frank_grimes

Keep up the good work. I can't wait until it is released.

If you read my post carefully, I said it is possible that it might not be available for current generation hardware. Before you say someone isn't doing research, you should realize that they were not saying something was conveyed as a fact. GTA Liberty City stories never came out for the PC, even though it is obvious that it did not require a powerful system, so whether or not PCs can handle the game is irrelevant. What is important is whether or not Rockstar wants to port GTA IV to the PC. They haven't confirmed or denied anything, so we can't rule out them not supporting the PC as a possibility. Assuming that our current PCs have enough CPU, RAM, ect., I don't know many people who own Blue Ray or HDDVD drives for their computers. Unless the game is released on multiple DVDs, you have to realize the percentage of people who are going to buy the game without having to upgrade hardware is very low, and it would not make financial sense for them to do so. That is why I say there is a chance that it will not come out for PC, and I'll admit I should have been more specific with "current generation PCs" in my first post.

I figured people would assume that this would wait until Deathmatch is released.

I have never seen MTA on any site other than a link in Wikipedia and the interview on the home page. The site would for sure have links to GTA, so we can attract those who do not play GTA to MTA.

As Magus said, the reason we need a project like this is so more people know about MTA. To be completely honest, I found this site by accident. I have not ever came across a link to it on a gaming forum, so MTA really needs to be promoted better. The project would probably include a referral system, a discussion board to talk about spreading MTA/improving the project overall, possibly a news system, a section with posters, embeddable videos (so people can post MTA videos on their site, screenshots of MTA, and logos/links for people to put on their site (this would tie into the referral system). To be completely honest, I am not really a web guru. I was thinking if I threw an idea like this out there someone else, who has these kind of skills, would spearhead the project. If you guys were under the impression I was intending on being in charge of this, I am not. It is a project that I was hoping would get contributed to by many people in the MTA community. This being said, the feature set of the site really can't be determined by me. I think this project really should go in the direction that the community wants it to go on. Check this thread often because I might try using a CMS to come up with a basic idea of this project, so people can see the suggestion, instead of reading about it. I bet that using scripts available on places like Hotscripts we could get a project like this going with minimal effort. Also, I would be willing to donate my webspace and a subdomain to this project, if we have no idea where to host it. I will try out some software to see what software I think will work best and report back.

I agree that releasing something like this would have to wait until MTA:Deathmatch goes gold. However, something like this would require minimal amounts of planning. Better early than late, i think. For those who are voting without commenting, I want to know an explanation of your opinion and not just a vote on a poll. That would be much more valuable if this is ever considered. Although votes give a general idea on whether something is supported or not, they do not give suggestions on way to improve the idea, or why the idea should not be considered at all.

If you ask me, Dell and MAC are both terrible choices when it comes to getting a new computer. Dell messed up on my computer that I ordered from them. The computer had a full gigabyte of RAM missing. I had to wait about 3 months for it to come in to the PC store I bought it from. I have never owned a MAC. However, MAC OS is really nothing to brag about. Apple may claim it is better because of security. However, you can barley play any games on it. Apple hardware is also extremely expensive. My friend bought a MAC with specs very similar to the computer I own. It cost him slightly more for his company than mine, and he bought it a year later. Building your computer is the best way to go. You have the exact specs that you want. Also, you don't have to pay another company labor to build the computer. The only problem is the lack of any warranty. This is not a problem for me because I always make sure to get good cases and use water cooling (I have fried a CPU from a bad case, and I've learned my lesson). The operating system won't cost you more than one from a company because you can get an OEM version if you buy computer parts along with it.

Why are you really interested in getting a higher rank? I think that getting a good reputation on forums by posting quality posts on forums is far better than making posts that don't really answer a question or give your opinion on something. Basically, your post count means nothing if the posts were no good. As far as post count goes, I think the KB posted is more important than post count because it shows how much information you actually posted instead of the number of posts.

