I’m gonna do this bullet style. Some of these are asking for content, others bug fixes that may not be passed up. I understand some of these aren’t fast fixes or additions. I also am not aware of a road tree, but i’m assuming something as mundane as crafting will be implemented in the future.
Ambiance. So occasionally i see a bandit running off with his victim chasing behind him, but the villagers around him just don’t notice. There are other things as well that could be added in, just to create a more realistic environment.
Hold ups. Whenever i encounter a hold up and i help out the guards (haven’t helped out the bandits, but i’m not opposed to it) a few of the bandits randomly sit down with their hands tied. I can’t interact with the winning side and claim a reward or anything.
Crafting. Can we have crafting? Please?
Duel wielding. See bullet above.
Feel free to the list. I’ll probably add some as they come up, because i had more than this originally.
The Good: Suggestions to improve gameplay:
At some point in a future patch or DLC, please consider adding:
A camping feature similar to Chesko’s Frostfall/Campfire dynamic in Skyrim. This would allow henry to rest when between safety of towns in the wilderness. Especially ideal for those gamers who don’t want to abuse the FT feature.
Fishing. We’ve got an amazing husbandry system. Which require drinking water (figuratively speaking). Also streams and water bodies exist— but no fishing? Why is this fundamental food staple missing? Something to help keep Henry from starving if he’s low on coin and/or luck
Harvesting garden plots/orchards. Lore talks about the lowliest peasant household having these on their plots. But no produce exists on trees/vines which Henry could harvest directly to eat
The bad: Suggestions for short term improvement/Potentially critical tech/possible game breaking dynamics
Bed/Schnapp Save game Dynamic
For the love of God, PLEASE DECOUPLE THE BED/SCHNAPP SAVE GAME DYNAMIC. It’s painfully clear this game mechanic was designed for console gamers and console performance (with the ridiculouly limited number of save game slots) in mind. However, not all of us PC gamers care for the Dark Souls/DID gameplay dynamic that is created from mandatory use of (expensive) food tokens or seeking bedding in the game world. All this does is detracts from the amazing immersion the game throws the player into at the very start of the game.
This game mechanic BREAKS the immersion and flow of the game, because the player is now forced to grind the game to ad infinitum if they die before reaching the next save game point. Looking down the road beyond the tutorial, I can see myself desperately seeking the next bed to sleep/save (at an inappropriate time like high noon) after henry has had 10+ hr sleep the prior night). Just so I don’t lose any game progress. Then the fact the game economy has an insane degree of inflation (without mods) since gold/money making opportunities are hard to come by. Especially early in the game aka right after the tutorial.
Sword Fighting
A brilliantly intuitive way of experiencing the world in first person. However, the keyboard/mouse combo is horrifically clunky and unwieldly to use in close quarter melee combat. The tutorial was completely useless because the tactics illustrated there were rendered useless the moment Henry entered real combat with 2+ NPC (in the escape scene where he has to run & warn the other villagers).
Horseback riding
Another brilliant game play element. Unfortunately however, this is in DIRE need of optimization with a PC game controller. First, the mouse is completely useless in any navigation on horseback. Second, it is virtually IMPOSSIBLE to direct the horse while giving it commands (aka sprinting, jumping etc.) to evade enemy NPCs using the keyboard. Trying to make the horse move on a diagonal to remain on the road (because Fast Travel has NEVER worked since it was introduced in the tutorial) requires simultaneous pressing of the W & D or W&A keys. I feel as though I time traveled back to 1995 in the days of Ultima and TES Arena. The keybord controls for this game dynamic is ridiculously user unfriendly.
Please do something about optimizing these game mechanics via a PC game controllers. I’m literally unable to finish the tutorial because of this.
Basically,l the combo KO punches by these 3 issues have reduced my enjoyment of the game to a Dark Souls/Dead is Dead grind fest. I’m literally unable to succeed in getting henry safely out of his sacked village to progress in the game.
These issues in addition to the other lags/stuttering/fps drops and unpredictable freezes have forced me to quit playing the game until a patch update is released. Amazing game and unprecedented degree of 1st person RPG immersion. But completely unplayable until these issues are addressed.
I’ve tried both controller and mouse and keyboard, and I definitely prefer mouse and keyboard. However, people do have their preferences and some people just don’t know how to use mouse and keyboard if they’re used to a controller. You can use an xbox one controller on PC.
