Boats

[BretMaverick777]

One of the things I'm most excited to see in the next trailers and screenshots is how RDR2 will handle steamboats.   There are at least two paddle-wheelers that are central to the plot of Dutch's Gang....1) the Serendipity.   We saw only its wreckage in RDR1 and heard conflicting tales of its demise; but the appearance of Tallulah Jetty on the leaked RDR2 map makes it a given that we're going to revisit this ship in its prime.   2) The Ferry....in 1906, a botched ferry robbery led to Dutch's inexplicable murder of a girl named Heidi McCourt, and to John Marston's last day on the job with the gang.   We'll most assuredly visit that scene in RDR2 as well, but it's still very unclear which ferry that was, and where it was traveling...it could be the Morningstar out of Blackwater (shown above) from the opening scene of RDR1, but it's just as likely to be another ferry entirely, maybe even the Serendipity.  

 

Plus, the jigsaw puzzle map of St. Denis shows plenty of steamboats plowing the river; and then there's the Clemens Cove landmark in Scarlett Meadows, undoubtedly named after the most famous riverboat pilot of all, Samuel Langhorne Clemens.   I'm hoping that RDR2's steamboats will be dynamic sets and not just moored architecture....if train interiors will be fully functional and interactive, as R* says, surely they can do the same for a big showboat on Old Man River, the mighty Lannahechee. 

 

But there's sure to be more than just steamboats on the navigable rivers and lakes of RDR2.   Just like the Mississippi River it seems to be modeled after, the Lannahechee is probably the lifeblood of the heartlands, and there's bound to be plenty of river traffic and trade around every bend.  We've seen Charles Smith and Arthur Morgan in a classic birchbark canoe, which hopefully points to a larger role for Native Americans in the game: 

 

 

We could also see flatboats, keelboats and barges carrying passengers and cargo along the river: 

maybe a nod to the aforementioned Sam Clemens' classic rafts of Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer:

even some battles with ironclads and gunboats:  

What other kinds of boats would you like to see for RDR2?   How interactive do you think they'll be with the player...will we be able to pilot them?  Buy our own?  Do you think we can travel in and on the big steamboats, maybe indulge in some high stakes riverboat gambling, like my avatar's namesake?  

 

[1898]

If the map is legit, the Dakota River looks like a good place for class 3 or 4 canoeing. Maybe a race?

Transporting goods such as whiskey in keelboats, I can definitely see that happening.

 

Riverboat gambling with dress code required - fancy duds only.

 

Also for online, I'd also like to see something similar to Mark Twain's riverboat captain's outfit as well as other jobs specific garb, e.g. blacksmith, preacher, railroad engineer etc.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 6, 2018 by 1898