PCI: Why do you think GTA:MP is such an important mod for the community?
GTA:MP: First of all, modded games are welcome at the PC gaming community. Mods deliver more content, more opportunities, more fun, more resources and more players on servers. A lot of players already experienced that feeling on older modifications such as MTA or SAMP. With GTA V and the opportunities the game opens us, the developers, we tried to set a new standard for alternative multiplayer modifications.
With Chromium Embedded Framework Support, OOP (Object-oriented programming) scripting system which allows to simply implement new scripting languages via APIs, more control for the scripters, Node.js with Javascript scripting support and a lot more, we tried to open GTA V with all it’s features to the scripters to basically create their own game out of GTA V with a unique experience.
We have officially worked 30 weeks on GTA:MP since the release of GTA V and what we have got so far, the features and functions we have implemented, normally took other mods more than 3 years. This might be one of the reasons why the community was so hyped and followed this project.
Progress of GTA:MP in November 2015
PCI: Â Beyond what you had shown, what other plans or features had you lined up for GTA:MP?
GTA:MP: We have planned to implement nanos Multiplayer Framework in version 2.0. Also we had plans to implement traffic, pedestrians etc. into the multiplayer, so you have the same experience of the world as in GTA:Online and not just a ghost town. Moreover we had plans about featuring peer2peer servers (if you want to play with your friends), more scripting languages (such as LUA, Squirrel etc.), modifiable servers (which means importing and modifying textures, shaders, models – so vehicles, peds, objects, the map on the client).
Also with 1.0 we would not have delivered all functions and features of GTA’s stock, so we would also have implemented all features such as relationship groups, vehicle deformation synchronization etc. Of course we have also planned to create modifications for older GTA titles or the upcoming GTA VI.
PCI: A lot of the community is upset by Take2’s decision and there is a petition now up. How do you think this can help?
GTA:MP: This is basically the only way to try to resolve this situation. We can’t do anything against Take-Two Interactive, but the community can show that they don’t agree with their decision. The best way to do that is to sign the petition and share all the articles from the websites like you. This is also why we would like to give you a big thanks because you are the ones who can relay the information and inform everybody about such situations. Without media like you, nobody would hear about this.
We hope that Take-Two will see this petition and all the articles and rethink their position.
This can only be done with the help of the community and the media.
PCI: Assuming that’s it for GTA:MP are you moving on from the game? Are there other games you would like to mod for?
GTA:MP:Â Of course! We’re experienced developers and love to create content for games. If you take a look at Just Cause 2 Multiplayer or DayZ you see that modifications can make games popular and promote them. Beyond GTA:MP we were working on nanos Multiplayer Framework, a framework based on C++ for modders and game developers to simply create scriptable, with dedicated or peer2peer server, multiplayer parts for their game. nanos.io delivers graphics(CEF), scripting, server, networking and client components. For that we might focus on APIs and plugins for Unreal Engine 4 and CryEngine 3 later on.
But it’s obvious that if a publisher or game developer would come to us and ask if we’d write the multiplayer part for them, we would not say no. To be true, that is a dream of us.
PCI: If you could put yourself in front of the money guys at Take2, what would you say to them to convince them that GTA:MP is important to the future of the game?
GTA:MP: First of all we’d explain them why we decided to start GTA:MP, the main reasons why we have worked so hard on this modification. We would talk with them about how Just Cause 2 Multiplayer and DayZ increased the sales of their games and made this game very popular to the gaming community. As we see nowadays, these games still sell very good.
The standards for the PC gaming community have rapidly changed in the past few years, more mods pop up on the internet, more PC gamers start to experiment with mods.
As Rockstar Games even stated at Gamescom: Without mods, and that’s the most important reason, the Grand Theft Auto series would not have become such a success.
Of course it would be hard to convince them to renounce to their GTA:Online Shark Card – ingame money – program, because we guess that they get a lot of money out of it and they’re able to pay developers longer to work on games and deliver new updates and content. However, it’s important to mention that we are only talking about the PC community, and it doesn’t represent a lot of people compared to the console community. This is also something that we don’t understand.
The money guys would also see, that without this support of the community, we would not have get that much in the news and there would be no shit storm.
The community wants mods such as GTA:MP. We personally think that if Take-Two or Rockstar Games will continue this strict process of shutting down modding projects, to ban single player mods (like back in June), they will lose a huge part of the GTA community. Even if Take-Two is a billion dollar company, the company still has to listen to his customers to satisfy them and to hold them to buy their products in the future. Last but not least, we would tell them to look at GTA:Online directly, every session has at least one cheater, and more and more players start to stop playing GTA:Online. As we said, consoles have a lot more GTA:Online players than PC.
You can check out more videos of GTA:MP on their Youtube channel.
