GTA San Andreas Official Thread

2013-06-05 11:30:58 am

"nice to have you back, son" -Old Reece

As for the segment, its beautiful.

I'm not sure though if walking around an empty vehicle instead of getting in the passenger seat is faster in SA. Doesn't matter too much.

Uilnslcoap

2013-06-05 01:07:00 pm

F*ckin' sanity effects...

Hahaha, pushing Ryder down Grove Street with the firetruck was sooooooo rad.

Worn_Traveler

2013-06-05 02:06:35 pm

Formerly known as Skullboy

Nice firetruck strats. Glad to see you are working on this again.

Joshimuz

2013-06-05 05:09:05 pm

Ahaha, I love pushing that strat.
I've tried it a few times but I can't get it reliable in SS.
How often can you get it?

S.

Edit history:

S.: 2013-06-05 05:33:39 pm

2013-06-05 05:33:10 pm

With the firetruck I think I get it about 1/3 maybe 1/4.

But I'm not basing that off a big sample size.

sett3

2013-06-06 05:20:13 am

got him on the 5th try, also some cars like to spawn on that road, screwing up the attempt

hhallahh

2013-06-09 01:08:50 pm

I love YaBB 1G - SP1!

That firetruck bit was brilliant. I really hope someone delivers on this run now, given all this theory..

sett3

2013-06-14 11:47:48 am

damn, how i'm tired of that firetruck mission.. i became so unlucky with it, cant even pass level 10. so i think 2 segment will take a long time..

tduva

2013-07-11 09:22:38 am

Most are probably already aware of the Fender Ketchup strat I discovered:

(make left handbrake turns on the parking lot where you start/end the mission, right turns don't work)

I also compared the routes through Woozie's Casino:

(there doesn't seem to be much of a difference between them, although sliding is probably the slowest option)

S.

2013-07-11 10:40:55 am

Youtube Comments on the Woozie video

Patrick

Edit history:

Patrick: 2013-07-15 02:09:53 pm

Patrick: 2013-07-15 11:41:02 am

Patrick: 2013-07-15 11:38:14 am

Patrick: 2013-07-15 11:37:41 am

Patrick: 2013-07-15 11:36:59 am

2013-07-15 11:32:30 am

S.'s YT-comments are:

Quote:

If you jump earlier, you can jump further because you'll still have some sprint speed.
Interesting though.
Also, there's a way to sprint at the start. You spawn on top of some stairs, so you could get some more sprint if you stick slightly to the left as to not hit the ground floor. Not sure if it really helps.

I timed sliding with the shotgun and it is as fast as what S suggested. My tests are not perfect but very probably good enough, sliding is indeed not worth it even with the best weapons. Remember that sliding speeds differ depending on the weapon, S. > AK/M4 > minigun > spray can; S. is shotgun/sil.pistol/SMG of course. :-)

GJ finding that, Tduva. :-)
I am used to just shortly pressing space, but I feel to scare him it works better if you hold space a bit. It is really strange that those drifts only scare him when they are to the left.

I suggest trying this: On the straight part of the parking space, do ~30° turns to the left and straighten up, repeat; at the start use S to get more space to build up speed before the scare-o-meter appears. I am not sure whether this is faster though.

Trivia (feel free to skip)
What is even more strange and in addition funny is, that they let the actor record lines for when he is on fire, but forgot to tell the programmers to "code in" that that should push up the scare-o-meter ... It would be great if that worked, the idea came to me when the car was smoking black.
What makes this strat really great IMO is that CJ never actually gets told which Mafia he is from so it was all in vain. Good for him that it wasn't much work, anyways.

I am going to post some Heist mission stuff later, because of experience I will make no promises when. :-)

S.'s YT-comments are:
[quote]
If you jump earlier, you can jump further because you'll still have some sprint speed.
Interesting though.
Also, there's a way to sprint at the start. You spawn on top of some stairs, so you could get some more sprint if you stick slightly to the left as to not hit the ground floor. Not sure if it really helps.
[/quote]

I timed sliding with the shotgun and it is as fast as what S suggested. My tests are not perfect but very probably good enough, sliding is indeed not worth it even with the best weapons. Remember that sliding speeds differ depending on the weapon,  S. > AK/M4 > minigun > spray can; S. is shotgun/sil.pistol/SMG of course. :-)

GJ finding that, Tduva. :-)
I am used to just shortly pressing space, but I feel to scare him it works better if you hold space a bit. It is really strange that those drifts only scare him when they are to the left.

I suggest trying this: On the straight part of the parking space, do ~30° turns to the left and straighten up, repeat; at the start use S to get more space to build up speed before the scare-o-meter appears. I am not sure whether this is faster though.

Trivia (feel free to skip)
What is even more strange and in addition funny is, that they let the actor record lines for when he is on fire, but forgot to tell the programmers to "code in" that that should push up the scare-o-meter ... It would be great if that worked, the idea came to me when the car was smoking black.
What makes this strat really great IMO is that CJ never actually gets told which Mafia he is from so it was all in vain. Good for him that it wasn't much work, anyways.

I am going to post some Heist mission stuff later, because of experience I will make no promises when. :-)

tduva

Edit history:

tduva: 2013-07-17 03:11:15 pm

tduva: 2013-07-17 03:09:27 pm

tduva: 2013-07-15 07:41:29 pm

2013-07-15 07:40:06 pm

Quote from freakypaddy:

I suggest trying this: On the straight part of the parking space, do ~30° turns to the left and straighten up, repeat; at the start use S to get more space to build up speed before the scare-o-meter appears. I am not sure whether this is faster though.

