Grand Theft Auto V - Finally On The PC

[Brian]

Is there a bonus for running shipments with more people in the server?

There is, if they are a CEO or MC Leader.

Lately, if we're in an empty server and I've got a crew of 4 (including myself) and the delivery mission doesn't require four delivery vehicles, we will sometimes have one member drop out, register as a CEO, and then help provide cover during the mission. That nets the bonus for having another CEO in the game during the delivery.

[RuperT]

When the biker club came out, I ran full crews of randoms and made the longest (most lucrative) deliveries from the desert to downtown on a full server to maxmise player count bonuses.

Is there a bonus for running shipments with more people in the server? I've been doing solo missions with 1-4 people in there (me and 0-3 randoms) and didn't see any extra for that, but I may not have been paying attention.

There’s definitely a bonus. I think it’s 1% per player, not sure about minimum or maximum. Also, there can be mission differences based on player counts. For example, if delivering an Import/Export car in a server with no other player CEOs, very aggressive AI mobs will be spawned on your tail (4 waves IIRC), while none will appear if other CEOs are on the server (near or far).

[RuperT]

There are differences between the console and PC versions (such as how car insurance is handled), and I haven’t actively played in almost a year I think.

[Blackhawk]

Yeah, there's like a 1% bonus for each person. Admittedly 20%+ added to a full load would a lot of money, but it isn't worth it to me. The risk of some random asshole costing me 1.5 million plus a week's worth of time isn't worth the 20%. And if it only happens once every five deliveries, it would effectively neutralize the bonus.

[Brian]

Finally have some time to check out the new Casino, decide to give the Wheel of Fortune a try...Boom. Win the car.

Sweet.

[Paingod]

Finally have some time to check out the new Casino, decide to give the Wheel of Fortune a try...Boom. Win the car.

Sweet.

That's pretty awesome! I accidentally stepped into the Casino last night, but didn't want to do anything in there yet. I say accidentally...

I was running a shipment of weapons worth $75,000 last night, and didn't bother to clear my server. I had previously run a shipment of counterfeit bills and meth without an issue, as well as having done several supply missions. I had to use the dune buggy to deliver across 5 points on the map and had 2 left when I noticed an Oppressor MkII coming my way on the map. I assumed I knew what was about to happen, and it did happen - but not like I expected. He nuked me from orbit with no chance to fight back. I respawned and miraculously saw my weapon shipment sitting there waiting to be picked up still. Stealing my weapon shipment wasn't worth his time, but killing me was? I finished my deliveries on time and got a server population bonus that added up to a total of $99,000.

Then I tracked him down. He seemed to be visiting properties, probably to check his inventories. His first stop was the Casino, which made it my stop. I didn't know that when I drove up towards the door I'd be triggering a cut scene. By the time the cut scene was over, he had moved on to a Nightclub. I tracked him to his club and saw his rocket bike parked outside. I littered it with sticky bombs and sat on my motorcycle for a minute. He came out, jumped on his sweet ride, and then unceremoniously exploded into the sky. I collected $1127 from his corpse (a dick tax) and took off on my bike. The rocket bike is simply faster, though, even on a straight-away. He killed me once again and I opted to evac the server instead of dealing with someone who was probably going to spend the next hour blowing me up each time I respawned.

[Paingod]

I may have found a sweet niche for myself in this game. Off-road racing.

In doing the daily objectives (you get like $25,000 for completing them, right?) I had to participate in a land race. I joined the first one I found and it was my first off-road race. I picked the Trophy Truck as my vehicle out of the many options; I wasn't sure if it was the "best" or not, and there wasn't enough time to carefully evaluate them all. I started the race in 3rd place and easily took first as other players couldn't seem to control their vehicles in the rough terrain. 16 racers. All but maybe three or four of them were all over the place. Missing marks, missing turns, running into trees, etc. A mess.

The last few turns had me neck and neck with another guy in a dirt track truck (not the same model) and he rammed me into a bridge, but threw his own pace off in the process by getting us both hung up. He did get ahead of me, but I had acceleration over him and managed to get up close enough for a beautiful pit maneuver that threw him wide and got me 1st place. I don't think it could have been done more perfectly - I spun him and got out of the way so I barely lost any momentum.

A question on racing, though - Some people obviously chose inferior vehicles - like old beater trucks that barely accelerated. Is there a way to set up a race so there's no disparity between the vehicles and it can come down to player skill instead of incidental vehicle selection?

I also saw someone who was Level 666 the other night. Is this the level cap, or just a great place to be?

