Red Dead Online: The Ultimate Concept Bundle - A 5 Year and 11 Update Plan - Update 5: Further Pursuits - The Next Steps

Concept Update 5: “Further Pursuits: The Next Steps”

Seasonal Changes:

• Takes place during RDR2, Chapter 4
• The Van Der Linde Gang has been traumatised by the death of Sean and are very intense after the kidnapping of Jack and confrontation with Andrew Milton.
• After the shootout at Rhodes, the town is now under the law restrictions previously seen in other towns, with the same boost to bounty payouts.
• Due to the large amount of Grays and Braithwaites killed, 50% less people will now spawn at Rhodes.
• Sean is dead, and from now on his missions will be given to the player by Micah Bell.
  • Sean's introductory mission has now been removed, and replaced by one featuring Micah. Sean's classic cutscenes can still be seen in 'Theatre Mode'
• Braithwaite Manor was burned to the ground by the Van Der Linde gang, which will be reflected in the world.
• Anthony Foreman has mysteriously vanished. His missions will now be offered by Mr. Black and Mr. White.
• The prices on each of the gang members’ heads have drastically increased. Susan will now offer double cash for any posters brought in.
• Sadie’s rage has reached a new level and she will accompany posses on her Stranger Missions to attack O’Driscoll hideouts.
• The Saint Denis Fence has been replaced, after being killed by Arthur.
• Eagle Flies is now a stranger at Wapiti, sending players to attack the US Military.
• Live events:
  • Season-wide event: Players will now be able to see Dutch and the gang at the Mayor’s party in “Becoming a Socialite” as it will now match the events of ‘The Gilded Cage’ from storymode – Dutch and the gang will leave the party before it is robbed, however.
  • Daily event: For one whole day, plays can join in on the festivities at Shady Bell to celebrate the safe return of Jack Marston.
  • Weekly cutscene: Three weeks into the event, players will be able to witness the events of ‘A Fine Night of Debauchery’ as they also have tickets onto the Casino Boat. They meet Trelawney in the bar, who recommends they get out before it “hits the fan”.
  • Weekly cutscene: Two weeks later, players will be able to see the events of ‘Horsemen, Apocalypses’ unfold. In order to prevent more O’Driscolls attacking the camp, the player will throw a potent predator bait onto the road, attracting nearby alligators to stop them. After the attack, the player is seen assisting with the burial of Kieran Duffy.
  • Weekly cutscene: Two weeks later, players will be able to see Dutch, Lenny and Arthur’s attempted trolley station robbery in ‘Urban Pleasures’ and watch the trolley crash.
  • Weekly event: The following week, a crashed trolley can be seen surrounded by a group of police officers in Saint Denis. Getting too close will aggravate the officers.
  • Weekly cutscene: On the final week of the event, players will be able to witness the events of ‘Banking, the Old American Art’ from a new perspective. Upon entering Saint Denis, they will see Hosea and Abigail set up their explosive distraction, and all the Pinkertons rushing to catch them. The player will see them run into an ally, as Hosea pushes Abigail into a box and tells her to hide as the Pinkertons arrive. The player goes to draw their weapon to help, but Hosea holds up his hand and tells them to keep Abigail safe, so the player hides near her. Hosea surrenders to Milton and is taken off by the Pinkertons. Abigail climbs out of the box and insists they follow to see what happens.
    Abigail and the player follow them to the bank, and watch as Milton threatens Dutch and kills Hosea, causing the huge shootout. As the gang flees out the wall and up the neighbouring building, a war wagon rolls up and Pinkertons press forward into the bank. This is when Dutch sees what’s happening, and refuses to cover John, who is on the other side of the bank floors. The wagon turns to John and Abigail looks horrified, before pulling a stick of dynamite from her top and throwing it at the wagon, destroying it. The player pulls her back and escapes with her to Shady Belle, as John is kidnapped. As they are fleeing, they can hear Arthur shout Lenny’s name. Upon the player’s arrival to the camp, Sadie gathers the remaining people around the table as Abigail fills them in on what happened at the robbery. Sadie says they have to move and organises the gang’s relocation to Lakey. Before they are ready to leave, Charles arrives to inform them of the latest part of the plan for Dutch and the boys to flee to Cuba. This inspires Sadie to leave the ‘Dear Uncle Tacitus’ letter.

