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Encounters

An NPC encounter in InteractV happens in a few layers:

  • Trigger: the game notices two NPCs (or the player and a gang) who could start something, and decides whether they actually do, based on things like their factions, how close they are, and a bit of randomness.
  • Scripted scene: once it starts, the encounter plays out as a short scene: NPCs approach each other, argue, threaten, maybe fight or flee.
  • Reactive AI: for richer encounters, once the scripted part is done, control passes to an AI that keeps deciding what each NPC does next on its own, based on their personality (aggressive, fearful, disciplined) and the situation (outnumbered, cornered, an armed opponent nearby, and so on).

What ships built-in​

See Editions for the full edition breakdown. In short:

  • Basic: gang confrontations, meetings, street sales, player involvement, affiliation, recruitment and simple crew orders.
  • Gamer / Partner: add further encounters, phone reinforcements, faction SMS, territory, and police/military world reactions.
  • Police (Gamer / Partner): patrols that stop groups on the street, chase and arrest suspects, and step in when gangs fight in front of them.

When the police find a gang fight​

An officer who comes across a crew fighting with weapons in hand does not wait for it to end. He sizes the crew up first.

Usually the crew gives up: the police run a group control, hold everyone at gunpoint and put the closest men on the ground where they stand, while the ones further away may try their luck and run.

Officers already nearby join the control. The police call more units when the officers on scene cannot cover the group. Fighters from both gangs end up on the line, and men who already gave up are held while backup arrives, even when the fight around them is still raging.

When the circumstances favour the crew (the time of day, a violent neighbourhood, its numbers, nobody around to see), it may shoot it out instead. Once the shooting stops, the survivors are put on the ground. When a shootout leaves several dead and is still raging, a patrol is no longer enough: the SWAT is sent in, and a gang fight around the scene does not keep them away.

The police keep an eye on the street even while they are arresting you: the officers dealing with you carry on, the others handle the trouble around. If someone opens fire while they are closing in on you, they do not wait: the arrest happens on the spot, and the shooters are put on the ground beside you.

While an arrest is under way nearby, a new gang shop robbery waits for that police scene to clear.

Investigators sent to look at a body wait until the shooting is over before they turn up.

Taking the prisoners away​

After a group arrest, officers take their prisoners away in the vehicles they came in when there is room, and call for a transport only when there is not. The officers around help the boarding along.

Places with a story​

Some places do not wait for you to start something. When you get there, a scene may already be under way: a fight between rival crews, a police raid on the local gang. Your crew reacts as it would anywhere else.

Drawing a handgun​

Taken out of empty hands, a handgun, an Uzi-type submachine gun, a sawn-off or double-barrel shotgun, or a compact rifle is drawn with an animation: the hand reaches for the weapon before it appears. Putting it away to empty hands plays the holster animation. Switching from one weapon to another, or to a full-size or melee weapon, happens the usual way. This works whatever picked the weapon (the weapon wheel, the action wheel, the mouse wheel or the keys).

Only the upper body moves, so walking and running go on. Aiming or firing cuts the animation and puts the weapon in hand at once. In a vehicle or in cover the game switches weapons as usual.

Your crew does the same when it draws or puts its weapons away, each member a moment after the other rather than all together. A recruit who has to fight, take cover or carry out an order gets its weapon straight away.

The animations can be turned off in F5 > Options > Draw animations (WeaponDrawAnimations in interactv.ini); weapons then switch the usual way.

Where people and vehicles appear​

Everything the mod brings into the world (a police backup, a patrol, a convoy, a buyer, your starting crew) appears far from you and out of your view, then travels to where it is needed.

When no hidden spot exists nearby, nothing is brought in: the reinforcement or the scene simply does not happen that time.