Do you mean not doing whole turns but instead just doing a little slide to the left using the handbrake, so you can continue driving in the same direction and thus retain more speed? I already tried this on the street and the parking lot and I think it can be faster, but also more dangerous. If you don't accerlate enough or don't turn enough, you can loose time over the "full-turn" strat. It seems pretty tricky on the parking lot, there is not much room and of course on the street there's traffic again. But it could certainly be something for a segmented run where you want those extra seconds.

I just tried it again and quickly recorded one attempt, could probably be done better in route and execution:

Did you mean it like that? I had a little trouble on the parking lot so I did it on the street. Doing it in a narrow space certainly makes it easier to screw up. Another possible place to do it would be behind the long building towards the highway. There is a straight bit you could probably do it on. Or maybe even on the dirt beside the highway. Of course then you have the problem again to time it so that you return just when the marker appears, but doing it on the longer bit of the parking lot, that would be a consideration as well.

Edit:
I also tested out You've Had Your Chips a little bit more and wanted to post the strat I found for it that I think is relatively save and fast. It's probably not be very different from what othes have been already doing, but it might be different in some details. See the video description for some explanation.

[quote="freakypaddy"]I suggest trying this: On the straight part of the parking space, do ~30° turns to the left and straighten up, repeat; at the start use S to get more space to build up speed before the scare-o-meter appears. I am not sure whether this is faster though.[/quote]
Do you mean not doing whole turns but instead just doing a little slide to the left using the handbrake, so you can continue driving in the same direction and thus retain more speed? I already tried this on the street and the parking lot and I think it can be faster, but also more dangerous. If you don't accerlate enough or don't turn enough, you can loose time over the "full-turn" strat. It seems pretty tricky on the parking lot, there is not much room and of course on the street there's traffic again. But it could certainly be something for a segmented run where you want those extra seconds.

I just tried it again and quickly recorded one attempt, could probably be done better in route and execution:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUcYsdKRaRw

Did you mean it like that? I had a little trouble on the parking lot so I did it on the street. Doing it in a narrow space certainly makes it easier to screw up. Another possible place to do it would be behind the long building towards the highway. There is a straight bit you could probably do it on. Or maybe even on the dirt beside the highway. Of course then you have the problem again to time it so that you return just when the marker appears, but doing it on the longer bit of the parking lot, that would be a consideration as well.

Edit:
I also tested out You've Had Your Chips a little bit more and wanted to post the strat I found for it that I think is relatively save and fast. It's probably not be very different from what othes have been already doing, but it might be different in some details. See the video description for some explanation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvxM5l9wxBI

tduva

2013-07-20 11:49:39 am

Sorry for posting so much, but a bit more about You've Had Your Chips.

I already wrote in the description of the YouTube-Video I posted in the previous post, that I found out through testing that apparently the three guys outside (including the shotgun guy) spawn when you destroyed 3 machines and the car spawns when you destroyed 6 machines. (Josh: That's why you didn't have to worry at ESA that the shotgun guy would spawn when you ran away from the building, he would've have already spawned.) When I tested this or did that strat as shown in the video though, the shotgun guy always spawned.

Since he seems to sometimes spawn and sometimes not, I started testing to find out what causes that. First I thought it was where you stand while shooting the third machine, because he often didn't spawn while standing in the back of the warehouse, but that was misleading. It always worked when I tested it, but then suddenly it didn't anymore, so I thought about what might be done differently when standing back there.

Turns out, it apparently has nothing to do with where you stand. Again, the shotgun guy spawns when 3 machines are destroyed. But when you destroy the 3rd and 4th at the same time, he doesn't spawn. And since there are 3 machines at the back of the warehouse you can easily destroy together, you often shoot them when you are there. And if you destroyed 1 machine before and destroy 3 at once or destroyed 2 before and destroy 2 or 3 at once, he doesn't spawn.

I think the Mission Script has some kind of loop that checks if the machines received damage, counts up a variable if a machine was destroyed and then checks for stuff like spawning of the enemies, spawning the car and the mission end. If you destroy several machines at the same time (the same frame or something), it probably counts up several machines in the same loop and thus doesn't check the destroyed machine count for each machine. For example it might check "1,2,4,6,7,8,9" if you destroy both 3rd/4th and 5th/6th at the same time, so it skips 3 and 5 in this case, although afaik only skipping 3 is relevant to the mission.

I also looked at the Mission Script, but it's pretty complicated, so I don't really know how it works. Although it confirms some of what I found out through testing and gives at least some insight how it might work. If I identified the correct places in the code, it checks if "destroyedMachineCount == 3" before spawning the shotgun guy, whereas it checks if "destroyedMachineCount > 5" for spawning the car. (Unforunately the variables in the actual script are just numbers and don't have proper names.)

In the following video I demonstrate the strat and also show with satchel charges that it's not those specific generators in the back or the position in the warehouse.

And now for a bit of fun.. Wink

Sorry for posting so much, but a bit more about You've Had Your Chips.

I already wrote in the description of the [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvxM5l9wxBI]YouTube-Video[/url] I posted in the previous post, that I found out through testing that apparently the three guys outside (including the shotgun guy) spawn when you destroyed 3 machines and the car spawns when you destroyed 6 machines. (Josh: That's why you didn't have to worry at ESA that the shotgun guy would spawn when you ran away from the building, he would've have already spawned.) When I tested this or did that strat as shown in the video though, the shotgun guy always spawned.

Since he seems to sometimes spawn and sometimes not, I started testing to find out what causes that. First I thought it was where you stand while shooting the third machine, because he often didn't spawn while standing in the back of the warehouse, but that was misleading. It always worked when I tested it, but then suddenly it didn't anymore, so I thought about what might be done differently when standing back there.

