Warning: Avoid modded lobbies during server shutdown period

[Sergen]

As you're probably aware, the servers for GTA V on PS3 are shutting down on December 16th, 2021. During this period it might be tempting to try and get a modder to rank you up to rank 100 instantly which circumvents the grind for the game. Although some cases of this have resulted in the disputer being unflagged, I believe that there's a very high chance that from now until December 16th the Cheater Removal Team of this website may decide to keep you flagged as a cheater on this website if your rank trophies and the "Run Like The Wind" trophy are unlocked with illegitimate time stamps during dates that correspond with the announcement period of the server shutdown.

 

In this case, the best course of action to take would be to only play online on this game in "Invite Only" sessions, this allows you to play the online for this game on your own without other people in your lobby or it allows you to invite people that you can trust into your lobby without having a modder interfere. These steps may only work for someone who has completed the online introduction, of course if you've never done the intro then I kind of recommend never to start GTA Online on PS3 because the online introduction requires you to play publicly and a modder could screw you over in your first ever session for the game.

 

These steps should be done while you are in the single player of the game:

 

1. Pause the game (press )

2. Keep pressing until you come to the "Online" Tab

3. From there, scroll down to "Play GTA Online" and select it

4. Select the "Invite Only Session" option from there and it should take you into the online to play on your own or with friends.

 

I believe that every trophy in the online for the game can be done with invite only sessions, "Run Like The Wind" is already unobtainable by legitimate means and I believe that in this case you can either choose to value your completion rate or value your status on this website's leaderboards, if you get a modder to give you a bounty, it might catch up with you and you may be flagged for it. I believe that the CRT will be more vigilant during this period and more harsh in their enforcement of the rules regarding modded lobbies for GTA V due to the fact that this website assumes the worst in people and believes that if they partake in an activity that may benefit a trophy then they've intentionally done that trophy in the worst way possible without considering that this might happen to someone who is oblivious to the shutdown drama for the game.

 

This thread will likely be deleted by a moderator if it becomes a big debate about modded lobbies for the game, if you want to debate modded lobbies and the flagging surrounding them, maybe this thread is the best place to do that:

Another reason to play the game with "invite only" sessions is the fact that modders can also remove your rank entirely, resetting you back to 0 and I believe that this also applies to money you earn in the online. While some modders feel like they're being helpful to people in their lobby and can decide to rank people up to a high rank or give them infinite money, there are also modders who like to be malicious and remove your hard earned progress. So even if you want to do the game legitimately in public lobbies, be aware that modders can ruin your experience in more ways than one.

Edited June 26, 2021 by Sergen

[AJ_Radio]

You might as well give up on the platinum if you didn’t get Run Like the Wind prior to mid 2017, when the bounty feature was removed. 
 

I’m just going to get whatever trophies I need for an A rank then move on.

[The-Man-In-Black]

Keep in mind that the PS3 version of GTA Online is a very bare-bones experience compared to PS4/PS5, and there is comparatively little to do in invite-only sessions for single players.  If you truly stick to invite-only sessions, expect the road to 100 to be one hell of a long, boring, repetitve grind.   You're basically stuck doing single player races.   Most races only hand out a few hundred RP for single-player, and since you need 1.5 million+ RP, you're talking thousands of rances.  Yawn.

 

Most other activities such as Golf, Tennis, or story missions will throw you into a lobby first looking for other players.  If you join these missions with other players, you will likely be thrown into a public lobby once the activity is done.  I'm not entirely sure which activities will throw you right back into the invite-only lobby vs. which ones will throw you back into the public ones.  Even entering the activity, getting into the lobby, and backing right back out isn't safe; I've been thrown into public lobbies this way before.  

 

Being thrown into a public lobby is not safe under any circumstances.  This includes loading the game directly into online mode.  With such a high percentage of lobbies containing modders (i'll go so far as to say the majority of lobbies will have at least one player cheating in some way, shape, or form), the chances of running into a lobby that will auto-pop your trophies is very high.  There is no way to tell, and no way to avoid it.    Even if you are diligent about making sure that you only start invite only lobbies with friends, anything can happen.  The heist leader's internet hiccups or the session errors out and doesn't load properly?  Activity over, into the public lobbies you go.  You could do everything 100% right 100% of the time and still end up in a public lobby that's got a modder that auto-pops your trophies through a series of events completely out of your control.  

 

Most people are going to want to do things like heists, car races, and other trophy-related activities to most efficiently grind their way to 100.  The problem is that in doing so, you have to participate in activities where something can go wrong, bumping you out of the activity and into a public lobby.  Or the activity ends and you end up in a public lobby.  Or whatever.  If you're going to grind it out to 100, the safest way to go about it is to not do anything like heists or other activities until after you hit 100. 

