Hello, heroes!
Recently, we’ve gotten some good questions from one of our fans, NitrouZ, and we decided to fire some answers back. Here we go!
Q: How big will the campaign be? How many missions can players expect?
A: At this moment we have more than 30 missions in a variety of environments. Some of the missions have major set pieces and story bits, some are smaller but still tense and challenging. Like a real firefighter, you don't just fight the biggest fires ever, but also respond to minor calls.
Q: What kind of missions will there be? Only fires, missions without fire or also traffic accidents?
A: Not just fires or arsons. Traffic accidents, toxic spills, even a plane crash! I think you'll be satisfied with the variety.
Q: What units and vehicles will there be? Do they have any special functions (dangerous goods, divers, etc.)?
A: There are different types of firefighters and vehicles, and moreover, they're upgradeable! We have medics, units specialized in breaking through obstacles, high-altitude people, water refill vehicles, ambulances, ladder trucks, water cannon trucks... But what we like about this selection is that every firefighter can do the other's work, at least to some degree, just not as skillfully. It's not like you have this one person that only takes care of the victims and is useless in other situations.
Q: Will the units only be American or are there plans to offer units from other countries later on?
A: We based the game and the style on the American firefighting units, but it's a cool idea to introduce other nations, and we don't say 'never' to cool ideas. 🙂
Q: Will modding be possible?
A: To make a game mod-friendly it's best to start making it with this intention because it changes the entire development philosophy. Fire Commander wasn’t made with modding in mind but we will see what the future brings.
Q: Will there be film sequences for the various missions (e.g. events that could occur during a mission)?
A: Yes, we have introductions, voice-overs, cool cinematic shots et cetera, which goal is to add immersion and bring focus to what’s at stake. Mostly in the story missions, of course, which are perhaps a bit more 'out there' than your side missions in terms of spectacle. Bigger flames, Hollywood-style firefighting action! 🙂
Q: What are the plans after the release? Are there plans for DLCs that will continuously expand the game?
A: The cool thing about Fire Commander is that it gives us so much freedom to take it beyond its initial setting. Buuuut, let's not commit to anything yet. We want the base game to be a full, complete product that you can fully enjoy without opening your wallet every 15 minutes.
Q: What is the story behind Fire Commander?
A: If you mean the story of how the game came to be, it's just we thought that firefighters are kinda underappreciated. When you think about it, they are everyday heroes. Soldiers fight in wars and that's brave and all, but firefighters jump into fire pretty much EVERY DAY. They deserve their own game. And we liked the firefighting RTS games of the olden days, so we thought we could modernize the formula a bit.
Q: Is the lighting of the vehicles still being worked on?
A: Everything is, really. 🙂 It's the question of managing your time and resources, which of course aren't endless. At this moment we can start polishing the visuals etc., but our priority were the mechanics. Until the game goes gold, we'll keep improving stuff.
Q: Did the development take inspiration from other games?
A: Sure! I mean, we can't pretend Emergency doesn't exist. This was one of the games of our teenage years. We loved it, but even if we hadn't, we'd play it just to see what it did, and that'd also mean taking inspiration from it.
Q: Will the turntable ladder be used to rescue people later on? Or will it only be used for extinguishing?
A: You can order your firefighter to climb it, take a victim, and bring it back down.
Q: There are already different extinguishing agents. What about ventilation in case of fires (e.g.: smashing windows and doors to avoid burn-through)? Will this feature be implemented?
A: I can't say for sure right now because it's not always obvious what works best. You'd think that a firefighting game should have these things, but once you start making it more realistic, it just becomes cumbersome and slow to play. That's why we don't have hoses. We tried them, but then it turned to Hose Deployment: The Game. It was slow, you focused on them too much, and it wasn't the game we wanted to make. So: we're trying stuff, we'll keep balancing it, but ultimately we want the game to be fun. We'll see! Work in progress.
We hope that answers some of your doubts or wonderings. If you want to help us, wishlist the game!
See you next time.