Turns out, it apparently has nothing to do with where you stand. Again, the shotgun guy spawns when 3 machines are destroyed. But when you destroy the 3rd and 4th at the same time, he doesn't spawn. And since there are 3 machines at the back of the warehouse you can easily destroy together, you often shoot them when you are there. And if you destroyed 1 machine before and destroy 3 at once or destroyed 2 before and destroy 2 or 3 at once, he doesn't spawn.

I think the Mission Script has some kind of loop that checks if the machines received damage, counts up a variable if a machine was destroyed and then checks for stuff like spawning of the enemies, spawning the car and the mission end. If you destroy several machines at the same time (the same frame or something), it probably counts up several machines in the same loop and thus doesn't check the destroyed machine count for each machine. For example it might check "1,2,4,6,7,8,9" if you destroy both 3rd/4th and 5th/6th at the same time, so it skips 3 and 5 in this case, although afaik only skipping 3 is relevant to the mission.

I also looked at the Mission Script, but it's pretty complicated, so I don't really know how it works. Although it confirms some of what I found out through testing and gives at least some insight how it might work. If I identified the correct places in the code, it checks if "destroyedMachineCount == 3" before spawning the shotgun guy, whereas it checks if "destroyedMachineCount > 5" for spawning the car. (Unforunately the variables in the actual script are just numbers and don't have proper names.)

In the following video I demonstrate the strat and also show with satchel charges that it's not those specific generators in the back or the position in the warehouse.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-BcmcKGoB0

And now for a bit of fun.. ;)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TP0UlZqokMk

Patrick

Edit history:

Patrick: 2013-07-23 04:29:19 pm

Patrick: 2013-07-23 04:25:03 pm

Patrick: 2013-07-23 12:41:36 pm

Patrick: 2013-07-23 12:28:10 pm

Patrick: 2013-07-23 10:40:44 am

2013-07-23 10:36:51 am

:-)

Tduva, are you going to replace Nixixix? ;-) Keep going! thumbsup

ESA
If you wish to watch Josh's marathon run, click here.
Edit:The ?t=24h20m55s did not work for me when I tested it now, so you have to skip manually (24:20:55).

Congratulations for your new WR, Josh. :-)

My posts are not intended to be read once at whatever time, but part by part when doing the mission in practice runs. E.g. read line one, do it, read line two, do it, etc. You have two screens and a pause button, so it should be easy to do. After doing that a few practice runs long you have all the details in your memory. That's why I have no problem submitting a huge text after the marathon.

Chips:
:-O This looks cool. :-D Really runny.
You can display these notes (tduva's strat) on the second screen if interested in learning the details:
G=Guy
M=Machine
shooting order:
Car
GLeft (guy on the left)
G&MRight
GUp
MDown
other guys up there
place you shoot the next rockets from: next to second shelf
2 M at once (else shotgunner)
now the rest
run out right to the shelf and then watch out for car
Would be great if someone knows how to display arbitrary text ingame, would be more comfortable than on a second screen (although it has to be set up first).

Fender Ketchup:
Yes, that is how I meant it.
I got 41s as well. :-) vs 45s (your strat).
Optimized it might take 35s or so, in SS 40 should be average ~~Edit:very optimistic^^, with practice it should be 40 but without...~~. It is not much time saved but the problems with the new strat are not that big:
timing: plan to get 80% on the strip and 20% doing 180s on the parking space. If you manage to get 90%, it is still fine.
risk of failure: as you are drifting all the time, crashes won't be fatal
traffic in the way: tested at night (04:00), tbh. Sometimes the highway is nearly empty, other times the traffic is bad and can interrupt you a little. But that is not too bad, when the traffic is in the way you can use that to accelerate and then drift with higher frequency afterwards.

I feel that the strip is the best location: driving on the dirt requires crashing through a fence first (not sure, correct me^^) and is less friendly to drive on, behind the building and in the parking lot are too short.

I tested the difference between traffic density at night- and day time by standing next to a rural road and counting the passing cars (listening to a podcast). There is a difference: There is roughly 30% less traffic at 18-08 than at 08-18. So I timed how long an extra save (in order to get past 'rush hour') costs: a bit less than 4s.
raw data:
time cars/hour
0-8 26 20 24 25 20 26 12 24

8-18 37 32 30 29 34 30 27 37 28 30

18-22 23 25 22 18

100% stuff:

Heist
Architectural Espionage: -

Key to Her Heart:
You can stand in front of the sex shop in advance, it also does not even require precise timing: if you stand at the entrance, she is near you for <3s until the cutscene.
The red marker is in front of the yellow 'entering marker' [so stand there]. Entering the latter before you are told to do so ends the mission.
Unfortunately, increasing shotgun skill while following her does not increase the firing rate [shooting range] - too bad, would have been a hilarious strat.

Killing her: 15 M4 bullets are enough, you must not get a wanted star because of the phone call, if there is police nearby, do it like MrGamerDerek, drive away into the dirt behind the houses. [I have not studied this in detail]

things I need to look into:
Standing in the right spot in advance at the end (requires timing): looks easy to-do.

Cop Wheels: MrGamerDerek's (macro-)route is good, I do not know whether you can save seconds by some adjustments to the micro-route.
Derek's 100% run CTRL+F to search the site for cop wheels.

Up Up:
Not sure, but afaik the 'full-of-soldiers-building' is 'cleared' when the 'gunships message' appears, (maybe even a bit earlier).
So you can jump down and collect the health&armor in it and the horseshoe during the mission.
After that you can collect the Oyster in the water (the heli can swim), the horse shoe right to the 'store cluster' and the oyster&horseshoe near the to-be-stolen van.

