Locked out of 100%

[RationalPsycho]

In Grand Theft Auto III, reaching 100% progress can be made impossible within a single Save File if the mission "Last Requests" is completed before Luigi and Joey's string of missions, and/or completing "Waka-Gashira Wipeout!" and "Grand Theft Aero" before Kenji's missions and "Two-Faced Tanner" respectively.

 

In GTA Vice City Stories, 100% completion can be disabled too, if you use any means to go to the east island, and proceed to take over 29 out of 30 Empire Buildings (one Bikers-owned Drugs Medium Venture is not available earlier, because it is scripted to be taken over in the mission "Hostile Takeover") before completing the mission "From Zero to Hero".

 

This happens because the illegal Business types (Drugs, Smuggling and Robbery) are unlocked if two conditions are met: Completing "From Zero to Hero" and taking over a Building of the same type. So, if you complete the second requirement before the first and save the game and reload (saving and reloading stops the Empire attacks), there will be no Buildings for you to take over, which makes Smuggling and Robbery permanently disabled*, therefore you'll need to start a new Save File, if you want 100% completion.

 

To prevent this, make sure you have AT LEAST ONE Empire Building of each type (Drugs*, Smuggling and Robbery) yet to take over before "From Zero to Hero", and conquer them once you complete the aforementioned mission.

 

*In "Hostile Takeover", you are forced to take over a Drugs Business, so "Drug Running" cannot be disabled, but it is advised to build a High Roller Drugs Building before this mission. More information can be found HERE.

 

Special thanks to NOskillx for confirming this issue before me and letting me know. Link to the original post:

http://gtaforums.com/topic/838112-gta-vcs-special-vehicle-guide/?p=1069663158

Edited June 27, 2017 by RationalPsycho

[Lethal Vaccine]

So it REALLY happened, I guess? You said you possibly would be able to fix this, but I guess it didn't happen and you were literally locked out. Time to start over

 

I suggest ONLY taking a Trip to the East Island early to buy the ALWAYS GREEN 2 Empires. Don't get the other Empire Sites, even if they are being attacked. I did this in my 3rd Save File I recently finished and had no issues and got 100%, but I remember you saying you literally went around seeing Damaged Green Empires and bought them all in the process. I figured that would mess up the game...

 

Still wondering how to keep the Empire Sites Defended Stat with 100%. Pretty hard to keep that at 100%. 1st Save was 15%, 2nd Save was 12%, and 3rd Save was 33%. But having it 100%? I don't know who's done that. Maybe Arsen Vitiuk or err5, but both of them are long gone off the Forum...

[RationalPsycho]

Yes, it f*cking happened. From the few buildings left in the end, I was "lucky" enough to take over a Drugs and Smuggling business, but NOT Robbery. My strategy was: Hey, I got one last building left, so I'll keep attacking it, but let the OTHER gangs buy it while I go defend my own empire, with the hopes of them building a Robbery business. WRONG. The remaining building in question was a High Roller Smuggling owned by the Bikers. I attacked it, let the Sharks buy it, and they built a High Roller Drugs one. I launched a second attack on the same site, the Bikers bought it, and built a HIGH ROLLER SMUGGLING! Third attack? The Sharks make it into a HIGH ROLLER DRUGS! So I was stuck into a circle-jerk where the Bikers and Sharks kept cycling through Smuggling and Drugs respectively the entire time, and noticed that EACH GANG BUILDS A SET BUSINESS TYPE ON EACH SITE. The ONLY thing changing was the size of the building, and everything else was pre-determined.

 

Then, I let them take over a couple of my buildings on puropse - which took a long time - hoping to make them into a Robbery site, but no luck. A lot of time had been wasted, so much I figured it would actually take LESS to start over. And I had done ALL the side sh*t unlocked after "From Zero to Hero" (including Drugs and Smuggling missions, and even ALL the Import/Export lists!) and before "Brawn of the Dead" in almost one go, before coming to realise that I nearly had Robbery locked for good, and it would be better if I just started over. I was f*cking nuts, so I took a break from all this sh*t - hence my absence from the Special Vehicle guide - and am about to start soon. All my beloved stuff like "Air Rescue", "Fire Copter", "Vice Sights" and Import/Export... for 400$ and $700 in-game rewards here and there