Are we playing the same game? I never had any problems with mouse and keyboard. I can navigate my horse very well and I have no problems when fighting…
I’m using a windows PC controller and a wireless logitec mouse. I only have 3.0 usb ports on my gaming rig. The logitech is a 2.0 usb so perhaps this may be part of my issue? Because even int he tutorial, I had a difficult time getting henry to react in a timely fashion to the sword training lesson. Thrusting the wireless mouse back forth and side-side as the controls suggested were non existent or extremely sluggish. Adjusted mouse sensitivity to no avail
Then in the escape scene, I quit trying to make him fight anyone. Had him jump down the hillside & sprint directly for the nearest horse. Mounted the horse and switched to using the controller. Mashed the “B” key for all it was worth to haul his ass up out of there. Everything fine until he gets on the radar of that enemy archer on horseback…
From that point, it’s all downhill. Henry keeps loosing MASSIVE amounts of health from direct hits to mere arrow grazing. And always ends up bleeding out just before he makes the destination cut scene.
Would it really kill the devs to enable the FT feature for this leg of the game? What was the point of introducing this feature in the tutorial when it wasn’t even necessary to use it (to escape the guard after vandalizing the German’s house)? Haven’t been able to use it since. The ideal place to use it is at the end of the tutorial. Very convenient workaround for those players like myself who are simply unable to get to the destination point.
This is second only to the save game mechanic which I pointed out earlier. It’s too #$@%@ bad I can’t save the blasted game while in combat. Because the ideal time for a save game at this point, is right after you mount the horse. That way, you don’t have to flipping redo the ENTIRE scene running from the castle gate…
Saving whenever you wanted to was a complete possibility in Skyrim/Fallout, so WTF not in this game? Even the save game mod I’m using can’t override. So I’m stuck in limbo replaying the end of the tutorial to ad infinitum…
“Ambience” Yes the game lacks some features that could make it more immersive. I’d enjoy seeing villagers pouting and gasping, occasionally seeing other villagers join in. I’d assume during This time period everyone knows everyone and surely some would want to help, others in shock.
“Hold ups” Yes, these encounters need some more work. Occasionally the gaurds will even turn on you for helping them kill the Cumans/Bandits. I’d like to see some of the tied up enemies attempt flee with their hands tied.
“Dual-Wielding* This is more of a fictional thing I believe, I don’t want to see this. Keep it classical.
“Camping Feature” - would love to see this, but it would require some elaborate thought and scripting with fairly particular conditions. Even still there are many camps you can sleep at throughout the map.
Purely for personal reasons would I want duel wielding
However, I think giving Henry the ability to fight with daggers or even a single dagger would help. Add in perks specifically for dagger fighting like extra backstab damage, etc.
Speaking of something like this I wouldn’t mind a stealth kill move with a dagger where you slice their throat. For all I know this is possible but I haven’t tried s I just charge in and hack and slash everyone
Well that is VERY good to know. Even better since the devs have clearly stated they designed the game to be mod friendly. which tells me the devs have facilitated our ability to mod this game down the road. or will be providing such future mod support in form of patch/dlc.
Fact numerous such vanilla camp sites exist, provides the perfect framework for a talented nexus modder (the likes of chesko) to create a complete camping system on the scaffolding these vanilla camp sites provide. for example, the FT and direct travel system is already in place to travel to these sites. The game also already has a hunting dynamic where players can acquire meat for game from wildlife or domestic husbandry.
Additionally, the sites already have a vanilla clutter/static objects (to create ambience). But most importantly, they have at least ONE functional object (i.e. a bed save point in form of a sleeping mat etc). So all modders would need add are Hunterborn/Frostfall/campfire scripts which would add ability for player to :
**either buy camping equipment from merchants or craft their own camping equipment on fly in wilderness
** make a working campfire (assuming a functional one for cooking doesn’t already exist)
** setup camp by harvesting resources in the immediate area. i.e. chopping wood/collecting branches, foraging for food in form setting traps for wildlife (i.e. from newly added wildlife like squirrels, rabbits, grouses etc), from a new FISHING ability, harvesting animal meat from a newly added RDR & Skyrim/Hunterborn SKINNING skill, harvesting berries/nuts and other newly added plant products etc. The animations of this can be taxing, so simply fade the screen to black (the way the vanilla mode currently works to indicate passage time). The harvested resources will be in henry’s inventory after that.
So much amazing potential in this game. But it still needs another year of the fan base gamma testing the game (with or without mods) to get it to true maturity. That’s going to be at least a year out from now. Assuming RDR2 doesn’t diminish enthusiasm for playing this 1st person RPG that has made this game so unique that is.
edit: while we’re at improving suggestions for this franchise, this forum is in dire need of an overhaul and moderation. simple features like the list buttons don’t even work. And too many web brower failure to load page errors when links are clicked on the site. I fear the dev team is being overwhelmed with the flood of feedback they’re getting. Particularly the 88K+ PC gamers who’re ranking this game as #5 on Steam’s user stat list to date!
I really don’t know what to say. I mean the tutorial all you have to do is get on the horse, and ride away. Are you just holding shift down or do you do double shift to make the horse go faster?
I think people need to stop playing this like it’s Skyrim. And while there are some who think the game is too difficult, myself and some others think they need to ramp up the difficulty because at this point it’s easy mode.
