RDR2 in the future

Given the likely reliable rumors of a PS5 launch announced and the kick-off of a new console generation, I doubt that my RDR2 (to be nitpicky, it's my son's) will be getting major upgrades, because it will belong to the last generation of consoles and will gradually fade away the way the first RDR did when PS3 moved to PS4. So, this is a pipe dream of a post, really—unless they decide that a massively expanded and remixed RDR2/Online with twice the territory, twice the missions, twice the items and twice the everything is the way to go for a PS5 game, none of this is likely to ever be possible.  But, if that generation change wasn't on the horizon, or if RockStar decided that updating and vastly expanding the game were part of their PS5 strategy, how would I do it? What would I want to add if I were making RDR2-PS5? What do I think it really could use to be a lot more fun?

First of, clearly it needs the various bugs to be fixed. My last post detailed a few of them, but some of them aren't exactly bugs as they are... poor designs. Private lobbies so you don't have to deal with server issues or griefers either one are a must. Double or even triple the random animal generation. (Heck, for that matter, I'd probably increase the random NPC generation too. There really aren't very many in Online compared to Single Player at all.)  But those are givens. What else?

First; expansion of the map. The Nuevo Paraiso section should be a no brainer, because we already know what's there, and it appears that models are even in the game that just need to be cleaned up and turned on. Beyond that, the section north of New Austin and west of West Elizabeth and Ambarino is a big blank corner that could be filled in to give us a more square-like map with plenty of new territory, if they can figure out something interesting to do with it that isn't derivative (PNW style scenery, maybe? Thick, green, mossy forests with lots of creeks and waterfalls?) You could easy add another 25-35% territory to the map simply by adding this. And frankly, Flat Iron Lake seems like a big wasted opportunity; there should be some kind of cool island or something out there that's not too hard to reach that can be explored too. We could easily get up to 50% more map without even really expanding beyond what's already there, although some development filling the rough models in the code with more texture, more towns, NPCs, sites and whatnot to explore would, of course, be necessary.

You could keep a steady stream of new stuff going on by adding a new role every... what, six months or so, maybe? Along with mixing it up with new PVP events, new stranger missions popping up here and there, new bounties, etc., you can keep an evergreen cycle of new things to do that don't require too much work from the developers, all things considered.

I kinda like the hunting a lot, and I think even more exotic animals could be added. When Thomas Jefferson sent Lewis & Clark out West, he believed it likely that they'd find surviving megafauna like ground sloths, sabertooths, mammoths, etc. still lurking out there in the vast, unknown West. Sadly, there weren't, but what if there were? What if... there were Columbian mammoths, sabertooths, terror birds, American cheetahs, or a handful of other unusual animals to hunt? What if one of the new roles was some kind of hunter, and the missions that you'd be given were actually to find these and bring them in? Much more exciting than legendary animals from single player.

What if one of the roles were a kind of Old West Scully & Mulder investigator of the paranormal? Single player already has ghosts, ghost trains, sasquatch skeletons (there's at least one sasquatch that makes an appearance in Undead Nightmare, I think), nightmare daemonic cults, human sacrifice, a Nosferatu (maybe. Unless he's not just a crazy person who kills you surprisingly easily with a knife if you let him.) There's UFOs, there's mutants, there's Night Folk who are pretty darn close to being like zombies already. Making a role around that stuff would be AWESOME!