 

 

Replay value; my ass. Because that should make us want to keep playing the game over and over again

 

Thankfully for me, I made a backup Save File right before "Jive Drive" with Protection Racket, Loan Shark, Prostitution and all the races completed, to keep trying to obtain the Heavy Stinger in the future, so I won't have to redo the ENTIRE thing. Expect my horrid presence in the guide soon enough

 

For this reason, I didn't keep the "Sites Defended" stat to 100%, but I think it can be done, as long as you purchase a site IMMEDIATELY after taking it over (skip the "Attack Passed!" cutscene for better results), before the enemies have a chance to launch an attack on your empire, as buying it afterwards stops the attack, but ends in failure, and you get your attacked building damaged. Don't forget that you can save the game inside empire buildings, so you DON'T have to run to safehouses each time. After reloading, the random attacks stop, so keeping the stat to 100% should be possible.

Edited June 27, 2017 by RationalPsycho

[Lethal Vaccine]

I've had an Empire being attacked WHILE I WAS ON THE BUYING SCREEN, though. I thought of that a while back, or activating an R3 Mission while driving to the next Empire, but when you do that, +1 to the Attempts since, Idk for PSP, but on PS2 that adds Attempts even when passed which is really annoying...And I am sure if you bought the Empire, went inside quickly, and saved, you could keep the Stat at 100%, HOWEVER, too many Safehouse Visits saving after every Attack. I literally take all Bikers and then Sharks over in one go, but while I do this, I am being attacked all over the Map, which brings that Stat down a lot and drop so low.

 

Another thing annoying with it, too, is the game will decide to make an Attack WHILE YOU'RE AIMING A WEAPON AT THE GANG VEHICLE TO BLOW IT UP. So an Attack is happening, yet when you blow up their Vehicle, you will be in a War, but the Stat in the Pause Menu continues to decrease.

 

I can't remember what err5 told me in a PM many months back, but I am pretty sure he kept it at 100% when he reached 100% Game Completion. He's basically the only one I know who did it...

[RationalPsycho]

To prevent this, make sure you have AT LEAST ONE Empire Building of each type (Drugs, Smuggling and Robbery) yet to take over before "From Zero to Hero", and conquer them once you complete the aforementioned mission.

 

I did it. I followed my advice and everything worked out perfectly. Reaching 100% is just a matter of time. One thing to add here is, the Drugs, Smuggling and Robbery buildings I had left untouched were all High Rollers, so the Bikers had enough time to repair them after being attacked by the Sharks, and by doing that, I didn't have to keep taking over the same building. Here is my second Empire experience (I f*cked the first one up ):

 

Excluding the Starter Save run, I made two trips to the east island before "From Zero to Hero". The first one was mainly for the races, but while I was at it, I bought the two buildings that were on sale, took over another couple owned by the Sharks, and made one of them Protection Racket, specifically to obtain the H/AP/PP/UH Biker Angel later on. During my time there, the Bikers kept attacking the Sharks, and this resulted in all their remaining buildings being severely damaged by the time I left.

 

I completed "Havana Good Time" to put the Cholos out of business, bought a couple of their buildings, and made my second trip to the east. Soon enough, all the Sharks' damaged buildings started to go on sale one by one, and I kept buying them. Before I knew it, I had purchased about half the Empire Sites without even trying, and the Sharks had been put out of business for good. I didn't engage with them enough to be hated, so I NEVER had to deal with their deadly drive-by attacks.

 

Then, I opened an all-out attack on the less threatening Bikers; I started taking over the remaining buildings on the east, went back to the west, and conquered everything left EXCEPT a Drugs, Smuggling and Robbery buildings, all of them High Roller. While on the east, no Empire attack occured. They only attacked me after taking over the 26th building on the west (the last one I would touch before "From Zero to Hero"). I successfully defended my businesses, obtained the AP VCPD Cruiser from "The Audition", saved the game, reloaded, and went on to complete the rest of the storyline missions.

