Hello my fellow Liberty City police officers,

 

I created this topic to suggest a few improvements to the gameplay of LCPD:FR. I've noticed quite a few things that keep annoying me and ruin my fun while playing 1.0. I looked all over the forums if anybody has already posted the things I wanted to mention here and I didn't find anything.

 

1) Pursuits - I know GTA IV's driving AI is like straight from hell but still LCPD:FR 1.0 makes it even worse for me. I like the new pursuit system that works just like in normal GTA IV but the amount of cars and some of the core mechanics behind it seem a little odd. I know I can reduce the number of cars in the initial pursuit in the .ini file but that doesn't prevent patrolling cops from joining the pursuit. I'd really like to see an option in the .ini file where we can set the maximum cars in pursuit. So if there are already like 5 cars no others will join in.

 

2) Pursuits on foot - LCPDFR automatically calls in a pursuit for fleeing suspects on foot the moment I encounter them. I don't get why. That makes everything around the callout a lot more complicated because suddenly all hell brakes loose in the area when I could have caught the suspect on my own or with my partner. I understand that the developers wanted to make patrolling officers to join the pursuit but maybe they could limit that to officers on foot and prevent police cars to join. I think the best option would be to chase the suspect on your own and if you feel like you need help you can call in backup to help you with the pursuit so you have contoll over the callout and not randomly have everyone around join you.

 

3) Arrest cutscene - When you drive to the police station to hand over the suspect to your colleagues, sometimes the cutscene gets a little annoying. An option to skip it would be nice. Also entering the mission marker on foot would be cool because if you arrest somebody near the police station without your car, getting back to your car (at the police station), getting in the car and then driving into the mission marker seems strange.

 

4) Policehelper support - I know a lot of the functions vdH policehelper has are also supported by LCPDFR 1.0 but I have to admit I prefer policehelper. EMS works more reliably as well as road blocks. From what I've heard the developer of the policehelper isn't working on it anymore so I have to ask the LCPDFR devs if there's anything they can do about policehelper's functions crashing regularily with LCPDFR 1.0 - Or they make LCPDFR's EMS and roadblocks just as awesome as policehelper's ;)

4) Policehelper support - I know a lot of the functions vdH policehelper has are also supported by LCPDFR 1.0 but I have to admit I prefer policehelper. EMS works more reliably as well as road blocks. From what I've heard the developer of the policehelper isn't working on it anymore so I have to ask the LCPDFR devs if there's anything they can do about policehelper's functions crashing regularily with LCPDFR 1.0 - Or they make LCPDFR's EMS and roadblocks just as awesome as policehelper's ;)

As you probably heard, Abraxas lost his job and won't be working on any of his stuff in the near future. 

 

The LCPDFR modification doesn't support third-party modifications, and I doubt they have the source code for the police helper, or time to make their mod compatible with another, third-party, mod. 

 

As far as I know, the LCPDFR devs said that EMS driving the way they do is part of the GTA IV charm, and won't be "fixed". I personally don't think there's anything to fix, it's Liberty City after all... 

 

LCPDFR does have roadblock, but a option to choose where would be nifty, I agree. 

 Policehelper support - I know a lot of the functions vdH policehelper has are also supported by LCPDFR 1.0 but I have to admit I prefer policehelper.

Actually, PoliceHelper works fine with LCPDFR 1.0 except for the roadblocks, because officers get in their cars and join the chase instead of waiting for perp - at least I heard it this way, I never used PH roadblock with LCPDFR 1.0, I'm fine with LCPDFR ones.

 

But you still able to call towtrucks, EMS, FDLC, coroner, deploy cones, barriers, flares, and random policeHelper events still occur.

