User:MattyDienhoff/modding ideas

A list of modding ideas for the PC version of Grand Theft Auto IV, stored here for easy reference.

Weapons
What GTA IV's weapon arsenal needs
 * More realistic weapon stats. I'm addressing this with my weapon mod.
 * Replacement models for most of the weapons. Particularly:
 * The Glock, to fix the horrific sights, mainly. The front sights are a mirror image of the rears.
 * The Micro Uzi, to add a stock or at least a mount for one so it doesn't look like an Uzi pistol.
 * The AK-47 could do to be replaced by an AKM, I think it's more appropriate.
 * The MP-10 should have a stock and some kind of sights, it'd make it look a lot more professional.
 * An entirely new weapon or two. First up, an LMG of some kind, possibly an M249. Of all the different weapons that could concievably be added to the game, I feel this would make the best addition. It bridges the firepower gap between the M4 and the RPG nicely, filling the (currently empty) light machine gun niche. It's powerful enough, but not so powerful to have tremendous recoil and therefore require a prone stance (no such animations exist and would be too difficult to add), it's small enough to work with the current assault rifle animations, and it's not at all unrealistic to expect Niko could acquire a weapon like this on the black market for a price. At least, it's no more of a stretch than the RPG.
 * New reload animations. This ties in to new models to some degree, because the weapons should have moving parts and detachable magazines. Pistol slides should lock back when empty, and magazines of all weapons (but especially the assault rifles) should visibly detach during reloads. The reload animations for the rifles particularly need tweaking. The standing one is a joke (racking an invisible charging handle, and that's all), but even the crouched one is bad. Niko should flip the rifle over to pull the charging handle, because now he 'pulls' a non-existent one on the left side of the weapon.
 * Some new sounds. Most of the weapons sound nice as they are now, but some leave a lot of room for improvement. The Glock, MP-10, and maybe the AK-47 could do with new sounds. (The AK-47's sound is okay but it could be better)

More ideas for new weapon additions
 * A .45 pistol of some sort to act as a middle ground between 9mm and .40 pistols and the silly Desert Eagle. Possibly a USP.45 (like a USP Expert? You don't see many of those in games) or some 1911 variant, like a Kimber Custom.
 * A 7.62 NATO battle rifle (or carbine variant thereof) to act as a more powerful but harder to handle equivalent of the existing assault rifles. I'm thinking either an H&K G3KA4 (with the less common 30 round magazine?) or an FN FAL Paratrooper.

Create an additional safehouse
In San Andreas, I was disappointed with the choice of safehouses in Los Santos at the end of the game. There was the Vinewood safehouse (which was essentially a glorified tin shed with a one car garage, what a joke) and there was Madd Dogg's mansion. The Dogg's mansion is nice, but:


 * It's not really yours.
 * You can't use the garage space.
 * Saving the game triggers a glitch that renders all basketball courts unusable.

In GTA IV, there is, admittedly, less emphasis on 'making it to the top' (well, okay, there is, but it's mostly Roman who obsesses over sports cars and mansions), but it's still a bit of a kick to the head that after all that work, the nicest safehouse in your possession is your cousin's loft apartment with a two car parking space. It would've been nice if you could have acquired Jimmy Pegorino's home at the end of the game, whether through some contrived way of 'taking charge' of his stuff, or through simply buying it after he passes on. Anyway, it occured to me that it might be possible to somehow make it a safehouse. At least part of the interior is rendered (for the cutscenes), and the garage opens and closes (though it apparently doesn't save cars). So, perhaps (through scripting) the interior could be unlocked, the garage could be made to function like a parking space, and the relevant functions (lying down on a bed to save the game, changing clothes, using the TV/internet) could be added to make it a fully featured safehouse after a certain, appropriate point in the story.

Now that I think of it, if it's possible for Jimmy P's house, it might also be possible for Mr.Faustin's house. The interior of that house is seen in cutscenes, and although it may be difficult or impossible to make the garage function, the driveway could always be turned into a 'parking space'. That would also cure what amounts to something of a 'gap in coverage', since there is no safehouse in Broker after the Hove Beach apartment is burnt down, and I can't think of a nicer place to make a home in Broker than Beachgate.

Make street names visible on the in-game map
I'm not sure if this is possible (How or if the in-game map can be edited depends on how it works) but it seems to me that street names would be much more useful as a navigational aid if you could see street names on the map. As it is now, if you don't know a street by name and have to find it, the only way to recognize it is to drive over it and see its name appear on the HUD. Admittedly, in most missions waypoints are provided, but on occasion (like Stevie's text message missions) you need to find a target with the street and neighbourhood as your only reference point. Sometimes, it's not difficult to find (such as if it's a short street in a small neighbourhood), but other times... Well, one time I spent 10 minutes driving around middle park looking for a street, only to find it was actually 3 blocks away.

Street race opponent car details
A minor irritation, but an irritation nonetheless. I dislike the fact that when you organize a street race through Brucie, he doesn't tell you what kind of cars your opponents are racing in. Though whether this is weird or not may be a matter of opinion, I like to drive the same class of vehicle my opponents do so it's a fair challenge. Sometimes it's two-door classics like the Manana, the Virgo or the Peyote, other times it's SUVs like the Cavalcade or the Landstalker, and so on. Without any way to know in advance, the only way to find out what vehicles your opponents are driving is to drive by the starting line and see. It'd be better if the game's text brief told you what kind of vehicles the racers are driving when it tells you to 'Get to the start line'.

It would say: 'Get a VEHICLETYPE and get to the start line.'

VEHICLETYPE = Classic car Muscle car Four wheel drive Two-door/compact car Four-door car Sports car