I really would like to hear any thoughts you have on this. I think the more users that build upon this idea the more success it will have.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I think that Multi Theft Auto has not been promoted as much as it can and should be. What I am suggesting is something similar to Spread Firefox. I am suggesting that either a section of this site, or an external site should be dedicated to spreading Multi Theft Auto and giving others the resources to do so. This could spread interest in MTA, which would be good for everyone playing because servers could be more active. It also would bring new people who could make scripts for servers and possible servers. I think that a project like this should be ran by a Spread MTA team (trusted members of the forums/game/IRC appointed by the developers, of course) and not the developers because the developers already do so much for the community.

The Multi Theft Auto team could always decide to improve San Andreas if GTA IV really does have good multiplayer. If you look at the features that they have already implemented that no one really thought of before (things like resources) I am sure that even after Deathmatch is released they could still find a way to make it an even better modification (even though it is already way above any other attempts for multiplayer in GTA that I have seen). You bring up a good point, though.

I agree that Rockstar multiplayer would be completely different to the point where I rather use something Multi Theft Auto. However, I think that the MTA team would have a whole new challenge ahead of them if GTA IV comes to the PC and they decide to work on it. I have heard that things aren't scripted anymore and are randomly generated. I am not quite sure if they could ever sync randomly generated events from everyone's client. If there is no Multi Theft Auto:IV there will be no Frank Grimes playing GTA IV online.

Today I have read a news article that Microsoft is going to stop selling Windows XP. Retiring an operating system that has been replaced might not seem like a bad idea. However, it is a terrible idea. Vista is not the kind of operating system I would want for my computer. Especially with current generation hardware. Vista slows down a computer and has a much higher video requirement than its XP counterpart. My friend told me that Vista is incredibly slow on a decent computer. Vista is not even worth upgrading to. I don't see why anyone would pay up to $400 for something that is basically an XP upgrade. Vista probably will not be compatible for drivers on old devices (your printer and other stuff like that will not work, as well as some games). Even though XP will still be supported for a few years, you will not be able to get it on a PC. I would recommend buying a few copies of XP while it is still being sold. This goes for Server 2003 (if you are a system administrator/own a business in case they decide to put in some sort of "feature" that forces you to upgrade all the computers on the network) as well because I am sure that Longhorn Server is going to do something to mess up any networks. I personally think that Microsoft should have taken a solid product (XP) and made it better instead of making it worse. I will try to avoid Vista as long as I can. The full article about Microsoft discontinuing Windows XP can be found here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6551429.stm

I completely agree with you as far as GTA IV being put on the shelf after about a month. To be completely honest, I got bored with San Andreas after I beat single player a couple of times. Random rampages are only fun for so long. Multiplayer for GTA really extends the life of the product. Everyone who thinks GTA IV is going to replace MTA need to realize that it is impossible for graphics and new features could possibly replace game play that comes from the intelligence of humans versus artificial intelligence. I also can't believe that Rockstar is going to remove flying vehicles from the game. Everybody knows that planes as a major form of transport (yes, I know that Vice City had helicopters and the DoDo) are one of the things that set San Andreas apart.

What really is the point of calculating PI to the one millionth digit? I don't even need to know any of PI. All you have to do is hit the button on the calculator, and you are good to go.

Would it really be so hard to write down the commands or something. It really is not that hard to read them off of a piece of paper. Also, if your server is down a lot is it hosted by that person or is it in a datacenter. If it is in a datacenter, I am surprised there is enough downtime to create the need for a backup server.

The fact that there is no deathmatch has to be the reason for all of the unpopulated servers. When I really think about it, race mod is fun but the only reason I play is because I found this project on my own. I think once people start playing deathmatch they are going to tell their friends and that will bring new people into MTA servers.

