Money rebalancing needed

[Primal-J]

I feel like there is too much of a deficit in terms of the periodic draining of player money compared to the amount of money you earn from activities such as strangers, hunting and looting. The utility and camp costs early game can be quite unforgiving and punishing to those who want to take in the world and explore, hunt, forage and engage in the more environmental features of the game world. 

 

In shorter words, you kind of lose more than you gain, unless you are constantly participating in activities, so if you are traveling long distance, be prepared to watch chunks of your earnings disappear to camp funds (which are relatively cheap but stack on top of everything else) and especially stable utility costs, which are often more expensive than mission payouts. These stable utility costs, to my knowledge are 7$ per horse and are deducted every day/night cycle in addition to any other utility fees. That's a lot of money at the start of the game. 

 

Hunting small animals is therefore not advised unless you are in need of crafting materials, because it's essentially a waste of time and results in loss of earnings early game and you will lose more money than you earn from selling the pelt/fur of smaller animals, including deer, even those of perfect condition. You have no accessibility to hunting larger creatures with perfect pelt as you won't be able to afford or unlock the necessary weapons immediately. 

 

Foraging is not advisable because you are again, spending time doing something that isn't productive (doesn't give you money that's sustainable enough to mitigate the aggressive money draining).

 

Free roam is also discouraged and it's necessary to have cold/hot clothes to explore some parts of the map comfortably and clothes are expensive. 

 

What bothers me about the free roaming being expensive is not only does it create a massive incentive for fast travel, which is technically cheaper, while punishing free roaming, it also hinders players from taking in the world around them which is kind of detrimental to the naturally slower pace of this game. 

 

In GTA for example, the map can be navigated extremely fast in certain vehicles consequently making mission objectives fast so the utility bills aren't too detrimental if players do activities. In Red Dead Online, it is normal to perpetually lose money without earning anything due to the much slower pace and long distance travels. 

 

Guns are ludicrously expensive and even regular ammo and gun oil is expensive to maintain early game. Upgrades are expensive. Supplies are expensive. I would not even recommend using the catalogue. 

 

This puts new players in a crisis state of being too broke to do anything interesting, early game except engage in a narrative role/playing experience where you can't even role play or feel any interest in the narrative because the protagonist is a silent, empty, uninteresting husk with little to no npc interaction.

 

I hope that the money balancing (how much you can earn vs how much you lose vs how much things cost) is tweaked before the end of the beta, as it is perhaps the largest issue with the beta that isn't related to bugs/glitches and is significant enough to be detrimental to the quality. 

 

The online experience is definitely not perfect, but there aren't that many other gameplay related issues with the online mode, and it has potential to be very enjoyable with the right tweaks before official launch. 

 

I think most of the grinding should come from foraging, crafting, animal hunting, robbing, looting, bounty hunting as opposed to repetitive activities with weak payouts that are absorbed by utility costs. 

 

 

[RayD70]

This. All of this.

 

Except I'm not waiting until the end of beta. That could be months. Fix it ASAFP, or I'm out.

[Happy Hunter]

Another reason days should last longer. A map of this size - time shouldn't be as fast as it is.

 

But also it sounds like payouts need major buffs.  Buff buff buff.

[RayD70]

Just now, Happy Hunter said:

Another reason days should last longer. A map of this size - time shouldn't be as fast as it is.

 

But also it sounds like payouts need major buffs.  Buff buff buff.

And prices need major nerfs. They're obscene. Played almost 4 hours of nothing but missions save for one gang hideout and had nothing to show for it.

 

 

[mr quick]

The price hike from SP to MP is so obscenely and ostensibly capitalist, that one begins to wonder whether R* have any shame at all  

[SkymnäsWolf]

Yeah this is insane. Prices of weapons and clothing need to be nerfed significantly. The sp prices were fine as they are... 

 

Anyway, the upkeep costs should just be entirely left out it makes the game no fun at all.

 

Send feedback below:

https://www.rockstargames.com/reddeadredemption2/online/feedback?step=decd9bdb

[Primal-J]

Glad I'm not the only one who feels this way. I really hope Rockstar take this into consideration. 

