SimonTemplar

Glad that you found it but I have to say I think they have done something to this card, it isn't half as powerful as it used to be. I'd recommend Never Without One, as well as the one which makes dual wielded pistols more powerful (Gunslinger's Choice, I think?). Both have got me out of a hole many times. Slippery B just gets me dead.

Love me a morning tail coat. Will buy all the colours before it is gone!

Big clip, fast rate of fire, makes a fantastic noise when you fire it. If player are ganging up on me it can make the difference.

Yes agreed - I had three players coming at me last night and the Springfield nearly got me in bother. Lost my hat between dropping the second and going for the third, waiting on the reload. I love it, but had to switch back to the Evans repeater for multiple players. Otherwise I'm now a Springfield man through and through.

Might also be Xbox patches working better than PS4 ones. I like the look of Stranded Deep, but am already heavily into RDR and Elite: Dangerous. Given I already have a wife (and four kids), two mistresses are all I can handle!

I agree with you on gold and the broken economy (I'm at 300 gold bars, now, and I waste it left right and centre on weapons, clothes, horses etc) but the game really is much more stable, it's worth coming back. Even allowing for my Camp glitch yesterday, that came after I had fulfilled the two dailies surrounding donations to Cripps. I also managed a resupply mission before logging off last night. Got me to level 185. Then had a fun shootout with a two man posse at Emerald Ranch and called it a night. Was like the good old days!

No problemo. Hopefully I can get a Trade Route invite when I am on later!

I have thought the same. I used to do Trade Route two or three times a week, it kept my trader role going while there were no animals. Now there are lots of animals but no Trade Route. My Camp will spawn only intermittently (risked a resupply mission last night and sure enough my Camp was gone when I returned with the goods, more time wasted) so maybe all aspects of Trader are struggling at the moment. Lots of animals, though! I deliberately did my hunting dailies first as knew it would be unstable. I do miss Trade Route, always enjoyed that one.

I love the game, really love it, now level 184 and play every day. Has been almost glitch-free for me for two months. But this past week has bee different - I haven't managed to get my Camp to spawn since middle of last week. Everythig else works fine but the Camp is dead. I couldn't even do the 'eat camp stew' daily as it won't spawn. SOmetimes it appears on the map, but isn't there in reality. Everything has worked great, though, so I have just focussed on the rest of the game. I feel your pain though. Do stick with it, it's amazing.

Welcome back!! Glad you said that, as I have thought the same thing. I recently switched back to Springfield from Bolt Action as I don't find the Bolt as effective, suddenly. Massively prefer the Springfield now. And yes, being set upon by a posse of single digit level players (or the odd optimistic solo) when visiting a saloon or butcher or some such is good fun. See you out on the range.

I'll second the Dead Eye thing - I literally never use it in online and I win more fights than I lose, including against multiple enemies. No substitute for practice and putting in the work.

First up, I wouldn't say that being killed a few times makes you a 'rubbish player'. I am level 183, have done a lot more PVP recently, but two days ago I had a scuffle with a level 18. I killed him twice, he killed me once. There are lots of variables on the day. Others have made some great points, but I'd add that your general health and stamina are also relevant. I swim and fish a lot and my general health and stamina are wildly better than they were when I started out. In a pitched battle both of those stats can really help. Lower level players seem to love choking (!), I'm often in Valentine and one will come up behind me and get me in a headlock. A couple of months ago I'd die, whereas now I can almost always break free and reverse it, or have time to draw a weapon despite being hurt. That's as much down to greater health stats as anything else. In terms of loadout, I carry twin navies, an Evan repeater and a Rolling Block when it comes to PVP. I switch my weapons to that loadout specifically for it (otherwise I generally have twin volcanics (working on the 1000 kills achievement), a varmint rifle and a Springfield (both for hunting). I also swap out my ability cards - Never Without One III, and then also the one which favours twin handguns. At level III it's really powerful. Doesn't feel that authentic, but if they're griefing, they're getting it. I also carry a cleaver as it's great in close and you can chuck it (and there's an achievement). If someone is hurting me up close, as @Vendetta said, I favour opening up some distance. Then take a ridge or high ground and pick them off with the Rolling Block. @Vendetta and I dress alike and play alike! But really it is just practice, practice, practice. I'm far from the best but can hold my own against most and don't consider myself a high end gamer. I love the game for hunting, fishing and general moseying around. PVP can be fun but isn't my aim but it is possible to get much better at it. A little while back I thought of myself as cannon fodder, but it does improve. o7

The $200 posse forming fee is a one-off, you reform for free on future sessions. Sorry I don't know whether the name can be changed for free but as @Tom Dooley says it looks free, just haven't tried!

Love a Springfield. Springfield and Rolling Block are my two favourites. If someone griefs me then I switch to an Evans and twin navies, but out on my own there's something about a single shot rifle.

