GTA San Andreas Official Thread

2014-01-16 05:10:37 am

Hi all, old gta addict here. Long post incoming, I don't know how much of this is already known either.

-About the grenades pick-up after 'Just Business': (The new jump to get them with the NRG seems more consistent so this is also a bit less relevant now).
There are also grenades right behind the Pizza Stack in BS's hood, time investment to get them is about 15 seconds if you are already driving past. If you pick them up on the way to 'Wrong Side' they can be used during 'Just Business' as well, if that could help.
I have also tried picking them up on the return trip during 'Ryder', but I'm not sure if the investment is worth it. You can save about 5 seconds in round 2 & 3 of 'Nines and AK's' with grenades but I don't know if they are any help in the other missions before 'Burning Desire', perhaps during 'Sweet's Girl'?

-I also saw Tirean ask about the Freddy chase in 'OG Loc':
I don't think you can kill him before you trigger the chase, but you don't have to follow him through the alleys after triggering him. Taking to the road after 2 alleys will give you a lot more time to line up the bike for the shot, but it is also slower since he takes his sweet time getting there when you're not behind.
You can also drive around the block and trigger the chase from the other side, but I think he's too fast to kill when he's not going uphill.
You can also just leave Loc behind if he falls off the bike, I don't think it changes the mission at all, he'll still teleport to you when Freddy's killed.

I have been testing out some new ideas as well. They have both failed for now, but I'll post them anyway in case anyone have further suggestions. They were kind of linked, since the plan was to move a swimming session frome one mission to another.

-Swimming during the second 'Doberman' cutscene:
Jack a car before starting the war and park it on the grass facing the pond. When there's only one enemy left alive in the third wave, jump in the car and drive it into the middle of the pond and the cutscene will trigger. You can see the car during the cutscene, but I guess CJ warps to the road where he spawns at the end of the cutscene so you don't actually get any time underwater afaik.

What I did learn was that you can finish each wave by running toward the pond/grass when there's only one enemy remaining, without killing him. Could be helpful if one of them runs away, hides, etc.

-Quick '555':
After you get the uniform and get back to the marker, quickly jump in a car and drive to the courthouse where he spawns (as seen in the cutscene). There have to be some way to block him so he spawns in one of the other locations, but I could only do it 1 out of 2-3 times. The courthouse is the primary spawn afaik, but if the road is blocked by traffic he'll spawn in one of two other locations. The best secondary spawn is somewhere west of the hotel, and he'll be arriving almost before you can drive back from the courthouse, which should shave off about a minute. There's also a spawn somewhere east but it's a bit slower. You can also drive behind and push him with your car, but it doesn't help much timewise.
I have not found a consistent way of blocking the primary spawn point, some times he's already spawned when I arrive and other times I make it. Also, the faster I did the mission the more I failed to despawn him. His car started spawning inside mine while I was parked on top of his spawn point, so it caught fire and spooked him, and I failed the mission instead.

Also, the first time I drove to his location I drove east toward the sea and along the freeway. I met him at the bottom of the courthouse hill and jacked his car without failing the mission. I then drove it to both the garage and the hotel but couldn't trigger any mission progress. Then I managed to get a wanted star and failed that way. I have not been able to jack his car again without failing, nor have I seen him take that route, so the only explanation I can think of is that he was just an identical ped in an identical car.

Hi all, old gta addict here. Long post incoming, I don't know how much of this is already known either.

-About the grenades pick-up after 'Just Business': (The new jump to get them with the NRG seems more consistent so this is also a bit less relevant now).
There are also grenades right behind the Pizza Stack in BS's hood, time investment to get them is about 15 seconds if you are already driving past. If you pick them up on the way to 'Wrong Side' they can be used during 'Just Business' as well, if that could help.
I have also tried picking them up on the return trip during 'Ryder', but I'm not sure if the investment is worth it. You can save about 5 seconds in round 2 & 3 of 'Nines and AK's' with grenades but I don't know if they are any help in the other missions before 'Burning Desire', perhaps during 'Sweet's Girl'?

