[WIP] Police Beats - Everyday Policework

[Kyben 214]

Police Beats - Everyday Policework

very work in progress

 

Little bit of a change in direction after learning the basics of making these plugins and such and so we are now 'Police Beats - Everyday Policework' and will focus on handcrafting callouts for the districts of Los Santos, starting with Vespucci.

I've spent a few days doing the rounds and getting spawn points around Vespucci, Rockford Hills, Morningwood and all the suburbs in between. So far, I have the front door of almost every business or commercial property and their respective car parks or dining areas mapped out so that callouts will be quite specific - it could be a dispute about food quality at a restaurant or cafe that's gotten a bit out of hand, a hold up alarm, a car parking issue that's become violent or perhaps not even violent - someone could just be pissed off that someone else parked across two disabled bays and you've been called to give the dropkick a ticket. It could be anything!

Some areas such as the pier and the beach have a whole lot more and more specific callouts - lifeguards and security have apprehended someone and need you to come and lay down the law or perhaps one of the street vendors have been mugged, or had some items stolen. Every one of those little street vendor stalls now has a spawn point mapped to it and you could get called there - of course, when you do, there'll actually be a vendor there to speak to and there's probably a guy running away or hiding out nearby that stole something or punched him or took a leak on his cart. 

Back in the districts, almost every house is going to have a spawn point mapped for a house alarm, domestic, fight, burglary, noise complaint - whatever you can think of, I'll manage to squeeze it in there. The motels scattered throughout Vespucci all have locations mapped there for issues in the car park or perhaps unauthorised people using the pool - the owner might want them all charged with trespassing or maybe just moved on - those everyday calls are all gonna be there.

As you roll through the streets and see the bus stops and the train stations, think that they're also potential hotspots - public transport isn't necessarily the safest mode of transport and with all those hubs having spawn points, you could find yourself at any of them dealing with a fight on a bus or someone trying to ride the train for free.

Vespucci isn't your thing? Give it time, eventually I'll roll this model out over the entire city and county.

Calls will include:.

• Welfare Check - 911 call was disconnected early or hung up immediately and the dispatcher can't get back on the line to the caller. These could be at an exact location such as a house or business or could be from a mobile phone and give you an area to check out.  You could find anything there - medical issues, fights, fires or absolutely nothing. 
• Traffic Complaint - This could be ongoing or historic. Maybe the complainant witnessed someone that lives in the street do a burnout so you just need to attend and speak to the complainant then head on down to get the other guys version of events to decide whether you'll cite him, warn him or leave it at that. Perhaps the complainant is following a vehicle doing something stupid... better catch up before the complainant loses sight. 
• Routine Assistance - Another agency needs help with something. It could be a bus driver with someone refusing to pay a fare or get off the bus or a security guard with trespassers in custody... maybe Ambulance officers need help with a cranky pateint. The dispatcher will tell you what it is and how urgently you're needed. 
• Stealing/Mugging - Someone has been mugged or had something stolen from them. Depending on circumstances, you or you and another car may be dispatched. If you arrive first, speak to the victim/complainant and get a description out to the other car or take the victim back to the station for a statement. If you're a bit slow no doubt the other unit will  give you a description and direction of travel for the offender so you can go have a look for him. 
• Hold Up Alarm/Robbery - Much the same as the above, two or more cars will be dispatched. Arrive first and you'll be getting the details from the victim/complainant. Arrive after and you'll be looking for the bad guys. Off course, if it's just an alarm it could be a false alarm or maybe the clerk panicked she a customer got angry and hit it. 
• Noise Complaint - The name speaks for itself. Attend and ask for the noise to be lowered or if you're particulary narks, issue a citation or take the offender in. Be mindful that every action has a reaction and if it's a party, there may well be more of them than you...
• Loitering/Trespassing - One or more people are hanging around somewhere and staff or residents aren't willing to move them on or haven't been successful - attend and move them on. 
• Alarm - Maybe a house a alarm or a car alarm - attend and check the area. May be something happening or someone suspiciously hanging around. Check bona fides and move them on.
• Suspicious Person - Maybe they were seen looking into cars or houses or they're just being a bit weird... attend and scope it out. 
• Disturbance/Domestic - Violent or verbal only. Attend, speak with all parties and move them on, arrest them, cite them - deal with the incident as you see fit.
• Indecent Act/Indecent Exposure - Someone's showing a bit too much skin off and may need a bit of a hand finding their pants - or perhaps they've found someone else's pants and that other person didn't really appreciate it... guess you'll find out when the call comes in!

