Mission packs are experimental waste of Rockstar Games in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. They are never used in the original game, but they can be used for modding. Mission packs are used to get additional script content into the game. An example usage of this technology is Design Your Own Mission, created by PatrickW and Dutchy3010.
In Grand Theft Auto IV a similar technology is used for the downloadable content The Lost and Damned.
Using Mission Packs[]
Mission packs must be located in the GTA San Andreas User Files
directory. By default, the user files directory is as follows:
- Windows Vista and later –
C:\Users\Your Username\Documents\GTA San Andreas User Files\
- Windows XP –
C:\Documents and Settings\Your Username\My Documents\GTA San Andreas User Files\
Adding a mission pack[]
For adding a mission pack point to your User Files directory (as described above). Create a new folder and call it MPACK
. In this folder, create another folder called MPACK#
, where #
is the number identifying your pack. This number begins with 1
and increments by one for every mission pack installed. Copy your script and GXT file to this folder and rename the script to scr.scm
and the text archive to text.gxt
.
Data format[]
Create a new file called mpack.dat
and open it using any text editor. Insert the following text: n #mission#
. Replace n
with the number of your mission pack (as described above), and replace mission
with the name of your mission pack (e.g. My Mission Pack
). Ensure that the mission pack name is surrounded by two #
characters, as shown. The name will be what the player see later on in the game when choosing a mission pack on starting a new game.
Using external scripts[]
By default the game skips the external script header in the script file, so it is impossible to use external scripts. However, some members of the SannyBuilder community created a patch to combat this issue (see below). Using the patch, you can move the script.img
file containing your external scripts into the \data\script
directory, which is located inside the game's installation directory. Rename script.img
to script#.img
, where #
is the number of the mission pack.
Advantages and disadvantages[]
As described on the top of the page mission packs are experimental waste of Rockstar Games. They are not very sophisticated and limited in their functionality. The greatest disadvantages are as follows:
- External scripts cannot be used without first patching the game
- Only one monolingual text can be used
Despite these caveats, mission packs are not useless. They are a good way to make major changes to the game while still maintaining compatibility and stability. Additionally, they are the only way to use two scripts side-by-side. Another advantage is that the end user of your script does not need to worry about switching save files and scripts by hand, because the game remembers the current mission pack in the save file, so all the end user has to do is load it.
Tools[]
- Mission Packs Fix – Allows to use external scripts in form of a
script.img
file with mission packs. See this topic for detailed information.
See also[]
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Modding in Grand Theft Auto | |
---|---|
Important! | See our Policy on modded content. |
Official modifications | FiveM |
Unofficial modifications | GTA Garage Mod Manager | Hot Coffee | Multi Theft Auto | San Andreas Multiplayer | Vice City Multiplayer |
File tools | CodeWalker (CodeX) | OpenIV | Spark IV |