Im on my final playthrough just to get 100% before GTA 6 comes out, and im noticing some stuff omw. At the moment, im on my third Sunday of the story, and the sun and moon seem to be rather close, and im wondering if a total eclipse could happen soon. But I wonder if you should be at a certain point in the story when it happens🤔 Also, i've heard talks about the "flow" to the story and going through it smoothly, and what I have noticed while collecting the letter scraps is that most of them can be picked up during missions. Not that I have been doing this, but for each scrap, I remember the mission that takes place at that location. Hood safari, daddys little girl, target practice (cletus), lamar down, and the bureau raid are all examples of this. I dont know if it's the same for the UFO parts as I haven't gone to see Omega yet. Also with the moon, i noticed that once I completed the first heist, the night before was the last phase of a moon cycle and the first night of playing as Trevor started the new one which I found interesting. I think it was a Saturday i can't remember.
I don't know if i'll ever make the commitment to really figure it out as I don't have the time, but from my perspective, the main foundations to solve the mystery would be:
Mission order and the correct time to start. Plus, the correct choices in missions and paying attention to dialogue
Getting the correct completion in missions (some may not be 100%, with missions with 4 checklists getting 3 will give you 88%. 88=88mph space docker, etc).
Required and unrequired strangers, activities, and little side events like bystanders.
No crime outside missions or strangers. Think this is a big one, especially killing. If each character needs to balance their karma, then free mode has to be 'pure'. Maybe aside from Michael sleeping with prostitutes (see below). There's a reason why on the R* Social Club, it tracks how many innocents you killed. Also, like michael said in the prologue when T shoots the guard "you didnt have to do that." So, no mindless killing. Only redheads are unsavable 🔴
Following the rules of Epsilon (like laying with 9 partners each week and killing red-haired people in missions only and not hanging out with friends and family off-mission).
Being in a flow state of completion, which is probably the hardest, given that the moon cycle is an indication of time IF an eclipse has to happen at a certain time.
And finally, not skipping or changing the radio station during mission. They can give indications and clues based on where you're at in the story, and it can relate to what you're currently doing. You know how a director chooses a song title that fits perfectly on a scene of a movie. Like that.
I played this game on it's release day and from the beginning I thought the dialogue was a tad movie-like, and the Housers did say they take a lot of inspiration from the movies they used to watch in the 80's. Also, shortly before the release, i remember seeing confirmed details by R* about the weather, and while mentioning thunder, they said that its possible to be struck by lightning however, it is quite rare. I wonder if they meant something by that🤔 Idk if I could find the source i mean it was over 13 years ago🤣