Rockstar Confirms GTA Online Repeat Mission Cash Slashed

[Karloff]

Rockstar Confirms GTA Online Repeat Mission Cash Slashed

It went live in Friday's patch.

"For those of you inquiring about mission payouts, there was a change that reduces payouts by 50 per cent after a repeat of the mission," says Rockstar, after GTA Online players noticed a cut in their pay for repeat missions. "The first time you play and beat the mission, you will get the full amount. Subsequent replays will see a payout amount reduced by half. This is to keep the game balanced as well as encourage the exploration of new missions and content in the game."

And then there was much rejoicing. Or not. "You're telling me that by wanting to do coop more often than competitive I'm doing something wrong," one support site commenter responded. Though the cash cut doesn't make repeat missions completely worthless, it does discourage them. You could end up spending more cash on armor and bullets to survive the mission than you earn completing it. New players may find it difficult to get help for old missions, as veteran players will have little reason to get involved. Also, although the cash penalty for death has been reduced, reducing the repeat mission payout effectively reduces the total amount of cash available; a benefit neatly balanced by what amounts to a penalty.

Rockstar argues that the payout cut is in there because players can get very good at a mission after several goes, making it easy to grind. However it didn't make the change public before the patch rolled out - "we apologize that there was not full clarity about this in the patch notes," it says - which only fuels fan rage over the changes. If servers start depopulating, Rockstar could find itself with an empty crime funpark on its hands. That'd be an embarrassing Christmas present for Rockstar.

Source: Rockstar Support [http://support.rockstargames.com/hc/communities/public/questions/200329777-Change-to-Medical-Bills-and-Patch-Notes#answer-200503268]


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[Roofstone]

Personally I like this update. Helps you appreciate the stuff you buy much more. And besides, it is still easy to farm money in freemode and/or races.

 

[fix-the-spade]

This is PR code for "You people aren't spending enough in micro transactions, so we're cutting the supply of free money, now get into PVP and buy our shit you useless freeloaders!"

They aren't the first F2P type game to slash the availability of in game resources, they won't be the last.

it is still easy to farm money in freemode and/or races.

Famous last words...

 

[Roofstone]

Famous last words...

Sorry, I don't quite understand why these are last words?

Are you gonna kill me? That'd suck..

 

[Alandoril]

Well then they need to do something about the lack of variety in available tasks. Having the same few missions on repeat (and no DMs and races don't count as missions, they're just padding) gets incredibly dull incredibly quickly. The mission system needs to be much more robust.

 

[mirage202]

This is PR code for "You people aren't spending enough in micro transactions, so we're cutting the supply of free money, now get into PVP and buy our shit you useless freeloaders!"

They aren't the first F2P type game to slash the availability of in game resources, they won't be the last.

This.

In the current gaming climate I just can't see this any other way. Patching out methods of making money through actually playing the game(shocker) screams of trying to nudge people towards MT/CS/IAPs.

If this were ten years ago I'd believe it's to "Encourage players to explore different content" but now? No way.

 

[SonOfMethuselah]

Famous last words...

Sorry, I don't quite understand why these are last words?

Are you gonna kill me? That'd suck..

Are you not familiar with 'famous last words' as an idiom? It just means that they're of the belief that your assertion (i.e 'it is still easy to farm money in freemode and/or races) is going to be proven wrong - possibly quite soon - by some turn of events (i.e Rockstar systematically eliminating ways to earn cash without actually having to purchase it).

...

Then again, you may have actually earned a place on their list, which would be unfortunate.

OT: I'm not too worried at the moment, a.)because I don't actually play Grand Theft Auto Online very much, because I've already lost four characters, and still don't trust that the issues are worked out, and b.)because I found it fairly easy to earn money even without playing missions. That said, given the presence of the cash store, I can understand why some people find this move upsetting.

I'd like to believe Rockstar's reasoning, but the last little while has left me very distrusting of any developer or publisher, based on the actions of a select few, so while I'll defend Rockstar by saying 'I'm sure they're honestly just trying to keep GTAO balanced, I'm also going to stand over here and watch them suspiciously.

 

[Shiftygiant]

I get why there doing it, and I think that it is a good way to stop grinding, but they should have probably announced it before. Maybe they were to busy drinking there hundred year old champagne out of there platinum chalices in there solid gold office building to realize there would have been a backlash. And oh yes, it really is solid gold. It's now a tourist attraction in Edinburgh.

 

[Revolutionary]

'You guys need to explore more missions.'
I'd love to Rockstar but most of the missions are gated off with a level requirement. At any given moment the amount of unfinished missions that are unlocked is pretty slim on the ground.

 

[ZZoMBiE13]

I get why there doing it, and I think that it is a good way to stop grinding, but they should have probably announced it before. Maybe they were to busy drinking there hundred year old champagne out of there platinum chalices in there solid gold office building to realize there would have been a backlash. And oh yes, it really is solid gold. It's now a tourist attraction in Edinburgh.

Solid gold office towers are only impressive if they enhance the Jag melting abilities of the reflections.

 

[Vivi22]

This is PR code for "You people aren't spending enough in micro transactions, so we're cutting the supply of free money, now get into PVP and buy our shit you useless freeloaders!"