 

All four of the trophies that are most discussed on this site popped for me in this manner.  

 

I was in an invite-only lobby, alone.  I decided to join a TDM lobby.  Not one of those modded parkour ones where they say you're playing for a zillion points and a zillion RP or whatever.  A relatively normal looking one.  Match played out normally.  Nothing unusual.   Got bumped back into a public lobby.  Backed out, re-joined my invite-only lobby.  In that two seconds that I was in the public lobby, someone put a $200,000,000 bounty on my head.  I wasn't in the lobby long enough to see the message pop up, but it did once my invite-only lobby loaded.   48 minutes later, RLTW popped.   For the record, I did *not* get $200,000,000 after the trophy popped.  

 

I had done the Fleeca heist a few days back with no issues, but I somehow didn't get "Can't Touch This".  I was the driver in the finale and you have to practically go out of your way to get damaged, so I was suprised when Can't Touch This didn't pop.   So yesterday, I decided to try it again.  Did the Fleeca finale again with some random guy.  Trophy popped during the end cutscene this time, and we get dumped into a private lobby.........where I instantaneously get blown up over and over again, get another $200,000,000 bounty on my head (since I was getting blown up over and over, I am unsure if the guy using the mods got the $200 million for killing me), get credited $10,000,000 in $20,000 increments, and bumped from level 23 to 123.  All 3 levelling trophies popped.  

 

Admittedly, I didn't seriously try to avoid public lobbies entirely.  I stuck to invite-only lobbies if I wasn't doing anything out of the ordinary.  I never just randomly ran around in a public freeroam.  I avoided clearly modded game invites, and stuck to story-related missions, heists, and legitimate-appearing competitive modes like TDM.  When I was bumped into a public lobby, I backed out and re-joined my invite only.  It wasn't enough.  IMO, the grind to 100 is way too long, too inefficient, and way too boring to stick to activities that don't put you at risk, and the worry about randomly entering a public lobby if something goes wrong somehow just makes it not worth it.  Realistically, your choices are to either avoid online entirely, or go for it knowing there's a risk that the trophies are gonna pop anyway.  

 

At OP's request, I'm not going to get into the discussions regarding modded lobbies and whitelisting here, outside of saying that flagging players at this point is more likely to punish legitimate players vs. punishing actual cheaters.   My position on that is already well known, and anyone who's interested can check my post history.   I will just say this.  I have only played GTA online on PS3 for a few days.  Maybe a week or so.   And the number of modded public lobbies is absolutely insane.  The risk of having these trophies auto-pop for you is extremely, extremely high even if you believe that you are doing everything right to avoid it.  You may end up in the wrong lobby due to circumstances completely out of your control, or a simple misclick somewhere.   If you are *that* concerned about getting a flag on this site, your best bet is to avoid playing the online altogether and just write off the trophies as unobtainable for all intents and purposes.  Attempting to legitimately earn any online trophies puts you at risk of having trophies popped for you through no fault of your own.  

Edited July 1, 2021 by The-Man-In-Black

[The-Man-In-Black]

On 6/25/2021 at 8:57 PM, Sergen said:

As you're probably aware, the servers for GTA V on PS3 are shutting down on December 16th, 2021. During this period it might be tempting to try and get a modder to rank you up to rank 100 instantly which circumvents the grind for the game. Although some cases of this have resulted in the disputer being unflagged, I believe that there's a very high chance that from now until December 16th the Cheater Removal Team of this website may decide to keep you flagged as a cheater on this website if your rank trophies and the "Run Like The Wind" trophy are unlocked with illegitimate time stamps during dates that correspond with the announcement period of the server shutdown.

 

In this case, the best course of action to take would be to only play online on this game in "Invite Only" sessions, this allows you to play the online for this game on your own without other people in your lobby or it allows you to invite people that you can trust into your lobby without having a modder interfere. These steps may only work for someone who has completed the online introduction, of course if you've never done the intro then I kind of recommend never to start GTA Online on PS3 because the online introduction requires you to play publicly and a modder could screw you over in your first ever session for the game.

 

These steps should be done while you are in the single player of the game:

 

1. Pause the game (press )

2. Keep pressing until you come to the "Online" Tab

3. From there, scroll down to "Play GTA Online" and select it

4. Select the "Invite Only Session" option from there and it should take you into the online to play on your own or with friends.

