Red Dead Videos

[Art Blade]

mandru, you're only 25 posts away from JRD's top poster position.. you can even do it this year! Go go go

[Dweller_Benthos]

Yeah that guy deserved what he got. I was wondering if you could pick him up and toss him off the cliff or something. I have never succeeded in roping anything yet, except for one guy during a bounty hunter mission and it took several tries and re-dos from the checkpoint. And when I did get him, I didn't figure out what combination of random buttons I had pushed to make it happen. Just another thing in the game I don't understand how it's supposed to w0#k. Like dead eye, half the time it doesn't even activate so I can't use it. Pretty sure my thingy is full too. I'm constantly eating that food that's supposed to refill it, so who knows.

The problem is, when a hint pops up on screen on how to do something, it's there for half a second and I'm usually busy not getting eaten by a bear or something to be able to read it. Plus it usually needs two or three buttons to be pressed in sequence and / or at the same time in order to w0#k. Like the one thing I saw about getting your horse up to full speed and then tapping the forward button (I think, maybe the go faster button?) in time with how the horse is galloping to make it run fast and not lose stamina or some such? I mean really, can they make it more complicated?

[Art Blade]

welcome to the rant club, Dweller That game combines absolutely fantastic graphics and animations and sounds and everything that makes it look so tremendously beautiful, but the overall "usability" design (menus, prompts, key binds, "help" sections, "hints," and generally the UI) is so far off that it may be compared to a super $p@rts car with a mule attached to it to drag it in order to move at all.

The horse thingy with tapping a key, don't worry, it only works during missions as far as I understand it, tapping the key to move up a position or to maintain speed is always related to someone you're riding with in a posse. If you roam freely, you just use the keys as throttle and brake.

Dead Eye.. the stupid thing about it is that the ring around that core is what counts and you use it up pretty quickly and the worst part is that it doesn't regenerate (unless you sleep long but that's not really an option) so you have to constantly refill that ring with either snake oil, used snake oil, or chewing tobacco. The latter eats away a bit of the dead eye core so subsequently you need to eat something that refills the core.

I realised that I had to level up those rings, particularly dead eye, or the game would be absolutely horrible during fights or hunts. You should really level up those "core abilities" which of course takes time and is a chore, as always. The best way is probably doing those challenges. The most comprehensive overview for all challenges I've got is the following link and you can choose what to do for which effect.

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/red-dead-redemption-2-challenges-and-how-to-trigge/1100-6463098/

As to how to use Dead Eye, the problem you described that half the time it doesn't trigger.. maybe it's a good idea to go through the basics, the real basics first. Recharge your outer ring with snake oil or chewing tobacco if that ring (or more like, if you haven't levelled that up, quarter of a ring) isn't filled any more. That's the first thing that you need to keep in mind but I reckon you know that already.

The next thing that's not explained anywhere, not to my knowledge, and that's perhaps what you meant: Eagle Eye (without aiming) and Dead Eye (while aiming) are two different things but use the same key. You use eagle eye to "scout" the area. Once you activate it you'll hear a swoosh sound the pitch of which will keep rising until the eagle eye has run out of juice and then ends with some sort of boom sound, marking the end of it. You'll have to wait a sec or two until you can use it again. That eagle eye thingy is free of charge, you don't need anything to refill it, it will always do that. You can cut that eagle vision short by hitting the same key again, to interrupt (stop) using it. And that's the point I guess you've kept running into problems: if you interrupt it or used it up, there's a cool-down period to recharge it. If and when you try to reactivate eagle eye during that period, you'll hear a loud clank sound every time you press that key until the cool-down is over. I find it easier not to completely use up the eagle eye but stop it before the pitch is highest, like stop it while it's still active. That kind of prevents the cool-down period. So if you interrupt it and there's still some power left, you can reactivate eagle eye faster, at leat that's how I think it works. And it saves you that super annoying clank-clank-clank-come on-clank-clank-COME ON!-clank

The actual dead eye, activated by aiming first, is a different thing. That actually uses up your ring around the dead eye core. Your vision goes orange-ish and you hear your heart beat (slow and low) and time slows down. You cannot mark targets while using any scoped weapon, marking targets only works without scope. Before chapter 4, your dead eye while scoped will end after a shot and you need to reactivate it every time. Only after you unlocked that ability to stay in dead eye while shooting will you be able to aim and fire and aim again without having to reactivate dead eye all the time. Also, you start with an auto-mark ability. Not-scoped dead eye will mark any target your crosshairs "touch" which is great for crowd control when they're in bushes or in the dark, your auto-marker will find and mark them if you wave your crosshairs around. Marking specific parts like only one mark per head and not the arms and legs and neck as well requires you to aim above the head and then lower your aim onto the head, rise it again and so forth, it reminds me of those karaoke songs that show the lyrics on screen and a pointer bouncing from syllable to syllable to show when to sing it, the same kind of pointer movement applies to that auto-mark aiming for heads. Some time in chapter 3 you'll unlock the manual marking which replaces the auto-mark ability forever.

So.. you can't actually shift in and out of dead eye without being able to reactivate it unless you go staccato on it. You need to slow down a tad switching it on and off and it should w0#k just fine.

