What if the Three protags are story driven.

[Vanzant]

What if you don't get to just choose which character you want to play as?

 

The Three protagonist idea by RockStar could very well have been scripted. You may be playing missions as one and after you finish some of those missions the game then switches you over to the next protagonist. Kind of like how Call of Duty does. Maybe the Mission choices you make or break causes you to have only one protagonist left when you complete the story line. It's very well possible and I want to know how some of you think.

 

The positive side of this is it creates almost endless replay value. The negative side is I know a lot of members hope you can just switch who you want to be on the go.

 

 

[Raavi]

They pretty much already confirmed that you can switch at will. However a few instances in some missions require you to play as a certain protagonist. Besides that you can switch as you please.

[BlackNoise]

R* talked about this in an interview(I'll try to find it). I think it's only you're choice in free roam and during certain missions which are designed for switching. The story aspect will interfere with who you're playing as at certain times. I believe that part is confirmed.

 

GTA IV really showed us how the story can even interfere with free roam unless you turn it off. So I would bet there will be certain situations where you automatically get switched to Trevor or one of the other protagonists if the story calls for it.

[Miss Darko]

^

I think forced switching will only occur during missions, however. If there's a single character mission start and it's not for who you're playing as (for instance, you're Franklin and it's a Trevor mission), then you'll have to switch to Trevor to do it. But it doesn't force you to switch, it just tells you that you have to in order to start the mission and it's up to you whether you bother. That's how I think it'll work.

[BlackNoise]

^

I think forced switching will only occur during missions, however. If there's a single character mission start and it's not for who you're playing as (for instance, you're Franklin and it's a Trevor mission), then you'll have to switch to Trevor to do it. But it doesn't force you to switch, it just tells you that you have to in order to start the mission and it's up to you whether you bother. That's how I think it'll work.

I see what you're saying, but I don't think R* will allow us to pause the narrative unless you literally choose that option on your phone. They've created a way for us to do that as we saw in GTA IV. There may be certain points in the story where it can only continue if you switch to another protagonist. I don't think it will be our choice when to do that. It will mess up the flow of the narrative if R* doesn't help us move it along.

 

Just think about the times in GTA IV when you're forced to stop what your doing because the story calls for it. I'm not saying it will happen all the time, but if it does, the game probably will probably just do it for you.

[saintsrow]

Warning!! Warning!! Linear Scripted Missions Ahead!!

 

I hope it's not like this. One of the things that hooked me on the GTA series in the first place was when I figured out that I could succeed in some missions in multiple ways, by killing or blowing up things in a different way than was implied by the mission. That was one of the key turning points in making me a lifelong member of the GTA cult. Those kind of missions are the most satisfying.

 

Conversely, scripted missions are the least satisfying. Even our most cherished GTA IV Mission, Three Leaf Clover, has a number of sequential trigger points that must be passed. While I liked the heist element and nice big Heat-like shootout of that mission, I did not like the scripted structure.

 

I sure hope that mission success criteria are opened up and more constraint driven or goal driven, rather than story driven, in GTAV. But I'm not betting on it yet, especially in light of the complexities that are introduced with the multiple protags.

[InternetKillTV]

"Instead of rotating between five missions as one character, five as the second and five as the third, what if you were constantly switching between them?"

 

The third page of the GameInformer article.. We know for a fact that you can switch freely. Ie switch to trevor, do some trevor missions, switch to franklin, do some franklin missions and the same for Michael. Like in past GTA's obviously certain missions might have to be completed for the overall story to progress. Like how in IV you'd have to do certain missions to unlock an advance in the story such as Roman's marriage calls or the multiple kidnappings.

 

I'm surprised that this isn't clear

[Miss Darko]

 

^

I think forced switching will only occur during missions, however. If there's a single character mission start and it's not for who you're playing as (for instance, you're Franklin and it's a Trevor mission), then you'll have to switch to Trevor to do it. But it doesn't force you to switch, it just tells you that you have to in order to start the mission and it's up to you whether you bother. That's how I think it'll work.

