homepage Forums SimHQ Community Community Hall So I decided to play GTA V

Which ones, what's the address? Do you ever play in first person?

first one is majestic 51 ap, the second one is lambark west office. i wanted to replay the game in first person, but never did. i noticed that i crashed a lot lol.

OK, cool thanks. I own the same ones.

Here's the view on a balmy summer Los Santos evening from the office garage (Lombank West)




I bought the casino penthouse. Did the custom option, with the bedroom and lounge, a cool 2.1m. Bah, it''s only money. The poker angle turned out to be a dud. I though for sure it said there was a Texas Hold 'Em table, but all I see is three-card. I'd buy a DLC that simply imported RDR 2's poker in to GTAO. Penthouses were on sale a couple weeks ago and I could have saved 800k. It's rare I buy this sort of thing off-sale, but with the stacks rollin' in I decided to live a little.

I stopped counting how many Cayo heists I've done now, but I think it's 9 or 10. I did it twice yesterday. In all I've probably made about 13 million so far from the Cayo heist, all solo. The last one I did I actually managed to fill the loot bag for the first time. I've worked out a good plan to ghost the compound, then head up the road to Main Dock and raid one of the buildings there. It could contain any secondary (except gold), so the take varies a bit by what actually spawns there, but we're just talking 100-200k difference.

Where's Oden? As a new penthouse owner I've now access to a series of penthouse-related missions, that if I complete them I get a free car, but I need another fool to help me.

Reporting for duty Sir.
But you need to teach me how to do heists in solo as payment.

Hey man, how's things?

You have a deal.

I can lay it all out step by step. But have a look here first

https://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/4586252/re-so-i-decided-to-play-gta-v#Post4586252

We can also do it together. We can grab more stuff as a team, but since there's still just one primary target, the take for each player is less than you'd make doing it solo. Have a look through that post I linked for a rough outline, and then let me know if you want more specific detail.

Minimum to start is the Kosatka sub, and I recommend splashing the cash on the Sparrow. Don't make the mistake of buying a Sea Sparrow as some players have done. The other stuff for the sub isn't needed and might be a waste of money. I already regret buying the Avisa submersible, but it looks great in the moonpool. I see you've got 2.5m which is enough for the sub, but not the helo too, which is another 1.8m. Any helo will do, but the Sparrow makes it easy because it is already stored on the Kosatka. You could use any transportation to get around, but with the sub out at sea, you're hoping to avoid a swim and keep up the pace.

If we get together to run my penthouse missions no reason we can't do a heist. If we split up to do the preps it would go pretty fast.

Just did another Cayo heist. Did the intel and one prep yesterday, then the rest of the preps and the heist today.

Some of it is luck of the draw. What I mean is each prep has a few different variations, and it's random which one you get. Some are harder than others. And I've mostly done it the same way every time. Same infil point, same weapons, same insertion vehicle, so I get the same sets of preps. There are a lot of options with their own preps I have yet to see. But for solo players who want to try and ghost it, this is the best approach. Kosatka to the drainage pipe entrance. The first time you do the heist, while you're still working for Madrazzo and are at the island party to get the intel, be sure to get in the sea near the compound to unlock the drainage tunnel as an option. Without that you either need to blow the gate, or grapple hook over a wall, HALO in, and none of these are exactly stealthy

There are a lot of options for insertion vehicle and entry points. But each needs to be discovered during the intel phase, when you come to scout it out and are unarmed. But once you've found them they are unlocked for all future attempts. Still need to do preps over, but the planning options don't need to be found again. So only need to go for a swim once to find the tunnel entrance, and then can use it over and over for new runs. In the first run Pavel will walk you through it and show how to send the photos back to add this stuff to the planning board.

I wanted to use the longfin as a vehicle which would be good for allowing me to land on the island wherever I want. But the prep mission was to steal a trailer from the middle of the police impound lot and it sucked. If you own a Phantom Wedge then yeah, maybe. But I just said screw it and went back to the sub infil. For the first few finale runs I was happy to get through the compound, so I just jumped on a dirt bike and launched off cliffs in to the sea for a scuba exfil. But now I've worked out a run to the main dock to fill my loot bag and then scuba out. The best possible scope is to have two paintings in the office when you use the CCTV cameras. There's also a wall safe in that office that is easy to miss. Two paintings fill your bag, so you can grab those and the primary in the vault below and just skedaddle off the island, I just shoot the nearest guard in the head after leaving through the gate, steal his dirt bike, and go left (west) avoid the patrolling guard,and then right off a cliff and escape under water.

