Detective Dennis

Hi All,
 
Wow has it been a while...  What have I been doing?  Well, I've been hard at work making a FiveM emergency modification (can be seen used by KUFFS gaming).  That was super fun and interesting - having to sync multiplayer is a challenge, but pretty darn cool.
 
But that's not why we're here, is it?
 
I'm excited to announce that LS Noir (LSN) will be coming back.  I've been out of the scene for a while, but I regularly get messages asking for LSN to return.  And it's about time we get it working again.
 
So, I have some things to show that are still in development.  But, I am truly working on them and I expect a release soontm.
 
Case Management
First - one of the major challenges of the original LSN was the data structure.  LtFlash was the main designer of this and did an AMAZING job.  The problem is creating a new case; it is so much work and excel files to manually create.  Something not for the general public.  This was difficult to overcome as any case creator program had to support eight different file types, each with different components.
 
To combat this, when I got back into the development of LSN a couple months ago I set out to make a case creator first.  This required a rework of the case structure.  You can find a link to a case flowchart here (be warned - it's a little complex).  Now all information for each stage ("level") of a case is stored using JSON in a "Stage" class.  This allows a simple case creator program to be made.  It's important to note, I'm not a professional - so my GUI is probably not great.  It's better than manually editing a json or XML though, so...
 
 
This case creator will allow you, the community, to create cases.  They can be two stages or twenty.  It's all up to you.  And the benefit of the new format - all items required for a stage are present inside the Stage class.  That also makes implementation much easier on the backend.
 
Implementation
The implementation of this new separate CaseManager is ongoing.  The entire modification needs to be rewritten for a few reasons.
 Outdated references - the modification uses two main commons, Fiskey111Common and LtFlash common.  Both of these are no longer maintained, so these need to be implemented locally. Updated case structure - with the old LSN, there were nine different data types (CaseData, ScenesData, StagesData, ReportsData, EvidenceData, PedData, DialogData, and more).  These files were single files with all data pertaining to that data type - so stage 1 (ex: CSI) is contained in the same ScenesData file as stage 5 (ex: suspect raid).  Not horrible, but difficult to maintain as there are many different components to ensure are completed.  Now, with the Stage class everything for a stage is contained inside the one class.  This makes referencing items easier, as referencing items for evidence requests can simply reference a stage ID which parses all evidence collected rather than each individual evidence ID. Computer - the case computer is pretty cool, in my opinion.  I think that being able to access case data in a GUI format is fun, and will allow for extra features in the future.  However, being honest - GWEN (the windows forms program included in RPH) is not great.  However, I'm not interested in converting to RageNativeUI, so for now, GWEN stays.  This should be fine - the computer isn't used too much.  But we'll see where the road takes us as things progress.  
Timeline
This is the biggest question.  The case manager software is complete (enough) for use.  It's not perfect, but it works and does make creating a case easier.  There are some creature comforts I need to add, but those are on the backburner.  I'm currently working on implementing the new case structure into the existing modification.  As mentioned before, this requires a lot of work to implement and update old, depreciated features.
 
My estimation is a couple months.  But, who knows - life is crazy.  I've been trying to work on it at least 3 nights a week.  It will also depend how things end up working out - perhaps the rewrite of the case structure isn't ideal for some situations and needs to be edited.  Those are things playtesting and creators will most likely discover.
 
I appreciate the communities understanding, and I'm excited to be able to provide a positive update as I truly love the idea of a detective modification - and I think LSPDFR really needs a good one.
 
I'll post additional updates as I get additional features implemented.
 
Stay safe!
Fiskey111
 
 

So, it's been a while since we've provided an update on LSPDFR 0.4.  As you might've guessed from the title, though, there's a good reason for this...  It has taken us a lot of work to get to this point, and in the last couple of months alone we've made hundreds and hundreds of changes.  Anyway, here we are - who knows how many months late - but we're here.  No riddles, no treasure hunts, no @MSA (at least I'm pretty sure they're not here), but straight to the point!  We can now confirm that we'll be releasing LSPDFR 0.4 in February, 2019.  
 
