PNWParksFan

As you have all likely heard by now, Hurricane Harvey is hitting Texas and the gulf coast region very hard right now. Millions of people are being displaced by extreme flooding and other hurricane damage, with feet of rain falling over a short period of time. Hundreds of people have already been rescued by brave emergency responders and community members, but many thousands more still need help. Efforts are currently focused on the rescue of people in immediate danger, and there isn't much we can do from afar to help that effort but send our best wishes to all involved. However, once taken out of harms way, these people still need shelter, food and water, medical assistance, and more. This is where you can help, by donating to the relief organizations who are helping these displaced people, both in these crucial moments as the disaster unfolds, and in the years to come as they rebuild. We all enjoy playing video games that sometimes simulate dire real-life circumstances. This is particularly relevant to me as the creator of some mods that are heavily focused on EMS and Search and Rescue. I would like to take this opportunity to reflect on the grave reality that these responders are facing right now and in the days to come. And I would also like to take this opportunity to encourage you do make a donation to support the relief efforts. I am offering the following incentives to donate to the American Red Cross to specifically support relief efforts for Hurricane Harvey. If you would like to suggest additional relief groups that are deserving of our donations, please suggest them below. Matching donations: See instructions below to confirm your donation. Any donation over $10 (Red Cross online donation minimum) will be included. @PNWParksFan will match the first $100 of confirmed donations as part of this campaign. @acepilot2k7 has committed to match another $50 in confirmed donations @FirstThirtyMinutes has committed to match another $100 in confirmed donations @AlphaWhiskeySix has contributed an additional $100 in matching donations Coastal Callouts beta access: Anybody who donates at least $30 confirmed will be granted beta access to Coastal Callouts, as if they had donated to me directly Discord recognition Any member of PNWParksFan, Acepilot2k7, or FirstThirtyMinute's Discord servers who donates $10 or more will get a special user role to recognize their contributions to this effort Donation instructions: Go to redcross.org/donate Enter the amount you want to donate Select "Hurricane Harvey" under the "I want to support" dropdown Check "Dedicate this donation" and enter "LSPDFR community" or "Coastal Callouts community" Complete the donation Forward the email receipt for your donation to gtaparks+harvey <AT> gmail.com. If you'd like any of the recognition/perks please provide your Discord username in the email so I know who you are. That's optional of course but I won't be able to give you any perks related to your identity in the community if I don't know who you are. If you do not want to be publicly recognized (e.g. in discord servers, youtube shoutouts, etc.) please let me know in the email as well. I will track the donation receipts I receive as "confirmed donations", and will update with the totals here daily. Anybody who has committed to matching donations will also post a screenshot after they submit the donation. If anybody has any other suggestions on how we as a community can support the relief efforts for Hurricane Harvey, please let me know below or in a PM.

There are different flags for the heli mission task. You need to figure out the right flag and pass the right values for that flag. There's some documentation on the NativeDB about how to use the native and what flags do what.

Towing is already built in, and there's even a callout already with the exact title of "Disabled Vessel"! Check out this video for an example of towing with the RB-S:

Progress update: The new config system has been implemented now for the helicopter features as well. It was a painful process, but I'm very pleased with the result, and I think you all will be too once you get your hands on this! The door is now open to international pack development, as all units can be configured. My next major step is to create a new ped grab/drag system. Currently I rely on the Arrest Manager grab function, and while it works well overall, I need something that will let the user grab dead peds, and give me more control over the grabbed ped. I'm still experimenting with this, especially the animations which are very hard to get right. My initial testing has gone well so far though. The new grab system will also tie in with the helicopter hoist, allowing for dual hoists for tricky rescue situations:

@Cyron43 I post progress updates here whenever I complete or make progress on adding a significant feature. That ends up being about every 2 weeks that I post an update. If you go through and look at the history you'll see it's been a slow but steady progression. The mod's still under development, it'll still be released when it's ready, and it's still not ready yet. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

