What if GTA Vice City was online...

[taurusnipple]

...how would it work?

Thats the topic of discussion here. Since I've been playing it recently on the xbox how would the series translate to the online world? I'm talking about next generation consoles here. Surley Rockstar are doing something in this realm, but this forum is full of creative minds, so lets do some work for them.

IMO it would be very hard. I can just see a city in total chaos, with a neverending stream of violence, confusion & explosions. How could you give balance to such a world? Would players be able to assume roles of police officers? Attain ranks? Would players form their own gangs? Would mission objectives be possible online? I could see it as potentialy being a frustrating experiance. Imagine going about your buisness - on a mission perhaps, then out of nowhere your hit by a car and it's back to square one. Maybe it would just boil down to choosing a career, become a criminal or part of the law enforcement team. A lot of negative points there, but the possibility of grander things is promising. Flip side of the coin, seeing cops vs the criminals in street warfare impresses. The player co-operation would delight coming up with tactics etc. I'd imagine a sense of accomplishment upon defeating crime bosses and the like.

With such a great frame as GTA, building an online universe with it could be the next big thing.

[Zed]

I think to make it stand out you'd need to get the whole feeling of GTA - namely crimebosses down to plebs.

Something like one player gets to be the Don (Chief ganja grower, Yakuza Bossman etc), then you have a heirachy of lieutenants down to grunts.

The grunts would go and do the dirty work, like car-jacking, respraying and taking to a holding lot. That generates cash, which the Don can then distribute as he sees fit. This could include say building brothels for regular income; which would lead to other missions, as they would need to be protected naturally, need pros to work there, take down rival brothels and so on. He could also just hand out cash, or maybe players keep 20% of what they earn, so that grunts can buy guns and so on, though again the Don could buy an armoury and pay upkeep to keep it stocked. If a Don died, then the next ranking henchman would take over, but with say a loss of cash so it would be worthwhile protecting your Don, but with limited manpower youd still need to send others out to "work".

Within their zone of control the Don and Lieutenants could have a wider-scale map, which would show non-aligned gang members, which means a defence could be organised against invasions. In turn it would give relative safe zones, and borders which would fluctuate depending on power (maybe businesses owned?). This should cut down on too much chaos, and give more structure to players.

Additionally you could have a Police Force, they might have a budget, so attacking them constantly would give less resources, until say a certain limit was hit, when the Police side might get free tanks till the crime rate falls below a certain level.

I hope that made sense... so overall you would have evolving gangs, which need to build capital, but the balance would be the cost of gang warfare, bribing cops, trying to take out opposing Dons, balancing where your forces go and so on.

You would get all the basic gameplay of GTA, but with higher strategic and tactical problems if you wanted also.

[Fragmaster]

There is a mod being made IIRC, Multi Theft Auto, I remember playing an early beta and it was certainly getting somewhere.

[srgbilco]

I was thinking about this as well. First, you have to be able seperate people who want to go crazy and those who want to get stuff done. Maybe with an option PvP combat or seperate servers? And those in a certain level (or time played or some other measure of experiance) bracket could only attack those in the same bracket, so some bastards wouldn't be able to go to town on n00bs.

Gangs would also be a good idea and Zed's system is pretty good. To add to that, I would have individuals who could formulate plans and act them out, such as Deniro in Heat. Say I wanted to rob a bank. I could buy plans to the bank and some C4, allowing me to blow open the safe. Then I would forumlate a plan, similar to the planning stage in the original Rainbow Six. I would then advertise for drivers and shooters, giving a certain fee, details of the mission and armaments, as well as the required experiance.

Drivers and shooters would have to take on various licenses, like in Gran Tourismo, and would then be graded on their abilities. So I might advertise for 3 grade B drivers and 2 grade A shooters. Give them a choice of armaments, also paid for by the lone head honcho. Then perform the mission. If it was successful, pay everyone and keep more of the money for yourself, covering costs plus a bit extra. So experianced and rich players who didn't want the gang structure could set-up these heists and other players could do them like missions, making money.

My plan would be to have a van crash through the glass windows of the bank, everyone gets out and starts shooting. 2 shooters make for the safe while the 3rd shooter covers them. Blow the doors, get the money and radio the 3 drivers waiting in fast cars just around the corner. Cars drive up, shooters get in, then it's a mad dash to the hideout while the cops chase you.

[Tobal]

here you go...

http://www.mtavc.com/

[taurusnipple]

I honestly didn't know about MTA. That is some accomplishment, hats of to them. I was worried it just boiled down to standard CTF matches or something but I checked out their forum and the things going on there amaze. Well done. Won't be able to play it though, don't have BB.

I was thinking along the exact same lines as you srgbilco regarding the movie Heat. Thats what I wasnt to see in online GTA. You guys came up with some great ideas, shame actions have already been taken to take GTA online! Kinda shot down the disscusion, too bad. Hope you all check that site out and get sorted with online play, has to be special.

[Ian(not Ian)]

Think 'Sharks and Jets'.
If that deosn't make sense think 'Gangs of New York'.