[Paingod]

Is it just me, or are people on rocket bikes about 93.4% guaranteed to be douchebags?

If anyone needs any help in-game today, I'll be on for a while. Got a day with no wife or kids to play with.

[Blackhawk]

Not just you. The Griefermobile doesn't serve much other purpose. It's hard to kill, but hard to do anything else on other than blowing stuff up.

The counter is the Vigilante, by the way, and that's never a guarantee. It's just the only thing that stands a chance.

[Paingod]

The counter is the Vigilante, by the way, and that's never a guarantee. It's just the only thing that stands a chance.

Against the player who had one today, the counter was sticky bombs. he kept trying to fly up behind me and got nuked twice for his efforts before he finally destroyed my supply shipment... in the rusted-out slow van.

[Paingod]

I'm struggling to mentally validate spending $75,000 to restock. Resupply missions take maybe 5-10 minutes each, and I save $15,000-$30,000... but I'm not putting money in the bank; I'm just avoiding spending it. Basically, I feel like restocking for $75,000 is almost like breaking even on time/money - and diminishes the overall "value" of the stock I sell by about half or more. On the flip side, running a couple quick missions - like Simeonomics & Burn Rate IV bring in ~$28,000 for 20 minutes of play (I've been gaining experience in Simeonomics by sneaking and KO'ing guards - and this makes the mission take longer, so it pays better). I run those two in between CEO missions like Headhunt ($25,000) and Hostile Takeover ($17,000).

I suppose buying resupplies would feel a lot more efficient if I had 5 or more businesses rolling at full steam and it was functionally impossible to keep them all stocked manually. It feels really nice when the Meth Lab turns out two full pips that sell for a total of $140,000.

I have managed to get my two functional businesses upgraded with efficient employees and supplies, so they produce as well as they can. A full supply bar yields 2 pips of product, if I'm not mistaken - which seems to take 2 trips to sell. It was a hard thing to swallow to throw $880,000 at my Counterfeit business for the last upgrade. I badly want the Vehicle Warehouse so I can start stealing cars for cash, but at over $2,000,000 it's a long way off by any measure and the extra efficiency will help in the long-long run.

I finally had someone destroy one of my sale shipments for me (not just a Supply run). It took a long time to actually happen. I was pretty annoyed at losing $50,000. Since then, I've spent almost all of my time playing in isolation unless I'm joining a team for something. I did a little digging and found that there's a utility Microsoft offers that can suspend a process using a command line. With that, I've got a little batch file on my desktop. Alt+Tab, double click, it suspends for 10 seconds, starts GTA back up, head back in, and I'm by myself. There's another step I could go using a 3rd party keymapper to run the script from inside the game with a press of a button, but that seemed a little too... naughty.

I've been joining a lot of random groups for story and side missions to keep things broken up and interesting. Most groups seem to flounder a bit, and really well gelled groups seem rare. It's a hoot when we get a nasty gun-slinging mission and the only one who brought an armored car refuses to let anyone into it until we've failed three times in a row.

My only real gripe is that I'm blowing a lot of cash on Researching camo patterns. Weapon systems I get, but paint jobs? Unless they make my vehicles tougher, it's all kinds of lame.

Having been on vacation this week with my wife out of town, I've logged an excessive number of hours in this and am feeling a touch burned out.

[Blackhawk]

Spoiler for the end of the casino mission chain:

Spoiler:

[Paingod]

I feel like a total crotch.

This morning I got to fly a Frogger helicopter, which I got with the Criminal Enterprise pack. Having flown it sparked curiosity in where I could acquire it once I got the hangar. I found it online using the phone and found it was "Free" as in I could buy it. So I did. That, in turn, made me wonder if it had parked anywhere. I didn't see it on any property listings with my Mechanic, so I did a Google Search to see where it may have gone.

Phone > Pegasus > $200 to deliver to nearest helipad.

I now have my own helicopter to zip around with, and $200 is more than reasonable to respawn it somewhere near where I might need it. as it was, I was running to the airfield near my counterfeit production and stealing helicopters... but they'd keep de-spawning. Not figuring this out until now is a major :facepalm:

[Octavious]

As loaded this up last night after a long break and I'm just so overwelmed by everything going on. I mean there's freaking people flying around on bikes now.

[Redfive]

As loaded this up last night after a long break and I'm just so overwelmed by everything going on. I mean there's freaking people flying around on bikes now.

That's what happens to me when I log on. I see these write ups about stuff that I never had a clue was in the game and it all sounds cool. So I log on and get griefed by some asshole on a flying bike and that pretty much kills severely dampens the interest.

