Red Dead Redemption

sounds like you are getting the hang of it

well... i sort of completed this today, except no! i didn't!

xpost I am getting the hand of it: the game is simultaneously fun, boring and silly. Sometimes it is fun because it is silly, sometimes it is silly because it is boring, sometimes it is boring just because, which is both fun and silly. I went fishing today with a kid, and it took me forever to realize I was winding the reel the wrong way (silly), all while the kid complained how boring it was, which was funny.

Next up: I still haven't figured out the food system. Do I need to eat? Does it really matter what I eat? Do I need to feed my horse? Does it matter what I feed it? Do I need to hunt and give food to my bandit pals? Do I need to hunt for myself? Do I need to cook my food? Seems like there is some crafting to do, too, but I'm not sure what to craft and why. Is it just for fashion? (Snooze.) Is it a quality of life enhancement? I guess I'll find out eventually.

So I think with food, you have those different health circles, a heart which is like your HP, a lightning bolt which is your stamina, and an eye with an x on it which is your dead eye. Each has a ring around it which slowly depletes depending on what you're up to. You can drink potions and tonics to fill those up.

Then you have the core of each one which also goes down but is replenished by eating different foods. I think the core relates to how quickly, for example, you use up energy.

So yes, you should eat. There's something in the instructions about how these different things work depending on if you're under or over weight

Good to know. At least (like everything else in this game) there doesn't seem to be a significant cost for doing it wrong.

I am now at the precarious stage of play where the weather outside is getting nice and I need to justify staying inside playing a game where I spend most of my time in pretend outside admiring the pretend scenery.

Today's adventures involved some robbing. First I robbed the doctor's office in Valentine, which ... was not worth it? I got $50 in cash, I think $50 from the safe, a nice new gun, but killed so many people getting out of there that I landed a $200+ bounty. Actually, the first time I tried I missed a lot of the goodies (though still got a bounty), but I went back after some of the heat went down. The doctor was closed by then, so I walked toward the hotel. On the way I tried to loot a body in the street, which counts as ... robbing? I was witnessed and chased out of town, and by the time I got some distance it was dawn, so of course I just went right back, where I got to deal with some glitches. First, I went back to the guy working the doctor's office (the doctor?) and had to rob him again to get the mission going. Except in the middle of it I accidentally shot him, which at first I thought meant no one could let me back in the back room. But when I went back there the doctor was alive again and let me in ... where I was met by the same gang I killed before. How did that happen? Are they always there, regenerating? I killed them all, took everything that wasn't nailed down, used a stick of dynamite to open the safe (how else was I supposed to do it? I have a lock picker but I didn't have the option), then just kind of ... waited, listening to the law, watching them move about on the map. Only one or two of them came in after me, though, and I killed them, which landed me my big bounty. Escaping wasn't so hard, but if I pay off the bounty I don't really see the point. To get the gun?

The second robbery was a train job at night, which was mostly pretty scripted (it was a plot quest, I take it) but wasn't too bad, and I think got me a good deal of cash.

I've also taken to occasionally lassoing strangers off horses, tying them up and taking their money, but they rarely have much of value.

Most of today was being a farmhand and learning how to milk cows etc. Pretty tedious but somehow I don't mind it

Some satisfying robbin' and stealin' yesterday. Came across a guy panning for gold, so I just stood around waiting for him to find something and then robbed him. Found these other guys later opening a stolen safe in the woods, so waited for them to succeed and then robbed them, too. Honestly, I would be less inclined to rob and steal if these people weren't such dicks. You kind of approach them and they're almost immediately jumpy. "You better get out away from me, miscreant!" or whatever. But when you back away they're all "that's what I thought, coward!" They're really just asking for it.

Also, got jumped and killed by some bandits on a bridge, since I was too slow to react to what was going on and was armed with my bow, anyway.

Hah, yeah. It's always a bit of a lottery as to whether approaching people in the woods is going to have them offering you a tasty quest or whether they're going to reach straight for the revolver. I had three strangers jump out of me from nowhere and just start shooting at me. Obviously I killed them all, but there was no meaning behind it. I'm assumign they were just robbers, but they didn't belong to a gang or bounty crew or anything, they just started shooting

In other news, I literally forgot Dead Eye existed, so ... yeah, I should probably use that more often.

I find Dead Eye quite hard to use. It's okay if the target isn't moving too much but I generally find the regular auto-aim is better for me.

hats off to anyone who remembers to use Dead Eye imo

dead eye is my best friend when I'm out hunting

Could be why I very rarely get a perfect or even good pelt even if I use a bow. Still find the dead eye thing a bit fiddly on moving targets though. I tend to panic because I know I've only got a few seconds till the dead eye runs out.

When I was last playing and was being pursued by bounty hunters, I paused to wait and see how many there were. Oh, just three? But they killed me pretty handily, and I figured it was because I didn't use dead eye. The same thing happened a previous play with just two bounty hunters at night, who didn't know I was there. On the other hand, I could just be a shitty shot.

