RDO gameplay revamp

[éX-Driver]

My goal is to explain what changes I think should be made to RDO, to make it a better and more cohesive player experience by restructuring everything on a risk vs reward system.

 

•Money

Money, prices, and the way players interact with them should be redone from scratch. From GTAO, the concept of ‘pocket money’ and ‘banked money’ should be introduced. Pocket money is lost upon death, whilst banked money remains secure. Dead players can be looted by other players to steal their pocket money. To bank money, it should require players physically going to one of the many banks around the map. Players can store their money in any of the banks (say, $200 in Lemoyne, $50 in Valentine, and so on).

Prices and payouts should be adjusted to reflect the era more accurately. That is, a tin of beans costing around 10¢, a revolver around $5, a good hat around $7, and so on. A buck sold to a butcher should net $1, finishing a mission should be only a few dollars more. 

 

•Gold

The way gold interacts with cash money in-game and the prices in reality should be revamped. Complete gold bars should be abolished, with instead a focus on the nuggets (renamed to gold ounces). 1 gold ounce should be equal to $20 in-game, with $20USD ($25AUD, £14, €16) purchasing you 20 ounces. In short, $20USD will buy you $400 in-game. (The current gold bar to in-game cash exchange rate is $20USD buys $1200 in-game)

Gold should no longer be required for certain purchases, with ALL items being available to purchase in their equivalent in in-game money. Gold should no longer be a payout for missions or competitive game modes. ‘Free’ gold should only be attainable via daily challenges, and a new Gold Panning minigame wherein players (after purchasing a panner kit through the catalogue) can set up next to any body of water to try and pan for gold. The chance for finding a gold ounce should be random, with an average discovery rate of around one ounce every 5 minutes.

 

•Telegrams

Players should be able to send telegrams to each other, similar to texts in GTAO. To compose and send one, it should require you go to the post office and request the service. Each letter/space should cost 1¢, and each naughty word recognised by R*’s ‘adult language’ filter should cost 1 gold ounce. 

A player that receives a telegram should receive an alert in their HUD, and have to go to the nearest post office to read it and optionally send a response. 

 

•Saloons

Saloons should be revamped to be lively proper social areas for players (this includes opening the Annesburg saloon). A place to meet up, posse up, get pissed, listen to music, gawk at dancing showgirls, flirt with the barmaids, and so on. 

Weapons should be disabled inside of saloons, so especially rowdy players can’t disrupt the show and instead can only get handsy with people receptive of their shenanigans. 

 

•Ability cards, Honour, PvP interaction, aim modes

Ability cards should be abolished in free roam, reserved only for specific PvP game modes. Instead, Dead Eye should function as it did in Redemption 1 MP (SP level 1 Dead Eye). 

The Honour system should be revamped so that players with max honour have their player identification invisible to other players regardless of distance (no blip on the radar, no name above their avatar) and regardless of current mission (no more ‘players have been alerted to your mission’ with a giant blip on the radar to try and encourage players to attack each other) whilst players with min honour will appear from across the map at all times. The sighting distance should be directly linked to honour level. The higher a player’s honour, the shorter the distance is. Increasing/decreasing by around 5 metre increments. 

Players that choose to go aggro on you will automatically have their blip highlighted to you regardless of their honour level, whilst yours will remain at your current honour level distance. 

Defensive mode should be replaced with free aim mode, that disables your auto aim and automatically disables other players’ auto aim whenever they try and aim at you, regardless of game mode. When in a PvP game mode, players in free aim mode should have a special symbol near their username so that other players can recognise and react at a glance without being caught by surprise by the lack of aim assist. Allowing free aim players and auto aim players to play in harmony in the same lobby.

 

•Health, death, and the permanence of loss

Health and maintaining it should become vital to survival in RDO. Allowing the health core to drop into the red (from exposure or starvation) should begin to rapidly deplete health until death or until the player eats to replenish their health core. Swimming in cold water should deplete heath regardless of clothing. The health core should deplete fast enough so as to require eating at least once an in-game day.

Death should be something players fear because dying leads to the loss of any money, ammo, hat, and satchel goods the player had on them at the time. The only way to avoid this is to store money and supplies at banks or camp. Gold should be the only thing players cannot lose or have stolen no matter what.

Damage should be modified to more accurately reflect reality as well, with legshots incapacitating NPCs and 1-3 body/gut shots from most weapons killing or critically wounding players and NPCs.

This system of permanent loss should only apply in free roam; PvP game modes and LeClerc/story missions should allow for lossless deaths, retries, and respawns as normal.

 

•Guns and gun equipment

The fire rate and reload speed of weapons should be adjusted to more reflect the real weapons, so as to encourage a more thoughtful and tactical approach to gunfights. This should reflect on NPCs as well. 

All long guns should have a new bayonet upgrade option that functions as one would expect they do. Meleeing NPCs/players should instead run them through rather than shove them over/rifle butt them.

Gun maintenance should be an important part of the game world. If you allow your guns’ cleanliness bar to be depleted completely and you continue to use it without cleaning it, the gun should run the risk of breaking. A broken gun is lost permanently, and players should have to buy another. 

A variety of holster options should be introduced, reusing the different duel wield styles from singleplayer.

 

•Crafting

There should be a heavier emphasis on crafting, particularly in regards to clothing and weaponry. Bows and arrows for example should be fully craftable using the same menu as ammunition crafting, with bows having a service life where they’ll eventually break after a certain number of shots. Crafting arrows should require using collector arrowheads or buying steel arrowheads, collecting a new ‘stick’ collectable off the ground, and collecting feathers from birds. Crafting a bow should require the same ‘stick’ collectible.

Crafted clothing should require taking selected hides to a tanner, who players can then pay to make jackets/hats/boots/gloves/trousers from using a handful of preselected template designs. Different hides create different texture patterns, with players having a choice of dyes to choose from. Hats should allow for various accessories such as feathers and bands. This would allow for more personalisation of player appearance. (And allow for the creation of authentic buckskins)

 

•Hair

The hair and beard growth mechanism from single player should return, with a global timer on hair growth. Every tuesday, when the weekly events are refreshed, another bar should be added to the length of every player’s hair growth. This would allow players more liberty to be creative in how their hair and beards look, as in single player with Arthur and John.

A new ‘scalp’ mechanic should be introduced for the player creator, which dictates what sort of hair players grow. (Think: straight hair scalp, curly hair scalp, afro hair scalp). Each ‘scalp’ has a handful of preset hairstyles available at the barber with different lengths to correspond with hair length. 

 

•Stranger missions

New stranger missions should be added, including things such as helping a gang of rustlers rustle cattle/sheep, helping cattlemen harass shepherds encroaching on their range, help shepherds defend their flock from cattlemen attacks, helping a local farmer clear out vermin from their crops, helping a local lawman thump drunkards and wrangle other miscreants around town nonlethally, robbing a homestead for a specific bit of loot before the owners come home/wake up, driving a passenger stage long-distance, cargo transit using your own personal wagon, searching for and robbing/kidnapping specific NPCs within a given timeframe, helping provide cover for a gang performing a bank job, being hired by a local socialite to play shotgun messenger for a traincar carrying their valuables (defending it from waves of bandits), and helping a railroad company sabotage a rival railroad’s operations.

 

•Free roam PvP events

New events should include bullriding competitions (players let loose on bulls; last one to get thrown off wins), bronc busting competitions (break as many wild horses as possible; most horses broken wins), steer roping competitions (lasso and corral steer into a pen; most steers penned wins), shooting gallery competitions based on Cowboy Action Shooting, and bestiarii (players try and stay alive in a pen filled with various invincible predators; last one alive wins)

 

•Free roam dynamic robberies

There should be an introduction of dynamic robberies of individual NPCs, stagecoaches, trains, and banks. With as many or as few players who are willing to jump in.

Robberies of NPCs should function as it does in singleplayer: point a gun at them, press a button prompt where player avatars demand they stand and deliver, and the NPC either complies or tries to fight back. 

Robberies of stages require stumbling across a stagecoach in the overworld, with no warning of when and where they may spawn. Hitting up a stage might be as simple as simply pointing a pistol at the driver and demanding he stop as the passengers cower in fear, or as difficult as fighting through a dozen gunmen riding along protecting precious cargo.

