How will you flag?

[Darkvicar]

Offensive or defensive? 

I can see switching on defensive when fishing or running the butcher gauntlet. But 100% defensive feels to sanitised. I think my choices will be fluid rather than dogmatic.

[Snipe]

I had the same thought as you. I'll be aggressive/offensive flag most of the time, except when I'm testing something like a bug (happens a lot), or fishing perhaps. Or trying to take a picture/movie of something in particular.

I may even stay on aggressive/offensive when I go into town, I've never objected to a little challenge in scoping, angling in, using some care when getting into the more populated areas.

Edited March 22, 2019 by Snipe

[Steven Kreg]

offensive... defensive is for yeller bellies.

[Netnow66]

In free roam, defensive 100% of the time. When I want to shoot 'em up, I'll play the missions or go into one of the many Showdown modes.

I can shoot players in many, many games on the market. There are very few where I can grow a character that can cook, hunt, fish, craft and, hopefully eventually, have a little homestead--while having the option to pull a trigger when I find it appropriate . So I'll come back and take advantage of that (when the changes are implemented).

Edited March 20, 2019 by Netnow66

[Kean_1]

I'll likely opt for Defensive mode most times if not all.  As @Netnow66mentioned, there are already several missions that encourage randoms to challenge me as well as PvP events, player assassinations, daily challenges, etc. that I routinely participate in (some not necessarily as a volunteer) and I'm ok with that.  Besides, there is still the possibility of randoms trying to kill me regardless of my status so it's not as if the threat goes away entirely, but I'm not going to put myself out there as a more willing target because that's simply not what I do (even now).  

I don't know if others noticed but there was something in the explanation of the Hostility system that caught my eye.....  Seems that when someone gets marked as a hostile that everyone else who isn't hostile may be able to attack them without penalty.  .....so those white-hats running around trying to help keep law and order so to speak may have more opportunity an incentive to do so.

[The_Liquor]

I was wondering about that... without re-reading the page, I was thinking it could either be that you become marked as an enemy to the player you attacked, or you could be marked as an enemy to the lobby. If it’s the latter, it could make for some fun cops and robbers play.

[Kean_1]

16 minutes ago, The_Liquor said:

I was wondering about that... without re-reading the page, I was thinking it could either be that you become marked as an enemy to the player you attacked, or you could be marked as an enemy to the lobby. If it’s the latter, it could make for some fun cops and robbers play.

The Newsbot article stated that all players could but that's not what the official statement said.  However, I would agree it's open for interpretation.

[Renascent]

Offensive all the way. Ain't no gain, for me, without the risk. Every time I get my ass kicked I come back stronger/smarter like a true saiyan lol.

[Vaderspupil]

Defensive for me. Most of the time, I'm just not in the mood to deal with the jackasses even though I'm fully capable of doing so.

[Zampen]

Offensive

[DNMNetTech]

Offensive when playing alone or with certain friends, defensive when playing with other friends.

[Dissention]

I'm of the mindset of staying offensive and “letting the chips fall where they may,” adjust when needed. Try both out. 

 

I can already envision the easy work arounds griefers gonna use and large portion of griefers fail on first try.

 How much tax free revenge you going to be allowed?

and you probably still going to wind up with tax/time out probably if you self defense.

Too many questions and I mind my business if they want to interrupt it, I have solutions to that

[VampireKrush]

I like to play on the fence. Let the other people come to me and have a game plan to take them down. I have never been good at running and gunning. 

[HuDawg]

Defensive mode...  Why would I give anyone the option to lock on to me when I can block the auto aim and take less damage till I shoot back?

Why would anyone even use offensive mode as their default setting?  

 

[Azzimovve]

18 hours ago, Vaderspupil said:

Defensive for me. Most of the time, I'm just not in the mood to deal with the jackasses even though I'm fully capable of doing so.

+1 same for me 😉

[Renascent]

I'm reading that some self proclaimed "griefers" think that this new defensive mode is gonna be free aim grief heaven. Because they assume that ONLY lassoing someone will pull them out of defensive mode. They say that Rockstar is on the side of griefers and it'll be that way. Which my brain hurts at the thought of someone being stupid enough to assume that's how it'll be. 

I would like to think that Rockstar is trying to learn and steer clear of the cesspool of bullsh*t that is GTA 5, but my faith isn't that stable.

[The_Liquor]

You won’t be able to lasso someone in defensive mode... a defensive mode player will be kicked into offensive mode. (I’d imagine shooting at people unprovoked might do the same). But at the same time, you cannot do critical damage or recive critical damage while in defensive, so it should limit the ability of those using defensive mode to make suprise sneak attacks. Perhaps a lasso/hogtied followed by a cheap shot, but that is easily thwarted by taking your knife out.

