Difference between revisions of "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas/Game Mechanics and Glitches"

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(Glitches)
(Half-Territory Skip)
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Even though you cancel the gangwar after killing the 2nd wave, the territory still counts to the percentage you need for the last mission.
 
Even though you cancel the gangwar after killing the 2nd wave, the territory still counts to the percentage you need for the last mission.
  
This doesn't work during missions where you have to take over gang territories (Grove 4 Life, Beat Down on Bdup, Doberman) because you can't start any sidemissions and the mission probably checks if you actually fully taken the territory.
+
This doesn't work during missions where you have to take over gang territories (Grove 4 Life, Beat Down on Bdup, Doberman) because you can't start any sidemissions and the mission probably checks if you have actually fully taken the territory.

Revision as of 13:20, 13 January 2014

Game Mechanics

Movement on Foot

There is running, where you just press the forward key. Jumping is about 13% faster than running, sprinting is a lot faster. Tap the sprint key repeatedly to sprint faster.

Vehicles

When you enter an occupied car, CJ beats up the occupant. If there's not passenger it's usually faster to get in through the passenger door, because CJ just pushes the driver out. If both seats are occupied it's often faster to shoot the driver.

Leaving the door open

While entering a vehicle, keep JUMP or SPRINT pressed to prevent CJ from closing the door. If you do this when entering a car from the passenger side and push the NPC driver out, the NPC dies.

Getting in through the passenger seat door and leaving it open can be useful when a NPC enters the car after CJ, the NPC can get in instantly.

When getting out of a car, you leave the door open by moving away from it instantly. Open doors don't have collision (CJ just walks through them) but are affected by gravity. If you park the car on a slope or even just partly on a sidewalk, the door swings open/closes accordingly. Open doors also swing when you accelerate/brake.

Leaning on bikes

Tap the lean forward key repeatedly to lean forward on the bike, which makes driving the bike a lot faster. This doesn't work when a passenger is on the bike with you though.

Links

Bustedwarp/Deathwarp

When CJ gets busted or dies he is teleported to the nearest Police Station/Hospital. The idea behind a Bustedwarp/Deathwarp is to use this to reduce travel time. One important factor though is that CJ looses all weapons when doing this, so it is only useful on occasions where this doesn't matter.

Skills

Lung Capacity

CJ trains Lung Capacity when he is underwater, what counts is the time underwater, not the breath that is used. Swimming around underwater drains the breath faster, swimming around on the surface makes it regenerate slower, so this should be avoided if possible.

Weapon Skills

Some weapons have a weapon skill that is increased when you hit something that takes damage. So just shooting in the air or shooting walls doesn't work. There are basicially 3 skill-level: Poor, Gangster and Hitman. Poor starts at skill 0, Hitman is reached at 1000. Gangster is different for different weapons. In between levels there are info displays that tell you to keep practicing to reach the next level.

The following table shows at which number of skill points gangster level is reached, how many points one shot (approximately) increases the level and at what points an info appears:

Weapon Points per Shot Gangster Infos
Pistol ~0.5-1 40 200, 400, 600, 800
Tec9 / Micro-SMG ~0.5 50 200, 400, 600, 800 Tec9 and Micro-SMG share the same skill
M4 2 200 400, 600, 800
AK 3 200 400, 600, 800
Desert Eagle 3 200 400, 600, 800
Shotgun ~4-9 200 400, 600, 800
Combat Shotgun ~3-5 200 400, 600, 800
Sawn-off Shotgun ~3-7 200 400, 600, 800
SMG 1-3 250 400, 600, 800
Silenced Pistol 5 500 200, 400, 600

The numbers are based on the display in the stats menu when you hold a weapon that has a skill level. How much one shot increases the skill is a bit difficult to say, especially with the shotguns, so don't take those numbers too literally.

Frame Limiter / FPS Dependency

On the PC Version there is the Option to disable the Framelimiter (which normally limits the FPS to 25). However in this game the FPS affect many game mechanics, which is why it was agreed on to speedrun on 25-30 fps (anything other than 25 fps needs something like Dxtory or Fraps to limit the FPS).

