GTA: Vice City almost had a much more complex police system, but its developer says it was "too much hassle to set up"

A GTA: Vice City developer has shared an insight into its police system, and revealed it was almost more complex but was "too much hassle to set up." 

Earlier this week, Obbe Vermeij, former technical director at Rockstar, replied to a fan who had a question about GTA: Vice City. The Twitter user asked Vermeij how the police car spawn system worked in the 2002 game, referring to a certain street where two police cars would pop out to intercept you if you were being chased. 

"Amazing you picked up on this," the developer responds, before sharing how this system works: "Generally police cars are created a good distance away and are given the order to attack the player. In Vice City, I experimented with pre-set locations where police cars would spawn just at the right time and with the correct initial speed to appear right in front of the player."

This isn't the case for every police car in the game, though, as Vermeij explains: "They were too much hassle to set up so there are only five or so set up in Vice and you found one of them. They always trigger when you have a wanted level of three or above (I think) and once they've triggered, you have to wait a few minutes before it happens again. It only happens if you approach them from the hotel side." 

In the replies to Vermeij's tweet, several other fans have asked questions about Vice City's inner workings. Staying on the topic of cars, one Twitter user asked the developer why you sometimes see a stray car that isn't the same type as the one you're driving when completing the Sunshine Auto missions. 

"The game will try to create cars as a mix of the loaded cars (including the one the player is driving). In extreme situations, you could get just a bunch of the player car model. In most cases you will still get a mix of cars," Vermeij replied. 

Take a look at our GTA 6 guide to find out everything you need to know about the future of the Rockstar series.