Anyway... with the scary part out of the way, I wanted to take the opportunity to explain ourselves a little.  No, @LMS wasn't renditioned to an IAA black site, no I didn't fall victim to the Orbital Cannon, and no...  the ghost of @ineseri didn't drive a train into us.  Perfectly plausible scenarios given our silence about 0.4 as of late, but we're actually still alive.  Instead, we've been pretty busy rushing to the finish line as far as 0.4 is concerned, and to complement the big news above, we thought we'd throw in a couple of sweeteners below to show just how much 0.4 is going to change things. 
 
We've talked a lot about our Character system in LSPDFR 0.4.  It's one of the biggest changes to the mod, but we also think it represents an entirely new direction in general.  I say this because, not only does it allow us to have a bunch of really cool stuff natively integrated into the mod, like customizing a character, but it also lets us have a bunch of other really cool stuff natively integrated into the mod!  Having your own character dials up the immersion quite substantially, but we wanted to take things to another level.  We thought, for example, wouldn't it be cool if instead of spawning as Franklin in Franklin's house, you could instead, say, I don't know?  Actually spawn as your own character, in their house.  Or maybe, instead of switching to Trevor and your camera panning down to him being pursued by the LSPD, you could switch to one of your other characters, and "Google Earth" down to them being the LSPD. 
 
LSPDFR 0.4 introduces a fully functional GTA Online Apartment to single-player, complete with transition sequences, working interactions and more Steve Haines than you can handle.
 
It's not just that, though, we really wanted to dial it up.  Having your own character, them having an apartment, switching, customizing, it's all cool, right?  But you might be thinking, what's the point?  These are "multiplayer features".  And sure, LSPDFR is and most likely always will be a single-player mod, but that doesn't mean we can't think outside of the box every once in a while. 
 
Recently, @Cyan, in addition to all of her work on the website, has also been developing an all new framework called LSPDFR Sync.  LSPDFR Sync lets you connect up to your LSPDFR.com account in-game, and you can then synchronize your LSPDFR characters with your LSPDFR.com profile.  To top it off, we've brought back statistics too.  Ever wanted to know how many shots your character has fired?  It's as simple as taking a look at your character's profile on the site - which, we should add, you can actually edit.
 

 

 
LSPDFR Sync provides all-new, seamless connectivity with your LSPDFR.com profile.
 
And frankly, it doesn't even end there.  When I said before that we wanted to dial the immersion up to the max, I guess I lied.  What I actually meant to say was that we'd just ripped the dial clean off the controls, strapped it to a rocket, and sent the damn thing up to the moon.  Not only can you now create a character, customize them, share them, spawn as them...  You can actually do things as them too!  Like, actual game things.  Ever wanted to run the triathalon as your LSPDFR Character?  Now you can.  Or, how about practicing with your sidearm down at the range?  Yep, got that too.  Simply want a can of sprunk from a vending machine?  No problem.
 

 
With the introduction of a new innovative system by @LMS, it's now possible to do many of the single-player minigames while playing as your LSPDFR Character.
 
Of course, with the Character system, and all of the features that come with it, being such a huge part of LSPDFR 0.4 it'd be easy to forget that this is a police mod.  Indeed, I think we almost did given the grotesquely gargantuan amount of work that has gone into it.  Fear not, though, as we have also been working on some incredible new gameplay features too, including massive improvements to interaction with suspects and people that you arrest.
 
LSPDFR 0.4 introduces, in a game-changing way, the ability to take hold of and drag arrested suspects.  Yes, we know that there's some great API mods which have held the fort, and we're grateful for that, but this is something we wanted to get absolutely right, and indeed, we think the result is simply stunning.  The possibilities are pretty far-reaching too and encompass just about everything from shoving suspects up against cruisers, to personally escorting them into their cells.  
 

 

 
No, these aren't cutscenes.  No, they're not edited screenshots.  With 0.4, this is real.