Pirate Role Concept

[Billy Benedict]

 

I would love for there to be a pirate DLC in this game to make use of the most underused locations and vehicle type in this game. The update would introduce a new role into the game called the Privateer. I got a little excited and tried to detail the concept below. If you like it, send this link to Rockstar Game's feedback page for Red Dead Online:

 

 

The Privateer role is an extension of the collector role, and allows players to engage in piracy or role play as the captain of a cargo ship. Madam Nazar sends you a letter inviting you to a meeting with her biggest suppliers of valuable antiques in Thieves Landing. The player is introduced to a  brother and sister duo from the Caribbean who need another investor to purchase a steamboat to collect and trade in antiquities across the waterways. The young brother is the navigator and is where you buy upgrades for the ship, (essentially like Maggie) and his older sister who will help in boarding ships by extending the makeshift bridge and proving sniper fire for the player and their posse. 
Players chose from a list of different steamboats, and they can customize and upgrade the coat in many different ways such as; fully customizing the design of the boat, upgrading the ship for higher capacity for storing loot, installing an additional cargo hold for storing business goods from the Trader and Moonshine roles (more details below), a fishing crane to collect schools of fish, better motors for higher speed, purchase and store one of a few variants of row boats, and mount high caliber machine-guns for a price. Boats can drop anchor at any time by holding the exit vehicle button much like horses. These ships act as a mobile player camp. The water ways have always been bustling with NPC controlled vessels, but now these vehicles have cargo much like the random wagons players encounter across the frontier. Instead of small Cashes of items stored in a trunk space, these are represented through a menu like the hunting wagon or player horses. The ships carry dynamic contents based on the vehicle, and luck. Players have to thoroughly search ships for bundles of collectors items, trapper goods, moonshine mash, bottles, fense goods that are added to the player's satchel or related storage. In addition, general goods like weapons, clothes, and food shipments are added to their ships inventory. Players can make this process easier by paying to train their camp dog to sniff out hidden items, and metal detectors can be used to find new high value collector items. Hidden in every ship is a safe which  contains random items like treasure maps, jewelry, bill folds, and occasionally gold bars. At any time players can offload these goods to Van Horn or Thieves Landing, or they can sell to specialized buyers for higher payouts over the high seas by making dead drops. Moonshine bottles, and Trader goods can be sold from the ships inventory in bulk, or players can have them delivered to moonshine shacks or camps to be sold to for the normal (higher) profit margin. Conversely, players can upgrade their ship to allow them to deliver a full shipment from their camp or moonshine shack (100 goods or 20 bottles) to their ship instead of a client. This will allow them to store up to 3 times the product they could in their camp or shack and sell its entire contents in one sell mission. (300 Trader Goods, and 60 Moonshine Bottles) As the ships cargo fils up, the bottom level of your ship becomes more and more visually filled with treasures much like hunter wagons, trader goods around the camp, and Ceo offices and warehouses in GTA Online. 
Players can spend this money on the new themed weapons, clothing, and other customization items. Van Horn and Thieves landing feature a small Pirate den where a vendor offers players shipment routes for raiding (much like collector maps from Madam Nazar) in exchange for cash. Players can also purchase spyglass binoculars can be purchased to see the defenses and items possibly on a ship the player is looking at much like an upgraded version of the collectors binoculars. 

 

 

PS. I did one of these before and I think Rockstar saw it or we were on the same page. Here's hoping we are again. Link:

 

[Direwrath]

Me and my daughter tried to steal one of those ships to get to the prison island a few months back, needless to say it did not go well. Lol

 

It would take a big effort from R* to make this something tangible but I think it would be neat, not that I know much about boats or pirates so it would be completely new to me. 

[Lemoyne outlaw]

it sounds interesting. i dont know if they would do it or not. but i think they should have some kind of water based dlc. or at least allow us to buy and customize boats. i love that they added boats to the series. but they are severely underused. so hopefully we can own boats and have a bigger use for them.

[MusicMan05]

One thing they could do is add diving equipment to the ship. That way we can dive and collect lost cargo, or explore sunken ships for treasure. Perhaps even have missions we sneak in board a ship to push the cargo off to collect later. Or sink the ship ourself and then return as a salvage ship...

 

They wouldn't even need to add under water swimming mechanics from GTAV. These would be old diving suits in which we sink to the river/lake floor and slowly walk around before pulling on the rope to be taken back up to our ship.

 

However that would essentially require a large map expansion. Imagine having the entire Flat Iron lake floor to explore. (Albeit in small areas at a time due to the diving equirements hose/rope limiting how far from the ship you xan get before having to resurface and move the ship... Unless the ship moves with you )

 

Edited July 27, 2020 by MusicMan05

[DentureDynamite]

IMO, they need to add both underwater mechanics and some kind of basic and risky flight-based mechanics to the game.

 

That said, I didn't use the underwater aspect of GTA Online that much, but it was nice to know it was always available.

 

Whether or not the game's engine and networking can even handle such additions is another story...

Edited July 27, 2020 by DentureDynamite