This link is a good overview of the way I've been doing the Cayo heist. Check the image to see where to go to find the tunnel. I do the same broad strokes here, but use a different route through the compound

https://www.pushsquare.com/guides/gta-online-how-to-make-millions-with-the-cayo-perico-heist

Some stuff I should have added and a couple tips.

For weapons I've gone for the Conspirator option each time. I'd bet most options are viable, but be sure to add the suppressors in the planning phase. Using Conspirator also unlocks the military rifle at Ammunation. It's a good assault rifle, especially at close range. But not a standout compared to other assault rifle options either. But it'll be for sale anyway. I use the .50 pistol for the headshots in the heist. Be sure it's suppressed or you'll wish you had. With the route I use, and if I just do the compound and go, it's eight headshots needed to avoid detection. The suppressed military rifle is good too, but you have to be careful a miss doesn't fly downrange and hit a wall near another guard, which alerts them, and alarms and gunfire and you'll just want to start over.

Speaking of which, if you die or just get detected, and you will at first, I think, choose the quick restart option to keep going from the last check point. These are wherever you had a corona to enter, at the drain tunnel, and leaving the compound by the main gate if you follow the same sort of plan I use. The Continue option takes you back to the streets of Los Santos. I learned this the hard way so just paying it forward haha. At this point if I trip the alarm at any stage other than right when getting off the island I just let them shoot me until the quick restart option appears. Taking hits reduces your take and it's better to just give it another go in stealth.

When you're ready to start the preps, fill up your armor inventory. I read about a bug if you go in to an Ammunation while on a prep. It might just mean your element of surprise is gone (detected by camera trigger/bug), but better to start full on armor. I can carry ten armor plus the one I'm wearing (the final slot unlocks at rank 130 I think) and those ten can carry me through all the preps and the finale. But you'll take some hits so armor up.

All the secondaries (gold, weed, coke, cash) shown on the cameras in the compound are only accessible (I think) with at least two players since they require two keys cards to open the gates. Scope it all out, but when you're ready to go for secondaries and fill your bag (if the office did not have two paintings, and I have yet to get two in 10+ runs), then you'll need to move out on the island and hit other locations when solo. More guards, more patrols and a helicopter in the air. So yeah, first few times I just did the compound and exfil'd with a partially full loot bag. The primary is the thing.

Any guards you decide to take out kill with headshots. If they don't die instantly keep filling them in until they do. Otherwise the alarm will trip. All you need to do is avoid vision cones. There are guard uniforms you can find and put on, but I've not done this. With the disguise you can move through blue cones, but can't fool the red cones. When dropping a guard be sure it can't be seen by another guard or a camera. It seems guards will step right over a fallen comrade, but if a camera sweeps and spots the dead body the alarm trips.

My first run netted some bonuses. You and I got some of that for the Fleeca heist we did. It was an extra 500k for Cayo and I cleared 1.9m (one office painting, office safe and Maddrazzo's files + first-time bonus). You can expect a similar haul depending on what spawns for your scope and there's a good chance you could pay for a Sparrow with the take. Heist start up fee is 25k, after the first one, and I always drop 2 grand to fast-travel the Kosatka for the Kosatka prep mission. Add a few thousand in armor, 5k for the suppressors and it runs about 35k. Small investment for such a payout (if you ignore the several million spent on the sub and helo!).

I kicked off yet another heist. It's hard to resist. After finishing the previous one, I wonder what will spawn for the next one I do. So I think, well let's just run the intel and have a look. What I'm hoping for is to see two paintings in the office when scoping the cameras. In about a dozen runs so far I've yet to see this.

But this time, there they were. This gives me a shot at the Elite Challenge. This challenge requires no restarts, full loot bag and less than 15 minutes to complete it. Because two paintings exactly fill the loot bag, it's the ideal set up. No need to go out beyond the compound to top the bag off. So the key is not to foul it up and get spotted, so no restart is needed. I did the intel, weapons and cutting torch preps, and I'll do the remainder this evening. Primary is ruby necklace, so if all goes well the take will be about 1.3m. Mad stacks fool!

I was looking around the social club site and through the awards section. That revealed the bonuses I thought were for doing the heist for the first time are actually for completing these award requirements. I got 500k, and it breaks down like this

Cayo Perico Heist (200k) -- Complete Cayo Perico Heist for the first time
Going Alone (100k) -- Complete Cayo Perico Heist with one player
Cat Burglar (200k) -- Complete Cayo Perico Heist without alerting guards

I see a fourth one I completed

Professional Thief (150k) -- Steal all variations of the primary target

This one might be hard to get, since one of the variations should be the Panther Statue, which is only available during events, and it was last week. That has ended, so a player would need to wait until R* got around to doing it again. The panther's worth like 2 million. It's worth knowing that you have to pay both a fencing fee and Pavel's fee at the end. So your final number gets reduced a little bit but it's not much. For example if your take is 1.5m, you'll clear about 1.3m with 200k covering your costs and associates. Pavel's a good dude, his cut is modest, so I don't mind. Hard to find a good first mate these days ya know?