New Roles:

• Three new roles have been added to the game, each with their own structures and content. They continue the Rolepaths seen in ‘In Vein of Further Pursuits’.
• Roles are now categorised under ‘Rolepaths’ in the Roles menu.
  • ‘The Secrets of the Trade’ covers Trader and Rancher
  • ‘A Life of Law’ covers the Bounty Hunter and Vigilante
  • ‘The Secrets of the Earth’ covers the Collector and Treasure Hunter
  • Brawlers, Naturalists and Moonshiners are not included in Rolepaths, and will just be seen alongside the other paths.

The Rancher Role:

• Upon reaching Trader Rank 50, players can purchase the ‘Ranch’ for 25 Gold. This will unlock the twenty-level ‘Rancher’ role.
• A ranch is an instanced interior using the seamless building technology with sections for each of the animals to be worked with.
• This is a very hands-on role, where the owner and their posse members must work with their animals to produce goods.
• Players can feed their animals, which will increase their product speed by 50%.
• Players will have to complete chores, such as:
  • Raking manure.
  • Moving hay bales.
  • Filling the water and food troughs.
• Not completing chores will slow down production by up to 80%.
• Players can hire up to three Ranch Hands, each with their own unique personality and traits.
  • These are used to automate chores and can be assigned to an animal pen and cleaning.
  • Each Ranch Hand will have their own loyalty mission, detailed further down.
    • Completing loyalty missions will unlock better efficiency for that Ranch Hand, and any further replays of the mission will offer money and experience for the player, as well as a 5% efficiency boost for 20 minutes.
• Upon purchasing the Ranch, players will only start with five chickens – But this will grow as they progress through the role.
  • Players will be able to unlock the following animals:
    • Cows (Up to four)
      • Each cow will cost RDO$120
      • Players will milk their cows, using the mechanics from storymode.
      • Milk will be added to the Ranch export for RDO$2 per pint, with a maximum of fifty pints.
    • Chickens (Up to ten)
      • Each chicken will cost RDO$60
      • Players collect eggs from their chickens, which are laid over time.
      • Each egg added to the Ranch export is worth RDO$1.50, with a maximum of fifty eggs.
    • Sheep (Up to six)
      • Each sheep will cost RDO$150
      • Players will shear their sheep to produce a bag of wool.
      • Each bag of wool added to the Ranch export is worth RDO$5 with a maximum of fifteen bags.
    • A full wagon of stock would be worth RDO$250 but selling a full Ranch of goods will add a 2.5x sale boost, taking the value up to RDO$625.
• Animals can be bred, taking three ingame days to birth the baby, and three more days for that baby to grow.
  • Animals which have been bred may have higher product speeds and qualities. This is represented by the star rating seen in world animals.Higher-tier animals can only be bred by players, rather than purchased.
    • A Ranch of two star animals multiply exports by 1.5x
    • A Ranch of three star animals multiply exports by 3x
      • This increases the max sale value from RDO$625 to RDO$1875
  • There is a 5% chance a player can breed a Legendary Barn Animal which will add RDO$125 to the export.
    • Players can only possess one of each Legendary Barn Animals at a time. These include:
      • The Snow Chicken - A pure white chicken, with a white beak and legs.
      • The Flamingo Sheep - A sheep with naturally pink wool.
      • The Highland Coo - A furry, brown cow.
        • With three star animals and each of the Legendary Barn Animals, sale values max out at RDO$1950
  • When the animal has fully grown, players can choose whether they:
    • Keep the animal for themselves, adding to their livestock collection.
    • Sell the animal to an NPC, which will require taking it to a nearby location.
      • RDO$80 - $110 - $140 per cow, depending on quality (Up to two), must be herded
      • RDO$40 - $60 - $80 per chicken, depending on quality (Up to five), must be taken in a wagon
      • RDO$90 - $130 - $170 per sheep, depending on quality (Up to three), must be herded.
        • Legendary Barn Animals cannot be sold.
      • Sell the animal to a fellow player, for a negotiated price at a ‘Dealing Table’ up a ladder in the Ranch. If successful, the players will shake hands, and the animal will be automatically transported into the other player’s Ranch.
        • This is the only way a player can purchase a higher quality or legendary animal.
• Players will be able to re-shoe their horse to improve its core drain rate for a short while.
• Players will be able to sell horses to fellow players, saddle, upgrades, and all. This will be for a negotiated price, and the bonding will be reset.
• Unlocks (In order):
  • Cows – Up to two.
  • Double Chicken space.
  • Hire Ranch Hands – Ranch Hands can only be hired after hitting Rancher level five.
  • Horse Re-Shoe.
  • Animal Breeding – Animals will now become pregnant if a Ranch Hand is assigned to breeding them. Players can either complete the birthing minigame from storymode or have a Ranch Hand do the work.
  • Sheep – Up to three.
  • Freemode Event: Cattle Herding – Herd a large amount of cattle with other players and protect them from attacking rustlers.
  • Better Animal Food – This will decrease the ready time of products.
  • Double Cow space.
  • Freemode Event: Bull Rodeo – Take turns to stay on the bull the longest.
  • Double Sheep space.
  • Sell Livestock to NPCs.
  • Sell Livestock to Players.
  • Sell Horses to Players.