Robberies of trains should function as it does in singleplayer, requiring players stop the train before going through and demanding the passengers hand over their valuables. Fighting anyone who stands in their way. Any attempt on a train robbery (failed or successful) puts that particular lobby on a global 1 hour cooldown before the next attempt by any player can be made, to allow time for the train to respawn its loot and passengers.

Robberies of banks should require players go into a bank and threaten the teller to let them in the back room. Once in the back room, players should have a limited time to loot the safes (either by cracking the lock or dynamiting them, with the latter instantly alerting the law) before an NPC is able to make their way to a sheriff to alert the law. The only way to prevent NPCs from escaping and alerting the law in any of the above robbery scenarios is to have a posse member or two run backup. Blocking doorways, threatening runners, quietly killing wannabe heroes. How much or little time players have before the law arrives is completely reliant on how able they are at preventing the law from being alerted to their actions. Preventing any witness from escaping to report you and ensuring no lawman sees you means you can collect all of the loot and escape the area before the law even arrives to investigate. Any attempt on a bank robbery (failed or successful) puts that bank on a lobby cooldown of one hour before another player can attempt to rob it.  

 

•Law enforcement, witnesses, bounties

The way the Wanted system works should be revamped to make more logical sense. The law should not be alerted to your activities unless a lawman sees you directly or a witness reports you. A witness and lawmen should not be able to recognise you if you are wearing a mask. You should not gain a bounty if a witness or lawmen cannot recognise you.

If you have a bounty and a player comes to collect, you should have the option to surrender peacefully so neither of you have to risk dying and losing whatever you have on you. Gaol sentences should be served in an unskippable way. Every dollar on your bounty should be 6 seconds spent in the cell. You should also be able to turn yourself in for a commuted (half) sentence in addition to the ability to pay it off, should you not want to pay it off/can’t afford it. Sentences should function on a global timer. That is, even being offline counts as time spent in gaol. For example: you have a $100 dollar bounty, turn yourself in (meaning you get 5 minutes behind bars with a commuted sentence), then play another another game for a few minutes. After a few minutes you load RDO back up and you are free from gaol. 

 

•Roles

In addition to the current roles, there should be two additional roles introduced called ‘gambler’ and ‘drover/wrangler’. The new Gambler role should introduce new gambling games (blackjack, faro, stud poker, liars dice, and Mexican montebank) that can be played both against other players and against NPCs, a new riverboat location (reusing the Grand Korrigan interior) for high roller games that have increased buyins and bet limits, and a new cheating skill in poker (unlocked via role rank pamphlet). The cheating skill should function as it did in Redemption 1 when using the elegant suit, allowing a player to pull a random third card off the deck whenever it’s their turn to deal, which they can then switch with any card in your hand at any time during gameplay. To discourage cheating, there should be a new ‘accuse’ option during poker games where anytime a player thinks another player is cheating, that player can accuse them of it and challenge them to a quickdraw duel. The duel should function the same as the standoffs prior to the start of a PvP game mode in Redemption 1’s multiplayer game matches, but with the added threat of whichever player loses the duel loses whatever money they had on the table. Clothing should be of dapper city things like jewellery and tail coats. New horse breed should be the American Curly.

The new Drover/Wrangler role meanwhile should focus on horses and livestock herding. Much of the content should be based around catching and selling wild horses, helping stockmen break rowdy broncos, helping shepherds and cowboys drive sheep and cattle from station to station, and so on. New skills should include better horsemanship that allows for more precise and technical riding and a more reliable horse (less likely to buck you in dangerous situations), and more finesse with the lariat (such as being able to tie it to the saddlehorn so you don’t have to hold the trigger and can work a gun whilst having a steer/horse/person lassoed at the same time). Clothing should be of both period-correct Anglo-Texan and Mexican-vaquero dress, and 1940s-1950s flashy movie cowboy fare. New horse breed should be the Quarter Horse.

 

•Horses, wagons

Horses should not respawn. A dead horse should have to be replaced, as in singleplayer. 

Horses should be able to be broken in the wild and made personal horses by bringing them to a stable, no longer requiring they all be purchased. Wild and stolen horses should also be able to be fenced.

The variety of wagons should be pared down to just a personal utility prairie schooner and a personal bounty wagon, with a variety of liveries and other visual customisations available to the both of them. The utility wagon should be able to be used for all sorts of things like the transport of sales goods, hunted carcasses, posse members, and so on.

The horses used to pull them should be personal stabled named horses that must be replaced when they die like riding horses. Stolen wagons should be able to be fenced.

 

•Camp

Players’ camps should allow them to store valuables they are worried about losing upon death. But things stored at camp should not be completely invulnerable; camps should be at risk of NPC raids where if players are unable to defend their camps, they will lose not only their trader goods but also any cash/ammo/satchel goods they had stored there. 

 

•Banks, stagecoaches, and the storage of money

Banks should function as a safer alternative to camps for the storing of money and collectors items, because they are guarded by NPC lawmen and thus do not suffer raids from enemy AI. But instead, other players (as I discussed earlier) can attempt to rob banks. If player A attempts to rob a bank player B has his valuables stored at, player B is alerted immediately so they may immediately travel there and attempt to defend the bank from the attacking players. If multiple players are attempting to defend the same bank, they automatically are marked as friendlies so they can’t accidentally harm each other. 

How much of player B’s money is robbed should be determined by how complete player A’s robbery attempt was. If they were only able to collect 20% of the loot in the bank, player B only loses 20% of their stored valuables. If they manage to rob 100% of the stored loot, player B loses all of what they had stored. If player B fears they won’t be able to protect the bank storing their valuables, they should be able to just leave the lobby before the robbery is complete to deny player A their valuables. Meaning player B’s valuables are safe until they join another lobby. 

Different banks should have different levels of protection, with St Denis’ bank being the most heavily-guarded for logical reasons. 

Players attempting to rob a bank should not have any indication of how much or how little money is stored in that bank in that lobby, meaning there is very high risk for potentially no reward. Thereby discouraging players from just attempting to rob banks on a whim, but instead require plenty of planning on the player’s part.

Stagecoaches, in addition to the random ones that should spawn in the overworld (as I discussed above), should also serve as hired transport for players’ money transfers. Players should be able go to a telegraph office and request a money transfer, after which a stagecoach will run the route from the bank they’re transferring from to the bank they’re transferring to. As with all other stagecoaches, it should not appear on the radar or the map. If another player wants to rob it, they have to stumble across it by accident. Players and their posse should be able to choose to drive the stagecoach themselves or simply ride along and guard it if they are worried about enemy player attacks.

 

——

All of these changes and additions combine to make RDO a far more engaging and thrilling experience for players, where they are constantly having to weigh risk vs reward in their fight to thrive on the frontier, and feel like they’re a part of the world rather than an outside observer. Jobs and other moneymaking opportunities can be as safe as collecting flowers or selling fish, to as dangerous as trying to rob banks and bring in player bounties. The choice is on the player on how virtuous or unscrupulous they’re willing to play. Players can live in infamy by the gun, or they can die by the gun and lose it all.

[Lonely-Martin]

Some good ideas in there, but overall a pass from me I'm afraid.

 

The idea of losing guns or horses permanently is very unappealing, and with all due respect, f*ck free-aim, lol.

 

But a good read and I'm sure it'd appeal to some. I play this game to relax much more than the 'risk v reward' approach you illustrate here. 

[Zapper]

1 hour ago, Lonely-Martin said:

with all due respect, f*ck free-aim

 

I agree with your overall opinion though

[Lonely-Martin]

39 minutes ago, Zapper said:

 

I agree with your overall opinion though

 

Lol, that's cool. 

 

I'm not against free aim, just it's not for me and feel the game could seperate the 2 playstyles more and not force either free or auto aim on anyone. More options the better IMO. 

 

I can appreciate many feel the same about auto aim as I do about free aim.

[AmyStone]

11 hours ago, éX-Driver said:

Defensive mode should be replaced with free aim mode, that disables your auto aim and automatically disables other players’ auto aim whenever they try and aim at you, regardless of game mode.

 

Isn't that how it is already? Defensive mode should be replaced by a passive mode like in GTA. It should also apply to your horse. There should be an option to prevent other players interacting with you in any way apart from posse members.

[StyxTx]

11 hours ago, Lonely-Martin said:

 

Lol, that's cool. 

 

I'm not against free aim, just it's not for me and feel the game could seperate the 2 playstyles more and not force either free or auto aim on anyone. More options the better IMO. 

 

I can appreciate many feel the same about auto aim as I do about free aim.