They aren't the first F2P type game to slash the availability of in game resources, they won't be the last.

I haven't played the game so I was going to ask if there was even a reason Rockstar should give a shit that people are farming money. Guess that answers that.

 

[Grouchy Imp_v1legacy]

This is PR code for "You people aren't spending enough in micro transactions, so we're cutting the supply of free money, now get into PVP and buy our shit you useless freeloaders!"

They aren't the first F2P type game to slash the availability of in game resources, they won't be the last.

I kinda doubt this to be the case. After all, Rockstar are giving all GTA Online players $500,000 of in-game readies this month to apologise for the server issues at launch. That's far from cutting the supply of free cash.

OT: I experienced this over the weekend playing with friends who were lower level than myself. Can't say it bothered me to be honest, after all as I had already done said missions I was only performing a 'back-up' role so as to let those who hadn't done the missions before experience as much of them as possible, so I didn't mind getting paid less for what was essentially a consultant's fee. Plus it makes farming less rewarding, so I have no problem with this feature.

 

[Lord_Gremlin]

Hah, ha-ha.

I wonder if they think somebody would actually believe them, or just spouting BS without much hope of getting any benefit from it?

 

[Quiotu]

So... I'm curious. I can see two reasons for playing a mission over and over again.

1. It's a really fun mission, and you want to experience it multiple times. In this case, it shouldn't matter how much money you get from it, because it's FUN. Although they are just cutting the money in half.

2. It's a really easy mission, and you're using it to farm money/levels. BTW, I also hate people like you that play the game this way, but you have every right to find ways to break the game. In this case, Rockstar is just balancing the playing field, and the only people complaining are folks who are mad the dev is nerfing their exploit.

Oh, and we'll all just ignore everything else that was done in that patch, like lowering the maximum price for dying in freeplay mode to $500, or adding the contact missions in the post-match voting screen. You know, because getting money is so very hard... grabbing a car and selling it at the mod shop for about $4k is terribly difficult, even more money if it's a car Simeon wants.

Cry more. It's a balancing patch. Deal with it.

 

[Ham Blitz]

This will make getting money a bit more tougher I suppose, but then again I don't really know how hard it is to earn money in GTA Online, I'm still getting cloud connection errors every time I try to play online. Maybe when the heists come around (whatever year that will be) that will serve as a decent repeatable coop earned income.

 

[Fappy]

If they want to stop grinding thy are looking in the wrong places. If you have at least two people you can grind races and make tons of money/exp in no time.

 

[Something Amyss]

Are you gonna kill me? That'd suck..

Not as much as it used to, since hospital bills cap at 500 dollars now. *rimshot*

Well then they need to do something about the lack of variety in available tasks. Having the same few missions on repeat (and no DMs and races don't count as missions, they're just padding) gets incredibly dull incredibly quickly. The mission system needs to be much more robust.

Indeed. And if you don't want me doing the same missions, make it so I'm not getting the same five missions over and over again!

(i.e Rockstar systematically eliminating ways to earn cash without actually having to purchase it).

Since this is the third or fourth way they've done it, I think the writing's well on the wall now.

If they were serious about this, why are races worth so much still?

I get why there doing it, and I think that it is a good way to stop grinding, but they should have probably announced it before.

Except there's still plenty of ways to grind. What they've really done is killed any sort of variety right now. Content is already restricted as-is, and now they're de-incentivising some of the little content they have. They already killed replays for missions, and the playlists push LTS and races like there's no tomorrow, because what the hell else is there?

'You guys need to explore more missions.'
I'd love to Rockstar but most of the missions are gated off with a level requirement. At any given moment the amount of unfinished missions that are unlocked is pretty slim on the ground.

Worse, half of my friends are like ten levels below me and the other half are like 20 levels above me.

I haven't played the game so I was going to ask if there was even a reason Rockstar should give a shit that people are farming money. Guess that answers that.

They claim it's about the in-game economy, of which there is none. In truth, yeah. It's all about the (microtransaction) Benjamins.

I kinda doubt this to be the case. After all, Rockstar are giving all GTA Online players $500,000 of in-game readies this month to apologise for the server issues at launch. That's far from cutting the supply of free cash.

Except they're doing that specifically to pay off their screw-ups. A lot of people lost more than what they're offering. This isn't a magnanimous gesture, it's specifically to stop people from raging and demanding refunds and the like.

"Sorry your character, cash, and progression are all gone. Here's some money to make up for it!"

Unless they're planning routine payouts, this isn't really an indicator that they're not drying up the cash. It just means we've got one promised hurrah before they do.

 

[Fasckira]

New players may find it difficult to get help for old missions, as veteran players will have little reason to get involved.

Thats a good thing, surely? I mean when I play a mission, I want to conquer it through playing it. I dont want to be looking bewildered as some high-ranking player upon mission start instantly zooms to the objective and nails it with no issue.

I really can't see an issue with this adjustment, aside from it will screw over those who want to do the same missions over and over again to farm instead of branching out. If I were R* however, I think I'd have reset the cash-slash every 5 levels or so; that way you can still replay it with level-similar players at various stages while still encouraging them to try out new missions inbetween.