 

I believe that every trophy in the online for the game can be done with invite only sessions, "Run Like The Wind" is already unobtainable by legitimate means and I believe that in this case you can either choose to value your completion rate or value your status on this website's leaderboards, if you get a modder to give you a bounty, it might catch up with you and you may be flagged for it. I believe that the CRT will be more vigilant during this period and more harsh in their enforcement of the rules regarding modded lobbies for GTA V due to the fact that this website assumes the worst in people and believes that if they partake in an activity that may benefit a trophy then they've intentionally done that trophy in the worst way possible without considering that this might happen to someone who is oblivious to the shutdown drama for the game.

 

All other online trophies are obtainable.  However,  many of them require you to participate in multiplayer activities.  You can start with your friends in an invite only session, but in some cases, you'll be thrown into a public lobby as soon as the activity is over.  You may also be thrown into a public lobby if the host disconnects or if the session doesn't load properly.  

 

Regarding CRT, it's my understanding that they consider the affected trophies low priority, as the issues surrounding these trophies has been known for several years now.  Obviously this is 1000% pure speculation on my part, but I wouldn't be surprised if they have privately "whitelisted" these trophies without actually admitting to the existence of said whitelist.  IMO, that would be the best possible option given the overall situation.  That way, legitimate players aren't flagged for violations they had no control over, players aren't running around on the site trying to organize modded lobbies or search for modders, and it still leaves the door open for more selective enforcement if they find some players who clearly cheated and aren't even bothering to try to hide it.   I'm sure that CRT understands that, just like every other game in history, the announcement of a server shutdown is going to spark a renewed interest in the game for both casual players who want to play a bit more before things close, but also from trophy hunters trying to clean up as many trophies as they can before things shut down.  I'm also sure that they understand that most players -- including many on this site -- don't follow the scene well enough to remember that RLTW hasn't been legitimately obtainable for years or that there are numerous issues with GTAO on PS3 now, and that the number of players who had these trophies auto-pop through no fault of their own is likely to increase between now and December.   I'm also sure that CRT is smart enough to understand that a policy that would likely punish more innocent players than actual cheaters isn't good for anyone involved, including the site itself.   Impact to the various leaderboards is going to be minimal (at the rate people are earning the trophy, you're talking about an effect of about .03%), and anyone who would cheat to try to game the leaderboards would have done so long, long ago.  

[verorip]

On 1/7/2021 at 4:05 PM, The-Man-In-Black said:

Keep in mind that the PS3 version of GTA Online is a very bare-bones experience compared to PS4/PS5, and there is comparatively little to do in invite-only sessions for single players.  If you truly stick to invite-only sessions, expect the road to 100 to be one hell of a long, boring, repetitve grind.   You're basically stuck doing single player races.   Most races only hand out a few hundred RP for single-player, and since you need 1.5 million+ RP, you're talking thousands of rances.  Yawn.

 

Most other activities such as Golf, Tennis, or story missions will throw you into a lobby first looking for other players.  If you join these missions with other players, you will likely be thrown into a public lobby once the activity is done.  I'm not entirely sure which activities will throw you right back into the invite-only lobby vs. which ones will throw you back into the public ones.  Even entering the activity, getting into the lobby, and backing right back out isn't safe; I've been thrown into public lobbies this way before.  

 

Being thrown into a public lobby is not safe under any circumstances.  This includes loading the game directly into online mode.  With such a high percentage of lobbies containing modders (i'll go so far as to say the majority of lobbies will have at least one player cheating in some way, shape, or form), the chances of running into a lobby that will auto-pop your trophies is very high.  There is no way to tell, and no way to avoid it.    Even if you are diligent about making sure that you only start invite only lobbies with friends, anything can happen.  The heist leader's internet hiccups or the session errors out and doesn't load properly?  Activity over, into the public lobbies you go.  You could do everything 100% right 100% of the time and still end up in a public lobby that's got a modder that auto-pops your trophies through a series of events completely out of your control.  

 

Most people are going to want to do things like heists, car races, and other trophy-related activities to most efficiently grind their way to 100.  The problem is that in doing so, you have to participate in activities where something can go wrong, bumping you out of the activity and into a public lobby.  Or the activity ends and you end up in a public lobby.  Or whatever.  If you're going to grind it out to 100, the safest way to go about it is to not do anything like heists or other activities until after you hit 100. 

 

All four of the trophies that are most discussed on this site popped for me in this manner.  

 

I was in an invite-only lobby, alone.  I decided to join a TDM lobby.  Not one of those modded parkour ones where they say you're playing for a zillion points and a zillion RP or whatever.  A relatively normal looking one.  Match played out normally.  Nothing unusual.   Got bumped back into a public lobby.  Backed out, re-joined my invite-only lobby.  In that two seconds that I was in the public lobby, someone put a $200,000,000 bounty on my head.  I wasn't in the lobby long enough to see the message pop up, but it did once my invite-only lobby loaded.   48 minutes later, RLTW popped.   For the record, I did *not* get $200,000,000 after the trophy popped.  

