I Wish That Random Events Were RANDOM

[THE_TREVALEV]

Anyone else? It seems like certain events happen at exact locations and always happen there. Like the security van in Paleto Bay always is across the street from the police station. Here's a TRUE random event that just happened on RDR:

I'm in Mexico; just finished a mission. I'm riding down a road on a horse, and decide to follow some Spanish guys. Now keep in mind that I've been following these men for about two minutes. We've already made a few turns here and there. I notice that there are some wolves, and knowing that I need some cash, I hop off and begin shooting and skinning them. Out of no where, a blue dot appears on my map just to the north of me. It's the same Spanish men I was just following being attacked by wolves. I kill the wolves, and they thank me and give me cash.

THAT'S the standard I was hoping for in V.

How cool would it be to help a woman being mugged that you were JUST near? Or helping a man that you just past by moments ago get his money back from a guy who robbed him? I'd take REAL random events over these placed, scripted events any day.

Edited March 14, 2014 by THE_TREVALEV

[Bolcksta]

Yep, they are scripted to occur over and over.

 

They aren't really random to be honest.

[Choco Taco]

There should have been some random events that keep happening that could have both negative and positive outcomes. For instance, in the random event where the woman tells you someone needs help, it could either be an ambush or someone who really needs your help. Both encounters would start off the exact same way and you wouldn't know which outcome it would be. Having events like that which would reoccur during free roam would add a lot of fun to the game.

[killahmatic]

Anyone else? It seems like certain events happen at exact locations and always happen there.

 

It seems like it because they do. They aren't as randomly placed as they were in RDR (though in RDR they did have specific spots, but there were multiple locations they could spawn, rather than the same spot every time.)

 

"Random" is exactly the opposite of V's, but I'm still glad they exist.

[.Ryan.]

One of my biggest gripes with V. First playthrough wasn't so noticeable, but in the second the heavily scripted nature of them really starts to rear its head.

[RyanBurnsRed]

Sucks how they only happen once. I'd like to replay the drug deal one, or the one where you rescue the guy from being tied to a telephone pole.

 

Oh yeah that one was great. I actually failed that one as Trevor by flipping over the car while driving it to the guy's wedding xD

Then a few days ago I drove past the same spot as Micheal and saw the guy standing near the telephone pole without any clothes (only in undies).

 

RDR style random events were great. They made the game really feel alive. GTA V feels way too....robotic for my tastes.

[Shade04rek]

All I have to say is that, THAT is one of the things IV did right. I never knew when I would meet anyone or what I'd find. I apologize to GTAIV... i actually thought it could be so much better back then.. even with planes. Well excuse me, Im going to finish my replay of GTAIV and SA now.

[Xerukal]

All I have to say is that, THAT is one of the things IV did right. I never knew when I would meet anyone or what I'd find. I apologize to GTAIV... i actually thought it could be so much better back then.. even with planes. Well excuse me, Im going to finish my replay of GTAIV and SA now.

Are you serious? The random encounters in IV were way too few and not nearly as seamless. They were more like the Strangers & Freaks we have now, anyway.

 

Does every criticism thread need a few "going back to IV/SA" posts?

Edited March 14, 2014 by Xerukal

[Shade04rek]

 

All I have to say is that, THAT is one of the things IV did right. I never knew when I would meet anyone or what I'd find. I apologize to GTAIV... i actually thought it could be so much better back then.. even with planes. Well excuse me, Im going to finish my replay of GTAIV and SA now.

Are you serious? The random encounters in IV were way too few and not nearly as seamless. They were more like the Strangers & Freaks we have now, anyway.

 

Does every criticism thread need a few "going back to IV/SA" posts?

 

Whatever amount V had, IV had more, and more believable since they weren't shown on the map from the jump.. V had nothing like when meeting eddie low, and after. I didn't know if I'd actually ever kill him.

[THE_TREVALEV]

I was watching a Watch Dogs gameplay video, and I just remembered that even that game does it. Not sure if the last gen and next gen will have the same gameplay features, but you can follow a woman in the ghetto, and there's a possibility that she'll get mugged when she walks down an alley. You then have the choice to either let him go or deal with him. These types of situations would make the game more alive. I can name off a few from memory that happens EVERY time I pass a certain area in V:

1.Two drunk people at a seafood restaurant near the purchasable helipad

2.Two drunk people at a restaurant in Sandy Shores

3.Woman getting robbed near the skyscrapers

4.Woman throwing husband's clothes out of a window for playing golf too much

5.Man having his bicycle stolen

6.Woman near the Ammunation in east LS luring you in to be robbed

7.Security van in Paleto Bay in front of the police station

Probably more that I can't think of right now.