Every other game I play is free-aim only so that's what I've gotten used to and have gotten pretty darn good at. I don't like auto-aim, it actually feels weird to me, but in lobbies full of auto-aimers I have no choice but to use it too.

15 hours ago, éX-Driver said:

My goal is to explain what changes I think should be made to RDO, to make it a better and more cohesive player experience by restructuring everything on a risk vs reward system.

 

•Money

Money, prices, and the way players interact with them should be redone from scratch. From GTAO, the concept of ‘pocket money’ and ‘banked money’ should be introduced. Pocket money is lost upon death, whilst banked money remains secure. Dead players can be looted by other players to steal their pocket money. To bank money, it should require players physically going to one of the many banks around the map. Players can store their money in any of the banks (say, $200 in Lemoyne, $50 in Valentine, and so on).

Prices and payouts should be adjusted to reflect the era more accurately. That is, a tin of beans costing around 10¢, a revolver around $5, a good hat around $7, and so on. A buck sold to a butcher should net $1, finishing a mission should be only a few dollars more. 

 

•Gold

The way gold interacts with cash money in-game and the prices in reality should be revamped. Complete gold bars should be abolished, with instead a focus on the nuggets (renamed to gold ounces). 1 gold ounce should be equal to $20 in-game, with $20USD ($25AUD, £14, €16) purchasing you 20 ounces. In short, $20USD will buy you $400 in-game. (The current gold bar to in-game cash exchange rate is $20USD buys $1200 in-game)

Gold should no longer be required for certain purchases, with ALL items being available to purchase in their equivalent in in-game money. Gold should no longer be a payout for missions or competitive game modes. ‘Free’ gold should only be attainable via daily challenges, and a new Gold Panning minigame wherein players (after purchasing a panner kit through the catalogue) can set up next to any body of water to try and pan for gold. The chance for finding a gold ounce should be random, with an average discovery rate of around one ounce every 5 minutes.

 

•Telegrams

Players should be able to send telegrams to each other, similar to texts in GTAO. To compose and send one, it should require you go to the post office and request the service. Each letter/space should cost 1¢, and each naughty word recognised by R*’s ‘adult language’ filter should cost 1 gold ounce. 

A player that receives a telegram should receive an alert in their HUD, and have to go to the nearest post office to read it and optionally send a response. 

 

•Saloons

Saloons should be revamped to be lively proper social areas for players (this includes opening the Annesburg saloon). A place to meet up, posse up, get pissed, listen to music, gawk at dancing showgirls, flirt with the barmaids, and so on. 

Weapons should be disabled inside of saloons, so especially rowdy players can’t disrupt the show and instead can only get handsy with people receptive of their shenanigans. 

 

•Ability cards, Honour, PvP interaction, aim modes

Ability cards should be abolished in free roam, reserved only for specific PvP game modes. Instead, Dead Eye should function as it did in Redemption 1 MP (SP level 1 Dead Eye). 

The Honour system should be revamped so that players with max honour have their player identification invisible to other players regardless of distance (no blip on the radar, no name above their avatar) and regardless of current mission (no more ‘players have been alerted to your mission’ with a giant blip on the radar to try and encourage players to attack each other) whilst players with min honour will appear from across the map at all times. The sighting distance should be directly linked to honour level. The higher a player’s honour, the shorter the distance is. Increasing/decreasing by around 5 metre increments. 

Players that choose to go aggro on you will automatically have their blip highlighted to you regardless of their honour level, whilst yours will remain at your current honour level distance. 

Defensive mode should be replaced with free aim mode, that disables your auto aim and automatically disables other players’ auto aim whenever they try and aim at you, regardless of game mode. When in a PvP game mode, players in free aim mode should have a special symbol near their username so that other players can recognise and react at a glance without being caught by surprise by the lack of aim assist. Allowing free aim players and auto aim players to play in harmony in the same lobby.

 

•Health, death, and the permanence of loss

Health and maintaining it should become vital to survival in RDO. Allowing the health core to drop into the red (from exposure or starvation) should begin to rapidly deplete health until death or until the player eats to replenish their health core. Swimming in cold water should deplete heath regardless of clothing. The health core should deplete fast enough so as to require eating at least once an in-game day.

Death should be something players fear because dying leads to the loss of any money, ammo, hat, and satchel goods the player had on them at the time. The only way to avoid this is to store money and supplies at banks or camp. Gold should be the only thing players cannot lose or have stolen no matter what.

Damage should be modified to more accurately reflect reality as well, with legshots incapacitating NPCs and 1-3 body/gut shots from most weapons killing or critically wounding players and NPCs.

This system of permanent loss should only apply in free roam; PvP game modes and LeClerc/story missions should allow for lossless deaths, retries, and respawns as normal.

 

•Guns and gun equipment

The fire rate and reload speed of weapons should be adjusted to more reflect the real weapons, so as to encourage a more thoughtful and tactical approach to gunfights. This should reflect on NPCs as well. 

All long guns should have a new bayonet upgrade option that functions as one would expect they do. Meleeing NPCs/players should instead run them through rather than shove them over/rifle butt them.

Gun maintenance should be an important part of the game world. If you allow your guns’ cleanliness bar to be depleted completely and you continue to use it without cleaning it, the gun should run the risk of breaking. A broken gun is lost permanently, and players should have to buy another. 

A variety of holster options should be introduced, reusing the different duel wield styles from singleplayer.

 

•Crafting

There should be a heavier emphasis on crafting, particularly in regards to clothing and weaponry. Bows and arrows for example should be fully craftable using the same menu as ammunition crafting, with bows having a service life where they’ll eventually break after a certain number of shots. Crafting arrows should require using collector arrowheads or buying steel arrowheads, collecting a new ‘stick’ collectable off the ground, and collecting feathers from birds. Crafting a bow should require the same ‘stick’ collectible.

Crafted clothing should require taking selected hides to a tanner, who players can then pay to make jackets/hats/boots/gloves/trousers from using a handful of preselected template designs. Different hides create different texture patterns, with players having a choice of dyes to choose from. Hats should allow for various accessories such as feathers and bands. This would allow for more personalisation of player appearance. (And allow for the creation of authentic buckskins)

 

•Hair

The hair and beard growth mechanism from single player should return, with a global timer on hair growth. Every tuesday, when the weekly events are refreshed, another bar should be added to the length of every player’s hair growth. This would allow players more liberty to be creative in how their hair and beards look, as in single player with Arthur and John.

A new ‘scalp’ mechanic should be introduced for the player creator, which dictates what sort of hair players grow. (Think: straight hair scalp, curly hair scalp, afro hair scalp). Each ‘scalp’ has a handful of preset hairstyles available at the barber with different lengths to correspond with hair length. 

 

•Stranger missions

New stranger missions should be added, including things such as helping a gang of rustlers rustle cattle/sheep, helping cattlemen harass shepherds encroaching on their range, help shepherds defend their flock from cattlemen attacks, helping a local farmer clear out vermin from their crops, helping a local lawman thump drunkards and wrangle other miscreants around town nonlethally, robbing a homestead for a specific bit of loot before the owners come home/wake up, driving a passenger stage long-distance, cargo transit using your own personal wagon, searching for and robbing/kidnapping specific NPCs within a given timeframe, helping provide cover for a gang performing a bank job, being hired by a local socialite to play shotgun messenger for a traincar carrying their valuables (defending it from waves of bandits), and helping a railroad company sabotage a rival railroad’s operations.

 

•Free roam PvP events

New events should include bullriding competitions (players let loose on bulls; last one to get thrown off wins), bronc busting competitions (break as many wild horses as possible; most horses broken wins), steer roping competitions (lasso and corral steer into a pen; most steers penned wins), shooting gallery competitions based on Cowboy Action Shooting, and bestiarii (players try and stay alive in a pen filled with various invincible predators; last one alive wins)

 

•Free roam dynamic robberies

There should be an introduction of dynamic robberies of individual NPCs, stagecoaches, trains, and banks. With as many or as few players who are willing to jump in.

Robberies of NPCs should function as it does in singleplayer: point a gun at them, press a button prompt where player avatars demand they stand and deliver, and the NPC either complies or tries to fight back. 

Robberies of stages require stumbling across a stagecoach in the overworld, with no warning of when and where they may spawn. Hitting up a stage might be as simple as simply pointing a pistol at the driver and demanding he stop as the passengers cower in fear, or as difficult as fighting through a dozen gunmen riding along protecting precious cargo.

