Quickstart - A Beginners Guide
Accurate as of version 1.8.8
The Basics
First of all - welcome to GTA World!GTA World is a high-standards roleplaying server set in the GTA Universe in the city of Los Santos and the outer Los Santos area. Joining a new server can be daunting - especially when you don't really know what you're doing, where to go or how to go by doing pretty much anything. I was fortunate enough to meet someone early on in my time at GTA World, who had no qualms about showing me the ropes, the purpose of this guide is to provide that same support to you and get you accustomed to GTA World and the many, many opportunities it provides.
Let's start with some commands.
/b -This is used for local OOC, this can be used in too many cases to list here, generally use it to talk to other players as yourself, not as your character.
/me -This is used to describe something that your character is doing, an example would be: /me looks around the room, sighing to herself before approaching the bar, which would be printed as:Elizabeth Rankinlooks around the room, sighing to herself before approaching the bar.
/do -This is used as an extension to /me or as a way to provide clarification out of character. For example, let's say our character, Elizabeth Rankin, has been hit by a car, and paramedics on the scene, to describe what they see, I would use: /do Elizabeth would appear severely injured, having been hit with some force, she'd currently be unconscious with a low heart rate. This would be printed as: Elizabeth would appear severely injured, having been hit with some force, she'd currently be unconscious with a low heart rate. (( Elizabeth Rankin )).
/s - This is to make your character shout, perhaps they're showing anger or simply trying to get someone's attention.
/low -This is used to make your character speak quietly, for example, in a private conversation, or simply just wanting to speak quieter.
/w [ID or Name] -This is used to whisper exclusively to a character, be sure not to use this to powergame!
/id [Firstname Lastname] -This is to gain the ID of a character, useful in many cases, one being whispering!
/name[ID] -This is to get a characters name from their ID. Can also be used to get your own ID.
/vget -Your car will appear where you last parked it, useful after a crash or after relogging to get to your car!
/vpark -Your car will be parked and saved to the database, useful for logging off. (Abusing these commands is punishable, so be careful!)
y(Not a command - a keypress) - Start your engine.
l(Not a command - a keypress.) - Lock your car/property.
/report -Stuck somewhere, or need an administrator to watch over some roleplay? Use /report.
/helpme- Used for more general questions and enquiries, things that don't actively need an administrator.
/changechar -Useful if you're bugged in some cases, or if you just want to switch to a different character without restarting.
/help -A list of commands for a multitude of features.
Other commands for individual features can be found using /help. They can also be found by this useful guide by @Nervous, located here!
Getting Started
Secondly - welcome to Los Santos!Los Santos in our little community is a thriving city with countless businesses, criminal organisations, a working government, active police, sheriff andfire department and endless opportunities.
You will spawn at the airport, probably a bit confusing what to do next, right? Below I'll discuss my personal recommendation of your priorities fresh off of the plane in Los Santos. You will then be directed to take the tutorial.The tutorial is heavily recommended, this will teach you the basics of the server!
The red circle,justacross the road from where you start, allows you to rent a vehicle, be warned though, while youdon't need a drivers licenseto drive a rental vehicle, driving like a maniac is frowned upon by both the local police departments and server staff alike.
This is the menu you'll be presented with at the vehicle rental, pick your vehicle and we're ready to go! The tutorial will begin to walk you through the basics of the server, starting with getting your phone!
What next?
You don't have a phone! Phones are needed in order to respond to adverts looking for work or perhaps something you're interested in buying, keeping in touch with friends, and pretty much a requirement of all the player-jobs available in Los Santos.
Once you arrive, you'll be presented with the following menu.
More information on the Phone System can be found in this guide, published by @Westen, found here.After you buy your phone, you'll be directed to head towards the Vespucci Hub - this allows you to customise your character.
Customisation
With the standard GTA Online model, the customisation provided is certainly exciting.
The Red Circle on the map is what I call the 'Customisation Corner' of the map, you can change your hair, your outfit, your face, your makeup, your tattoos, everything!
Plastic Surgery
We can all admit that some faces can look good in the customisation, but look a little... 'derpy' in practice. Head over to the Plastic Surgeon to get that amended.
No, these aren't the same picture! Little differences can have a big effecton the standard camera. There's a very useful guide by @JoeWarneron changing your face, read it here!
Clothing Store/Hair/Makeup
Hair, makeup and clothes can be assigned to outfits, useful if you want to wear makeup with some outfits, but not others, or perhaps your character likes a good wig? Head into the Clothing Shop and you'll see something like this:
You can customise everything about your outfit here, I recommend setting Shirt & Undershirt to 15 and your torso to 3, to avoid clipping, thenchoose your outfit over that.
Picked an outfit? Good! You have 20outfit slots to save it to, and you can switch between them at your car or your property (Within RP Reason, obviously) with/outfit.
Please read this guide from @JoeWarnerfor more details about the clothing system, read that here!
Hair is quite similar to how you developed the look of your character, with its own CEF menu, look below.
