I've Played GTA Online: AMA

October 1, 2013

Hey man, could you clear up something about the safehouses for me?

I read you can only buy one safehouse online, if that is true, does that mean if I buy a cheap one at the start am I stuck with that one forever or can I sell it/move out and buy a better safehouse later when I have more money?

Cheers!

You can upgrade to a better one whenever you have the money. And i head that they will give you back the money (or a part) from the old house.

October 1, 2013

Ok, if that's true that's great! I was worried I would have to "live on the street" until I had the money to buy a nice place that I would keep, but this is much better and easier.

Cheers, guys.

October 1, 2013

can you elaborate on how passive mode works, and if it's balanced? i'm worried that the system may be abused.

October 1, 2013

Was the freakin' Annihilator there?..

October 1, 2013

What I meant about spiky hair is, like mine in the profile picture. Not exactly like that. But spiked in the front, crazy in the back a bit.

Also, how about the facial hair?

Party at the back, dance floor at the front kind of thing?

October 1, 2013

I want to know if things are free aim or auto aim. Cuz I want free aim lobbies.

October 1, 2013

But it can be difficult to do a whole bunch because it seems like the police have some sort of memory of your past (recent) crimes. If you have 2 stars and lose the cops, then go rob a store, you might get 3 stars instead of two. And if you lose that and rob another store it will go to 4. I dont know exactly how it works, but its interesting for sure

This sounds like a really smart addition, now I really can't wait.

October 1, 2013

Havent forgotten about you guys, almost all wrapped up, then Ill answer the last set of questions as well as any more

So the question about if there's free aim and auto aim lobby's ( most people want to play in free aim ) has been asked 3 times and its taking this long to answer. no offence but its not rocket science, when you played was auto aim on or off? if i got my hands on the online this is the FIRST thing i would check to see.

October 1, 2013

I know Rockstar has used a lot of real characters from the universe as possible parents but they all require special requirements. When picking your parents are the candidates all people from Rockstar games or are they all random?

October 1, 2013

Sorry for taking so long. I was reviewing some of my notes.

@guvnah: I stated several times that there is only free aim. No auto aim or assisted aiming in GTAO. Whether it stays this way when its officially released we will have to see

Hey man, could you clear up something about the safehouses for me?

I read you can only buy one safehouse online, if that is true, does that mean if I buy a cheap one at the start am I stuck with that one forever or can I sell it/move out and buy a better safehouse later when I have more money?

Cheers!

Like others have said, you arent allowed to own more than one "property," but if you try to buy a house when you already own a house, they will ask you if you want to sell the old one. I dont think you get full price for selling your purchased property, but they dont f*ck you over. I saved up 100k for an apartment after I bought a garage, come to find I could have sold the garage for 25K and not grinded as hard.

I'm not sure if the one property per person limit applies to hangars or marinas since I didnt get that far. But I would assume that would be the exception. If you own an apartment, you will likely be able to own a hangar as well. I think your only allowed to have one safe house.

can you elaborate on how passive mode works, and if it's balanced? i'm worried that the system may be abused.

Passive mode is triggered by either the pause menu or the inventory menu (Left on d-pad). It costs money to enter passive mode. I only went into passive mode a few times and it costed me 100$ each, but Im not sure if that price increases with your rank, total cash, or what have you. When you enter passive mode you are not even allowed to pull up the weapon wheel. When someone shoots you it does absolutely nothing. But if they run you over with a car you will die. There was an issue when I played that Im expecting will be fixed. When I was in passive mode, but driving, bullets could damage me. Pretty sure that was a bug since it was the beta so I wouldnt expect that when you play.

You turn off passive mode the same way you enter it, and to re enter passive mode you have to pay the fee again. I think I remember trying to enter passive mode while wanted from the police and it increased the fee significantly, but dont quote me on that. If I remember correctly it charges you extra to rid the wanted level so you can enter passive mode.

I dont know much more about that mode because I didnt use it much, but it seems to do its job, and I dont think there will be much room for abuse

Was the freakin' Annihilator there?..

Once again dont quote me, But im pretty sure you can buy the Annhialator online. As well as pretty much any other military vehicle. But not only do you need the cash, you also need to be at a high enough RP level.

Give me a few minutes to get back to you on these last fee questions. I'm trying to get the answers for the ones I'm not sure of

Question of your opinion...

From everything you experienced, do you believe the whole concept of "GTA Online" is going to be as massive as Rockstar is making it seem?

Was the online atmosphere as intriguing as the naked eye sees it?

Thanks for taking the time.

