San Andreas in-depth / IronMan - brainstorming

[Papayamamba]

Hi,

I always wanted to make GTA somewhat more deep and complex, not just a silly game to do silly stuff. I came up with a number of features to give more depth to the gameplay.

 

I know I know, many of you will think these things are a stretch and would make the game too hard, but I think playing and completing the game with these rules would be insanely more rewarding and joyful and progressing and getting better and further would make you proud, because you needed to THINK and PLAN ahead and develop strategies.

 

Let's see:

Crime and Law Enforcement:

Commiting crimes would have long lasting effect. Imagine a scenario where you hijack a dark-red PCR-600 in Dillimore in front of 3-4 pedestrians and you ride away. Now, in that area police would be looking for you in the coming days. How you looked (clothes, hair, tattoos) during the incident and the vehicle (type and colour) would be the things connecting you to the crime. This way, you would need to change your appareance often. The more serious the crime, the more lasting effect it would have. A murder in front of witnesses would have very dire consequences, with police snooping around the area for a much longer time, trying to hunt the perpetrator down. Save games or a simple car-repaint couldn't solve all your issues, as your wanted level would come back because of the notoriety system. Police would respond to given areas differently, i.e. in the ghetto they don't really care, while in a nice neighborhood they come after you.
Self defence would be ok.

Getting busted for a serious crime or getting killed would end your game (delete your saves).

Vehicle ownership, damage and repair:
Garages and pay and sprays wouldn't automatically repair your vehicle. Only mod shops could repair them, with a realistic approach to cost based on component and the level of damage. Stolen cars would be tracked by police based on their licence plates. Getting a new one would cost you money. Cars of CJs affiliates could be used without problem ofcourse (Sweets car, Ryder's car etc).

Weather effects:
Swimming with clothes on is not a good idea, especially during a rainstorm or in cold weather. You can survive it, but with a cost. Wearing wet clothes would result in a dramatic decrease in stamina. Wearing too thick clothing in the desert sun is also bad, with similiar consequences. To ease this burden, there could be pre-sets of clothing saved for each city: LS, SF (colder), LV (hotter), so saving game in these places would automatically change your clothes to the appropriate ones.

Notoriety:
Powerful people, gangs, groups you crossed over will want revenge. This could range from petty things - like replying negatively to a drug dealer and the next day some mark would come at you with a baseball bat - to more serious things, like gang drive-bys, hitmans, assasins coming after you as you progress in the game. These would be rare occurences, but it would spice up the game, and would create tension and suspense. (Imagine a mafia hitman waiting for you in one of your safehouses some time after the casino heist!) Remember, getting killed would delete all your saves.

Health:
Most of the time, dieing would kill your whole game by deleting your saves. There could be some exceptions though, like drowning, getting beaten, or hit by car in front of witnesses. In these cases there could be a chance that you end up in the hospital, with a bill to pay.

Misc stuff:
- You wouldn't be able to load a savegame a few ingame hours after particpating in gambling. Losing money would have an effect. Winning on the other hand, would be more rewarding.
- During CJ's exile period, all LS savehouses would be disabled.
- Illegal street racing would result in a two star police chase, with all the aforementioned consequences.

- More serious crimes commited during missions, like hunting down an FBI protected witness on mount Chilliad, or robbing a bank would result in weeks (game time) of area lockdown, with heavy police presence looking for the perpetrator.
- Gang wars would need a serious change because it would be impossible. I would shift area control more towards owning businesses and / or getting protection money from owners.
- Stupid missions, like Outrider (stupidest mission, seriously, like a bad placeholder) where you ride around in a city on a motorbike and firing rocketlaunchers on cars and buildings would need to be seriously changed.
- C.R.A.S.H. missions would result in no police response.


My question to modders:
- Which game would be the best platform to implement all these ideas? Classic SA or DE?
- Do you think all of these are doable, or is there any hardcoded stuff we can't change?