Debating paying off my bounty (again). I've been selling some stuff to the fence, so I have cash on hand. Maybe I'll upgrade my equipment supply at camp first.

My least favorite thing in this game (which has happened twice) is when you rescue someone but do it in some scary way, or accidentally forget to put away your weapon, and they think you're some kind of monster and run away rather than show gratitude. Like, I was on my way somewhere and I passed a horse speeding by, with a woman tied to the back yelling "help, help, I've been kidnapped!" So I turn around, race after them and shoot the rider. I take her off the horse, cut her loose, and she says something like "what is wrong with you!?" and runs away into the woods.

lost a shooting contest
ran away before my victor could claim their ten dollars
got shot at

haha that's happened to me a few times. i mucked about and started looting the kidnapper after i'd shot him while the kidnapee was still tied up and when i untied her, she was extremely ungrateful.

yesterday i came across a farmhouse i hadn't visited before and figured i'd go and check it out. As soon as I got there, a man approached me and immediately told me to get lost before pulling a gun on me, so I shot him. Then his dog tried to attack me (took like 5 point blank shots to kill it, they're so hardy! I felt bad). Then I let myself into the farmhouse and there's this dude sitting in a chair reading. He doesn't even look up. I greet him, he replies politely. I start looting anything that isn't nailed down. He doesn't take any notice. I keep chatting to him. I antagonise him. He's cool, just reading away as I steal all his stuff and insult him. Eventually I couldn't help myself: Why was the other guy so aggro and this guy so chilled? He had to go.

Then I went to the pig pen and stabbed all the pigs to death and felt seriously terrible about myself, especially since all the pelts I harvested were "Poor". How on earth do you get better pelts?

Also yesterday, pretty sure I somehow killed someone with my lasso.

How on earth do you get better pelts?

Use arrows, get headshots.

The lasso is annoying. I keep catching people and then for some reason releasing them without meaning to?

I do that a lot. I think the trick is to immediately get close to them? When I do that it seems to automatically hogtie them, unless I am accidentally pressing the wrong button.

When you look at the animal in the binoculars you can see what rating they are, then when you press Study it'll tell you what weapon/ammo you need to get a clean kill.

I can't remember if it's in the main story, but in online there's a second-tier lasso that doesn't break as easily.

Today I wiped out a camp of O'Fodders, made moonshine with some dudes, found treasure in a rock formation (and fell off a lot), killed a mountain lion, robbed a few dudes and left them tied up, ransacked a house, discovered an army base (that didn't want me around), um ... oh yeah, took out a homestead of weirdos with a bro.

I've been looking for that treasure for ages and can't find it. Those maps are ambiguous as hell

In this particular case, it was more a matter of what your character can do that you had no idea he could do. For example, some modest jumping, climbing, etc, and where. I just did some trial and error around that rock formation until I figured out where to go. which is to say, where it would let me go. The funny thing was that when I got to the top, I heard some clip clopping, and somehow my horse had followed up behind me! Reward didn't seem too impressive, but there's a second map stuffed with it. Haven't looked at it yet, though.

An earlier treasure I'd found was pretty easy to find. In a tree, iirc.

Yeah don't know if I've found that one either. The "map" is literally a picture of a tree outside a house

I've finally learned that any time you see a plume of smoke it's more or less an invitation to rob and kill. Also, helped my gang-mate steal a bank wagon or something, and then shoot a whole bunch of O'Fodders down at a river. Midway through that mission my game totally froze, so I had to restart it, which was a drag. I also realized how little of the map I've explored, so wandered down to a hotter place, hunting and shooting a legendary coyote on the way. Now I have a necklace that gives me more Dead Eye. Also discovered another fence, this one more of a hillbilly. Had to step over some passed-out drunkards and loose chickens to get to him. I was afraid to pet a nearby dog. Oh, and learned that setting up camp allows you to fast travel, which is helpful. I thought fast travel was a one-way, away from camp sort of thing. I like riding around and getting up to mischief, but sometimes I just want to be back at my cot.

I think fast travel is one way. I must have used it once, twice max

I meant I thought it was one way out of the camp to wherever, but you can also fast travel back, or wherever you want, from a campfire you set up, which is helpful if you don't feel like (er) hoofing it.

Oh. Yeah I completely forgot you can do that. I like how they make the whole routine kind of tedious though, so you just end up riding there unless it’s literally the other side of the map

Which reminds me about the time I tried to row to the other side of Flat Iron Lake. You can see the shore on the other side but just as you are close to reaching it, you just die

The first time I parked the oil wagon for the train robbery I apparently missed the exact spot. So after I stopped and looked around I figured, well, I guess I have to go walk off and find my horse several miles away. Started walking and but then died.

So when you rob rando campers, you can of course just shoot them, but you can also tie them up. But if you tie them up, it gives you the option of cutting them free. Is there any reason I'd want to do that? I tied up one guy and robbed him, then set him free, and of course he then tried to kill me, so I shot him. Another guy I tied up, then felt bad and went back and untied him, but he was less than grateful and started a fistfight, so I punched him out. Should I have even bothered with either? Should I just leave everyone tied up?