[Paingod]

As loaded this up last night after a long break and I'm just so overwelmed by everything going on. I mean there's freaking people flying around on bikes now.

That's what happens to me when I log on. I see these write ups about stuff that I never had a clue was in the game and it all sounds cool. So I log on and get griefed by some asshole on a flying bike and that pretty much kills severely dampens the interest.

Depending on what your motives are for the game, you don't necessarily need to play with others. I've spent the last few days in relative solitude, playing missions, stealing stock, selling goods, upgrading facilities.

Having figured out that I actually have a helicopter I can keep around nearby has changed the game for me. My resupply missions went from kind of tedious to more interesting as I can fly to some and drive to others (depending on whether or not I'm coming back with whatever vehicle I brought to get there). I'd say it's more than doubled my resupply mission speed. A lot of them take maybe 5 minutes, and yield a savings of $15,000 to $30,000. Very very worth it right now as I've still got just the three businesses.

[Paingod]

All three of my businesses are upgraded in production, but without Security. Now it's time to start a fourth? I'm thinking the Alamo Sea coke shop as it's nearest to my other two business facilities (though my Bunker is in no-man's land in the northwest). Or should I bite the bullet and start saving the ~$3m needed to get a vehicle warehouse?

Looking at the other coke factories, I assume that if I set up shop in the city I'd be delivering up into the northern country, as opposed to setting up shop in the north and delivering south?

*Edit: Or the Nightclub? With three functional factories, it looks like I'd be able to deploy 3 out of 5 potential technicians to accrue more money. Extra side bonus, I keep seeing that I need the nightclub to get the Terrorbyte mobile command.

**Edit: Really not sure. I like the thought of the Nightclub > Terrorbyte since I do a lot of manual resupply and could park the thing in a common good place to run missions from to save even more time in the long run - but I've been doing okay with the Frogger chopper and flying my butt around town for resupplies and deliveries... and I've been reading that before you consider the Terrorbyte, you should probably have $5m in the bank to cover Nightclub costs and getting a fully tricked out command center (not a stripped down one you have to re-buy later).

What pathways did you take (if you've gotten these things)?

[Blackhawk]

Honestly? I went with what sounded like fun rather than what was efficient. I'm pretty sure I went:

Apartment
Bunker
Mobile Operations Center
Nightclub
Biker club
Biker businesses
Office
Vehicle warehouse
Terrorbyte

With various fun wastes of money and refurbishings in between.

[Redfive]

As loaded this up last night after a long break and I'm just so overwelmed by everything going on. I mean there's freaking people flying around on bikes now.

That's what happens to me when I log on. I see these write ups about stuff that I never had a clue was in the game and it all sounds cool. So I log on and get griefed by some asshole on a flying bike and that pretty much kills severely dampens the interest.

Depending on what your motives are for the game, you don't necessarily need to play with others. I've spent the last few days in relative solitude, playing missions, stealing stock, selling goods, upgrading facilities.

Having figured out that I actually have a helicopter I can keep around nearby has changed the game for me. My resupply missions went from kind of tedious to more interesting as I can fly to some and drive to others (depending on whether or not I'm coming back with whatever vehicle I brought to get there). I'd say it's more than doubled my resupply mission speed. A lot of them take maybe 5 minutes, and yield a savings of $15,000 to $30,000. Very very worth it right now as I've still got just the three businesses.

I did a quick Google search about where to get started in GTAO and among the many links that came back, more than a few said to go ahead and do the missions that are provided by the story characters as they are usually instanced (if that term applies) and only you and your team are involved, meaning you can't be griefed by others. At least that is how I understood it.

So I logged on and took a repo mission where I was supposed to assault a police station, grab a vehicle, and deliver it to the docks. I jumped on and one other guy did it with me and we managed to make the delivery. I got paid and then the game zoomed back up into the clouds which I believe is the loading screen. And then it just stuck there. Eventually I had to Alt-F4 to get out as no keys were responding.

That, combined with the atrocious load times, caused me to move on to other stuff for the day.

I'll go back--the game is clearly very good and quite fun--but it was too much for me this weekend.

[Paingod]

I'm shooting for efficiency because (1) I think that in itself can be fun and (2) I feel like I'm drastically behind the curve.

I have been enjoying the zen quality of resupply missions. Keeping $75,000 in my pocket x3 businesses has made them feel much more lucrative. When I compare a restock mission's time to complete against something like Simeonomics, it still seems worthwhile... and when I sell stock for $144,000 I don't lament that that's only half profit - but that's me and a limited budget.

