Avaris

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.

Been a while, huh?
 
You know, when we first started making LSPDFR, the whole process was pretty much one big roller-coaster that didn't have any brakes:  there were the obvious highs when we'd finally add in something cool, but the low points were pretty hard as well - the amount of work that went into simply researching how things worked really took its toll as well.  And, of course, while this was all going on there just simply wasn't any stopping, we were a couple of (somewhat) real people who essentially lived in Los Santos for just about all of 2015, spending month after month pushing forward and trying to come up with things that everyone here would like to see.
 
So, of course, the grind and the pace of everything simply just wasn't sustainable and after 0.3, it's no secret that while the numbers and everything for our site are still on the up, month after month, things did slow down quite substantially for the actual mod itself.  But, we can tell you, this wasn't all bad news - it's afforded us the opportunity to take a step back and really look at the mod and figure out where we want to go next with it.  While our approach before was all about cramming as much new stuff as we could into a couple of months of development, we've now been able to look back at many of the original ideas and concepts that we had for LSPDFR and build on them.  Of course, with that being said, there's still a lot of new stuff crammed into 0.4!
 

 
With 0.4, we've taken the time to fix a couple of those "how the hell didn't they add this yet" moments :)
 
Aside from the cool little additions like this, though, the major theme of 0.4 is Character.  Ever since seeing the character system for GTA Online, it was always our goal to implement something similar in LSPDFR.  There's just something that much more personal and immersive about playing a game with your own character, and the possibilities that it offers are staggering too.  And yes, while mods like EUP are fantastic (and awesomely compatible with 0.4!), they still feel somewhat separate or distant.  With 0.4, this separation is gone.
 

 

 
No, these shots aren't taken from GTA Online.  This is our own, fully-featured, LSPDFR Character Creator.
 
Of course, we'll talk more about the new Character features in LSPDFR 0.4 later.  The Character Creator menu shown above is obviously only one part of what's new in this regard, although hopefully it emphasizes the effort that we've gone to.  Thanks to some of the new additions like this, much of 0.4 actually looks and feels like an entirely new mod altogether.
 

 
Officer Ronson and his clones obviously couldn't make it to the flashlight party. 
 
Stay tuned!  We'll be sharing more about 0.4 soon.