Robberies of trains should function as it does in singleplayer, requiring players stop the train before going through and demanding the passengers hand over their valuables. Fighting anyone who stands in their way. Any attempt on a train robbery (failed or successful) puts that particular lobby on a global 1 hour cooldown before the next attempt by any player can be made, to allow time for the train to respawn its loot and passengers.

Robberies of banks should require players go into a bank and threaten the teller to let them in the back room. Once in the back room, players should have a limited time to loot the safes (either by cracking the lock or dynamiting them, with the latter instantly alerting the law) before an NPC is able to make their way to a sheriff to alert the law. The only way to prevent NPCs from escaping and alerting the law in any of the above robbery scenarios is to have a posse member or two run backup. Blocking doorways, threatening runners, quietly killing wannabe heroes. How much or little time players have before the law arrives is completely reliant on how able they are at preventing the law from being alerted to their actions. Preventing any witness from escaping to report you and ensuring no lawman sees you means you can collect all of the loot and escape the area before the law even arrives to investigate. Any attempt on a bank robbery (failed or successful) puts that bank on a lobby cooldown of one hour before another player can attempt to rob it.  

 

•Law enforcement, witnesses, bounties

The way the Wanted system works should be revamped to make more logical sense. The law should not be alerted to your activities unless a lawman sees you directly or a witness reports you. A witness and lawmen should not be able to recognise you if you are wearing a mask. You should not gain a bounty if a witness or lawmen cannot recognise you.

If you have a bounty and a player comes to collect, you should have the option to surrender peacefully so neither of you have to risk dying and losing whatever you have on you. Gaol sentences should be served in an unskippable way. Every dollar on your bounty should be 6 seconds spent in the cell. You should also be able to turn yourself in for a commuted (half) sentence in addition to the ability to pay it off, should you not want to pay it off/can’t afford it. Sentences should function on a global timer. That is, even being offline counts as time spent in gaol. For example: you have a $100 dollar bounty, turn yourself in (meaning you get 5 minutes behind bars with a commuted sentence), then play another another game for a few minutes. After a few minutes you load RDO back up and you are free from gaol. 

 

•Roles

In addition to the current roles, there should be two additional roles introduced called ‘gambler’ and ‘drover/wrangler’. The new Gambler role should introduce new gambling games (blackjack, faro, stud poker, liars dice, and Mexican montebank) that can be played both against other players and against NPCs, a new riverboat location (reusing the Grand Korrigan interior) for high roller games that have increased buyins and bet limits, and a new cheating skill in poker (unlocked via role rank pamphlet). The cheating skill should function as it did in Redemption 1 when using the elegant suit, allowing a player to pull a random third card off the deck whenever it’s their turn to deal, which they can then switch with any card in your hand at any time during gameplay. To discourage cheating, there should be a new ‘accuse’ option during poker games where anytime a player thinks another player is cheating, that player can accuse them of it and challenge them to a quickdraw duel. The duel should function the same as the standoffs prior to the start of a PvP game mode in Redemption 1’s multiplayer game matches, but with the added threat of whichever player loses the duel loses whatever money they had on the table. Clothing should be of dapper city things like jewellery and tail coats. New horse breed should be the American Curly.

The new Drover/Wrangler role meanwhile should focus on horses and livestock herding. Much of the content should be based around catching and selling wild horses, helping stockmen break rowdy broncos, helping shepherds and cowboys drive sheep and cattle from station to station, and so on. New skills should include better horsemanship that allows for more precise and technical riding and a more reliable horse (less likely to buck you in dangerous situations), and more finesse with the lariat (such as being able to tie it to the saddlehorn so you don’t have to hold the trigger and can work a gun whilst having a steer/horse/person lassoed at the same time). Clothing should be of both period-correct Anglo-Texan and Mexican-vaquero dress, and 1940s-1950s flashy movie cowboy fare. New horse breed should be the Quarter Horse.

 

•Horses, wagons

Horses should not respawn. A dead horse should have to be replaced, as in singleplayer. 

Horses should be able to be broken in the wild and made personal horses by bringing them to a stable, no longer requiring they all be purchased. Wild and stolen horses should also be able to be fenced.

The variety of wagons should be pared down to just a personal utility prairie schooner and a personal bounty wagon, with a variety of liveries and other visual customisations available to the both of them. The utility wagon should be able to be used for all sorts of things like the transport of sales goods, hunted carcasses, posse members, and so on.

The horses used to pull them should be personal stabled named horses that must be replaced when they die like riding horses. Stolen wagons should be able to be fenced.

 

•Camp

Players’ camps should allow them to store valuables they are worried about losing upon death. But things stored at camp should not be completely invulnerable; camps should be at risk of NPC raids where if players are unable to defend their camps, they will lose not only their trader goods but also any cash/ammo/satchel goods they had stored there. 

 

•Banks, stagecoaches, and the storage of money

Banks should function as a safer alternative to camps for the storing of money and collectors items, because they are guarded by NPC lawmen and thus do not suffer raids from enemy AI. But instead, other players (as I discussed earlier) can attempt to rob banks. If player A attempts to rob a bank player B has his valuables stored at, player B is alerted immediately so they may immediately travel there and attempt to defend the bank from the attacking players. If multiple players are attempting to defend the same bank, they automatically are marked as friendlies so they can’t accidentally harm each other. 

How much of player B’s money is robbed should be determined by how complete player A’s robbery attempt was. If they were only able to collect 20% of the loot in the bank, player B only loses 20% of their stored valuables. If they manage to rob 100% of the stored loot, player B loses all of what they had stored. If player B fears they won’t be able to protect the bank storing their valuables, they should be able to just leave the lobby before the robbery is complete to deny player A their valuables. Meaning player B’s valuables are safe until they join another lobby. 

Different banks should have different levels of protection, with St Denis’ bank being the most heavily-guarded for logical reasons. 

Players attempting to rob a bank should not have any indication of how much or how little money is stored in that bank in that lobby, meaning there is very high risk for potentially no reward. Thereby discouraging players from just attempting to rob banks on a whim, but instead require plenty of planning on the player’s part.

Stagecoaches, in addition to the random ones that should spawn in the overworld (as I discussed above), should also serve as hired transport for players’ money transfers. Players should be able go to a telegraph office and request a money transfer, after which a stagecoach will run the route from the bank they’re transferring from to the bank they’re transferring to. As with all other stagecoaches, it should not appear on the radar or the map. If another player wants to rob it, they have to stumble across it by accident. Players and their posse should be able to choose to drive the stagecoach themselves or simply ride along and guard it if they are worried about enemy player attacks.

 

——

All of these changes and additions combine to make RDO a far more engaging and thrilling experience for players, where they are constantly having to weigh risk vs reward in their fight to thrive on the frontier, and feel like they’re a part of the world rather than an outside observer. Jobs and other moneymaking opportunities can be as safe as collecting flowers or selling fish, to as dangerous as trying to rob banks and bring in player bounties. The choice is on the player on how virtuous or unscrupulous they’re willing to play. Players can live in infamy by the gun, or they can die by the gun and lose it all.

Lots of thought went into this. No way I could come up with so many ideas. I actually like most of it but even parts I'm not crazy about,eg, losing money I had saved in the bank and having to defend it since I'm not a pvp person, I could accept if they were implemented.

Edited May 20, 2021 by StyxTx

[4eyedcoupe]

15 hours ago, éX-Driver said:

 

Your honor system is just as flawed as it currently is.  What would affect honor?  I have one account that is "Bad Honor", but I have never shot up a town, gone on a rampage against cops, or gone after other players. I achieve bad honor by doing the bad honor missions and stranger missions.  So why should I be visible across the entire map to everyone else?

[StyxTx]

10 minutes ago, 4eyedcoupe said:

Your honor system is just as flawed as it currently is.  What would affect honor?  I have one account that is "Bad Honor", but I have never shot up a town, gone on a rampage against cops, or gone after other players. I achieve bad honor by doing the bad honor missions and stranger missions.  So why should I be visible across the entire map to everyone else?

Maybe the hostility rating should be what's taken into account. I've seen players with low honor but also low hostility. Is hostility based on attacking other players? I'm not sure.

Edited May 20, 2021 by StyxTx

[AmyStone]

Hostility and honour seem to be totally separate. You can shoot as many NPCs as you like and your hostility will stay the same but your honour will go down. If you kill other players (particularly those in defensive) then your hostility goes up but your honour doesn't change. I don't think honour or hostility is affected when you're in missions or showdowns.

