Tom S.

Happy to hear another version is in the works, there are a few things I would like to see improved upon if at all possible.
 
It would be nice to see the 'Close Nearby Roads' feature expanded a bit further with more options, being able to select which road or roads for example near to you in a menu  rather than just block of a whole junction. Often times I've found you have to guess which roads the traffic will turn away from depending where you're located, having markers/blips indicating where on the map would be helpful for the player.  Other options like being able to block traffic with your police car and place barriers for scene control (e.g. after a pursuit) would be nice to have to prevent the AI from having a meltdown and running the player or everyone else over.
 
The police AI could also do with some improvements, I've noticed they have a hard time getting around AI traffic without crashing into them and sometimes taking too long to stop as they approach a corner or myself and other units. Maybe this is caused by how fast the pursuits are in LSPDFR, I'm not 100% sure.
 
Lastly, a complaint I have with the backup in this mod is sometimes they often despawn especially if you're in the county. If you're a distance away from the pursuit and there are already other AI units pursuing, I don't think they should despawn that easily. Maybe some feature like 'Backup Persistence' could be useful where units will only despawn till either the suspect gets away or they're caught by AI units/player. 
 
Thanks for the regular updates in maintaining this and I look forward to future announcements regarding a LSPDFR 0.5.
 
 

Happy to hear another version is in the works, there are a few things I would like to see improved upon if at all possible.
 
It would be nice to see the 'Close Nearby Roads' feature expanded a bit further with more options, being able to select which road or roads for example near to you in a menu  rather than just block of a whole junction. Often times I've found you have to guess which roads the traffic will turn away from depending where you're located, having markers/blips indicating where on the map would be helpful for the player.  Other options like being able to block traffic with your police car and place barriers for scene control (e.g. after a pursuit) would be nice to have to prevent the AI from having a meltdown and running the player or everyone else over.
 
The police AI could also do with some improvements, I've noticed they have a hard time getting around AI traffic without crashing into them and sometimes taking too long to stop as they approach a corner or myself and other units. Maybe this is caused by how fast the pursuits are in LSPDFR, I'm not 100% sure.
 
Lastly, a complaint I have with the backup in this mod is sometimes they often despawn especially if you're in the county. If you're a distance away from the pursuit and there are already other AI units pursuing, I don't think they should despawn that easily. Maybe some feature like 'Backup Persistence' could be useful where units will only despawn till either the suspect gets away or they're caught by AI units/player. 
 
Thanks for the regular updates in maintaining this and I look forward to future announcements regarding a LSPDFR 0.5.
 
 

You could probably get away without using arrest manager and use the default 0.4 arrest points with prisoner transport. I found that my frame rate would drop a lot using that plugin but removing it gave a boost in performance, I think Stop the Ped uses similar functions to arrest manager hence why you receive a notification regarding duplicates.

You could probably get away without using arrest manager and use the default 0.4 arrest points with prisoner transport. I found that my frame rate would drop a lot using that plugin but removing it gave a boost in performance, I think Stop the Ped uses similar functions to arrest manager hence why you receive a notification regarding duplicates.

Downloading seems to have been fixed on my end and is back to normal which is good news, not sure if the issue has been solved for others. All I did was wait a few hours.

This has been on my mind too, since 0.4 came to light I've been having the time of my life with LSPDFR especially with all of the plugins that have been updated. RDE and EUP on top of that with all of the customization makes it an absolute masterpiece. The AI is a huge improvement which makes it more enjoyable for me, can't wait to see what the future holds.

This has been on my mind too, since 0.4 came to light I've been having the time of my life with LSPDFR especially with all of the plugins that have been updated. RDE and EUP on top of that with all of the customization makes it an absolute masterpiece. The AI is a huge improvement which makes it more enjoyable for me, can't wait to see what the future holds.