-I also saw Tirean ask about the Freddy chase in 'OG Loc':
I don't think you can kill him before you trigger the chase, but you don't have to follow him through the alleys after triggering him. Taking to the road after 2 alleys will give you a lot more time to line up the bike for the shot, but it is also slower since he takes his sweet time getting there when you're not behind.
You can also drive around the block and trigger the chase from the other side, but I think he's too fast to kill when he's not going uphill.
You can also just leave Loc behind if he falls off the bike, I don't think it changes the mission at all, he'll still teleport to you when Freddy's killed.

I have been testing out some new ideas as well. They have both failed for now, but I'll post them anyway in case anyone have further suggestions. They were kind of linked, since the plan was to move a swimming session frome one mission to another.

-Swimming during the second 'Doberman' cutscene:
Jack a car before starting the war and park it on the grass facing the pond. When there's only one enemy left alive in the third wave, jump in the car and drive it into the middle of the pond and the cutscene will trigger. You can see the car during the cutscene, but I guess CJ warps to the road where he spawns at the end of the cutscene so you don't actually get any time underwater afaik.

What I did learn was that you can finish each wave by running toward the pond/grass when there's only one enemy remaining, without killing him. Could be helpful if one of them runs away, hides, etc.

-Quick '555':
After you get the uniform and get back to the marker, quickly jump in a car and drive to the courthouse where he spawns (as seen in the cutscene). There have to be some way to block him so he spawns in one of the other locations, but I could only do it 1 out of 2-3 times. The courthouse is the primary spawn afaik, but if the road is blocked by traffic he'll spawn in one of two other locations. The best secondary spawn is somewhere west of the hotel, and he'll be arriving almost before you can drive back from the courthouse, which should shave off about a minute. There's also a spawn somewhere east but it's a bit slower. You can also drive behind and push him with your car, but it doesn't help much timewise.
I have not found a consistent way of blocking the primary spawn point, some times he's already spawned when I arrive and other times I make it. Also, the faster I did the mission the more I failed to despawn him. His car started spawning inside mine while I was parked on top of his spawn point, so it caught fire and spooked him, and I failed the mission instead.

Also, the first time I drove to his location I drove east toward the sea and along the freeway. I met him at the bottom of the courthouse hill and jacked his car without failing the mission. I then drove it to both the garage and the hotel but couldn't trigger any mission progress. Then I managed to get a wanted star and failed that way. I have not been able to jack his car again without failing, nor have I seen him take that route, so the only explanation I can think of is that he was just an identical ped in an identical car.

any

2014-01-18 01:44:40 pm

I just remembered that you don't train lung capacity when you are in a vehicle :facepalm
No wonder I got inconsistent results when testing. And the cutscene won't trigger unless you are in a vehicle for some reason.

Random_Machine

Edit history:

Random_Machine: 2014-01-18 08:58:08 pm

Random_Machine: 2014-01-18 08:52:54 pm

Random_Machine: 2014-01-18 08:45:50 pm

Random_Machine: 2014-01-18 08:45:02 pm

Random_Machine: 2014-01-18 07:06:54 pm

Random_Machine: 2014-01-18 07:06:00 pm

Random_Machine: 2014-01-18 05:40:56 pm

Random_Machine: 2014-01-18 05:18:01 pm

Random_Machine: 2014-01-18 05:17:25 pm

2014-01-18 05:11:53 pm

I've had no success with the Amphibious Assault thing. It will probably not work consistently. You will most likely fall into the water if you try it. I just got lucky that the front part of my helicopter got stuck on the platform the one time it worked.

Gang Territories
I'm sure this is already known. It is something similar to what any said. You can finish a wave even if you don't kill all the enemies. You can avoid killing one guy that is far enough away. But you have to kill everyone if they're too close.

Staying in the Vehicle After Cutscenes

This should save some swimming time. Parking the vehicle in the marker shouldn't despawn it. But it will despawn if you park it too close to the driveway or right next to the valets. Use the car that drives in the carport if your vehicle does despawn (even though it shouldn't).

You can also do this for the mission trigger in Doberman. Park on the marker and get off the bike. Then get on the bike right when you trigger the mission. You should be on the bike after the cutscene if you did it correctly. The bike shouldn't despawn if you park it in the marker. It will despawn if you park it where CJ would spawn if you didn't get on the bike.