 

I completed "From Zero to Hero", took over the rest of the Bikers' available buildings, while defending mine a couple of times, saved the game a second time, reloaded, and had 29 out of 30 Empire Sites in my possession. I passed "Hostile Takeover" today, taking over the last building, with the "Sites successfully defended" stat to 100%, all done with ONE extra safehouse visit*. After this mission, the Bikers don't launch ANY attacks at you, so you are safe for the rest of the game.

 

I noticed that after taking over a building, you usually get attacked twice in a row - not counting the random drive-by attacks on the street - and then you are left with a bit of time to do anything else, which should be enough to drive to another Empire Site and conquer it. Also, attacks NEVER occured to me while on the buying screen, possibly because I buy the buildings too fast. They never attacked me while aiming at their vehicle either, most likely because I don't "aim", as I usually use Molotovs (they rule in VCS).

 

*The use of OM0 to obtain the Police car doesn't leave any stray blips, but after starting "The Audition" again, the mission will abruptly fail once you exit the coffee shop, because "you abandoned Lance". Saving and reloading fixes this side effect, so if you don't want any extra attempts, I suggest you save and reload the game right after obtaining the AP VCPD Cruiser. This is the reason I didn't include this extra safehouse visit in my Empire quest.

Edited June 29, 2017 by RationalPsycho

[Lethal Vaccine]

How many Safehouse Visits in Starter Save? 100% Save?

 

I still don't get how you have 100% Empires Defended Stat. Mine is 66% right now in my 4th Save and the only reason it went from 100% down to 66% is exactly like I said happens. Started to blow up a Gang Vehicle to start a War and AT THE SAME TIME, I was being Attacked. However, it's almost like a Mini-OM0 thing as NOTHING came up on my screen about any Empire being attacked, yet two things were happening at once. I hit Pause to see which Empires I had left to take over on the West Island and noticed one of mine is damaged and then checked the Stats and it dropped to 66%. Meh, I don't really care about it, though. Waste of time defending them. I just take over a bunch of Empires in a row while Hit Squads are chasing after me and after Hostile Takeover and getting the 30th Empire, I save, reload, and repair my Empire Sites that got damaged for maximum income (like it's even needed...)

Edited June 29, 2017 by MorsPrincipiumEst

[RationalPsycho]

Nothing to get here. I got the "Sites successfully defended" stat to 100% because I kept defending my Empire, thus haven't had a single building damaged, and, like I said, I got somewhat lucky; I didn't quite engage with the Sharks, and bought around half the businesses with no effort at all, so I didn't get attacked much in the first place.

 

What do you use to blow the gang vehicles up? The M249 Machine Gun? If so, try some explosives next time. Maybe that's the reason it has NEVER happened to me as of yet, as I use Molotovs most of the time. Empire attacks are unpredictable, sure, but a "mini-OM0" thing hasn't occured so far.

Edited June 29, 2017 by RationalPsycho

[Lethal Vaccine]

Yeah, I don't mind defending the Empire, tbh, but only if it's the Cholos or the Bikers. The Sharks just come up in Gang Rancher after Gang Rancher using SMG's out the window and shred all your Health/Armor until you die. I've tried doing this with the Sharks quite a few times only to die sooner or later in the process. Tbh, I don't mind them CHASING me, but when they are the ones attacking your Empire, you're going to be f*cked sooner or later. You said about it happening TWICE, before it "stops," but that isn't the case on PS2. I've done 4-5 times in a row and STILL the Attacks kept coming, some all the way on the East Island or the West Island the opposite of where I am and hardly any time to make it there since I would need Health/Armor from the Safehouse before proceeding with too many Empires to defend. Like I said, I usually die when I am dealing with the Sharks and mainly only the Attacks on the Empires, not their Hit Squads. I just quickly drive past their Hit Squads, usually with popped tires and just quickly get to their next Empire to blow up their Gang Vehicle. However, I have been in the process of doing that only for them to sneak up on me, get out of the Gang Rancher and MP5/AK-47 me to death in a matter of 2 seconds. If it wasn't for their Drive-By's and the SMG/AK's they use, I would defend them all day since I am using the M249 from right after Conduct Unbecoming until Last Stand. It's really the only weapon I use and I f*cking hate how in Turn On, Tune In, Bug Out I am forced to buy an RPG, which removes my M249 and all its ammo. It's why you don't see me carrying the M249 by 100% with 9999 Rounds in the Photos, but I do have the SMG and M4 NOT SHOWING TOTALS in all my Saves, but always just 2000-3000 Rounds for the M249. Whereas in LCS, I always had 9999 Rounds for the M60 by 100% since throughout the Game picking up the Weapons, I could reach that amount and keep the Ammo saying 9999.