 

I had done the Fleeca heist a few days back with no issues, but I somehow didn't get "Can't Touch This".  I was the driver in the finale and you have to practically go out of your way to get damaged, so I was suprised when Can't Touch This didn't pop.   So yesterday, I decided to try it again.  Did the Fleeca finale again with some random guy.  Trophy popped during the end cutscene this time, and we get dumped into a private lobby.........where I instantaneously get blown up over and over again, get another $200,000,000 bounty on my head (since I was getting blown up over and over, I am unsure if the guy using the mods got the $200 million for killing me), get credited $10,000,000 in $20,000 increments, and bumped from level 23 to 123.  All 3 levelling trophies popped.  

 

Admittedly, I didn't seriously try to avoid public lobbies entirely.  I stuck to invite-only lobbies if I wasn't doing anything out of the ordinary.  I never just randomly ran around in a public freeroam.  I avoided clearly modded game invites, and stuck to story-related missions, heists, and legitimate-appearing competitive modes like TDM.  When I was bumped into a public lobby, I backed out and re-joined my invite only.  It wasn't enough.  IMO, the grind to 100 is way too long, too inefficient, and way too boring to stick to activities that don't put you at risk, and the worry about randomly entering a public lobby if something goes wrong somehow just makes it not worth it.  Realistically, your choices are to either avoid online entirely, or go for it knowing there's a risk that the trophies are gonna pop anyway.  

 

At OP's request, I'm not going to get into the discussions regarding modded lobbies and whitelisting here, outside of saying that flagging players at this point is more likely to punish legitimate players vs. punishing actual cheaters.   My position on that is already well known, and anyone who's interested can check my post history.   I will just say this.  I have only played GTA online on PS3 for a few days.  Maybe a week or so.   And the number of modded public lobbies is absolutely insane.  The risk of having these trophies auto-pop for you is extremely, extremely high even if you believe that you are doing everything right to avoid it.  You may end up in the wrong lobby due to circumstances completely out of your control, or a simple misclick somewhere.   If you are *that* concerned about getting a flag on this site, your best bet is to avoid playing the online altogether and just write off the trophies as unobtainable for all intents and purposes.  Attempting to legitimately earn any online trophies puts you at risk of having trophies popped for you through no fault of your own.  

 

same happen to me today...

I was playing a mission with random people (accepted from a message on the phone). After some time the host left the session and i was redirected into a public lobby. I didn't have the time to start to move that i see my level increase, and i jumped from 42 to 580.

You can stay always vigilant and try to be fast but if you enter in the wrong lobby it's unuseful...

At this point the only thing to do in order to be 100% sure to avoid hackers is to exit the game after you're redirected at the end of an activity, but this is a pain in the ass, because the quantity of leavers is insane. I've tried to do heists with random people and i never reached 5 minutes of play because someone leave the session.

Edited July 4, 2021 by verorip
better formatting

[pavelbagirov]

When hackers appeared in this game? From 2015 or later?

[Sergen]

I'll add that when you become rank 50, you should probably take some days off from GTA V and maybe not play it for a week, then after that point you won't have to be too careful anymore because if a modder decides to rank you up it might give you the rank 100 trophy but when you earn the trophy it won't affect your time stamps so you won't be flaggable on this website. That's just food for thought regarding the modded lobbies, you should be careful until you hit rank 50, but after that point taking paranoid measures to avoid modders won't be as necessary.

Edited July 3, 2021 by Sergen

[verorip]

1 minute ago, Sergen said:

I'll add that when you become rank 50, you should probably take some days off from GTA V and maybe not play it for a week, then after that point you won't have to be too careful anymore because if a modder decides to rank you up it might give you the rank 100 trophy but when you earn the trophy it won't affect your time stamps so you won't be flaggable on this website. That's just food for thought regarding the modded lobbies, you should be careful until you hit rank 50, but after that point taking paranoid measures to avoid modders won't be as necessary.

Yeah, that's true, but the problem is to reach the level 50 avoiding modders ?

I agree, after level 50 and some time you can relax

[The-Man-In-Black]

1 hour ago, pavelbagirov said:

When hackers appeared in this game? From 2015 or later?

 

Very early on.  Sometime in 2014 if memory serves me correctly.  R* all but abandoned this version of the game once the PS4 version came out, letting it become a hacker's paradise.  They have done and will do nothing about them, especially with the servers shutting down in a few months anyway. 

That said, there is some fun to be had, and a part of me does enjoy not having to worry about every 8 year old kid thinking they're good by blowing me up with homing missiles or an mkII or whatever from halfway across the map.