 As per Rockstar's Newswire release today, Red Dead Online Beta gets a big set of updates across the board, including new gameplay, weapons and clothing, additional balancing and a slew of community-requested improvements. While many of the updates are focused on clothing, emotes and other minor additions, perhaps the biggest news are Daily Challenges, new Showdown Modes and renovated Radar and Visibility System. Before we get down to the analysis, we'd like to welcome our new member, BerettaBear, who has really been a part of the b64 pack since the day one in Red Dead Online! Also, Paresh and SrgtSavage have been a part of b64 posse for two months now!
Daily Challenges present a set of diverse objectives which player can complete for extra XP each day. The objectives usually include minor tasks that can be completed very quickly, and if you focus on it, all 7 can be completed in less than 2 hours.
Visibility of players on the radar is now reduced over longer distances, which lowers the possibility of attacking other players across the map (so this update is not necessarily a good thing). "Aggressive" players are highlighted from the map with a progressively darkening dot, which further darkens and becomes visible from further away (including posse members as well). This essentially puts a target on gangs that are keen to fight, making it easier to find a willing opponent.
Also, a Bounty System is introduced, meaning that players with hostile reputation are to be targeted by NPC Bounty Hunters. The higher the bounty gets, the more persistent bounty hunters will become. We actually had quite fun last night being chased by the NPC hunters while capturing a train and also fighting Lindergard's Posse at the same time.
What we would like to see from Rockstar is to come up with a new mode that could significantly increase the competitiveness in Red Dead Online, because first and foremost, b64 breathes competition and there are many more teams in Online Beta right now with that same mentality. A mode that allows 2 teams to challenge each other separately from Freeroam mini-fights would be a major step in that direction. I'm sure that R* has coders and scripters in their team that are more than capable of producing such thing (in fact, if we just look at what has been happening with MTA and SA-MP ever since mid 2000s, there have been dozens of non-R* affiliated players, inducing b64's own, perfectly capable on creating amazing competitive modes on their own). Anything along the lines of Capture The Flag, Attack/Defend or even a typical old fashioned Team Deathmatch would be a monumental addition to Red Dead's competitive scene as long as two teams could play directly against each other in a set amount of rounds.
As for the other content, worth mentioning is a new weapon: Rare Shotgun. Solid gun, very similar to the double-barred longarm, but unlikely to be used outside close-range encounters. That basically means usage reduced few Gun Rush and Showdown modes depending on its spawn frequency, but still nothing that changes the gameplay. We expect slightly more from the upcoming Evans Repeater.
For the full update report by Rockstar, make sure to check the Newswire!
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