Edited March 14, 2014 by THE_TREVALEV

[Cutter De Blanc]

Not every time, as soon as you do them "correctly" they'll NEVER appear again.

 

I'm not sure which aspect is worse.

[THE_TREVALEV]

What do you mean by "correctly"? Granted, I haven't done them all, I've successfully completed maybe 5 that I listed, and they keep appearing. Maybe I was using a different protag, and each situation pops up for all three. I know for a fact that I've robbed the security van in Paleto Bay with Trevor numerous of times because I'm always up north with him, and I've walked up the flight of stairs just to be ambushed with a gun with Franklin a lot.

Edited March 14, 2014 by THE_TREVALEV

[chrisscorsese88]

Well Security Vans appear (or are supposed to appear) every few days, so just because you robbed the one at Paleto Bay doesn't mean it will never appear again. Also I believe the muggings and ATM robberies are also supposed to be never-ending as well. (Even though a lot of people say they never happen once you complete the game, including myself)

[Druffmaul]

At least there are those random police chases that happen fairly often. I love to be anti-vigilante; prowl the streets waiting for a chase to appear... blow away the cops so the bad guys can get away, then escape myself. Fun fun fun. Can't believe how many people claim the wanted levels in GTA V are no fun. Pussies.

[Geralt of Rivia]

 

 

All I have to say is that, THAT is one of the things IV did right. I never knew when I would meet anyone or what I'd find. I apologize to GTAIV... i actually thought it could be so much better back then.. even with planes. Well excuse me, Im going to finish my replay of GTAIV and SA now.

Are you serious? The random encounters in IV were way too few and not nearly as seamless. They were more like the Strangers & Freaks we have now, anyway.

 

Does every criticism thread need a few "going back to IV/SA" posts?

 

Whatever amount V had, IV had more, and more believable since they weren't shown on the map from the jump.. V had nothing like when meeting eddie low, and after. I didn't know if I'd actually ever kill him.

 

IV absolutely did not have more.

 

V has more random events that RDR, actually.

[THE_TREVALEV]

V has more random events that RDR, actually.

I think the problem with V is the mindset of quanity>quality

Yeah, they outdid themselves in terms of figures, but in terms of quality, nah.

Biggest map/pointless areas that could have been used for missions

Most playable protagonists/shallowest and most bland protagonists

Most random events/repetitive and extremely simple

Best graphics/cut vegetation, less than great AI

Best wanted system/Terminator cops

Don't get me wrong, despite these flaws, it's a great damn game. I just think they went with how much they could fit in and forgot about the quality and sacrifices they gave up just so they can say "biggest ever!"

Not trying to sound like a RDR fanboy, but that game simply did it better. Like:

Helping a sheriff capture escaped convicts

Helping a sheriff recover a safe from a gang, and then defend your wagon as you return it

People asking you to hijack wagons in return for money

People being attacked by animals and criminals

[Geralt of Rivia]

 

V has more random events that RDR, actually.

I think the problem with V is the mindset of quanity>quality

Yeah, they outdid themselves in terms of figures, but in terms of quality, nah.

Biggest map/pointless areas that could have been used for missions

Most playable protagonists/shallowest and most bland protagonists

Most random events/repetitive and extremely simple

Best graphics/cut vegetation, less than great AI

Best wanted system/Terminator cops

Don't get me wrong, despite these flaws, it's a great damn game. I just think they went with how much they could fit in and forgot about the quality and sacrifices they gave up just so they can say "biggest ever!"

Not trying to sound like a RDR fanboy, but that game simply did it better. Like:

Helping a sheriff capture escaped convicts

Helping a sheriff recover a safe from a gang, and then defend your wagon as you return it

People asking you to hijack wagons in return for money

People being attacked by animals and criminals

 

I agree, however, I'd change some things.

 

I think the only bad V character is Franklin. And by 'bad', I mean just bland. Like he was thrown in just to have 3 characters. I felt like Michael was the original guy, and he was the most fleshed out. And Trevor, well...he was just Trevor. I think V had some of the best characters, actually. Just not protagonists antagonists.

 

I dunno who R* hired to write the story, but they shouldn't hire them again.

 

I also don't think the random events were bad, just that making most of them not re-playable was a mistake.

Edited March 14, 2014 by TheMasterfocker

[kipakolonyasi]

this is the best they can do man. what do you expect? game to pull real time data from rockstar servers and give you 1000's of unique random events every time?

[Input]

It does get pretty annoying.

It's nice to have something to do, but I mean, everytime I'm racing through the city at the same exact 3 spots I have to hear "Help! He took my wallet/purse!"..

I usually just run the dickhead over and keep going.

[THE_TREVALEV]

this is the best they can do man. what do you expect? game to pull real time data from rockstar servers and give you 1000's of unique random events every time?