That's both a conservative and an ambitious list of calls that I'm hoping to get into the mod at some point and it's going to take a lot of time and work to get to a polished and compete state but I do intend to release the works in progress as there's something to release... for now though, I'm working with a tutor, learning to write scripts and working towards having at least one call to show off in the near future!

 

 

Edited July 31, 2015 by Kyben
Update!

[NYPDCVPI 84]

really like the idea since real police work isn't just car chases and shooting either.

[Unision 49]

Sounds great. Look forward to seeing what you produce.

[FtDLulz 292]

If you need it, I can try to help with whatever I can -- just shoot me a PM.

Love the idea, it'll mix things up a bit!

[Stealth22 769]

Good stuff, man! Can't wait to see it! 

If you need anything, send me a PM, or post in the API forum!   

[LtFlash 416]

Kyben,

it's great to see you working on something like that. I'm an author of a mod based on similar idea of routine calls in ghetto for IV (link in my sig), feel free to post questions in API section regarding technical issues as well as gameplay solutions and any other topic you can think of developing the mod.

[NicC 28]

Looking forward to it! Amazing ideas! 

[Kyben 214]

Thanks for the support guys! I'm hoping to have something small out in the near future that can be built upon as I get better. 

[Ethenal 13]

You know, I'm thinking with the way Rockstar loads .IPL files - it might be possible to create interiors for houses, and rig the doors to load the interiors - with the OpenInteriors mod, you can go into that apartment near the Union Despository that you follow the janitor into to get his key or whatever (I don't remember). All the OpenInteriors mod does is load the .IPL file (I think) into that space, and therefore it appears when you open the door. Same with the Sheriff's Office in Sandy Shores - before you run LSPDFR the windows are not transparent and have a pretty shoddy texture on them, but once you load LSPDFR (or the OpenInteriors mod) it loads the IPL file in place and suddenly the sheriff's department has an interior!

 

These IPL files would be something to look into once we can edit the game's models, because if we can get some house interiors then we might actually be able to have some domestic disturbance type callouts.

[OfficerJessica 363]

You know, I'm thinking with the way Rockstar loads .IPL files - it might be possible to create interiors for houses, and rig the doors to load the interiors - with the OpenInteriors mod, you can go into that apartment near the Union Despository that you follow the janitor into to get his key or whatever (I don't remember). All the OpenInteriors mod does is load the .IPL file (I think) into that space, and therefore it appears when you open the door. Same with the Sheriff's Office in Sandy Shores - before you run LSPDFR the windows are not transparent and have a pretty shoddy texture on them, but once you load LSPDFR (or the OpenInteriors mod) it loads the IPL file in place and suddenly the sheriff's department has an interior!

 

These IPL files would be something to look into once we can edit the game's models, because if we can get some house interiors then we might actually be able to have some domestic disturbance type callouts.

Maybe a solution would be to have one of those mission markers outside the door of the house, San Andreas style, which teleports you to the interior IPL to proceed with the callout. We'd all like it to be seamless, but until world editing is fully researched and working that seems to be the way forward.

[Kyben 214]

I was thinking a bit along those lines. Well and truly beyond my current ability but maybe down the trading. 

Using the old SA style with mission markers that teleport you inside, I guess in theory you could make any house have an interior... may just need to find a way to build more to avoid getting repetitive. 

Also hoping to find a way to open the shops while LSPDFR is active - it kind of puts a spanner in the works of how I wanted to run the hold up alarm and theft callouts. 

[OfficerL6 59]

Is this still alive?