There might be some other missions where you can do something like this. But the cutscene has to not despawn your vehicle and/or not prevent you from moving.

Jumping Out of Vehicles
Some of you might know this already. CJ will land on his feet if you jump out of a vehicle in the air unless it is very high. It also won't work if it is too low to the ground.
Also, bikes other than sports bikes and the police bike don't require you to be in the air to land on your feet.

I've had no success with the Amphibious Assault thing. It will probably not work consistently. You will most likely fall into the water if you try it. I just got lucky that the front part of my helicopter got stuck on the platform the one time it worked.

[u]Gang Territories[/u]
I'm sure this is already known. It is something similar to what any said. You can finish a wave even if you don't kill all the enemies. You can avoid killing one guy that is far enough away. But you have to kill everyone if they're too close.

[u]Staying in the Vehicle After Cutscenes[/u]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntZgbxNJHkA&feature=youtu.be
This should save some swimming time. Parking the vehicle in the marker shouldn't despawn it. But it will despawn if you park it too close to the driveway or right next to the valets. Use the car that drives in the carport if your vehicle does despawn (even though it shouldn't).

You can also do this for the mission trigger in Doberman. Park on the marker and get off the bike. Then get on the bike right when you trigger the mission. You should be on the bike after the cutscene if you did it correctly. The bike shouldn't despawn if you park it in the marker. It will despawn if you park it where CJ would spawn if you didn't get on the bike.

There might be some other missions where you can do something like this. But the cutscene has to not despawn your vehicle and/or not prevent you from moving.

[u]Jumping Out of Vehicles[/u]
Some of you might know this already. CJ will land on his feet if you jump out of a vehicle in the air unless it is very high. It also won't work if it is too low to the ground.
Also, bikes other than sports bikes and the police bike don't require you to be in the air to land on your feet.

Random_Machine

2014-01-19 08:58:25 pm

This is what I mean for Doberman. The bike shouldn't despawn even if you fail to get on the bike. This may be easier to do if you've already answered the phone call. Make sure that you trigger the mission before you get on the bike. You will waste a couple seconds if you get on the bike again without triggering the mission. The timing will only need a little bit of practice.

Ice Cold Killa
I don't know why people don't try to do this. This is after shooting the car with 6 sniper shots. The rocket will not destroy the phone because he is out of the car. Just be very quick here with shooting the car.

any

2014-01-20 09:46:24 am

I did park beside the marker in 555 and entered during the cutscene when I tried to do it fast, but sometimes one of the valets merged with the car so it caught fire (especially if I drove a convertible).

Here's another dumb trick with the phonecall cutscene, which makkes it possible to warp from the end of beach party to running dog:
http://tinypic.com/r/vh6pg1/5

Random_Machine

2014-01-20 02:24:36 pm

The valets might stand on top of your vehicle if it is too long. The blade is the only car that I managed to make it merge with one of the valets. Cars like the stallion or sabre will be fine. Anything like a feltzer or a zr-350 might make the valets stand on top of your car. You can try not entering the vehicle in the marker to be safe. It shouldn't despawn if you park it in the marker.

Random_Machine

2014-01-20 03:18:22 pm

I managed to do the teleport trick with the phone without using the police station marker. That marker is not what allows you to teleport there. I only managed to pull it off in the Commerce area. You don't have to move anywhere from the end of Life's a Beach.

any

2014-01-21 12:10:25 am

Wow, I didn't know that. So taking that call anywhere in commerce will warp you to the gym?
I thought it was marker dependent, I used to do this trick at the hospital marker and with the correct timing I could steal a car outside the gym and warp it back to the hospital. I know that other prompts (like girlfriend progress) can also break you out of non mission cutscenes, or allow you to move around during the cutscene.

Random_Machine

2014-01-21 01:27:32 am

I found that it only works in parts of Commerce and Pershing Square(where the police station is). It might work elsewhere, but I've tried a few other places already and it didn't work.