Makeup is for boys, too! Blush can be used to add contour to both a male and female character's face, use it wisely and it acts as an addition to your characters face.
Extra Customisation
You can also set descriptions of your character for things not covered by the customisation feature - this could be in the form of the height of your character, the character's approximate age, even to the accent your character has. To add a new line to your characters' description, do /attributes, for example.
/attributes Kalani would appear in her late twenties.
To see your description, or to see another player's description, the command is;
/examine [ID/Name].
Getting Your License
If you're still following with us on the tutorial - you'll be directed to get your Drivers License.This can be skipped at this point, but you will need one to purchase a vehicle!
As you can see, there are a few licenses to choose from (How exciting, right?), but for now, we're only focusing on the Drivers License. Click on "Driving License" to begin your test. Be sure to follow the traffic laws of the city, keep within the specified speed limit, stop at intersections, crossroads and turns and hopefully, you pass! Once you have passed your test, feel free to continue on with the tutorial - your next step along the tutorial is to the dealership - let's go look at some cars!
Vehicles
Why not buy your own vehicle?
This is an exciting part, thanks to the Grand Theft Auto V base, the number of cars you can buy and the customisation you can do seems to be limitless - you can truly have one a kind if you wish, or you can live more within your means and have a bog-standard car, the choice is all yours! A comprehensive list of all vehicles currently available for sale and where they are sold is generously provided by @Ikechukwu, listed here!
Look towards the Red Circle for the location of the cheapest vehicles - this will be directed to you on the tutorial via the GPS.
You will receive $5000 an hour for your first 40 hours, for a total of $200,000. A lot of players use this to buy a car after a few hours or so.
Once you find a car on the list that you're interested in, you'll see a preview of it and an option to buy it, seen below.
Bought it? Good!
Your car needs registering, though. Your vehicle won't spawn after you bought it, you'll need to spawn it in. This is done with/vget.Now, onto registering!
New cars will spawn with insurance and registration on first purchase as long as you pay the full price on the dealership!If you haven't registered, or need to re-register/reinsure, this can be done at theDepartment of Motor Vehicles,you know where to look on the map at this point!
NEW: You can call 205 to insure or register your car! (Thanks @Nervous!)
Arrived at the DMV safely, without being pulled over for driving an unregistered or uninsured car? This is the menu you'll be presented with:
You need to register your car to drive it legally.Insurance is compulsory, however, it'll really come in handy if your car gets destroyed, or you'll end up paying a hefty payout! More information on registration, tax and the DMVcan be found in this helpful guide by @Ribseyand @Keane, this is found here.
So you have your car, you have your license, you have a phone, you're ready to go!
Jobs
Jobs are great, right? It's how you make the money you need to buy the things you want in life. On the next stage of the tutorial, you'll be directed to the countryside - the home of the Los Santos Sheriffs Department, if you were to ever consider that as a career path! You'll be led to the Farmer job, and you can begin working straight away.
The farming job is a great place to start.
jobs are also offered by player businesses, this is either through advertisements (Keep an eye out for [Company Advertisement]) or by walking up to a store and picking up your apron and your customer service voice.
These jobs are called store jobs, such as Ammunation, 24/7, Mask Shop and so on, read more about that here.Player to Player provided jobs have never been more plentiful, always keep an eye out on the ads!
I need more money!
You will receive $5000 an hour for your first 40 hours, for a total of $200,000. You will also receive a government grant for RPing in a store.
What Next?
Now, you enjoy yourself! Get immersed, get to business and meet people orgo to a bar and make friends, this is a multiplayer game, right? Might as well immerse yourself into the community. Welcome to GTA World, the opportunities are again, endless, be who you want to be and more importantly, have fun! Happy Roleplaying!
Frequently Asked Questions
All questions are keyworded - meaning you can search with CTRL+F to find the answers you're looking for with common phrases. For example, 'can't join server'.
Technical Support (Rage, GTAV)
Q: Failed To Find Install Directory (install directory, install dictionary, can’t find game files)
A: Hey! Go here and this will show you the steps to fix that. It’s pretty easy. https://forum.gta.world/en/index.php?/topic/25484-guide-failed-to-retrieve-installation-directory/
Q: I’m getting ‘connection lost’ (connection lost, can’t join server, reconnecting)
A: This link has some solutions you can try out, they say they’re for SE Asia/Australia but they’re universal
https://forum.gta.world/en/index.php?/topic/11576-fix-connection-lost-australia-south-asia/
If this doesn’t resolve your issues you might try logging in with a VPN.
Q: I can’t go through doors (doors locked, door bug, how to enter)
A: For new people that are joining, you might find that other people can walk through doors (like at clothes shops, etc) that you can't - you need to do one of the following; delete your SP profile found here C:\Users\User\Documents\Rockstar Games\GTA V\Profiles - or download a 100% save game and drop it in there, then remove the old one. This should unlock all single player doors in game that would otherwise be locked.
