The Map Size

[Guest]

The map size for San Andreas is very huge so I was wondering, will San Andreas be cut into chunks or will you keep all three cities for everyone to roam in? And if all three cities were kept, would the amount of players per server be raised, because it would be hard to have very many people in one area if there were onlyl 26.

[darkdreamingdan]

It'd probably be up to the gamemode you apply.

What i'd love to see would be like having it split into sections, and when you leave one section you join another server, with it somehow being linked, it'd be awsome

[=TmM= DuffBeer]

Yeah, probably like how GTA3 is. Quite like Talidan's idea though.

[robbiemcm]

If it is cut up into little chunks by the MTA team, a mod should be made to get you the full map, because that would probably work fine on LAN would it not? I wouldn't want to be restricted to a tiny area whilst playing over the network.

[DominionSpy]

If it is cut up into little chunks by the MTA team, a mod should be made to get you the full map, because that would probably work fine on LAN would it not? I wouldn't want to be restricted to a tiny area whilst playing over the network.

The issue here is not the latency or lag, it doesn't matter whether you're on a LAN or the internet, the number of cars that can be placed on the map is limited. Even on one island there might be too much space to have a car within an easy running distance of anywhere.

[robbiemcm]

If it is cut up into little chunks by the MTA team, a mod should be made to get you the full map, because that would probably work fine on LAN would it not? I wouldn't want to be restricted to a tiny area whilst playing over the network.

The issue here is not the latency or lag, it doesn't matter whether you're on a LAN or the internet, the number of cars that can be placed on the map is limited. Even on one island there might be too much space to have a car within an easy running distance of anywhere.

I thought this problem was solved by generating the cars when you get close to them, that's why if you go too far away from you car it disappears?

[[GL]Rider]

How about....

Giving server admin the option of what Area of the map to run their servers on? So if you want to play in one area, you filter the search for A specific Area.. etc etc.. just my tuppenceworth

[Si|ent]

Personally I think a setup similar to 0.5's GTA3 support would be most suitable. For the initial deathmatch mod we shall probably design gameplay around an initial area, player spawns, vehicles etc, yet leave access to the rest of the map open. Players then have the option to explore should they so wish.

In our experience theres always the urge to wander the entire map. wether there are vehicles placed there or not (gta3mta0.3b, mtavc 0.1, dodo in mta0.4 portland, mta0.5 gta3)

[robbiemcm]

Well, whatever happens I'm sure the MTA team will do a good job and not lock everything away completely

[orappa]

The issue here is not the latency or lag, it doesn't matter whether you're on a LAN or the internet, the number of cars that can be placed on the map is limited. Even on one island there might be too much space to have a car within an easy running distance of anywhere.

I thought this problem was solved by generating the cars when you get close to them, that's why if you go too far away from you car it disappears?

That idea doesn't work in multiplayer though, as people can be dotted about the entire map whereas the player will only be in one place in single player.

[s0beit]

The issue here is not the latency or lag, it doesn't matter whether you're on a LAN or the internet, the number of cars that can be placed on the map is limited. Even on one island there might be too much space to have a car within an easy running distance of anywhere.

I thought this problem was solved by generating the cars when you get close to them, that's why if you go too far away from you car it disappears?

That idea doesn't work in multiplayer though, as people can be dotted about the entire map whereas the player will only be in one place in single player.

thats why there should be control client-side....nothing is said about the server....or all players in general.

there is a "your actor" number in the SCM...fix is so it works for only that actor, not everyone on the map.

[VCES>baby-g]

Personally I think a setup similar to 0.5's GTA3 support would be most suitable. For the initial deathmatch mod we shall probably design gameplay around an initial area, player spawns, vehicles etc, yet leave access to the rest of the map open. Players then have the option to explore should they so wish.

In our experience theres always the urge to wander the entire map. wether there are vehicles placed there or not (gta3mta0.3b, mtavc 0.1, dodo in mta0.4 portland, mta0.5 gta3)

yess, please do that lol, i posted basically that exact same suggestion a few times before, good to see thats what you think should be done too

[erorr404]

I agree, the map shouldn't be restricted. People should have the ability to wander off and go exploring wherever and as far as they want to. There's no advantage in limiting the playing area vs. leaving the map open, lag or stability-wise.

As MrBump suggested, all of the spawns/vehicles/pickups/etc should be put in a specific area, making it as large as possible while keeping the cars within walking distance of eachother. This way, it will be easier to find other players in the server as most will probably stick around the starting area. That's the best solution I can think of to the problem of SA's huge map size isolating players from eachother.

