Would missions within free roam work?

[Jack Reacher]

I like the idea of Missions in Freemode, but I also understand the comments about people grieving ..... what IF we could select the mission then invite only the people we want , the people invited will know what is going on, while the other players in the lobby do not ... or simply remove the players DOT that is taking part in the mission(the players in the mission go off radar so the other players not taking part cant see them)

Yup thats exactly what I kept saying, those in free roam won't even know you are doing a mission so its going to be hard to grief them properly. Also races could take place in free roam etc etc. Deathmatches would be kinda cool as well, you stumble across the power plant? Chances are there is a DM going on there and you are going to get shot the f*ck down.

[BuyMeTheMoon]

3) The game has no party system or friendly system. If you team up in a mission you don't autolock each other... and I don't think you get friendly fire for bullets (but you can definitely kill each other with collision damage and explosions). If you teamed up in free-roam you would run the risk of accidentally killing each other (particularly with the automatic melee attack). This might also make it difficult to give out fair rewards for missions.

This one is a big problem for me. It's a pain in the ass that you auto-lock on friends, and that there is no way to avoid this unless you join a FA-sessions(which is boring because they are almost empty all the time).

I dont understand why they haven't thought about this.. Its easy, posse like in RDR- or maybe it could be called "gang" in GTA. No auto aim on gang members, problem solved.. A lot of problems solved actually

I don't remember if you could win as a posse in land grabs in RDR though

Edited December 5, 2013 by BuyMeTheMoon

[Furry_Monkey]

Imagine a crew planning a heist but while making their escape they get ambushed by a car full off rival crew who take the money for themselves.

 

Free roam missions could be epic. Once a mission is started your blip should vanish from the radar to give you some protection from griefers.

 

EDIT: just seen the post above.

Imagine doing a heist and then being able to kill your partners and keep the loot for yourself. That would certainly spice things up.

[Jack Reacher]

I also think when you die, you should drop 10% of your cash. Not your bank, just cash. Also you drop loads of ammo and maybe a weapon...and potentially your car, although I can see many people crying about this. It just means you gotta be more careful with your car.

[Furry_Monkey]

I also think when you die, you should drop 10% of your cash. Not your bank, just cash. Also you drop loads of ammo and maybe a weapon...and potentially your car, although I can see many people crying about this. It just means you gotta be more careful with your car.

Yeah you should lose a lot more money than you do. That pointless 5K warning is pointless. I generally have around 100K in my pocket, which obviously goes up and down, but only seem to lose a couple of hundred when killed. I wouldn't even bother running over to pick it up myself. I do pick up the mechanic's money though, but that's just because he's a useless bastard that leaves a sh*tty radio station on in my car EVERY TIME and he costs me $50 a day. f*ck him. He can pay for that himself.

[GraniteDevil]

This is exactly what I fear will happen with heists if we ever get them. R* will allow stupid little bitch players to interfere with legitimate players who just want to run a job.

 

I expect if missions were ever playable in free roam, legitimate players would all move to invite only sessions. This would leave only trolls and complete noobs to populate public sessions. No thank you.

[Jack Reacher]

This is exactly what I fear will happen with heists if we ever get them. R* will allow stupid little bitch players to interfere with legitimate players who just want to run a job.

 

I expect if missions were ever playable in free roam, legitimate players would all move to invite only sessions. This would leave only trolls and complete noobs to populate public sessions. No thank you.

Thats absurd, the entire playerbase won't play in invite only sessions, they want to play with others.

[OMFGSolaX]

 

3) The game has no party system or friendly system. If you team up in a mission you don't autolock each other... and I don't think you get friendly fire for bullets (but you can definitely kill each other with collision damage and explosions). If you teamed up in free-roam you would run the risk of accidentally killing each other (particularly with the automatic melee attack). This might also make it difficult to give out fair rewards for missions.

This one is a big problem for me. It's a pain in the ass that you auto-lock on friends, and that there is no way to avoid this unless you join a FA-sessions(which is boring because they are almost empty all the time).

I dont understand why they haven't thought about this.. Its easy, posse like in RDR- or maybe it could be called "gang" in GTA. No auto aim on gang members, problem solved.. A lot of problems solved actually

I don't remember if you could win as a posse in land grabs in RDR though

 

 

I really should play RDR...

