Multiplayer

The term "multiplayer" comes from the phrase "multiple players" and describes a game several people can play together. In some computer games, multiple players can play the same game together by connecting their computers together with a local network or by using the Internet.

The first two editions of GTA for the PC (GTA1 and GTA2) were released with multiplayer support. The most recent three editions for PC (GTA3, GTAVC and GTASA) were not. Various projects have been released or are being developed by fans of the GTA series to add multiplayer gaming to the three most recent editions. Some fans have created other projects to improve the multiplayer systems in the first two editions.

GTA1

Was released with a multiplayer system by DMA Design (now called "Rockstar Games") but most players find it too difficult to use. It features two gameplay modes:-

• Deathmatch - players kill each other by any means. The first player to reach the required number of kills wins the game.
• Cannonball Run - players must drive through a series of checkpoints to the finish. The first player to reach the finish wins the game.

This edition allows 1-4 players in each multiplayer game.

There is a multiplayer project out that allows users with decent ping (<150ms) to play GTA1/London with one another, right now in its Beta Release 1.1 See GTADS

GTA2

Was released with an all-new multiplayer system by Rockstar Games which is an big improvement from GTA1, featuring specialised multiplayer levels with new game modes. However, it is still difficult for most users to set up games, especially when trying to play on computers behind routers and firewalls.

The three gameplay modes are described here:-

• Deathmatch - players kill each other by any means to gain "frags". If a player kills themself, they get one or more "frags" deducted. GTA2 does not allow negative numbers of frags. There are two ways a Deathmatch game can end:-
  • A player reaches the required number of kills and wins the game.
  • The time limit runs out, in which case the player with most kills wins the game. If both players have the same number of frags, the game is a draw.
• Tag - One player starts off "it", that player can't pickup weapons, can't see arrows and their car burns quickly. Whoever kills that player will then become "it". The player who has been "it" the longest when the time limit runs out is the winner.
• Points - each player tries to gain more points than the others. Points are given in the same way as the regular game, although killing another player gives a large points bonus. There are two ways a Points game can end:-
  • A player reaches the points limit and wins the game.
  • The time limit runs out, in which case the player with most points wins the game. If both players have the same number of points, the game is a draw.

There are various fan made levels that add racing or cannonball run style gameplay. Custom levels can have new game modes but it has yet to be fully taken advantage of.

There are three projects created by fans to improve the multiplayer system in GTA2. These projects concentrate on making it easier to find other GTA2 players, as well create games and join games:-

• gta2gamer
• GTA2 Game Hunter

One of the projects (Not yet complete) focuses on the same without opening multiple ports and possibly incorporating stats in the future:

• GTADS

The default GTA2 multiplayer maps support 2-6 players. Custom maps/scripts can support from 1 to 6 players.

GTA2 uses simple tick mechanism to synchronize games, meaning the engine was built with this in mind so that if you always use same controls, the game will always perform the same way (even random functions depend on this), so gta2 only transfers player key input and a tick message to advance 1 frame, sometimes skipping frames on high latency, which means the sync is always perfect, but needs very low latency, anything below 100 - 120 ms packet roundtrip is playable, for more players sum the pings and you'll get the latency the game will run at, this means over cable or dsl gta2 is playable with 3 or less people, but on lan you can easily play with 6 because of low latency / ping.

GTA III

Was released without multiplayer support by Rockstar Games, it only featured single player gaming. Projects which have been created by fans to bring multiplayer to GTA3 include:-

• ggm
• Multi Theft Auto

GTA VC

Was released without multiplayer support by Rockstar Games, it only featured single player gaming. Projects which have been created by fans to bring multiplayer to GTAVC include:-

• gtaTournament
• VC-MP on GTAForums
• Multi Theft Auto

GTA SA

Was released without multiplayer support by Rockstar Games, it only featured single player gaming on the PC. The PS2 and Xbox releases support a basic two player mode on one console. Projects which have been created by fans to bring multiplayer to GTASA include:-

Projects which have not been released yet:-

• [NET.GTA]
• [SA-2P] - Cancelled
• [SanAnarchy]

Projects which have been released:-

• MTA:SA - 1.1.1
• GTA:RUMBLE - 0.1d
• SA-MP (Wiki: San Andreas Multiplayer)
• gtaTournament - 0.3c
• Online Andreas Reloaded - 2.0
• 2 player co-op on 1 PC - Requires two USB game controllers