I'm level 181 with 201 gold bars. I currently only have $200 in cash as I am trying to upgrade all the ability cards to level 3. I'm about two thirds of the way there, and every time I get the money I upgrade one straight away. Most cash I have had in one go was around $3k as I keep spending it on upgrades. Once I'm done with the cards I'll be rich. I still see point in playing as it's fun with posses, and I enjoy even just doing the daily challenges on my own. It's the cowboy life for me. Trading, moonshining, collecting in the margins, resupply missions for Cripps and then bounty hunting with a posse keeps it plenty rewarding for me. If I fancy a change I either move to an entirely different environment on the map or try some of the online modes. Or just hang around in Valentine until someone wants a melee!!

I don't know what level you are, but I assume pretty low as you only got the game a few days ago. As you will have seen, many of the weapons and ammo types are locked behind level firewalls. I'm level 180, and haven't fired a regular bullet in months, it's all express or high velocity for me (or explosive if another player is griefing me). Plus if you swim you gain stamina and if you fish (?!) you gain health. I have done a lot of both, so my character could run longer than yours and has a greater reserve of health (and dead eye, which improves as you use it). Also, some of the level three ability cards are pretty powerful. For instance, I use Never Without One level 3 and it means that I am immune to a first head shot. Another level 3 card increases the damage I do with dual wield handguns. Again, I only use that on griefers (I single wield for realism the rest of the time, I much prefer authentic). I don't like ability cards, but use them as I have to as others have them and there are griefers around. The other day a level 7 player had me dead to rights - he was behind me, shot me in the head with a carbine repeater. Actually all that happened was he shot off my hat - I turned around, twin navy revolvers, he was dead. Kept chasing me for a while, I killed him four times and he got the message. So a level disparity involving a low level player gives a big equipment disparity, which affects range, damage and accuracy depending on loadout. I assume that you have customised your weapons in the gunsmith, but if not then your guns won't be as accurate or have the range of the same gun wielded by a higher level player. Card upgrades are expensive ($50 or so to buy, $350 for first upgrade and then IIRC $500 for the final? It's of that order, anyway) so focus on four you like the look of and try the Collector role would be my advice - good money and great xp for levelling up). Also, when killed by someone that enables you to parlay - neither of you can hurt the other for ten minutes, which gives you times to high tail it out of there. And being chased across the map can be exciting (except the griefer will have a fast horse with great stamina). Defensive mode also makes it harder for others to lock on to you and they have to be closer to see you (something to think about, although I rarely use it as it doesn't feel realistic to me. might help you through the early days, though). Anyway, that was very long and dense (didn't even use paragraphs, sorry, rushing as teaching my daughter maths in a moment!) but has some initial thoughts. I'm far from the most knowledgeable on here but it's a star. Basically as you level up you can gain better kit, better health and better cards. I felt the same early on - now I'm always competitive and often on the winning side unless there's a passing elite. It's a great game - give it time to punch through the learning curve!

Really sorry to read this. The online world is increasingly bruising, sadly. I am a member of a few hobby groups online, both direct and via Facebook, and I find myself blocking a number of people increasingly, simply as I don't want to see the negativity in my life. I'm in groups from old cars to boxing to trading to film to history to politics and get it on all of them. It never ceases to amaze me how many people will follow a group/individual/hobby just to tell other how much they suck or are doing it wrong or should be supporting someone/something else - when the target of that ire is perfectly happy and just wants to enjoy what they enjoy. I'm ex-law enforcement and am now a currency trader, via property developing as a transition between the two (while we had kids) and used to get abuse from members of the public because I parked or was noisy to inconvenience them (despite literally running after an armed crook at the time) and these days I get flamed for currency trading (from the 'it's a scam' lobby - despite the fact that I don't coach or sell anything, I just trade my own money and chat on the odd forum). People love to knock and be negative (again not aimed at @Enoch, but rather at the underlying mood online which can lead to a general feeling which can become pervasive and lead to straws breaking camels' backs), particularly recently, and it is sad. But please don't take it as a wider thing - the sad thing is, unhappy people shout more loudly than happy people. To take my trading example, if a person loses their shirt, they are quite likely to go on an internet group and vent about how it's all fixed. If 100 people make a bit of money, most of them just bank it and carry on happy. Human nature. Sorry if that sounds preachy or obvious - it was not intended to be either, and this post wasn't as long in my head!! So to get back to point: I love that you post these updates, I find it very helpful and I like knowing what things I can go for at a certain time - I have a mental shopping list, but am not careful with my in-game money (who needs so many horses/saddles/outfits/weapons/kit? I apparently do) so it's good to know when to sweep in and grab a deal (for instance, I do buy maps). My only negative thought when I read your post? Two days go I bought the Moonshiner skin for both of my sawn-off shotguns (using them a lot this week as about to get my shotgun buckle for 1000 kills, and I like to use them when moonshining), and now apparently had I waited 48 hours I'd have had a few hundred dollars saved (they cost me $900). But that isn't a complaint, I gave a rueful laugh. I love this game, really love it, and can't see why I would ever stop playing it. I change outfits and weapons loadout for each of the roles, change my horse, too, so it feels fresh and I get to do a bit of roleplay. I'm in five persistent posses and have made some proper friends through the game. My wife got me an Xbox keyboard and a good headset for my birthday last week (46 - not as exciting as the previous day, when our youngest son turned 11 and got F1 on the Xbox and his face lit up) and now I feel fully immersed, rain has become my new favourite weather as the sound is incredible. Also can hear the direction of approach of both bullets and horses, which is a massive tactical help. I hit level 180 last night, was chuffed with the milestone but also the treasure map. When I get a new one, I do it immediately, gives me variety. I do at least three dailies a day, often many more. I collect in the margins, using maps for the collector dailies. I moonshine every time I have a complete load (small gripe - it's the glitchiest part of the game for me, but stable enough that I do 3-4 runs a week), Trader is now completely stable for me, really loving it, and I often do bounty hunting with the posses. I don't often get griefers, but when I do I give as good as I get and often message them which leaders to fun banter. Had a half hour series of battles with different weapons around Valentine at the weekend, with a posse of three low levels I didn't know but we all had a blast. I also play Elite:Dangerous, absolutely love it, I play Gears Of War (working through the series, at #3 at the moment) with one of my sons, Fifa 19 with another son and now F1 2019 with my third son. With my daughter I play Mario Kart. I have been gaming since the 1980s and love it. RDR2 is my favourite game of all time, and when they finally switch off the servers one (sad) day I will be among the last to lead my horse into the stable and pack up my camp. So @Kean_1 please know that I love this site, love the game and massively appreciate these posts you put up (as well as your wider moments of advice and input on the various threads). Sorry to have waffled on so badly. I'm a gabbler, me. Stick me on 'ignore' with impunity if I'm boring as heck!! ST