I'm still working on the mod every single day for multiple hours, on top of my day job and other responsibilities. It's going to be released; it's not ready yet. I started messing around with ideas in March of 2016, but didn't start really focusing on development of Coastal Callouts until fall of last year. Of course I intend to publicly release it, I wouldn't be spending so much time on it otherwise. It's very frustrating how some people don't appreciate the amount of effort that goes into reverse engineering GTA to make these complicated features work. Each little thing takes time, and I don't like to release shit. I've spent the past 3 weeks just working on the configuration options, so that you'll be able to customize exactly what units respond where, with the ability to customize every aspect of the vehicles used in the mod. Two to five hours a day, on top of my day job. Could I have just left everything hard-coded so the game would crash if you didn't have the exact models installed and couldn't change them out if you wanted to play with models appropriate for a different country? Sure, it would have put me 3 weeks closer to release. Instead, when it is eventually released, you get a totally flexible configuration system that's robust and extensible. Same goes for every other feature and piece of content I've carefully created. Honestly, I looked at your user profile, and all of your recent comments are you complaining about other people's mods not being good enough. It doesn't look like you've actually created any content for the community in years. Try making even a simple plugin yourself before you complain about other people's release schedule, let alone something as complex as this mod. What other mod incorporates a very detailed script, a dozen custom vehicles each with a custom seating layout and configuration to be used by the script, built-in map mods done properly through ymap files, custom peds, edited scenario files to actually spawn those peds and vehicles in the world realistically, and all the other stuff I'm working on? Certainly none that I see released on your profile. This is already possible as part of the mod. I'm also trying to figure out a way to get the sniper to work from a helicopter, but by default that's not possible. Still researching workarounds. In boat pursuits, the suspects will give up if you shoot their engine enough times. You can shoot from a helicopter, or you can call a backup helicopter and they'll shoot at the engines too if the pursuit is set to aggressive.

While I appreciate the suggestion, I don't think I'll end up adding that. In reality it's quite uncommon for these larger boats to be transported on land. It's usually only done when they're being transported from the manufacturer to the station, or perhaps if they need particularly extensive maintenance or something like that. There's plenty of dock space to park the boat in when you're done with a normal patrol!

When the mod is released, it will be released as one big mod. If people want to use the vehicles without the rest of the mod, that will probably be an option in the installer.

From the pictures I can find online, they don't generally use coast guard marked rigs to haul the boats when they do have to move them. Most likely they're not even government rigs, they're probably contracted.

Time for a quick update on Coastal Callouts progress! Development of the new configuration system is almost finished for the boats side of things. Still need to do it all for helicopters, but hopefully that'll be a bit less complex. At any rate, making progress! Boats will now be dispatched dynamically depending on the location, weather, how far off shore it is, and what tasks the boat needs to be capable of. If you're near Vespucci Beach and need a rescue craft, you may get a lifeguard jetski. If you're near the terminal and need law enforcement, you may get port police. A sheriff boat will respond if you're on the Alamo Sea. Deep in the ocean you'll only get the larger coast guard boats (and cutters once they're ready), but near shore you may get the smaller ones. All of this will be fully configurable through XML files, so the user will be able to choose which units spawn where. The peds which spawn are dynamic depending on the task as well. In heavy weather, they'll wear full-body immersion suits. Responding to a pursuit they'll wear vests. You can configure the clothing options used for any scenario. Currently this new configuration system has been implemented for boats disapatched for backup, towing, SAR search, and callouts. In parallel I've been working on some new boats so we'll actually have enough variety to make these configuration options useful. We now have the Los Santos Sheriff Department response boat, as well as some new dinghy variants for the Los Santos Port Police, USCG, and Los Santos County Sheriff. I'll be doing some more work on the dinghy variants soon. We have also acquired a model for the 87' Patrol Boat, although SkylineGTRFreak hasn't had time to start converting the model yet.

I addressed this directly in my most recent update:

The patient transport is already configured. In a helicopter with patients you can land at a hospital heli pad and a doctor will wheel the patient in on a gurney, or you can land at a heli pad and an ambulance will meet you to take the patient. With a boat you can go to the dock and an ambulance will meet you, then carry the patient up the dock on a stretcher to the ambulance. I will eventually add some functionality to deal with dead/injured peds in the water but haven't gotten around to that yet.

The purpose of donations should be to show appreciation for and support projects and creators whose content you enjoy. The "this is not a purchase" text isn't just legal cover, it's a philosophy. Quite a number of people have very kindly donated just to say, "thanks and keep up the good work". Some of the donations I most appreciate are those from people who give just a few dollars to say thanks, without any expectation of a reward. Of course the perks are there as an incentive and reward for those who do choose to contribute, and I know some people are only really interested in early access. But I mean it when I call it a "donation". From a practical perspective, I have only ever denied one person access to the beta, and that was due to concerns about their ability to maintain the confidentiality of proprietary functionality in development. I proactively offered to refund that individual when I denied them beta access, and processed the refund immediately upon their request. While the license is there to give me a level of protection from abuse, I have never had any issues with any donors and always strive to keep my supporters happy.

