GroundControl

The day is finally upon us.  Rockstar closed GTA Online for a day or so to fix the economy...and the hacker issues that have plagued it over these last few months.  This was a shock to me as I was away from the game for about a week...didn't even know that it shut down...

Sharks in the water.

I found this out rather quickly once I returned.  You see...whenever you start a mission you are able to purchase ammo and armor from the setup screen.  There is a 'purchase all ammo' option.  I naturally chose that one since I was swimming in loot.  After I was stocked to the gills I noticed that it said that I had 140,000 dollars.  But since I'm slightly dyslexic when it comes to numbers...I thought that it said 140 million dollars.  I was sitting on 200 mil in the bank and another 110 on my person that I didn't bank out of spite at the hacker who gave it to me.  Speaking of which...

...what cha gonna do when they come for you...

When the mission was over I checked my account.  Yup...140K.  Ok.  I'm cool with that.  I'm actually more than cool with that.  I sort of did a double take...looking at my account again and letting it really sink it.  Wow...they fixed it.  And surprisingly they let me keep my apartment and all of my cars.  Ok.  Even better.

Appropriate.

I've read some message boards and there is all sorts of thought/words/opinions on the matter.  Not only did RS fix the economy...they also fixed the RP hack which is really good since it keeps tanks off the streets...for the most part.  Glad I could catch that battle when I did.  As they say in the industry...makes for great copy.

Slow day at the track.

They decided to punish those caught cheating at their own 'discretion'.  For those who were gifted money but innocent of cheating...they reset the money levels to where they were (or where they thought they were) before the modded money was added to individual accounts.  Ok.  I understand that.  But let me throw myself under the bus for a minute...

When I was 'gifted' the initial amount...I had just purchased a 6 car garage for 70K.  I had about 5-6K left on my person.  I was then 'windfalled' to the tune of 100M+.  So realistically I should have only been given somewhere between 5-10K.  But I guess that RS wanted to keep people happy - and more importantly...playing - so they adjusted the numbers.  I'm ok with that too.  I guess removing purchased items (apartments, garages, cars) was too exhaustive or difficult so they are allowing us to keep those for now.

Chocolate brown.  Dope.

You see that car in the background?  That's one of the cars that they let me keep.  I had that car and 3 other 'highend' cars in my garage.  But before I get into that.  This car above...it's an Ubermacht Sentinel Coupe.  My favorite car in the game.  I have three of them.  One in black.  One in chocolate brown.  And one in midnight blue.  Excessive.  But necessary.  So...they let me keep a whole garage full of cars...10 in total.  Three like the one above, 4 highend cars and 3 others which I'll show you later.  Anyway...after the monetary adjustment...and realizing that they were not going to take away my garage/apartment or vehicles...I took each and every one of them to get priced for resale.  From just the 4 highend cars...I had a total resale amount of just over 1,000,000.  Not bad.  Good if I ever get into a pinch...

...or need extra hooker money.

I think the running mascara is a fantastic touch.  Tough day at the office...

Unaffected by the recent economic recovery act.

I actually sold that car in the background bringing my cash total to 420K.  That should do me for a while.  Since they didn't take the apartment, garage or car away...the real need for money is to keep fully stocked with weapons, ammo and armor.  Plus...the only way that you can rank up (RP) is by doing missions and they all come with monetary incentive attached.  Plus bonuses for finishing them with teammates/crew members.

Crew emblem.  Dope.

I made that car china white...like my coke habit.  Ha!  Just kidding.  I'm actually thinking of changing the car back to black but with a 'cocaine white' strip running across the top with our symbol shining bright...

Now the playing field has been leveled.  Although...from the windfalls until now...I've managed to take my stats through the roof.  I've maxed out on stamina, driving and most importantly...shooting...

Case in point.

Actually that's not entirely true.  Driving is so key.  I rocked a mission the other day where I had to hunt this van down because The Ballas (local street gang) decided to kidnap someone and I had to snatch him back.  First I had to take out the hoods in the van, then scoop up this dude...and then drive him back into the city.  Two or three blocks back in that direction...I was swarmed by multiple cars filled with gangstas trying to break a piece off in our collective ass.  Thankfully I was in one of my faster cars (armored w/ bulletproof tires) and I was able to stay ahead of them...and alive.  Delivery accomplished.  I drive like Steve McQueen.

Canadians welcome.

