GTA LONDON - How it could be done by converting and overhauling a Midtown Madness 2 map

[Undertaker555]

Well, sorry for that clickbaity title, but I had to get your attention 

 

 

Just a quick disclaimer: 

 

This whole thread is not me announcing something, or requesting something in any way.

It is just, that I have this idea, and try to bring it to you, and maybe inspire someone talented.

I am sadly not experienced in any way of modding.

There exist threads in some places, 10-15 years old, and nothing came out of it, because the replies stopped and the thread was forgotten.

And of course: MM2 = Midtown Madness 2

 

 

 

So, I will try to make it quick:

There was an Windows 98-XP era game, called "Midtown Madness: Chicago Edition", and there was a sequel, called "Midtown Madness 2".

First one obviously included a scaled map of Chicago, and the second included London and San Francisco.

 

While San Francisco is not much interesting for GTA (because San Fierro is superior), the two other maps, Chicago and London are highly interesting, in my opinion.

 

Now you could say, that these are some useless, old Windows games, with horrible graphics and small maps.

It is true, but there is more than that. If you played these games back then, or even try now, you will realize, that they are great maps, and offer really much potential for something great. They all have that comfy, addicting feeling to them, that San Andreas, Vice City, or Liberty City also have.

For the sake of this thread, let's forget about Chicago and San Francisco for now, because especially the GTA London would be something interesting.

Chicago is just another US city, so I am not sure about that one.

I think the community is desperate for London. I see GTA V mods with replaced cars called "GTA London". Not even left-side traffic!

There is potential in a London map, and a MM2 map conversion could be a kick-starter to that, if that is possible. I want to believe! 

 

 

The London map:

 

Don't be shocked when you see the map. Without mods, it looks far worse than it is. If you use HD Textures on MM2, it looks much more motivating. Textures make a HUGE difference, trust me.

The map is also by far superior to the "Grand Theft Auto: London 1969" map by R*, and offers full 3D modelling.

The map features a scaled version of London, which includes a subway system around the city, main locations of London, and 4 areas of the city: Kensington, Westminster, South Bank, Soho and "The City".

The whole map is containing a few secret locations, but concentrated a bit too much on the road factor. There would be a bit tweaking needed, and needs additional yards, which can be entered by foot.

 

I imagine a GTA London mod, in which the MM2 London would be converted into GTA:SA, and would get completely new textures for buildings, some new props, objects, left side-traffic vehicles, working subway.

But this map itself is much too "touristy", because it only shows the tourist areas of London. So it would need a kind of additional gangster neighborhood in the north-east, where community-owned blocks are, in which the gangs are active, early 2000's Corsa's, Mercedes Sprinters parked everywhere, mopeds, drugs, graffiti, and of course: Gang-wars about dominance in the neighborhood.

This is the only area which would be needed to create from scratch, but I think a red-brick texture on some basic blocks and a basic structure of such an neighborhood at Google Maps would be fine, in my opinion  

 

 

The story and environment:

 

The map also would need some kind of new models, which already exist in GTA modding: UK gangster characters (African, Caribbean, South American, Asian, European)

The radio could be UK Grime Radio channels, and possibly a simple set of missions. Kind of the story "Rich white guy becomes criminal", or "Caribbean youngster gets wrong friends").

Of course, the main goal is the map, and then the story could be a bonus, because it is too much work, and needs too much coding, I think.

Weather would need to be adjusted to much more rain, fog and storm.

Cars (Corsa, Sprinter, Citaro, Arctos, Subway Train, etc.) would be easy to find, as all of them already exist on MM2 or GTA mod sites.

If that setting is not interesting: Alternatively of course, the setting of R* "Grand Theft Auto: London 1969" could be used.

 

 

Engine:

 

I kind of would suggest GTA:SA, because it runs on most devices.

More reasons are, that there was once a really active, huge community for MM2, which created tools to easily bring GTA:SA content to MM2, and even maps from other R* games, such as New York from Midnight Club. Some of the main modders there are still active, as far as I know, and possibly know a lot about maps and conversions.

 

Just because it would be done on GTA:SA, wouldn't mean that there can't follow a RAGE version one day, too.

 

 

 

Conclusion:

 

I think we need to try this way, and find out if that would be possible.

All Forum posts on Google led to nothing, without a real explanation on why it is not possible.

And even if it was not possible 15 years ago, the tools changed, more variety and possibilities in modding. So maybe there is a way to import this London map quickly into GTA:SA as a basis for something bigger?

 

As I said, I can't offer much, except maybe inspiration.

I am not a talented modder, and I am not even from London or the UK.

All I can offer is some basic tasks and possibly contact some of the MM2 modding community, and ask if they have some info about MM2 map conversions.

If this is a bad idea, nobody interested, or impossible to do, it is sad, but I will just let this idea go down the Forums.

Then sorry for wasting your time, but I thought it was worth a try! 

Edited March 12 by Undertaker555

[Undertaker555]

https://forum.xentax.com/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=9977

Going to try this soon, but I don't expect anything to happen, as I have no f*kn clue what I am doing.

I will try it with the "Bus City 2.0" version of it, because it has some nice bus stops and public areas added which could become very handy in many scenarios.

 

More about the map itself.

https://midtownmadness2.fandom.com/wiki/London

 

 

As I said, don't expect anything, because this is my first contact to modding anything bigger than changing a texture, changing some script or something like that, even though I had modelled some basic 3D things in SketchUp many years ago.

If something will ever come out of this I will post it here.

Edited March 12 by Undertaker555