I mean what do you expect after you tie someone up and rob them?

Then why does it give you the option of untying them!? Just to mess with them?

That's the weird thing about this game. What it let's you do that's pointless and what it doesn't let you do that would nevertheless be fun or helpful is a bit complicated

Well so that you can untie people who have been tied up (usually not people who you've tied up though...)

Ever chucked someone on their own campfire? That's the darkest thing you can do in the game AFAIK and I don't think I'll be doing it again

I know one time I was standing somewhere and I heard this crackling noise, and then I noticed, oh, that's me, I'm on fire.

I *think* I may have just about hit the point in Chapter 2 where I need to advance the story. Is it important to do whatever I want to do at this stage now (like explore, hunt for legendary animals, hunt for treasure with maps, etc.), or will I still have the chance to go back and do more of that stuff even when I hit chapter 3?

BTW, I suppose it's a credit to this game that I don't particularly *want* to advance the story just yet, even though as I understand it the bigger story gets pretty good.

You've done all this stuff and you're still on C2? That's quite something. I've completed the main story but not done a huge amount of side challenges like gambling or fishing etc

I'm slow, and because of that slow to pick up on controls and stuff, which makes me take my time even more! For example, I've just reached a point where I'm confident I have the upper hand in most gun battles (and said battles are pretty easy in this game). The related downside is that it makes you feel kind of OP at this point, which is how I know it's time to go forward. When your reward for robbing and killing someone is rarely better than a dollar and a half-empty bottle of tonic, you know it's time to move on.

An aspect of this early game I've learned to appreciate and even look forward to is the occasional ambush. Is this stuff randomly generated? I've been jumped by a few gangs on bridges, and taken advantage of by a few people looking for help. The first was just some dude, who punched me and rode off on my horse (this was a while ago). The second was a woman crying by the side of the road. When I got off the horse to help her she broke bad and tried to rob me. I accidentally shot her at point blank range with a bow and arrow (!), but to my surprise she had a cohort hiding in the trees that I had to take out right afterwards. I like the idea that there are NPCs scheming and plotting (and doing other stuff) independent of my character's missions and whatnot.

One of the most equally amusing and annoying situations that I've had happen a few times now is when you're leaving a busy town and, inevitably/eventually, crash your horse into another rider, killing them. You're immediately identified as a murderer, so of course are more or less forced to kill any witnesses. But because it's a busy spot someone soon comes around and sees you, leading to another witness, and another death, and so on, until eventually you just give up cleaning up after yourself and leave this pile of bodies in the middle of the road while you hightail it out of there

I shot the shackles off some dude, and as a reward he told me about a pig farm with a lot of money. After searching and searching north of Rhodes (where he said to look) I gave up and googled its location, which ... was on a part of the map I didn't know existed! That is, I didn't even notice the map has been growing as I explore! So I set off in search go the farm, expanding the map as I went. I found the farm (which was more of a ... house) and the sweaty, fucked up siblings who live there. I killed them (the fat one took like ten bullets) and robbed the house, then on my way somewhere else killed some more of those gang members and rescued a bleeding guy, which lead me into St. Denis, which I did not know existed and which is busy and huge! Should I have been exploring all along, or are the missions designed to open up the map for me?

Oh, best moment was when I was messing with some dead bodies in a swamp, and I hear this growl, and this giant alligator lunges at me. I have no idea how it did no damage, but it was exciting.

The missions are designed to open the map but you can go anywhere you want.

I definitely rode around and mucked about a lot. First time going into St Denis is quite an eye opener.

I did exactly what you were talking about in St Denis the other night. I noticed my honour metre doesn't seem to go up or down an awful lot. I'm always greeting people and the little cowboy icon appears, but not much happens on the scale. So I started being rude to passers by and before I knew it I'd "disturbed the peace" and was being SHOT AT by police. Jesus Christ. So I hid behind a structure and just kept shooting lawmen as they turned up. But they don't go away do they? More just kept coming for me and I eventually ran out of bullets and had to high tail it out of there. The amount of dead lawmen in that square though blimey

The missions are designed to open the map but you can go anywhere you want.

Yeah, I see what you mean. I just did maybe the first mission in Chapter 3, and it clearly seemed designed to introduce me to Rhodes, even though I've spent plenty of time there already. I think I prefer doing it the game's way for now, I guess, which means explore to an extent but mostly let it lead me.

Something I like about the handful of open world games I've played is that they more or less condense vast geographical expanses into self contained chunks. Rhodes and environs, for example, is clearly designed to be the equivalent of the American deep south if not Florida specifically, but it's still within a horsey ride of snow-capped mountains.

So, satchels: is this something I should be upgrading? Everything seems to take a certain number and type of perfect pelts, but I don't know if it's worth the trouble. Related, maybe, I have about $1000 right now, but I'm really not sure what I should be spending it on, if anything.