GTA Online

generalissimofurioso said:
Oh man, it was pretty great, I managed to carry out the weapons I got from Survival into the main overworld.

These guys were just flying around in a helicopter taking potshots at people, so I used my one leftover RPG to blow them out of the sky.

I feel like I've been dispensing street justice or something.

Here's hoping that I manage to keep all those other guns I've picked up during that time.

It would mean I've got like 5000 rounds of minigun bullets.
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Yeah, Survival does that. But no, you don't have 5000 Minigun rounds, you'll have a max of maybe 500. The pickups in Survival don't give you the maximum capacity for the associated weapon. For example, now that I've unlocked the Assault Rifle for my own purchase and all of its modifications, I can walk around, at all times, with over 1500 rounds for the assault rifle. In Survival, I can't carry more than 90. Survival doesn't give you full Miniguns, and even if you loot the Miniguns off of the Wave 10 enemies, it won't let you carry more than approximately 500 rounds. You also won't be able to refill ANY ammunition for those weapons if they're locked. So use them sparingly.

For me, the fun has ended (well I'm exaggerating, I'm just mildly disappointed about what I'll detail). I was having a blast replaying Violent Duct, and it reminded me heavily of NOOSE from GTAIV. To those who've played GTAIV heavily without instantly dropping it out of whatever lacking reason used to not give the game a decent chance at winning you over (meaning those who know what I'm talking about what I say "NOOSE"), that might sound like I'm saying it's traumatizing and boring, but I actually mean the opposite. I was traumatized by the amount of time I had to put into NOOSE, but gradually I missed it, and since all the friends I played NOOSE with had moved on and wanted to put as much distance between themselves and it as possible, I had no one to play it with, so that desire to enjoy and relive that fun game mode (and in retrospect, it was SPECTACULARLY fun) became little more than shooting the breeze with those friends. Well Violent Duct, like NOOSE, paid off extremely well, it occupied a fine medium between piss easy and infuriatingly difficult, through repetition I was able to form a tailored system that ran through the mission at near-perfection, and I could repeat it endlessly. I made a loooooooooooot of cash playing Duct, but I was worried that because I rose in rank as well that I wouldn't be offered the mission any longer ("too high level"), but I was pleasantly graced by the offer from Gerald, so I resumed my fun.

Sadly, I noted that the payoff had sharply decreased. Instead of $9000 per run, I now get paid $3000 every time I complete the mission. It devastated me when I noticed this. Perhaps Rockstar noticed a trend of players doing similar to me and spamming Duct runs, so the price cut was change they applied to the mission? Perhaps it was an aspect of the mission to begin with that I would be paid less the more I replayed it? Whatever the case, my new favorite pasttime in the game just received a crippling blow. It's still paying off, but losing 300% of the cash infusion is startling, to say the least. It's still the best method of griding, that's for sure, as it puts the next closest method, Survival, to complete and utter shame at the difference in productivity. So needless to say, if I wanna rise through the ranks some more, or farm for better gear, I'll still be doing Duct runs, but it's just not AS profitable as it used to be, merely a day ago. =(
 
Looks like they've cut earnings across the board. $1000-3000 per mission really sucks, I'd actually have to farm to make a decent amount. They should instead just remove replay and limit how often you can request jobs.
 
Some of the missions you get later on from contacts like Lester and Madrazo are both really neat and pay pretty well.

It helped that I had some decent teammates rather than the usual batch of jerks who try to kill me and steal my car.

Was pretty cool zipping around the city blowing up everything cop-related.
 
I found those missions quite the opposite; neither all that neat nor well paying. =/ Lester's first mission, blowing up all the police vehicles, was a drag, and the payoff barely covered my costs (since 2 grenades wouldn't destroy the 8 or so vehicles in 3 separate destinations that was required, so I had to buy more munitions). The next mission Lester gave me seemed impossibe to tackle solo, so that discouraged me as well. I know it's an Online mission, so I should expect them to be geared towards multiple players, but IMPOSSIBLE solo is just poor design. Difficult without backup, and I'm onboard. The first mission from Madrazo that I can think of, "Death From Above", was mildly entertaining, but also exasperating. Starts you off RIGHT next to your destination, only you need to drive across the city away from it to pick up a helicopter, and if you fly in, you're still in the middle of a hornet's nest of security that merely approaching earn you a 3-star wanted level? The mission's very design just slaps you in the face right from the beginning, and it never lets up.

I tried passing "Death From Above" with "friends", but they were wasting my time by lingering on the helipad and preventing helicopters from spawning, running into the security headfirst and dying, taking the one helicopter and crashing it, so on and so forth. I tried to lead them to victory by demonstrating what the goal was, but apparently since observing the mission description was asking too much, watching me apprehend helicopters, parachute, and take cover was also demanding too much brainpower of them. I passed it solo by parachuting in, getting lucky with the target approaching me so I could snap a photo from the roof top, and then using my 1 spare life to get me clear of the premises so I could finish the mission. Without competent players (something I've still yet to come across), that mission would be a real pisser. I bailed while waiting for the other 3 to get a clue after multiple failed attempts, and in retrospect I realized that probably counted towards being a "poor sport". That marks the first time I did so, and I've ONLY seen $1000 in reward for being a "good sport", so I'm not missing anything as long as I don't keep it up.

Subsequent Madrazo missions, funnily enough, have been kinda fun. Kill a witness driving around in a vehicle, snap a photo, visit Madrazo. Easy enough, and still different from all the drug runs and tanker heists for Gerald and Lamar to keep it interesting. I also thoroughly enjoy the Gang Attacks opportunities that Madrazo set me up with. Finishing 4 in 1 game day for the Platinum Award will be pretty tricky, but not insurmountable, and I relish a good challenge. Violent Duct remains my favorite mission, because of how meticulously I broke it down. Even though I make a fraction of the payoff I used to, I know how to tackle that mission systematically for the pinnacle of efficiency, and that's really fun, to me.

EDIT: Patch 1.03... well fuck. The R2 Quick Replay has been removed (except when you've failed), so my ability to enjoy Violent Duct has been taken away from me. I actually LIKED that mission, I wasn't spamming it because I wanted to cheat or somehow "gain an unfair advantage" over other players (which just begs the question, then, aren't the microtransactions equally "unfair" in that they favor pay-to-win?). Players were already laughing at anyone who hadn't reach Rank 100 or higher through pre-1.03 binge sessions as soon as the patch went live, and it really did seem like "fuck you" patch more than anything else. If I can select coop missions to play, not being able to automatically replay them is an inconvenience, but not a terrible one. But I CAN'T select my coop missions; I need to ask for a job and hope that the RNG picks the mission I want. If it doesn't, I can't ask for another job from the same contact for "a little while", so my choice of replay is negatively impacted. It just makes me really unhappy that services are negatively altered in favor of the producer and not for the benefit of the consumer. That just strikes me as grossly backwards, poor business practice. =/
 
Cool, but idealy we need more than two to start a crew, if a couple more were interested it would be grand. Anyone else?

Gametarg: TK6530
 
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