Pyrian on 3/11/2018 at 21:07
Lol. I did a near equivalent in DX:HR, punching a guy out who was saying "Welcome to Hengsha rooftop garde - huh *kapow*" I was just trying to get on my way.
scumble on 3/11/2018 at 23:05
Quote Posted by Malf
I've just realised I'm probably playing this at a ridiculously slow pace as far as the story's concerned. I've only just got around to unlocking the fishing rod. Just having too much fun exploring and playing with the systems.
A couple of side-quests have really hit me hard too, especially one of the home robberies,
Crawfish Jackson. Just...
damn.
Wish I could go back and try to use non-lethal methods :(
I've been pushing ahead with the story as I tend to just want to know what's happening next. I've only hunted a bit and picked up a couple of legendary animals - both of the small ones.
In terms of killing people unnecessarily there is a lot more of that coming up. There have been a few missions where I've wondered why you can't knock people out who don't really have to die, they just happened to be in the wrong place. On the other hand the character of Arthur is written in such a way that he seems depressed by his own existence, and also dragged into various situations by the rest of the gang due to loyalty. At least that's the way it's coming across to me. Yet many games have this problem of balancing characters with gameplay - like Lara Croft rapidly turning into an efficient killing machine very fast because that's what the gameplay requires.
Incidentally I'm competing with my son for time on the game now. He seems to have been quite good at making the game unhappy. He came across a situation where he couldn't get on a horse and kept popping straight off again, requiring a game restart. It's relatively rare that the engine gets hugely confused though.
Malf on 3/11/2018 at 23:22
I've had a few serious bugs, and one that I'm fairly confident I can reproduce at will. That involves the journal losing all of its entries if accessed immediately after loading a save then using the left D-Pad button to attempt to go back a chapter.
I've had the game stop responding to certain button presses, requiring a restart, and just this evening I had a nasty one where invisible walls were preventing me from leaving camp, even after triggering a mission.
Thirith on 4/11/2018 at 09:21
Do any of you know exactly how manual saves work? In particular, can you save in mid-mission? I've not tried this myself yet, since I don't particularly want to lose mission progress, so I thought I'd ask.
Also, I think I need to go on an extended hunting trip, since I want to upgrade those satchels. Shame that they all require perfect crafting materials, but hey, perhaps that's as good a chance as any to hone my hunting skills.
Malf on 4/11/2018 at 13:15
Nah, it won't let you save mid-mission / activity. And the manual save doesn't load back up exactly the same as when you saved. It'll usually have you somewhere near where you saved at a different time of day.
I've got all but 2 of the normal satchels now, but the last couple require really rare perfect pelts, predators I think (because of course, you can't track needed ingredients out in the field, you can only check what's needed when you're back in camp. Rassen frassen.)
I'm also trying to work my way through the challenges too, although the sharpshooter one's pissing me off at the moment. I have to kill 5 birds whilst riding on top of a moving train. But you can't buy a train ticket and do this legitimately, because if you buy a ticket, you can't move around the train, instead getting a cutscene. So the only way to do this is to board an already moving train, pissing off the guard, then hoping that a flock spawn and you're able to shoot them before you become wanted. As soon as you start firing, the train starts rolling to a stop and it triggers the whole train robbery set of responses, including law enforcement riders and guards. I've tried it a couple of times and wound up generating a ridiculous bounty, enough to wipe out the money I made over the previous couple of hours of play. GRRR.
Still loving the game overall though. It's just that Rockstar are not the best at designing the gamey bits of games, as noted above by sulphur and henke.