Lighnat0r

2014-01-21 11:31:50 am

The reason the glitch works is because when taking the phone call, the game stores your position and then teleports you to the gym for the duration of the phone call. After the phone call ends you get teleported back to the stored position. However, while you are in that specific area (1459.5<X<1700.0 and -1765.5<Y<-1516.5, see http://i.imgur.com/iTWjPPz.png), the game is already storing your position every frame. Because of this, the game will store your position once more AFTER teleporting, so when the game teleports you back, you will end up at the gym.
This area is the only one where it works like this, the only other time your position is saved is during missions or when entering a shop marker (i.e. tattoo shop, food, barber, clothing) but they are obviously not available concurrent with the phone call.

Joshimuz

2014-01-21 02:29:32 pm

Ok, so I did some testing with this phone warping stuff to see if it would be any faster than just going to BS normally, then answering the call.

Waiting for a phone call, teleporting to outside the gym, and then sprinting to BS's house took about 50 seconds, getting lucky and grabbing a vehicle with no passenger and driving to BS's takes about 5 seconds less (45 seconds)

Doing the drive normally is different due to your car and how bad traffic is, the best case scenario I found was getting a PCJ and having 0 crashes/swerves around traffic, which took about 40 seconds.
A more likely, but still good spawn is the Sultan, which took 45 seconds, and then a Tahoma with some crashes took 55 seconds.

So my suggestion is, once you spawn from the end of the mission, look around for a good vehicle that you can grab, if it's all moonbeams, go ahead and teleport (it looks cooler anyway)

Tirean

2014-01-21 05:01:58 pm

So 2 times now I have had to get 20+ Gang territories to gain over 35%, anyone know the cause for this?

Random_Machine

Edit history:

Random_Machine: 2014-01-21 06:32:38 pm

Random_Machine: 2014-01-21 06:25:17 pm

Random_Machine: 2014-01-21 06:25:03 pm

Random_Machine: 2014-01-21 06:22:39 pm

Random_Machine: 2014-01-21 06:21:46 pm

2014-01-21 06:18:48 pm

I wasn't watching it live, but I saw that you messed up on one of the territories during the run. You got one that you would get during Grove 4 Life before doing the mission. The game counted that territory as 2 taken over. But you also didn't notice that you had one less territory held compared to territories taken over (19 held to 20 taken over when you got the 35%). The territories held is what counts toward the percentage(I think, but I could be wrong). It would be the same number as taken over if you didn't mess up.

Tirean

2014-01-22 12:54:29 am

now that I look at my save file that seems to be the case. Didn't notice I took one which was part of grove 4 lfe. Will need to be more careful in future I guess.

any

2014-01-22 01:53:51 am

Some gang territories are ~1%, others are ~2%. I don't know if there's a map with this info available, but I'm guessing it's related to the size of the territory.

I remember that I always took the large territories at the beach by the pier first, those gave about 2% each and the gang members were mostly armed with bats. Starting the gang war there was a pain since there were usually just 2 gang members you could kill. They are also too far away to be relevant to a speedrun.

any

2014-01-22 05:29:59 am

I just tried some random territories and they were all 1,85%, I might be mixing this up with something else then. I haven't paid attention since the console version, but I doubt they changed it for pc.

S.

Edit history:

S.: 2014-01-23 06:00:23 pm

2014-01-23 06:00:03 pm

I checked about 75% of all the territories since discovered the semi-territoryskip and they all gave me the same %

bubbleb0bbler

Edit history:

bubbleb0bbler: 2014-01-31 05:28:12 pm

bubbleb0bbler: 2014-01-31 03:19:02 pm

2014-01-31 03:18:22 pm

2 things here

this movement is what I'd consider optimal except for the very minor slipups - objects in the game can be sprinted on, so if you jump onto the boxes here you can sprintjump along them. After that, the floor is sprintable on in the locations I am not sliding.

holding esc above the jetpack here 'buttonmashes' it, and let's you 'pause buffer' the pickup. I've had the most success picking it up once letting go of the button after holding it for a while as opposed to permanently holding it - it should be looked into more I guess though I had a high success rate with both methods (5/6, the 1 mistake being my fault)

The success rate is uncertain currently though - I have never failed it in 15 or so attempts with the holding pause setup, but paddy says he has failed it twice where he has been shot when about to pickup the jetpack

Patrick

2014-02-02 08:53:37 pm

The risk of getting shot at can be reduced by blowing up the last two guys with a rocket. I fear that I am still doing something wrong because my success rate is far from 15/15. I want to procrastinate that though in favor of other new stuff.