The trick to get infinite minigun ammo in 'Up, Up, and Away' by dieing with Katie as girlfriend while using it takes way too much time, unfortunately...

Breaking the Bank:
general:
No need for the goggles, it is not that dark.
slide in pretty much every part of the mission, only use the AK in the sections where you have to shoot people. Stopping the slide to change AK->fast
weapon never saves time, IIRC.
When leading the group, you are forced kill everyone. When alone, use common sense (health/armor high->slide with a fast weapon, else AK, ask yourself
'does keeping the armor for later make sense?')

'Put away the gun' lol, ok, you are required to switch to e.g. tear gas (not a weapon) 2m from the door you have to go to. Do not aim at anyone though.^^
opening the door: move the 'lifter' up before reaching it [the game 'thinks' it is enough that the 'lifter' is up and moving upwards when at the door]
take care not to aim at the guard in front of the 'gas throwing place'.
We will see how fast you are. If you are very fast, it might be worth it to attach the satchels to the power things early, then when you are told to do so you just have to run up one level and trigger the explosion (it is not the remote control range but a bug that keeps you from destroying the power things without moving upstairs at all).
Keep the explosion damage in mind, keep distance before triggering it (one level (3m) is not keeping distance)
Keep in mind that sliding makes aiming harder (take longer) and you can only shoot in the direction you are going, so Pistol > AK sliding for some places (unfortunately m-smg is replaced with smg).
Will Smith does not need to open the parachute (well, in the Superman section of the mission at least).
After the mission you will be teleported to the casino.

Edit: I feel that giving credit is important, so I clarified in that part that the Chips strat notes are from tduva's video, nothing new from me.

:-)

Tduva, are you going to replace Nixixix? ;-) Keep going! :thumbsup:

ESA
If you wish to watch Josh's marathon run, click [url=http://www.twitch.tv/ludendi/b/431708274?t=24h20m55s]here[/url].
[color=red]Edit:[/color]The ?t=24h20m55s did not work for me when I tested it now, so you have to skip manually (24:20:55).
[hidden="one liner about the run (spoiler)"]Congratulations for your new WR, Josh. :-)[/hidden]

My posts are not intended to be read once at whatever time, but part by part when doing the mission in practice runs. E.g. read line one, do it, read line two, do it, etc. You have two screens and a pause button, so it should be easy to do. After doing that a few practice runs long you have all the details in your memory. That's why I have no problem submitting a huge text after the marathon.

Chips:
:-O This looks cool. :-D Really runny.
You can display these notes (tduva's strat) on the second screen if interested in learning the details:
G=Guy
M=Machine
shooting order:
Car
GLeft (guy on the left)
G&MRight
GUp
MDown
other guys up there
place you shoot the next rockets from: [u]next to second shelf[/u]
2 M [u]at once[/u] (else shotgunner)
now the rest
run out [u]right to the shelf[/u] and then watch out for [u]car[/u]
Would be great if someone knows how to display arbitrary text ingame, would be more comfortable than on a second screen (although it has to be set up first).

Fender Ketchup:
Yes, that is how I meant it.
I got 41s as well. :-) vs 45s (your strat).
Optimized it might take 35s or so, in SS 40 should be average ~~[color=red]Edit[/color]:very optimistic^^, with practice it should be 40 but without...~~. It is not much time saved but the problems with the new strat are not that big:
[i]timing[/i]: plan to get 80% on the strip and 20% doing 180s on the parking space. If you manage to get 90%, it is still fine.
[i]risk of failure[/i]: as you are drifting all the time, crashes won't be fatal
[i]traffic in the way[/i]: tested at night (04:00), tbh. Sometimes the highway is nearly empty, other times the traffic is bad and can interrupt you a little. But that is not too bad, when the traffic is in the way you can use that to accelerate and then drift with higher frequency afterwards.

I feel that the strip is the best location: driving on the dirt requires crashing through a fence first (not sure, correct me^^) and is less friendly to drive on, behind the building and in the parking lot are too short.

I tested the difference between traffic density at night- and day time by standing next to a rural road and counting the passing cars (listening to a podcast). There is a difference: There is roughly 30% less traffic at 18-08 than at 08-18. So I timed how long an extra save (in order to get past 'rush hour') costs: a bit less than 4s.
raw data:
time	cars/hour
0-8 26 20 24 25 20 26 12 24

8-18 37 32 30 29 34 30 27 37 28 30

18-22 23 25 22 18

100% stuff:

[u]Heist[/u]
Architectural Espionage: -

Key to Her Heart:
You can stand in front of the sex shop in advance, it also does not even require precise timing: if you stand at the entrance, she is near you for <3s until the cutscene.
The red marker is in front of the yellow 'entering marker' [so stand there]. Entering the latter before you are told to do so ends the mission.
  Unfortunately, increasing shotgun skill while following her does not increase the firing rate [shooting range] - too bad, would have been a hilarious strat.

Killing her: 15 M4 bullets are enough, you must not get a wanted star because of the phone call, if there is police nearby, do it like MrGamerDerek, drive away into the dirt behind the houses. [I have not studied this in detail]

things I need to look into:
Standing in the right spot in advance at the end (requires timing): looks easy to-do.

Cop Wheels: MrGamerDerek's (macro-)route is good, I do not know whether you can save seconds by some adjustments to the micro-route.
[url=http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFCF9B181B2AC2D87]Derek's 100% run[/url] CTRL+F to search the site for cop wheels.

Up Up:
Not sure, but afaik the 'full-of-soldiers-building' is 'cleared' when the 'gunships message' appears, (maybe even a bit earlier).
So you can jump down and collect the health&armor in it and the horseshoe during the mission.
After that you can collect the Oyster in the water (the heli can swim), the horse shoe right to the 'store cluster' and the oyster&horseshoe near the to-be-stolen van.