Oden, one other sub extra you might consider is the weapons workshop for the Kosatka. Wait a while if money's tight. But this is the thing that lets you upgrade your weapons to Mark II. I paid 275k for it on sale so it's probably close to 400k full price. But it's good to have if you want to make your weapons a little better. So far I've done the special carbine, combat MG, marksman rifle, sniper rifle and maybe one or two more. Costs a couple hundred grand to upgrade them, but weapons that hit harder and shoot faster/straighter are always a good thing.

By the way, a new update is set to drop in the next week or so. Rockstar has remained tight-lipped about it but expect an announcement soon. It could be anything... new heists, new businesses, cars, aircraft, who knows?! Look for it around the 14th or 15th.

meanwhile im busy making stories only in my head.....im amazed at how detailed the game engine is. they could had done so much more....a bunch of stuff is in the files but never used in the game.
All that stuff is hand placed by me, and the animations choose, as well as i found out dialogues too. So many thanks for the russians hackers who first tooled gta IV and opened the gates to gta V mods.


Edit: about the stuff not featured in the game, in case you are wondering. police was suposed to know you stole a car, give you tickets on acidents instead of just busting you. the helicopter swat was suposed to react to being shot, track you to ground units....you were suposed to have a wanted level AFTER the wanted level. by description.
swat have a bunch of animation they dont use, taticual visual cues, something that most milsim games dont even feature. pedestrians were suposed to be more engaged with the player. in the game you can see people calling the cops when you do stuff. but they were suposed to be confrontational with you as well, like threatinng to call the cops and even calling you bluff when you pull the gun or beging for their life.
police was also suposed to react when you have a gun, and say wich kind. (when i mean react i mean audio cues to go with action).
so many audio,animation and props are not used in the game.that is a whole lot of work to cut for time.

Good stuff Blade.

This shot captures the essence of public GTAO I think




Those shots also show how well the graphics have held up on a game that was released in 2013 (2015 for PC). It still looks good. GTA 6, when it comes, will be amazing I'm sure.

And the DLC announcement duly arrives...

https://www.rockstargames.com/newsw...-gta-online-story-featuring-franklin-cli

https://gtaforums.com/topic/978383-gta-online-the-contract-coming-december-15/

Not sure yet exactly what this is, but I'm glad to see Franklin. In Social Club it shows the percentage you've played as all three characters in story mode. I played through story mode twice and for me the percentages are 66% Franklin, 17% Michael and 17% Trevor. So I'm happy to see Franklin getting some love. Now to figure out exactly what this is....

Oden's going to have to break out his ghetto slang decoder lol

considering all 3 actors were brought back 2 or 3 years ago.....and only now we see him.....i guess michael is next, to link with GTA VI, since he bought a ticket to vice city at the end of the game.
i expent more time with michael with franklin following close by, but at the end of the game i realized, I NEVER USED FRANKLIN HABILITY....

Yes, I think most believe Michael's next. Franklin was the only one I liked in story mode, so personally I don't care if we see Michael or Trevor, but I'm happy for any additional content and things to do. So yeah, by all means.

Looking at the update announcement I'm not really sure what it ill be. But new cars, a new business (Agency), reworked and new radio stations. Not excited for the new content, and not against it either. I need to see what the agency is all about, and if the missions can be done in Invite.

Oden's bank account is looking about one Kosatka lighter Good luck man rakin' in the long dollars!

Finished the preps for probably my 13th Cayo heist. This was the first one I've had with the two paintings, so it's a perfect setup for the Elite challenge. Full bag, no restarts, under 15 minutes. Over all those runs I thought I had crafted a pretty good plan. Work out the route, know which guards to kill, where and when, which way they'll turn on patrol, where they walk, and when they return. Which guards are likely to hold the gate keys I need. So I thought if I could just nail it first time I'd be under the time limit and there ya go. Did the standard sub and scuba infil to the pipe, came up and methodically went through the steps, and boom, out in 10:44. Nailed it. Felt good since you only get one shot at it and it has to come off.