 

Yeah, I use M249 to blow up the Gang Vehicles and you're right, I probably should just use the Molotovs, since one throw directly at their Vehicle, it blows up. The M249, need to press in R3 to Free Aim with it and the aim moves sooooooooooo ssssllllllloooooooowwwwwww as does all Weapons when using Free Aim after pressing in R3.

 

Speaking of the Business' without getting much attention when they turn Green, how does that even happen? Sometimes I see a War going in in front of an Empire with lets say the Bikers and the Sharks, but eventually, it just gets Repaired by a Gang without it turning Green. If I recall correctly, that's how err5 did it and remained with 100% Defended Stat by 100% Game Completion. He just simply let the Gangs battle out in front of the Empires themselves and when it turned Green, he bought it quickly, I believe. But like I said, this barely happens for me on PS2 and usually it's Repaired almost instantaneously. I just don't get this game when talking about the Empire stuff...

 

This Mini-OM0 thing has occurred in literally ALL of my Saves. This is now my TENTH time through VCS...Had 3 Saves a long time ago, redid those 3 Saves, and now redoing them again, but doing a total of 6 Saves, thus when all 6 are finished, I did VCS to 100% 12 times on PS2 and EVERY TIME this happens where I will be in the process of blowing up a Gang Vehicle to start a War only to get an Attack on an Empire and get the Stat to drop down. I mean, the Stat isn't THAT important to me, but I would still like to try and get it to 100% and keep it like that one day. Speaking of Stats, another Stat I like to keep 100% is the Accuracy for Phil's Shooting Range. However, all of my Saves have 80-84% Accuracy since I am doing many things in a row before saving for low Safehouse Visits, I don't feel a need to reload all cuz I didn't get 100% Accuracy. But it would be cool to have that @ 100%, too. Clothing Changes is easy to keep at 1 by 100%, but in LCS, I finish with 7, 8, 9, or 10 for that Stat. Clothing Changes are also in VC, too, and can keep that Stat at 0 by 100% if you wanted to. Other than Deaths, Busted, Cheats, Mission Attempts, Pay and Spray Visits, Safehouse Visits, and Total Playing Time, I do keep an eye on some OTHER Stats in the Pause Menus, but if those aren't the LOWEST it's not the end of the world to me. I don't have the OCD with "those" kind of Stats yet Something in IV I like to keep at 0 is Taxis Hailed Stat and also Taxi Rides. I never hail for a Taxi and I never am driven to somewhere on the Map. I drive everywhere myself only to keep the Stat at 0. Same goes for TLaD/TBoGT, too.

 

How could I forget, in SA, I also like to keep the Meals Eaten Stat at 1 by 100% and in ALL GTA's, I like to keep the Weapon Budget at $0.00. I never use Ammunation for Weapons. All Weapons are either collected from the Map and/or from the Safehouses where they spawn for Collectibles in the 3D Era.

 

Sorry for kinda going off topic here, lol...

 

Also I heard that there is only like 3-4 Vehicles that come up to you during when you defend an Empire, but on PS2? At least 6 to 8 of them. So think about 6-8 Gang Ranchers coming, one after another with SMG's and AK-47's. It's almost like "impossible" and I hate saying something like that. It seems if you want the 100% Stat for Empires Defended, you need to strategically make a plan with this. You can't just go all out and "speedrun" and take them all over and be done with it, cuz if you try, you either will die or the Stat will drop sooner or later cuz of too many Attacks and/or that Mini-OM0 thing I was saying about...

Edited June 30, 2017 by MorsPrincipiumEst

[RationalPsycho]

Reaching 100% is just a matter of time.