The trick to get infinite minigun ammo in 'Up, Up, and Away' by dieing with Katie as girlfriend while using it takes way too much time, unfortunately...

Breaking the Bank:
general:
No need for the goggles, it is not that dark.
slide in pretty much every part of the mission, only use the AK in the sections where you have to shoot people. Stopping the slide to change AK->fast
weapon never saves time, IIRC.
When leading the group, you are forced kill everyone. When alone, use common sense (health/armor high->slide with a fast weapon, else AK, ask yourself
'does keeping the armor for later make sense?')

'Put away the gun' lol, ok, you are required to switch to e.g. tear gas (not a weapon) 2m from the door you have to go to. Do not aim at anyone though.^^
opening the door: move the 'lifter' up before reaching it [the game 'thinks' it is enough that the 'lifter' is up and moving upwards when at the door]
take care not to aim at the guard in front of the 'gas throwing place'.
We will see how fast you are. If you are very fast, it might be worth it to attach the satchels to the power things early, then when you are told to do so you just have to run up one level and trigger the explosion (it is not the remote control range but a bug that keeps you from destroying the power things without moving upstairs at all).
Keep the explosion damage in mind, keep distance before triggering it (one level (3m) is not keeping distance)
Keep in mind that sliding makes aiming harder (take longer) and you can only shoot in the direction you are going, so Pistol > AK sliding for some places (unfortunately m-smg is replaced with smg).
Will Smith does not need to open the parachute (well, in the Superman section of the mission at least).
After the mission you will be teleported to the casino.

[color=red]Edit:[/color] I feel that giving credit is important, so I clarified in that part that the Chips strat notes are from tduva's video, nothing new from me.

tduva

Edit history:

tduva: 2013-07-24 01:19:53 am

tduva: 2013-07-24 01:09:35 am

tduva: 2013-07-24 01:08:46 am

tduva: 2013-07-24 01:07:46 am

tduva: 2013-07-24 01:06:45 am

tduva: 2013-07-24 01:03:31 am

2013-07-23 03:32:45 pm

Patrick: You got that about You've Had Your Chips from my video, right? Was was a bit confused there.

A bit more tests/stuff:

Burning Desire
I compared sliding and jumping/running (Video) and sliding doesn't really seem faster, maybe a bit easier around the corners. It's definately not worth getting the shotgun if you're not using the police car anyway, although it might be worth it for Home Invasion.

Home Invasion
Sliding is about 1 second faster per slide here, but more importantly walking slowly in this mission is faster with some weapons. I wasn't aware of that. I only tested the weapons I could get with cheats, but it seems weapons you can't sprint with are faster. CJ doesn't go into this sneaky walk animation that doesn't exist outside the mission.

Weapons that are faster include: Baseball Bat, Shotgun, Combat Shotgun, Rifle, M4, AK, Sniper Rifle, Flame Thrower, Rocket Launchers (I haven't tested if some are faster than others, but I don't think so, seems pretty much the same)

Since the Baseball Bat (if you would get one in Cleaning Up the Hood) is replaced with the knife in Madd Doggs Ryhmes, getting the shotgun from the police car before Burning Desire might be the fastest way.

Also taking one of the further away crates as the last one and running (not walking) with it to the door is about 3 seconds faster. It would trigger the cutscene when you next enter the house, but if you do it with the last crate, that doesn't matter. (I think S mentioned something like that in a post a few months ago too.)

Comparison Video
(I didn't do the "let go of walking and push the sound-meter to the limit" for better comparison, also the execution of the slowest one isn't very ideal, but I guess it still shows the difference)

Update:
Ok, I made another video: Home Invasion Strat
(the timer should be comparable to the other Home Invasion video, so this strat is about 5 seconds faster than the fastest in the other video)

The most important change is not to walk at all. Just run for about a second and then stop shortly, then run again. The noise-meter will be filled about 2/3 when you run too long and will be completely filled after another ~0.5 seconds, so there is time to react and be more careful. But if you are careful in the first place, that shouldn't even happen. Again, this only works with the shotgun, with other weapons the noise-meter fills up a lot faster.

Black Project (Silo)
Not necessarily completely new I guess, but a bit more specific. This is about the part after you get the keycard.

In the tunnel towards the silo, use the silenced pistol to kill the two enemies, otherwise it might alert a soldier that can attack you from behind. If you have killed all soldiers in the part before, you might be fine, but not sure.
Then go to the left and position yourself at the corner. From that point you can kill 5 soldiers without repositioning yourself (you can stay crouched for the first 3, then uncrouch to see the last 2 better).
Then there are three ways:
- Run down to the uppermost western part of the stairs, then jump down to the jetpack from there. This can cost you about 1/3 of your health from the fall and you can get shot a bit.
- Run down completely and kill the remaining 2 soldiers while running.
- Run down to the uppermost eastern part of the stairs and kill the 2 remaining soldiers from there (Silenced pistol seems to be the only one that doesn't block your view), then run down to the jetpack.

You can see the comparison in the Video. The jump is about 5 seconds faster than shooting while running, which is about 4 seconds faster than killing the remaining soldiers from afar. Of course it also depends on the execution, so take the times with a pinch of salt (as always Wink

).

So this isn't as fast as jumping down from the top of course, because you still have to kill quite a few enemies, but it's still pretty fast, especially the shooting position at the corner (imho).

Patrick: You got that about You've Had Your Chips from my video, right? Was was a bit confused there.

