Expenses of Customization of Weaponry in Red Dead Online

[DylBandit]

This topic was discussed on another thread regarding the expenses of customizing your weapon so I thought I'd make a thread about this. So, if you haven't customized any weapons yet, you may soon to find them very expensive. When customizing your weapon in Red Dead Online, just to change basic parts on the gun can cost anywhere between 1-3 gold pieces per part, which adds up to an average of around 10-15 gold per gun depending on how much customization you've put into your weapon. 

Long story short, I was trying to upgrade all my weapons to "Blackened Steel" to match my black outfit that is applied to my character, so I made the decision of blacking out all of my guns the best I could to make it look a lot better. So, I went to the gun shop and started to change the colors of the guns. I looked at the final price of gold bars it would take to actually complete a single weapon and my mind was blown on how much gold you actually need to have to customize your own guns.

I don't know about you, but you will quickly find this adds up in gold bars very quickly that its not even funny. On average, a pack of 25 gold bars costs around $10 without the $5 sale they have going on now. So if you think about it, it's about $10 just to customize two weapons, and there is a lot of weapons in the game. Yes, you can earn gold by working for it, but just imagine saving up 45 gold bars grinding it out, and you can easily dump all of your gold into a few guns. 

Honestly, I think R* should lower the costs in gold to customize your weapons and maybe charge more gold for bigger things such as property, elite horses and stuff like that, not blow all your gold just to customize your entire weapon wheel. If you think that guns should be lowered in costs to customize regarding gold prices for each part, please don't hesitate to share your thoughts and honest opinions!

[Moosh89]

I definitely DID NOT create this character last month, not sure why my stats page says that. Ahhh wait I know why it says that - Rockstar Support had me unlink and relink my PSN from my Social Club on that date because it was supposed to fix my issue with the Companion App. (It did not!)

 

Customizing is ridiculously expensive. I'm rank 49 and the amount of gold I've earned vs. spent is staggering. I did take advantage of the promotions from the start as well as the one-time deal of 25 Gold bars for $6.99 CAD. I try to be stingey with Gold and only really use it for Gold only purchases, but I did cave and use it for my stable stall #5 (I was eager to unlock it instead of saving up $750 RDO$).

I splurged on my 2 LeMats and my Bolt Action. One LeMat cost me 30 Gold bars alone!. Way at the beginning of RDO I sweated when I spent 14 bars on my Double Action Revolver.

The metal colours is where they get you. One area alone in Gold is 5 bars. Each gun has around 5 separate areas to imbue with colours

Edited June 1, 2019 by Moosh89

[DylBandit]

38 minutes ago, Moosh89 said:

I definitely DID NOT create this character last month, not sure why my stats page says that. Ahhh wait I know why it says that - Rockstar Support had me unlink and relink my PSN from my Social Club on that date because it was supposed to fix my issue with the Companion App. (It did not!)

 

Customizing is ridiculously expensive. I'm rank 49 and the amount of gold I've earned vs. spent is staggering. I did take advantage of the promotions from the start as well as the one-time deal of 25 Gold bars for $6.99 CAD. I try to be stingey with Gold and only really use it for Gold only purchases, but I did cave and use it for my stable stall #5 (I was eager to unlock it instead of saving up $750 RDO$).

I splurged on my 2 LeMats and my Bolt Action. One LeMat cost me 30 Gold bars alone!. Way at the beginning of RDO I sweated when I spent 14 bars on my Double Action Revolver.

The metal colours is where they get you. One area alone in Gold is 5 bars. Each gun has around 5 separate areas to imbue with colours

Yeah, I had like 50 gold bars yesterday and blew it all last night because I wanted my guns black. I knew it was going to be expensive, but it had to be done. I'm just kind of angry that it costs so much in gold for the metals. I mean, it's nice to change the gun, but we are talking straight up gold bars for these little parts which is ridiculous. 

[lumper]

1 hour ago, DylBandit said:

This topic was discussed on another thread regarding the expenses of customizing your weapon so I thought I'd make a thread about this. So, if you haven't customized any weapons yet, you may soon to find them very expensive. When customizing your weapon in Red Dead Online, just to change basic parts on the gun can cost anywhere between 1-3 gold pieces per part, which adds up to an average of around 10-15 gold per gun depending on how much customization you've put into your weapon. 