I see what you're saying, but I don't think R* will allow us to pause the narrative unless you literally choose that option on your phone. They've created a way for us to do that as we saw in GTA IV. There may be certain points in the story where it can only continue if you switch to another protagonist. I don't think it will be our choice when to do that. It will mess up the flow of the narrative if R* doesn't help us move it along.

 

Just think about the times in GTA IV when you're forced to stop what your doing because the story calls for it. I'm not saying it will happen all the time, but if it does, the game probably will probably just do it for you.

Do you mean that if you walk into a Trevor mission marker as Franklin, it'll automatically switch you over to Trevor?

 

Ultimately, pertaining to the topic in general, I think R* is going for variety. There will be many points where it's required, because obviously we can't do a Michael mission as Franklin, so either we have to choose to switch or that switch will be facilitated when starting the mission. There will also probably be points where maybe there's two protagonists in a single mission, and one of them gets captured or something, and so we can only play as the one who isn't captured.

 

But then there's also plenty of times where we have a choice. The GI article mentioned one where you can choose who you switch to. The first switch point is a choice between Michael and Franklin, and the second point lets you choose between all three. So sometimes we have a lot of choice, and sometimes we might have no choice at all (particularly in missions involving just one protagonist). It'll never be handled exactly the same way in each mission.

Edited March 2, 2013 by Mr. Darko

[Dale Nixon]

How was this thread made by a Forum Leader? If this guy wasn't a moderator but a new member most of you would be calling this a dumb thread.

[Deffpony]

Wow, havent seen a topic from Vanzant I think ever??

 

Rockstar confirmed that through free roam we can switch to the other characters at any time. But I get what your are saying.

 

I would be cool with the idea of the missions being segmented from protag to protag, where you can go back and switch those segments on a second or third play through, but Im fairly certain that the switching feature will be choosable at certain cues in most of the missions.

 

@Dale:The fact that he is a moderator only means that he isnt some dumbass who signed up two days ago and decided to post the first thought he had. Vanzant is either under some sort of misunderstandment in regard to the switching feature, or we are all misunderstanding what he is saying. Therefore, his seniority warrants at least a respectful rebuttal

[InternetKillTV]

How was this thread made by a Forum Leader? If this guy wasn't a moderator but a new member most of you would be calling this a dumb thread.

That's exactly what I was thinking. We've known for a while.

[Miss Darko]

Well it's an interesting thing, because the truth is that it is scripted to a certain extent. Obviously in free-roam we can switch whenever we want to whoever we want. But in missions, it works a bit differently. You can't switch whenever you want, even if all three are involved. There's specific 'switch points', and in the GI article, the ones we saw in the Extraction mission were A: When Michael breaks into the IAA building after rappeling down and grabs the hostage; the player can either remain as Michael or switch to Franklin (Trevor isn't an option even though he's involved in the mission as well, because he has to remain in position). And after that, it's B: When the escape begins, the player can choose between all three; Trevor in the cockpit of the escaping helicopter, or Michael/Franklin in the back.

 

So the switching mechanic is pretty structured during missions. And sometimes we might not have a choice. It will depend on the needs of the mission and how many characters are involved. Obviously you can't switch to anyone during single-protag missions, and you will need to play as that protag to play his mission. On the other end of the scale, perhaps there are some mission where there's a point where you can switch whenever you want to whoever you want, or you can choose who are involved in that mission. Again, it depends on the mission, it won't be handled in the same way every mission.

[Dick Valor]

Do you mean that if you walk into a Trevor mission marker as Franklin, it'll automatically switch you over to Trevor?

I doubt it will work that way. I also doubt the game will ever tell you to switch characters during free roam. It's your job to switch around and see who has a main mission icon available on the map.

[Miss Darko]

^

Yeah, that makes more sense.

[Ryan]

What a terrible idea.