Steam tells me I've got maybe 130 hours into GTA 5 and Online. I think that's probably 105 hours with Online as I didn't get very far into the storyline.

In that time, my process has been:

• Buy a crappy apartment
• Buy a slightly better apartment
• Buy a MC Clubhouse, stare at the costs to upgrade it
• Buy a Counterfeit facility
• Get the Criminal Enterprise pack - Incl. Bunker, Maze Bank West, 10-car garage; already had Apartment, Counterfeit, Clubhouse
• Buy a Meth Lab near my Counterfeit facility
• Upgrade Counterfeit production & staff
• Upgrade Meth lab production & staff
• Upgrade Bunker production & staff

Through all of that, I've probably piddled away something like $650,000+ on various vehicle upgrades, and another $250,000+ on guns.

Now I'm in a place where I can run some resupplies to get my 3 facilities to 4 or 5 bars each, then wander off to run missions for a while and let them work. For missions I tend to do CEO Headhunts ($25,000 for 10-15 min of work) or run a couple easier but rewarding solo missions. I sometimes pick up random races or jobs on the side when they pop up. I come back to facilities that are 1.5-2 bars done and sell off stock for $100,000-$150,000 each. Repeat this cycle every 120 minutes or so? I haven't timed myself on the loop. I haven't tried to set up larger runs of goods as I don't trust random people with my goods and haven't had many opportunities to group up with anyone here regularly.

At any rate - I finally feel like I'm making some easier money on a regular schedule and want to try to plan a few steps out.

I got paid and then the game zoomed back up into the clouds which I believe is the loading screen. And then it just stuck there. Eventually I had to Alt-F4 to get out as no keys were responding.

That, combined with the atrocious load times, caused me to move on to other stuff for the day.

The load times are part of why I've started using a Suspend Process batch file. The other part is to keep griefers out of my sessions while I'm running goods.

I've found that when I finish a set of missions with people, the game wants to drop me back into a session with a high general population. Something about that wants to take what feels like minutes sometimes. I assume it's trying to sync me to them. When I stall, I Alt+Tab, double-click my Suspend batch file, and return to GTA Online. Almost without fail I'm dropped right into a session by myself instead of hanging and waiting to connect to a full one.

I haven't found anything to help with the horrendous long initial load time for the game, though.

[Redfive]

Interesting. I haven't messed with batch files since DOS and only skimmed the surface then.

Is it hard to put into place?

[Paingod]

This is modified from a Steam post.

1. Download and extract PSTools from Microsoft.
2. Extract the files in this Zip file and copy them to your System32 folder in Windows (these are Microsoft utilities, not random 3rd party malware or hacks). This is mostly to ensure your computer can locate the programs in the "Path" it would normally look for things.
3. Create a batch file (Create a new Text file and change file extension to .bat instead of txt)
4. Right-click and edit the batch file to include the following:

   Code: Select all

   @echo off
   pssuspend.exe gta5.exe
   timeout /t 10 /nobreak
   pssuspend -r gta5.exe

5. Save & close the batch file.

Now you can Alt+Tab out of GTA Online, double-click a batch file, it'll count down from 10, and you can return to GTA Online and very likely be in a session all by your lonesome. The linked Steam post adds steps to create a hotkey, which I haven't found warranted yet and I didn't want to delve into the 3rd party software to see if it was kosher.

The manual alternative is to keep the Resource Monitor up (open Task Manager, go to Performance Tab, click "Open Resource Monitor"). In the list f running apps, find GTA5.exe. Right-click it, select "Suspend Process" and count 10 seconds. Then right-click and "Resume Process" to bring it back to life. The batch file just removes manual steps and guarantees accurate timing to isolate you. The few times I've been able to connect with folks from OO, they used this method before doing larger sale missions.

It doesn't help that every newbie to the game is told "GO BLOW THIS UP" and lots of people with Opressor MkII Rocketbikes think it's a jolly good time. I thought I was supposed to do this when I first started ... until Blackhawk and Brian regaled me with their tales of spanking newbies for an hour for trying to do what the game told them to do.

Another person on Reddit helpfully adds:

You also can unplug ethernet cable for several seconds, or disable and enable network interface

Basically, you're fooling the Rockstar servers into thinking you've got network issues, so they create a new session for you. Random people can still join, but you won't be flooded or have 28 other people there with you immediately.

It's my understanding that this is something Rockstar hasn't been able to shut down as an exploit - or isn't interested in it. I wager it's because there may not be a good way to tell genuine network latency vs. faked latency on the client side when no hacking tools are being employed and the utilities are all part of the OS - and they don't want to run around banning people with slow internet connections or dawdling XBOX networks.

