Dispatch
Station Mode
With Station Mode on, SAFR crews sign on at a station and take out
apparatus: ENGINE 3, MEDIC 3, MEDIC 3-1. You send the apparatus, not a
person. Everyone on its crew who is free gets the tone-out, and whoever gets in
is the crew.
LEO and dispatch units don't change. For the crew's side, see Station Mode under SAFR. Your admin turns Station Mode on under Stations & Apparatus.
Reading the SAFR board
SAFR is grouped per station, with a No station group for chiefs and air units who signed on the old way. Per station you see three things:
- In quarters: one small chip per person at the station, showing their number. The dot is their status colour. Hover for the crews they are on.
- Apparatus on the road: a normal unit card. Instead of a 10-code, an apparatus that is driving home shows RETURNING, and one on its way to a hospital shows TRANSPORTING.
- Apparatus in quarters: a dashed card, because nobody is aboard yet.
The dashed card says whether you can send it:
| Badge | Means |
|---|---|
| READY | Someone on its crew is in quarters and free. 2 crew · 475 512 lists them |
| COMMITTED | Its crew is busy, for example Crew on ENGINE 3 |
cross-staffed on a READY card means the same people make more than one apparatus ready. Send one, and the other turns COMMITTED.
EMT on a card means its crew marked it EMT-trained: an engine or another apparatus that can be sent to medical calls too. Apparatus from a division that is EMT-trained by default, like your medics, don't carry the label. It is a label only: nothing stops you from sending an apparatus without it.
Toning out an apparatus
Three ways, all the same:
- Drag the dashed card onto a call in the Call Queue, or drop a call onto the card. While you hover, the card reads TONE OUT · 2 can board.
- ASSIGN UNIT on a call: the apparatus in quarters are listed under In quarters, sorted by how far their station is from the call. Press TONE OUT.
- From the call's detail window, in the same list.
Everyone on its crew who can board gets the tone-out on their tablet. Your notification says MEDIC 3 toned out. 2 can board. The apparatus is now on the call, without crew until someone gets in: on the tablet, or by driving the truck out of the station.
Drag the apparatus, not the person. Dropping a chip from In quarters onto a call is refused with Assign the apparatus, not a person in quarters.
An apparatus that is already on the road is a normal unit. Assign it like any other.
When nobody boards
The crew has three minutes. If nobody boards, you get No crew for MEDIC 3 and the call stays open for you to send something else. The same line goes into the call log. The notification goes to every dispatcher on duty and to whoever toned it out.
Queueing a call on a busy apparatus
A COMMITTED apparatus can still take the call: the button reads QUEUE instead of TONE OUT, and dragging shows QUEUE ON MEDIC 3. The call then waits on that apparatus.
- The call card shows the apparatus as a queued unit, like any queued unit.
- The dashed card gets an hourglass with the call number.
- The call log gets MEDIC 3 queued for call (waiting for crew).
As soon as someone on its crew is back in quarters and free, the apparatus is toned out on its own, and you get MEDIC 3 toned out. With station alerting on, the announcement plays at the station at that moment, not before.
| To | Do |
|---|---|
| Cancel the queue | Press QUEUED again, or right-click the dashed card → Remove from queue for #1042 |
| See what waits | Hover the dashed card |
Two calls waiting on one apparatus go longest waiting first. Closing the call, or taking the apparatus out of service, ends the wait; you are told MEDIC 3 went out of service when a call stopped waiting because of it.
The right-click menu on an apparatus in quarters
| Action | Does |
|---|---|
| Remove from queue for #… | One line per call waiting on it |
| Take out of service | Undeploy it. Its crew list goes with it, and calls waiting on it stop waiting |
An apparatus on the road has the normal unit menu.
Station announcements
If your community uses station alerting, an Announce button appears over the units on a call as soon as an apparatus in quarters is on it, at a station with speakers. It sits on the call card and in the call's detail window.
- Press Announce once. It announces every unit on the call that hasn't been announced yet, from every station: Medic 3, Engine 3, Engine 4, followed by the call.
- It plays on the speakers of each station where one of those units is in quarters.
- Your notification says whether it went out with the spoken text or with the tone only. If the game server doesn't confirm it, you are told that too.
Transporting
Set a SAFR apparatus to Transporting yourself, and you get the window Which hospital is MEDIC 3 transporting to? ROUTE sends the GPS route to its crew. When the crew sets it, the crew picks.
On arrival at the hospital the apparatus turns RETURNING and leaves the call. It can take a new call on the way home.
The map
Stations show as pins, coloured by what can roll:
| Colour | Means |
|---|---|
| Green | At least one apparatus in quarters is READY |
| Orange | There is equipment, but nothing can go now |
| Grey | Nothing deployed, or not known yet |
Hide or show them with Show stations in the map's layer buttons; your choice is remembered.
Fixing things by hand
The game normally decides who is aboard. If it missed someone, for example after a crash, you can still drag a person's chip onto their apparatus card to group them, like any unit.