http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/10/18/latest-gta-5-patch-tweaks-penalty-for-online-deaths
The latest title update for Grand Theft Auto V -- and, more specifically, Grand Theft Auto Online -- has been released today and fixes a wide variety of issues, including lingering problems with vehicles and vehicle mods disappearing on players.
The update is available now on both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, and will be automatically downloaded next time the game is started while connected to the Internet. A Rockstar Newswire post outlining the included fixes notes the disappearing vehicles issue was "due to a cloud save failure." Cloud saves may continue to be a problem in at least one way, which is that when they are unavailable, any character created will only be temporary. As such, one addition in this patch is to clarify that when cloud saves are down, new characters will not be saved.
Also addressed in this patch is an exploit that let the same vehicle be sold over and over, a problem with utility bills not being payable, and an issue with the starting point for the opening tutorial race not showing up.
One notable balance tweak is that players can now lose no more than $500 when killed in Freemode, something which should help to reduce the sting of being gunned down by aggressive players in public games.
With many of GTA Online's most serious issues having been resolved since launch, Rockstar announced last week that it would be compensating anyone who has played in October with $500,000 in in-game money. Whether or not that's a sufficient apology, a comment on today's Newswire post by Rockstar indicates the first of the two $250,000 deposits is planned for early next week. The wait, according to the comment, is in order to confirm "that any remaining game progress issues have been fixed for the community in this latest title update."
The full list of changes in today's patch are as follows:
Fixes numerous issues that were causing vehicle loss and/or loss of vehicle mods
Fixes an issue where the incorrect car is replaced when choosing to replace a car in a full garage
Fixes an exploit allowing players to sell the same vehicle multiple times
Fixes an issue that caused personal vehicles to be duplicated
Fixes an issue where some players were unable to pay utility bills on an owned apartment or house
Fixes an issue where players were not getting Crew invites in-game
Fixes an issue where the starting point for the tutorial race was not appearing
Fixes issues with joining Jobs from within a player-owned garage
Fixes issues with players getting stuck while using playlists
Fixes additional issues causing black screens, long load times, and players getting stuck in the sky cam
Adds details in the UI to clarify that characters created while Rockstar cloud is unavailable are temporary (non-saved)
Adds changes to the character creator to make better-looking default characters with the “random” option
Players now only lose a maximum of 500 GTA$ upon death in Freemode