 

Edited February 10, 201412 yr by Hastings

Yeah, policehelper works with LCPDFR 1.0 but after some time its functions start to crash. Like when you try to call an ambulance nothing happens anymore. So basically it works just fine but it gets worse. Well I can deal with it, so my major problems with LCPDFR 1.0 are the pursuits, to be honest. It doesn't seem finished to me yet and I hope the devs think of tweaking the settings a little bit. I know that GTA IV is mainly to blame for it because of the AI's stupidity but I trust the devs to do a better job on police AI than Rockstar did ;)

The LCPDFR modification doesn't support third-party modifications, and I doubt they have the source code for the police helper, or time to make their mod compatible with another, third-party, mod.

This is simply false; the API is there for a reason, which is that we now do support script integration. What LCPDFR does *not* do is go very far out of its way to support scripts that worked with older versions. Those scripts relied on LCPDFR acting a certain way and doing certain things; that's changed now, and because the scripts don't integrate, they can't all handle the change. The only catch is that scripts have to be written to use the API, and old scripts aren't necessarily being rewritten.

This is simply false; the API is there for a reason, which is that we now do support script integration. What LCPDFR does *not* do is go very far out of its way to support scripts that worked with older versions. Those scripts relied on LCPDFR acting a certain way and doing certain things; that's changed now, and because the scripts don't integrate, they can't all handle the change. The only catch is that scripts have to be written to use the API, and old scripts aren't necessarily being rewritten.

Sorry for being unclear, scripts using the API are of course compatible. I just thought I had seen a LCPDFR Developer say that they aren't supported. I could be wrong of course :) 

 

EDIT: Did some digging. LMS said here that third party mods aren't supported (>). Also, the LCPDFR troubleshooter states that third-party mods aren't supported. (http://www.lcpdfr.com/page/troubleshooter/finish.action?allowPost=&message=LCPDFR+does+not+support+other+third-party+modifications.%3Cbr+%2F%3EPlease+try+uninstalling+them+completely%2C+then+try+LCPDFR+again.%3Cbr+%2F%3EIf+the+issue+does+not+occur+with+the+third-party+modification+removed%2C+then+the+problem+is+not+an+LCPDFR+issue.)

Edited February 10, 201412 yr by ineseri

We're using different meanings of "support". What you're saying is "we don't provide support to users who are using third-party mods; any users who have LCPDFR issues and use third-party mods should remove the mods first and try that, and we only provide support if that doesn't solve the problem." What I'm saying is "LCPDFR is designed to work with third-party mods that use the API, and we help third-party developers who are having trouble with the API." Different meanings.

That is not what I mean at all, I (and hopefully the rest of the community) gladly give support to people who are using third-party modifications. I did correct myself saying that LCPDFR will indeed work with mods using the API (Quote: Sorry for being unclear, scripts using the API are of course compatible). I think we're on the same page there. 

 

LMS did say that, Quote: "[...]we don't support third party mods". I think that means that they aren't supported. What I am saying, and as I corrected myself, is that LCPDFR will indeed work with thirdparty mods if they use the API. 

Alright well anyways, I think this is beginning to deviate from what Crickethill wanted to talk about.  Point is, we can't support older scripts that aren't designed for 1.0.

Well, policehelper isn't my main issue with 1.0 because at least it works most of the time, that's why I ranked it #4. But the pursuits sometimes really ruin the fun for me. Like I said, even limiting the amount of cops that can join in would be a huge improvement in my view. I set cop cars in pursuit to 2 and cops in pursuit to 6 but still last time I chased a suspect it came to a total of 10 cars (=20 cops) plus myself (and partner) in pursuit. And with GTA IV's AI you can easily imagine how that went.

 

So I feel like limiting the overall cops in pursuits would be a huge step forward. I like Sam's idea of adding "wanted levels" to pursuits but for me, the basic pursuit system isn't finished yet. Because like I stated in my first post, everyone joining in on a pursuit on foot doesn't make any sense to me and neither does 10 cop cars chasing one suspect. So I hope this topic is a little reminder for the devs to polish the (definitely improved from RC2) system before they add any new features to it. I like that there are a lot of ideas out there that could make LCPDFR even better but I think the more serious issues should be addressed first.

I know that multiple suspects, even in the same car, count as separate pursuits for maximum unit purposes. Is that possibly what's happening there?