[4eyedcoupe]

1 hour ago, StyxTx said:

Maybe the hostility rating should be what's taken into account. I've seen players with low honor but also low hostility. Is hostility based on attacking other players? I'm not sure.

That is pretty much me.  I've seen people say they avoid low honor people because they are "griefers" or just bad news in general, but my posse says it is low honor, I'm a low honor player, and its all through which stranger missions I choose and the decisions I make during the first 3 land of opportunity missions.  Its misunderstood and misleading. 

[AmyStone]

They are two separate things because the game is mixing two things. There's the honour of your character and how you want to role play them - if you're into that kind of thing. If you pay a treasure hunter for the map your honour goes up or stays the same but if you kill them and take the map then your honour goes down. If you hunt or look after your horse then your honour increases. The hostility thing seems to have been added for when you interact with other players and to make it easier to avoid players who might want to mess with you. It has nothing to do with honour and is just there as a warning to others and to make it harder for people to be griefers. If someone has high hostility and they die then they respawn a lot further away giving you more chance to get away. Honour is for PvE and hostility is for PvP.

[éX-Driver]

6 hours ago, AmyStone said:

 

Isn't that how it is already? Defensive mode should be replaced by a passive mode like in GTA. It should also apply to your horse. There should be an option to prevent other players interacting with you in any way apart from posse members.

I want it to be implemented in all game modes, including PvP ones like shootouts. And Defensive mode will shift you out of it automatically when you attack other players or start freeroam missions, and you still have autoaim against NPCs. 
 

2 hours ago, 4eyedcoupe said:

Your honor system is just as flawed as it currently is.  What would affect honor?  I have one account that is "Bad Honor", but I have never shot up a town, gone on a rampage against cops, or gone after other players. I achieve bad honor by doing the bad honor missions and stranger missions.  So why should I be visible across the entire map to everyone else?

I wanted to attach it to hostility, I forgot to mention that. 
 

2 hours ago, StyxTx said:

 

Lots of thought went into this. No way I could come up with so many ideas. I actually like most of it but even parts I'm not crazy about,eg, losing money I had saved in the bank and having to defend it since I'm not a pvp person, I could accept if they were implemented.

I imagine just the sheer risk involved with trying to rob banks (you die, goodbye to whatever YOU had on you at the time) would make them an extremely rare occurrence; one only taken up by highly organised crews. And even then, not knowing how much money is stored in a bank also serves as a deterrent because what if you go through all of that effort only to find there’s $450 in the safe? I wanted to set up a system where players can be as evil as they want, but the more evil you are the exponentially more difficult the game will be. 

[AmyStone]

20 minutes ago, éX-Driver said:

I want it to be implemented in all game modes, including PvP ones like shootouts.

 

Maybe I'm being stupid so you need to explain it to me. Why would you want to enter a showdown in defensive mode when you will be taken out of it as soon as you attack other players? What would be the point?

23 minutes ago, éX-Driver said:

I wanted to attach it to hostility, I forgot to mention that. 

 

So if a player has been attacking NPCs you want them flagged as potentially dangers to other players? Wouldn't that make it hard to identify the people who do actually want to attack other players?

[AmyStone]

24 minutes ago, éX-Driver said:

I imagine just the sheer risk involved with trying to rob banks (you die, goodbye to whatever YOU had on you at the time) would make them an extremely rare occurrence; one only taken up by highly organised crews.

 

Um so if I deposit all my money into the bank and only keep $1 on me you don't think I'd risk that to possible earn several thousand?

[Lonely-Martin]

3 hours ago, StyxTx said:

Every other game I play is free-aim only so that's what I've gotten used to and have gotten pretty darn good at. I don't like auto-aim, it actually feels weird to me, but in lobbies full of auto-aimers I have no choice but to use it too.

 

Yeah, it's a crazy system we have. Too often it just feels poorly thought out as certain play styles are inevitably gonna clash or force players into certain ways. So frustrating, more so when you see how extremely successful it is in GTA, which is very far from perfect itself of course.

[Rockstarsucks33]

I don't understand this kind of thread....It's a 100% true, for sure, fact, that every single person who still plays this game wants more content and things to do. That's all we talk about here(see speculation thread).

Everyone wants to be able to rob trains, stagecoaches, and banks. Everyone here has some great ideas for one thing or another. If everyone on here was able to contribute ideas and suggestions that actually got to the big people upstairs making decisions, and Rockstar actually listened, this game would be incredible. Not sure where you've been living for the past 8 years but ROCKSTAR doesn't care at all about anything you want or think should be in this game or any of their games. 

 

Not trying to be rude but merely pointing out your ideas, while creative, are incredibly unrealistic to implement at this point. Basically you're telling Rockstar they need to now pay hundreds of employees to completely reprogram the entire game? You are overlooking the amount of time, work and money it would take to add the things you've suggested.

 

I disagree with your economy/currency changes and players being able to steal other players money from them. I don't want to have to worry about people stealing my money from a bank on the other side of the map before I could even get there to try to stop it...and you say you can potentially rob a bank perfectly and the cops aren't even alerted...how would we know we're being robbed? Banks are places to keep money and valuables I don't want stolen from me and should not be to able be stolen by other players. If someone robs a bank, the bank is on the hook for the stolen money, not the people who have their money in that bank. Plus gta online had the whole "banking your money or else you lose it when you die" idea in the very beginning of gta online but realized it would only piss people off so they didn't implement it.

 

Rockstar did completely botch the $ and gold system, the only way to get things evened out would be to add a 3rd currency (silver) to bridge the massive gap in value between gold and cash. 

 

Unfortunately, we all pretty much want the same things, but Rockstar doesn't care at all. People making threads loaded with ideas is literally the last thing Rockstar will read. I guess you can keep your hopes up, but the content you're suggesting would take several years to create. Andddd ROCKSTAR only cares about gta. We're stuck with what they're willing to give us. 

 

 

[StyxTx]

4 hours ago, éX-Driver said:

I imagine just the sheer risk involved with trying to rob banks (you die, goodbye to whatever YOU had on you at the time) would make them an extremely rare occurrence; one only taken up by highly organised crews. And even then, not knowing how much money is stored in a bank also serves as a deterrent because what if you go through all of that effort only to find there’s $450 in the safe? I wanted to set up a system where players can be as evil as they want, but the more evil you are the exponentially more difficult the game will be. 

One thing I would add is that the NPCs would have to be made a lot tougher and more intelligent. As it is now you can go through a town full of NPCs like a hot knife through butter.

Edited May 20, 2021 by StyxTx

[éX-Driver]

5 hours ago, AmyStone said:

 

Maybe I'm being stupid so you need to explain it to me. Why would you want to enter a showdown in defensive mode when you will be taken out of it as soon as you attack other players? What would be the point?

 

So if a player has been attacking NPCs you want them flagged as potentially dangers to other players? Wouldn't that make it hard to identify the people who do actually want to attack other players?

Because it’s not defensive mode, it’s ‘free aim mode’. It incorporates the autoaim override defensive mode has, but doesn’t deactivate if you start shooting others or play in PvP game modes. Imagine a free aim lobby that only applies to you. You can’t lock onto anyone and they can’t lock on to you, meaning any gunfight you get in behaves like a free aim lobby from your perspective. 
 

You only lose honour when you shoot innocent civilians or otherwise instigate confrontations. You don’t lose honour from shooting up a gang hideout, only from throwing dynamite at NPCs walking along the street. If you want to pick a fight with other players, just go around shooting up towns to lower your honour and increase hostility. What’s wrong with that sort of system?

 

5 hours ago, AmyStone said:

 

Um so if I deposit all my money into the bank and only keep $1 on me you don't think I'd risk that to possible earn several thousand?

you also lose all your ammo, looted/crafted supplies (cooked food, liquor, etc) and whatever you have in your satchel (tarot cards, treasure maps, etc). Sure, you can store that stuff in your camp or at the bank, but then your stuff is at risk of being robbed as well. 
 

3 hours ago, Rockstarsucks33 said:

I don't understand this kind of thread....It's a 100% true, for sure, fact, that every single person who still plays this game wants more content and things to do. That's all we talk about here(see speculation thread).