Long story short, I was trying to upgrade all my weapons to "Blackened Steel" to match my black outfit that is applied to my character, so I made the decision of blacking out all of my guns the best I could to make it look a lot better. So, I went to the gun shop and started to change the colors of the guns. I looked at the final price of gold bars it would take to actually complete a single weapon and my mind was blown on how much gold you actually need to have to customize your own guns.

I don't know about you, but you will quickly find this adds up in gold bars very quickly that its not even funny. On average, a pack of 25 gold bars costs around $10 without the $5 sale they have going on now. So if you think about it, it's about $10 just to customize two weapons, and there is a lot of weapons in the game. Yes, you can earn gold by working for it, but just imagine saving up 45 gold bars grinding it out, and you can easily dump all of your gold into a few guns. 

Honestly, I think R* should lower the costs in gold to customize your weapons and maybe charge more gold for bigger things such as property, elite horses and stuff like that, not blow all your gold just to customize your entire weapon wheel. If you think that guns should be lowered in costs to customize regarding gold prices for each part, please don't hesitate to share your thoughts and honest opinions!

At first I thought you meant modify your weapons like upgrade them to make them more effective, barrel length, rifling, etc.. 

But I see you mean cosmetic upgrades, for looks, I didnt get that at first.

I dont think Rockstar is going to lower gold prices or lower what upgrades cost either, they give away a lot of gold for various promotions and it is easy enough to earn in several ways.

What I did was every time I got 5 gold bars I went to the gunsmith and added some gold to my guns.

I only use gold for that purpose, nothing else, so it is fun watching it accumulate then going to upgrade my weapons.

I liked doing the carbine and double barrel shotgun, so when I play name your weapon my weapons are upgraded and modified compared to the stock weapons you otherwise get.

I guess all you can do is not worry about upgrading the metals all at once, just do it when you can, in time you will get them all the way you want them, it is kind of rewarding to earn it slowly as you go, so later when they are all done you feel a sense of accomplishment, at least I do.

 

Edited June 2, 2019 by lumper

[DylBandit]

16 minutes ago, lumper said:

But I was confused when I read the first part of your post, I dont know why you would spend gold on an upgrade

You must of misunderstood what I said regarding the post but that's okay let me just clarify once more. 

I wanted to customize my guns to "blackened steel" to match my characters outfit and to do so, changing the metals and overall look of the gun requires gold. Attachments are a different story, I'm talking about the customization of the gun such as Metals, Varnishes, etc because I was trying to black out all of my guns. I wasn't referring to the actual attachments and components of the gun such as Barrel, Sights, Scope, Stocks and Wraps, because those don't change the color of the actual gun. You mentioned you only used gold for metals for changing the color and such, well you can only use gold on metals, and the overall style of the gun, I didn't see an option to use cash, otherwise I would have done so.

I know when to spend gold, and when not to if NOT necessary. 

[Kean_1]

I realized R* would lock some items behind GBs but they also said these would be essentially all cosmetic and they've stuck with that promise.

Personally, I have no problem with it especially since we can still earn gold within the game and we are also gifted GBs from time to time.  We are also able to make more through special events / promotions.  In some games, items can be locked and only available via MTXs with no opportunity to earn the special currency required through gameplay.

Even with how hard it can be to grind for, at least we can still collect GBs in this game rather than only having the option to buy them via MTX.  I'm just happy that a most of the aesthetic items are still available using in-game currency and many of those locked behind GBs are still relatively within reach simply by playing the game, taking advantage of promos, gifts, etc.

[Moosh89]

I wish could buy more than 1 longarm and more than 2 handguns of the same weapon. I'd be OK with the expense of metals then if I could have different looks on different guns depending on my mood/outfit. I guess this is where a gunsafe/rifle cabinet would come in handy.

[DylBandit]

1 hour ago, Kean_1 said:

I realized R* would lock some items behind GBs but they also said these would be essentially all cosmetic and they've stuck with that promise.

Personally, I have no problem with it especially since we can still earn gold within the game and we are also gifted GBs from time to time.  We are also able to make more through special events / promotions.  In some games, items can be locked and only available via MTXs with no opportunity to earn the special currency required through gameplay.