Thanks Houdsonsmith for this:

This obsoletes the new 555 strats, it's a shame we can't have both ... I will post those in a few days for the curious. :-)

There are many questions left still, this is a summary of it all:
Difficulty:
The train has doors on the other side, too, and there are reference points. It is easy once you know what exactly to do.
To-do: upload the video

time gained: 1:20, most things considered, huge grain of salt though! Pessimistic.

gained: 2:55 from start of mission->'looking for taxi'
time losses:
drive back: 60s, CannibalK9 had an NRG and is 30s slower than heli, in addition you probably need to get another heli - or not, dunno.
no 555 strats: 20s
Not 'spooking' the reporter with a heli: Probably 0 seconds, its effect was probably just in our imagination and the taxi driver is just crazy.

CannibalK9 said in his run that he got a crazy taxi despite not being able to spook it, same for Josh (he deliberately did not). Finally, I have found no signs of 'if attacked/spooked, make him faster' in the mission script, but keep in mind that I only have little programming experiences and that code is not friendly to read to begin with. If this hypotheses is wrong, we have a problem.^^

60+20+7=90 (see diving time for the 7)

Diving time: It works out, so you can skip most of it and see in your run that it worked. Cheesy

Swimming time =/= diving time, obviously. I made calculations if necessary to know the diving time lost/gained.
30s less diving time compared to Tirean's run. Tirean's run has 90s of swimming in Snail Trail of which I calculated that ~65s are diving time. The new strat with optimal execution has 40s swimming with 40s diving time (as opposed to the video...). Or 35s, not sure.
15s diving: keep your bike in Outrider (7s lost outside the timed missions)
10s diving in 555 dive 100% of the time (losing health for that) and then save before Photo Opportunity were you want to save anyways(?) or don't save until after 'Jizzy'
10s left to compensate for:
Outrider can be optimized
if you have less than 70s for swimming in Outrider, you can make CJ get stuck under the jetty to keep him under water without using up oxygen
So as you can see, we are fine. Smiley

open the spoiler and read the underlined stuff to know what to do

heat seaking rpg:
Quite sure it is unnecessary
to-do: if heli is not worth it, then find heat rpgless Amphibious strats
Toreno's Last Flight can be done w/o heat rpg: [url=]hard[/url] [url=]easy[/url] Want to time this.

Other stuff:

You get a better taxi spawning position (the game spawns a taxi just for the reporter in case you did not know that) for free no matter what you do, like for example how long you dive after the reporter is 'ready for taxi' etc.
(There is a better spawning position in a specific place. Runners have always been in the right area, but they were too high because they were flying.)

tl;dr: don't wonder that the taxi spawns in a different place now
do heavy camera twitching for car spawns

to-do:route back to SF;time getting a heli from airport; maybe find time heli-/heatrpgless Amphibious Assault strats

to-do: look for better route back to SF
no boats near, no planes near except for the cropduster near the tunnel near the airport but that plane is way too slow, only point of it is to fly to decent air vehicles not otherwise reachable and the airport is reachable with a land vehicle (jump into it after the tunnel)
to-do: time: worth it to jump into the airport to get a heli? I timed roughly 15s lost compared to driving, started in a Buffalo at the start of the tunnel

Additional diving time:
If there are more handy diving opportunities, we can get more extra stuff into Outrider (like parking the Sanchez into the garage)
In Doberman, you might be able to dive in between waves but iirc, the gang spawns were terrible if you are in the water, but I will give it a second chance.

The risk of getting shot at can be reduced by blowing up the last two guys with a rocket. I fear that I am still doing something wrong because my success rate is far from 15/15. I want to procrastinate that though in favor of other new stuff.