The Vigilante Role:

• Upon reaching Bounty Hunter Rank 50, players can purchase the ‘Dungeon’ for 25 Gold. This will unlock the twenty-level ‘Vigilante’ role.
• Upon purchasing the Dungeon, players will begin with one guard and ten beds for prisoners.
• Rather than focusing on smaller targets, Vigilantes will focus on higher-tier criminals.
  • This works through collecting a “Crime Case” from the desk at the Sheriff Offices and Police Stations around the Frontier.
    • A “Crime Desk” can be purchased for the Dungeon to save some travel, however.
• Vigilante players can upgrade cells and hire up to five guards for RDO$4 each per day in order to reduce the chance of a breakout and manage the way their personal prison is run.
• There is an RDO$6 daily fee for food. Food will increase to RDO$10 depending on how many prisoners are kept.
• Prisoners can be interrogated for clues to other locations of gang members and evidence but will sometimes lead unsuspecting Vigilantes into traps.
  • The information depends on the prisoner treatment, the gang difficulty, and the interrogation approach.
  • Good cop / Bad cop is available, with players being able to offer the prisoner drinks, and simply pointing at pictures or straight up beating the life out of them.
• Up to twenty prisoners can be kept, including two higher ups and the leader.
  • Each prisoner is worth RDO$10, with higher ups being worth RDO$15 and the leader worth RDO$20
    • The more valuable, the harder the criminal is to find.
• Vigilantes will have to find and collect evidence in order to support their case file and make more money from it.
  • Each case has five pieces of evidence, worth RDO$1 each.
• Capturing an entire gang is hard: Having a full Dungeon of criminals and evidence will boost a criminal delivery from RDO$225 to RDO$900
  • The more prisoners held in the Dungeon, the more likely they are to attempt a breakout. Players, their posse, and guards must knock out and hogtie prisoners, before returning them to their cells.
• Criminals and evidence can be found as random events by any posse member at any point, and delivered directly to the Dungeon, much like pelts for Cripps.
• Unlocks:
  • More bandit mask colourways.
  • Five more prisoner beds.
  • Random encounters for criminals and evidence
  • Reliable Interrogation – Prisoners are more likely to give you real advice.
  • Increased Ammo Pouch – Players can carry double the standard amount of each type of ammo.
  • Two more Prison Guards.
  • Cell Upgrade – Thicker doors and bolts, making attempted breakouts less likely.
  • Prison Delivery Wagon Convoy – Players can now purchase a set of Prisoner Wagons, allowing them to take more prisoners to the Sheriff’s Office or Police Station in one trip.
    • These can be driven by the posse or hired guards.
  • Ten prisoners per wagon.
  • Eavesdropping – Players and their guards can overhear gang members discussing potential clues to the location of evidence or other gang members.
  • Two more Prison Guards
  • Five more prisoner beds.
  • The Legendary “Zed Van Golden Gang” Mission
    • A well-known gang known to have been raiding banks in New York and Chicago have made their way to the Frontier and have taken up fort in the town of Colter. Team up with the United States Government and ride up to the old mining town in order to either hogtie or execute each and every member of the gang, before confronting the villainous ‘Zed’ and his brute lieutenants who must be defeated in hand to hand combat by the player and their posse members.
    • The first completion of this mission will reward each player with RDO$1000 and 10 Gold, with subsequent playthroughs paying RDO$150 and 40 Golden Nuggets.
    • 2 – 10 players.

