Frequently Asked Questions

While quite a few subjects are covered on other parts of our website, there obviously will be questions left to answer. This page will list the most frequently asked questions, each with a clear answer associated with them. Planning includes a larger update of this system in the (very) near feature.

General Questions

How can I play on Las Venturas Playground?
Before you can play, you need to have GTA San Andreas v1.0. Later versions can be downgraded to v1.0. Next to this, you need the San Andreas Multiplayer (SA-MP) client, which can be downloaded from the official SA-MP website. After the installation, start the client, and change your player name. Add our server to your favorites, (Via the menu: Servers > Add Server) and add: play.sa-mp.nl:7777 in the input box. Simply double click on the server, and the client will start GTA San Andreas, and connects to our server.

Can I become a crewmember of Las Venturas Playground?
Absolutely not. Just by reading this text your chance of becoming a crew member dropped 50%. Asking to become a crewmember means an instant, and often final no. The Las Venturas Playground Staff is hand-picked by the Management based on their performance and behaviour on our community as a whole.

What is karma?
Karma levels got introduced with this new website. While other servers, as well as former Las Venturas Playground versions, ranked users based on their kills, deaths, online time or ratio, we choose to create a calculation which combines all your statistics into one number. This means that the amount of kills and deaths influences your Karma, but also the number of vehicles you exported, posts you made on the forums, keys in WhatPulse and messages on IRC. In total about sixty different statistics are taken into account.

The exact formulas which are used to calculate your Karma level are private, no one but the Management has access to them; only two of whom actually understand them. It might take up to six hours for your Karma level to update after you have been in-game! If you cannot wait it's possible to request an immediate update on your profile's homepage after logging in.

Website-related Questions

Why are there less player-pages when I sort by nickname?
By default the player sorting algorithms include all the registered players, however, when sorting them by nickname about 75 pages get skipped by default. When Las Venturas Playground was founded in 2006 we chose to store user accounts not by nickname, but by a semi-unique hashing algorithm called Adler 32. The nicknames didn't get stored in the files themselfes, therefore there are a few thousand accounts without a nickname.

We are in the process of recovering these nicknames by parsing old logfiles, however, this takes a lot of time. While the profiles of these players are fully accessible, they will not be able to log in to any LVP related service. If you think your account is among these unknown players, feel free to contact a Management member.

The country/continent statistics seem to be inaccurate, why is this?
These statistics are being gathered based on the IP address someone uses to join the server. While our location databases generally are up-to-date, there is a chance of American IP addresses ending up in an entirely different continent. Our experience shows that the data is correct in about 95% of the times.

Financial Questions

How can I earn money in-game?
There are various ways of earning money. One of the simplest things to do is play, and win, mini games. You can start various types of mini games via the /minigames command. For the RPG players we have also the ability to buy buildings and earn money with them. See the Properties FAQ for more info.

  • Kill the Most Wanted players in game. (See /wanted in-game)
  • Become a Bounty Hunter and kill one or more players with bounties. (See /bounties in-game)
  • Play various mini games and win. (See /minigames in-game)
  • Buy properties.
  • Export vehicles. (See /export in-game)
  • Deliver the wanted vehicle to the GTA merchant.
  • Crushing your vehicle.
  • Get a speedbonus or stunt bonus.
  • Finish a /map zone.
  • Win the lotto.

How can I spend my money?
After you have gathered your well-earned money, it's time to spend it. There are hundreds of ways to spend it, just a few of those will be listed below:

  • Buy spawn weapons.
  • Buy properties.
  • Spend it on vending machines, restaurants, bars, and casinos.
  • Use public transportation. (taxi, train, airplane)
  • Import vehicles.
  • Sign up for minigames.
  • Place a bounty on a player.
  • Give it to other players.
  • Put it in your bank account for later.
  • Open a Professional Account at the bank.
  • Open a Platinum Account at the bank.
  • Increase your bank limit. (Platinum Account required)
  • Place a bomb in your vehicle in the bombshop.
  • Participate in the lottery.

How does Las Venturas Playground's banking system work?
There are various banks spread over San Andreas, most of them inside of 24/7, others on the street as simple ATM machines. Every registered player can store $15.000.000 (15 million) in their personal bank account. This limit can be extended under certain conditions: you need at least one pluspoint, and you need to open a Professional or Platinum account. The differences between the three account-types are:

  Basic Account Professional Account Platinum Account
Requirements none 1 pluspoint 20 pluspoints
Opening Costs none $ 1.000.000 $ 100.000.000
Default limit $ 15.000.000 $ 400.000.000* $ 400.000.000**
Limit upgrade No No Yes**
Usage of ATMs No Yes Yes

* Maximum limit depends on your pluspoints. For example: 1 pluspoint equals $ 20.000.000, 5 pluspoints equals $ 100.000.000 and 20 pluspoints equals $ 400.000.000.