As to the lasso and hogtying someone.. yeah. Same here. I'm never quite sure whether or not it auto-hogties someone as can be seen in the vid when I randomly grab the guy and get the options to choke, dismiss and beat. I dismissed and tried again, and that time the hogtie worked.

[Dweller_Benthos]

Thanks for that Art, quite an explanation. I wasn't aware the eagle eye part didn't drain your meter, but was on a timer. So that makes sense now. As far as the dead eye goes, I'd have to fiddle with it more, I do get the time slow down bit sometimes, but I'm almost positive I've had a full meter, the gun out and dead eye did nothing. Though I can't be sure I wasn't aiming then, not pointing the gun at anything, just it was out. It was as usual a frantic fire fight and I kept mashing the dead eye button and nothing was happening. So it's aim, (with right click for me), then use dead eye, and pass the cursor over a target's head, and it should mark it, then what? Let go dead eye? Click the left mouse button?

[Art Blade]

you got everything right there. And your question: Either simply press fire and you'll start shooting the marked spots or cancel by pressing the dead/eagle eye button again. The latter makes sense if you want a perfect pelt but the auto-marker riddled the animal with lots of marks OR you simply didn't mark the red lethal zone of the animal. In both cases you'd ruin the pelt. Then it's better to abort and start over.

[Dweller_Benthos]

That clarifies it, thanks!

[Art Blade]

welcome

you'll eventually get rid of the auto-marker and then you'll have to "dose" your dead eye but it's better. Even later you'll get the ability to keep using dead eye while using a scoped gun and dead eye will stay on even after a shot. Right now, you'll notice that dead eye will abort after a shot aimed with a scope.

[Dweller_Benthos]

I did use dead eye for a couple scoped shots last night and got the hang of it, I actually like that a little better than waving the gun around until it marks a headshot and then let it rip, doing all the w0#k for you.

[Art Blade]

I was thinking about that and how long the game remains "worth" playing in free roam without limitations. Previously I recommended staying in chapter 2, perhaps start of chapter 3. Now, having completed the game and being on my second playthrough, I've reached chapter four. Now I realise that it is probably even better to go that far in order to remain there for however long you wish.

Reason: You'll have unlocked a few things by then, especially the M1899 semi-automatic pistol becomes available, I think the best hand gun in the game (fast shooting and ammo clips for fast reloading and powerful with express rounds to kill wolves with one shot) Also the hair/beard growth limit is gone (8 in ch.2, 9 ch.3) so you can actually get your hair/beard to "level" 10 in chapter 4 already. In other words, around the beginning of chapter 4 you'll be at your prime. The camp will be not far from Saint Denis (Shady Belle, former gang hideout) and you've got access to everything except, of course, Blackwater and beyond.

AND you'll have the manual marking instead of the auto-marking, but that's already available in chapter 3. Some time later in chapter 4 the uninterrupted dead eye for scoped shooting will unlock but I don't know yet how much the game will be affected by its story by then. I'll let you know.

[Dweller_Benthos]

I didn't realize the camp moves, not sure how I like that, it's more central where it is now, even then it's a lot of horse travel to get around. Though I just did unlock fast travel, and usually I don't use it in games if I can avoid it, but really, the horseback travel in this game is the least enjoyable travel I've had in a game, and though I love wandering around in an open world, it just gets too tedious by horse so I'll probably be using fast travel a lot more.

[Art Blade]

yes, I use it all the time. Not that I dislike the horseback travel, on the contrary, but.. let's say, you typically don't reach your destination in a straight trip from A to B. Too many distractions and obstacles on the way, of all sorts.

[Dweller_Benthos]

OK, how do you dead eye while using the bow? I was trying for a snake last night and to aim the bow you have to hold right mouse button, then to draw back you have to hold left mouse button, then to activate dead eye (for me) is middle mouse button. OK, fiddling around with my fingers on the mouse buttons, I had the bow drawn back but dead eye either didn't activate at all or activated but didn't target the snake, unless I wasn't being careful enough to get the dot on the snake's head. Clumsy process for sure.

[Art Blade]

sounds like a very unpractical bind combo when it comes to using the bow and perhaps either the game or you can't handle LMB+MMB+RMB at the same time Otherwise, there is no difference. Aim, pull back, hit dead eye, then ideally wait for the crosshairs to turn red over the red zone so your shot will be both lined up and hit the lethal zone, then fire.

[Dweller_Benthos]

OK, yeah I just need to either rebind that or use three mouse fingers, lol. Though what's this red zone you mention? The mouse pointer itself will turn red when it's over the animal in general, is that what you mean? Or is there something else I'm supposed to look for?

[Art Blade]

something else that you obviously don't yet have: lethal zones in targets. Like, you see a bear, aim, activate dead eye, and suddenly his head is all red and the zone where the heart is, perhaps some intestines as well, and you'd know what exactly to aim at for a one hit kill, especially when your target is an animal with a perfect skin in order to obtain that perfect skin. Can be really tricky with rabbits as you may accidentally mark the ears rather than the brain and only wound it And particularly annoying are small birds. Same as with snakes, they only have the head as their lethal zone.