I don't know if this is possible, but it would also be a good idea to have the server be able to change spawn areas on the fly, while players are in the server, on request of an admin or player vote. How this would work is, the MTA team would divide San Andreas up into 15 or so areas (of course that number would depend on how large each spawn area can be and therefore how many vehicles the SA engine can hold at one time) covering the whole map of San Andreas, that can be changed from one to the other while players are in the game. For example, we have a server running SA with an initial spawn/vehicle/pickup area at Palomino Creek. Eventually the players get bored of that area and vote to change the spawn location to Downtown, San Fierro. when enough votes are cast, the server will change the location to Downtown, moving all of the spawn points, vehicles, and pickups to the new area whithout the server having to restart or the players having to exit the game. The pickups will simply disappear from Palimono Creek and re-appear in the newly selected spawn location. Vehicles will appear in the new location once they are blown up, or are idle (not being used) for a long enough period of time. Of course, it does not have to be a player vote that changes the spawn location. The admin might have the ability to do it, or better yet, servers might cycle through certain (chosen) spawn locations, changing them every 20 minutes or so. I think this would be great if it was possible, because it's the best way, if not the only way, to give players a taste of the whole state of San Andreas, rather than just small portions of it. Can it be done?

[DominionSpy]

I don't know if this is possible, but it would also be a good idea to have the server be able to change spawn areas on the fly, while players are in the server, on request of an admin or player vote. How this would work is, the MTA team would divide San Andreas up into 15 or so areas (of course that number would depend on how large each spawn area can be and therefore how many vehicles the SA engine can hold at one time) covering the whole map of San Andreas, that can be changed from one to the other while players are in the game. For example, we have a server running SA with an initial spawn/vehicle/pickup area at Palomino Creek. Eventually the players get bored of that area and vote to change the spawn location to Downtown, San Fierro. when enough votes are cast, the server will change the location to Downtown, moving all of the spawn points, vehicles, and pickups to the new area whithout the server having to restart or the players having to exit the game. The pickups will simply disappear from Palimono Creek and re-appear in the newly selected spawn location. Vehicles will appear in the new location once they are blown up, or are idle (not being used) for a long enough period of time. Of course, it does not have to be a player vote that changes the spawn location. The admin might have the ability to do it, or better yet, servers might cycle through certain (chosen) spawn locations, changing them every 20 minutes or so. I think this would be great if it was possible, because it's the best way, if not the only way, to give players a taste of the whole state of San Andreas, rather than just small portions of it. Can it be done?

That's really quite a good idea.

It reminds me a little of spawn wars - we maybe start at robber and then after 10-15 minutes we all go sailor, then go mexican and so on.

[][\][ikatee][\][]

Now this might sound n00bish cuzz i dont know much about this technical stuff,but we do get larger areas to go about are there gonna be servers that hold more than 26 people?

[robbiemcm]

Maybe there could be a simple file to edit that could allow you to have vehicles spawning like on single player gta, but it yeah.. it requires you do actually edit one of the files. This way people without the propper knowledge of whether this will make the server crash won't just be changing it in the server settings.

Could the map hold enough cars for say 2 people just running around (that's what I plan to do on LAN, so it would be great if it did work!).

[Nutz]

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.

[eXistence]

I'd say it should be divided. Because it's huge. Simple as that. It's hard enough to find people on Vice. Especially servers with few people. I like the idea of the whole map, but it'd be difficult.

[orappa]

I'd say it should be divided. Because it's huge. Simple as that. It's hard enough to find people on Vice. Especially servers with few people. I like the idea of the whole map, but it'd be difficult.

There are few players currently because they are put off by the limitations of the current core, in particular the lag. I would expect the player count to increase with the release of MTA:SA on the Blue core.

[robbiemcm]

I think the best idea I've heard so far is having a certain area where the cars spawn and such and then having an option to leave the map open or limit the playing area aswell. For example if you're finding eachother and trying to shoot eachother, you'll want it restricted. If you're having a big car race or something, you could leave it open.

I also like my idea up the top of this page if you only had two people, but I'm still not even sure if that would be possible.

[Guest]

Hmm...

There is a tool called "VC Limit Adjuster". It opens Vice City executable and you can edit building, vehicle and peds etc. limits with that prog. It is used in Vice City Deluxe mod because it has more buildings and stuff in it than in normal vice city. Maybe with a similar tool you could edit San Andreas' vehicle limits or sumthing... Just a suggestion though...

Maker's homepage: http://www.steve-m.com/

[eAi]

You'll be able to do the same thing that tool does through blue, without modifying any exes.

[Guest]

You'll be able to do the same thing that tool does through blue, without modifying any exes.

Ok... I just thought that it ain't possible directly 'cos the previous posts gave that kind of a picture that number of vehicles is limited and it ain't possible to place enough cars for larger area...

[eAi]

Thats the built in default. There are other limits of course, such as the graphics card and RAM. Each vehicle and ped takes up about 2KB.

[Guest]

Ok... And there will not be any peds in MTA:SA, so cars shouldn't be a problem ( )