Even before this leveling of the playing field...I was starting my sessions off with a game of survival.  I'm not sure if I explained it but Survival is for 2-4 players and sounds pretty much...well, exactly what it is.  You and your teammates are attacked in escalating waves of enemies...dirty cops, meth heads, mercenaries.  This is a nice way to increase your shooting stats as well as a nice source of RP.  But what it really does for you...especially if you involve yourself in one early in your GTA session...is gift you more advanced weaponry.  In addition to armor and health to keep you alive during wave after escalating wave...weapons become available in the surrounding area that you usually cannot access at Ammunation due to your current RP limitations.  This gives you the advantage once the Survival ends since you can keep this weaponry for your entire session...as long as you have sufficient ammo, of course...

Signature!

This is so hard to do...catch an actual opponent right after death.  Unlike computer generated characters...these corpses disappear very, very quickly.  You have to kill them and then immediately opened up your phone and take your photo.  I can't tell you how many times I've rushed up to an extinguished adversary and then had them disappear right before my eyes.  Frustrating...

That lady from the DMV.

And there are certainly plenty of ways to take out your frustration here.  But now the playing field has been leveled.  The economy has been resuscitated...to a point.  I could still sell off my apartment/garage and all of the cars in it for well over a million dollars.  There's no fun in that though.  One of the very best things about this world is tooling around in supped up cars looking for trouble...and somewhere to store them when you're done.

Indeed.

At Least You Left Your Life In Style

After watching the documentary on The Stone Roses reunion...it only seemed fitting that this should be titled as such.  Plus...if you think about it...it's what we're all tryin' to do here - go out in a blaze of glory...styled out to the max...at the top of our game!  So to those four lads from Manchester...nice line, I'll take it!

I finally found some people willing to go on jobs and run various races.  Boy, that is refreshing.  For a while there it was a strictly kill or be killed type of situation.  Not that that is unpleasant.  It's nice to start a job and not just sit there while no one accepts your offer.  It really is a lot of fun to join up with a bunch of other idiots and see what kind of mayhem you can accomplish...together.  This all started because I was invited out to the country for a game of 'survival'.  Now this is a great game.  You and you teammates fight against multiple waves of enemies.  There are supplies around to keep you alive and armored.  If you can get at least four of you to fight together...it really is one of the best things about GTA Online.

No point in committing suicide when you can abandon it all and move out here.

But seriously...I have daydreams more often than I'd like to admit of packing absolutely nothing up and moving out to the desert to pump gas, drink beer and write of wild days gone by.  Big sky country.  For sure.

One of the great things about teaming up with other players is that you get RP bonuses.  This is a good thing.  Regardless of the obnoxious amounts of money that I've been gifted...I still have tons of stuff to unlock.  And fortunately for me...I hit a level, somewhere in the mid twenties, that unlocked the 'sticky bomb'.  This is like a grenade.  But it sticks to stuff and allows you to detonate from afar.  When I got back to the city I stumbled upon a traffic jam on the freeway.  And right smack dab in the middle of this...a tanker truck.  

Lots of collateral damage.

Instant 3 star wanted level.  Amazing.  Be on the lookout for trucks like this.  They're easy to spot and this is a lot of fun.  I just sort of fell into the bonus of the truck being right in the middle of a giant mess of traffic on the freeway.  Now this is probably a rare occurrence but if you do find one of these trucks...the explosion is so huge...it'll be worth your while regardless of what surrounds it.

Smells like burnt hippy.

After I bolted from the cops...I made my way back to Ammunation.  I needed to stock back up on rounds and armor.  This is a regular occurrence...unlike my 'gift' of said traffic clotting.  And something that occurs regularly as well...people outside of these necessary establishments...talkin' sh*t.

Nope.  Guess again.

This particular trip afforded me many liquor store photo ops so you'll have to bear with me.  These places are great and plentiful.  And they're particularly good for spotting the more colorful inhabitants of Los Santos.

Friends!  Before we go any further...let's be...

See that dude behind me with the gray hair and beard?  I've seen this cat everywhere.  He's old and stumbly and drunk.  And featured in the opening credits of the game when playing 'story mode'.  He mumbles a lot.  When I lived in Ohio there was a guy who used to walk up and down our street asking for change and cigarettes.  His name was Phil.  That was one hilarious dude.  Gentile and pleasant.  But lost in his own crazy world.  We had no idea where he spent his nights or how he functioned day to day...other than trolling 5th Street for beer money.  He had a very unique way of talking and pronouncing (or should I say slurring) his words.  He became a folk hero of sorts and is remembered to this day by more than just your humble narrator.  So...here's to you, Phil...immortalized, over my left shoulder, in Grand Theft Auto!