Even with how hard it can be to grind for, at least we can still collect GBs in this game rather than only having the option to buy them via MTX.  I'm just happy that a most of the aesthetic items are still available using in-game currency and many of those locked behind GBs are still relatively within reach simply by playing the game, taking advantage of promos, gifts, etc.

Yeah, but although they give us gold bars for promotions here and there, it still kind of locks content within the game itself. This was a big problem with Grand Theft Auto Online, the fact that yeah, you can earn your own cash, but the prices are absolutely ridiculous, almost not even worth grinding for and the time, unless you did money making glitches. Not everyone has the time to play and grind it out for hundreds of hours a week, which is kind of a bummer for those who are just to busy to grind and make the funds to buy items.

If someone doesn't have time to play the game all the time, they have to pay out of pocket to enjoy the items in the game? There is a MASSIVE controversy about this in general, and that's why people weren't happy with how Grand Theft Auto Online turned on. Money was hard to make, items were to expensive. You either had no life grinding your life out on a video game to get your items, or fork over the cash for in game currency. 

[deadairface]

yes the customization prices are ridiculous but Rockstar obviously knows we’re suckers for it.

in single player I did what a lot of people do: made my revolver all gold with a pearl handle.  Online, I went to do the same and was shocked to see that every piece of the gun cost 5 gold bars for a total of 35 gold bars (iirc) on top of the price of the gun.  Even 5 gold bars to make the trigger gold lol, all for purely cosmetic changes.

A few things I did to save money:

1. the only parts of the gun visible while playing are the varnish, the barrel, the frame, and the lever or whatever it’s called on a repeater.  None of the other parts are really visible while playing so don’t waste money on them.  The bolt, trigger, etc. are irrelevant.

2. the metal prices vary.  For example, blackened steel cost 2 gold bars for each part while blued steel costs 1 gold bar, but in game, they are virtually indistinguishable.  In fact, in game the blued steel looks more black than the blackened steel.  So if you like black steel, use blue instead for half the price.

3. check the prices on cash vs steel.  I think a gold bar is worth about $20.  Often the cash price will be, for example, $65 dollars while the gold price will be 4 bars (same with clothes).  It seems a trivial amount, but if your customizing all your guns or buying a lot of clothes it really adds up.

Just doing these things will make a surprisingly big difference early in the game when money is scarce.

 

[lumper]

5 hours ago, DylBandit said:

You must of misunderstood what I said regarding the post but that's okay let me just clarify once more. 

I wanted to customize my guns to "blackened steel" to match my characters outfit and to do so, changing the metals and overall look of the gun requires gold. Attachments are a different story, I'm talking about the customization of the gun such as Metals, Varnishes, etc because I was trying to black out all of my guns. I wasn't referring to the actual attachments and components of the gun such as Barrel, Sights, Scope, Stocks and Wraps, because those don't change the color of the actual gun. You mentioned you only used gold for metals for changing the color and such, well you can only use gold on metals, and the overall style of the gun, I didn't see an option to use cash, otherwise I would have done so.

I know when to spend gold, and when not to if NOT necessary. 

I did misunderstand the first time yes.

I know the upgrades cost gold only, that was what I was saying I do with my gold.

When I read the fist part of your post, I thought by upgrades you meant actual upgrades, not cosmetics, but I understand now.

Anyway I guess all you can do is what I have been doing, and as you get gold go to the gunsmith and keep upgrading them to the color you like.

At least blacking them out is alot cheaper than making them gold.

Mine look amazing.

You cant use cash sadly, but this gives me a reason to care about earning gold.

IT takes time like that depending on what you are doing, mine are basically 5 gold bars for every upgrade, so some weapons cost me 20 gold bars to change the look of, lol, but to me they look awesome, I made a custom outfit, a poncho, a sombreo, bandito or concho pants, etc.. the whole outfit is earth tones, white and browns, and my gloves match, my poncho matches my shirt, matches my pants, etc.. and they have gold accents, so woith my gold accents on my guns, barrels, etc.. it looks fantastic, Ill have to get a pic up actually now that I am saying it.

I made a black and red outfit that I love and then I made this poncho outfit that is very different but I love it just as much even though it is very different, my guns look amazing with any outfit though, Pearl handles on my Lamats and black cylinders, then every other part gold, looks awesome with any outfit.