It may not initially be as massive as they make it out to be, but it has the potential to be. The framework that GTAO sets really makes the possibilities for this game huge. All the issues that fans have been bringing up about the game over the past few weeks, like interiors, missing mini games, missing features, would probably have to wait until GTA VI before we got to see our wishes fullfilled, if it wasnt for GTAO. They can add interiors, and weapons, and cars, and more customization options. They could probably never make another GTA game ever again and just keep improving V through online. Its really a fantastic multiplayer mode. They are concious enough about what works and what doesnt, and they have taken alot of ideas from fan feedback, as well as the success of other large multiplayer titles.

GTAO will take getting used to because there are things you could get away with in single player that we have trained ourselves to play the game this way, but in online you have to tailor this method of playing to fit some of the slight differences and even improvements.

The apartments, can you view the interiors before buying them?

I honestly dont know if you can see the interiors. I am going to say yes because I know you can set a waypoint on your map to view the property, but I never tried it. I just went off the picture it shows you through the site. Sorry thats not very definitive.

Edited October 1, 2013 by Wreck It Ralph

October 1, 2013

can u choose a bandana as a clothing option to wear?

October 1, 2013

Is there free aim and auto aim lobbys? please don't tell me were forced to use auto aim in free roam..

There Are No Lobbies- Well sort of

First of all, there isnt a freeroam mode in GTAOnline, just like there isnt a freeroam mode in SP. It works off the same concept. You are thrown into the map with the freedom to do whatever you can afford or access, just like SP, except there are other people roaming around to. When you switch to your MP character through the character wheel it transitions just like it would between Trevor and Michael, except with a significant load time while in the top down view. When you get to ground level as your character you will be in an instance of the city with other players as well. There is no option for lobbies or what not between all of this.

There are MP options, like deciding who can access your car(friends, or no one), as well as the standard pause options. But I was unable to switch to auto aim when I played it. That doesnt mean they wont end up including it afterall. Just wasnt there when I played.

The lobbies for multiplayer take place when you start a mission. When you initiate a mission you can either host the mission, or join. If you join, it will pair you up with players already starting the mission. If you host, then you have control over some of the mission options, as well as who to invite to the missions.

The options vary from mission to mission but generally you have to ability to select the weapon you start out with(this can is chosen by each player themselves), what radio station to start off with, Difficulty level(Easy, Standard, Hard=1.5x's RP), Time limit, Team life limit, and then who to invite.

You can close the mission invites so no one can join, you can merely leave it open so anyone who is looking to join this mission will join you, you can invite all players in your current session which sends a text message to all the people freeroaming in your instance of GTAO letting them know you are starting this mission, you can invite specific players from the current session, or you can invite your friends/crew members. If you invite a crew member or friend, (I believe) they get an invite even if they are playing SP. Anyone who gets the text message informing them that you are playing the mission has the option to quick select the mission from their phone and join. They will automatically warp to the lobby without having to meet at the mission location.

If a player has a wanted level and wants to join the mission invited, they can pay a fee to lose the cops. I think it varies depending on the number of stars, but it was always around $500 for me.

I hope that clears up the concept of Lobbies in GTAO

boat garage? hangers? more weapons than SP?

There were no extra weapons in GTAO when I played, however, like I said previously, you have to unlock the weapons, and at level 20 I only unlocked a pistol, uze, smg, and shotgun. With this in mind, if you happen to pick up a gun that you havent unlocked, you can use it untill it runs out of ammo or you log off. Once your bullets are gone you lose the gun, since you havent unlocked it. When you sign back in to play GTAO, even if you left it with full ammo, you wont have the gun anymore.

There were no hangars or boat garages available when I played, but I assume its something you unlock further down.

Can you earn a lot of money online when you .. let's say.. "play alone"? Or are bigger heists/robberies only available for "teams"?

At the early stages of the game, you can definitely earn alot of money by yourself. But as you level up, it will be harder to keep up with the pack because the big money missions require more than one person to complete, either by design, or through principal. What I mean by that is, there are some missions that wont allow less then X number of players. But there are also some missions that allow you to go it alone, but doing so just isnt worth it. Fighting off 30 drug dealers alone sounds manageable, but when you try to drive off with the drugs and two suv's packed with enemies roll up spraying uzi's at you, you will wish you had back up.

One thing I've been wondering is, are all vehicles purchasable? I'm just wondering, because they were saying how your mechanic online won't touch stolen vehicles. And in single player, as I'm sure you all know, only has maybe 25 vehicles or so to purchase.

I just want to be able to own the Sabre and Dominator for online, both of which are not purchasable in single player.

Any car you steal that isnt premium, or special, can be made yours. You either have to get it tracked and painted at LS customs, or simply park it in your garage and it will get the tracking device automatically. Premium cars are almost all of the cars you can buy online. The Cheetah, Infernus, Stinger, and other cars like this can only be purchased. So if you steal them you arent able to get them painted or tracked, both at your garage or LS customs. You must buy them. Any vehicle that is not up for sale online can simply be stolen and made yours. Except for special vehicles.