Well, what can I say, I think it's safe to say Sam, LMS and the rest of the development team have outdone themselves with 0.4. It truly is a breath of fresh air playing it again after taking a long break from it. Here's my thoughts on why I think 0.4 has improved since 0.3.1:
 
Pros
* Amazing pursuit AI for both criminal and police: having played a few chases, the suspect definitely takes completely different paths each time (ending up in the desert, countryside and alleys rather than staying on roads) makes for an interesting and intense experience. I've also tested being the 1st, 2nd or 3rd unit in the pursuit and other AI units have not rammed me one bit (they seem to keep their distance) which also makes pursuits more enjoyable. For me to keep up with the pursuit, I have to use a vehicle engine boost from TrainerV as the only time the AI may ram you is if you're falling behind and the AI cops are trying to keep up with the criminal. An option to disable the speed boost the AI receives would be a plus as it could make pursuits more realistic. I've seen AI units also attempt to pit however I've seen them make a few timing mistakes by crashing into the median. They even block suspects from escaping if they're boxed in between units which is much improved compared to 0.3 as they would often let them flee again. The behavior and tactics options are a much needed feature as they are useful for different situations whether you're in urban/busy streets or quiet roads.
 
* The immersion factor is incredible, from the flashlight to the police radio and idle animations really do add to detail. Adding CopHolster on top of that is icing on the cake. It's quite clear that the theme of 0.4 is character and the level of customization plus EUP adds more to the immersion. No longer do cops look like clones.
 
* Improved Performance: This could be both a pro and a con but having been in a few pursuits, my FPS has been a steady 60 however it does tend to drop/stutter a bit if I'm in the city compared to the county. I do think the performance has had an upgrade since the previous version although other people may have different experiences, this was played using vanilla models/very few plugins. I have yet to test this with additional LSPDFR add-ons.
 
* Searching: I like the fact that you are given your own cone of vision on the radar if you lose visual and have to search the last seen area for the suspect to re-trigger the pursuit before the entire radar flashes blue and red. A nice little detail for me, personally.
 
* Customization: I really like the fact that I can create my own agencies and give them outfits, vehicles and their own jurisdictions. I have yet to figure out how individual zones work and how to assign an agency to patrol those zones rather than an entire city/county. Seeing Cops actually patrol in their vehicles makes the world feel more real compared to vanilla GTA V.
 
Cons/Bugs
* A way to disable the camera locating the suspect for you once you've regained visual could be a nice feature in a config file, I think part of the fun in actually looking for the suspect is taken away from this although a minor inconvenience nonetheless.
 
* A setting to disable the speed boost the AI receives in pursuits so you can keep up without using 3rd party trainers/modifications to your vehicle
 
* I may have repeated this in another thread but thought I'd throw it in here as well, if you play an action from the interaction menu and cancel it, this tends to crash LSPDFR so the only way to reload it is through the console via unload/reloading plugin. I'll keep testing this though to make sure.
 
I've probably missed a few but these were the things that stood out to me most. Thank you for the hard work and effort in providing 0.4 for us all to enjoy.
 
 
 
 
 
 

I'll admit, recently I've lost interest in LSPDFR due to frustrating things like incompetent AI and lack of variation in pursuits. However, this does look like a promising update and it makes me want to play it again. I also hope you've addressed the annoying issues in 0.3 like the AI doing u turns on highways and accidentally triggering a pursuit with a random civilian while there is one already active.

I'll admit, recently I've lost interest in LSPDFR due to frustrating things like incompetent AI and lack of variation in pursuits. However, this does look like a promising update and it makes me want to play it again. I also hope you've addressed the annoying issues in 0.3 like the AI doing u turns on highways and accidentally triggering a pursuit with a random civilian while there is one already active.

Agreed, there is a huge gap in the market for an open world police sim and it's a bit sad that there are very few games centered around law enforcement. Hopefully 0.4 will be a leap forward for the mod.

I'm really looking forward to see how big of an update this will be on release and how much it's going to change and add things, the reworked AI and the ability to customize agencies that actually patrol their own jursidictions have got me hooked. Saves me from downloading extra mods.

Hopefully with 0.4 we won't have to use as many add-ons and callouts as the new features and changes will more than make up for it.

Hopefully with 0.4 we won't have to use as many add-ons and callouts as the new features and changes will more than make up for it.