 

Edited June 2, 2019 by lumper

[Harlock1796]

8 hours ago, Kean_1 said:

I realized R* would lock some items behind GBs but they also said these would be essentially all cosmetic and they've stuck with that promise.

Personally, I have no problem with it especially since we can still earn gold within the game and we are also gifted GBs from time to time.  We are also able to make more through special events / promotions.  In some games, items can be locked and only available via MTXs with no opportunity to earn the special currency required through gameplay.

Even with how hard it can be to grind for, at least we can still collect GBs in this game rather than only having the option to buy them via MTX.  I'm just happy that a most of the aesthetic items are still available using in-game currency and many of those locked behind GBs are still relatively within reach simply by playing the game, taking advantage of promos, gifts, etc.

This, and this

 

6 hours ago, deadairface said:

A few things I did to save money:

1. the only parts of the gun visible while playing are the varnish, the barrel, the frame, and the lever or whatever it’s called on a repeater.  None of the other parts are really visible while playing so don’t waste money on them.  The bolt, trigger, etc. are irrelevant.

2. the metal prices vary.  For example, blackened steel cost 2 gold bars for each part while blued steel costs 1 gold bar, but in game, they are virtually indistinguishable.  In fact, in game the blued steel looks more black than the blackened steel.  So if you like black steel, use blue instead for half the price.

3. check the prices on cash vs steel.  I think a gold bar is worth about $20.  Often the cash price will be, for example, $65 dollars while the gold price will be 4 bars (same with clothes).  It seems a trivial amount, but if your customizing all your guns or buying a lot of clothes it really adds up.

Just doing these things will make a surprisingly big difference early in the game when money is scarce.

 

I have two Lemats.

One is all black (blue, in fact) with black wood grip.

The other is all "silver" with a pearl grip. However, for now I have left it the steel it came in. I'm not convinced that spending 18 gold to go from a silvery metal to a very slightly more silvery metal is the best use of my resources. 

If it cost 2 gold bars, I'd probably do it.

[DylBandit]

3 hours ago, Harlock1796 said:

This, and this

 

I have two Lemats.

One is all black (blue, in fact) with black wood grip.

The other is all "silver" with a pearl grip. However, for now I have left it the steel it came in. I'm not convinced that spending 18 gold to go from a silvery metal to a very slightly more silvery metal is the best use of my resources. 

If it cost 2 gold bars, I'd probably do it.

Speaking of changing colors of your weapons... I want a black bow

a black bow with fire arrows would be amazing!! 

 

[HuDawg]

IMO all things should be be able to be purchased for either gold or money.  This 'GOLD" only BS is simply R* showing their greed.

[Moosh89]

15 hours ago, deadairface said:

2. the metal prices vary.  For example, blackened steel cost 2 gold bars for each part while blued steel costs 1 gold bar, but in game, they are virtually indistinguishable.  In fact, in game the blued steel looks more black than the blackened steel.  So if you like black steel, use blue instead for half the price.

I'm so glad you mentioned this, as I was certain I noticed that Blued Steel looked more black than Blackened Steel on some guns, whereas Blackened Steel almost looks more brownish. Definitely going to experiment with this more now.

By the way, does anybody else think that we should be able to keep certain tints on areas we've previously purchased if we decide to switch and then revert back? Example: I buy Silver areas throughout my revolver with Ivory grips, but then I decide to splurge on Gold and Ebony grips. I decide Gold is a bit too gaudy for my current look so I revert back to my already purchased Silver, instead of paying 3 gold bars x5 again. Let's also assume I paid real money for these gold bars, just to prove a point.

[The_Liquor]

2 hours ago, HuDawg said:

IMO all things should be be able to be purchased for either gold or money.  This 'GOLD" only BS is simply R* showing their greed.

Honestly, I think if they didn’t show some level of ‘greed’ and online had no way to generate additional revenue, then development would stop and the game would have a pretty limited lifespan. If locking certain, mostly cosmetic extras behind gold accomplishes this and the game keeps developing, i’m happy. Especially since you can actually earn gold in gameplay. People always talk about the ‘greed’ in these games but never seem to realize that these companies exist to make money. Maybe Rockstar could come up with a less greedy system, I don’t know. But I find it much preferable to a system where you have to spend real money to buy important things, like a new gun. Or even pay a monthly subscription just to be able to log into your account...