Everyone wants to be able to rob trains, stagecoaches, and banks. Everyone here has some great ideas for one thing or another. If everyone on here was able to contribute ideas and suggestions that actually got to the big people upstairs making decisions, and Rockstar actually listened, this game would be incredible. Not sure where you've been living for the past 8 years but ROCKSTAR doesn't care at all about anything you want or think should be in this game or any of their games. 

 

Not trying to be rude but merely pointing out your ideas, while creative, are incredibly unrealistic to implement at this point. Basically you're telling Rockstar they need to now pay hundreds of employees to completely reprogram the entire game? You are overlooking the amount of time, work and money it would take to add the things you've suggested.

 

I disagree with your economy/currency changes and players being able to steal other players money from them. I don't want to have to worry about people stealing my money from a bank on the other side of the map before I could even get there to try to stop it...and you say you can potentially rob a bank perfectly and the cops aren't even alerted...how would we know we're being robbed? Banks are places to keep money and valuables I don't want stolen from me and should not be to able be stolen by other players. If someone robs a bank, the bank is on the hook for the stolen money, not the people who have their money in that bank. Plus gta online had the whole "banking your money or else you lose it when you die" idea in the very beginning of gta online but realized it would only piss people off so they didn't implement it.

 

Rockstar did completely botch the $ and gold system, the only way to get things evened out would be to add a 3rd currency (silver) to bridge the massive gap in value between gold and cash. 

 

Unfortunately, we all pretty much want the same things, but Rockstar doesn't care at all. People making threads loaded with ideas is literally the last thing Rockstar will read. I guess you can keep your hopes up, but the content you're suggesting would take several years to create. Andddd ROCKSTAR only cares about gta. We're stuck with what they're willing to give us. 

 

 

>unrealistic.. reprogram the game

most of what I suggested already exists in the game’s code, either in singleplayer or in some simplified form in multiplayer. It’s just changing values and activating code that’s already there.

>ask them to hire hundreds of employees to work on the game

why shouldn’t I want them to do that?

>rockstar don’t care and don’t listen

no sh*t, I don’t expect them to implement any of this. This is a fan forum dedicated to discussion and speculation on what we players think and want in the game. R* have no formal involvement here. The point of this thread is just to have a thoughtful discussion with other players as we fantasise about what the game could be. It’s wishful thinking.
>disagree with the banking and theft

I figured that would be the most polarising part of my ideas. As for how you’d know, I’d imagine it’d just be a popup that comes on your screen that says “X bank is being robbed, the goods you have stored there are at risk”

[AmyStone]

2 hours ago, éX-Driver said:

Because it’s not defensive mode, it’s ‘free aim mode’. It incorporates the autoaim override defensive mode has, but doesn’t deactivate if you start shooting others or play in PvP game modes. Imagine a free aim lobby that only applies to you. You can’t lock onto anyone and they can’t lock on to you, meaning any gunfight you get in behaves like a free aim lobby from your perspective. 

 

So you are talking about having showdowns where some you can auto aim on and some you can't? I think that would make things very confusing. You wouldn't know which method to use for each player. 

[roggek]

On 5/19/2021 at 11:15 PM, éX-Driver said:

My goal is to explain what changes I think should be made to RDO, to make it a better and more cohesive player experience by restructuring everything on a risk vs reward system.

 

•Money

Money, prices, and the way players interact with them should be redone from scratch. From GTAO, the concept of ‘pocket money’ and ‘banked money’ should be introduced. Pocket money is lost upon death, whilst banked money remains secure. Dead players can be looted by other players to steal their pocket money. To bank money, it should require players physically going to one of the many banks around the map. Players can store their money in any of the banks (say, $200 in Lemoyne, $50 in Valentine, and so on).

Prices and payouts should be adjusted to reflect the era more accurately. That is, a tin of beans costing around 10¢, a revolver around $5, a good hat around $7, and so on. A buck sold to a butcher should net $1, finishing a mission should be only a few dollars more. 

 

•Gold

The way gold interacts with cash money in-game and the prices in reality should be revamped. Complete gold bars should be abolished, with instead a focus on the nuggets (renamed to gold ounces). 1 gold ounce should be equal to $20 in-game, with $20USD ($25AUD, £14, €16) purchasing you 20 ounces. In short, $20USD will buy you $400 in-game. (The current gold bar to in-game cash exchange rate is $20USD buys $1200 in-game)

Gold should no longer be required for certain purchases, with ALL items being available to purchase in their equivalent in in-game money. Gold should no longer be a payout for missions or competitive game modes. ‘Free’ gold should only be attainable via daily challenges, and a new Gold Panning minigame wherein players (after purchasing a panner kit through the catalogue) can set up next to any body of water to try and pan for gold. The chance for finding a gold ounce should be random, with an average discovery rate of around one ounce every 5 minutes.

 

•Telegrams

Players should be able to send telegrams to each other, similar to texts in GTAO. To compose and send one, it should require you go to the post office and request the service. Each letter/space should cost 1¢, and each naughty word recognised by R*’s ‘adult language’ filter should cost 1 gold ounce. 

A player that receives a telegram should receive an alert in their HUD, and have to go to the nearest post office to read it and optionally send a response. 

 

•Saloons

Saloons should be revamped to be lively proper social areas for players (this includes opening the Annesburg saloon). A place to meet up, posse up, get pissed, listen to music, gawk at dancing showgirls, flirt with the barmaids, and so on. 

Weapons should be disabled inside of saloons, so especially rowdy players can’t disrupt the show and instead can only get handsy with people receptive of their shenanigans. 

 

•Ability cards, Honour, PvP interaction, aim modes

Ability cards should be abolished in free roam, reserved only for specific PvP game modes. Instead, Dead Eye should function as it did in Redemption 1 MP (SP level 1 Dead Eye). 

The Honour system should be revamped so that players with max honour have their player identification invisible to other players regardless of distance (no blip on the radar, no name above their avatar) and regardless of current mission (no more ‘players have been alerted to your mission’ with a giant blip on the radar to try and encourage players to attack each other) whilst players with min honour will appear from across the map at all times. The sighting distance should be directly linked to honour level. The higher a player’s honour, the shorter the distance is. Increasing/decreasing by around 5 metre increments. 

Players that choose to go aggro on you will automatically have their blip highlighted to you regardless of their honour level, whilst yours will remain at your current honour level distance. 

Defensive mode should be replaced with free aim mode, that disables your auto aim and automatically disables other players’ auto aim whenever they try and aim at you, regardless of game mode. When in a PvP game mode, players in free aim mode should have a special symbol near their username so that other players can recognise and react at a glance without being caught by surprise by the lack of aim assist. Allowing free aim players and auto aim players to play in harmony in the same lobby.

 

•Health, death, and the permanence of loss

Health and maintaining it should become vital to survival in RDO. Allowing the health core to drop into the red (from exposure or starvation) should begin to rapidly deplete health until death or until the player eats to replenish their health core. Swimming in cold water should deplete heath regardless of clothing. The health core should deplete fast enough so as to require eating at least once an in-game day.

Death should be something players fear because dying leads to the loss of any money, ammo, hat, and satchel goods the player had on them at the time. The only way to avoid this is to store money and supplies at banks or camp. Gold should be the only thing players cannot lose or have stolen no matter what.

Damage should be modified to more accurately reflect reality as well, with legshots incapacitating NPCs and 1-3 body/gut shots from most weapons killing or critically wounding players and NPCs.

This system of permanent loss should only apply in free roam; PvP game modes and LeClerc/story missions should allow for lossless deaths, retries, and respawns as normal.

 

•Guns and gun equipment

The fire rate and reload speed of weapons should be adjusted to more reflect the real weapons, so as to encourage a more thoughtful and tactical approach to gunfights. This should reflect on NPCs as well. 

All long guns should have a new bayonet upgrade option that functions as one would expect they do. Meleeing NPCs/players should instead run them through rather than shove them over/rifle butt them.

Gun maintenance should be an important part of the game world. If you allow your guns’ cleanliness bar to be depleted completely and you continue to use it without cleaning it, the gun should run the risk of breaking. A broken gun is lost permanently, and players should have to buy another. 

A variety of holster options should be introduced, reusing the different duel wield styles from singleplayer.

 

•Crafting

There should be a heavier emphasis on crafting, particularly in regards to clothing and weaponry. Bows and arrows for example should be fully craftable using the same menu as ammunition crafting, with bows having a service life where they’ll eventually break after a certain number of shots. Crafting arrows should require using collector arrowheads or buying steel arrowheads, collecting a new ‘stick’ collectable off the ground, and collecting feathers from birds. Crafting a bow should require the same ‘stick’ collectible.

