Doing this one because it is short, if not sweet….
I’ve hit Rank 75, and look to be on track for 10 Ranks per week. I’ve been doing my Daily Objectives as much as possible, and lots of Jobs and Heists. Most of the time, the game plays smoothly without trouble. But sometimes, that isn’t the case.
We have a new DLC coming tomorrow (June 10, 2015). In addition to new material, there are supposed to be some improvements to the game itself, and help to block some hacks and exploits. That would be very nice if it succeeded.
So here are six common annoying problems which come up more than often enough to detract from the fun.
Ours is not a perfect world…
#1: Load times. From start to run off HDD with Steam directly into GTA online is over two minutes, sometimes over three. You can load it faster off an SSD, saving you a few seconds, but it still takes a while. Single player story mode takes about 45 seconds with HDD, 30 with SSD. In short, an SSD doesn’t really make it all that much better, so if you don’t have 60 GB of space to spare, you can play the game fine off an HDD.
Fortunately, that is game load time. You can start the game and make a cup of coffee, grab snacks, etc., and it will be ready and running when you get back. Once you are in the game, you can move around in free mode without any loading. There is a load time for jobs and activities, but some of that time is syncing up with other players, and an SSD wouldn’t make a bit of difference for that.
There are also delays as you change from one job to another, and also when you leave a job.
Solution: Have patience. That’s really all you can do.
#2 & #3: Griefers and Hackers. These aren’t the same thing, but both mess with your enjoyment of the game by deliberate acts to spoil your fun. Both will require you to take action if you wish to keep playing and not suffer from them.
The game is GTA, after all, so you can’t expect every player to be nice and friendly. Hostile action is part of the game by design, and you are encouraged to take actions against other players, especially with some of the Daily Objectives. Kill and be killed, that is all in the game.
Griefers go beyond that. They will try to hunt down and trap players trying to do peaceful activities in the game, and will stake out (and effectively render useless) game locations like the mod shops. They will especially look for and hunt players who are lower level and ill-equipped to counter their attacks, and who don’t understand how to evade them. They can also deliberately spoil races and missions, by taking actions which cause car crashes or get team mates killed.
Hackers and Griefers both can quickly fall into the class of Bad Sports, which is Rockstar’s way of trying to deal with players who don’t play the game properly. By putting the bad players into sessions only with other such players, they can help keep those trying to play clean safe. Or at least, a little safer.
Hackers go beyond just messing with players within the normal parameters of the game. You may have some hope of fighting a griefer, if no way to truly stop the from coming back and doing it again, but hackers can do things which are outright impossible within the normal game rules. You are utterly powerless to stop them, which might be good for their ego but is bad for game play. One current hack plays with this godlike role — a hacker can essentially make money rain from the sky (or just give away loads of it). Tempting otherwise good players into taking their bribes may reduce the anger players feel against them, but it doesn’t change how badly they break the game play. Rockstar is aware of money hacks and can take away ill-gotten cash, but at least so far, they seem to recognize the difference between the hacker who changes the world and players who may, even unwittingly, profit from those changes. You could still end up with your bank account emptied or reduced.
Solution: Passive mode may sometimes work, but against a hacker infested session, you will need to change sessions in order to be safe. Worst case, if a Hacker messes with your character and world too much, is to log out and start again.
#4: Glitches & Bugs: GTA Online is pretty stable now, and Rockstar has done a good job with the PC and Next Gen consoles for keeping up with newly discovered bugs. There are a few which still exist — one I’ve seen is the “no weapons” bug, where all your weapons seem to disappear. For me, it happened when the armed chopper I was in crashed, and I jumped out. Had to quit and rejoin the game to get them back.
Solution: Patience. Most don’t happen often, and the worst case is a break from the game as you reload it.
#5: Waiting for players: If you want to start a particular job or activity, especially if you need it for your Daily Objectives, you can end up sitting on the Job screen for a long time. Players can join, then leave before the minimum number required show up. Heists and Missions, which work better with full complements of players (usually 4), can be especially frustrating to get going.
Solution: More patience. Also, having friends and crew who will join can make this sort of thing much easier.
On waiting, and Daily Objectives, I’ll make a special note for Rally Mode races and Impromptu races. These can be hard to get going and play, because there aren’t a lot of fans of them. In a Rally Race, you two players per car — one driver, who can’t see the race course checkpoints, and one navigator, who can and must tell the driver where to go. You can use the direction keys to give hints, but voice on a headset tends to work better. Impromptu races require cooperative players close to your current location on the map in free mode. You should try to pick a spot out of high traffic when you set up this race, as random traffic can knock the cars out of position and disqualify you from the race.
Activities can also be hard to get players for, and they are often part of Daily Objectives.
Finding friendly players can help with this. Having actual friends on can make it easy, but you can ask other players to help you out with a job needed for a Daily Objective. On the other side, if you see players looking to start these, be willing to join in to help them out too.
Selecting the easiest, quickest options can make many of these easier to get players for. One last helpful case is that some things can be started with ONE player, so while it may not be as much fun or as challenging, you can at least complete it for your Daily.
#6: Mission Failed/Disconnected: Heists and Missions can fail if too many players die, or if anyone causes any of the mission requirements to fail. It can be hard to figure out some of those requirements, and easy to do things which violate them for some missions. A player on your team who doesn’t get the mission plan can mess it up for everyone. But also, any network issues can cause players to disconnect, and sometimes spoil missions due to their absence.
Solution for #5 and #6: When possible, play with friends or at least known players. Headsets can help coordinate.
The network issues, I’m not sure. One of the most annoying is the inability to log in at all. While sometimes it could be your system (restart and see if it fixes it), more often it is on the other end. Both Rockstar and Steam on PC seem to have problems from time to time. The only reliable solution seems to be patience.
All in all, with a bit of patience, tolerance, and cooperation, you can deal with the problems we face from time to time in GTA. Don’t try to fight stupidity by being stupid! Keep the game fun, and avoid situations where it ceases to be fun.