Thanks Houdsonsmith for this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpbUf-C589c

This obsoletes the new 555 strats, it's a shame we can't have both ... I will post those in a few days for the curious. :-)

There are many questions left still, this is a summary of it all:
Difficulty:
The train has doors on the other side, too, and there are reference points. It is easy once you know what exactly to do.
To-do: upload the video

time gained: 1:20, most things considered, huge grain of salt though! Pessimistic.
[hidden="details"]
gained: 2:55 from start of mission->'looking for taxi'
time losses:
drive back: 60s, CannibalK9 had an NRG and is 30s slower than heli, in addition you probably need to get another heli - or not, dunno.
no 555 strats: 20s
Not 'spooking' the reporter with a heli: Probably 0 seconds, its effect was probably just in our imagination and the taxi driver is just crazy.
[hidden="arguments for that"]CannibalK9 said in his run that he got a crazy taxi despite not being able to spook it, same for Josh (he deliberately did not). Finally, I have found no signs of 'if attacked/spooked, make him faster' in the mission script, but keep in mind that I only have little programming experiences and that code is not friendly to read to begin with. If this hypotheses is wrong, we have a problem.^^[/hidden]
60+20+7=90 (see diving time for the 7)[/hidden]
Diving time: It works out, so you can skip most of it and see in your run that it worked. :D
[hidden="details"]Swimming time =/= diving time, obviously. I made calculations if necessary to know the diving time lost/gained.
30s less diving time compared to Tirean's run. Tirean's run has 90s of swimming in Snail Trail of which I calculated that ~65s are diving time. The new strat with optimal execution has 40s swimming with 40s diving time (as opposed to the video...). Or 35s, not sure. 
	15s diving: [u]keep your bike in Outrider[/u] (7s lost outside the timed missions)
	10s diving [u]in 555 dive 100% of the time (losing health for that) and then save before Photo Opportunity were you want to save anyways(?) or don't save until after 'Jizzy'[/u]
10s left to compensate for:
	Outrider can be optimized
	[u]if you have less than 70s for swimming in Outrider, you can make CJ get stuck under the jetty to keep him under water without using up oxygen[/u]
So as you can see, we are fine. :)[/hidden]
open the spoiler and read the underlined stuff to know what to do

heat seaking rpg:
Quite sure it is unnecessary
to-do: if heli is not worth it, then find heat rpgless Amphibious strats
Toreno's Last Flight can be done w/o heat rpg: [url=]hard[/url] [url=]easy[/url] Want to time this.

Other stuff:
[hidden]You get a better taxi spawning position (the game spawns a taxi just for the reporter in case you did not know that) for free no matter what you do, like for example how long you dive after the reporter is 'ready for taxi' etc.
(There is a better spawning position in a specific place. Runners have always been in the right area, but they were too high because they were flying.)[/hidden]
tl;dr: don't wonder that the taxi spawns in a different place now
do heavy camera twitching for car spawns

to-do:route back to SF;time getting a heli from airport; maybe find time heli-/heatrpgless Amphibious Assault strats
[hidden="to-dos in more detail"]to-do: look for better route back to SF
	no boats near, no planes near except for the cropduster near the tunnel near the airport but that plane is way too slow, only point of it is to fly to decent air vehicles not otherwise reachable and the airport is reachable with a land vehicle (jump into it after the tunnel)
to-do: time: worth it to jump into the airport to get a heli? I timed roughly 15s lost compared to driving, started in a Buffalo at the start of the tunnel[/hidden]

Additional diving time:
If there are more handy diving opportunities, we can get more extra stuff into Outrider (like parking the Sanchez into the garage)
In Doberman, you might be able to dive in between waves but iirc, the gang spawns were terrible if you are in the water, but I will give it a second chance.

Joshimuz

Edit history:

Joshimuz: 2014-02-03 03:31:59 am

Joshimuz: 2014-02-03 03:23:43 am

Joshimuz: 2014-02-03 03:16:14 am

Joshimuz: 2014-02-03 03:14:55 am

Joshimuz: 2014-02-03 03:13:12 am

Joshimuz: 2014-02-03 03:11:10 am

Joshimuz: 2014-02-03 03:10:46 am

Joshimuz: 2014-02-03 03:10:38 am

Joshimuz: 2014-02-03 02:34:59 am

Joshimuz: 2014-02-03 02:34:53 am

Joshimuz: 2014-02-03 02:34:35 am

Joshimuz: 2014-02-03 02:10:08 am

2014-02-03 02:09:50 am

Quote:

15s diving: keep your bike in Outrider (7s lost outside the timed missions)