Are you implying that a four year old game does that? How is it the best they can do if they've released games that did it better in the past? You would think that somewhere buried in that 16 gigabytes of data would include the same coding for pedestrians and random events that was in RDR. But hey. I'm not complaining because I'm not forced to play the game. Just comparing two R* games and which did an area of the game better.

[Cutter De Blanc]

What do you mean by "correctly"? Granted, I haven't done them all, I've successfully completed maybe 5 that I listed, and they keep appearing. Maybe I was using a different protag, and each situation pops up for all three. I know for a fact that I've robbed the security van in Paleto Bay with Trevor numerous of times because I'm always up north with him, and I've walked up the flight of stairs just to be ambushed with a gun with Franklin a lot.

 

 

Well Security Vans appear (or are supposed to appear) every few days, so just because you robbed the one at Paleto Bay doesn't mean it will never appear again. Also I believe the muggings and ATM robberies are also supposed to be never-ending as well. (Even though a lot of people say they never happen once you complete the game, including myself)

Maybe they are supposed to reoccur again, but they don't for me. I assumed that was how the game was designed. I remember the armored trucks reappearing for awhile, but a few months ago they just stopped. Everything did. I don't get random events at all, anywhere on the map anymore, period.

[THE_TREVALEV]

That's odd.. I had to repurchase GTA V, and my current copy is different too. I haven't stumbled upon certain events yet like the

girl being attacked by bikers

, certain songs like Skeletons never play now, I have switch scenes that I never seen before, etc.

[chrisscorsese88]

 

What do you mean by "correctly"? Granted, I haven't done them all, I've successfully completed maybe 5 that I listed, and they keep appearing. Maybe I was using a different protag, and each situation pops up for all three. I know for a fact that I've robbed the security van in Paleto Bay with Trevor numerous of times because I'm always up north with him, and I've walked up the flight of stairs just to be ambushed with a gun with Franklin a lot.

 

 

Well Security Vans appear (or are supposed to appear) every few days, so just because you robbed the one at Paleto Bay doesn't mean it will never appear again. Also I believe the muggings and ATM robberies are also supposed to be never-ending as well. (Even though a lot of people say they never happen once you complete the game, including myself)

Maybe they are supposed to reoccur again, but they don't for me. I assumed that was how the game was designed. I remember the armored trucks reappearing for awhile, but a few months ago they just stopped. Everything did. I don't get random events at all, anywhere on the map anymore, period.

 

Yup, same here, hence the phrase "supposed to". Sure they work in a new save file, but on my almost 100% file, I haven't come across a random event/robbery/security van in so long, I almost forgot they even existed. (Not really, but I do wish Rockstar releases some kind of hot fix so they always appear, no matter what)

[Cutter De Blanc]

I would assume that a bug with the fact that they're scripted to stop occuring at all is what's causing them to stop appearing. Who the f*ck thought that was a fun idea to make them finite in the first place, and look at the problems it's causing now. It's like their programmer monkeys never even played Red Dead Redemption. That's how you do it. Fallout 3, that's how you do it. Skyrim, that's how you do it. I don't get why they f*cked the random events up so much, except to say "innovation" cuz they didn't do it the same. There's an old adage that goes, "Don't fix it if it ain't broken."

[Niobium]

what would have helped to make the city more random is that if they created celebrity pedestrians. they would be rare to find of course, but you wouldn't trigger the celeb random event if you entered a zone. it would trigger in any place you are in

[woggleman]

Events in RDR are scripted as well. I have saved that hooker from being stabbed countless times in Armadillo. Also IV does not have random events. It has people you meet and you do 2 or 3 missions for them and you never see them again. IV having more than V is just an outright lie.

[Niobium]

But saving a hooker from being stabbed is meant to happen anywhere in RDR as long as the event takes place in a town, no?

[WorldWideFM]

After recently doing another RDR playthrough, I have to argue against them being done better. It truly is about the same in both games. Certain events are repeated like crazy in both RDR and V, the only thing is that the vast expanse of RDR gives the illusion that they're a bit more random than the V city events do. I think all V really needed was to shift some more of those events into the countryside to echo that illusion.

[woggleman]

But saving a hooker from being stabbed is meant to happen anywhere in RDR as long as the event takes place in a town, no?

Maybe but it really seemed to happen in that town and right outside of the hotel above the bar.

[Niobium]

 

 

But saving a hooker from being stabbed is meant to happen anywhere in RDR as long as the event takes place in a town, no?

Maybe but it really seemed to happen in that town and right outside of the hotel above the bar.

I guess. Still, RDR did a better job with the random events than V. At least RDR's events don't happen only in one place, like V.