Nutz

Wow! That gives me some hope that all weapons will be available to mods too, so we don't have to rely on the MTA team's judgment of what weapons are "too dangerous". Maybe they'll even leave weapon.dat alone. It will be refreshing to have guns that actually kill players instead of the sanitized cartoon damage of 0.5. That's the most encouraging thing I have heard from MTA since 0.3 came out.

It's great to see that swift progress, and even better to see the Hydra missles synced! But don't get your hopes up for that being in the released version. After all they took the spaz out of VC because it was too big bad and scary. We can't have any weapons that actually inflict damage Actually it's really hard to hit something moving in 3d space. Even if heat seeking is somehow synced it should be fairly hard to get a hit with someone who is trying to evade/fight.

The Andromeda is the large four engine jet modeled after the Lockheed C-5. It is the plane you jump out of in one of the missions. It isn't flyable in game normally but you can spawn one with cheat devices or pc mods. The vehicle model is oddly 1:2 scale so it appears roughly the same width and length as the AT-400. Unlike the AT-400 you can enter it from ground level. As for flying the hydra, I strongly recommend a gamepad with analog sticks. Your laptop probably has numpad keys overlaying regular keys accessible with function+numlock.

I've been playing SA on pc for a few days now and I am in love with the Hydra. Not only does it go fast and have weapons but it is incredibly fun to fly. I would like to see a game mode like this: Spawn 30 Hydras (15 at Las Venturas airport and 15 at Los Santos Airport) Spawn 2 Andromedas (one at each airport) Spawn some choppers and cars at a central "spectators" spawn. The Hydras would have a fuel meter and when the fuel runs out the engines cut out (just like when you reach maximum altitude). You can refuel them by flying close to an andromeda. It should take 15 seconds or so to fully fuel a Hydra. The Andromedas would not have a fuel meter. There would be refueling areas in each airport for ground refueling. An area one mile north and south of the landmass would be a "safe" area where anyone who shoots down an Andromeda dies or gets kicked. You could still shoot down hydras anywhere without penalty. The gameplay could be either team objective or deathmatch. try to shoot down as many opponent Hydras as possible without dying yourself. No parachutes! An alternate team objective mode would be escorting one of the Andromedas (or an AT-400) from a safe zone out in the ocean to a safe landing (or vice versa) Another twist would be to substitute Rustlers and Nevadas for the Hydras and Andromedas. Can you imagine a 30 player dogfight? That would be crazy fun!

Please don't limit the play area. Leave it up to server admins to set any limits (or none). One of the unique thins about gtasa is the huge map and immersive environment. Please don't ruin that with artificial limitations. If you want to put all the cars/weapons/spawns in one area fine but don't limit movement. Especially now that we have vast skies and oceans to work with. In particular, anything involving airplanes will greatly suffer from limited play areas.

I've played it on pc and the controls are different than previous versions. It diddn't take long to find a controller set up that works well though. Actually now that I have the controls sorted out it I like it much better than the previous versions.

I noticed the altimiter is still reading in tenths of a meter without a decimal point. Not a big deal (it's great to have it regardless of the units) but it should be easy to fix. Same with feet.

Ok, I think we misunderstood each other. I am not proposing disabling crc checks. That would be very bad. I'm proposing having the client decide wether "mta" cooked weapon.dat or the Rockstar weapon.dat based upon a server configuration option. I think versions 0.3 and before used the Rockstar version and only in version 0.4 did mta start using their own. Any modifications to either of those files would not be permitted.

That comment is totally out of line. I assume you would not want classic game mode on your server but don't try to equate an UNmodified weapon.dat with cheating. If it were possible for an official release to be considered cheating it would be by using weapon.mta (which turns down damage!) not the other way around!

But that is a slippery slope. We've been through this many times before. Fix one glitch and you make one group happy and another pissed off. MrBump's reference to massive warping makes me wonder if this is being optimized for dialup. When we play in 0.3, people are switch glitching, jumping and probably crouching all over the place and I don't see any significant warping. I never have to guess where they are unless they are on dialup and/or have a high ping. The exception is when they get knocked down and keep running until they snap back to the position they fell at. We are all used to dealing with that. If you're going to make a classic game mode, make it just like 0.3, don't try to fix any glitches or one group or another will complain.

Just to be clear, I'm NOT advocating making it like Single Player, as in the way the weapons affect npc's. All I am asking for is an option to have the same gameplay (damage and glitches) as 0.3, but with the improved stability, aiming and other features of 0.5.x. I'm not surprised that there are different opions amongst the team, as there certainly are among the players. While you were out there were some very heated debates about which glitches to fix/not fix and what the damage should be for various weapons. Even discussion about what weapons to include (spaz). I would like to see a "classic deathmatch" game mode that is like 0.3 (but with the improvements in stability and aiming) and a new deathmatch game mode using the gta3 style weapon spawn/purchase system and any balancing/glitch fixes that work. That way everyone could be happy and no more arguments over glitches and damage.

The single player game yes. If people want everything as close to single player as possible then we would of course have to give you, the player, similar hitpoints to an NPC to reflect this, meaning 2 colt 45 shots would kill you. MTA Instagib anyone? What some of us would like is weapon.dat to remain unchanged, just like in 0.3. How hard would it be to have a server side option to choose between original and balanced?

The problem is that there will never be an agreement on what to do with weapon.dat. Not even close. That's why I am suggesting a server side option for two possibilities: "original" and "balanced". "Original" is an obvious choice as it is the way the game was meant to be played. "Balanced" could be some attempt at balancing and or deglitching weapons for those who want that.

Which do you prefer, original or modified weapon.dat? If you want to see a survey, go look at ASE throughout the day. There has been a dramatic drop in players on US servers while 0.4-0.5 has been out, and much less of a drop in Europe (maybe even a slight increase). Obviously a generalization that doesn't apply to everyone but that doesn't mean we should ignore the obvious reigonal differences in what players want.

Ok, first you say take the stubby out, then you say make it like 0.3. There is no question that the most powerful weapon in 0.3 is the stubby, and without it there wouldn't be much point in going back to 0.3. My point is I like weapon.dat the way it is in single player, where you shoot someone once or twice and they DIE. Maybe this is a cultural difference. Many European players seem to prefer their weapon.dat wattered down or "balanced" while many American players prefer it at full power the way R* intended it to be (and without any other tinkering to "fix" glitches). Could we have a server side option for original, completely unmodified weapon.dat and "balanced, deglitched" weapon.dat to better serve the reigonal needs of our players? That would be the simplest solution to the endless bickering over weapon strength and glitches. The server admin sets the weapon.dat mode (or maybe even pushes it to clients!) so those who want purity (0.3) can have it on the newest engine and those who want the tinkered version can have that.