Popular spot.

This is yet another thing that I enjoy doing here is this sick world.  Whenever I roll past a place with a ton of people hanging outside...the temptation is just too great.  I can't help myself...

Not anymore.

This lead to yet another, eventual spat with the cops.  I know that it's going to go down like this.  But, I tell ya...this city is changing me.  I try to fight it.  I really do.  But unfortunately...I ate the apple.

Bloodied, The Wiser.

That would be a great name.  Like Ivan The Terrible.  Or Frodo The Brave.  Or whatever the hell they called him.  Bloodied The Wiser.  I like that.  Not sure how much wiser I am.  Since I find myself in a blood soaked suit more often than not.  Both my stamina and driving skills are at or near 100%.  But my shooting is still relatively low.  That's why I have to get the jump on people or it's a an unfair fight.  Especially since I'm usually going at them with a lower grade weapon.  Surprise and timing is everything.

Sunrise.  Sunset.  Whatever.

Whichever that may be...the vistas never disappoint.  And neither do the people that walk the streets.  If I could only remember some of the sh*t that comes out of their mouths...  

Lots of these in the ghetto.  Big shocker.

I get a lot of 'get the f*ck out of here' and 'you don't belong here' kind of responses in East Los Santos. 

Big girls blouse

Like these guys below.  They're far less aggressive.  And therefor far more targetable...

Workin' pa nub...

And unfortunately for them...this afternoon...I was a bit on edge...

....in all the wrong places...

Right after I snapped this photo I got bushwacked by an opponent.  Now I don't usually mind this.  I did have a bounty on my head so I can't really blame them for hunting me down.  But what really gets my goat is when they've wacked me and scooped up their (my) money...they top it off by stealing my car. 

Gonna need some booze for this hunt.

This happens rarely.  But when it does...and I finally find them...they pay with their life.  But my car...my poor f*cking car.  Thankfully Los Santos Customs makes a repair quick and easy.  I still can't help but feeling a bit abused.  Like someone touched me in my bathing suit area...

My f*cking whites...

Karma is alive and well and living in Los Santos.  Just ask this lady...

'I done never smoke a crack a day in my life.  I feel malificent'

The homeless / drug & alcohol addicted population in Los Santos is unendingly amusing.  It would be great if these hackers broke into the game and brought all of these people to life ala 'Dawn Of The Dead'...and then had them attack everyone online.  Man, that'd be great.  Instead they give me a bunch of money that I'll never spend.  Wow.  Creative.  And speaking of creative...

Look at them nudie mags!

This final bit that I leave with you was sort of stumbled upon randomly.  When you get into really behaving badly...your wanted level will increase depending upon the severity of your 'expression'.  That's all well and good if you feel like running...or if you feel like standing your ground and duking it out with the fuzz.  The problem is that once you hit three stars...in comes the air support.  And once you hit four stars...you ain't got long to live.  But...if you can find yourself something with cover...preferably with overhead cover...and preferably with only one entry point...you can have yourself quite the lengthy, multi-star firefight.

This is how it began...

When barricading yourself into one of these stores...make sure to pick one with diagonal shelving.  Some of the store have rows of shelving that give no cover at all as they are in line with the entryway.  No cover.  No bueno.  Pick the middle row.  Take cover.  They'll be coming right through the front door...

Deep into it.  SWAT team looming...

It really will go on and on.  And if you time it right...you can make a call to have your wanted level removed...and then walk out to observe the carnage.  And steal one of those cool, black SUVs if ya wanna...

Almost.

Without fail...someone gets caught in the crossfire.  And if you're looking to document the carnage...chose wisely...more often than not...when you pull up your camera...one of these dudes comes through the door.  

The sun sets...on the LSPD.

Calling off your wanted level is a nice feature...albeit one that more often than not feels like a cheat.

Caught in said crossfire...

This was her about 15 minutes ago...just mindin' her own business...lookin' to get lit...

Never to return.

Whew.  That about ends that one.  Took me forever to piece together.  I'm notorious for starting things and never finishing them.  Although I did make some killer mix tapes back in the day.  But they started really strong and finished really strong...in the middle they always seemed a bit slow going.  Hopefully the next one will pick up...if you found this one a bit sluggish...but if you didn't...thanks!!

(Post script:  I decided to create a crew.  Just for the fun of it.  Not really sure what it'll do for me.  Hopefully some people will join.  That'd be cool.  Feel free to come on board if you feel like it.)

TEAM STUKA