[Jack Reacher]

 

 

3) The game has no party system or friendly system. If you team up in a mission you don't autolock each other... and I don't think you get friendly fire for bullets (but you can definitely kill each other with collision damage and explosions). If you teamed up in free-roam you would run the risk of accidentally killing each other (particularly with the automatic melee attack). This might also make it difficult to give out fair rewards for missions.

This one is a big problem for me. It's a pain in the ass that you auto-lock on friends, and that there is no way to avoid this unless you join a FA-sessions(which is boring because they are almost empty all the time).

I dont understand why they haven't thought about this.. Its easy, posse like in RDR- or maybe it could be called "gang" in GTA. No auto aim on gang members, problem solved.. A lot of problems solved actually

I don't remember if you could win as a posse in land grabs in RDR though

 

 

I really should play RDR...

 

Same here I heard loads of good stuff about it, guess I really shouldn't worry about PS4 any time soon

[Zwenkwiel]

AzraelX, on 05 Dec 2013 - 09:57 AM, said:

Instead of making interference griefing, make the interference an anticipated part of the game and work it into the design. Then just let everyone know what mission is taking place, like the Simeon high-priority car, or the crate drops, etc. The difference here is that instead of being FFA, it'd break down into two teams: people trying to complete the objective, and people trying to stop them. Seems like it'd be fun.

 

The more stuff to do in free roam, the better.

 

no1 wants to do this

there's a bunch of missions with this exact set up and I've only played them once or twice

granted some of them don't work all that well like the one where 2 teams compete to get a briefcase from some laywer

as soon as some1 starts shooting cops are all over the place and it becomes really random and chaotic as soon as some1 picks up the briefcase he gets killed, lot of spawnkilling basically

[Zwenkwiel]

BuyMeTheMoon, on 05 Dec 2013 - 2:38 PM, said:

 

EliteGamer, on 05 Dec 2013 - 12:14 PM, said:

3) The game has no party system or friendly system. If you team up in a mission you don't autolock each other... and I don't think you get friendly fire for bullets (but you can definitely kill each other with collision damage and explosions). If you teamed up in free-roam you would run the risk of accidentally killing each other (particularly with the automatic melee attack). This might also make it difficult to give out fair rewards for missions.

This one is a big problem for me. It's a pain in the ass that you auto-lock on friends, and that there is no way to avoid this unless you join a FA-sessions(which is boring because they are almost empty all the time).

 

 

I only play free aim and often have trouble getting my friends in the game because they're full the entire time

so you're either lying or you need better internet or something

[sportbikepilot369]

no

[Muse182]

Yeah thats sorta what I mean, it won't work with our current system. Also other players not involved with the job shouldn't even know what job you are doing unless you invite them, so it should be harder for them to grief.

 

This is off topic but I was reading the daily news on the internet online, and it was about Martins house being pulled down. Thought GTAO was before GTAV story?

 

I know, the internet shows things that are happening on your SP. I've solved that murder mystery thing in SP and it shows in the MP lol.

[Guest]

I was just thinking how cool it would be if the jobs took place within the same free roam lobby. Not everyone would have to take part but they could choose to interfere somehow if they wanted to. Idk just think it would be more dynamic, you got to different parts of the map and you see people doing different stuff.

Yes it can definitely be done but probably only the simpler ones. Maybe if R* made it so only the person who called for the mission sees the icons and destination dots for the mission then that would make it harder for the griefers to interfere. Then you just have to tell the ppl who's helping you what needs to be done and when the mission is over you get all the money and can share the cash.

[DaCosta]

Hi Jack Reacher, good topic.

 

I think the concerns are all wrapped up in EliteGamer's post below, but just some counter comments in green.

 

 

Bad idea for a couple of reasons.

 

1) The game already has difficulty spawning enough stuff in busy free-roams (look how few cars are on the road, or look at the despawning issue), without adding additional mission assets. I don't think the game is capable of running a bunch of missions inside free-roam, well maybe it could run 1 or 2 missions (maybe more for simple missions)... but I don't think that's enough missions to cater to every player in a session.

 

Agreed. It's probably asking too much to have current-gen run mission instances within free-roam, along with everything else. So let's consider any change of gameplay would be in a next-gen version of GTA: Online, with 10 times more RAM.

 

2) Missions aren't balanced around interference from other players. You only get rewarded if you win the mission but it would be extremely easy for an interfering player to fail the mission for you. The lives system and having a huge number of missions based around retrieving an easily-destroyed vehicle and reusing the same drop-off zone across many missions would make it very easy to ruin people's missions. Losing a HP I/E because another player destroyed it is annoying, losing "Docks to Stocks II" because another player blew up the cargobob would be 10 times worse. I also think it would be very difficult to balance extra rewards depending on player interference.