[SkymnäsWolf]

Well they better, otherwise a very large chunk of players will leave early

[clinical oppression]

Yeah ......not getting lassoed into this horsesh*t unless they fix this .Have no interest in hard grinding .

[HockeyMike24]

I've already completely lost interest and only 4 hours in. Very disappointing

[Non Funkable Token]

Paywalls aren't the most welcoming sign, especially when you only have your bare hands to climb them. They better rebalance this before the beta stage ends, or end the beta stage soon enough. People will get severely discouraged to play if they don't.

[God-eater]

I was afraid of this. Something I noticed in GTA - once you had a slew of businesses and properties (bikers in particular), you pretty much had to grind every minute or you were essentially losing money. Even too much sourcing would put you on a "2 steps forward, 1 step back" treadmill. You could get around it by changing sessions every 45 mins, otherwise you had 45 mins as a Prez/CEO then you had to drop out and stay out to avoid the massive cash drain. 

 

I felt like I was working for the game, rather than playing it. I knew that RDO was going to have some element of this since this business model in GTA is burying R* in cash, but my favorite thing about RDR is the view - I like to just mosey around, exploring, taking in the sights and enjoying the world. Sounds like R* are punishing that playstyle and forcing us into one that suits their bottom line. 

 

So far, everything I've seen and heard about RDO is bitterly disappointing, from forced public sessions to premium currency to low payouts/high costs. I can hardly believe I'm saying this, but as it stands I don't think I'm even going to bother with it for now. So glad I didn't rush thru SP to make way for Online. 

[Wolfboy20]

46 minutes ago, God-eater said:

I was afraid of this. Something I noticed in GTA - once you had a slew of businesses and properties (bikers in particular), you pretty much had to grind every minute or you were essentially losing money. Even too much sourcing would put you on a "2 steps forward, 1 step back" treadmill. You could get around it by changing sessions every 45 mins, otherwise you had 45 mins as a Prez/CEO then you had to drop out and stay out to avoid the massive cash drain. 

 

I felt like I was working for the game, rather than playing it. I knew that RDO was going to have some element of this since this business model in GTA is burying R* in cash, but my favorite thing about RDR is the view - I like to just mosey around, exploring, taking in the sights and enjoying the world. Sounds like R* are punishing that playstyle and forcing us into one that suits their bottom line. 

 

So far, everything I've seen and heard about RDO is bitterly disappointing, from forced public sessions to premium currency to low payouts/high costs. I can hardly believe I'm saying this, but as it stands I don't think I'm even going to bother with it for now. So glad I didn't rush thru SP to make way for Online. 

Send this to their feedback page asap

[Gallows]

Not going to judge it yet. Have done some missions, have bought supplies and paid upkeep. Have also done a lot of free roam fighting and have had to purchase ammo. I’m still making money, although not a lot.

 

But it does punish people who but camp a town a kill people, without really doing anything.

 

Don’t have a problem with it - yet.

[Nah Tso Gud]

Treasure maps have been the ticket for me so far... but I'm not sure how to consistently get them.. or if they are finite or not.

 

I know I've looted one off of a corpse after doing a gang hideout..

 

It gave me $100 and 66 gold nuggets upon finding it.

[SkymnäsWolf]

40 minutes ago, Nah Tso Gud said:

Treasure maps have been the ticket for me so far... but I'm not sure how to consistently get them.. or if they are finite or not.

 

I know I've looted one off of a corpse after doing a gang hideout..

 

It gave me $100 and 66 gold nuggets upon finding it.

Hmm gonna try those then

[Ghoffman9]

I am honestly not surprised, due to the lack of push back from players during all those years in Gta Online, Strauss Zelnick and the other greedy sh*ts at Take Two are now pushing ever harder. Making you earn money ever slower, taking away more ever faster, rasing prices on everything and making overall progression much slower. This is what happens when you defend practices that are inexcusable.

[Gallows]

4 minutes ago, Ghoffman9 said:

I am honestly not surprised, due to the lack of push back from players during all those years in Gta Online, Strauss Zelnick and the other greedy sh*ts at Take Two are now pushing ever harder. Making you earn money ever slower, taking away more ever faster, rasing prices on everything and making overall progression much slower. This is what happens when you defend practices that are inexcusable.