A bit more tests/stuff:

[b]Burning Desire[/b]
I compared sliding and jumping/running ([url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKlp1c0AxrY]Video[/url]) and sliding doesn't really seem faster, maybe a bit easier around the corners. It's definately not worth getting the shotgun if you're not using the police car anyway, although it might be worth it for Home Invasion.

[b]Home Invasion[/b]
Sliding is about 1 second faster per slide here, but more importantly walking slowly in this mission is faster with some weapons. I wasn't aware of that. I only tested the weapons I could get with cheats, but it seems weapons you can't sprint with are faster. CJ doesn't go into this sneaky walk animation that doesn't exist outside the mission.

Weapons that are faster include: Baseball Bat, Shotgun, Combat Shotgun, Rifle, M4, AK, Sniper Rifle, Flame Thrower, Rocket Launchers (I haven't tested if some are faster than others, but I don't think so, seems pretty much the same)

Since the Baseball Bat (if you would get one in Cleaning Up the Hood) is replaced with the knife in Madd Doggs Ryhmes, getting the shotgun from the police car before Burning Desire might be the fastest way.

Also taking one of the further away crates as the last one and running (not walking) with it to the door is about 3 seconds faster. It would trigger the cutscene when you next enter the house, but if you do it with the last crate, that doesn't matter. (I think S mentioned something like that in a post a few months ago too.)

[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHkqIWX48Ms]Comparison Video[/url]
(I didn't do the "let go of walking and push the sound-meter to the limit" for better comparison, also the execution of the slowest one isn't very ideal, but I guess it still shows the difference)

[u]Update:[/u]
Ok, I made another video: [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJ5RB7kzWt0]Home Invasion Strat[/url]
(the timer should be comparable to the other Home Invasion video, so this strat is about 5 seconds faster than the fastest in the other video)

The most important change is not to walk at all. Just run for about a second and then stop shortly, then run again. The noise-meter will be filled about 2/3 when you run too long and will be completely filled after another ~0.5 seconds, so there is time to react and be more careful. But if you are careful in the first place, that shouldn't even happen. Again, this only works with the shotgun, with other weapons the noise-meter fills up a lot faster.

[b]Black Project (Silo)[/b]
Not necessarily completely new I guess, but a bit more specific. This is about the part after you get the keycard.
[ul]
[li]In the tunnel towards the silo, use the silenced pistol to kill the two enemies, otherwise it might alert a soldier that can attack you from behind. If you have killed all soldiers in the part before, you might be fine, but not sure.[/li]
[li]Then go to the left and position yourself at the corner. From that point you can kill 5 soldiers without repositioning yourself (you can stay crouched for the first 3, then uncrouch to see the last 2 better).[/li]
[li]Then there are three ways:
[ul]
[li]Run down to the uppermost western part of the stairs, then jump down to the jetpack from there. This can cost you about 1/3 of your health from the fall and you can get shot a bit.[/li]
[li]Run down completely and kill the remaining 2 soldiers while running.[/li]
[li]Run down to the uppermost eastern part of the stairs and kill the 2 remaining soldiers from there (Silenced pistol seems to be the only one that doesn't block your view), then run down to the jetpack.[/li][/ul][/li]
[/ul]

You can see the comparison in the [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUceO_9rDTw]Video[/url]. The jump is about 5 seconds faster than shooting while running, which is about 4 seconds faster than killing the remaining soldiers from afar. Of course it also depends on the execution, so take the times with a pinch of salt (as always ;) ).

So this isn't as fast as jumping down from the top of course, because you still have to kill quite a few enemies, but it's still pretty fast, especially the shooting position at the corner (imho).

Patrick

Edit history:

Patrick: 2013-07-25 02:44:51 pm

2013-07-25 02:41:05 pm

I am going to be away for a week, could not finish my post. Feel free to skip it until I completed it. :-D

E: @tduva, try missiles in 'B Project'

A shame that sliding saves so little time (1s, because you only slide for the second far crate, for the first one you sprint a little, just don't sprint too much). Therefore, do what makes sense. If you get a shotgun for free (randomly spawning cop car), take it, but do not go out of your way to get it. Just get the bat in the gang war and that's it.

To-do: test how much time sliding saves in 'MD's Rhymes', one 'combining-strat' that saves health is killing the three guys near the bar and sliding the rest.

You can collect the spray can after Robbing Uncle Sam, climb up the building next to the alley and then run directly to the S (video later).

The chainsaw saves less time than it costs. I will post a video later, Black Project->High Noon->Green Goo saves 15s, IIRC, video later, too.
Before tduva's good strat, I thought about suggesting to do Black Project early for the M4, but now the missiles strat should be save.

Katie might become useful. Tell me what you think and then maybe I will look into how much time it costs to get her.
Never believe any gta guide so much that you do not test their claims. Katie only requires 40% muscle, 30% sex appeal, <41% fat. This is much less than the guide that I had read back then stated (75%) . Apparently, the author did not take the power of sex appeal into account.
She is near the Burger Shot, I can post a picture on request.
- a $500 hair cut helps (10%)
- rest:a decently sexy car in good condition, like a Sabre (e.g. when exporting the Comet), I will look into which cars are enough when I know more about whether 40% muscle is feasible at that point in the game.
- alternative to 40% muscle: a ridiculous amount of sex appeal, not sure but IIRC it is 80% (1600/2000)

Software: gtasa save game editor for the sex appeal;save anywhere mod (;gta sa center for teleporting)

I am going to be away for a week, could not finish my post. Feel free to skip it until I completed it. :-D

E: @tduva, try missiles in 'B Project'

A shame that sliding saves so little time (1s, because you only slide for the second far crate, for the first one you sprint a little, just don't sprint too much). Therefore, do what makes sense. If you get a shotgun for free (randomly spawning cop car), take it, but do not go out of your way to get it. Just get the bat in the gang war and that's it.