You get 50k bonus for Elite, which is pretty weak, and then I got a 200k bonus I guess for doing Elite first time. I'll have to look it up but I bet that's it. So in all cleared 1.5m. Not bad at all






One of the preps players could run in to trouble with is the Kosatka prep, which is necessary for the way I did it. You are tasked with stealing a sonar deflector or somesuch from another submarine, which is submerged. My tip is to avoid all the aggro above the surface by fast-traveling your sub to the nearest spot, submerging, and then following the depth contours to approach the target sub underwater. Once you get close, hold E to set depth hold, and exit the sub after donning the scuba gear near the helicopter bay. The mission itself can be challenging. There are three possible locations for the thing you need to grab. If it's in the control room that's best. You can be in and out quickly with just a few guys to take out along the way. It can also be in the torpedo room or what I think is the engine room. Both of these take longer, with plenty of guards to take out. I use a combination of the assault shotgun and the grenade launcher, which clears the far end of the longer passages.

Anyway, if you try to do this mission coming in above ground you have boats and helos to contend with just to reach the sub. But if you use your own sub you can avoid them completely. Here's me parked up along side. You can see the corona and it makes the mission a lot faster and easier.

I was hoping to hear a report from Oden by now. He may be wondering why I said to buy the sub and spend all his hard earned stacks on such a waste! I hope not. How you gettin' on Oden, old chum? In case you're wondering, I know how much you've in the bank as it is visible on Social Club

Learned a little more about the new update, but not much. I'll be happy with some revised radio station playlists, good to mix it up a bit, but I hope they don't strip West Coast Classics of all those old school beats. Add to it, but don't take too much away. Commercial rights are part of it too I reckon. They hired Dr Dre for this DLC, so there should be some of his music.

The Agency seems to be a music studio sort of gig. I expect it'll cost around 2-3 million to get in, hopefully a garage is included! If the related missions sound fun and lucrative, and if they can be done in Invite, I'll probably invest in the agency. I'll wait for the early returns from other players. The Cayo Heist has stuffed my bank account, but I'll still be careful about how I spend it. I want that Itali RSX as I said, and I could afford four of them right now, but I'll still wait until I can get the trade price on it. Hell I didn't buy the Kamacho for almost two years because it never went on sale and it only costs 345k! One cheap bastage I am.

Hey Oden, are you free Sunday? I need to watch the F1 title decider, and after that I should be free. I'll either need to celebrate or drown my sorrows depending on how the race shakes out.

I was thinking, if you haven't done the Cayo heist yet, I could actually do all the preps, and when we hook up we could just run the finale and get paid. Depending on the scope it could put 800k+ in your pocket if we split the proceeds. Or if we have the time and inclination we could do it start to finish including preps. But if we just ran the finale you could see how my plan works. Just stick with me and do what I do and we'd be through it in 15 minutes if we don't foul it up.

I'd like to do some more racing (land, helicopters or parachute) golf, contact missions. I want to try one of the rally races too. That could be a hoot. I'm up for just about anything. I bought a penthouse if you'd like to check those out. Nothing special really, at least the basic setup I have. But maybe you'd want to see it first in case you'd ever consider owning one.

And of course I'm hoping to run some of the missions I mentioned to get my free car, an armored Paragon which isn't available for purchase.

Logged on last night and I think it's the first day in two weeks I didn't do a heist haha. 14.5m in the bank now and I just raced and jumped out of helicopters. Well, racing isn't it, actually hotlapping since I'm doing it alone. Here's a target... I did a 2:42 on my Akuma in a race called Dockyard.

I think I'm close to unlocking the trade price for that Itali RSX I want. To do so you have to do some missions that are given by a dude called Tom Connors, who you meet when buying the penthouse. There's one where you have to rescue the DJ Moodyman. If you do you get the trade price. But I'm yet to be offered this mission. I've done four others, all pretty easy and they pay in casino chips. They only come every 8 hours, so I just have to wait for it to come up.

I think with some suspension modification I can turn that whip in to a really good street racer. Stock it's too skittish over bumpy tracks, but I think that can be tamed.

Got the Moodyman mission I needed for the good Itali price. Tom Connors calls and asks you go pick up Moodyman, who was down by the pier. I go get him in my Turismo, and he says that the car the casino loaned him was stolen and would I mind helping him get it back? Sure why not, Moodyman? So we set off toward the marker and when we get there the Itali RSX takes off and we chase. I'm taking pot shots with the AP pistol trying to take the driver out, but failing to. We approach the airport and he shoots my tire and blows it out (should have gone bulletproof!), i lose control a bit as he veers off a ramp, and i go straight and lose him. By the time I get back on track he's gone, heading north on the highway at a high rate of speed. After several minutes of high speed driving on flat tires I catch him and finally hit him through the back window and he glances off the median divider and comes to a stop as I slide alongside, gunning down the passenger who is attempting to climb out.