Yes agreed - I find that telling the band to play some music usually gets Marcel back to work. That man likes his music!

Personally I like this stuff a lot, like where you're going with it. In particular, I don't like that if I arrive in a town and see players randomly murdering people I actually get in trouble if I defend the locals. And yes, pressing charges needs to have some impact as at the moment people ignore it as it literally doesn't matter. But yes, I really like your longer opening post and your last one and would absolutely love to see some progress towards this sort of gameplay.

Yes but I don't know whether they get the animal carcasses, sorry.

If you have the metal detector, I find I make a fortune with collecting (I sell excess once I have seven of something and seem to make money every day), but for me the bigger thing is the xp boost that collecting gives you. There's so much xp on offer - 100-300 per item collected, in my experience, and then four figures when selling a collection - that I ranked up super fast with collector. That unlocked all the weapons and toys, and gives lots of treasure maps. So I'd start collector. I find I can do collecting in the margins of other things. I found bounty hunting not lucrative enough (have plenty of gold from dailies), and gets a bit samey, so I just do that when with a posse. I'm a trader who collects in the margins of hunting with a regular batch of moonshine brewing and I feel like an Old West millionaire, I could buy that oilfield outside Valentine if it came to the open market!

There seem to be a lot of fighty new players on at the moment. It's usually fun (had a good cleaver vs. cattleman fight in Valentine with one the other night) but as you say it's a bit rich when their high-powered buddies decide to take things personally. Pays to have a good horse handy!

Interesting, and I had similar the same day. Didn't catch the guy's name, but I was at the butcher in Valentine. As I left, a dude was standing in the street blasting away at people. I drew my repeater and fired at him and couldn't hit him, let alone drop him. I ducked into cover, gave it a go for a while but couldn't even clip him. He left (perhaps for Strawberry!) and I let him go as he clearly had some off-table support going on. As you say, he must have hacked something. Haven't seen that before. We're both on Xbox One so does seem possible that it's the same chap. Fascinating about your new horse - I got no such reward for my brief efforts on behalf of the good people of Valentine. Always knew that Strawberry is a cut above!

Haven't heard that one before, I guess I'd report it then keep taking the money until they fix it? The only alternative would be not to do posse deliveries, which is a big chunk of gameplay to miss out on and surely not what Rockstar would want. I'd think if you report it you'd be Teflon. I had an error in the same vein earlier this week - two of us in a posse, I wasn't the leader. The leader did a long delivery run, I ran escort. Bit light, just two of us, but we got there okay. Took ages, was miles away. He got his $625 and decent xp. I got $48 and 100xp. Felt a bit light to me, so maybe also a glitch. I don't need the money but it didn't seem like much of a share of the spoils, am sure I have had more cash and xp previously, and that with larger posses.

There's a card which ups the damage when dual wielding handguns. Depends on whether you like dual wielding (I generally don't, as it breaks realism for me), but if someone is griefing me then I dual wield (generally a Navy and a Cattleman) and it's like having a man-portable gatling gun. Sorry can't remember the name of the card.