I know that everyone is excited about Multi Theft Auto:Deathmatch, myself included. I know that everyone just wants to either be a part of the beta and rush development. However, there is something that you should realize about Betas, Alphas, and everything in between. These releases of the game can be extremely unstable. Features also do not work as expected. The software is also prone to crashing. If you look at SA-MP you can see that they believe in releasing pre-final software. Most of the servers have terrible syncing, plenty of cheaters, and plenty of crashes. I rather wait for the game to be good and stable before I start playing it. The only benefit to having open betas and such would be user error reporting. The only thing that the SA-MP team did that is a good idea is adding a feature that allows you to report crashes, so their team can work on it. If such a feature could be implemented, a public beta could speed up getting the game ready for release. I just do not want everyone complaining at the developers that the product is not ready for release, so if the game is not released until it is perfect, no one will be able to complain when they start playing it.

Maybe such an idea would be possible using the new resource system. Unless I am confused about how resources work, songs could be loaded from an external location. This would save bandwidth for the server its self. Even if this could work, I still see one problem with this. Almost all the music that people want to listen to is copyrighted. Therefore, a server admin could be sued for using such a feature.

How exactly would making a modification like SA-MP be cooler than the things that the developers are planning. SA-MP is one of the buggiest pieces of software I have ever used. Not only that, but there are constant problems with cheaters. The syncing of players is also horrible. You could riddle 50 bullets into a person and they could shoot you 10 times, and you would be the one who has no health. Also, Multi Theft Auto:Deathmatch is going to have features that Rockstar should have released on their own. The resource system will allow server admins to offer even more customization to vehicles. I have played SA-MP .2 Beta over this weekend, and it was not that good. They slightly improved on syncing (MTA is way ahead of them for the record). They also added things like trains (I am pretty sure MTA has that). I also believe that MTA's LUA Scripting Language is far more powerful than SA-MP's PAWN Scripting Language. Why would you want the MTA team to release an inferior product anyway. If you want MTA to be like the inferior SA-MP, play SA-MP and allow us to enjoy the features that the MTA team is busy adding and perfecting.

I think this is not really something that should be suggested for the developers to implement. This seems like something that could be accomplished with the LUA scripting language that is going to be built into Multi Theft Auto Deathmatch. We really don't want the developers adding features that aren't going to make the game that much better and will only give them more bugs to work on and push the release date of the mod later and later. Not only that, but some server admins probably would not want a feature like this to come standard with their servers anyway.

Have you checked all of the Multi Theft Auto:Race servers? For some reason or another, a lot of servers have no people. You have to look and find a server that is populated. It shouldn't be that hard. I bet when Deathmatch comes out more people will be playing.

I love pay almost as much as I love April Fool's Day !

Personally, I am going to stick with Multi Theft Auto when Grand Theft Auto 4 comes out. I do not plan on buying a Playstation 3 because I can't afford it and to be quite honest, I don't really want one. It is possible that Grand Theft Auto 4 will not be available for current generation PC hardware, so I would not be able to use it. I am sure there are others that will not be able to upgrade just to get GTA 4, if it even comes out for the PC at all. MTA has also added features to the game other than multiplayer that really are something, such as the new resource system. Another benefit to MTA verses Grand Theft Auto 4 played online is scripting. MTA allows server administrators to create a unique gameplay mode for their users. I do not think that any game for the Playstation will ever be able to boast such a thing. Not only that, but I think that people forget to realize that MTA is not ran by a company. It is ran by people who have other jobs. I don't think it's fair to ask them to spend every waking moment developing a game that they give you for free, especially considering many users are never satisfied. Also, people WILL support MTA after deathmatch is released. I couldn't just ignore it after all the videos I have seen. I think everyone else who is going to stick with MTA should post a reply here to show the developers some support.

The scripting system used in SA-MP is far different from the scripting language that will be used in Multi Theft Auto Deathmatch. Multi Theft Auto is using the LUA scripting language and SA-MP is using a PAWN scripting language. Even if the scripting language was the same, deathmatch is not released yet, so it would not work.