Q: Game keeps crashing (crashing on startup, black screen then crash)
A: If your game is crashing, delete "C:\RAGEMP\client_resources\play.gta.world_22005" or "C:\RAGEMP\client_resources\51.178.79.228_22005" and restart the game. It'll redownload all our client mods. If you have issues redownloading the files, use the link from #join-us which contains all the files you need
Q: Game crashes on ‘Initializing Social Club’ (social club crash, social club bug)
A: This is caused by an overlay, try removing/disabling any overlays that might be interfering with RAGE (Shadowplay, Steam, XBOX For Windows)
Roleplay Support
Q: Firearm License (how do I get guns, legal guns, pf license, ccw license)
A: You can get a PF license from the LSPD website at https://lspd.gta.world/viewforum.php?f=25, but there is a minimum hour requirement of 40 hours.
Q: How do I join PD? (join lspd, how to be a cop, join police)
A: Sign up for the LSPD forums in a ‘Firstname Lastname’ format, and you can read more about joining the LSPD here: https://lspd.gta.world/viewtopic.php?f=1195&t=32613,
Q: Car registration/insurance (insure my car, register my car)
A: By the Penal Code, your car needs to be both registered or insured, however, these are only IC consequences and you can choose to have an uninsured/unregistered car if you’re willing to take the risk of losing it.
Q: Developing a character (Character backstory, develop a character)
There’s a useful guide by @Bash on character development on our forums, you can check that here: https://forum.gta.world/en/index.php?/topic/25436-guide-realistic-rp-character-development-wip/
Q: Where do I buy a car? (purchase a car, get a car, get a vehicle, buy a bike)
You can buy a car from a dealership, here is a full list of cars available for purchase: https://forum.gta.world/en/index.php?/topic/14664-gta-world-dealership-price-guide-181/
On the map, a dealership looks like this:
Q: How do I mod my car? (car mods, car modification, repaint car, recolour car)
A: Open garages are noted by the ‘spray can’ icon on the map, these are all player-run businesses, here’s an example:
Q: What factions are there? (creating a faction, start a faction, join a faction, join a group)
A: For new players, it’s best to join an existing faction so that you can learn the basics of the server and the expectations within it, look here for a full list of active factions: https://forum.gta.world/en/index.php?/forum/6-factions/
Q: App help (app situations, application help, application situation, don’t understand question, whitelist question)
A: We can’t help you with applications, it’s best to read through the server rules found here:
https://forum.gta.world/en/index.php?/forum/30-server-rules/
Q: Who is chief of police? (For LSPD forums) (pd chief, acting police, head of police)
A: The answer is looking for ‘Charles Hughes’, this can be found on the LSPD forums.
Q: Who is the sheriff? (For LSSD forums) (sd chief, sheriff answer, lssd leader)
A: The answer is looking for ‘Machado’ or ‘Patrick Machado’.
Q: What are the laws? (penal code, city laws, breaking laws)
A: You can view the penal code city, state and federal laws here:
Script Support
Q: Tutorial Not Working (crashed in tutorial, tutorial crash, tutorial help)
A: Use ‘/setstep 1’ to go back to the start of the tutorial.
Q: How do I get jobs? (start career, good jobs, player jobs, best job)
A: You’ll be directed to the farming job during the tutorial, there are also a variety of other jobs on display, such as trucking & retail work to discover. However, you get $5000 for 40 hours so you can feel free to enjoy the game without grinding. If you do decide to grind, the starting bonus will stop after $200,000 total worth of your character. You can do this with each new character you create, but you can be banned if caught abusing this by breaking the asset transferring rules.
Q: How do I make notes? (note script, leaflets)
A: You can refer to the note-system guide for help on making notes in game here: https://forum.gta.world/en/index.php?/topic/14887-how-to-create-use-notes/
Q: How do I use animations? (anims, positions, poses, posing)
A: You can hit ‘u’ on your keyboard, or type /anim to bring up the larger animation system. Example /anim sit1
Q: I just bought a car but it’s disappeared! (dealership, car purchase, car disappeared)
A: You can use /vget to retrieve your vehicle once purchased. Use ‘L’ to unlock your car, and use /engine or ‘y’ to start your car engine.
Q: Where can I learn the basics? (how do i get started, how to begin, what to do)
A: You can check this guide for the basics of the server.
https://forum.gta.world/en/index.php?/topic/13662-quickstart-a-beginners-guide/
Q: My clothes are showing random holes. How do I fix it? (Clothes bug, bugged clothes, bugged outfits)
A: This is usually because of how the torso is set, you can go to a clothes store to fix this, check this guide for how the clothing script works:
https://forum.gta.world/en/index.php?/topic/244-clothing-guide-clothinghair/
Q: Can I record chat? (parse chat, log chat, find chat, bring back chat)
You can download the parser, more information on this can be found here: https://forum.gta.world/en/index.php?/topic/22544-chat-logs/
Useful Links
Los Santos Penal Code - @Brett
Thank You For Reading!
Enjoy GTA World!