User:MattyDienhoff/modding ideas

A list of modding ideas for the PC version of Grand Theft Auto IV, stored here for easy reference.

Weapons

Replacement Glock 17 model

The original is kind of crap, frankly. The front sights are duplicates of the rear sights, which would essentially render the sights useless in real life. I wonder how any modeller could have made such a silly mistake, since it's so easy to get something like this right.

M249 LMG

Of all the different weapons that could concievably be added to the game, I feel this would make the best addition. It bridges the firepower gap between the M4 and the RPG nicely, filling the (currently empty) light machine gun niche. It's powerful enough, but not so powerful to have tremendous recoil and therefore require a prone stance (no such animations exist and would be too difficult to add), it's small enough to work with the current assault rifle animations, and it's not at all unrealistic to expect Niko could acquire a weapon like this on the black market for a price. At least, it's no more of a stretch than the RPG.

Prototype weapon stats:
Magazine capacity: 200 round box
Max ammo capacity: 1,000 (5 spare boxes, possibly increase this to 10 boxes or 2,000 rounds total)
Effective range: Approx 20% longer than M4 (The real M4 has an effective range of about 500m, while the M249's is twice that)
Damage: Same as M4
Rate of fire: At least 20% higher than M4
Street price: $10,000 (?)

Weapon stat mod

My main issue with the weapons is range. With all weapons, but especially the assault rifles, the effective range drops off too suddenly leaving you with targets you can still clearly see but not hit, alongside other targets that are only 5 meters closer that you can hit.

List of changes
Pistol: Increase range slightly (5%)
Combat Pistol: Increase range significantly (15%)
Micro-SMG: Increase range slightly (10%)
SMG: Increase range slightly (10%)
Pump Shotgun: Reduce mag capacity to 4, increase damage considerably
Combat Shotgun: Reduce mag capacity to 8, increase damage a little
Assault Rifle (AK): Increase damage a little, increase rate of fire a little, decrease accuracy a little, increase range significantly (25%)
Carbine Rifle (M4): Decrease damage a little, increase rate of fire a little, increase accuracy a little, increase range significantly (25%)
Grenade: Increase radius slightly
Molotov: Increase radius significantly
Sniper Rifle: Increase capacity to 10 rounds (for consistency with appearance)

Script/gameplay modifications

Create an additional safehouse

In San Andreas, I was disappointed with the choice of safehouses in Los Santos at the end of the game. There was the Vinewood safehouse (which was essentially a glorified tin shed with a one car garage, what a joke) and there was Madd Dogg's mansion. The Dogg's mansion is nice, but:

• It's not really yours.
• You can't use the garage space.
• Saving the game triggers a glitch that renders all basketball courts unusable.

In GTA IV, there is, admittedly, less emphasis on 'making it to the top' (well, okay, there is, but it's mostly Roman who obsesses over sports cars and mansions), but it's still a bit of a kick to the head that after all that work, the nicest safehouse in your possession is your cousin's loft apartment with a two car parking space. It would've been nice if you could have acquired Jimmy Pegorino's home at the end of the game, whether through some contrived way of 'taking charge' of his stuff, or through simply buying it after he passes on. Anyway, it occured to me that it might be possible to somehow make it a safehouse. At least part of the interior is rendered (for the cutscenes), and the garage opens and closes (though it apparently doesn't save cars). So, perhaps (through scripting) the interior could be unlocked, the garage could be made to function like a parking space, and the relevant functions (lying down on a bed to save the game, changing clothes, using the TV/internet) could be added to make it a fully featured safehouse after a certain, appropriate point in the story.

Now that I think of it, if it's possible for Jimmy P's house, it might also be possible for Mr.Faustin's house. The interior of that house is seen in cutscenes, and although it may be difficult or impossible to make the garage function, the driveway could always be turned into a 'parking space'. That would also cure what amounts to something of a 'gap in coverage', since there is no safehouse in Broker after the Hove Beach apartment is burnt down, and I can't think of a nicer place to make a home in Broker than Beachgate.

Make street names visible on the in-game map

I'm not sure if this is possible (How or if the in-game map can be edited depends on how it works) but it seems to me that street names would be much more useful as a navigational aid if you could see street names on the map. As it is now, if you don't know a street by name and have to find it, the only way to recognize it is to drive over it and see its name appear on the HUD. Admittedly, in most missions waypoints are provided, but on occasion (like Stevie's text message missions) you need to find a target with the street and neighbourhood as your only reference point. Sometimes, it's not difficult to find (such as if it's a short street in a small neighbourhood), but other times... Well, one time I spent 10 minutes driving around middle park looking for a street, only to find it was actually 3 blocks away.

Street race opponent car details

A minor irritation, but an irritation nonetheless. I dislike the fact that when you organize a street race through Brucie, he doesn't tell you what kind of cars your opponents are racing in. Though whether this is weird or not may be a matter of opinion, I like to drive the same class of vehicle my opponents do so it's a fair challenge. Sometimes it's two-door classics like the Manana, the Virgo or the Peyote, other times it's SUVs like the Cavalcade or the Landstalker, and so on. Without any way to know in advance, the only way to find out what vehicles your opponents are driving is to drive by the starting line and see. It'd be better if the game's text brief told you what kind of vehicles the racers are driving when it tells you to 'Get to the start line'.

It would say: 'Get a VEHICLETYPE and get to the start line.'

VEHICLETYPE =
Classic car
Muscle car
Four wheel drive
Two-door/compact car
Four-door car
Sports car