From what I understand you're saying patrick, is that we should keep the Sanchez that Outrider gives us, instead of storing it in the garage, and use it to drive to the water/NRG

This is fine, because if you need a 3rd bike, you can grab a Sanchez from the return trip of Photo Opportunity. If you don't find one on the road there is a spawn in Angel Pine (you use it for the Badlands mission(s))

So, you would first get a Sanchez from Photo Opportunity, then a second one from Lure (Same spot, if not on the road), then you would grab the NRG in Outrider (Just use the sanchez to get over there instead of taking a car)

EDIT: I'm messing around with Optimising Outrider, and It seems that if you shoot the left car, then the right car, either the middle car will blow itself up, or when you shoot the middle car the remaining guys will die from its explosion. I'll post a video soon.
Also, that getting stuck under the jetty trick is quite nice, it saves you having to waste time going back up all the time, while not draining your oxygen bar swimming around pointlessly to stay under.

EDIT2: I love how we've figured out that taking the train to LS during Snail Trail is a great idea, but now we're all worrying about how we will get back to LV without losing too much time.
The answer is simple.
Take a train

This video shows what to do if the wrong type of train spawns.
It was the first time it happened to me so I tried a few different things, but driving it away and getting another works.
I'm pretty sure the camera flicking has no effect, but a trains seem to spawn regardless

[quote]15s diving: [u]keep your bike in Outrider[/u] (7s lost outside the timed missions)[/quote]
From what I understand you're saying patrick, is that we should keep the Sanchez that Outrider gives us, instead of storing it in the garage, and use it to drive to the water/NRG

This is fine, because if you need a 3rd bike, you can grab a Sanchez from the return trip of Photo Opportunity. If you don't find one on the road there is a spawn in Angel Pine (you use it for the Badlands mission(s))

So, you would first get a Sanchez from Photo Opportunity, then a second one from Lure (Same spot, if not on the road), then you would grab the NRG in Outrider (Just use the sanchez to get over there instead of taking a car)

EDIT: I'm messing around with Optimising Outrider, and It seems that if you shoot the left car, then the right car, either the middle car will blow itself up, or when you shoot the middle car the remaining guys will die from its explosion. I'll post a video soon.
Also, that getting stuck under the jetty trick is quite nice, it saves you having to waste time going back up all the time, while not draining your oxygen bar swimming around pointlessly to stay under.

EDIT2: I love how we've figured out that taking the train to LS during Snail Trail is a great idea, but now we're all worrying about how we will get back to LV without losing too much time.
The answer is simple.
Take a train 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvMyhDRQvfo
This video shows what to do if the wrong type of train spawns.
It was the first time it happened to me so I tried a few different things, but driving it away and getting another works.
I'm pretty sure the camera flicking has no effect, but a trains seem to spawn regardless

Powdinet

2014-02-03 04:03:44 am

[quote="Joshimuz"]

Quote:

EDIT2: I love how we've figured out that taking the train to LS during Snail Trail is a great idea, but now we're all worrying about how we will get back to LV without losing too much time.
The answer is simple.
Take a train

Another alternative is to go to the LS airport and book a flight to the SF airport. Not sure about times, but it would also put you very close to the helicopter and missiles in case they are needed.

any

2014-02-03 04:43:46 am

Nice. I actually knew about getting on the same train, but never thought about the trip skip option.
I also got some ghost trains while testing, where two trains are clipped inside eachother at the station, so I trip skip my train while the reporters train still takes the whole trip. But I assume those only appeared when I failed to enter the train and quickly reloaded a save to retry.

About the return trip: Do you have to unlock LV before choppers spawn in LS? I just remembered the raindance that spawns on the beach right beside the pier.
Any possible route changes? Like getting the chopper when you return from lure, etc.

In outrider you can also drive up along the train tracks and shoot the first road block from behind, but I doubt it saves any time. You could also store the sanchez at the start of the mission instead of at the end if you go that way.

If you need more swimming time you could also swim the last stretch on your way to pick up cesar in photo opportunity, since you are already in the water.

Nice. I actually knew about getting on the same train, but never thought about the trip skip option.
I also got some ghost trains while testing, where two trains are clipped inside eachother at the station, so I trip skip my train while the reporters train still takes the whole trip. But I assume those only appeared when I failed to enter the train and quickly reloaded a save to retry.