Crafted clothing should require taking selected hides to a tanner, who players can then pay to make jackets/hats/boots/gloves/trousers from using a handful of preselected template designs. Different hides create different texture patterns, with players having a choice of dyes to choose from. Hats should allow for various accessories such as feathers and bands. This would allow for more personalisation of player appearance. (And allow for the creation of authentic buckskins)

 

•Hair

The hair and beard growth mechanism from single player should return, with a global timer on hair growth. Every tuesday, when the weekly events are refreshed, another bar should be added to the length of every player’s hair growth. This would allow players more liberty to be creative in how their hair and beards look, as in single player with Arthur and John.

A new ‘scalp’ mechanic should be introduced for the player creator, which dictates what sort of hair players grow. (Think: straight hair scalp, curly hair scalp, afro hair scalp). Each ‘scalp’ has a handful of preset hairstyles available at the barber with different lengths to correspond with hair length. 

 

•Stranger missions

New stranger missions should be added, including things such as helping a gang of rustlers rustle cattle/sheep, helping cattlemen harass shepherds encroaching on their range, help shepherds defend their flock from cattlemen attacks, helping a local farmer clear out vermin from their crops, helping a local lawman thump drunkards and wrangle other miscreants around town nonlethally, robbing a homestead for a specific bit of loot before the owners come home/wake up, driving a passenger stage long-distance, cargo transit using your own personal wagon, searching for and robbing/kidnapping specific NPCs within a given timeframe, helping provide cover for a gang performing a bank job, being hired by a local socialite to play shotgun messenger for a traincar carrying their valuables (defending it from waves of bandits), and helping a railroad company sabotage a rival railroad’s operations.

 

•Free roam PvP events

New events should include bullriding competitions (players let loose on bulls; last one to get thrown off wins), bronc busting competitions (break as many wild horses as possible; most horses broken wins), steer roping competitions (lasso and corral steer into a pen; most steers penned wins), shooting gallery competitions based on Cowboy Action Shooting, and bestiarii (players try and stay alive in a pen filled with various invincible predators; last one alive wins)

 

•Free roam dynamic robberies

There should be an introduction of dynamic robberies of individual NPCs, stagecoaches, trains, and banks. With as many or as few players who are willing to jump in.

Robberies of NPCs should function as it does in singleplayer: point a gun at them, press a button prompt where player avatars demand they stand and deliver, and the NPC either complies or tries to fight back. 

Robberies of stages require stumbling across a stagecoach in the overworld, with no warning of when and where they may spawn. Hitting up a stage might be as simple as simply pointing a pistol at the driver and demanding he stop as the passengers cower in fear, or as difficult as fighting through a dozen gunmen riding along protecting precious cargo.

Robberies of trains should function as it does in singleplayer, requiring players stop the train before going through and demanding the passengers hand over their valuables. Fighting anyone who stands in their way. Any attempt on a train robbery (failed or successful) puts that particular lobby on a global 1 hour cooldown before the next attempt by any player can be made, to allow time for the train to respawn its loot and passengers.

Robberies of banks should require players go into a bank and threaten the teller to let them in the back room. Once in the back room, players should have a limited time to loot the safes (either by cracking the lock or dynamiting them, with the latter instantly alerting the law) before an NPC is able to make their way to a sheriff to alert the law. The only way to prevent NPCs from escaping and alerting the law in any of the above robbery scenarios is to have a posse member or two run backup. Blocking doorways, threatening runners, quietly killing wannabe heroes. How much or little time players have before the law arrives is completely reliant on how able they are at preventing the law from being alerted to their actions. Preventing any witness from escaping to report you and ensuring no lawman sees you means you can collect all of the loot and escape the area before the law even arrives to investigate. Any attempt on a bank robbery (failed or successful) puts that bank on a lobby cooldown of one hour before another player can attempt to rob it.  

 

•Law enforcement, witnesses, bounties

The way the Wanted system works should be revamped to make more logical sense. The law should not be alerted to your activities unless a lawman sees you directly or a witness reports you. A witness and lawmen should not be able to recognise you if you are wearing a mask. You should not gain a bounty if a witness or lawmen cannot recognise you.

If you have a bounty and a player comes to collect, you should have the option to surrender peacefully so neither of you have to risk dying and losing whatever you have on you. Gaol sentences should be served in an unskippable way. Every dollar on your bounty should be 6 seconds spent in the cell. You should also be able to turn yourself in for a commuted (half) sentence in addition to the ability to pay it off, should you not want to pay it off/can’t afford it. Sentences should function on a global timer. That is, even being offline counts as time spent in gaol. For example: you have a $100 dollar bounty, turn yourself in (meaning you get 5 minutes behind bars with a commuted sentence), then play another another game for a few minutes. After a few minutes you load RDO back up and you are free from gaol. 

 

•Roles

In addition to the current roles, there should be two additional roles introduced called ‘gambler’ and ‘drover/wrangler’. The new Gambler role should introduce new gambling games (blackjack, faro, stud poker, liars dice, and Mexican montebank) that can be played both against other players and against NPCs, a new riverboat location (reusing the Grand Korrigan interior) for high roller games that have increased buyins and bet limits, and a new cheating skill in poker (unlocked via role rank pamphlet). The cheating skill should function as it did in Redemption 1 when using the elegant suit, allowing a player to pull a random third card off the deck whenever it’s their turn to deal, which they can then switch with any card in your hand at any time during gameplay. To discourage cheating, there should be a new ‘accuse’ option during poker games where anytime a player thinks another player is cheating, that player can accuse them of it and challenge them to a quickdraw duel. The duel should function the same as the standoffs prior to the start of a PvP game mode in Redemption 1’s multiplayer game matches, but with the added threat of whichever player loses the duel loses whatever money they had on the table. Clothing should be of dapper city things like jewellery and tail coats. New horse breed should be the American Curly.

The new Drover/Wrangler role meanwhile should focus on horses and livestock herding. Much of the content should be based around catching and selling wild horses, helping stockmen break rowdy broncos, helping shepherds and cowboys drive sheep and cattle from station to station, and so on. New skills should include better horsemanship that allows for more precise and technical riding and a more reliable horse (less likely to buck you in dangerous situations), and more finesse with the lariat (such as being able to tie it to the saddlehorn so you don’t have to hold the trigger and can work a gun whilst having a steer/horse/person lassoed at the same time). Clothing should be of both period-correct Anglo-Texan and Mexican-vaquero dress, and 1940s-1950s flashy movie cowboy fare. New horse breed should be the Quarter Horse.

 

•Horses, wagons

Horses should not respawn. A dead horse should have to be replaced, as in singleplayer. 

Horses should be able to be broken in the wild and made personal horses by bringing them to a stable, no longer requiring they all be purchased. Wild and stolen horses should also be able to be fenced.

The variety of wagons should be pared down to just a personal utility prairie schooner and a personal bounty wagon, with a variety of liveries and other visual customisations available to the both of them. The utility wagon should be able to be used for all sorts of things like the transport of sales goods, hunted carcasses, posse members, and so on.

The horses used to pull them should be personal stabled named horses that must be replaced when they die like riding horses. Stolen wagons should be able to be fenced.

 

•Camp

Players’ camps should allow them to store valuables they are worried about losing upon death. But things stored at camp should not be completely invulnerable; camps should be at risk of NPC raids where if players are unable to defend their camps, they will lose not only their trader goods but also any cash/ammo/satchel goods they had stored there. 

 

•Banks, stagecoaches, and the storage of money

Banks should function as a safer alternative to camps for the storing of money and collectors items, because they are guarded by NPC lawmen and thus do not suffer raids from enemy AI. But instead, other players (as I discussed earlier) can attempt to rob banks. If player A attempts to rob a bank player B has his valuables stored at, player B is alerted immediately so they may immediately travel there and attempt to defend the bank from the attacking players. If multiple players are attempting to defend the same bank, they automatically are marked as friendlies so they can’t accidentally harm each other. 

How much of player B’s money is robbed should be determined by how complete player A’s robbery attempt was. If they were only able to collect 20% of the loot in the bank, player B only loses 20% of their stored valuables. If they manage to rob 100% of the stored loot, player B loses all of what they had stored. If player B fears they won’t be able to protect the bank storing their valuables, they should be able to just leave the lobby before the robbery is complete to deny player A their valuables. Meaning player B’s valuables are safe until they join another lobby. 

