Firefighter thoughts and stories.

[AriaGirl77]

I have no idea.  I didn't have him retire right after turning elder because he hadn't completed his LTW of saving 30 people yet, so maybe that extra week or so raised his retirement income?  Who knows.  All I know is that he's living in the lap of luxury now!

Honestly though, this has got to be some sort of mistake on EA's part.  I'm sure they're meant to get that income once a week instead of every day.

[Deborah]

MY Firefighter insisted on standing right in the middle of the fire he was trying to put out!

[Deborah]

I decided to play Sunset Valley last night. The fire vehicles including the engine have disappeared from the station. So I can not work on the engine in between callouts. Any suggestions?

[Slingsby]

I'm suffering from the slow pace of the career path - my Sim is 10 on nearly all skills, is brave and athletic, and yet with one call-out a day it's taking him forever to climb the career path.  I had to turn "ageing off", otherwise he'll die of old age before he gets level 10.

[Slingsby]

A few Firefighter questions for you, folks.  I'm getting really puzzled [and frustrated] with this Profession.

"Upgrade Fire Extinguisher".  I understand you can click on your Sim to do the upgrade ... but our Firefighter doesn't have that option.  He's level 10 skills on just about everything, so does this upgrade option only appear when he reaches a certain career level?  He's only made Level 4 at the moment.

"Career progression" is VERY slow - his professional experience bar hardly moves after each callout, so he's not getting promotions, despite Grade A performances, for simply AGES.  But I tried the career with a different Sim from a different household [with much lower basic skills] and things really buzzed along - that Sim got promoted after his second day!

"Slow Reactions".  The alarm goes off, and our Sim just stands there doing nothing, while everyone else runs around.  On the last call-out it took him 32 minutes to get into the Fire Truck and get it moving!  The same when he gets to a fire - he just stands and looks at things for 5 minutes before tackling the next piece of fire [which of course is spreading all the time].

[Saltypaws]

Mine stands around as well.  I have to click on the star to get him to the fire.  He had managed to get an A on all calls though, which is suprising.  I have only worked with the one fireman, but he zipped right along, in fact I was quite shocked at how fast the bar went up, he was always upgrading something though.  Firetruck was level 4 horsepower first thing.  Not sure what skill level he was when he got the extinguisher, I think 5 or 6, but once upgraded, it sure puts out the fire.  I really enjoyed playing that profession.

[jmz95]

A few Firefighter questions for you, folks.  I'm getting really puzzled [and frustrated] with this Profession.

"Upgrade Fire Extinguisher".  I understand you can click on your Sim to do the upgrade ... but our Firefighter doesn't have that option.  He's level 10 skills on just about everything, so does this upgrade option only appear when he reaches a certain career level?  He's only made Level 4 at the moment.

"Career progression" is VERY slow - his professional experience bar hardly moves after each callout, so he's not getting promotions, despite Grade A performances, for simply AGES.  But I tried the career with a different Sim from a different household [with much lower basic skills] and things really buzzed along - that Sim got promoted after his second day!

"Slow Reactions".  The alarm goes off, and our Sim just stands there doing nothing, while everyone else runs around.  On the last call-out it took him 32 minutes to get into the Fire Truck and get it moving!  The same when he gets to a fire - he just stands and looks at things for 5 minutes before tackling the next piece of fire [which of course is spreading all the time].

In answer, you have to be level 5, or maybe 6, in the career to get the option to upgraded the extinguisher. As for career progression, it is highly advised that when you join the career, your athletic and handiness skills are very low. You can also try to make friends with your fellow firefighters at the station. To improve your progression, level up your skills, complete emergencies, and be friends with your co-workers. As for the slow reaction, that may have to do with where you are in the station. That's happened to me before as well.

[Slingsby]

Thanks, folks ... that's cleared up a few questions!

1.  When he joined he was already Handiness/10 and Fitness/10 ... for which he gets penalised?!  
Strange way of working - that may also explain his wife's slow progress bar as a PI. 
So what you are saying is that because the "Profession" says 'Improve Logic' or whatever, and you can't improve on 10, you get held back with slow promotion? 
Someone programming that at EA was really having a bad day!

2.  Anyway, if I live long enough, he may reach Level 5 by his next weekend!!    
I'll look for the extinguisher upgrade then.  
When he joined, on his first day, he upgraded the Fire truck all the way.

3.  Oh, and he's friends with the other Firefighters.  
He's Charisma/10, as his last job was Leader of the Free World [he got bored with that!] so making friends is easy.

[jmz95]

Yeah, the max skills you had that were needed for promotions really held you back, but that may be fixed in a patch. Since you also made friends really quickly, the only thing you can do to progress is handle emergencies. Just wait until you start getting earthquakes, and you might have to handle 3 large house fires in one day. That should help with the promotions. Good luck with the rest of your firefighting career!

[Slingsby]

Yeah, the max skills you had that were needed for promotions really held you back, but that may be fixed in a patch. Since you also made friends really quickly, the only thing you can do to progress is handle emergencies. Just wait until you start getting earthquakes, and you might have to handle 3 large house fires in one day. That should help with the promotions. Good luck with the rest of your firefighting career!

Very grateful for all that ... now I shall start worrying about the non-functioning Consignment Store across the street!!  My Firefighter has become a Level 10 Inventor already [he has nothing else to do while on duty!!] and needs somewhere to sell his Widgets!

[Slingsby]

Just to validate that post from jmz95 ...

We used a different family, and sure enough having FEW qualifications is the success route!!  He made 2 promotions on his weekend off by doing related skills an going to the firehouse and talking to the team.  He's now level 5 and he's only been to 2 fires 

EA ... that's some really STUPID programming.

"Hello, I'm an experienced airline pilot with 20,000 hours and the COMPLETE career skill-set, can I have a job?"
"Yup, sure.  You'll be dead of old age before you ever get promoted, though." 

[jmz95]

Just to validate that post from jmz95 ...

We used a different family, and sure enough having FEW qualifications is the success route!!  He made 2 promotions on his weekend off by doing related skills an going to the firehouse and talking to the team.  He's now level 5 and he's only been to 2 fires 

EA ... that's some really STUPID programming.

"Hello, I'm an experienced airline pilot with 20,000 hours and the COMPLETE career skill-set, can I have a job?"
"Yup, sure.  You'll be dead of old age before you ever get promoted, though." 

Lol, I love how you bold my name.

To build on Slingsby's findings, I once had a ghosthunter sim get the job on the first Sunday of playtime, and before she even went to her first "mission", she was level 3 in the career, all from leveling up her logic skill.

[samoht04]

Sorry to revive the thread but I got a picture of my fire-fighter 'rescuing' a woman. Who would you be more afraid of, a fire or some person dressed in yellow and a helmet carrying an Axe?

[sydney511]

My sim can "take" stuff while putting out fires. He is not a klepto. Has anybody else noticed this?

[Pam]

We already have a topic about firefighting, so I'm merging this one with it.