Just trying to help people to come up with ideas so I thought that maybe we could use some more detailed info on Raccoon city to help get the ball rolling. So read below and if you feel so inspired start making thread ideas. Lets get 1998 Raccoon City up and running shall we? I know a lot of you are chompin' at the bit to get in there and start tearing it up! But that cant be done till threads are made. So lets get started shall we?!
Raccoon City was a small, remote industrialized city located in the US mid-west. It was destroyed during the t-Virus outbreak of 1998. The population was estimated to have been approximately 100,000, unless you look at the movies where figures jump to around 1mil and a much larger metropolis. Figures regarding proportions of gender, age and ethnicity are unknown. The precise location of Raccoon City within the US has never been clarified. The city sat at the foot of the Arklay mountains to the north, on a confluence between three rivers: the Marble; Circular and Aimes. The Marble river is the largest, and from which the city drew most of its drinking water. The Circular river ran through the city proper, dividing it into west and east.
Noteworthy Districts
Downtown - generally defined as north of Ennerdale Street. Consisted of mixed residential/commercial buildings. Points of interest included Central Station, Raccoon City Hall, St. Michael's Clock Tower, Raccoon Zoo and Raccoon General Hospital.
Uptown - generally defined as south of Ennerdale street. Consisted of largely commercial buildings. Landmarks included the Raccoon City Police Department (RPD), Raccoon High and Folsolm Street, the centre of entertainment for the city.
Cedar District - running alongside the Circular River and to the east, largely industrial. Notable landmarks included Raccoon University and the Waste Disposal Plant.
Suburbs - lay to the north and east of the city proper, surrounded by dense forest.
Main Roads
The city was roughly based on a grid system, with the main thoroughfares including:
Ennerdale Street - a main road going from east to west, separating the CBD into "uptown" and "downtown". The police department is on this road.
Central Street - location of Central Station.
Raccoon Street - location of St. Michael's Clock Tower.
Mission Street - location of Raccoon Hospital.
The city had an extensively developed tram and subway system, designed by the Kite Brothers in 1969. The tram system serves largely uptown and the Cider district, with Raccoon Station acting as the central hub. The subway system was known to have six stops, although before the outbreak was at risk of closing due to decreasing passenger numbers. Raccoon City was also connected by train to its nearest neighbor Stoneville, a small town to the east.
Economy
The GDP of Raccoon City remains unknown, but its economy was largely dominated by the Umbrella Corporation and it can be assumed most of the population were fairly affluent. Approximately 40% of the city's inhabitants were believed to be directly employed with the company working in its many legal businesses (pharmaceuticals, computing) however only a select few knew of its illegal activities in bio-engineering. The corporation generously financed most of the city's infrastructure, including the tram and subway system under the "Bright 21st Century Project" in a bid to improve public relations.
Government
Raccoon City was believed to be run under an elected municipal government. Mayor Michael Warren, elected in 1987, served for eleven years. Warren was the engineer responsible for the establishment of the cable car transportation system and also made contributions to the city's electrical system. In his campaign to modernize the city, he made a deal with the Umbrella Corporation, which provided funding for several of Warren's projects, including public utilities, welfare work, and law enforcement. Unfortunately, dependence on Umbrella's funding meant the city council could be easily swayed to the company's demands. By early 1994, the city was effectively under corporate control.
History
Originally a small hamlet in the Arklay Mountains, Raccoon City became heavily industrialized during the twentieth century, mostly from investment from the Umbrella Corporation, a local pharmaceutical company that grew to become a multinational conglomerate. From 1987 onwards under the guidance of Michael Warren the city grew rapidly, transforming from a small mountainous community to an industrialized city. However, the city's expansion and modernization was accompanied by a spiraling crime rate. The Raccoon City Police Department (RPD) established the Special Tactics And Rescue Service (S.T.A.R.S.) in 1996 as a countermeasure to the wave of crime.
The Arklay Mountains Incident A series of bizarre cannibal homicides occurred in the forests of the Arklay Mountains north-west of the city, beginning in May 1998. and continuing through the following months. Victims were mauled by dogs and partially eaten by humans or other unidentified creatures. The Raccoon Police were at a loss to explain or stop the phenomenon, blaming it on cult activity. Eventually, the road leading into the Arklay Mountains was cordoned off by the Raccoon Police, and citizens were warned not to go into the forest or mountains. On July 23, S.T.A.R.S. was deployed to the area to investigate the Raccoon Forest. S.T.A.R.S. Bravo team's helicopter made a forced landing in the area due to mechanical problems, and S.T.A.R.S. Alpha team was sent to rescue them. Of the twelve S.T.A.R.S. members and Raccoon City Police Department backup pilot sent to the Arklay Mountains, only five returned alive. They reported having discovered a mansion where the Umbrella Corporation had been conducting illegal biological weapons experiments with a mutagenic agent called the "Tyrant virus". The grounds were crawling with the results of that research, including zombies. However, the mansion and all evidence had been destroyed, and due to Umbrella's influence on the city and the corrupt Chief of Police Brian Irons, who was under Umbrella's pay-roll, the survivors' claims were dismissed and no formal investigations were undertaken. The S.T.A.R.S. unit was formally disbanded shortly after by Chief Irons, replaced by the Raccoon SWAT.
