Stealing cars

Some cars can be started without keys. Get into the driver's seat – if a line appears at the bottom of your screen, the car can be hotwired. Press G to begin.

You can also just use your tool while sitting behind the wheel. It starts the same thing.

You need the tool on you. If you do not have it, the line says so, and the key does nothing.

• Lockpick or advanced lockpick – for ordinary cars. The advanced one breaks less often and gives you more time.
• Relay box – for sports cars, supercars, planes, helicopters and boats. It cannot be bought in a shop. You have to find the fixer, and he is not marked on the map.

The tool can break when you fail. Not every time, but it happens – and then the attempt is over.

Two kinds of car, two different jobs. Older and cheaper cars have a wiring loom under the wheel. Newer and expensive ones have electronics that must be fooled with a rolling code. The line tells you which one before you start.

Note one thing: an old expensive car is still an old car. The classics have no electronics to fool.

There is no dice roll. Play it right and it works. Fail and it is because you missed – not because the game rolled against you. The rest you work out by doing it.

Noise is the price. Every failure makes you more noticeable, in this order:

• The horn growls briefly and the lights flash – people on the pavement look up
• The alarm sounds for ten seconds – the whole street hears it
• The police get a call with position, model and plate
• The alarm runs for a full minute

A perfectly played attempt is silent. The noise does not fade while you sit there, and if you walk away and come back you start over – but a call that has already gone out has gone out.

A wrong move costs noise, not the attempt. You can try again straight away. On the electronic cars the code rerolls, so you cannot simply repeat it.

Leave the seat and the attempt ends.

The police can find the tool on you. A lockpick or a relay box in your pocket is something you will have to explain.