 

Locked

[Raavi]

 

What a terrible idea.

 

Locked

Oh snap!

 

 

 

Didn't lock.

Edited March 2, 2013 by Raavi

[BlackNoise]

Do you mean that if you walk into a Trevor mission marker as Franklin, it'll automatically switch you over to Trevor?

 

Ultimately, pertaining to the topic in general, I think R* is going for variety. There will be many points where it's required, because obviously we can't do a Michael mission as Franklin, so either we have to choose to switch or that switch will be facilitated when starting the mission. There will also probably be points where maybe there's two protagonists in a single mission, and one of them gets captured or something, and so we can only play as the one who isn't captured.

 

But then there's also plenty of times where we have a choice. The GI article mentioned one where you can choose who you switch to. The first switch point is a choice between Michael and Franklin, and the second point lets you choose between all three. So sometimes we have a lot of choice, and sometimes we might have no choice at all (particularly in missions involving just one protagonist). It'll never be handled exactly the same way in each mission.

What I'm talking about is if you're controlling Franklin for example, and you're not currently doing a mission. I think it's possible something might be going in Trevor's story arc that may require you to switch soon and if you don't, I think the game might just force the switch.

 

I think this would be something that rarely(if ever) happens off mission, but it's possible. Otherwise we could basically choose one character during the story and completely stop the narrative for as long as we don't switch. And I'm mainly talking about the specific situation the OP is talking about. If you're controlling a protagonist and you do all their currently available missions. The narrative would be stopped at that point unless you switch to another character.

 

 

 

And I wish some of you would chill out. What the OP is talking about is still unknown. We don't know if the story will/won't force switches during the story.

[Racecarlock]

I'm not sure whether or not some switches will be scripted. I'd like to think that they aren't. After all, the nature of an open ended game should extend somewhat to the missions by letting you complete them in any way the player can come up with.

 

After all, this isn't some story based game like heavy rain or walking dead, this is GTA, and that fact should be reflected in all areas of game play.

 

For example, if you can do something during a mission, you should also be able to do it outside the mission. No sh*t like you can hang on the side of the truck until the mission ends and then you just detach every time you try in free roam. That is bullsh*t. Climbing, rappelling, even if it's something as small as sliding off a table, it should be available to do in free roam.

 

Blow up a house? Maybe that's a destroyable house and you can come back later and blow it up again. Works for red faction guerrilla.

[greenrock]

so say your playing as michael and there is a trevor only mission.... and you go in the marker, it should autmatically switch you to trevor....

[Miss Darko]

What I'm talking about is if you're controlling Franklin for example, and you're not currently doing a mission. I think it's possible something might be going in Trevor's story arc that may require you to switch soon and if you don't, I think the game might just force the switch.

 

I think this would be something that rarely(if ever) happens off mission, but it's possible. Otherwise we could basically choose one character during the story and completely stop the narrative for as long as we don't switch. And I'm mainly talking about the specific situation the OP is talking about. If you're controlling a protagonist and you do all their currently available missions. The narrative would be stopped at that point unless you switch to another character.

 

Well, traditionally, we can stop the narrative whenever we want by not doing missions. And GTA IV occasionally had the cell phone narrative advancement that occurs during free-roam, but I usually turned off the cell phone unless I felt like doing missions. Boom. Narrative stopped dead in its tracks. R* gave us the option to do so, so I don't think they'll force it on us in GTA V in that way either.

 

I'm not quite sure I get what you mean in the first part either. So I'm controlling Franklin and free roaming around, and then suddenly I get switched to Trevor because I spent too long not doing any missions? I don't think that will ever happen in the game, not even rarely. Again, GTA has always given us the option to stop the narrative when we don't feel like advancing it. It'll be up to us to choose to switch during free-roam in order to access that character's missions.