The Treasure Hunter Role:

• Upon reaching Collector Rank 40, players can purchase the ‘Treasure Vault’ for 25 Gold. This will unlock the twenty-level ‘Treasure Hunter’ role.
• The ‘Treasure Hunter’ role will focus on raiding tombs for special high-tier artifacts.
• Upon purchasing the Treasure Vault, players will be able to store up to ten artifacts, valued at RDO$15 each. Fully upgraded, the Treasure Vault will be able to store up to fifty artifacts.
  • This means to start with, they can sell a wagon of artifacts for RDO$150, and a full 'Treasure Vault' export will be worth RDO$750.
• Artifacts are delicate and can become damaged on export, much like Moonshine Jugs
• Tombs are procedurally generated structures (Using a wide variety of pre-set rooms) with traps that the player must avoid, and puzzles to solve.
• Sometimes, NPC Treasure Hunters may attempt to steal tomb-raiding players’ loot, or try to foil their plans by trapping them in.
• Without a security upgrade, the Vault is likely to be raided.
• To reduce the change of raids, two guards can be hired.
  • Each guard has their own loyalty mission, which will increase their accuracy, health, and damage. These are detailed further down.
• Other treasures can be found, such as special clothes and weapons, which the treasure hunter can choose to keep, or sell to a fence for 2 Gold.
  • Some examples of these items are:
    • The Monarch’s Crown
    • Ancient Robes
    • The Golden Mace
  • These are very rare to find and have a less than 2% chance of spawning as loot in a Tomb.
• Unlocks:
  • Guards (Up to two)
  • Ten more artifact slots.
  • Vault Fortifications – Decreases the chances of the vault being raided.
  • Padded wagon – Decreases the chance of artifacts breaking in the delivery wagon.
  • Ten more artifact slots
  • Item Restoration – One-time use on a loaded vault, costs $100 to use but will add RDO$300 value to the artifacts.
    • High-risk, high-reward system in play here as if the artifacts are destroyed during delivery, that money can be lost.
    • This means a full export of restored artifacts is worth RDO$1050
  • Ten more artifact slots
  • Loaded Tombs – Treasure Hunters can now find a “Loaded Tomb”, which will bolster more loot. This means more players are required to carry the artifacts.
  • Ten more artifact slots
  • Personal Treasures – Special weapon and clothing treasures the player can keep for themselves, add to the vault, or sell to the fence for 2 Gold.
    • Once again, these have a less than 2% chance of spawning in Tombs.

Ranch Hand Loyalty Missions:

• A set of loyalty missions has been added, one for each Ranch Hand. These go as follows:
  • Alexander Freeman
    • Alexander has been struggling with a debt collector harassing him and his family. The player travels to the loanshark’s hideout in order to confront him to absolve Alexander’s debts. Upon entering his office, three guards approach the player in a cutscene. The middle one gets right into the player’s face, who quickly grabs his gun, hitting him in the face with it. The other two guards begin to aim at the player. The player, still holding Guard 1’s gun smacks the guard to the left with it, ducks, and quickly shoots the person on the right.
      The loanshark promises to absolve the debt, and upon leaving the building, the player(s) and Alexander are ambushed by a group of gangsters on the Saint Denis streets, and must fight them off as they flee the city.
    • 1 – 4 players
  • Jon Wright
    • MOONSHINE SHACK REQUIRED - Jon hears about the player’s dealings with Alexander’s loanshark and asks to go for a drink with the player. They head to the player’s moonshine bar and are served drinks by either a bartender or Lem.
      Jon looks over to one of the tables, where he sees his wife flirting with another customer, and goes over to confront him. Upon confronting the man, Jon loses his temper and punches him in the face, escalating the night out into a full-on bar brawl. About five minutes in, or when most of the enemies are incapacitated, Maggie comes down and shoots the roof with her cane. She forces everyone to leave and slaps the player, calling them ridiculous. As she leaves, Jon approaches the player with a black eye, pats the player on the back and starts laughing. His now soon-to-be ex-wife sits in the corner, furious.
    • 1 – 4 players
  • Maureen Butcher
    • Maureen comes to the player to inform them that some of the ranch tools are starting to wear down, and they need to be replaced. She says her brother is willing to spare some high-quality equipment, so long as the player comes to collect it. Upon arriving at Ridgewood Farm, Maureen and the player notice that everyone is being held inside by a group of cattle rustlers, so Maureen and the player(s) must kill the attackers in order to get the equipment.
      For saving their lives, the brother and his family give the player the equipment for free.
    • 1 – 4 players
  • Each of these missions must be completed in order.
  • Scripts for these missions can be read here.

Vault Guard Loyalty Missions:

• A set of loyalty missions has been added, one for each Vault guard. These go as follows:
  • Richard Brown
    • The player is walking through their vault as they stumble across Richard pointing a gun at his head. Upon realising the player has arrived, Richard breaks into tears and apologises for everything. He explains to the player that a band of Murfree Brood kidnapped his teenage son and put him on a pike. The player offers out their hand, and Richard asks what they’re going to do. The player takes out their revolver and spins the barrel to get their point across. The player(s) ride out in a convoy with Richard towards the Murfree hideout, and kill all of them.
      Upon reaching the end of the hideout, Richard discovers a large group of people in cages, including a little boy who is crying about “Seeing Mama and Pappy lose their skin” – Richard adopts the child, swearing to look after him for the rest of his life, and the player loads everyone else onto a wagon, and takes them to Annesburg so they can find their way home safely.
    • The child, Vincent Pieters, can now be seen playing in the quarters of the Vault.
    • 1 – 4 players
  • Derek Kyle
    • Derek tells the player he’s planning on proposing to his girlfriend, Helena White. He wants something special to propose to her with and tells the player he’s heard of a special ring in a lost underground grotto below Big Valley. He explains how he normally wouldn’t ask to keep a treasure, but he really loves this woman and wants to do something extravagant for her. The player and Derek ride out to Big Valley and search for the grotto behind some rocks in the cliffs.
      Upon finding the rocks, the player(s) must search the area and carefully make their way past many traps and puzzles in order to get to the special ring. After collecting the ring, the cave they are in begins to collapse, and they must run out before being crushed.
      When they escape, Derek asks you to accompany him to the proposal.
      The scene cuts to the Blackwater cinema, where Derek and Helena are just leaving. They enter the bar where the player(s) are sitting, where he stops her and proposes. She accepts and everyone claps.
    • 1 – 4 players
  • These missions can be completed in any order.
  • Scripts for these missions can be seen here.

The Rockstar Editor:

• The Rockstar Editor has been added to Red Dead Redemption 2 and Red Dead Online. The clip recording and editing works functionally the same as Grand Theft Auto V, but with the visual effects and sounds of Red Dead Redemption 2.
• The radius of the free cam circle has been increased by ten meters from Grand Theft Auto V.
• Players can now enter free cam even if they have recorded in first person or cinematic perspective.
• The free cam can now get much closer to objects, with the option to turn collision on and off.
• Music can be added, either from the Red Dead Redemption 2 score or any of the soundtracks.
  • Score songs can have the intensity increased or decreased in the keyframe audio settings.
• Players can apply the “Cinematic Bars” as seen in storymode cutscenes, with the beautiful smooth transitions.
• Camera smooth transitions now keep up with keyframes better, and flow less jarringly.
• Added new camera movements:
  • Pan and zoom
  • Circle focal point
  • Rotate and zoom
  • Cameraman stumble
• Players can turn off gore and nudity in the project settings.

