My Idea For Single Player Crews/Heists/Recruits/Gangs

[Mister Pink]

Vice City had bodyguards/crew you took take with you after getting 100%. San Andreas had the option to recruit members of your gang any time to go off on drive-bys, rampages etc. As your Respect grew, you could bring more people (up to 3). My idea is that the next GTA brings this function back but in a different way. It's so much fun. You kind of get this multiplayer feel without the awful multiplayer aspects and in the singleplayer. 

 

The idea is that you recruit prospects, play as them as you train them up and then invite them to your crew. You total crew membership is 4 including you and potential prospects can be up to 10. 

 

Scenario for Meeting Prospects:

 

You are stopped in traffic. A thug comes to car-jack you like it used to happen in San Andreas. He steals your car and you steal someone else's to catch up with him. You catch him. You are given the option to kill him or recruit him. If you recruit him he will become a prospect and playable character. He won't be part of your full-fledged crew. This playable character will have little Respect so it's up to you level him up. This is also an opportunity for you, the player to level the character up in a way that will fit into your crew. So you can focus on certain skills like Car Thief Skill, Driver Skill, Safe Cracker Skills, Gun Skills, Climbing Skills, Sneak Skills etc etc. 

 

When your prospect has done enough crimes to level up and choose the skills you need for your crew, you can initiate the crew member full-time. Now you have 1 full-time crew member. You are free to do missions together if you wish. All missions can be complete without crew members although some of the main missions will be extremely hard without other skilled guys in your crew. 

 

Levelling up Prospect

 

You can play as the prospect or not with your main character. Once a robbery is initiated you can't switch characters.  Completing store robberies will build up Reliability metre. If your prospect dies (gets injured/returned to the hospital) his/her reliability will go down. It's advisable that you do play as them to make sure they don't die. Once a store robbery is complete Reliability/Trust/Respect metre will grow.  Your main character can recruit the prospect at any stage, even if Reliability/Trust/Respect is low. However, if it's low, there's more of a chance they'll die during robberies so it's in your best interest to recruit them when their Reliability

 

/Trust/Respect metre is maxed out. 

 

Crew Strength/Score

 

 

When you have at least one other crew member, your crew is given a score. This score is based on the collective attributes of your teammates. Some missions can't be attempted unless you have a strong crew. Every establishment that can be robbed will have a difficulty score. For example. You see a small town convenience store. This can be held up and robbed solo. It will have a low score, say 25 out of 100.  As will gas stations and homes etc. But then you see a bank and it will have a score of 100. This means you'll have a full crew (4 people) to rob it with a high probability of being successful.  You can attempt to rob it solo if you please but it will be extremely difficult and almost impossible. 

 

 

Robbing Bank/Shops/Casinos/Gas Stations/Homes

 

These establishments can be robbed at any time. Obviously, home burglaries and store burglaries will be max level 25 (out of 100) in difficulty. 25 indicates the maxed-out version of your main character (the other potential remaining 75 is made up from your 3 recruitable main characters) For example a Gas-Station in the countryside away from a police station might be level 10 difficulty to rob. So when you first start playing solo, you'll be better off robbing stores in the countryside to make your first bit of cash. Or... a  convenience store in downtown Vice City near a police station might have a difficulty 25. So if your character is just starting off and around level 5, it will still be a challenge to rob that convenience store. 

 

If you are attempting a big bank heist, you'll be able to assign each crew member a role. So while they have certain skills you'll assign each member a main fundamental crew member like "Getaway Driver" "Muscle" "Intelligence" and the assiging a crew member as intelligence would be a safe-cracker/hacker etc. 

 

Tailoring Your Crew To the Way You Like It

 

There is no character-switching during missions/heists. The only purpose of being able to play as other prospects so so you can level them up the way you want. You unlock their skills. You will always do the main story as one character. Your crew isn't related to the story at all. Your crew is only there to support you - the player and main character. They're your muscle but the system is just more advanced in how you acquire that muscle. For example. You recruit your first prospect. He's not your main crew. He's a prospect that you can mould. Your main character ie You, is a great driver. You probably wont need a good driver skill in your prospect, so you might level him/her up as a good gun-fighter. This will help you rob bigger, better stores with more loot. 