 

It is true though that the characters' stories are intertwined. One character's mission will have an effect on another's, and actually I think that after a certain point, missions involving only one character at a time will become the minority, and most will involve some combination of two or all three of them. Their subplots will become part of the intertwined main plot and begin to involve each other, and so on. This means that one character's missions will have to be completed to advance another character's arc. But again, I don't think we'll ever be forced, in free-roam, to change, we will just see on the map that no other missions are available for that character at the moment and we'll switch around to see what's available for the other two. So in a sense we don't actually have a choice in that regard, but it's not quite the same as having it happen automatically just because the narrative is losing momentum.

[Kifflom112]

How was this thread made by a Forum Leader? If this guy wasn't a moderator but a new member most of you would be calling this a dumb thread.

Nobody needs your input on the thread. Get on topic or leave rather than posting, that.

As far as the idea, I wouldn't exactly like this. Yes it does, indeed, increase the replay value, however I can promise you most fans would despise such things. I for one wouldn't be comfortable with it. I just want to switch when I want to - which I won't be doing too much of since I know I favor Michael the most.

[K-E316]

What a terrible idea.

 

Locked

Well this is....awkward....

 

 

And I think R* has the mission structure under control. I doubt they would go with 3 protags if it means a linear experience.

[Dick Valor]

so say your playing as michael and there is a trevor only mission.... and you go in the marker, it should autmatically switch you to trevor....

On the contrary, while you're playing as Michael, you shouldn't even see a Trevor-only mission icon on the map.

 

This is pure speculation, but I suspect R* is going to want to make mission access as simple and intuitive as possible. If a simple "L" icon were to suddenly appear on the South Los Santos area of the map after completing a mission with Michael, and the player had no prior knowledge that the "L" stands for Lamar and is a Franklin-only mission, discovering this fact by driving across the city as Michael would only waste the player's time, which is exactly what the character switch mechanic is supposed to avoid. Additionally, there would always be an inherent ambiguity as to which protag you could use to trigger a certain mission. Sure, you could auto-switch as you suggest, but this doesn't resonate with R* has said about the map. If the map is indeed tracking where the three protags are at all times in free roam, it wouldn't make sense for Franklin (currently in Vespucci Beach) to suddenly warp to South Los Santos, and for Michael to then just warp back to Rockford Hills, just because Michael triggered a Franklin-only mission.

 

@BlackNoise

I see what you are saying, but just because IV had missions automatically start during free roam (via phone calls) doesn't mean V will. R* has already made a point to sacrifice features like property in order to make the three-character mechanic work. I wouldn't be surprised if this was also cut. At the very least, I predict you would have to actually be playing as Michael if, say, Michael were to suddenly get a call that his family has been kidnapped and his mission triggers automatically. I doubt said mission would start while you were playing as the other protags, with a game prompt saying... f*ck playing as Franklin, switch to Michael NOW!!!

[matajuegos]

No, just...no

[BlackNoise]

 

so say your playing as michael and there is a trevor only mission.... and you go in the marker, it should autmatically switch you to trevor....

On the contrary, while you're playing as Michael, you shouldn't even see a Trevor-only mission icon on the map.

 

This is pure speculation, but I suspect R* is going to want to make mission access as simple and intuitive as possible. If a simple "L" icon were to suddenly appear on the South Los Santos area of the map after completing a mission with Michael, and the player had no prior knowledge that the "L" stands for Lamar and is a Franklin-only mission, discovering this fact by driving across the city as Michael would only waste the player's time, which is exactly what the character switch mechanic is supposed to avoid. Additionally, there would always be an inherent ambiguity as to which protag you could use to trigger a certain mission. Sure, you could auto-switch as you suggest, but this doesn't resonate with R* has said about the map. If the map is indeed tracking where the three protags are at all times in free roam, it wouldn't make sense for Franklin (currently in Vespucci Beach) to suddenly warp to South Los Santos, and for Michael to then just warp back to Rockford Hills, just because Michael triggered a Franklin-only mission.