14 minutes ago, Moosh89 said:

I'm so glad you mentioned this, as I was certain I noticed that Blued Steel looked more black than Blackened Steel on some guns, whereas Blackened Steel almost looks more brownish. Definitely going to experiment with this more now.

By the way, does anybody else think that we should be able to keep certain tints on areas we've previously purchased if we decide to switch and then revert back? Example: I buy Silver areas throughout my revolver with Ivory grips, but then I decide to splurge on Gold and Ebony grips. I decide Gold is a bit too gaudy for my current look so I revert back to my already purchased Silver, instead of paying 3 gold bars x5 again. Let's also assume I paid real money for these gold bars, just to prove a point.

I agree. Once you’ve bought it, you should have it and be able to revert back as you see fit. 

[Kean_1]

15 hours ago, DylBandit said:

Yeah, but although they give us gold bars for promotions here and there, it still kind of locks content within the game itself.

Yes, I would say it most definitely does.  However, the content that is only available with the purchase of GBs is essentially all cosmetic and doesn't cover a majority of the content available to players in the game.  Other items can be bought with in-game cash or gold.  .....or just in-game cash. 

Instead of locking those items behind a paywall as some might do, at least they give players the opportunity to still earn gold through gameplay and not just MTXs.  .....that was my point. Also, the economy in RDO is more forgiving than GTAO IMO / IME which may be one of the reasons they included two currencies for this game.  While gold is harder to earn, in-game cash is much easier.  Personally, I don't mind having to wait or "grind" for those special GB-only items if I want them bad enough, while everything else is relatively easily attainable.  I also find that I don't care much for what is only purchasable with GBs.

 

15 hours ago, DylBandit said:

This was a big problem with Grand Theft Auto Online, the fact that yeah, you can earn your own cash, but the prices are absolutely ridiculous, almost not even worth grinding for and the time, unless you did money making glitches. Not everyone has the time to play and grind it out for hundreds of hours a week, which is kind of a bummer for those who are just to busy to grind and make the funds to buy items.

If someone doesn't have time to play the game all the time, they have to pay out of pocket to enjoy the items in the game? There is a MASSIVE controversy about this in general, and that's why people weren't happy with how Grand Theft Auto Online turned on. Money was hard to make, items were to expensive. You either had no life grinding your life out on a video game to get your items, or fork over the cash for in game currency. 

I won't argue that making the kind of money you need to buy businesses, aircraft, some vehicles, etc. in GTAO can be a grind but I've been quite successful myself without having to use money making glitches with the exception of changing my MTU settings to force myself into my own sessions or those that have a low population.   .....given no other choice since private / friends only sessions do not include all of the CEO and VP content.  I have no desire to play the grief-fest experience folks know as Public sessions.  

I have 26 days and I'm just over lvl 200 at this point over the course of 4+ years.  I've never spent days on end grinding in GTAO but I have been able to buy quite a few businesses.  ......several of which I wish I didn't waste millions of my money on.    I don't like watching YT videos on how to make money fast so it cost me a lot to figure out what was a sure bet.  Once I bought my first garage and started stealing cars, the money really started to roll in.  .....and if you fill your garage up with all of the available low and mid range cars without selling them, then every recovery you get is all high end.  .....fill you cool off time with some VP or other business missions and the time goes by pretty quick.  Plus, I enjoy mixing it up and doing them. 

My latest purchase (about a year ago now?) was a nightclub.  I thought is it was cool how it tied into my other businesses I bought when I just had an MC.  I visit the club every once in while once stock levels are high enough to turn a tidy profit.  .....and collect my club earnings from my wall safe.  I promote the club occasionally to keep profits up but it's all just more things to do in the game world.  

Whether it's GTAO or RDO, if I didn't find elements of the "grind" fun, I wouldn't be playing them.

[Kean_1]

4 minutes ago, The_Liquor said:

Honestly, I think if they didn’t show some level of ‘greed’ and online had no way to generate additional revenue, then development would stop and the game would have a pretty limited lifespan. If locking certain, mostly cosmetic extras behind gold accomplishes this and the game keeps developing, i’m happy. Especially since you can actually earn gold in gameplay. People always talk about the ‘greed’ in these games but never seem to realize that these companies exist to make money. Maybe Rockstar could come up with a less greedy system, I don’t know. But I find it much preferable to a system where you have to spend real money to buy important things, like a new gun. Or even pay a monthly subscription just to be able to log into your account...