Special vehicles would include police cruisers, buses, dumptrucks, etc.

I stole both the Sabre and the Dominator and made it my own sincer neither are premium vehicles, so you should be good.

Sorry if this has been answered. Stock market on day 1?

The version I played didnt have stock market since it wasnt really live yet. But I assume they are going to try and make the stock market live right away, but I would expect issues along the lines of what we dealt with in terms of the snapmatic app.

Some things I want to add that are kind of just random tidbits. You have to level up your character to unlock pretty much everything. But to unlock alot of the car modifications you have to win X number of races. This seems like it could be abused because friends could just race boost eachother until they each won enough to unlock what they want.

When in free roam you can obviously kill other players, if you kill another player it will keep a score count like : Ralph 1 vs Macca93 0. When another player kills you it will give you a quick option to enter a death match with that person, if they accept you can square off. As stated previously, if you go back and forth enough times with someone they become your "arch nemesis" and you will be alerted when they join a session

While driving around in GTAO you can start impromtu races with other players through the inventory. It will challenge them to a race, You set the start and finish and then you go.

Both the military base and the airport are closed off. The gates wont open and you cant break through. You have to access them by air.

If you are in a buzzard or Laser fighter in free roam you wont be able to heat lock on other players with the missiles because they wont be recognized as enemies. The exception is if they are in flight since all aircraft can be locked on to. This really makes it much less of a noob fest. Trust me, I tried ruining peoples days in the jet, and it takes alot of skill and patience. Not easy.

October 1, 2013

thanks for the info Ralph. Appreciate it.

October 1, 2013

GTA V is amazing and broke sales records all over. Made history.

But the replay value of this game I just don't see it lasting long. No casino online, not a lot of online customization, no interiors, no extra games or activities?

Edited October 1, 2013 by IIluminati

October 1, 2013

What I meant about spiky hair is, like mine in the profile picture. Not exactly like that. But spiked in the front, crazy in the back a bit.

Also, how about the facial hair?

Wtf is wrong with you?

October 1, 2013

I just want to make a guy look like the Truth from SA. Like long hair and a headband. Would that be possible? A good old fashioned hippie, just like myself.

October 1, 2013

can you rob all the stores or are you just limited to the gas stations and corner shops like in single player ?
any of the unused locations get some love in online ? the racetrack or stadium ?

October 1, 2013

Dunno how I feel about having to win races in order to unlock car mods, I'm sh*t at races. ;___;

Thanks for the info!

edit: So are we unable to disable police online then? I really want to just beat the crap out of peds without the police getting involved, haha. :c

Edited October 1, 2013 by Lisha

October 1, 2013

Thanks man! This is getting me really excited for the multiplayer!

Right now, I think the first two things I want to do, are get enough money to buy a big garage, and customize some badass cars!

October 1, 2013

Really really disappointed that there aren't more interiors in the mp version. Actually not that excited now. That means there's what, like 10 stores to rob?

October 1, 2013

THANK GOD for only free aim!

October 1, 2013

Thanks man!

October 1, 2013

GTA V is amazing and broke sales records all over. Made history.

But the replay value of this game I just don't see it lasting long. No casino online, not a lot of online customization, no interiors, no extra games or activities?

There is plenty of replay value. I've played through sp twice now and haven't got 100% yet. I want o play through a 3rd time to get more bits of dialog. There is fun stuff to do just messing around, and acheivements to get too and I enjoy it. What did you ever do in any of the other GTA games? It's not as if there is really less to do in this compared to others. And R* said they will be adding to the game often. They may add a casino, whole other towns to play in, mini games and activities, tools to make your own missions or heists, extra content such as guns, clothes, cars, etc etc. I am by nature a pessimist but damn man, don't be so down already. I think this will be huge and it has a ton of potential to grow. And you already have that game so its free, so you can't lose.

October 1, 2013

Do they have hair similar to mine and sideburns?

No, seriously. That's really all I care about.

you are a fat pathetic moron who cares too much about stupid hairstyles and absurd sideburns and your tumblr page is sh*t and has the worst intro music ever does that song come on when you take a stanky doo doo pie for cinematic effect?

October 1, 2013

Can i start a MP game, like "free roam" but with only me and my friends?

October 1, 2013

this was very informative.

October 1, 2013

Thanks Wreck it Ralph for taking the time and effort to answer questions and describe your online experience. It is much appreciated by us all.

October 1, 2013

can u choose a bandana as a clothing option to wear?