 

The point being that you will level your prospects up in places you think you have weak spots. It wont be obvious but some banks/heists will require your crew to have a specialist crew member like a safe-cracker or hacker. You wont know this until you make an attempt at stealing from the bank. 

 

So when you see level 100 difficulty banks, you can attempt to rob them solo. It most likely wont work. You'll get to a certain point when you'll realise that you need a hacker. Or, if you got the hacker skill in your own main character, then you'll need a second shooter and a getaway driver outside. 

 

Conclusion

 

The overall idea is to make approaching heists in singleplayer more dynamic, more advanced and more organic approach. It's to make a levelling up system in an open-world. You start off robbing convenience stores but as you up your skills and your crew, you can rob banks, airports etc. This is a system that works independently of the main story. In fact, if you chose to ignore it, you could finish the story without it.  It also attempts to incorporate more meaningful RPG/Levelling up skills and to fuse that with the old gang recruiting system, as well as being able to play as other characters. I don't like multiple characters in GTA V as I prefer to have one main guy. This system will keep one main guy. You will be able to play as other characters but only to level them up. They don't actually compete with your main guy. Most of the money the other characters get is through your main character anyway. 

 

They system in a nutshell:

 

- Recruit Prospect

- Play as a prospect to earn Respect and level up skill tree

-  As your main character, recruit Prospect full-time into your crew. 

- Once crew is at maximum potential - attempt to rob high-risk, high difficulty heists/banks

 

 

Edited January 2, 2019 by Mister Pinkerton

[TheSantader25]

IV and V offered this in the name of "hangouts" but of course they aren't accessible enough.

 

To add to his points I'd like:

  giving us the option to give orders to them:like camping in a sniping position or driving so we can sit in the backseat and focus on the shooting. (it's kinda funny that Ubisoft implemented this in Far Cry 5 and R* still haven't done this) 

[Mister Pink]

Yeah you are right and I liked the idea of that in IV, however, I kind of forget it's there. 

 

Part of my excitement for this system is having available heists 24/7 outside of the story, however, there's an element of pre-planning available. Not just picking options to pre-plan but actual playable strategy. 

 

Imagine when you have max-levelled up 10 prospects. You'll have any combination of crew members to take on any heist. 

 

I also love the idea that there are enterable places to rob, right from the beginning but you most likely will fail. I think that incentive to level prospects up is great. I mean in RDR2, seeing that bank all the time and the trains. I just want to rob them but feel restricted. 

 

And I like your suggestion. I would like Rockstar to have more multiple approaches to missions again. Using your crew could help. But I also wanted to state that if you decide to go solo in all storyline missions, you can. It's just that the crew is an added bonus. And if you think you can be creative in how you use your crew, like putting a sniper in a certain position, then you are rewarded with and not restricted or punished for doing something "unscripted."

[TheSantader25]

Well I just hope this "leveling up" is portrayed by stat bars and not numbers. I always hate level numbers in RPGs. Numbers always break the immersion for me. I like the way stats are presented in San Andreas. 

 

And I don't like banks to be like "level 100". They could basically all have unique security and characteristics and weaknesses to exploit different from one another. 

Edited January 2, 2019 by TheSantader25

[Mister Pink]

Well, when writing text, how do I express a bar that's 1 quarter full? It's easier to say 25 our of 100. The numerical value is easier to digest than explain a visual. And I'm with you. I prefer seeing a visual representation than a numerical value, lol. But that's all besides the point. 

[TheSantader25]

Just now, Mister Pinkerton said:

Well, when writing text, how do I express a bar that's 1 quarter full? It's easier to say 25 our of 100. The numerical value is easier to digest than explain a visual. And I'm with you. I prefer seeing a visual representation than a numerical value, lol. But that's all besides the point. 

Well technically a "bar" is a number as well. I just like the representation of a bar better. This way it gives you the illusion that progress happens gradually and it doesn't "jump".