Like the amount of gear and mechanics that are arbitrarily locked off behind story progression, with no indication that's the case (I'm looking at you, Deadeye Painting and Fishing Rod). For one challenge, I just need to craft a dynamite arrow, but my Arthur doesn't know how to yet. And not because he hasn't learned how, but because, in all likelihood, I haven't progressed far enough in the story yet. For all those abilities and items locked off with a red padlock, even a simple infotext telling you why they're not unlocked yet would really help alleviate frustration.
henke on 4/11/2018 at 14:39
Quote Posted by Malf
So the only way to do this is to board an already moving train, pissing off the guard, then hoping that a flock spawn and you're able to shoot them before you become wanted. As soon as you start firing, the train starts rolling to a stop and it triggers the whole train robbery set of responses, including law enforcement riders and guards.
What if you use a bow? It should be silent enough not to alert the guards, but perhaps it'll still trigger the train robbery?
scumble on 5/11/2018 at 10:41
Quote Posted by Thirith
Also, I think I need to go on an extended hunting trip, since I want to upgrade those satchels. Shame that they all require perfect crafting materials, but hey, perhaps that's as good a chance as any to hone my hunting skills.
I did a bit of hunting last night as I was actually getting a bit tired of the story. Partly because Dutch seems to be a bit stupid and Arthur is too loyal. I thought, sod him, I'll go and explore the north.
I'm finding it easier exploring with a fine Arabian horse that passers by keep commenting on. It's also trivial to get away when held up by some random assholes on the road.
There's a mission that gives you quite a large stack of cash so I cleared the large bounties around Strawberry to go up that way. I fought off a grizzly bear attack and got a poor quality pelt for my trouble. I got eaten by the legendary wolf. I was irritable and shot some other bandit giving me lip. I forgot to check for passers by and had to chase a witness who killed himself by riding into a moving train. I feel life is really unfair for npcs. I've not had a game make me feel this guilty for killing people even accidentally.
I had a frustrating time hunting elk using a rifle, because apparently a small bush can absorb high velocity rounds. Eventually hit one in the neck but still only got a “good” pelt. I'm still not sure if the pelts are not the best to start with or I'm damaging them.
I'm also frustrated that I can't buy the best rifles as they are mysteriously locked at the gunsmith. It helps that you get tutorial missions but as malf says, why lock the fishing rod behind a mission? In plenty of other cases the game pops up incidental info if you come across something by discovering it.
henke on 5/11/2018 at 11:09
Quote Posted by scumble
I'm still not sure if the pelts are not the best to start with or I'm damaging them.
If you look at animals with the binoculars you'll get a "Study" prompt, which tells you the quality of the beast. And I suspect using a bow will yield the cleanest kill. Use poison-tipped arrows, if you have them.
Malf on 5/11/2018 at 11:13
Quote Posted by henke
What if you use a bow? It should be silent enough not to alert the guards, but perhaps it'll still trigger the train robbery?
I finally did in a couple of attempt by jumping on a train, shooting a few bird, then jumping back off the train on to my horse who was loyally running alongside. This triggered the initial "Wanted, but because I basically just scarpered without shooting angry train guards (even though they were shooting at me), I didn't generate a bounty.
Next phase is to get a tomahawk kill from 80 feet or more. I think I'm going to have to get the homing tomahawk before this one ping properly.
scumble, even if you're using the right weapon to get a clean kill, you want to try and make sure to get headshots. If you hit them anywhere else, it might not be a kill and the pelt will lose a quality star. I also highly recommend taming a second horse while you're out hunting, as this means you can then take 2 large pelts back to the trapper or camp. As a bonus, you can then sell the second horse :)
A tip in case you hadn't noticed: once you've used "Study" on an animal species, you can quickly ascertain the quality of an animal without having to read its info page by paying attention to the number of stars in front of its name in the bottom right of the screen.
Another big tip: Don't bother with the dedicated sniper rifles. Instead, get a scope upgrade for one of the standard rifles, like the Springfield. Dedicated sniper rifles do about the same damage as the Springfield, but are restricted to only being able to aim-down-scope, where a Springfield with an add-on scope allows you to toggle between scope and no-scope.
The Springfield's pretty much the go-to weapon for hunting anything larger than a coyote. Headshots will guarantee clean kills and perfect pelts.