You may want to check out LS Noire by @Fiskey111 and @LtFlash. It's not released yet as it's still under development, but it has a lot of the elements you allude to, including investigative work, multiple independent stages, and raids. Please understand that everything you've suggested is so far from something that even a very skilled modder can do "easily". I feel like a lot of people who play LSPDFR drastically underestimate how much time goes into the simplest callout, let alone a multi-stage complex scenario like you suggest. The slow pace of development around here has nothing to do with a lack of inspiration and ideas, and everything to do with the fact that this is a hobby for us, we only have so many hours in the day, and creating mods is not easy. There's nothing wrong with making suggestions, but appreciate the magnitude of what you're requesting.

Ambient pursuits aren't caused by LSPDFR, they're actually spawned by the game engine. They would happen ambiently even if you weren't on-duty in LSPDFR.

Sorry for the lack of updates recently. I was out of town for several holidays and family events recently, and have been busy enjoying the Parks of the PNW as it's finally summer here. But fear not, Coastal Callouts development is still underway! Here are some of the things currently going on: The Response Boat Medium model has been enhanced thanks to hard work by @SkylineGTRFreak to add a passenger compartment below deck! We currently have a little issue with water infiltration below deck, but that's being worked on ;) We have just purchased a 3D model for the 87' Coastal Patrol Boat. It'll take a while to convert the model and get it working in-game, but I'm excited for this model as it's small enough to still fit well in the GTA world (that National Security Cutter is a bit ginormous), but big enough to feel like an actual Cutter. I'll post updated once we start making some progress on this model. The past couple weeks I've been working hard on a complete overhaul of the ped and vehicle customization system. The new config system I'm developing will also eventually be used for Custom Backup and Better EMS. It provides a whole new degree of flexibility, with better customization options, less duplication, and better support for add-on vehicles and EUP integration. Once this is fully integrated into Coastal Callouts it'll give users more choices over what units respond to which scenarios, which will in turn enable non-US players to recreate their local maritime law enforcement and search & rescue agencies more realistically in-game. No pretty screenshots for this one since it's just a buttload of code, but trust me, it'll be worth it! Thank you very much to everybody who continues to support the development of this mod, both through your supportive comments, donations, and general enthusiasm! I know it's been a long wait, and I still don't have any info to share about a release date because I don't yet know myself when it'll be ready. Once this configuration thing is done, it'll make it easier to continue adding some of the remaining features I want to have in place before release. Just to give you a little idea of what I intend to complete before releasing, I still need to add crew/copilot functionality for boats, and plan to rewrite portions of the helicopter copilot AI to be more stable and less frustrating to use. I'm also planning to add some more functionality for using planes. The good news is, the vehicles are mostly ready - we now have pretty much all the major boat classes the coast guard uses, both of the helicopters, and one of the most-used planes. I'll continue to work with Skyline and other modders to add more vehicles as possible, and am also excited to have some modders from the international community working on some models and textures for Australia, UK, and other locations. Also, if you would like to see a visual representation of some of the newest features, definitely check out the Coastal Callouts Youtube playlist. This playlist automatically gets updated with any new Coastal Callouts videos, so you can easily keep up-to-date:

The default setup already handles the airport fire station the way you want. It has a "hospital" spawn with no dropoff specified. Since no dropoff is specified at that station, it'll go to the next-nearest dropoff point, which happens to be Davis Hospital.

The beta program isn't automated; I have to set up each new member manually. I usually respond to the initial donation within 12-24 hours, and then users get access to the beta within 24-48 hours of filling out the registration info received in the initial response. I had a particularly long day today and just got home, but will catch up on any new members before I go to bed! I will be away from my computer for a few days over the 4th of July holiday, so response times may be slightly delayed compared to normal.

There are tons of other callouts to download, you need to install them separately. Check out the Scripts section of the downloads page. http://www.lcpdfr.com/downloads/gta5mods/scripts/?sortby=file_reviews&since=all_time&sortby=file_downloads&sortdirection=desc