More aggressive traffic and weird spawning issues on 360 HDD version?

[t3h PeNgU1N oF d00m]

I'm replaying the Xbox 360 version of this, I can't play from disc because the disc drive is broken, so I am playing from hard drive. Vanilla version, unknown what patch if any it is using, all I know is I found this at work and they said I could keep it.

 

Now I've played the downloaded version from the hard drive way back in the day, and I know there was a bit of frame stutter here and there but I don't remember it being this bad. Its almost impossible to hold a 4+ star shootout for more than a few minutes because the amount of objects on screen drops the framerate significantly and your eyes start to strain trying to follow everything. Mandela effect? Or maybe this 360 is packed with dust and can't keep up. That's not the main reason behind this post though.

 

This is anecdotal and I'm drawing my comparisons to recent memories of playing the PC version. Maybe I'm completely wrong, but on the 360 HDD version the traffic AI is more aggressive, maybe a bit more dumb but in a fun way. Cars seem to accelerate and drive much faster compared to PC version. I'm still in Broker/Dukes/Bohan at this moment, can't compare the rest of LC yet but I've noticed this is most prominent in Dukes. I can walk around the smaller neighborhood streets and sometimes cars will fly through so insanely fast, like Plumbers Skyway traffic speed rates. Lot of fender benders and collisions too - I know GTA isn't renowned for its good drivers but they simply don't crash into each other this much on PC. Constant heavy braking and bumping into cars and pedestrians.

 

From what I understand this ties into the framerate somehow - if you're running a smooth framerate with little else to load and render, cars will spawn at a higher rate of speed. My game is struggling to keep up 99.99% of the time though and it still happens frequently. Not sure what to make of it.

 

Also NPC drivers seem to behave a bit differently when attacked while they are in their vehicle. You have the usual scenarios - they may cower in their car, exit and fight or run on foot, or they may flee by vehicle. Now I'm drawing my comparison to vanilla and TLaD X360 disc versions for this, because I used to always shoot at cars so I could engage them in chases and wait for them to crash or wipe out. I remember you could usually keep up with an enemy vehicle and it would be a chore to not be able to keep up with them - they were usually slow and would crash into every other thing so they didn't make it far. On 360HDD version, NPCs are significantly more adept and skilled at navigating the streets. They can keep full speed and calculate how to approach curbs and intersections without hitting something, and its a real struggle just to stay caught up to them. Also popping out a tire or two doesn't seem to make them spin out like in other versions. Drivers also reverse a lot quicker and are better at not hitting cars in the process. Absurdly good - once again this is all drawing comparisons to various memories and versions and I could be wrong, but I am certain this part is true. They're not perfect, but I don't remember the AI being this good.

 

This version also has a few glitches, some that have been mentioned by others before but this was my first time encountering them.

-Horn glitch, constant horn sound was playing in Bohan. Fixed by reloading last save.

-I can't think of the street name, but it runs at an angle through the sketchier business district in Dukes and has a subway track above it for the length of it, which I think is the cause of this next glitch. If I enter this area sometimes there will be numerous empty parked cars in the street and in various directions. Sometimes they will be in the opposing lane, or on the curb at a weird angle. It seems concentrated to this road and a few connector streets maybe - first time I've encountered this I think but like I said it probably relates to the rail line above.

-Weird spawning patterns. I know GTAIV has issues where you will encounter similar cars, but in Dukes I constantly encounter silver/gray Esperantos, usually with hipsters or Russian mob (I didn't know they spawned this far, maybe a different faction). They are almost always aggressive if bumped and will chase after you. I had a weird instance where two of these vehicles showed up, I don't think I hit them or anything, one sped up and slammed his brakes on right beside me, stepped out, yelled an insult, hopped back in, and sped off. Never seen that before. The other Esperanto tried to keep ramming me but he hit another person and that turned into a fight between them.

-Another weird spawning pattern is I'm encountering clusters of police cars, four at a time, they will spawn consecutively and one or two of the cars will drive somewhat aggressively but with no emergency lights, and the others behave normally. Seems like they don't use their horn or sirens but I could be wrong. I blocked one of them and usually they wail their siren as a horn but these don't seem to do that.

 

That's my scatterbrained manifesto, if you stuck through and read it all then I appreciate it. And I apologize if this is how the game is supposed to behave, but I've played since day one and something just feels different. I know the "fleeing driver" AI is different, miles better than what I remember playing, and really I kinda like this version better assuming I'm not crazy. I'm interested if anyone else has noticed these little variations in how the AI behaves between versions? I also will update this if I discover anything new worth including.

[Payne]

1 hour ago, t3h PeNgU1N oF d00m said:

Horn glitch, constant horn sound was playing in Bohan.

Weird post but this happened to me a lot in The lost and damned. Classics disc version.