Its yet it to be seen if explosive rounds or other massive damage dealing devices will be nerfed a little in defensive mode, allowing you to survive an initial hit. I honestly can’t even guess at what way they’ll go there. However it shakes out, it definitely doesn’t sound like rockstar is trying to encourage griefing. However, there will always be an @$$ that just has to try everything possible to use the system in place to their purpose of harassing others.

[Renascent]

20 minutes ago, The_Liquor said:

You won’t be able to lasso someone in defensive mode... a defensive mode player will be kicked into offensive mode. (I’d imagine shooting at people unprovoked might do the same). But at the same time, you cannot do critical damage or recive critical damage while in defensive, so it should limit the ability of those using defensive mode to make suprise sneak attacks. Perhaps a lasso/hogtied followed by a cheap shot, but that is easily thwarted by taking your knife out.

Its yet it to be seen if explosive rounds or other massive damage dealing devices will be nerfed a little in defensive mode, allowing you to survive an initial hit. I honestly can’t even guess at what way they’ll go there. However it shakes out, it definitely doesn’t sound like rockstar is trying to encourage griefing. However, there will always be an @$$ that just has to try everything possible to use the system in place to their purpose of harassing others.

Explosive rounds are already not a 100% kill, often it'll stun you but won't kill if you get hit anywhere below the neck. Although I think you can still die from a chest shot, but anywhere else isn't a guarantee kill.

I would definitely hope that shooting at someone unprovoked would pull them out of defensive mode. If not then that's severely broken and every asshole around would be running around in defensive mode surprise attacking people. I'd also still think that using dynamite/dynamite arrows and fire bottles would still insta kill someone.

Along with, would doing a stranger mission put you in offensive mode or stay in? The latter, again, would be severely broken.

Edited March 21, 2019 by Renascent

[Born Homicidal]

defensive. its the only way to have people basically use Free Aim. they wouldnt be able to ride their horse 100 mph and instantly headshot me. they want to attack me fine, just make sure youre not to used to aimbot or ill be able to defend myself better. the other perks from defensive are stupid though. if someone actually headshots me with pure skill then i should die. lassoing adds a huge factor in the game, not allowing it is beyond stupid. this feature will definitely be abused lol.

[James Hickok_1837]

Although i dont like the idea of this defensive / ofensive modes. 

I dont have problems with players trying to kill me i kill em back. I like the thrill when entering  towns and areas with  a lot of players so ofensive for me. I like the threat of being shot in the head while skinning an animal etc. It makes the game more real for me. It's the wild west....

[The_Liquor]

59 minutes ago, Renascent said:

Along with, would doing a stranger mission put you in offensive mode or stay in? The latter, again, would be severely broken.

I can’t recall the exact wording, but they mentioned these systems are for free roam and they mentioned that events such as stranger missions wouldn’t count towards the penalty systems, so I imagine stranger missions would temporarily kick you out of your free roam mode and into mission mode. But I’m just guessing 

33 minutes ago, James Hickok_1837 said:

 

[Kean_1]

Seems there's a little confusion as to what these new mechanics will and won't allow.  I am reposting the exact details that were provided by R*.  While perhaps not clearly defined in regard to some concerns, I think it will help clear up others:

Quote

The Hostility System
The Hostility system builds upon the anti-griefing measures added in February with smarter and responsive features that keep players immersed in the world through confrontations and PvP action. For example, players who have damage inflicted on them by attackers will be able to defend themselves without incurring Bounties or Hostility increases. Previously, the attacker and target would be marked as an enemy - now the attacker who inflicts damage will be immediately marked as an enemy to the attacked player; players will not accumulate Hostility increases for killing other players who are marked as an enemy.

Hostility increases will not apply within structured events such as Free Roam Events, Free Roam Missions, Showdowns and Races. Engaging in player vs player behaviors related to Free Roam missions will not incur Hostility increases, however attacking other players not engaged in the activity will cause your Hostility level to rise.  

The Hostility System has many more functions and will help balance experiences for all play styles.

 

Offensive and Defensive Playing Style Options
Some players just want to immerse themselves in the world, riding, hunting and fishing in peace. We want to offer these options while allowing players to coexist comfortably alongside other players in the world. The Offensive Playing Style is much like the current Free Roam play as we know it while the Defensive Playing Style is a more evolved version of the Passive Mode concept, designed for Red Dead Online’s more grounded experience - giving players more flexibility in how they interact with the world and at the same time de-emphasizing hostile contact with other players. 

Choosing the Defensive option introduces balances that complement a less confrontational approach: Defensive players cannot be lassoed by rival players - although if a Defensive player lassos another player, they’ll be removed from Defensive play and incur a significant Hostility level increase. Defensive players will trade the ability to lock on to other players for the benefit that other players will not be able to lock on to Defensive players. 