The Outbreak
Another viral outbreak involving the same virus occurred two months later on September 22, 1998, when Umbrella attempted to retrieve a sample of the powerful G-virus from William Birkin, one of its more reclusive researchers. After he was shot multiple times, Birkin was left mortally injured and, knowing its regenerative capabilities, injected himself with a sample of the G-virus that the Umbrella personnel sent to retrieve didn't take. Unfortunately, its mutagenic properties overtook his humanity and transformed him into an unstoppable mutant, killing machine. He destroyed the paramilitary team which had attempted to steal the virus from him, and in the process, vials containing the t-Virus were dropped, releasing it into the sewers. The t-Virus was then carried by rats throughout the city, leading to a full-scale outbreak. By the 24th of September, the city was in total chaos.
1998-09-25: The US Army moves into the city.Recognizing a "incident", Umbrella officials called for an evacuation of the city, placing high priorities on key, essential members. By dawn of September 25, U.S. Army units were called in to evacuate citizens and began setting up barricades around the city's perimeter, effectively enforcing a quarantine of the city and preventing people from entering. The military was ordered to only maintain the perimeter, and was not authorized to enter the city and assist the police. To avoid mass panic, the rest of the nation was told that radioactive waste had been leaked throughout Raccoon City, forcing a quarantine.[8] The Raccoon Police Department tried and failed to contain the hordes of zombies created by the t-Virus, using barricades, heavy force and in some dire instances, explosives to destroy entire streets.[9]
1998-09-26: The RPD's ill-fated last stand against the undead.Matters were not helped by the actions of Police Chief Brian Irons, who attempted to trap officers and civilians within the police station, scattered weapons and ammunition around the building and cut off communication to the outside. The police station itself was besieged on September 26. The officers then made a last attempt to destroy the zombies in the streets on September 27, but failed when their road block were overrun by hordes of zombies. The survivors within held off the zombies for days until only three living officers remained: chief Brian Irons; Marvin Branagh, and another, unnamed, police officer. Umbrella also sent in several Umbrella Biohazard Countermeasure Service (UBCS) platoons for search-and-rescue missions on the 26th and the 27th, which ended disastrously for the survivors. The supervisors of these squads were also secretly tasked with gathering field data about Umbrella's bio-weapons as well as destroying any incriminating evidence. Two US Special Forces units deployed into Raccoon City to secure the G-virus and other key Umbrella chemicals were quickly anihilated by a pack of rogue Hunter βs and a team of T-103s, respectively. By September 28, only a handful of UBCS mercenaries were left alive, who would help Jill Valentine to escape.
By September 29, nearly everyone in the city had either been killed by the monsters and bio-weapons released from Umbrella's laboratories, or had succumbed to the t-Virus and become zombies. The military barricades surrounding the city had begun to fail in some places, allowing unwary visitors such as Leon Kennedy and Claire Redfield to enter the city, and allowing some of the city's few survivors to escape.
Raccoon City Movies In the Resident Evil film series, Raccoon City was a huge metropolis built by the Umbrella Corporation and was used for conducting scientific research and experimentation. The Raccoon City in the films was much larger than in the games, with a population approaching 1 million people and a sprawling city center.
Resident EvilEdit
Resident Evil (film)In the 2002 film Resident Evil, Raccoon City was built by the Umbrella Corporation and staged research in a large top-secret underground facility called The Hive. Most of its 853,200 residents were oblivious to the experiments beneath its streets.
In 2002, the t-Virus escaped into the ventilation systems. Then, the giant supercomputer known as The Red Queen shut down The Hive, gassed some of its employees with Halon, dropped the occupied elevators at high speed, and drowned the others. Umbrella later sent in a special elite team of commandos in order to retrieve information about what had happened.
The team entered The Hive through a secret passage located within a mansion. It is later revealed, that the viral outbreak was intentionally done in order to smuggle out the t-Virus and sell it on the black market. Just hours later, only two survivors emerged from The Hive, Matt Addison and Alice. Both were seized by Umbrella's scientists and taken to the Raccoon City Hospital for quarantine and experimentation.
Resident Evil: ApocalypseIn the 2004 film Resident Evil: Apocalypse, the Umbrella Corporation sent in a research team to re-open The Hive. The team's insertion point was the main entrance beneath Raccoon City. Shortly after entering The Hive the entire team was slaughtered by t-Virus zombies that had been sealed within the complex. With the entrance now open, Umbrella realized that before long, these highly infectious zombies would make their way to the surface and begin an unstoppable amplification of the infection.
Knowing that containing the outbreak would be nearly impossible, an emergency plan to evacuate key Umbrella personnel from the city was activated. Important researchers and administrators were collected by two-man teams and removed from the city. After the completion of this operation, the city was sealed. Raccoon City was considered a loss, and to keep the infection from spreading past the city limits, gates at the entry and egress points of the city were closed. Traffic into and out of the city was halted.
A screening center was established at one such point, Raven's Gate Bridge, the city's primary traffic artery. Manned by medics and heavily armed corporate soldiers, this checkpoint was a minor effort to save some civilians from the rapidly expanding disaster. Uninfected civilians were permitted to pass, and control of the increasingly panicked population was maintained by Raccoon City Police units and Umbrella soldiers. However, once an infected civilian did reach the blockade (and was subsequently killed), orders were given to completely seal the city. The gates were closed and locked down, stranding the helpless civilians still within the city limits.
***Yes. Most of this was ripped from the RE wikia. Dont hate just trying to get the creative juices flowing with everyone.***