Man, this was the one thing I told myself to check out and I forgot. I want to say yes, but thats not for sure. What I can say is there are alot more options for masks than in SP. The mask shop is also the same place you can buy custom motorcycle helmets. And by custom I mean you just pick which one you want, you cant decal or color change them(at least I couldnt). But of course, you have to unlock alot of these. I didnt see bandanas, but that doesnt mean they arent there.

I know Rockstar has used a lot of real characters from the universe as possible parents but they all require special requirements. When picking your parents are the candidates all people from Rockstar games or are they all random?

Ok I have been failing at describing this all day so Im gonna give it one last whirl. With the exception of the special characters you can get(Niko and such) you dont pick your parent models. Its not like most customizations where you cycle through a list of faces or character models. Its all about the ethnicity of your family.

You start with the grandparents. You can edit both of your mothers parents and both of your fathers parents. From what I remember, there isnt much to do here other than pick their origins(African, South American, European). You dont even see what your grandparents look like, but as you change them you notice the differences in your parents. So if your mothers parents are mixed race, your mom will be too, if they are both black, then she will be black. Same goes for your Dad's side.

When you have decided on your grandparents origin's you can further tweak how your mom and dad look by shifting a fader/slider from their mother or father. If the fader is all the way towards their mom, they will look most like mom, and vice versa. Playing with different combinations and fader levels gives you different results. They arent drastically different, and your character can look like something from the Simpsons while doing this, but its enough to give you a set look.

Once you have set the way your parents look you then can shift between a fader of who your character looks most like, mom or dad, just like before.

This all happens on the same screen so while you are changing your grandparents around you see the affects on your character, so not as much guess work.

The closest thing to character models for your parents would be the models made out of the combination of ethnicities from your granparents. But they arent templates, more like palettes.

You can then change you characters daily acitivities through the day. You are given the ability to decide what your character does throughout a 24 hour day. Each activity can be incremented by an hour. Your character must have at least 4(it might be 6 sry) hours alloted for sleep. I gave my character the minimum sleep and it gave him bags under his eyes. You can decide how many hours he spends on the couch, driving, in the office, hanging with friends. As you allot these activities their hours, your character stats will change. They dont have drastic changes, such that you can start the game as the best shooter, but they have enough to lay the foundation for your starting point.

As you divvy out the hours of the day toward activities your character appearance will also slightly change. I gave all my hours to driving and crime, with the least amount of sleep. It made my character look tired, and the crime made him look kind of scrappy, with almost bruise like features around his face.

Your wardrobe changes as well from this. If you spend all your day at the office you will wear something classy but casual, if your lounging all day, you will be in flip flops and shorts. It appears that the creator randomly fits you with a clothing combination based on a particular style of fashion. For instance: If you set crime to max you might have a leather jacked. Set it to zero and max again, and you will be wearing a different outfit but withint the same style as the leather jacket. Doing this can give you a bit more control over your starting wardrobe.

You can also choose their hair style from a initially limited set of styles, and color. As well as facial hair, that is also initially limited. I THINK you can even give them jewelry like earings, but Im not sure.

After that you will get a preview, and if you accept you will have to spend money to further customize.

GTA V is amazing and broke sales records all over. Made history.

But the replay value of this game I just don't see it lasting long. No casino online, not a lot of online customization, no interiors, no extra games or activities?

All the things you stated arent confirmed absent. But they arent confirmed present either. They may be things you unlock at level 90 or so. I was at level 20, so I cant say for sure. If these things arent in GTAO you can bet your ass they will be listening to your feedback and most likely add such features. It may not be free, but who knows. The potential for it to be added is high.

I just want to make a guy look like the Truth from SA. Like long hair and a headband. Would that be possible? A good old fashioned hippie, just like myself.

I definitely think you could pull something like that off. If I remember correctly, you are allowed to set your characters age, but I dont remember it affecting the way the character looked. I think that your character will look mid 20's to early 30's no matter what initially. But after that you should be able to give him a crazy bear and hippie clothes. With the creator Im sure you could give a guy a squirly look. And as stated previously, you can set a default expression for your character, such as happy, mad, surprised. So you could do a stink eye kind of expression lol

October 1, 2013

can u choose a bandana as a clothing option to wear?

Man, this was the one thing I told myself to check out and I forgot. I want to say yes, but thats not for sure. What I can say is there are alot more options for masks than in SP. The mask shop is also the same place you can buy custom motorcycle helmets. And by custom I mean you just pick which one you want, you cant decal or color change them(at least I couldnt). But of course, you have to unlock alot of these. I didnt see bandanas, but that doesnt mean they arent there.

I know Rockstar has used a lot of real characters from the universe as possible parents but they all require special requirements. When picking your parents are the candidates all people from Rockstar games or are they all random?