While Defensive players can target and be targeted in free aim, they cannot deliver or receive critical hits – if a Defensive player is attacked with a headshot, they’ll survive and be able to defend themselves via the Hostility system or escape all while remaining Defensive. There are several other adjustments that come with the Defensive Playing Style, all of which are built to work seamlessly with systems like Hostility and Bounties to keep all players rooted in the world.

They say there are more aspects to these new system that we still don;t know about so we'll just have to stay tuned.

On another note, this other announcement caught my eye and may give us a clue as to when the next update will be:

Quote

See below for a schedule of what’s still to come to the Red Dead Online Beta before our next full update:

Today - Free Roam Event: Fishing Challenge 
March 26 - Target Races and additional PS4 early access content: Open Target Races
April 2 - Showdown Mode: Up In Smoke
April 9 - Showdown Mode: Plunder

It says what's to come before the next full update and the last event on the schedule is April 9th.  Updates seem to come every Tuesday lately and everything on this schedule is on that day of the week. 

If I was a betting man, I'd say April 16th is when we will see this update.

[Zampen]

Well they said late spring so i would bet on may

Edit

Later this spring but ill still bet on may

Edited March 21, 2019 by Zampen

[The_Liquor]

It’ll likely be introduced in the next big title update if they’re announcing it now. There will be a big list of all the stuff they’re adding, we’ll all get excited over the new game modes and missions, then we’ll get a few things with ‘more to come’....

[Born Homicidal]

52 minutes ago, Kean_1 said:

See below for a schedule of what’s still to come to the Red Dead Online Beta before our next full update:

Today - Free Roam Event: Fishing Challenge 
March 26 - Target Races and additional PS4 early access content: Open Target Races
April 2 - Showdown Mode: Up In Smoke
April 9 - Showdown Mode: Plunder 

This is truly the worst.
They are really focusing on PvP modes that literally half of the community don't want/care about.

 

I hope after these game modes they go full force into Free Roam. Where the game actually matters and stands out from the rest of the PvP games out there.

 

[Harlock1796]

52 minutes ago, Born Homicidal said:

This is truly the worst.
They are really focusing on PvP modes that literally half of the community don't want/care about.

 

I hope after these game modes they go full force into Free Roam. Where the game actually matters and stands out from the rest of the PvP games out there.

 

The point is that these sorts of updates are incredibly easy to implement - the game design will have an inbuilt PvP mode creator.  the work experience kid can knock up a new PvP mode in his lunch hour.

My son plays Overwatch, and that game has a game mode editior built in - any player can create their own PvP game mode in about 10 minutes by selecting a series of parameters from a tick box list.

Has anyome else noticed that the PvP game modes now (if they didn't before) show who created them? - currently R* for all of them, but mark my words, player designed showdowns are part of the RDO future.

[The_Liquor]

yeah, content creator will definitely come down... that being said, I found abot 95% of GTAs user created content was garbage. It’s one thing to whip something together, it’s another to make something well thought out and good.

[danjou]

neither. slippery b does the job for me. majority of casual aimers get out of my way once the auto aim is not an option.

[Traks1]

I'll see how it works in practice first. I was o.k (ish) with the first implementation of the map as I liked being able to see where everyone was at any time and being able to assess what they were all likely up to and plan my session accordingly. This iteration I have also gotten to be ok with. It's still easy to avoid the obvious hazards although a little more tense traveling the map not knowing quite what's around the corner. More exciting, one might even say.

Foolish pride, given my inability to hit a barn door at ten paces, probably means I will leave as is as I have no intention of running/riding/wasting valuable game time trying to escape from scumbag bushwhackers which is the same reason I can't be bothered to "parlay" with said blots on the landscape 😒. "Eject disc" works just fine for me for as an anti griefer system for anything I don't deem "fun" in any particular game and that includes being in the virtual company of destructive anti-social nobodies for a moment longer than I absolutely have to 😁

Edited March 24, 2019 by Traks1

[HuDawg]

On ‎3‎/‎21‎/‎2019 at 12:35 PM, Born Homicidal said:

They are really focusing on PvP modes that literally half of the community don't want/care about

Problem is the way R* has set up this pvp game modes.  Its extremely dumbed down, which killed any sort of pvp communities from actually being born.  So its more then half no caring about it.  The bulk of its player base just doesn't care.

If R* added actual hosted pvp lobbies.  And had lobby options for the host to toggle.  And The choice to play between auto aim or free aim.     (like GTA 4, RD, GTA V) .  There would actually be PVP communities and actual competition.  And players would care.