[Redfive]

Cool, thanks for the info.

[Paingod]

Glad to help; hope it helps.

I didn't think about it too much until I lost my first high-value shipment to a guy who came out of left field on his rocket bike and blew me to hell, destroying $50,000 in the process. After that, remembering what Blackhawk had said about the bonus for doing runs in player-populated sessions being worthless if you lose just one shipment out of several (I think the bonus depends on how many opposing CEO's/MC Presidents there are when you complete it), I stopped doing transports in public areas.

Regular gameplay, no problem. It's a lot of fun to riot around the city with people and I don't sweat being picked off for having a bounty. I just refuse to sell goods with strangers looking over my shoulder. If I'm not paying attention and launch a sale mission, I sweat a little when I see a rocket bike on the minimap. These things seem to be almost exclusively used by people who've invested in ways to ruin other people's fun.

*Edit: Last night I pulled together around $380,000 in 3 hours. 95% of that was from my businesses. I spent a lot of time failing a Lamar mission, playing around in the Arena, and goofing off in my helicopter aside from that. Each night when I shut down I try to have my stock at all three at 4 bars or higher so I don't need to fiddle with it as soon as I get back in.

On the Arena - I'm annoyed that every mission I join there contains just one person who's decked out a car with all the accouterments and decimates everyone else easily. Recurring theme. If I'm going to play there without my own investments, I should probably host the missions and set it to no Custom cars so we're all on even footing. I think very few people play the arena with regularity (enough to warrant the multi-million dollar investment in garages, cars, and equipment)... but those that do seem to live there. A 1st place win is good for like $6,000 to $9,000. Getting those cars tricked out for winning consistently probably costs $5,000,000. That's a recoup of expenses in 700ish 1st place battles. You've got to be doing it for the fun of it.

On the Casino - I have never seen a greater waste of money. I've played every game in there and lost consistently. The house does indeed always win. The only thing that's been worthwhile for me in there is the nightly spin on the big wheel. I've gotten clothes, $100K in cash, and $25K in chips. No cars for me yet... I'm nowhere near as lucky as Brian.

[Redfive]

Created that batch file and played another session last night.

Sometimes I just have to sit still and try to parse all the information that is constantly incoming. I'm always getting notices about weapons / gear / cosmetic unlocks, which is fine, but the damn cell phone never stops ringing and oftentimes it the same contact calling over and over.

Do I just need to listen to the phone call to get them to stop calling? Can't even escape damn telemarketers in a game

I took a repo job from Simeone which put me into a loading lobby with other players--I remember that from the few times I played with Brian and Blackhawk. It seemed like the players were trying to get the job done but I was basically just along for the ride. What I mean by that is that I was still trying to process what I was supposed to do but the other players were off and running. I didn't want to get left behind so I just followed and jumped in the cars.

I'm not a slow learner but it would be nice to have just a little time to process the information (i.e. put a waypoint on the map if I want--I know the targets show up on the minimap but sometimes I prefer the waypoint trail) before things kickoff.

We failed the mission even though we delivered a couple of cars to the docks..not sure why but there was a further message about the feds or something that we had to deal with. I again didn't really get to process it before I had to run and follow so I'm not sure what went wrong. Still got $7,500 and managed to level up (just to 22).

Then I spent the next 30 minutes on a treasure hunt because it seemed like something I could get done without relying on others. I found 2/3 clues and was heading to the last when I got disconnected with a message that said I was kicked by other players? WTF?

So I logged off for the night. I wish this were a little less frustrating. I'm pretty patient but if I spend the time (3-4 minutes?) for the game to load at first and then get randomly disconnected, wasting 30 minutes, it kind of takes the wind out of my sails.

Had fun while I was playing though.

[Paingod]

I'm sorry you're still having issues.

I got disconnected with a message that said I was kicked by other players? WTF?

I've logged over 110 hours in Online and never seen this. I assume this was some kind of hacking thing. I've only bumped into a few of those doing things that should be impossible... like one guy who glued his character to mine in obscene thrusting motions. I had to kill myself to get rid of him humping me and jumped to a solo session to make sure it was done for good.

Sometimes I just have to sit still and try to parse all the information that is constantly incoming. I'm always getting notices about weapons / gear / cosmetic unlocks, which is fine, but the damn cell phone never stops ringing and oftentimes it the same contact calling over and over.

