Rockstar San Diego has finally release another patch for Red Dead Online in Red Dead Redemption 2. Patch 1.09 finally takes Online mode out of Beta as well as add some new content … from Land of Opportunities Missions, new modes, new clothes, new emotes and more. Let’s take a look!
Starting off, five new A Land of Opportunities Missions have been added:
- Bring A Goddamn Posse
- The Hanging of Tom Davies
- These Bastards Can Fight
- Banks Don’t Rob Themselves
- Destroyed By Grief
Last I checked, my mission completion for this story was at 75% before these missions came out so this may complete the story, especially when you look at the names.
Three new Free Roam Mission types have been added into rotation, and can be launched from any Free Roam Mission giver:
- Destroy
- Jailbreak
- Stolen Wagon
Two new Free Roam Mission givers have been added, who are handing out missions in new areas of the map:
- Thomas, Skiff Captain
- Aberdeen Pig Farmers
New variations of existing Free Roam Missions have been added as well.
Several types of dynamic events have been added to the open world of Red Dead Online, which the player will encounter as they travel across the world
Three new Posse Versus – Contests have been included:
- Bird Shooting Contest
- Biggest Fish Contest
- Herb Picking Contest
A new Showdown Mode has been added to Red Dead Online:
- Overrun (2-16 Players)
- Welcome to a good old-fashioned land grab … capture and hold the most territories to win the bout.
Overrun sounds familiar to me. It reminds me of a similar version of King of the Hill mode that was in older games from the past. This in itself is worth checking out.
One of the things people have been waiting to do in Red Dead Online is finally available! Poker has been added and can be joined from various Saloons across the open world. Players can now play Poker against other players in both Public and Private matches. All poker tables seat up to six players, available in five locations: Blackwater, Saint Denis, Tumbleweed, Valentine, and Flatneck Station.
To be fair, I didn’t expect this but over 370 items and variations of clothing have been added for male and female characters and can be purchased from any General Store, Tailor, or the Handheld Catalogue. On top of clothing for your character, over 70 items and variations of horse equipment have been added and can be purchased from any Stable or the Handheld Catalogue.
One new weapon has been added and can be purchased from any Gunsmith or the Handheld Catalogue:
- LeMat Revolver
Five new emotes are available and can be purchased from any General Store, Tailor, or the Handheld Catalogue:
- Flex
- Slow Clap
- Beg for Mercy
- Throat Slit
- Flip Off
Now let’s look at some of the balancing and improvements for Red Dead Online.
Increases have been made to Gold payouts across multiple content types:
- Free Roam Events
- Free Roam Missions
- A Land of Opportunities Missions
- Showdown Modes
- Open World Content
- Treasure Chests
- Daily Challenges
- Award Resets
This list has been overdue for so long … hopefully, it is enough for now.
A new HDR Calibration menu has been added. Players can now switch between the existing “Cinematic HDR” and new “Game HDR” styles, and a new option has been added to allow manual adjustment of Peak Brightness values for different displays … So those of you with a 4K TV with HDR can now take advantage of this in Online and offline for the story.
Most importantly, Rockstar San Diego has added a “Hostility” system to Red Dead Online that builds upon the changes to player Radar blips from the previous Title Update. This has been added to deal with all the griefing:
- Depending on their actions, players will now be labeled with one of three Hostility levels — Low (dark blue Radar blip), Medium (pink), or High (dark red). Your current Hostility level can be seen in the Online Options section of the Player menu.
- Players with higher Hostility levels will still receive the same punishments as the previous update, causing them to appear at longer distances on the Radar/Map and respawning further away when dying
- A player’s Hostility level will not be affected when killing players through PvP gameplay such as Showdown Modes or when instructed to via Free Roam Events with PvP elements
- Players can attack other players with a High Hostility level without any negative changes towards their own Hostility level
- A player’s Hostility level will slowly reduce over time when not performing any hostile actions towards other players
Players now have the ability to “Press Charges” from the death screen after being killed by another player in a Red Dead Online session:
- If a player decides to press charges, the attacker will gain Bounty and their Hostility level will increase for performing that crime (this increase was the default behavior before this update)
- If a player does not press charges, the attacker will not gain any Bounty or Hostility level for performing that crime
- A new playing style option has been added to the Online Options section of the player menu:
- “Offensive” playing style is the default existing behavior in Free Roam … allowing standard PvP combat in all Free Roam activities with no additional protections
- “Defensive” playing style gives players the ability to signal that they want to opt out of PvP-based activities and aggressive interactions with other players in the session. Players with a Defensive playstyle selected:
- Will be displayed to others with a faded Radar blip and a shield icon above their head
- Cannot lock-on to other players and cannot be locked onto
- Do not receive critical damage when shot and take less damage in general
- Cannot be lassoed, tackled, or executed
- Are unable to interact with some Free Roam Missions occurring in the session
- Will be offered fewer Free Roam Missions with a PvP component from Mission givers
As seen, players with an Offensive playing style will increase their Hostility level significantly when attacking or griefing players with a Defensive playing style set … while players with a Defensive playstyle will have their Hostility increased if they choose to perform any aggressive behavior towards a player that does not have a High Hostility level and be switched out of the Defensive playing style. In the end, players with a High Hostility level will not be able to enter the Defensive playing style and must wait until their Hostility level is lowered over time.
This is Update is huge, and hopefully everyone can now enjoy playing the game now without any trolls and griefers ruining everyone’s experience.
There is so much more that the update does but there is just too little space here to recap it all. To see the more thorough version, head over to “support.rockstargames.com” to see the rest.
