New Features Coming to Red Dead Online as Update Tackles Disruptive Players

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Posted February 13, 2019 by Richard Lee Breslin in Gaming News, Patches, PS4, Update, Xbox One

On February 26th, Red Dead Online Beta will have an update that will introduce new features, as well as making some fixes.  Arguably the most improved fix comes in the form of dealing with “disruptive players”.  Players that are considered to act overly aggressive, such as killing real-world players for no reason or their horses, will become more visible on the map and there blip will change to a dark red, so other players might be aware of the potential danger.  Also to tackle players from being hunted across the map for no good reason, players will soon only be visible from within a 150 metre radius.

Improvements have also been made to the Bounty and Law balancing system.  For example, killing random real-world players (or their horses) will decrease your Honor rating into a negative and can result in relentless bounty hunters being on your tail.  However, lower level crimes such as looting won’t attract as much attention from the law if witnessed by NPC’s.  Daily Challenges will also be coming to Red Dead Online, where players can earn Gold Bars and bonus XP for taking on the days set objectives, further details are expected to release at a later date.  Hopefully a Passive Mode won’t be to far away from coming to Red Dead Online either.

You can read all the details on what’s arriving with the forthcoming Red Dead Online beta update on February 26th, courtesy of the press release below.  And if for whatever reason, you’re yet to play the incredible Red Dead Redemption 2, you can find out why you should by reading our review here.

Player Visibility

As part of our response to community feedback on how to minimize certain types of destructive player behavior, we’ve made some changes to the way player blips will appear on the map.

Firstly, we’re reducing the visibility of blips over long distances – your map position won’t display to other players unless you are nearby (within 150 meters) and if you are slightly further away you will only appear when firing your weapon.  Players in other towns or regions, for example, won’t be visible. This prevents players from being repeatedly targeted across the map at long distances.

We’re also introducing a new system that highlights overly aggressive players. If your style of play becomes more hostile, your map position (and the position of your Posse members) will become more visible to other players with a progressively darkening dot that incrementally shifts from blue to dark red. Your visibility increases through bad deeds such as attacking and killing other players or their horses outside of a structured mode, Free Roam Mission, event or competition, and the shorter the time between bad acts, the more your visibility increases. Shift back to a more righteous path and your visibility will fade over time.

We’re also introducing Posse-wide Parleys and improving Feuds. You’ll soon be able to initiate Parley that applies to your attacker’s entire Posse after just a single kill. Alternatively, if you’d rather challenge your opponent, you can initiate a Feud, Posse Feud or Leader Feud after one kill, quickly turning a dispute into a timed mini-deathmatch for rival players to fight out amongst themselves in Free Roam, earning points for each kill on the opposing player.

Bounty Hunters & Law Balancing

At the same time, players who have racked up high bounties will have a chance to be beset by NPC Bounty Hunters who will attempt to kill them and collect their reward.

Criminal behavior will have bounty values and honor consequences that scale based on the severity of the crime. For example, killing another player can incur a higher bounty, while assaulting townsfolk or animal cruelty could give you a lesser bounty if the crime is reported, while lower level crimes like looting and ransacking will only decrease your honor.

If your bounty exceeds a certain threshold and Bounty Hunters take notice, you will be wanted dead and alerted to their pursuit. The higher your bounty, the greater your value and the more difficult the pursuit becomes for you and your Posse.

Daily Challenges

We will also be adding a variety of Daily Challenges to take on across the Red Dead Online Beta. Complete individual objectives that cover every aspect of life on the frontier to earn Gold Nuggets and XP. Challenges will range from foraging for herbs, selling items at a Fence, hunting and skinning animals, clearing hideouts, winning Feuds and so much more. These Daily Challenges will continue to expand and evolve over time bringing specialty challenges and rewards, streak bonuses and more.

Other Fixes and More

Your feedback has been invaluable so please keep it coming. In addition to these updates we are planning to address several additional changes based on community feedback received thus far – select weapons will be re-balanced including the Varmint Rifle, which will have its accuracy brought more in line with other longarm weapons ;  voice chat will be reduced to work at closer proximity, and while fixes to horse cargo are numerous and ongoing we plan to introduce some improvements to making pelts and carcasses more persistent after death or respawning.

We will have more details on additional content in the February 26th update next week. We are excited about the future of Red Dead Online and look forward to sharing lots more in the weeks and months ahead.

Meanwhile, there are chances to earn more XP to rank up ahead of February 26thPlaying in a Posse will bring benefits like earning increased XP in Free Roam Missions and Free Roam Events. Posse up this week to earn twice as much increased XP on these activities, and next week earn 20% more XP across all activities in the Red Dead Online Beta.


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