San Andreas Multiplayer
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San Andreas Multiplayer | |
---|---|
Developer(s) | The SA:MP team |
Release date(s) | May 10, 2006 |
Genre(s) | Third party Add-on |
Mode(s) | Multiplayer |
Platform(s) | PC |
Media | Free download via the official website |
System requirements | PC version of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas |
San Andreas Multiplayer or SA:MP is a third party multiplayer modification for the Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas video game. San Andreas Multiplayer is developed by a team of dedicated fans of the Grand Theft Auto series of video games, who work in their own time developing SA:MP as a hobby.
Contents |
[edit] Background information
[edit] Vice City Multiplayer
San Andreas Multiplayer started life as a multiplayer modification for Vice City, dubbed Vice City Multiplayer (VC:MP) towards the start of April, 2005. It was decided that VC:MP would be worked on as a codebase for SA:MP, due to the fact the upcoming San Andreas game was not released at the time the team started working. The team consisted of some well known members of the GTA modding community, and was led by kyeman - a prominent figure in the GTA Modding community. Offering preview videos and screenshots showing the status of the development work that was being done quickly gained the mod a large fanbase within the GTA community, with its small forums attracting approximately 120 users before it switched to a new home. After a couple of public beta tests gathering an extremely high amount of interest (so high that long waits were common to get a slot on the beta servers) VC:MP was finally released to a warm reception and has since progressed from v0.1 to v0.1d, with an open-source in the progress. This source has now been used by another community member to progress with VC:MP as the main team work on SA:MP. As of 27 October 2006, v0.3 has been released and enjoys some activity, but not nearly as much as SA:MP, which has over 500 servers at the time of writing.
[edit] Official Gamemodes
[edit] Gamemodes
There are a wide variety of the so called gamemodes in San Andreas Multiplayer due to the innovative PAWN scripting engine the game uses, allowing any user to create whole missions within the San Andreas map, and used by the server in a special file format - much the way a 'normal' game would have individual levels for the same mode of gameplay. Some of the styles of gameplay featured by SA:MP are Assault (Attack/Defend), Capture The Flag (in the form of capture the opposing teams car, boat, bike or plane), Team Deathmatch, Deathmatch, Racing or even modes where to win you must be the player with most money (gained by gambling or killing other players). There also is the option of general 'freeroam' gamemodes, where you can do as you wish and follow your own objective.
[edit] Official Gamemodes
Gamemode | Description |
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LVDM (aka Moneygrub) | Win this gamemode by being the player with the most money, obtained in any way you see fit. A popular gamemode on many servers due to its lack of any 'real' objective, making it a freeroam mode |
San Fierro TDM | A Team Deathmatch based in San Fierro, where you must stick with your team to become the player with the highest score. Also frequently used as a freeroam game. |
Protect the Prime Minister | Similar to Manhunt, one person (the prime minister) tries to survive as terrorists try to kill them. The Prime Minister is protected by Police. There are also characters called psychopaths whose main objective is to kill anyone and everyone. |
Rivershell | A water-based CTF gamemode, where your team must win by capturing a slow moving boat from the opposing teams base before they capture your team's. |
Local Yokel SE | The same as Rivershell, but based on land using sports cars (the SE standing for sports edition) |
Cops 'n' Gangs | Another CTF mode, this time between the Los Santos Police and a local gang - the objective vehicle being a slow-moving van. |
Area51 | An attack gamemode, where attackers must break into Area 51 by parachuting while the military and scientists defend. |
Freighter | A water-based Area 51, where Triads must break into a rival gang's (the Da Nang Boy's) freight ship, using speedboats and helicopters. |
Manhunt-LV | One person is chosen to be the 'hunted' person, while everyone else must chase him down and kill him. The person who kills the 'hunted' becomes the hunted himself. |
LS Parachute | A gamemode with no objective other than to parachute off tall buildings - popular by people making gameplay videos |
Minigun Madness | Another mode made to give people a break from the standard objective-based modes. All the players are locked in a small compound in a free-for-all with only miniguns to defend themselves. |
Monster | A freeroam mode where everyone spawns at a desert airstrip with only monster trucks for transport. Was popular during private Beta testing to test the game's stability and sync |
[edit] Creating Gamemodes
Creating gamemodes can be anything from simply placing co-ordinates (co-ords) into the PAWNO editor and compiling to creating fully-fledged missions with progressing spawnpoints, various objectives, and custom in-game commands[1]
[edit] Server Hosting
Unlike SA:MP itself, the server version of SA:MP does not require the game to run. The server software is available for both Windows and Unix like systems, at the official site.
[edit] Bugs
There are a number of bugs in the modification, which is due to the fact that the multiplayer mode has been added without access to the games original sourcecode.[2][3]. Some complaints have also been made about the powerful PAWN scripting engine being hard to use for people with no previous experience of coding (in areas such as C++) who would like to make their own gamemodes to run on their servers [4]. As the modification is presently in a beta stage, there are also a large number of bugs.[5] Sa-mp also has a dedicated bug reporting system.
[edit] Problems with Cheats
Something that has become a raising problem for SA-MP is the fact that each time more players use cheats, which can be seen on the constant banning at the official servers.[6][7][8] The most popular cheats are those of invincibility, weapon cheat(where a player is seen with weapons that cannot be found on the gamemode legally, like the minigun) and the money cheat, these all result extremely annoying for other players that play along the rules. Other minor cheats include teleporting, and more that are fairly hard to detect.
[edit] References
- ^ http://forum.sa-mp.com/index.php?topic=2750.0
- ^ http://forum.sa-mp.com/index.php?topic=3648.0
- ^ http://forum.sa-mp.com/index.php?topic=9940.msg68335#msg68335
- ^ http://forum.sa-mp.com/index.php?topic=11199.0
- ^ http://forum.sa-mp.com/index.php?board=29.0
- ^ http://forum.sa-mp.com/index.php?board=39.0
- ^ http://forum.sa-mp.com/index.php?board=40.0
- ^ http://forum.sa-mp.com/index.php?board=41.0
[edit] External links
[edit] Official links
[edit] Fan Sites
[edit] SA:MP ladders and ranking sites
[edit] External links
- SA-MP Download.com page, showing roughly 10,311 downloads at the time of writing, marking it as a popular download.
- SA-MP Team: Exclusive Interview by www.gta-series.com