I agree. Once you’ve bought it, you should have it and be able to revert back as you see fit. 

....exactly.

The GaaS model is here to stay and regardless of how some wish to portray it, R* is one of the most successful examples. You don't keep an online game alive or keep players coming back for more for nearly 6 years just because you're greedy.   Anyone can make a game that exploits MTXs out of pure greed, but it's rare that you can make a game that players will want to stay with for the long haul.  Piss off enough of your players and there will be no one left to play your game.

IMO, R* has been able to keep players interested and coming back for years in GTAO because of content which is made possible through MTXs.  They also don't alienate those who don't wish to participate in the purchase of MTXs as I believe they know they are just as important to their game's success.   

[lumper]

4 hours ago, HuDawg said:

IMO all things should be be able to be purchased for either gold or money.  This 'GOLD" only BS is simply R* showing their greed.

I dont like that certain items are gold only, like the best saddle in the game for example, there is another almost exactly the same but the stamina drain and health drain are reversed, so I had to buy the beaver roping saddle over the cougar saddle because I never have 18 gold bars at one time lol and now that my guns are almost finished this will be my next gold purchase, but I think they should be offered in gold or cash as they are a performance item, not cosmetic, the only way to get that saddle currently is gold and that doesnt seem right to me, if you are willing to purchase gold bars then there ya go, I am not,

[The_Liquor]

Yeah. This I can get behind. Though you have to admit you can get a comparable alternative with money only (just the health and stamina being reversed). And in my order experience, 18 gold bars isn’t that big a grind if you catch a promotion... however, saddles do kind of fit into the ‘mostly’ cosmetic realm unless you are a dedicated racer...

But yeah, I’ve definitely seen the odd item that adds a benefit of some kind, however minor, behind a gold wall. I truly hope they don’t decide to experiment and see how far they can push it.

[DylBandit]

On 6/2/2019 at 12:35 PM, Kean_1 said:

However, the content that is only available with the purchase of GBs is essentially all cosmetic and doesn't cover a majority of the content available to players in the game.

This can definitely changed throughout the life cycle of Red Dead Online, just because small things are locked behind gold are not really necessary now, doesn't mean they won't add important things later down the line locked behind gold bars. 

On 6/2/2019 at 12:35 PM, Kean_1 said:

While gold is harder to earn, in-game cash is much easier.  Personally, I don't mind having to wait or "grind" for those special GB-only items if I want them bad enough, while everything else is relatively easily attainable.  I also find that I don't care much for what is only purchasable with GBs.

Some people just don't have the time in their everyday lives to "grind" and work for something in the game, so people just want to have fun. R* doesn't really give enough gold for missions for that to be possible, you'd have to sit and play for hours and hours until your fingers fall off, and play again the next day just to dump it all on things like gun customization. This was the exact same story in Grand Theft Auto Online, things costed way to much, money was kind of hard to earn in large amounts, and people weren't having fun. You may not care what is only exclusive for gold bars, but others do, so as much myself, I just wanted to change the colors of my guns "FORK OVER THE GOLD CAPTAIN!" - Lol

On 6/2/2019 at 12:31 PM, The_Liquor said:

Honestly, I think if they didn’t show some level of ‘greed’ and online had no way to generate additional revenue, then development would stop and the game would have a pretty limited lifespan.

Hold on a second.  Red Dead Redemption 2 sold through more than 23 million copies in the third fiscal quarter ended December 31. So let's do some simple math here, what's 23,000,000 times ($60 a copy). Yeah we are talking $1,380,000,000 and that's just "standard addition". I'm not sure the statistics on deluxe editions etc. So, it's actually more than the amount I just calculated. Red Dead Redemption 2 has has made over $1.3 BILLIONS DOLLARS and they need additional revenue? Not to mention they made way more with Grand Theft Auto 5 sales alone, not even including micro-transactions.