Do I just need to listen to the phone call to get them to stop calling? Can't even escape damn telemarketers in a game

Probably my biggest complaint. Even turning off tooltips (which you don't want to do as a newbie) doesn't make them stop calling. What I've discovered, though, is that they seem to call just once per session you join. As long as you're in an independent session, I think you get called once - but when you hit some missions and return to a new session, you'll get called again. It's maddening, the community has never stopped complaining, and Rockstar seems content with it as-is.

I *think* you may stop getting related calls once you own the associated property, though. I haven't tested this for truth, but like to assume that when I buy a Nightclub, I'll stop getting calls about buying a Nightclub - or if I get an Arena garage, I'll stop getting calls for the Arena. I'm not getting calls about setting up a Motorcycle Clubhouse or buying a Bunker, but can't remember if I was getting them before in the slew of other calls I got.

I took a repo job from Simeone which put me into a loading lobby with other players--I remember that from the few times I played with Brian and Blackhawk. It seemed like the players were trying to get the job done but I was basically just along for the ride. What I mean by that is that I was still trying to process what I was supposed to do but the other players were off and running. I didn't want to get left behind so I just followed and jumped in the cars.

I'm not a slow learner but it would be nice to have just a little time to process the information (i.e. put a waypoint on the map if I want--I know the targets show up on the minimap but sometimes I prefer the waypoint trail) before things kickoff.

We failed the mission even though we delivered a couple of cars to the docks..not sure why but there was a further message about the feds or something that we had to deal with. I again didn't really get to process it before I had to run and follow so I'm not sure what went wrong. Still got $7,500 and managed to level up (just to 22).

It sounds like you got dropped into one of the harder Repo missions, where you have 15 minutes to steal 4 cars and return them to the docks - and when you get those 4, you have to steal another 4 and return them (but the clock doesn't reset). This is an easy mission to fail - whether someone gets killed trying to steal from the cops or people take too long getting back with the first round of cars.

Waypoints can be quickly established by hitting "Esc" and then clicking on the map. A set of crosshairs will be visible there and you can either scroll around with the mouse or use the arrow keys to move them. By pressing "Enter" over an objective or location, you'll get a purple line indicating a functional route to that location. This shows up on your minimap when you return to the game. I say functional because as you play you'll start to learn little shortcuts here and there to shave seconds or more off your travel time, but the purple route is generally okay.

Unfortunately, through some areas, just heading towards a waypoint will lead you to a dead-end and you'll need to loop back and take a freeway offramp that leads to a loop under/over another road to get there. Out in the boonies it can be fun to cut directly across the hills on a motorcycle and bypass all the roads, but you may end up in a ditch, river, or smashed up on a tree.

When I start a mission, I hop in my car, bring up the map, set a waypoint, and take off.

Useful tip:
You can practice a lot of missions solo or run them yourself on your terms, having people join you instead of you joining them. When you're Online, hit Escape and go to the Online menu tab. In there you can replay recent missions, view bookmarked missions, and even create a playlist of missions. When you create a playlist, you can include anything you've recently played (that you meet the criteria for, like being level 25+) or skim through a list of missions, races, and other activities to add.

I've created a 9-mission playlist of missions I can accomplish on my own or with another person, as well as a very short playlist with a couple lucrative missions I can run to kill a few minutes while I wait for a timer to refresh.

One of my favorite missions is Simeonomics. It can be solo'd and played one of two ways. First, you can just blaze in with your car and steal the two cars from the airliner one at a time (no time limit); an easy $15,000 payout. Second, you can drive up to the gate, get out of your car, and sneak around the airport, KO'ing guards and employees from behind and steal the cars without alerting anyone. This is a better payout, but only because you're in the mission longer - usually around $20,000+.

The sweetest thing Brian and Blackhawk showed me, though, where the subway tunnels you can hide in to lose the cops. If you're doing this mission, you'll see the train tracks you can cross between Simeon's car lot and the airport. If you follow these tracks in either direction, you'll find they head underground. Drive down there and the cops won't follow you. You can safely sit out a 4-star rating down there and drive out scott-free.

[Sepiche]

I've had GTA5 for a while now and never set foot online. I like the idea of the progression in the online game, but what percentage of my time should I expect to spend annoyed at others interrupting my game? From what I've read there doesn't seem to be a way to avoid the occasional griefer, correct?

[Paingod]

I've had GTA5 for a while now and never set foot online. I like the idea of the progression in the online game, but what percentage of my time should I expect to spend annoyed at others interrupting my game? From what I've read there doesn't seem to be a way to avoid the occasional griefer, correct?

That's mostly correct. When you're in a public session, you have no control over what other people can do.