 

@BlackNoise

I see what you are saying, but just because IV had missions automatically start during free roam (via phone calls) doesn't mean V will. R* has already made a point to sacrifice features like property in order to make the three-character mechanic work. I wouldn't be surprised if this was also cut. At the very least, I predict you would have to actually be playing as Michael if, say, Michael were to suddenly get a call that his family has been kidnapped and his mission triggers automatically. I doubt said mission would start while you were playing as the other protags, with a game prompt saying... f*ck playing as Franklin, switch to Michael NOW!!!

You're probably right, because my speculation is completely based of the type of missions you mentioned from IV. I also just read something in the The Benz interview that eases my mind a bit, because I don't want forced switches when I'm free roaming.

"Off-mission, players aren't forced to switch characters, they make the choice themselves – so it is important to ensure each character brings a unique aspect to the game. This opens up an entirely new set of potential problems. The player needs to want to switch between them and see each of their stories develop. If each character doesn't have this appeal the player would find a favourite and try to only play as them, missing out on the bigger picture."

 

This makes me wonder exactly what R* will do to make me "want to switch" though.

[grope_4_that_date]

I think it will get to the point where you ply one protagonist and they won't have any missions life u know? Like, u'll be playing as michael and yuo'll complete all of his missions, so you'll move on to treovr. f*ck i dont know what gonna happen

[Supernutz40]

 

How was this thread made by a Forum Leader? If this guy wasn't a moderator but a new member most of you would be calling this a dumb thread.

Nobody needs your input on the thread. Get on topic or leave rather than posting, that.

As far as the idea, I wouldn't exactly like this. Yes it does, indeed, increase the replay value, however I can promise you most fans would despise such things. I for one wouldn't be comfortable with it. I just want to switch when I want to - which I won't be doing too much of since I know I favor Michael the most.

Maybe he could have approached the subject marter here from a more "polite" angle, but I would tend to agree with that. I have seen soooooo many threads locked and told "please use the pinned wishlist". 90% of threads here fit that catagory. But if you are new here or state your idea (wish) with a "sub-standard" initial post then it usually results in a lock.

 

 

On topic... I dont really see us not being able to switch at will for most of the game. Im sure there will be a few missions for each character that you cannot switch. However, after reading the Game Informer article, it seems pretty clear to me that that ability will be a major factor in the game. They spent a lot of time explaining that mission and how you could do it multiple ways. Granted, this is my personal opinion after having read that article, but it seems silly to me to speak so highly and thoroughly of it just to make it a rarely used option. Im pretty sure we will be switching a lot and eventually finding fun things to do with that feature which were never intended to be done. I see a lot of nefarious attempts to kill one of the protags "accidentally" just to see what happens.

[Dick Justice]

Warning!! Warning!! Linear Scripted Missions Ahead!!

 

I hope it's not like this. One of the things that hooked me on the GTA series in the first place was when I figured out that I could succeed in some missions in multiple ways, by killing or blowing up things in a different way than was implied by the mission. That was one of the key turning points in making me a lifelong member of the GTA cult. Those kind of missions are the most satisfying.

 

Conversely, scripted missions are the least satisfying. Even our most cherished GTA IV Mission, Three Leaf Clover, has a number of sequential trigger points that must be passed. While I liked the heist element and nice big Heat-like shootout of that mission, I did not like the scripted structure.

 

I sure hope that mission success criteria are opened up and more constraint driven or goal driven, rather than story driven, in GTAV. But I'm not betting on it yet, especially in light of the complexities that are introduced with the multiple protags.

I don't think of scripted missions as exclusive to IV though. GTA has always had a mix between missions that you could approach your own way, and missions where it tells you how to do something. I mean, you mention Three Leaf Clover, but San Andreas' heist Breaking the Bank at Caligulas was a heavily scripted mission too, as was The Job in Vice City.

 

I guess all I'm trying to say is that V will probably have a healthy mix of both scripted and non-scripted missions.