[Saws n Sins]

It does cost a lot, but it is doable. I've went all blackened steel and brass looks on my guns. On average its like 12 gold bars per weaponto customize. However you can get gold bars fairly easy in this game. I've never spent a penny of real life money and I've spent 142 gold bars according to my stats in game and have 61 gold bars currently saved up and im not even level 60 yet. Im glad the premium currency is actually easy to get cpared to most only games that have a premium currency. Some online games you can't even get the premium currency unless you pay with real life money so Im glad rockstar isn't being too greedy. They easily could have made the only way to get gold bars without paying is treasure maps

[Kean_1]

2 hours ago, DylBandit said:

This can definitely changed throughout the life cycle of Red Dead Online, just because small things are locked behind gold are not really necessary now, doesn't mean they won't add important things later down the line locked behind gold bars. 

I'm not saying it won't change.  .....but since they implemented the GB system and have been introducing "exclusive" GB-only items, it hasn't been that way.  I prefer to judge things like these on the here and now rather than speculation of an MTX strategy counter to what they have shared and what we know now.    

If they do go down that path of locking a lot more things behind GBs especially ones that affect gameplay, etc., then my opinion might change.  

2 hours ago, DylBandit said:

Some people just don't have the time in their everyday lives to "grind" and work for something in the game, so people just want to have fun. R* doesn't really give enough gold for missions for that to be possible, you'd have to sit and play for hours and hours until your fingers fall off, and play again the next day just to dump it all on things like gun customization. This was the exact same story in Grand Theft Auto Online, things costed way to much, money was kind of hard to earn in large amounts, and people weren't having fun. You may not care what is only exclusive for gold bars, but others do, so as much myself, I just wanted to change the colors of my guns "FORK OVER THE GOLD CAPTAIN!" - Lol

I don't either.  I guess you missed the part of my post where I mentioned just how much time I spent in GTAO and just what I've been able to amass without my fingers falling off.  Sure, there is a grind but that's no different than a lot of games like this. The difference is whether or not the activities in the game that allow you to collect the things you need (e.g. in-game cash, loot, XP, etc.) is entertaining enough to keep people playing.  

I've already got 1/3 the time in RDO than I do in GTAO over the course of 4+ years.  .....I even walked away from RDO for a while.   To be honest, it's really not that hard to collect money or gold for that matter especailly wit hthe freebies they've been giving out and the increase in gold nugget payouts.  I also took advantage of the 1GB per lvl last week as I leveled up from 65(?) tpo 70 dduring that time.  

There are a lot of others who have put much more time into this game than I ever will.

 

2 hours ago, DylBandit said:

Hold on a second.  Red Dead Redemption 2 sold through more than 23 million copies in the third fiscal quarter ended December 31. So let's do some simple math here, what's 23,000,000 times ($60 a copy). Yeah we are talking $1,380,000,000 and that's just "standard addition". I'm not sure the statistics on deluxe editions etc. So, it's actually more than the amount I just calculated. Red Dead Redemption 2 has has made over $1.3 BILLIONS DOLLARS and they need additional revenue? Not to mention they made way more with Grand Theft Auto 5 sales alone, not even including micro-transactions.

There are a whole lot of things you're not factoring into the mix here including expenses to cover a company consisting of over 2000 employees.....  Associated costs of properties, employee benefits, payroll, taxes, marketing, customer support, contractors, legal, etc., etc.  

Sure they made a profit on GTAO and RDR2 but without ways to continue to make revenue on a game, support for it will not continue.  A game can be successful upon release but it needs to continue to bring in revenue to support it and all the overhead associated with that.  .....and still maintain a profit.

The only reason games like GTAO (and hopefully RDO) continue many years after release is because they are still profitable.

[DylBandit]

1 hour ago, Kean_1 said:

If they do go down that path of locking a lot more things behind GBs especially ones that affect gameplay, etc., then my opinion might change.  

Quote

R* is known for doing this, and I'll tag you back in this post once they do. I almost guarantee they will do this in the future for "additional revenue" lol. 

 

2 hours ago, Kean_1 said:

I don't either.  I guess you missed the part of my post where I mentioned just how much time I spent in GTAO and just what I've been able to amass without my fingers falling off.

No, I didn't miss anything in your post. I already read the part where you said you had a lot of stuff in the course of 4 years etc. That doesn't really mean anything, 4 years in a game is a very long time weather you play on and off.  There is a lot that goes into play with that, in which some you get bonus money as well. When R* releases new content such as a new exotic car, aircraft, etc. They put these huge gigantic price tags on these items, and they expect everyone to have the funds. People will suffer on getting and trying out the new content because they either have to fork over cash to try to new items, or grind until their fingers fall off. I gave up on keeping up with the new content because I don't want to keep playing boring missions I already beat the crap out of, and the double XP and money bonuses are usually in game modes I just utterly hate.