 

I have an increasingly strong belief that constant blips on the radar are a bad thing. The only reason you approach a "blip" is out of boredom, curiosity or to cause a random interaction. Random interaction will most often end in violence, because both players are wary.

 

I believe that blips should only appear based on local noise and line of sight. This opens up huge new opportunities to the game (potentially improving firefights, car chases and stealth opportunities.)

 

The main concern with this, that can be raised, is that player interaction won't happen if blips are mostly hidden. In response, the game must encourage regular player interaction events. Things like the crate drops but more, and better things. This way people will come together.

 

How much better might a crate drop be if you couldn't see blips on the map? You might not rush in so quickly...

 

Anyway, with blips off by default, Missions in free-roam would be less likely to be "griefed". This isn't a solution in itself, just a statistical likelihood.

 

3) The game has no party system or friendly system. If you team up in a mission you don't autolock each other... and I don't think you get friendly fire for bullets (but you can definitely kill each other with collision damage and explosions). If you teamed up in free-roam you would run the risk of accidentally killing each other (particularly with the automatic melee attack). This might also make it difficult to give out fair rewards for missions.

 

Rockstar always said that GTA: Online would be based around sharing and cooperation. It cries out to have a system whereby you can temporarily team up with others in free-roam. People sometimes want to work with strangers but there is very little option to communicate this to people and no gameplay mechanic in place.

 

The game could set a temporary contract for you both. Breaking the contract would give you bad sport points (and Bad Sport needs to be improved as a concept, i.e. it could display how many "contracts" said player has broken out of how many contracts. Someone that broke 10/10 contracts might not be trustworthy! )

 

The contract would end at the end of a store robbery, a Mission, or a specified time limit perhaps and then it would be down to trust whether you turned and shot (and stole their money) - or whether you have genuinely built a level of trust.

 

This brings a whole new level of social dynamics to the game.

 

Add in anonymously voting 'good' players and 'avoid' players after races and missions and you can build a potential crew, ready for heists, without using the official Social Club crew feature.

 

Anyway, with an in-game mechanic to join forces and to rate people, strangers might start coming together. And actual betrayal will become a much more significant and interesting thing.

 

If people weren't working well with you, not sharing money fairly, or playing how you don't like, you could break contract and anonymously mark them as 'avoid', ending your relationship with them.

 

It's very doable if R* wanted to program this.

 

4) Area resuse would be a problem. I mean I can think of 5 missions that use the military base, and that's a place where players might be naturally anyway.

 

This is the big problem. Los Santos and Blaine County is a huge map but there are key landmarks, fast vehicles and lots of players - suddenly it seems smaller.

 

The game would have to carefully focus missions, spawn you to starting points, try to keep you within areas, and even perhaps monitor where all players are, only allowing missions at certain times - or moving you to another server. It would be a complicated re-coding.

 

Alternatively, just go full on anarchy. Have missions overlap and have some missions go mad. You go to the enemy base to find it's been demolished by some random and you've completed the mission. Or some crazy sniper starts picking you off as you are driving a car back to Simeon - you have to deal with it.

 

I can see why Missions are instanced but with blips off the map, random interactions will be far less, so - if people could put up with random weirdness sometimes - I guess it could happen.

 

I definitely agree that there should be bigger and better things to do in free-roam, but I don't think moving co-op missions into free-roam would work. A lot of the problems are not insurmountable but sorting the workarounds and rebalances would be so complicated that they might as well start from scratch for extra free roam activities.

[Guest]

Here are some things that can be done in free roam that are like missions.

 

* Robbing Banks - All the banks should be open to being robbed just like the stores. The teller could be held up at gun point just like the cashier in the stores except instead of them putting cash in a bag they would be made to open the doors to the vault area. Once they do you go back there, blow the vault and steal the cash. There would be 2 ways to do it.

 

Loud and dumb - Your crew runs in and immediately shoots everyone. Some of the crew would kill the guards, one crew member will kill the teller, go behind the counter and then crack the code to open the door to the vault area and the last member would run to the vault, blow the door and grab the money. Then you all escape.

 

Silent and smart - You all go in with no guns drawn with each member ready to do a specific task. When ready everyone acts simultaneously. Some of the crew kills the guards with silenced pistols and then points the guns at peds to keep them still, another member would point a gun at the teller forcing them to open the doors to the vault. Once opened he must keep the gun on the teller so they don't call the cops and the last member goes to blow the vault and get the cash. If done smoothly no stars are gained until you blow up the vault.

