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Getting Started

Lucas Vinícius edited this page Jun 24, 2022 · 17 revisions

This page describes a few steps you'll probably want to take to start your gang business.

Naming your Gang

After successfully installing the mod, you'll already have a gang! However, its name will be "Player's Gang". You can change it to whatever you want via the Gang Controls Menu, opened by default with the B button. Selecting the "Rename Gang" option in that menu will open up a text field for you to enter the new name.

Registering Gang Members

If you've renamed your gang, you have probably noticed the other options in the Gang Controls Menu: "Call Backup Vehicle", "Call Parachuting Member"... Right now, if you attempt to select one of those options, nothing will happen. There are two reasons:

  • Your gang does not own any territory in San Andreas (we'll address this problem later on);
  • You do not have registered any member variation.

In order to have other gang members in your gang other than yourself, you must register them! That is possible via the Gang Member Registration Controls Menu, opened by default with Shift + B.

When the registration menu is opened, the pedestrian in front of you will be thrown upwards by a water hydrant explosion; that is just to point out that ped has been selected. If no one was found in front of you, you'll be the one selected! You won't be thrown upwards the same way, but the effect is the same.

The menu has some options referring to saving aspects of the ped. However, the "Member Color" and "Member Dressing Style" options don't really matter when registering members for your gang; they only matter for AI gangs, as they will pick their members according to their color and style (a gang that has the black color as its main color will try to pick members that have been marked with the black color, for example. The same counts for the dressing style). If you don't want to save that ped for AI gangs, you don't have to care about them.

Select the "Save ped type as your gang member" option, and now you should have a member type for your gang. You can register (and remove) other types at any time.

Registering Gang Vehicles

One thing that should also be done is the registration of a vehicle for your gang: that should make calling backup vehicles possible once you've got a territory.

To do that, get inside a vehicle you'd like to see your gang members using and open the registration menu (just like when registering peds: Shift + B, by default). Picking the "Register Vehicle for your Gang" option should assign that car type to your gang.

Now, your gang has a vehicle! You can register (and remove) other types at any time, and also register potential vehicles for AI gangs in the same menu.

Taking over Zones

The main source of income for a gang, in this mod, is the control of zones of San Andreas. Owning at least one territory also allows you to call for backup anytime (using the options cited in the beginning of the Registering Gang Members topic).

In order to take one, you must first enter a zone that isn't already controlled by your faction (it can be neutral or not). You can toggle the displaying of zone blips in your map by pressing CTRL + N; it may help find zones which haven't been taken yet.

Once a zone of your liking has been found, open the Zone Controls Menu, and select the "Take current zone" option. There is a cost (it's configurable) for taking a neutral zone, but it becomes instantly yours. When trying to take an enemy territory, the cost is higher and a gang war will begin instead, and you'll have to battle the enemy in order to claim the zone for your gang.

Surviving a Gang War

Gang wars are inevitable in this mod, and can define which gang will triumph over the rest. A war begins when a gang attempts to take over another gang's territory.

As of update 1.3, wars are based on reinforcements, which are displayed on top of the screen while inside the war zone. Members of both gangs will keep spawning close to their spawn points (displayed as blips on the map) for as long as there are reinforcements left.

If you think your gang's spawn point could be placed in a better position, it may be a good idea to replace it: In the Gang Controls Menu, picking War Options Menu, and then the Set allied spawn point to your position option should move your gang's spawn point to your position. Versions 1.5 and newer no longer have this feature, as spawns are now preset.

If the enemy reinforcements (displayed as the red number on top of the screen) go down to 0, it's a victory for you; however, if the allied reinforcements (the blue number) reach 0, the battle will end as a defeat.

The number of reinforcements when a war begins is defined by the scale of the attack (the attacker can choose how many members will be used on the war - the attack price rises accordingly) and the level of the attacked zone. The number and level of territories owned by the involved gangs also has a minor influence. It is always a good idea, when attacking, to employ more attackers than the number of defenders.

Dying as a protagonist (Michael, Franklin or Trevor) will end the war instantly, but it won't necessarily be a defeat; if your gang was doing well against the enemy, they may still win on their own! You get a battle report once you leave the hospital, telling you what happened and who won the battle.

Strategies should be made in order to increase the odds of winning the war. A good way to start is to hide or stay away from the war zone as the protagonist (Michael, Franklin or Trevor) and "mind control" a friendly gang member (aim at the member with a weapon and press the J Button) to deal with the enemy. If the controlled member dies, the war won't end (unless there are 0 allied reinforcements left), making it less dangerous to take greater risks. Keep in mind, however, that the war will still end if the protagonist dies, even if you weren't controlling him at the time of death!

You can press the J Button again to return to the protagonist and, if dead as a member, Spacebar to take control of another member nearby (if there isn't any around, you will take control of a parachuting member).

Another good practice is to call members to follow and protect you: aim at a member and press the H Button to make him/her join your group (if he/she already is in it, he/she will leave your group).

Conclusion

This concludes this mod's introduction. After reading this, you should be able to handle yourself and your gang. A good way to learn more is to look at the menus cited in this page; most options should have descriptive tooltips.

Thanks for downloading and good luck!