** Requires 20 pluspoints plus $2.000.000 plus twice the amount you want to increase your banklimit. Example: Your current limit is $ 400.000.000, and you want to upgrade it to $ 450.000.000. This will cost you $ 102.000.000 (the difference is 50 million - multiplied by two this makes 100 million, plus the transaction fee). The money will be taken directly from your bank account.

Please mind, once again, that all bank accounts require you to have a registered account!

Pluspoints

What exactly are pluspoints?
A PlusPoint is a small reward for playing at least 10 hours at our server.

How can I earn a pluspoint?
Play 10 hours at our server, and you will automatically get a PlusPoint. You get a new PlusPoint every 10 hours, with a maximum of 20 PlusPoints.

What can I do with a pluspoint?
With the first PlusPoint you can open a Professional Bank account. You can now store $20.000.000 (20 million) in your bank account. For every additional PlusPoint you will receive, the limit is raised with another $20.000.000 (20 million). With the maximum of 20 PlusPoints, you are able to have $400.000.000 (400 million) in your bank account. If you have 20 PlusPoints, you can also open a Platinum Bank account.

Properties

What is a property?
Properties are buildings you can buy. There are various price ranges, categorized in low priced, mid priced, and high priced properties. Each property will give you some money per minute. The earnings per minute is a certain percentage of the price you have bought it for. Every price range has it's own percentage. We won't tell you the exact percentages, but we can tell you that the highest price range isn't always the best choice!

When you buy a property, it cannot be bought by another player for 10 minutes. After this period other players are able to buy them. Because the percentage per minute, some properties make large profits within 10 minutes, where other properties need to be owned for at least 20 minutes before you are making any profit. So choose your properties wisely, or you will lose more money then you earn.

When you disconnect from the server (For example you quit or crash), and you reconnect within 10 minutes, your properties are restored.

Where can I find properties?
Almost everywhere. There are a lot of properties in-game. Some are clearly visible while others are harder to reach. Most properties are outside, but don't forget to check inside as well! You can recognize a property by a green house icon, this is the place where you can buy the property.

What can I exactly do with a property?
Most properties have no benefits, they only generate a steady cash flow per minute. Some properties however can give you something extra. "Like what", you ask? Try and find out! A few examples:

  • Small amount of health every few seconds.
  • Set the taxi price.
  • Control the Airport tax.
  • Earn money by letting other people play minigames.

Cheating

Can I use cheats?
May this be very clear: NO! Cheaters will be awarded with a permanent (lifetime) ban from Las Venturas Playground.

Can I use modifications?
Yes and no. Some modifications, mainly being vehicle modifications, also adjust the vehicle properties, which often results in a faster car, or much better handling. If they only modify the vehicle looks, they are allowed. Any other modification will be classified as cheats.

How do I report cheaters?
Via the in-game command: @report playerID/playerName - Possible cheat that the player uses

  • Do not report possible cheaters in the public chat.
  • Do not PM the possible cheater that you are going to report him.
  • Do not expect immediate answers from the crew. You are not the only player who is reporting.

Do not report possible cheaters via the forums since we won't ban afterwards. You may ask for a crewmember via IRC to check the cheater in-game.

I'm banned, what now?
It's very simple: If you used cheats you can leave this page now. You won't be unbanned. Not today, not tomorrow, not over a week. Never. Sometimes you are banned by mistake. In this case you can open a topic in our Ban Zone at our forums.

Weapons

Where can I buy weapons?
Just like the single player, you can buy your weapons at the Ammunation. There are various Ammunations marked with a gun icon at your radar.

What are spawn weapons?
We have two types of weapons available: Regular weapons, and spawn weapons. The regular weapons are cheap. When you die, you loose your weapons. Spawn weapons are expensive. When you die, you will get your weapons back.

Are spawn weapons saved?
Not at this time, and not in the future. Most people have a full bank, without spending it on anything. Buying weapons is a good way to control the economics at the Las Venturas Playground server.

When you disconnect from the server (For example you quit or crash), and you reconnect within 10 minutes, your weapons are restored.

Other LVP Services

TeamSpeak3
Las Venturas Playground hosts it's own TeamSpeak3 server for voice communications. If you are familiar with TeamSpeak already, use the following IP to connect: ts.sa-mp.nl:9987. For a detailed help page read the TeamSpeak help.

IRC
The IRC chat is provided, and hosted by GTANet. Las Venturas Playground has no influence on these third party services. You can use our webchat, or read the detailed IRC help if you want to use an IRC client.