 

 

 

* Drug Dealing - There are 3 levels to this. Hustler, Baller and Kingpin. Here is how it will work.

 

Hustler - Everyone will start at this level. Gerald will be the default Baller when there are no player ballers (player who have reached baller status) available in the session. When you call Gerald up you choose the "Request a package" option (same option will be available when you call up a player Baller). He will then tell you to go pick it up from a certain location (player baller will of course tell you where to meet him). A drug icon will pop up on the map (only you can see it) and you go pick up the package if you called Gerald. If you called a player Baller then you just go to his dot.

 

Once the package is retrieved it is added to your weapon wheel under mele with a number next to it showing how many portions/sells you can make with that package similar to ammo when you equip a weapon (a player Baller would just select the package on his weapon wheel and drop it for you to pick up). Multiple drug selling areas will show up on the screen in the form of big colored spots like gang attacks. Maybe white? Anyway, you go there and like gang attacks once inside the area selling will be activated and there will be dots in the area to interact with. You then just sell to the users until you're out of supply. You can either stay in one spot and let the addicts come to you or walk/drive around the area and take the drugs to the blips. Once finished you must go to Gerald to pay him his cut (player Ballers get their cut via the share cash option) . After a certain amount of sales Baller status will be unlock.

 

Baller - Once you reach this level Gerald will introduce you to his contact with Kingpin status. You then must call him (or a player Kingpin) to order drugs. They also may text you offering work. Once called the contact will tell you to meet him at a certain location to make the deal. You go to the spot and this time buy the drugs. If buying from the contact money will be deducted from your account automatically once you pick up the drugs. If buying from a player Kingpin you must use the share cash option. You also can kill the Kingpin and his crew and jack the drugs but will lose that connect. Regardless, once the drugs are retrieved they are are added to your weapon wheel under mele with a number of how many packages you have to sell.

 

From here a mass notification will go out to the players in the room which lets them know you are ready to sell. They must then call you to set up a meeting. If there are no player hustlers in the session or nobody answers the text then default hustlers will eventually call you for work (be sure to have some friends with you when making the deal or you may get jacked). After a certain amount of packages Kingpin status will be unlock.

 

Kingpin - Once you reach this level the Kingpin will bring you into the fold. He then will call you letting you know when and where the next major deal is going down. Once the meeting is set up you must go to that location to make the deal. Since these are major deals the locations will be at places like the airports, a warehouse, etc. You go to the spot and buy the drugs (like above you can jack the drugs but lose that connect).

 

Once you get the drugs unlike Baller and Hustler status these drugs are not added to you weapon wheel. Instead they are still in trucks/vans and must be delivered to your safehouse (here is a perfect reason for R* to allow us to buy another smaller safehouse or garage). Anyway, once in route ppl can jack you if they are aware that you are transporting drugs. This can be made known by the default Kingpin sending a mass notification out or a player Kingpin notifying players. If you are the one jacking then you must take the truck to your garage or safehouse to make them yours. Once thast done you can sell the drugs but only according to the level you are. What I mean is if you are only a hustler then you can only sell the drugs in the drug selling spots. If you are a Baller then you can only sell to Hustlers and of course the drug spots.

 

Basically this uses the already implemented game mechanics such as gang attack code and weapon wheel to store the drugs so this should be very possible to do.

 

 

 

* Hitman - Get a contact at some point that you can call or he will text you for work. If you accept he'll send you a text giving you the target and telling you how he must be eliminated. A blip will then pop up on the map showing his location (only you can see the blip so other players are less likely to interfere). Go kill him in the manor requested and the payment will be deposited into your account.

 

 

 

* Bounty Hunter - Similar to Hitman as in you get a contact at some point that you can call or he will text you for work. If you accept he'll send you a text giving you the target. A blip will then pop up on the map showing his location (only you can see the blip so other players are less likely to interfere). Unlike the Hitman you cannot kill the target. Instead you must catch him/her alive then transport him/her back to a specific location. You simply point your gun at them to make them surrender and get in your back seat or back of the van. A friend must also be in the backseat or they will jump out and run. If they resist then you must shoot them in the leg and then they will surrender. Once you take them to the designated location a payment will be deposited into your account.

 

 

 

* Random events like SP - The ones where the little blip randomly shows up on the map and you can intervene like helping a women get her purse back, helping some guy get his car back, helping either the police or the criminals in a shootout, etc.