Different banks should have different levels of protection, with St Denis’ bank being the most heavily-guarded for logical reasons. 

Players attempting to rob a bank should not have any indication of how much or how little money is stored in that bank in that lobby, meaning there is very high risk for potentially no reward. Thereby discouraging players from just attempting to rob banks on a whim, but instead require plenty of planning on the player’s part.

Stagecoaches, in addition to the random ones that should spawn in the overworld (as I discussed above), should also serve as hired transport for players’ money transfers. Players should be able go to a telegraph office and request a money transfer, after which a stagecoach will run the route from the bank they’re transferring from to the bank they’re transferring to. As with all other stagecoaches, it should not appear on the radar or the map. If another player wants to rob it, they have to stumble across it by accident. Players and their posse should be able to choose to drive the stagecoach themselves or simply ride along and guard it if they are worried about enemy player attacks.

 

——

All of these changes and additions combine to make RDO a far more engaging and thrilling experience for players, where they are constantly having to weigh risk vs reward in their fight to thrive on the frontier, and feel like they’re a part of the world rather than an outside observer. Jobs and other moneymaking opportunities can be as safe as collecting flowers or selling fish, to as dangerous as trying to rob banks and bring in player bounties. The choice is on the player on how virtuous or unscrupulous they’re willing to play. Players can live in infamy by the gun, or they can die by the gun and lose it all.

 

Maybe we would see these somewhat new features in RDR III?

 

Or maybe you should consider to tell Rockstar this ideas at their own support site:

Submit Your Feedback - Rockstar Games

 

Beacuse Rockstar doesn't endorse or read these forums...

Edited May 20, 2021 by roggek

[éX-Driver]

1 hour ago, AmyStone said:

 

So you are talking about having showdowns where some you can auto aim on and some you can't? I think that would make things very confusing. You wouldn't know which method to use for each player. 

I addressed that in the OP. Any player in free aim mode should, in a PvP game mode, have an obvious symbol next to the little dot over their heads that tells you they’re in free aim mode. 
 

1 hour ago, roggek said:

 

Maybe we would see these somewhat new features in RDR III?

 

Or maybe you should consider to tell Rockstar this ideas at their own support site:

Submit Your Feedback - Rockstar Games

 

Beacuse Rockstar doesn't endorse or read these forums...

I semi-regularly spam them ideas I formulate. I thought posting this here would make for a fun discussion topic that the forum could engage in. That’s the point of fan forums, after all

Edited May 21, 2021 by éX-Driver

[JohnDekkers]

( To Original Post) I like your ideas very much, more immersion is needed indeed for this game, it's got so much potential , if there was more consequence to one's actions for instance.....also in the long run. I also think  temporary events like being able to find a certain object, like a one of a kind Gun for instance, adds extra immersion, a purpose to keep playing RDO.Maybe add something like an archeologist role?I also like the idea of doing something more with the "Early Flight"theme, they could develop it in RDO.

Also certain locations on the map, feel unexplored , like the abandoned Graveyard in New Austin for instance.

The idea I love about this Multiplayer game, is that it lives......but it needs more juice to shine!

 

 

Edited May 21, 2021 by JohnDekkers

[AmyStone]

7 hours ago, éX-Driver said:

I addressed that in the OP. Any player in free aim mode should, in a PvP game mode, have an obvious symbol next to the little dot over their heads that tells you they’re in free aim mode.

 

Oh yeah, and we know how visible a dot would be when you're in the chaos of a showdown or when someone is half a mile away.

 

Some of you ideas are ok but this is a crazy one.

[éX-Driver]

10 hours ago, AmyStone said:

 

Oh yeah, and we know how visible a dot would be when you're in the chaos of a showdown or when someone is half a mile away.

 

Some of you ideas are ok but this is a crazy one.

Make it large enough to be visible? You’re making it sound more difficult than it would be. The dots stay the same size regardless of range. 

[TheOriginalGunslinger]

Hardcore Free Mode in OG RDR Multiplayer was perfect and was always a fan favorite for Free Roam. I really wish Rockstar did the lobbies like they did in its previous western epic but I’m afraid they didn’t want to “split” the playerbase up I guess? I’m a Free Aim player myself but I don’t mind other players playing with auto-aim so I can respect their playstyle.

[AmyStone]

5 hours ago, éX-Driver said:

Make it large enough to be visible? You’re making it sound more difficult than it would be.

 

It makes no sense. There is no point in mixing the two. No point adding confusing where there doesn't need to be any.

[éX-Driver]

6 hours ago, AmyStone said:

 

It makes no sense. There is no point in mixing the two. No point adding confusing where there doesn't need to be any.

What about it doesn’t make sense? It takes a millisecond to recognise a simple symbol. Players that want to be in free aim can only be engaged in free aim. It’s no different than how Slippery Bastard used to work, except now it’s a gameplay option rather than a temporary perk.

[AmyStone]

2 hours ago, éX-Driver said:

What about it doesn’t make sense? It takes a millisecond to recognise a simple symbol. Players that want to be in free aim can only be engaged in free aim. It’s no different than how Slippery Bastard used to work, except now it’s a gameplay option rather than a temporary perk.

 

Ok my last attempt but I'm not going to continue this conversation. I don't suppose you have played many showdowns but they are often so frantic you only have time to look at your target and if you pause for a millisecond to check out the symbol over the persons head you'll be dead. You also seem to think you get into a fight with one person in the middle of nowhere, kill them and then move on to the next person. You often get players close together. If you had a mix of free aim and auto aim players close together and while trying to shoot the free aim player you accidentally hit an auto aim player then you pop out into auto aim yourself.

 

An no, it's not how slippery used to work. If a slippery player his an auto aim player it wouldn't then disable slippery.

 

A mix of aim styles in the same match as you are suggesting adds nothing to realism or gameplay and just makes the whole thing more awkward. It's almost like you're holding onto this crazy idea just for the hell of it. Nothing is going to make you reconsider this suggestion so it's pointless discussing it any more.

[StyxTx]

2 hours ago, AmyStone said:

A mix of aim styles in the same match as you are suggesting adds nothing to realism or gameplay and just makes the whole thing more awkward. It's almost like you're holding onto this crazy idea just for the hell of it. Nothing is going to make you reconsider this suggestion so it's pointless discussing it any more.

But autoaim is not realism. Neither are tonics and cards. Neither is snakes slithering along in 30 degree weather or swimming in subfreezing temps without health being effected. Realism really can't be used as a rationale for anything in this game.

Edited May 22, 2021 by StyxTx

[éX-Driver]

8 hours ago, AmyStone said:

 

Ok my last attempt but I'm not going to continue this conversation. I don't suppose you have played many showdowns but they are often so frantic you only have time to look at your target and if you pause for a millisecond to check out the symbol over the persons head you'll be dead. You also seem to think you get into a fight with one person in the middle of nowhere, kill them and then move on to the next person. You often get players close together. If you had a mix of free aim and auto aim players close together and while trying to shoot the free aim player you accidentally hit an auto aim player then you pop out into auto aim yourself.

 

An no, it's not how slippery used to work. If a slippery player his an auto aim player it wouldn't then disable slippery.

 

A mix of aim styles in the same match as you are suggesting adds nothing to realism or gameplay and just makes the whole thing more awkward. It's almost like you're holding onto this crazy idea just for the hell of it. Nothing is going to make you reconsider this suggestion so it's pointless discussing it any more.

Do you struggle with differentiating enemy players from your own team? You’re making it sound far more difficult than it actually would be.

 

>pop in and out of autoaim options

where are you even getting that from? I’ve explicitly told you how the system would work and you keep extrapolating all this extraneous nonsense from it. If I didn’t say something, then it wouldn’t happen. The system is identical to how Slippery Bastard worked, except you’re not in dead eye. That’s it. Nothing else. I don’t know how to simplify it further for you.

 

>holding on to this crazy idea

nah mate you’re the one hyperfocused on it. You brought it up, clearly misunderstanding what I intended, and every time I try and explain it to you you go further off the rails reading between the lines and putting words in my mouth. Maybe it’s my fault for not being clear?

i’ll reiterate. Exactly like old Slippery Bastard, but not in dead eye. That’s it. No extras, no hidden additions, nothing.