[Immortalius 16]

Yes i am also interested in this,its been over a month.And this looks really interesting

[Kyben 214]

It is still in the works, just progressing very slowly unfortunately. I'll have something soon. Promise!

[lilmisschloe 134]

Dont rush it - we would much rather wait and have a more polished mod with clean code. :)

[SoUThPHiLLY20 157]

is this still being worked on sounds very interesting

[SgtManley 23]

I love this idea, and cannot wait to use it.

[lilmisschloe 134]

On 30/08/2015, 23:27:37, Kyben said:

It is still in the works, just progressing very slowly unfortunately. I'll have something soon. Promise!

Soon?  Its been 3 months...

[Raketaz 5]

Waiting and hoping that this is still being worked on.

[Stealth22 769]

Guys, chill out. This stuff takes a long time...some developers don't like to release code unless its absolutely perfect.

And not everyone has enough free time to devote to a project like this. Real life comes first.

[Kal74 842]

Sounds like a pretty sweet Callout Pack. Should you need a guinea pig to test for you. oink oink oink! no wait that is a pig. Don't know what sound a guinea pig makes, lol anyways if you need some Callout Testing done, shoot me a PM I would be more than happy to test for you..

[lilmisschloe 134]

@Kyben, any updates on progress?

 

[Kyben 214]

Hey guys,

I am sorry for the long silence and lack of information, all that sort of jazz.  This whole thing has been a huge learning curve for me and I generally only have one day a week where I can sit down and focus on the computer, which really makes it a whole lot more difficult because I end up re-learning half of the last weeks stuff in order to keep working.

I was definitely a bit premature in posting this and aiming so high to get something out straight away. It just led to rushing things and what I did manage to put together to 'release' was very basic and disappointing even to me, with plenty of issues. 

What I am aiming to do is something entirely unique; something no one else on here has done and I'm still working on it. I recently managed to rope a friend in to helping out and we've been hard at work (more him than me - I'm the brains, he's the... err... better at coding and not so much writing brains!).

So with all that said, this project is definitely still in the works and is growing by the day because as I work on things or get updates from the offsider, I'm having new ideas which ends up blowing things way out in terms of timeframes because I get carried away, lose focus on what I was doing and end up doing something new.

What we have so far is:

• One fully functioning, awesome, very much working callout. It involves getting called as backup for a couple of EMT's treating an uncooperative patient.  The callout is very dynamic and can go a number of directions based on things such as your response time (and it may not necessarily be a lights and sirens run - you'll get info from dispatch and make that assessment yourself) and then how you approach the patient and ambulance officers. There will be a conversation with response choices and as they say, every action has a reaction. 
• A couple of partially finished callouts that require a bit of work. They are either missing dialogue or just the basic shell of what we're hoping to achieve. They're a work in progress.
• A whole lot of spawn points covering the Vespucci District (see the map above).  I have personally been to every single residence, business, shop, bus stop, dumpster, alleyway, construction site and anything else you can think of in Vespucci, made notes and then saved the coordinates (props to @Stealth22 and @Darkmyre for the coordinate saver scripts). From this, I've been going through creating libraries for each individual callout to pull from, for example, noise complaints will only grab residences. robberies will only grab robbable stores,fights will grab everything, etc.  From here, I'm naming each location in the library and we're hoping to pull the name out of that and have it told to you ingame by dispatch, so when you get a call for a burglary in progress from dispatch and it's in Vespucci Canals, dispatch will actually say to the effect of "Caller is a neighbour, reports that a male just forced the back door and went into the house at 1245 Imagination Ct. You can get to the door by jumping the side fence". Something to that effect.
• Some spawn points from other districts and for specific callouts. Similar to the bank robbery in Albo's callout, I've found locations that have just screamed out a specific callout to me, so they've been saved and had scripts partially written for them. Distractions, right?
• Most of a menu that gives a whole bunch of options that will dictate how you receive callouts. This will be the whole core of the pack, through it you'll select:
  • Zone: Vespucci to start with, then moving in to others like Rockford Hills, Central, etc. Each zone be unique and have it's volume crime and zone-specific calls mixed in with the rest.
  • Duty type: Patrol, something else, whatever else and hopefully more
  • Transport type: Foot patrol (you'll only get local calls - within a few hundred metres), bicycle (moderate distances but obviously nothing traffic related), car (everything is yours!) and for those like me down in Australia where our sedans are literally just a car with a lightbar and we have the specific type of vehicle, caged vehicle (where you may also get calls to transport POI's)
• Subsequent menus (just page across, much like the LSPDFR menus) giving options for:
  • Conversations, given there's a lot of talking and dialog in the mod since that's what the bulk of Police work is. It's also multiple choice and has varying reactions based on each option, think RPG!
  • Radio use, maybe you need a supervisor to help out, maybe you need a forensics crew? Or whatever else. So far this one is pretty bare but I'm hoping to flesh it out - I love the idea that you're at a job - ambulance call for example - and can't negotiate with the guy but he's not doing anything wrong as such. Call the supervisor, (s)he'll rock up, talk to the guy (you probably won't see the dialog) and suddenly he's willing to go to hospital. Just like real life - the Sarge always knows just what to say!
  • Evidence collection and scene assessment. If you're at a burglary with no offender present, look for evidence. You might find something with a print. Take it to the lab and who knows, a couple hours later the print might get a match and you'll have someone to go question (remember, every house has an address and a spawn point - nothing saying the LSPD crime lab is up to date on work and can run a print, give you a POI name and address in a few hours)... or maybe next shift or two shifts later if I'm smart enough to work out a way to this thing save somewhere so you can actually follow up work from previous play sessions. I doubt I'll work it out though and it's down the track!
  • Other stuff but that'll depend on your duty and is a loooong way down the track.
• There's more but I can't remember it at the moment.