To-do: test how much time sliding saves in 'MD's Rhymes', one 'combining-strat' that saves health is killing the three guys near the bar and sliding the rest.

You can collect the spray can after Robbing Uncle Sam, climb up the building next to the alley and then run directly to the S (video later).

The chainsaw saves less time than it costs. I will post a video later, Black Project->High Noon->Green Goo saves 15s, IIRC, video later, too.
Before tduva's good strat, I thought about suggesting to do Black Project early for the M4, but now the missiles strat should be save.

Katie might become useful. Tell me what you think and then maybe I will look into how much time it costs to get her.
Never believe any gta guide so much that you do not test their claims. Katie only requires 40% muscle, 30% sex appeal, <41% fat. This is much less than the guide that I had read back then stated (75%) . Apparently, the author did not take the power of sex appeal into account.
She is near the Burger Shot, I can post a picture on request.
- a $500 hair cut helps (10%)
- rest:a decently sexy car in good condition, like a Sabre (e.g. when exporting the Comet), I will look into which cars are enough when I know more about whether 40% muscle is feasible at that point in the game.
- alternative to 40% muscle: a ridiculous amount of sex appeal, not sure but IIRC it is 80% (1600/2000)

Software: gtasa save game editor for the sex appeal;save anywhere mod (;gta sa center for teleporting)

Nixixix

2013-07-26 02:52:38 pm

Fender Ketchup: Driving on the N/S freeway near the mission start/end doesn't trigger wanted stars like the outer ring road, weird enough. Not very useful now, I guess.

Quote from freakypaddy:

she is near you for <3s until the cutscene.

Awwww... (I really had to read this twice to get the intended meaning of <3s)

Great that this thread isn't dead, keep going tduva and Patrick!

Random Machine

2013-07-27 08:00:50 pm

I have found a very consistent way of doing Home in the Hills.

Begin by sliding at the very beginning of the mansion with either the Minigun or AK. You can ignore the guys in the bush. But you can kill the 2 guys in front.
As you slide across the hallway, check your armor:

- Less than 50% Armor(bad RNG) : Go in to the second room towards the left and pick up the armor. This should prevent the guys in the hallway from depleting your health and armor. Those guys in the room should not be able to kill you or drain a massive amount of your health and armor. You can avoid killing them. Then slide out of the room towards the stairs.
- More than 50% Armor: Continue sliding towards the stairs.

Continue sliding until you reach the pool. You can either shoot the first guy down the stairs or don't. Shoot and kill the guys as you slide towards the pool area. Finish the last 2 guys off in the pool area.

If you have a decent amount of health and armor you can slide until you reach the exit while maybe killing 1 of the guys. However, this is risky for single segment any%.

Some of this can be used with the old strats.

The Minigun can also be used for the quick kill if you are not reliable enough with the rockets.

This strat is the fastest way of doing the mission if you manage to slide until the exit.

I have tried this strat many times and did not fail once with the Minigun. Try it yourself and see what happens.

I have found a very consistent way of doing Home in the Hills.

Begin by sliding at the very beginning of the mansion with either the Minigun or AK.  You can ignore the guys in the bush. But you can kill the 2 guys in front.
As you slide across the hallway, check your armor:

- Less than 50% Armor(bad RNG) : Go in to the second room towards the left and pick up the armor. This should prevent the guys in the hallway from depleting your health and armor. Those guys in the room should not be able to kill you or drain a massive amount of your health and armor. You can avoid killing them. Then slide out of the room towards the stairs.
- More than 50% Armor: Continue sliding towards the stairs.

Continue sliding until you reach the pool. You can either shoot the first guy down the stairs or don't. Shoot and kill the guys as you slide towards the pool area. Finish the last 2 guys off in the pool area.

If you have a decent amount of health and armor you can slide until you reach the exit while maybe killing 1 of the guys. However, this is risky for single segment any%.

Some of this can be used with the old strats.

The Minigun can also be used for the quick kill if you are not reliable enough with the rockets.

This strat is the fastest way of doing the mission if you manage to slide until the exit.

I have tried this strat many times and did not fail once with the Minigun. Try it yourself and see what happens.

tduva

2013-07-28 06:14:45 pm

Los Santos Driving Routes
Joshimuz: A few proposed improvements to Los Santos driving routes. I might be overanalyzing here, sorry if it doesn't seem too useful, but I thought that some routes could be faster and I was testing them.

Route from Grove Street to a few misisons - Timed from Grove Street up to the point where you would go different ways for Drive-By, Catalyst or Reuniting the Families. Going up the bridge you can retain more speed, also there is a bump onto the highway that can flip you if you go too fast.

Burning Desire - Not actually tested in the mission, so imagine hitting the marker in front of her house.

Burning Desire to Doberman - Less intersections and turns on the proposed route.

Intensive Care
I also tested Helicopter vs. random cars in Intensive Care a bit. Doing the actual missions is a bit difficult for such comparisons because of the RNG of ambulance positions, so I just pretended that the ambulances where at certain positions and that always the last one was the correct one. I also did this under the premise that you couldn't hit the first ambulance/see if the second is the right one without getting out of the heli, so that added a lot of landing/starting time. Timed from the door of the casino to pretending to shoot the driver of the last pretended ambulance. I tested this with the heli and cars I just got off the street.

Of course this all isn't very exact, but I just wanted to test if there is a huge difference. From those initial tests I'd say there is no huge difference between using random cars or a heli. Always depends on the traffic, the ambulance positions, how fast you can land the heli, if you get stuck at a lamppost with it and which ambulance is the right one. The heli is obviously faster on longer distances, but cars are more agile. Either way can be faster or slower, it's pretty hard to come to a definite conclusion with as much RNG as in that mission.