 

2 hours ago, Kean_1 said:

There are a whole lot of things you're not factoring into the mix here including expenses to cover a company consisting of over 2000 employees.....  Associated costs of properties, employee benefits, payroll, taxes, marketing, customer support, contractors, legal, etc., etc.  

 Sure they made a profit on GTAO and RDR2 but without ways to continue to make revenue on a game, support for it will not continue.  A game can be successful upon release but it needs to continue to bring in revenue to support it and all the overhead associated with that.  .....and still maintain a profit.

 The only reason games like GTAO (and hopefully RDO) continue many years after release is because they are still profitable.

There are PLENTY of other ways to make additional profit after the release of the game, and not covering the game with micro-transactions like most companies do now a days. Honestly, at the end of the day, me and you both don't know how much money R* needs to run their company, but I can tell you this, a business is a business.

R* maybe has plenty of money and beyond enough money to support Red Dead Online for many years to come already because of the successful sales. But as I mentioned before, a business is a business, even if they DID have plenty of money to support this game for years to come CURRENTLY.... every chance they get they will try to make money even if they are comfortable with money or not.

Does that make sense? 

[Kean_1]

48 minutes ago, DylBandit said:

Does that make sense? 

I'll agree that R* is most certainly a business.  .....a publicly traded one at that.  

I know some folks hate MTXs but the GaaS model is where it's at and one thing is for certain........   R* has one of the most successful examples of it in the industry. ....and that kind of success isn't realized without the customer base to back it up so they must be doing something right.

Personally, I don't have a problem with it in GTAO or RDO up to this point.

[The_Liquor]

Personally, I don’t mind them trying to make a little money. You want to play you have to pay. It’s like that in absolutely every hobby I’ve ever had. At least here it’s (so far) pretty optional. It might change, it might not. But I don’t expect them to keep supporting and upgrading and paying for programmers, servers, infrastructure etc. out of pure generosity.

i know I generally don’t run around offering my work and services for free.

[BropolloCreed79]

5 hours ago, Kean_1 said:

I'll agree that R* is most certainly a business.  .....a publicly traded one at that.  

I know some folks hate MTXs but the GaaS model is where it's at and one thing is for certain........   R* has one of the most successful examples of it in the industry. ....and that kind of success isn't realized without the customer base to back it up so they must be doing something right.

Personally, I don't have a problem with it in GTAO or RDO up to this point.

I love MTX.  Not because I'm a shill, but because I'm so lazy I make Lebowski look like a Titan of industry.

[C20Dragon]

For those that need gold to customize your weapons. Do Not forget to do your Daily Challenges.

I've been doing the Daily's since day one. I've  passed 21 days for my x2.5 gold reward bonus.

I get 0.50 / half bar for each Daily objective. I get 5 gold bars a day for completing all 7 Daily Challenges.

 

[The_Liquor]

Yeah... but some of us just can’t get online daily... I really wish I could sometimes, but between one boy under 2, a wife in her 9th month of pregnancy, a full time job, hunting, fishing, a gun collecting and shooting addiction, a Passion for riding my old Harley... and being of an age where you are assumed to be too old for video games, honestly I’m lucky if I get a few hours twice a week these days LOL. Thank god for micro transactions (though even with my limited time I’ve only bought the 25 bar one time offer deal.. and I still have more than I bought).

[Harlock1796]

I feel like daily challenge streaks have become my job.

Some days when I genuinely don't have time to play I log in just to do the quickest challenge. There's usually one that you can 'buy' like customising a gun or modifying a horse appearance. 

Not bags of fun, but I'm considering it an investment. 

[FightingKYian]

On 6/1/2019 at 9:01 PM, deadairface said:

in single player I did what a lot of people do: made my revolver all gold with a pearl handle.

 

I made mine look like Two-Face guns, a black one with pearl grips & a nickel one with black grips. 

I wanted to nickel plate my guns online until I saw it costs Gold.  I figured no one would see them well enough to justify spending real money.