About the return trip: Do you have to unlock LV before choppers spawn in LS? I just remembered the raindance that spawns on the beach right beside the pier.
Any possible route changes? Like getting the chopper when you return from lure, etc.

In outrider you can also drive up along the train tracks and shoot the first road block from behind, but I doubt it saves any time. You could also store the sanchez at the start of the mission instead of at the end if you go that way.

If you need more swimming time you could also swim the last stretch on your way to pick up cesar in photo opportunity, since you are already in the water.

Joshimuz

Edit history:

Joshimuz: 2014-02-03 06:20:53 am

2014-02-03 06:20:29 am

Quote:

I also got some ghost trains while testing, where two trains are clipped inside eachother at the station, so I trip skip my train while the reporters train still takes the whole trip. But I assume those only appeared when I failed to enter the train and quickly reloaded a save to retry.

It does seem to be a loading issue, as both me and bubble have got this a few times.

Quote:

About the return trip: Do you have to unlock LV before choppers spawn in LS? I just remembered the raindance that spawns on the beach right beside the pier.

Bubble went through all the helicopters, and any that spawn anywhere decent require you to have completed flight school to spawn, including the raindance

Random_Machine

2014-02-03 11:22:53 pm

I like these new strats. Taking the train back would be faster than taking the helicopter back in the current route if you didn't have to wait 25 seconds to get out after doing the trip skip.

But I have a problem with taking the train back: How do you get the train to spawn on the left during the return trip? I can't get it to spawn consistently on the left. You would have to waste several seconds to get back to San Fierro if the train spawned on the right. That might still be faster than if the wrong train spawns.

Josh, you should use the ramp to jump out of the place in Yay Ka-Boom-Boom. Just run up the ramp and jump over the wall to the left. It should be safer and faster than climbing the containers. You didn't do that in the recent run.

You can also use a police vehicle to get out of the place in Yay Ka-Boom-Boom. But you need to get lucky for the police to follow you inside. A police bike can make it outside the main gate before it closes. The police car can also do that, but the tires get shot out too easily.

Gang Territory Tips
You can despawn the gang cars with the camera trick.

It would be suicide if you do the gang territories with 3+ stars and no police bike. It is still hard even with a police bike. Everyone(police and gang members) will shoot you a lot more if you do the gang stuff with a car.

The armor and health starts despawning after you capture a few gang territories. I don't know why that happens. They despawn when you start a new wave. You can try collecting the health/armor and then start the territory. Those guys shouldn't shoot you unless you shoot them.

I like these new strats. Taking the train back would be faster than taking the helicopter back in the current route if you didn't have to wait 25 seconds to get out after doing the trip skip.

But I have a problem with taking the train back: How do you get the train to spawn on the left during the return trip? I can't get it to spawn consistently on the left. You would have to waste several seconds to get back to San Fierro if the train spawned on the right. That might still be faster than if the wrong train spawns.

Josh, you should use the ramp to jump out of the place in Yay Ka-Boom-Boom. Just run up the ramp and jump over the wall to the left. It should be safer and faster than climbing the containers. You didn't do that in the recent run.

You can also use a police vehicle to get out of the place in Yay Ka-Boom-Boom. But you need to get lucky for the police to follow you inside. A police bike can make it outside the main gate before it closes. The police car can also do that, but the tires get shot out too easily.

[u]Gang Territory Tips[/u]
You can despawn the gang cars with the camera trick.

It would be suicide if you do the gang territories with 3+ stars and no police bike. It is still hard even with a police bike. Everyone(police and gang members) will shoot you a lot more if you do the gang stuff with a car.

The armor and health starts despawning after you capture a few gang territories. I don't know why that happens. They despawn when you start a new wave. You can try collecting the health/armor and then start the territory. Those guys shouldn't shoot you unless you shoot them.

Tirean

2014-02-04 01:20:06 am

In Yay Ka-Boom-Boom with the new ramp jump you can skip picking up a gun and hope the guys on the inside don't destroy you. At most the guys on the outside have shot me 2-3 times, no where near enough to kill you. This should save a tiny amount of time.