nice to be able to define custom vehicle types with associated equipment in my dispatch center settings. That way I don’t have to manually change the settings for every vehicle.
Example: Water Rescue Vehicle (standard type MTW, equipment: boat, ice rescue, water rescue, lighting) - ideally linked with organizational affiliation (see above, 2))
Improve bulk import: Currently I cannot import vehicles with stored dispatch area responsibility.
Top 2: Incidents
I think it would be cool if users could participate in designing new incidents and scenarios
Issues with the internal logic of incidents have already been discussed
Recurrence of incidents, e.g. return trips after patient transport, another call after referral to the patient, request for peer support/critical incident stress management, renewed smoke development after a fire incident, etc.
Planned incidents would be great that could potentially expand: fire safety watches, medical services, technical assistance on roadways (THV) or support for police checks by the THW, etc.
Mass casualty incidents with increasingly appropriate incidents such as floods, severe weather, heat waves (as recently)
Request for a funeral home or information/request from authorities such as disaster management authority, youth office, social psychiatric service
Top 3: Communication System:
Vehicles already report back by phone, for example with emergency physician requests.
It would be nice to be able to realistically map vehicles’ communication capabilities. For example:
Chief officers don’t always have a radio and only report back by phone,
older vehicles only transmit on 4m,
some units are exclusively alerted/dispatched by phone
A vehicle/rescue equipment should therefore be able to be assigned: radio yes/no, FME/DME yes/no, phone yes/no
Of course, you could take this further and express wishes all the way to alarm type (fax, DME, FME, bell, etc.) - I won’t do that
Otherwise, I’m quite satisfied with the current simulation and I’m looking forward to further improvements to the sim.
Best regards
Top 1: Vehicle dependencies, so that, for example, a vehicle can be operated as an ambulance during the day and as a patient transport vehicle at night, but during overtime the other vehicle is not callable. Preferably similar to LstSim, where you can enter multiple query logics yourself.
Top 2: Ability to completely deactivate vehicles without deleting them or producing error messages through settings. So that a vehicle cannot be manually activated from S6 (because it’s broken) or can be (because the day shift vehicle is reassigned at night for major incidents, etc.)
Top 3: Ability to integrate vehicles without a radio group, because they, for example, don’t have a radio installed and would only report via telephone.
Revision of reality in simulation workflow: status reports, availability of resources or not, follow-up requests, situation reports, improved communication, …
Better emergency call inquiry
Better data maintenance in all respects: import, export, selecting multiple entries, …
For a long time I was thinking about whether I wanted to share my two cents and how I could do it most easily without getting a «yellow card». But I can’t find any other way to describe it:
Please finally address problems in the forums
Provide assistance when something isn’t working
Please finally process tickets and stop leaving them open for 6 months or longer.