Higher FPS change a few things, including:

  • Driving physics are different, vehicles seem to have more traction
  • CJ can sometimes randomly die when climbing things
  • Swimming/Diving is a lot slower up to impossible
  • You move further while freefalling
  • The Sliding Glitch is a lot harder to perform
  • Spraying Tags is faster
  • Grab detection seems to be fps-dependant, making some hard jumps easier/possible

Harder AI after having been in a car

Getting into a car apparently makes the AI aim better to offset the increased protection the player has. Some missions are a lot harder, because the mission enemies' AI doesn't get reset, even if the mission is on foot.

Missions that are known to cause problems because of this:

  • Sweet's Girl (You don't necessarily have a bike for this, but if one spawns, it's safer to take it.)
  • A Home in the Hills (Gets very difficult if you use a car to drive to the house instead of parachuting/running there.)
  • Green Goo (Gets a lot more difficult if you use a car before starting the mission. You can get on the bike near the safehouse before starting the mission to reset the AI.)
  • Toreno's Last Flight (Has a bike in front of it that you can use to reset the AI if you had to drive there in a car.)
  • Pier 69


Glitches

Sliding

Sliding is a form of movement that allows you to move faster than normal running or jumping (but slower than sprinting).

To start the slide, you have to start aiming in the transition between crouching and standing up while moving. So you have to crouch, move, stand up and aim. You can stand up by pressing crouch again or by pressing sprint. Sprint also gives you an extra boost, so that the way to go, so:

Crouch, Move, Sprint, Aim

You have to keep aiming and moving for the slide to keep going. If you stop the slide is interrupted.

Suitable Weapons

Any weapon that slows CJ down while aiming can be used for Sliding. This excludes all melee weapons and explosives because you can't aim them. See the table of sliding speeds for a list of weapons that can be used.

Shooting

You can fire weapons without interrupting the slide, if the weapon can be fired without CJ stopping.

  • Weapons that can be fired without stopping: Minigun, Fire Extuingisher, Spraycan, Flame Thrower
  • Weapons that can be fired without stopping once you reach Hitman Skill Level: AK47, M4, SMG, Combat Shotgun, Pump-Action Shotgun, Desert Eagle, Silenced Pistol

Speed

The sliding speed depends on how you start the slide as well as the strafe speed of the weapon you slide with, so different weapons have slightly different sliding speeds.

When you aim, CJ slows down to strafe speed. Sliding apparently kind of combines the strafe speed and the speed you have when starting the slide. Starting the slide while not moving means you slide with strafe speed, starting while moving but without using sprint is a bit faster and using sprint when starting the slide is the fastest.


Table of Sliding speeds in comparison to running speed. Note that the percentages might not be exact, even one second timing error can change the percentag by 1-2 percentage points.

Weapon No Skill Hitman Level
Running 0%
Jumping 13%
Silenced Pistol 23% 49%
Desert Eagle 23% 51%
Pump-Action Shotgun 25% 45%
SMG 29% 51%
AK-47 18% 33%
M4 18% 33%
Sniper Rifle 23%
Rifle 38%
Flamethrower 25%
Rocket Launcher 22%
Heat-Seaking RL 22%
Minigun 25%
Fire Extinguisher 23%
Spray Can 23%
Camera 23%

Links

Half-Territory Skip

To do this during gangwars, you need a vehicle that allows you to start a sidemission, for example a police bike (which is probably most convenient).

  1. Start a gangwar and kill wave number 1 and 2 normally
  2. Wait for the 3rd wave to spawn, then while being on the bike, start and cancel the side-mission, which will cancel the gangwar
  3. Use the enemies that spawned for the 3rd wave to start the next gangwar while standing in the next territory

Even though you cancel the gangwar after killing the 2nd wave, the territory still counts to the percentage you need for the last mission.

This doesn't work during missions where you have to take over gang territories (Grove 4 Life, Beat Down on Bdup, Doberman) because you can't start any sidemissions and the mission probably checks if you have actually fully taken the territory.

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