The map reads by shape and colour
Three shapes, three kinds of thing
The map never uses colour alone to say something. Shape comes before colour, because it holds up at any zoom and also if you do not tell colours apart well.
| Shape | What it is | What it carries |
|---|---|---|
| Diamond | A call: something happening that you can go to | The symbol for the type of emergency |
| Disc | One of your vehicles | The outline of its class, with its call sign underneath |
| Shield | One of your stations | The badge of its speciality |
A grey diamond with a question mark is a call you do not know the nature of yet. It is not a type of emergency: it is the absence of information. It turns into a coloured diamond with its symbol once your first vehicle reaches the scene and reports.
The colours of the calls
Colour groups; the symbol identifies. There are 20 types and there are not 20 colours you can tell apart at a glance, so some pairs share a family on purpose — they are related calls.
| Call | Colour | Symbol |
|---|---|---|
| Animal rescue | brown | A silhouette with ears |
| Collapse at a construction site | rubble grey | A broken roof with rubble at its base |
| Complicated childbirth | pink | A seated figure |
| Evacuation of a public building | turquoise | A door with the arrow pointing out |
| Fire at an industrial warehouse | burnt orange | Two pitched-roof sheds |
| Fire in a commercial premises | brick | A shopfront with its awning and a flame above |
| Flooded basement | water blue | A house with the water rising inside |
| Hazardous materials leak | yellow | A drum with its bands |
| Heatstroke | sun amber | A sun with air rippling below it |
| House fire | red | A house with the door picked out |
| Indoor toxic leak | lime green | A sealed container with two eyes |
| Lift rescue | blue-grey | A car with arrows up and down |
| Mass poisoning | sea green | A glass with its contents picked out |
| Medical emergency at home | light blue | A house with a cross inside |
| Missing person | indigo | A magnifying glass |
| Patient without power | lavender | A plug with the bolt broken |
| Person on a building ledge | terracotta | A figure at the edge and a hand reaching out |
| Small fire in a classroom | olive green | A desk under a spark |
| Traffic accident | violet | Two cars and the impact between them |
| Vehicle on fire in an underground car park | dark violet | A car under a ceiling |
Reading a call at a glance
Every call is drawn as a column of light over the spot, with its diamond on top. The column is there so you can see it from the other side of the city; the ring on the ground, so you know exactly which building it is.
| What you see | What it means |
|---|---|
| The diamond tips and returns, the ring pulses fast | It is ringing. Nobody has picked up yet, and it is the only one shaking at a time |
| Grey, still, with the question mark | Call answered, but you still do not know what is there |
| Colour and symbol, the column lit | Confirmed. Your first vehicle has reported in |
| A thicker column and an N2 or N3 chevron above the diamond | It has grown. It needs more than it did at the start |
A call that is lost is not announced with anything special: the beacon disappears from the map just as it does when the call is resolved.
Reading a vehicle
The disc carries its call sign underneath (BUL-01, SVB-02) and the outline of its class inside. On the station panel, a green dot next to the call sign means it is at the station and free; an orange one, that it is out working.
Over one of your own stations, several vehicles of the same type are not drawn on top of each other: they group into a single badge with the count.