Hopefully with 0.4 we won't have to use as many add-ons and callouts as the new features and changes will more than make up for it.

Hopefully with 0.4 we won't have to use as many add-ons and callouts as the new features and changes will more than make up for it.

I'll admit, recently I've lost interest in LSPDFR due to frustrating things like incompetent AI and lack of variation in pursuits. However, this does look like a promising update and it makes me want to play it again. I also hope you've addressed the annoying issues in 0.3 like the AI doing u turns on highways and accidentally triggering a pursuit with a random civilian while there is one already active.

I'll admit, recently I've lost interest in LSPDFR due to frustrating things like incompetent AI and lack of variation in pursuits. However, this does look like a promising update and it makes me want to play it again. I also hope you've addressed the annoying issues in 0.3 like the AI doing u turns on highways and accidentally triggering a pursuit with a random civilian while there is one already active.

I'll admit, recently I've lost interest in LSPDFR due to frustrating things like incompetent AI and lack of variation in pursuits. However, this does look like a promising update and it makes me want to play it again. I also hope you've addressed the annoying issues in 0.3 like the AI doing u turns on highways and accidentally triggering a pursuit with a random civilian while there is one already active.

This is the fourth part of our LSPDFR 0.4 Preview Series.  Not caught up yet?  Check out the rest of this series here: https://www.lcpdfr.com/forums/forum/880-news-updates/
 
It's probably the most critical component of the mod, so it follows that with any new version of LSPDFR, you can be pretty confident that the underlying systems which enable police pursuit gameplay will be updated.  LSPDFR 0.4 is, of course, no different in this regard, and following on with the general theme of 0.4's development (which is more less pulling everything out and ripping it to pieces), we've taken the opportunity to revamp much of the pursuit gameplay in the mod.
 
As an aside, we had hoped to publish this preview at an earlier date but unfortunately due to both @LMS and myself being away from home, on various different continents in the past month or so this was a little difficult.  Nonetheless, we hope that you enjoy this preview and that it nicely illustrates just a couple of the changes that we've made to pursuits, as alluded to in our last post about AI improvements.
 
 
Pursuit Interaction Menu
 
Since LSPDFR 0.3, we've had an Interaction Menu, à la GTA Online, which has, as you would expect, facilitated interaction between you as a player and your character and their job as a cop.  While this is cool and all, there's definitely a number of areas where the interaction in LSPDFR falls a little short, with pursuits being perhaps the most obvious.
 
In LCPDFR for GTA IV, there were a couple of toggles available during pursuits - notably the option to force or disable the usage of lethal force.  With 0.4, however, we think we've far surpassed that by introducing a handful of new options which definitely provide more control than ever.  
 

 
The Pursuit Interaction Menu in LSPDFR 0.4 offers advanced controls for the current pursuit, as well as the ability to disengage.
 
The cool thing about the new Interaction options for Pursuits is that it ties in nicely with the new customization options introduced in 0.4, and covered earlier in our previews.  So, not only can you define and configure law enforcement agencies to your liking, but you can also carry this through to pursuits too by designating a specific agency to handle the chase.  If, for example, a pursuit that starts in Los Santos crosses multiple jurisdictions then it's entirely probable that you'll end up with a number of agencies joining, which depending on the circumstances and/or your own preferences, might not be so desirable.  With the new Interaction options, you could simply specify that the initiating agency (i.e. the LSPD in this case) handles the pursuit, leaving the other agencies to mind their own business.
 
Similarly, there's a lot of other practical usefulness be found in these options: we've brought back the ability to force on/off the usage of lethal force against pursuit suspects, and there's also the ability to enable or disable pursuit intervention tactics (more on these below).
 
And of course, for those in search of the ultimate exercise in boredom (I mean, err, realism), then you might find that setting a pursuit into Tracking Mode - where ground units will hang back and follow from a distance, leaving your small air force of helicopters following above to do all the work in true Angeleno fashion - makes you feel so much more at home.
 