In my 100+ hours of play, I've encountered

• Three or four people who just wanted to pick fights with me and killed me repeatedly.
• One person who was obviously hacking and annoying me, but not really doing any harm.
• A few people who seemed to deliberately blow a mission for a whole team.
• Several people interested in destroying my shipments of goods or supplies I was stealing (the game puts a big red beacon on the map and tells players to destroy it for profit).
• Several people who had mastered a specific aspect of the game and were hosting competitive missions few others would stand a chance of winning - like an Arena fight or supercar race with custom autos "On".

Anytime people annoy me, I use my aforementioned batch file to drop out into my own session and play with Online progression and no annoyance. there's no avoiding people in missions, though. At most they cost you 10 minutes of time in a mission or something, plus whatever reward you only got partial credit for. The game isn't rife with asshats, but they're not extinct either.

To avoid them, you just don't want to run sale missions for goods it took you 5 hours to generate in public sessions. You be sure to open your phone, go online, and deposit your cash on hand after running a series of missions.

I say all this as someone who typically loathes PvP games where griefers can ruin your fun. There's not enough of them, nor is there no way to avoid them, for it to stop me from playing. Even as a newbie, I didn't find myself getting pasted for jollies.

[Blackhawk]

I've had GTA5 for a while now and never set foot online. I like the idea of the progression in the online game, but what percentage of my time should I expect to spend annoyed at others interrupting my game? From what I've read there doesn't seem to be a way to avoid the occasional griefer, correct?

Scroll up to PG's instructions for the batch file. It will instantly place you in a copy of the world with none of those pesky human beings. Eventually a few others will wander in, but hit the batch file again and they're gone. Besides, the griefers usually don't bother with the almost-empty servers. They don't want to have to work for their fun.

Hit any of us up if you see us online, too, either through the game or via Discord. Note: I'm often actually AFK, letting product fill up my warehouses, so if I don't respond when it shows I'm playing, it's nothing personal.

[Paingod]

I'm often actually AFK, letting product fill up my warehouses, so if I don't respond when it shows I'm playing, it's nothing personal.

By often, he means "always" ...

The game doesn't generate product in your businesses unless you're online. As a workaround you can park yourself at the TV in your apartment without getting kicked off for being AFK indefinitely (I think). It takes hours to generate a full warehouse that will need a team of 4 to sell it off and make some big money with little effort.

I seem to play during the hours when no one's up for playing much, so I tend to let my businesses generate enough stock for me to run by myself (usually just one full supply bar, which makes up to 2 bars of goods, which is 1-2 trips for selling; even with the slowest sale mission (UPS trucks), I can make two delivery runs with 30 seconds to spare).

[Sepiche]

Thanks guys, I'll give it a try sometime.

[Blackhawk]

I'm often actually AFK, letting product fill up my warehouses, so if I don't respond when it shows I'm playing, it's nothing personal.

By often, he means "always" ...

I do most of my actual playing these days at pre-planned times when I know I'll have enough people to do full deliveries. Most of the rest of the time if I'm on it is to build up stock for those nights. There are actually several ways to stay AFK without getting disconnected. I just walk into a corner and put a nickel in front of the 'forward' key so that I walk endlessly into the wall (well, I use a drill press.) You just have to find a spot that you'll do the walking animation, not stop (hence the drill press.) I do that rather than the apartment tricks because I can stay in my bunker, pull the nickel out, buy supplies, and be back at the drill press in about 60 seconds. A busy day around the house, or a movie, or board gaming, or RPG day and I can make hundreds of thousands in profit without more than that one minute of babysitting every few hours.

I'm actually planning to start engaging in some more active play now that I have the car warehouse in place.

[Paingod]

I'm actually planning to start engaging in some more active play now that I have the car warehouse in place.

If you see me on, hit me up and I'll happily help boost some cars to fill the space.

For anyone who'd like to add me, I'm Rackminster in-game (and on Discord).

[RuperT]

Regarding getting kicked, if you check the player list under Online on the start menu, you can mute or vote to kick individual players on the server. IIRC once half the players in the session vote to kick you, the server will do so in a minute. Many times when you join a group’s ‘empty server’, they will kick you to keep it safe and empty. There are even certain big ‘safe server’ crews that instakick anyone not wearing their tag. You might look into it PG (check reddit GTAO forums). I never did, nor did I ever figured a method to reliably split into an empty session (besides going AFK for a couple hours). It was a bit depressing running by myself anyway, so I usually just spammed invites to CEO Corp. and tougher it out. Also, a text to the red jet bikes and planes to ‘let me pay you to fly around’ was pretty effective in getting them off my back (even if they didn’t help with operations they would keep other griefers tied up). As I said earlier though, this predated the Mk II jetbike, which has trivial access to a missile unlike the Mk I. The sub car was actually a good counter, as it can be armored enough to take the first missile in a joust, and has the fast missile also. Plus it’s just cool.
I’d recommend to anyone to go with the vehicle import/export as quick as you can. I expect you already know the ‘trick’ to max profit BH, but

Spoiler:

if you fill the warehouse with lower grade cars and only sell the high values, eventually the unique slots are filled and you will only source a guaranteed high value car after selling one to empty its slot.