Flying Speed
Josh: I suppose you use the Stuntplane to get to Caligula's Casino after Green Goo so you can "land" near the entrance? Because the Rustler has a faster flying speed and also reaches the casino a few seconds faster (timed this particular route including take-off).

On this topic: I compared a few planes/helis. These numbers don't include take-off time, just flying speed in a straight line. This is the raw time it took to fly the same arbitrarily chosen distance. Might not be exact to the second.

Shamal 1:15 (75s)
Rustler 1:27 (87s)
Hunter 1:42 (102s)
Maverick 2:05 (125s)
Stuntplane 2:09 (129s)
Dodo 2:18 (138s)
Cropduster 2:30 (150s)
Seasparrow 2:42 (162s)

[b]Los Santos Driving Routes[/b]
Joshimuz: A few proposed improvements to Los Santos driving routes. I might be overanalyzing here, sorry if it doesn't seem too useful, but I thought that some routes could be faster and I was testing them.

[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VGbavtBrDs]Route from Grove Street to a few misisons[/url] - Timed from Grove Street up to the point where you would go different ways for Drive-By, Catalyst or Reuniting the Families. Going up the bridge you can retain more speed, also there is a bump onto the highway that can flip you if you go too fast.

[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmREVxKUM-w]Burning Desire[/url] - Not actually tested in the mission, so imagine hitting the marker in front of her house.

[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yq4MXf4kIUQ]Burning Desire to Doberman[/url] - Less intersections and turns on the proposed route.

[b]Intensive Care[/b]
I also tested Helicopter vs. random cars in Intensive Care a bit. Doing the actual missions is a bit difficult for such comparisons because of the RNG of ambulance positions, so I just pretended that the ambulances where at certain positions and that always the last one was the correct one. I also did this under the premise that you couldn't hit the first ambulance/see if the second is the right one without getting out of the heli, so that added a lot of landing/starting time. Timed from the door of the casino to pretending to shoot the driver of the last pretended ambulance. I tested this with the heli and cars I just got off the street.

Of course this all isn't very exact, but I just wanted to test if there is a huge difference. From those initial tests I'd say there is no huge difference between using random cars or a heli. Always depends on the traffic, the ambulance positions, how fast you can land the heli, if you get stuck at a lamppost with it and which ambulance is the right one. The heli is obviously faster on longer distances, but cars are more agile. Either way can be faster or slower, it's pretty hard to come to a definite conclusion with as much RNG as in that mission.

[b]Flying Speed[/b]
Josh: I suppose you use the Stuntplane to get to Caligula's Casino after Green Goo so you can "land" near the entrance? Because the Rustler has a faster flying speed and also reaches the casino a few seconds faster (timed this particular route including take-off).

On this topic: I compared a few planes/helis. These numbers don't include take-off time, just flying speed in a straight line. This is the raw time it took to fly the same arbitrarily chosen distance. Might not be exact to the second.

Shamal 1:15 (75s)
Rustler 1:27 (87s)
Hunter 1:42 (102s)
Maverick 2:05 (125s)
Stuntplane 2:09 (129s)
Dodo 2:18 (138s)
Cropduster 2:30 (150s)
Seasparrow 2:42 (162s)

S.

Edit history:

S.: 2013-07-28 08:06:21 pm

2013-07-28 08:05:50 pm

Nice examples of Shorter != faster

I found intensive care a BIATCH with the heli. I will now use a car without regretting me wussying out the faster route.

Might I ask in the length for those flight paths? I'm particularly interested in the Maverick vs Seasparrow, regarding some oysters, and to some extend Maverick vs Cropduster, regarding Explosive Situation.

Do you do requests Tduva? Coz I'd like to see an NRG vs Maverick comparison on Interdiction. Too lazy to test myself, I want to get the macro route working first.

tduva

2013-07-29 09:20:41 am

You mean when I did the flying speed tests? I did it on the coast north of Las Venturas/Desert so about the whole width of the map. Do you really want to use the Cropduster to land in the Quarry? Shocked

I don't really do requests, but if you post something to-do, maybe I'll test it sometime.. (or maybe also someone else) Wink

S.

2013-07-29 11:02:55 am

Cropduster to land in the Quarry, take Sanchez out since I dont need the plane anyway as I'll do quarry missions afterwards. (although I have been able to take off with the cropduster from the quarry.)

tduva

2013-07-29 12:33:17 pm

To clarify your question about Interdiction: Do you mean getting the NRG from the Docks after Highjack instead of getting the Heli from the airport and then doing the whole mission with it? Or do you have the NRG in the garage or is the route completely different from any%? The question is what exactly to compare.

S.

2013-07-29 06:41:13 pm

I'll be getting the NRG after delivering the last of the export vehicles as it's the only vehicle nearby. Probably up until the part of the mission where you can take the seasparrow, might need that thing for oysters. (although of that I am not sure anymore either)

Really doubting it is worth it to take the detour to the helicopter.

Random Machine

2013-07-31 11:32:18 pm

I made a very interesting discovery for A Home in the Hills. What I did was land on the roof every single time I attempted the mission. My strats worked 100% of the time this way; I was able to slide through the mission every single time. Then one time I tried to land on the road and steal a car to make it up to the roof faster. This time I died very quickly during the mission.

Apparently stealing a car during this mission makes the enemies extremely deadly. I did this 5 times and died every single time. When I didn't attempt to steal a car, I was able to easily pass the mission again.

I have no idea why stealing a car would affect the enemies so much. Hopefully someone else can test this more.