I know from a micro transaction perspective it may feel like BS. From a pure gameplay perspective however I really like the struggle, that it will be hard to become rich.

[Primal-J]

49 minutes ago, Nah Tso Gud said:

Treasure maps have been the ticket for me so far... but I'm not sure how to consistently get them.. or if they are finite or not.

 

I know I've looted one off of a corpse after doing a gang hideout..

 

It gave me $100 and 66 gold nuggets upon finding it.

Yes, treasure maps are a nice inclusion that help mitigate the money loss massively. However, they are quite rare. I think you have to find specific npcs with treasure maps since they are largely inconsistent. These were one of the things I didn't have a problem with. 

[Primal-J]

Can't seem to post this as feedback on the official website, submit button broken??  

[RayD70]

2 hours ago, Nah Tso Gud said:

Treasure maps have been the ticket for me so far... but I'm not sure how to consistently get them.. or if they are finite or not.

 

I know I've looted one off of a corpse after doing a gang hideout..

 

It gave me $100 and 66 gold nuggets upon finding it.

I loot everything.

 

I got one treasure map in the tutorial that gives you next to nothing (it's just a tutorial after all). And just found one in my mail from leveling up. So they're far from a consistent source of income.

[Piro]

Never gonna happen, its R* after all... 

The best think you guys can hope for is wait 2-4 years for better grinding opportunities, just like with gtaonline.

[Horrid_Saiyam]

This game is even grindy than gta online tbh

making money in rdo is like a nightmare...seems kinda impossible 

also guns and clothes are way too expensive

already sent them my feedback 

hopefully they fix this sh*t otherwise I’m out

[RayD70]

Can't submit feedback. The submit button is disabled.

 

Nice move, R*. You only want feedback when it's buffing your junk, huh? On the bright side, the negative feedback must be a deluge of glorious proportions for them to lock it down this quickly.

8 minutes ago, Piro said:

Never gonna happen, its R* after all... 

The best think you guys can hope for is wait 2-4 years for better grinding opportunities, just like with gtaonline.

I didn't play GTA:O from launch, but I got in a few months before "Heists." I never had a problem earning money.

 

In 2 years, there's no way you could get me to care.

[Horrid_Saiyam]

1 minute ago, RayD70 said:

Can't submit feedback. The submit button is disabled.

 

Nice move, R*. You only want feedback when it's buffing your junk, huh? On the bright side, the negative feedback must be a deluge of glorious proportions for them to lock it down this quickly.

It’s working fine for me 

[God-eater]

Bwah-ha-ha-haaa, oh, had to come back and share. Just saw the cost of  Black Arabian on a vid: 42 gold bars. And missions paying out .01-.03 bars. Potentially thousands of missions to afford this horse. Oh my stars and garters, that is just absolutely taking the p*ss. 

 

On the bright side, my dilemma is over - I am 100% out. R*, feel free to eat a whole bag of d*cks, you shameless animals.

 

Still laughing in slack-jawed disbelief... 

[Blokies]

You do know that you dont need gold to buy the horse? You can buy it early with gold and you can buy it with $ after you reach the required level. 

 

[God-eater]

39 minutes ago, Blokies said:

You do know that you dont need gold to buy the horse? You can buy it early with gold and you can buy it with $ after you reach the required level. 

 

This may indeed be the case, but in the vid I saw the White Arabian was also level-locked and had a $ price, not gold. There were many edits in the vid, tho, so I may have missed a currency switch button.

 

Not that it matters. I was already one foot out the door with all this premium-currency, public-only grindfest - sh*t like outrageous gold prices for early unlocks just cliches it for me - if the same applies to guns/special ammo then it's straight up pay-to-win. Might check back in a few weeks to see if anything has changed for the better, but there's no way I'm getting caught up in this as it stands. This sort of thing drove me away from GTA, a game I adored till R* ruined it with unmitigated greed. Bailing on RDO now means I get away disappointed rather than heartbroken. 

 

I do appreciate you trying, tho. Props for that.

[GN 92]

Oh that smell of GTAO. Too bad I can’t play until the weekend.

 

I’ll definitely be a glitcher for money, as I always been on GTAO.

[Oldsport]

where do we sell game meat?