 
Pursuit Intervention Techniques
 
As alluded to above, LSPDFR 0.4 also introduces a number of changes to the artificial intelligence in pursuits.  Currently, the main tactic employed by NPCs in GTA V during pursuits is to rather aimlessly ram into the back of the suspect vehicle in the unrealistic belief that this is actually going to help end the pursuit.  Of course, this usually just results in the cop crashing into oblivion, and it looks really, really dumb too. 
 
So, naturally, one of the coolest new additions to LSPDFR 0.4 is the implementation of a working PIT maneuver:
Demonstration of NPC officers bringing a pursuit to a safe conclusion through successful usage of the new PIT maneuver in LSPDFR 0.4
YouTube version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiFFFho3hd0
 
 
As cool as this is, we know that NPCs performing PITs may not be to everyone's taste, and that it may not be suitable in every circumstance, so these can easily be enabled or disabled on-the-fly, during a pursuit, through the Interaction menu by changing the Tactics option.  If pursuit Tactics are disabled, pursuing NPCs will not attempt PIT maneuvers, and they will also shy away from most other advanced tactics, like blocking.
 

 
A closer look at the termination of the pursuit, with the suspects surrendering, after a successful usage of the PIT maneuver.
 
 
Air Support
 
Throughout the history of our two mods, air support has always been a touchy subject.  For those of you who played LCPDFR, you will likely still carry with you many terrifying memories of those white and blue flying death machines.  In previous versions of LSPDFR, things generally weren't that much better either - especially when your pilot decides, in a moment of wisdom, that flying through the bridge, rather than over it, is the best course of action.
 
With 0.4, we've taken the time to address some of the most frustrating issues with air support, with a particular focus on dramatically increasing both the usefulness, and lifespan, of our helicopters.  Specifically, you'll notice that helicopters in LSPDFR now fly at a much more realistic height and will properly increase or decrease their altitude as the situation requires, such as when a pursuit is passing through a heavily built up area.  They're also far more competent at actually keeping up with the suspects they are pursuing and will do so with a degree of intelligence, rather than just trying to fly directly above them.
 

 
A watchful LSPD air support unit circles overhead, tracking as a suspect attempts to flee on foot.
 
Furthermore, we've built in special modes for our air units, giving them the ability not only to follow suspects, but also to conduct searches over wide areas - something which is especially useful when ground units have lost visual, or are attempting to locate a target.
 
In addition, our helicopters are also responsive to changes in the conditions of pursuits they follow - such as if a suspect is in a vehicle or not - and will adapt accordingly.  When tracking a suspect on foot, air units won't simply hover above them but will engage in a more realistic flying pattern where the aircraft seeks to maintain continuous movement, while operating varying angles to compensate for possible obstructions like buildings.
 

 
Not a helicopter, but just in case you were wondering what happened to the guy pictured above...
 

 
This, though, definitely is a helicopter.  It's also not flying at street level!
 
As always, stay tuned for more news about LSPDFR 0.4 as we progress towards its completion.

Certainly makes a nice change from all of the negative articles we've heard about LSPDFR in the past. Congratulations on being featured, a really good story to read.

Will we be able to see a video preview of the new pursuit AI in action or will it just be screenshots? Looking forward to see how much the AI has changed in this version, a competent AI will be a game changer for sure.

Certainly makes a nice change from all of the negative articles we've heard about LSPDFR in the past. Congratulations on being featured, a really good story to read.

So I was told I was in the newspapers... looks like The Times has published an article about the British GTA5 police modding scene and my channel 😮
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/bland-theft-auto-as-mild-mannered-fans-turn-game-british-xkwzjj3pv
 
Was also kindly sent this picture of the article in the actual newspaper itself:

 
Page 11 of The Times 2 June 2018. Fantastic publicity for the whole community! 😀
The Times seems to have based their article on the original Wired UK article: http://www.wired.co.uk/article/gta-5-mods-lsdpfr-british-police

Will we be able to see a video preview of the new pursuit AI in action or will it just be screenshots? Looking forward to see how much the AI has changed in this version, a competent AI will be a game changer for sure.