Unlocked Map Glitch

[Rhoda]

I couldn't find anything about this searching, so I thought I'd share it here in the hope of maybe finding a solution and more importantly, means to replicate it. Unfortunately, I can't share proof, as I'm playing on the PS4 port of the game with trophy support, so it isn't the remastered edition.

 

I started up a new game recently for another 100% playthrough. What I usually do is halfway towards a starter save - I get what I usually can easily, and save the rest for later. I make use of missions to allow me to explore the map without police attention to gather collectables, such as ordering my homies to stay put during Los Sepulcros and by simply not going into the motel during Reuniting The Families. This allows me free reign to collect oysters, horseshoes and snapshots before leaving Los Santos. So, I start the game as normal, I do firefighter, taxi and pimping missions before even entering CJ's house for the first time. However, as I'm doing taxi fares I drive past the bridge near Santa Monica Beach and notice the barriers are missing. Traffic is freely moving between the countryside and Los Santos. It didn't even register at first because at this point I was nearing the end of the 50 and I just wanted to get it done. I returned afterwards and noticed again the barriers were missing. Confused, I drove over assuming it was a graphical glitch. It wasn't. I could drive right on over. I of course got the usual four stars, but I kept driving and realised that there were no barriers at all. I could join the freeway in the countryside and drive right on up to Las Venturas. I took this time to do the stadium mission, taking advantage of the situation. I won the Dune and drove it back. Again, no barriers blocked my return so I didn't have to worry about creative ways to get vehicles back into Los Santos. Police attention was the same, but in the Dune they can't really touch you and I easily out-maneuver Enforcers.

 

I assumed it was a one-off. I restarted the game and console completely, expecting the barriers to be back for some reason. They weren't, and they've been missing all the way through the first part of the Los Santos storyline. I'm currently saved before Reuniting The Families as I've forgotten an oyster and I want to take the time to look for it, but I digress. It's important to mention that I've input exactly two cheats so far, because I'm not too fussed about being a purist; both instances were the spawning of a jetpack. I input it once during the first cutscene where Tenpenny throws you out in Ballas territory, as this allows me access to food and clothing from the very start. It might be my autistic lizard brain but I like to have access to all the clothes and easy places to eat whilst I gallivant around the map doing what I want. I input it a second time in Ganton gym so I could get the otherwise hidden tattoos via interior heavens, as this is the version of the game which bars you from legitimately obtaining the San Fierro ink. However, I have done this on dozens of playthroughs and the barriers have remained in place as normal. It's possible that these two cheat inputs influenced the game somewhat, but it has never happened before and I don't know enough about these cheats to confidently say it has no effect. It might well have done, but I don't understand how when I've done this on almost every playthrough for years and never had early access to other islands before. I would have noticed sooner too, because I do go into the countryside for weapons at the very start of the game and I usually swim over by the very same bridge.

 

Sorry that this has been a bit of a word salad but it has been bugging me since starting the save. I've repeated the process (starting a new game, inputting the same cheats) but the barriers were present in that file, as I expected. So far I've experienced no negative effects. Somebody in the Discord (I forget who) said they had heard of this before and it might be related to the phone call glitch, but I played far enough in to receive the call from Sweet explaining things and that went through as normal. I said I couldn't really share proof because of the version I'm playing on, and I'm not entirely sure how to share saves via PS4, at least not in a way that allows people to poke around to see what's going on. I'm more than happy to do so if there's a reliable way of doing it, but I just wanted to share this in the hopes that somebody knows what I'm talking about because I think it's a great position to be in. Of course, the four stars remain but that's trivial.

[OrionSR]

1 hour ago, Rhoda said:

I'm playing on the PS4 port of the game with trophy support, so it isn't the remastered edition.

 

Check the update first: This info is probably a bit off target.

 

There is a bit of conflicting information, but this glitch sounds very similar to the Remastered 4-Star Property Glitch. On PS3, Xbox360/One and WinStore a special mission skip thread can be activated by spamming/holding the Sprint button on a new game start that has similar effects to the intro jetpack trick. The script doesn't really work right though, because the intro mission undoes most of what was unlocked when it goes through it's normal lock everything up routine. It could be that you are getting the full benefits of the skip script by using the jetpack cheat to avoid the undo process. However, I don't know how you'd trigger the script without skipping the intro and avoiding the chance to use the cheat.

 

The only script examples I have for PS4 are identical to PS2v2 scripts, and don't offer trophy support. I'm pretty sure this needs to be a scripted issue. I can see how the bytes of the barriers might get messed up but I don't see how all the disabled traffic nodes for bridges could possibly be enabled without a large set of deliberate codes - the same sort of codes included in that mission skip script that's been in all script versions since mobile.

 

If your glitch is associated with the mission skip script, then chances are it won't cause any trouble unless you see a later mission unlocked some place on the map; the scripts are written quite carefully. I'll take closer look at the PS3 scripts to see if I can predict any other glitches that might be associated with the barriers.

 

Can you get the property glitch to work? Does your barrier glitch have similar issues?  It could be that the timing of when you press the cheat keys is important. 

 

 

Edited April 12, 2021 by OrionSR

[OrionSR]

Update: So... the mission skip script doesn't enable traffic, the intro mission disables them, and that part is skipped when the jetpack trick is used - along with the stuff you were hoping to keep unlocked. The barriers won't be created, but if they were already active in the previously loaded save then they would probably remain up in a new save, probably with odd traffic behavior too. I'd expect the barriers to be down if they were down on a previous save or when creating a fresh save just after starting the game.

 

Fresh saves are recommended anyway unless you want to carry over girlfriend bonuses. Restart saves are missing the extinguishers in a couple of the fast food joints and sniper rifle on the hill overlooking the SF airport.

[Rhoda]

I tried the property glitch after reading that thread. Interestingly enough, I could get it to work the first time (sort of) but after 20 new games started, I couldn't get it to work again. When beginning in the alleyway, I paused and saw a green house icon and the trophy above the stadium along with the usual CJ icon but nothing else - my field of view was still obscured by the grey "fog" that indicates I've yet to explore the map. All subsequent attempts just showed the CJ icon.

 

Forget all that, I did a few more and noticed the time it took for icons wasn't consistent so I was wrong, I'm still getting what I would usually get from a fresh save.

 

[OrionSR]

The timing for the property glitch was really tricky on Xbox One until we learned that holding sprint was more reliable. I'm not sure if there's enough time to get the hold in for a restart save; plenty of time as the game loads for the first time on a fresh save though.

 

But I don't think the mission skip script needs to be invoked for the glitch at hand. I think the barrier status for the jetpack trick can be explained by the status of the previous save.

Edited April 12, 2021 by OrionSR

[Rhoda]

Yeah, I noticed the menu on that version looks markedly different to mine, which likely indicates a different version. That menu looks more like the mobile port menu, whereas mine has what I would call the "original" pause menu.

 

Previous saves might have something to do with it, as I suspected. However, I did save over my previous game (the save affected with the lack of barriers) after finding that dratted last oyster and tried the jetpack glitch on a new save just for a giggle. The barriers were back on that.

[DEALUX]

I have a different bug where I had the unlocked bridge at the start but now Catalina missions locked that specific bridge again and I'm kinda screwed on the tanker mission lol.