We both hop in the other car and head back to the casino and complete the mission. Good thing there's no timer on these or I would have failed. Unlocked the trade price, and snapped up a Grotti Itali RSX for just under 2.6m. I drove to the office to pick it up and straight to LSC for customization. Got that done and hit up the Cutting Coroners race to test it out. My best four-wheel two-lap time was 1:57 in the T20. I did 1:56 in the Grotti and it was sloppy. A better lap should bring that time down even more. But it showed the new car is faster. And the kicker is it is classed as a sports car, not super.

With a 3 million dollar hole in the bank account I ran yet another Cayo heist, got the pink diamond and a little weed and cash from the main dock to clear 1.4m and earn some of that cash back

And here she is, rolling out of Los Santos Customs. I noticed I hadn't gotten the unlocks for modifying every single component of a vehicle. That means the plates, the side mirrors, the hood, splitter, the works. And I have no whip more suitable for the full treatment then my new Itali RSX.





Took it back for a few laps of the Cutting Coroners race, dry no traffic and turned a 1:53-flat, with a few bobbles. A clean lap would be in the 1:52s. This car is fast, but tail happy and prone to exit oversteer. Modding the suspension helped some on rough pavement, but it's still more skittish than some of my other cars. First-person view is good, but the dash has a circular-shaped bit above the steering wheel that it would be better without. Slightly restricts the view and can cover some of your turn-in markers or braking points from this PoV. Still, a looker, fast and sounds vicious

I know right? What a nice whip!

I turned a 1:51.5 in Cutting Coroners, just 2 seconds off my Akuma time! This thing is fast. And still some bobbles, there is time to find yet.

So last night I was counting all my Cayo cash -- I've now done the heist at least 16 times -- and decided to have a look at Legendary's web site to see if the new week had rolled in and with it new discounts. I saw the Grotti Stinger was on sale. I talked about my shadow goal of owning every Grotti.

Usually, when I am interested in buying a new car I'll test it first in a race. I play strictly in first person, and I want cars that perform well, and which look great, and sound awesome too. But I need to test them to be sure the first-person view isn't lousy and will be OK to drive in this mode.

When I spotted the Stinger I realized I hadn't tested it, but it's a 250 GTO right? The world's most expensive car isn't it? Well, that's all fine. It's a Grotti, and it's on sale. That's enough, so I splashed the cash and sent it to my office garage, the marbled halls and exquisite lighting fitting for such a magnificent machine. I had only just acquired another Grotti, the Itali RSX which I was driving at the time, and I drove it to Lombank to check out my new whip.

Hopped in and took it for a spin. This is niiice. Straight to LSC for the works, and back out on the streets to put it through it's paces. I fell in love. It's not a fast car in the normal sense, but it does get up and go. Snappy acceleration, but lacks top end of course, and the brakes are lousy. But the handling is superb. I immediately thought about what a great get-away car this is. Perfect for having a bash through the city streets. The handling is so predictable, with a touch of exit oversteer, so easy to catch, control and countersteer. Being down on power surely contributes to it's fairly docile behavior, but it's still enough to break the rears free and slide around the corners in a controlled drift. No fear of snap oversteer like some of the cars I own. This makes high speed traffic-running a delight, just flick the wheel and she responds but doesn't disagree, ya know?

I bought the topless Stinger, in red of course. And beyond the sublime handling it's fantastic in first-person. A narrow front windshield frame, nothing on the sides of course. And the rear view from first-person is actually great, you can really see what's behind you. The steering wheel does not obscure the dash gauges. On top of all of this it sounds vicious. I'm sure the view advantages are shared by just about any convertible, but for first-person players it really is a treat.

I know this car has been around for years, and I am acting like I just discovered it, but of course I did! This is now my go-to city runner. It's on sale right now for about 550k. I liked it so much I now want to add others like it to my stable. Of all the cars I've driven in GTAO, none has felt more like I was in a Steve McQueen movie than the Stinger.


This is a Stinger. I took some shots, but don't have access at the mo, so ripped someone else's. Mine is like this but no soft top and different wheels. What a fun car



(Courtesy -- without permission -- of GTA Forum member DanDaFreakinMan)



On a different note The Contract DLC dropped. The early word is mixed of course, but from my viewpoint not something I am looking to get in to, at least right now. The property is 2m+ (and then all the upgrades) and some or most of the content needs to be done in Public. There's really no hook here for me so I'm going to pass for now. I'll buy more Grottis probably.

I have not seen this week's discounts, aside from the few cars on Legendary. There's a Pfister on the podium at the Diamond. I spun and did not win. I think that is now 792 spins without winning a car