So, a lot of all that is spitballing. We have bits and pieces of everything all over the place. Sort of like a shell... with some holes in it. First we're gonna fill the holes, then put stuff in the shell (which we oddly enough have most of) and then polish it up. 

I've written a lot of scripts (talking scripts, not smart cody sort of scripts) and a lot of dialog given I can do that a little more easily on the iPad and then send it home to reformat and whatnot. The majority of these calls are going to involve some pretty in depth conversations so there's that's gone in to that so far. I'm also looking for a bit of a better way to actually have the conversations. The way they appear at the bottom of the screen, similar to all the other mods is pretty cumbersome. 

I hope that gives you a bit of an update. It's definitely still in the works. It's definitely taking longer than expected but I've also had a few bumps (spent a month and a half overseas getting married and honeymooning, done a lot of overtime to pay for said overseas honeymooning and marriage, etc.) and working on one day a week when learning at the same time is hard. As much as I read about this stuff while I'm away from the computer, I'm the type of learner that needs to be doing to absorb.

I'd love to get something out but I don't really want to release just one callout. Unfortunately this is enough of a mod that kind of needs to come out as a package otherwise it's going to be that one pain in the ass callout that requires that extra bit of work so it's easier to just code 3 it there and shoot the guy in the head to not have to deal with it.

That said though, it is also going to be a whole lot quicker and easier once we get the working base out, which I think we're doing well - the ambulance callout I mentioned is huge progress now that it works, so the rest will hopefully just be reproducing that with slightly different scenarios, spawn points, etc. I'm probably wrong though and it'll still be a lot of work. We'll see and I'll let you guys know.

Promise to keep you a bit more in the loop in future!

Oh and also, since I've had a bit of extra free time recently and got the extra help, I'm getting my Youtube channel going again and will post previews of this stuff on there once it's at a point that I think I can show it off effectively. Until then, shameless plug! 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUVdRLlyIcWglOEeqNeEk3w

[Darkmyre 773]

Props should go to @LtFlash for the coord saver script, all I did was add a couple of very minor tweaks to his excellent work.

[Kyben 214]

Yep, you're totally right actually - I dunno where I pulled Stealth's name from... though, he's helped too so he should get credit... but yeah, coordinate saver was definitely @LtFlash. Of course it won't let me edit that into the post, so he gets his own dedicated post. >_>