Miscellaneous Content and Additions:

• Added “The Outlaw Salesman”: A wandering merchant who will trade goods from previous Outlaw Passes.
• Bundled all of ‘The Outlaw Pass’ documents under one category in the player satchel.
• More suitable “Wilderness Camp” locations have been added.
• New Ranches, Treasure Vault Entrances and Dungeon Entrances have been added around the Frontier.
• Bandanas can now be worn with Ponchos.
• Fixed an issue which caused sedated animals to de-spawn when not within a certain radius.
• A few mid-tier player home-fronts have been added around the Frontier, with a mailbox, two floors, a guest room with two extra beds, and better-quality house services.
• Players can now store their lasso in the Weapons Locker.
• Outlaw Pass will be themed around Saint Denis, with a variety of city-slicker outfits of varying class and griminess to them. Each Role also has a themed outfit in the pass:
  • Vigilante has a dark outfit inspired by Zorro.
  • Treasure Hunter has a leather coat, hat and satchel inspired by Indiana Jones.
  • Rancher has John Marston's classic ranch clothes.
• Added a variety of new voice lines to ‘Blind Man Cassidy’, including:
  • “A tropical paradise, your friends search. They should be careful what they wish for.”
  • “You seek treasures of old, be careful of what you find.”
  • “Robberies, it really is a form of art to you.”
  • “A turncoat must always keep a steady head.”
  • “When the wife is in trouble, allow her to save the husband, but keep her alive.”

Justification:

Part two of Further Pursuits continues on the foundations laid by the first part, immediately, and adds some of the larger changes to the world (Such as the Braithwaite Manor being burned to the ground).

Whilst it may originally seem like locking lower-levelled players out of content, having the next steps of the Rolepaths be locked behind previously maxed-out roles ensures that Red Dead Online has a full progression system with the drastically lacking endgame.

The first role I wanted to touch on was the Rancher. It’s a role people have requested for Red Dead Online, but they only put a little thought into it. When most people think of becoming a Rancher in RDO, they forget to consider the constantly online and open nature of the game, so there would be a lot of issues having the content take place outside. My concept of the Rancher role mainly takes place in an instanced interior to allow the content to take place. Naturally, not all players would be happy with the idea of not being able to tend to crops or taking their cattle out to pasture – But imagine if seven RDO players at the same Ranch took all their cattle out at once! The game couldn’t handle it. I believe my ranch activities, breeding prize animals, selling animals, selling produce, chores and loyalty missions would more than make up for that however.

I came up with the Vigilante role because I felt stepping up directly from Bounty Hunter to lawman was too large and jarring of an increase. Having the Vigilante role in-between allows for a more gradual increase whilst not being too instant. The focus on larger crimes, searching for clues and gangs gives the player a feeling of a world full of organised crime and plans that they aren’t a part of. Having an entire prison convoy as a way of an “export” creates a tense mission filled with responsibility and high stakes. I decided to include the Zed Van Golden gang to have an epic finale to send out the role, with a high pay-out and a large player count to attack to really make it feel like an epic conquest.

Upon first hearing “Treasure Hunter” players may not see how it differs from the Collector role. I felt as if having a somewhat procedurally-generated tomb system (Somewhat like Destiny 2’s “Infinite Forest” or the Minecraft Dungeons worlds) would be a way to keep the follow-up to the most monotonous role in the game as one of the freshest roles in the game. Having all these pieces be able to be exported, and restored for a risk-reward service allows a new mechanic with more consequences for greed in the game.

This update also finally introduces the Rockstar Editor, which serves as free marketing and allows players to fully express their creative cinematic freedom. By this point, the game has enough content and features in Online to really create some epic stories. I wanted to improve the editor from GTA V with better camera flow, a wider free camera bubble and more so it feels much more satisfying to use.

Out of my miscellaneous content, I would like to focus on the Outlaw Salesman. Recently, Rockstar added some of the iconic outfits from previous passes to Madam Nazar. Here, I would like to add the full suite of unlocks to the Salesman, who will allow players to individually purchase past goods from Outlaw Passes and Quick Draw Clubs, which will completely annihilate the “FOMO purchases” and new players from missing out on content, whilst allowing Rockstar to sell more Gold bars.