I just ended up shuttering my MC businesses.

[Brian]

Another thing to add is that you can create a solo, invite-only, or friends-only lobby. Load into the single player first, then bring up the online menu and you can then create your own, private lobby.

In the solo lobby you can run all of the contact missions from Simeon and couple of other contacts.
In the friends-only and Invite-only lobbies you can run all of the original heists and a bunch of other contact missions.

The downside is that any Motorcycle or CEO work can ONLY be done in a public lobby which is there the disconnect glitch to create an empty lobby comes in handy.

The Doomsday heist is a mixed bag. The setup missions need to be run in a public lobby but the various mission finales can be run in IO/FO servers.

[Brian]

Also, just for random fun, I decided this morning I was going to use the disconnect exploit to keep spinning the Wheel of Fortune until I won this weeks car.

Got it on the first spin.

[Paingod]

Also, just for random fun, I decided this morning I was going to use the disconnect exploit to keep spinning the Wheel of Fortune until I won this weeks car.

Got it on the first spin.

Okay, so you suck. You've won both cars now, right?

I'm tempted by this exploit thing you mention. I assume it relies on sitting there with your network cable in your hand, ready to yank it out of the back of the computer if the car doesn't come up before the wheel stops and then terminating GTA before you plug it back in.

I'd be more into "The Wheel" if I could spin it once every game day. Having to remember that I spun it yesterday at 9:47pm makes it tedious, or I suppose, I could spin it once every other day. I'm only there to try and win the car, though.

For all that people abuse disconnecting from this game, Rockstar must think the general public has terrible network latency.

*Edit: Here's a million-dollar question ... when you sell the cars you win, can you re-win them - and do you get a decent sale value for them? Or are they like the properties I got with the Criminal Enterprise pack - $0 resale, plus upgrade value.

just ended up shuttering my MC businesses.

Interesting. Shuttering as in selling, or just stopped supplying them?

I'm saving up for ... something. I'm not 100% sure what yet. The Vehicle Warehouse has been tickling my interest for some time, but is a big investment. I think it's around $3m for a good location. I've got $1.1m right now and accumulate maybe $400,000 each evening. I was thinking of doing a climb up the ladder, so to speak, with the Nightclub as my next purchase since it unlocks the Terrorbyte, which seems to be the most functional mobile base, where I'd manage all other business ventures without leaving it. If I add another production facility I'd probably stop running resupplies for the Weapons Bunker, since it takes the most time to do these. It's in a remote location and the missions can be harder and much much more time consuming than the other businesses - killing a whole building full of Merryweather guards for a single bar of supplies (Railgun mission)? Yuck...

Last night I suffered a setback at my Meth lab. Immediately after dumping my stock from the Counterfeit press, I was notified about a raid. I showed up and got myself killed by the cops. In an unexpected twist, I was actually BUSTED. That's never happened. I assumed I'd die and respawn and keep fighting. Instead, the cops walked off with everything from the lab - product and supplies. Thankfully, all that was really lost was time. When I did the setup mission again, my supply bar was almost full, so in a short while I'll get back what I lost.

[Brian]

You can only win the car from the wheel once per week. Once you've won that weeks podium car if you hit the car again then you get, if I remember correctly, a cash reward instead. You have to wait until the new podium car drops each Thursday before you can win another car.

In other news, they've fixed the racetrack exploit where you hit the bet button and immediately press down on the D-pad. You can no longer do this as I discovered this morning.

[Paingod]

In a game where you'd have to give them $100 for $8,000,000 in game cash, you'd think they'd be all over people exploiting the different casino games and raking in millions.

This got me curious and I'm seeing more than one or two exploits that people have used for easy cash.

How in the hell did Rockstar con people into giving them $500,000,000 in real money for fake money when you can just jiggle the game's reality sensors to cause it to jackpot out millions?

[Brian]

Update on the Racetrack exploit: I've heard that it still works if you are using a mouse instead of a controller.

I will try to verify when I get home tonight.