[MrMonkish]

This would be kind of interesting.

 

Maybe if they did it like a gang attack, where once it is initiated, you can't be killed by other players.

[Phyxsius-]

yes it would work, look at mmo's

 

only thing is people shouldnt be on the map and there should be more like 30-40 ppl per server

Most MMO`s have instanced bosses. Also, most MMO`s have PvP and PvE servers, so you can`t just show up and kill everybody on a PvE server.

 

SWTOR tried to fix free roam missions by having chains of missions that would finish with the killing of ONE mob. Was not a pretty sight to find 70 players engaged in ping wars trying to get the first shot on the respawn, to "claim" the mob. It was a bad system.

Edited December 5, 2013 by Phyxsius-

[BuyMeTheMoon]

 

 

This one is a big problem for me. It's a pain in the ass that you auto-lock on friends, and that there is no way to avoid this unless you join a FA-sessions(which is boring because they are almost empty all the time).

 

 

I only play free aim and often have trouble getting my friends in the game because they're full the entire time

so you're either lying or you need better internet or something

My internet is the best you can get. So yes, that must be it, I'm lying. Sorry

[DaCosta]

Here are some things that can be done in free roam that are like missions.

 

* Robbing Banks - ...

 

* Drug Dealing - ...

 

* Hitman - ...

 

* Bounty Hunter - ...

 

* Random events like SP - ...

Really good ideas Bumpy (4 posts up), you've obviously put a lot of thought into these.

I particularly like Drug Dealing as it involves a whole new level of player interaction in free roam.

 

If Missions don't work in free roam, due to it being too messy, then they could at least improve the illusion of missions and free-roam being one thing.

 

- Mission markers in map being the prime way to activate a mission.

- A nice intro cut-scene would be nice to get everyone up to speed. At least an intro screen reiterating rules and maybe even tips.

- Mission to happen in private lobby - starting at a designated point, not previous location in free-roam.

- Mission success = all members automatically return to free-roam (no next job lobby screen after a mission)

 

This way, it would feel like Missions are linked in with free-roam.

[hallkjell]

Great ideas here! But most important is a new blip-system. If you are walking/running in Los Santos, it shouldn't be possible for players in Paleto Bay to see that on the map or radar.

[BuyMeTheMoon]

 

* Hitman - Get a contact at some point that you can call or he will text you for work. If you accept he'll send you a text giving you the target and telling you how he must be eliminated. A blip will then pop up on the map showing his location (only you can see the blip so other players are less likely to interfere). Go kill him in the manor requested and the payment will be deposited into your account.

 

Anyone played AC Brotherhood online? All 16 players get a target to assassinate, and when the job is done they get a new target. You are someone else's target as well, so you need to watch your back. You get 700$ for each kill, and bonuses if you do it "creative" ways.

I'm not sure this one would work in free roam though, it would have to be a separate game mode, but this Hitman thing sounds a little like this and would be a cool addition to free roam

[Jack Reacher]

 

 

* Hitman - Get a contact at some point that you can call or he will text you for work. If you accept he'll send you a text giving you the target and telling you how he must be eliminated. A blip will then pop up on the map showing his location (only you can see the blip so other players are less likely to interfere). Go kill him in the manor requested and the payment will be deposited into your account.

 

Anyone played AC Brotherhood online? All 16 players get a target to assassinate, and when the job is done they get a new target. You are someone else's target as well, so you need to watch your back. You get 700$ for each kill, and bonuses if you do it "creative" ways.

I'm not sure this one would work in free roam though, it would have to be a separate game mode, but this Hitman thing sounds a little like this and would be a cool addition to free roam

 

I loved Brotherhood, made loads of videos on it on my old DemonReacher YT. Im going to try out AC4 but im a bit sick of wanted, I have grown to love the Assassinate mode instead.

 

I think the blip system should work like it does in DM. I think it would be that much cooler to explore free roam and somehow stumble upon another player without realisin it. Hell they could walk on the side walk like a ped and you wouldn't even know. Would give the sessions more depth.

[Cool Story Bro]

Lmao dreaming going on here

[Jack Reacher]

Lmao dreaming going on here

 

Pretty much. It's not like we are petitioning for R* to patch this stuff, but it is nice to see what players want out of a game. I personally have wanted a GTA online game where players are off the radar since GTA 3, it sees we are getting closer and closer to that. One can only dream...