 

I did it yesterday, without completing "Skywolf". And the "Percentage Completed" stat is pure 100%, not 99,6%. Arsen Vitiuk said that on PS2, you can get 100% no matter what, even if you don't build a High Roller Drugs building before "Hostile Takeover", possibly due to the recalculation of the stats thanks to all the extra side sh*t, but didn't mention anything about "Skywolf" at all. That got me wondering: On PSP, if you DON'T build a High Roller Drugs building, or even don't take one over before "Hostile Takeover", will you get awarded with 100% after "Skywolf" regardless? This is some information I need to add in the first post, because it could be another possibility to be locked out of 100%.

 

About defending businesses, honestly, I don't know the case for PS2, since on PSP, I get attacked twice in a row, and the attacks stop for a little while, which is often enough to take over ANOTHER building. Moreover, when I got to the east island early, I NEVER got attacked, and the buildings that went on sale after the Empire wars between the Bikers and Sharks remained on sale for some reason, so I kept taking over and buying everything there. And this is how I hardly got engaged with the Sharks and eventually kept the "Sites successfully defended" stat to 100%.

 

I see that the Sharks are the main problem, and rightfully so. I remember my early PS2 days, where they gave me a VERY hard time (although I was a kid back then, but that doesn't really matter, since the Sharks are still very deadly). For this reason, I suggest using a BP/PP vehicle to drive around during the Empire wars; it can save a lot of trips to the safehouse. The BF Injection is the best one for this job, since it's the fastest BP/PP vehicle at this point (the Stretch, although available a bit later, still sucks, the bikes hardly protect you, and no Sabre Turbo or Polaris V8 until after all Empire Sites are taken over), and can be obtained indefinitely. The Barracks OL can work too, but it's too tall, so you can't perform a drive-by as easily, and is only available once, and vehicles you leave outside still have a small chance of vanishing after purchasing a building, so I wouldn't recommend it.

 

Also, I do recall buildings being repaired or purchased immediately, but that didn't happen often to me, especially the latter. Maybe because I got to an area I wasn't supposed to early, so the game operated differently. On the other hand, after completing "Havana Good Time", I had to be VERY fast, and STILL didn't have time to purchase all the Cholo buildings that went on sale. About damaged buildings, well, High Rollers have a higher chance of being repaired before taken over, because they're harder to damage in the first place. Medium Ventures and especially Small Time ones are the most likely to go on sale. Just keep track of each building's damage bar, as well as its size; if it's a Small Time or Medium Venture, and the red bar is almost empty, be expecting to see it go on sale any moment.

 

What platform was err5 playing on? If it was PS2, then I might not have been so lucky after all, and what exactly I did might have something to do with Empire attacks, defends, repairs and purchases. Oh, and the M249, as well as the AK-47/M4 are also taken away in "Burning Bridges" (f*cking Mendez).

 

As for the 3 or 4 waves of opposing gangs whilst defending a business, this is FALSE. They're definitely more. Hell, I sometimes lose count of the attacking assholes that just endlessly keep on coming.

 

It would be interesting if the way I did it was a good strategy to efficiently take all buildings over. If anyone is interested, you can try it out and tell me your results.

Edited July 3, 2017 by RationalPsycho

[Lethal Vaccine]

You don't lose your Weapons during Burning Bridges, lol...They are to the right of you, on the side, in a row, like when you enter Airport and lose them, but they all are found outside. Same thing in Burning Bridges. Just look at jam8tone's EP/FP PCJ-600 Video and you see him pick them up again. I don't lose anything from Burning Bridges other than the Camera/Binoculars. But every other Weapon that you have before starting this Mission is available to pick up, with all the ammo included right next to you after the Mission is started...

 

Yeah, he's playing PS2 or Emulator. Not sure, but I think he did have the PS2 Version...

 

Well, SpriteFan said he remembered only a few Vehicles spawning or something, but on PS2 I get like 6-8 of them and when it's the Sharks, prepare to die. Especially if you're standing out in the open. Before they exit the Vehicle, your Health/Armor is shredded to pieces, basically...

 

I'll maybe give it a try in my 5th Save, but for now back to LCS for a quick remake of my 1st Save...

Edited July 3, 2017 by MorsPrincipiumEst