More firefighting gear and a change to portable tanks

[Mrs Dobbins]

 

Frankly, all atmos techs have been there. Fire everywhere. It feels too gamey to drag a water tank around with me to deal with a fire, and looting every extinguisher closet during a round is bad. Plus it's an atmos tech's job to be the stations firefighter.

For this reason, I suggest that atmos techs get a special fire extinguisher with double the capacity, or possibly a backpack (that can be worn in the suit storage of the atmos hardsuit). The backpack would have a verb where a hose dropped down from the tank, and the hose would work like an extinguisher, except that it drained from the backpack (which would have like 150 units of water).

It just feels odd that the stations firefighters only get basic firefighting gear, but the best protection possible.

 

I would also like to see handheld tank's valves behave like the canisters valves, where they can be opened without internals to release their contents into the air, such as in emergencies, or for firefighting and you want to release a lot of CO2 into the air to combat the fire, or for releasing plasma or n2o as a traitor.

 

[Streaky Haddock]

 

With the exception of chemist-started fires, fighting gas fires with extinguishers is dangerous and inefficient.

In fact, your firesuit is only useful for rescuing corpses from blazes and using a flamethrower.

 

[Mrs Dobbins]

 

With the exception of chemist-started fires, fighting gas fires with extinguishers is dangerous and inefficient.

In fact, your firesuit is only useful for rescuing corpses from blazes and using a flamethrower.

 

It makes me feel useful. Besides, the AI can normally take care of controlling air alarms, so being on scene to drag the injured to medbay and to control the blaze dosen't hurt. I've been to a few anomaly fires where extinguishers were useful. Namely those in arrivals maintenace.

 

[Bone White]

 

Extinguishers are micro - for players who are on fire, and to a lesser extent, small fires.

 

Atmos scrubbers are macro - for fires.

 

[Plotron]

 

I see no reason NOT to implement these niftty little things the OP has described.

It would add this little bit of complexity to the role of an atmos tech, make the game even more complex (in a good way), and make firefighting this much more interesting.

 

Do not downplay a game mechanic, please.

 

[Mrs Dobbins]

Besides, dispensing lots of CO2 is a pretty macro way of extinguishing flames. It would make more sense to just carry around a tank of it rather than a canister.

[Streaky Haddock]

 

I'm led to believe that flooding CO2 doesn't do anything to the fire. In fact, the only thing cooled N2 is used for is to massively reduce the temperatures of boiling air AFTER the fire's extinguished.

Having spoken to FreestylaLT i'm left with the impression that the majority of serious firefighting is done from central atmos. There's a console in the Atmos Monitoring Room that controls every single Local Air Monitor on the station. Remote Control Access is set to 'auto' by default and that remote control access is deactivated until the air reaches red alert levels.

 

From there you can begin replacing air without even asking the AI or going to the LAM in person, and once you've done that you head to Central Atmos and try to keep the massively expanded hot air from clogging Atmos.

 

If you have a spare Atmos Tech, you can use the cameras (you are granted access to a camera if a LAM is at amber or red alert) and they can use that, the axe and their 100% heat resistance firesuit to get to and rescue any bodies that are burning in there.

You'd then use the fire extinguisher to put out the flames on the bodies (to reduce to risk of igniting a fire elsewhere) and having an expanded back-slotted fire extinguisher would be pointless and cumbersome.

 

[Bone White]

 

I see no reason NOT to implement these niftty little things the OP has described.

...

Do not downplay a game mechanic, please.

 

time vs reward

 

[FalseIncarnate]

 

I see no reason NOT to implement these niftty little things the OP has described.

...

Do not downplay a game mechanic, please.

 

time vs reward

 

This is where I'd like to step in and say that such an object already is in the code. In fact, botany, atmos, and I believe chem (might be wrong on this last one) each have a version of the Mister. More or less, it's a backpack water tank with a retractable hose.

 

The main issue, as I have been told, is not the feasibility of this item. Rather, it's weakness is that our code does not support extinguishers actually cooling a tile. This probably is a limitation imposed by ZAS, so it sadly would be difficult to restore the Mister to its intended glory.

 

Implementing it as a way to water plants and act as just an alternate extinguisher would be simple, but rather lackluster for its potential.

 

A gas release valve would be nice for tanks, but I think it should be something like the tank transfer valves in toxins, to avoid random civvies from emptying every tank they find.

 

[Fj45]

 

I'm led to believe that flooding CO2 doesn't do anything to the fire. In fact, the only thing cooled N2 is used for is to massively reduce the temperatures of boiling air AFTER the fire's extinguished.

Having spoken to FreestylaLT i'm left with the impression that the majority of serious firefighting is done from central atmos. There's a console in the Atmos Monitoring Room that controls every single Local Air Monitor on the station. Remote Control Access is set to 'auto' by default and that remote control access is deactivated until the air reaches red alert levels.

 

From there you can begin replacing air without even asking the AI or going to the LAM in person, and once you've done that you head to Central Atmos and try to keep the massively expanded hot air from clogging Atmos.

 

If you have a spare Atmos Tech, you can use the cameras (you are granted access to a camera if a LAM is at amber or red alert) and they can use that, the axe and their 100% heat resistance firesuit to get to and rescue any bodies that are burning in there.

You'd then use the fire extinguisher to put out the flames on the bodies (to reduce to risk of igniting a fire elsewhere) and having an expanded back-slotted fire extinguisher would be pointless and cumbersome.

 

 

This is pretty correct. If you have two atmos techs, it is very useful to have someone on scene to try (ahahahahahaha like they could ever succeed) to keep the greytide out and extinguish an bodies. When dragging a water tank it is possible to extinguish fires but with ZAS....ehh isn't as effective as it should. If you only have a single atmos tech, they should ALWAYS be manning the console with fires.

 

[Streaky Haddock]

Inflatable barriers can be used to form some impromptu airlocks to keep the fire from spilling out when you open up the hazard doors to get to those bodies.