I'm slowing down my playing. I make sure to hit up a few daily challenges to keep my streak, so that my multiplier doesn't drop off again, and also so I can continue the slow growth of my gold total. I'm also grinding, when I get the chance, trader/hunting and collecting to keep my cash flow up, because I have a lot of rather pricey things on my "to buy" list; the next big purchase will be the fast travel post at my camp. Then I've got more cosmetic things; camp themes, Cripps' outfits, more stable space, and the next two role horses that I haven't picked up yet (because I haven't hit level 20 in those roles to unlock them yet.) Then I have the rest of the role outfits to buy, and a few other accouterments and costume items here and there. And I've got Moonshiner updates to buy, including two upgrades to the still and the bar, and eventually the bar cosmetic themes. And I'm considering a black Arabian while they're on sale, which will require a Nacogodoches saddle, plus updgrades.
Of course, I also have the new stuff to buy shortly when the next big update comes. It will release a new role (there's even some speculation that there may be two new roles) and presumably another outlaw pass. I don't know how much that'll cost, but the last outlaw pass was 40 gold bars and the moonshiner role was 25 gold bars. I'm expecting that I need to make sure I have at least 65 gold bars handy to buy in, and 90 would be nice just to be safe. (I actually have over 100, and that's after I splurged just a bit and bought some discounted Opulent vests this morning for 4 and 3 gold bars each respectively. Gotta take advantage of that sale!) If for some reason there are two roles, and everything costs more, I might be just a tad short, but then again—I make at least two or three gold bars a day from a casual check into daily challenges, so I'll get there quick enough. Plus, the outlaw passes of the past gave you back as much gold as you spent as you went through them.
Grinding collectibles for cash is usually seen as the best way to make easy and quick money, but the reality is that isn't really that easy or quick. Although I do log on for about 30-45 minutes most weekday mornings to check out a few daily challenges, and I try to play an hour or two most nights as well to grind, that's not really a ton of time, when it takes a good hour and a half to two hours to round up all of the coins. (I usually focus on coin collections, because they're the most valuable to sell back.) I could probably do it a bit faster if I stayed focused and didn't occasionally get involved in clearing a gang hide-out, or rival moonshiner operation, or revenuer roadblock, or in shooting a big herd of animals. And certainly it would be faster if I wasn't kicked out of the game, had camp glitches, and other problems still happening with disappointing regularity. The biggest problem I have with the collecting is that the most convenient time for me to play is literally right in at the same time that the cycle changes, so I rarely can get the whole set before the locations all reset, and I have to try and figure out what cycle I'm on all over again. Realistically, most evenings I don't, because it's starting to get too late by that point, and I want to go to bed so I can work and function like a normal person and not an OCD gamer person. That means that if I can do a collection run on Saturday, and maybe Friday evening, that's a good week. Needless to say, I'm not making the over $4,000 a day cash that the OCD gamer crowd says if possible, because you have to be investing considerably more time doing so than I have to spend.
I'm also lucky if I do a big trader run more than once or twice a week, especially because in spite of the animal fixes, I do still quite often have really sparse animal spawns where it's hard to turn much in.
Of course, having spammed them for cash means that those are the two roles that I've leveled up the fastest. I'm level 10 or 11 on bounty hunter, and I don't really love doing bounty hunter missions. I'm only 8 or 9 in moonshiner, and don't necessarily dislike the role, but I find it a bit fiddly to do, so my progress has been relatively slow. In reality, this is actually ideal. I saw a video earlier today where some RDR Youtube "luminary" recommended getting tons of collections, but not selling them, so you can turn them all in at once as soon as you have the new outlaw pass, and spam complete it all in one go, or at least within a single day. What?! As most of his commentators pointed out, these are the same kinds of people who complain that there's not enough to do in RDR Online. I actually like the fact that the moonshiner and bounty hunter role still linger for me, with plenty more to do for a while yet, even as I'm also only character level 66 or 67 or so, so I'm only two thirds of the way through unlocking all the stuff that you can get there too. When the new outlaw pass and role land, I'll have all kinds of stuff to grind through without it (hopefully) getting too repetitive. The collector and trader are good for getting pretty big money, but they're kinda boring after a while to do too. The main reason I still spend more time on them than the other stuff to do is that I still have expensive (albeit mostly optional and cosmetic rather than genuinely "necessary") stuff yet to buy. Anyway, I'm excited about a new role and a new outlaw pass, but I'm also excited to continue buying crap.
I've got three of the camp themes unlocked; standard, hobo and survivalist. I really want the three role themes as well as traveling opulence and military surplus. I think there's another one that I'm not remembering too. Those are all, of course, the most expensive ones. I don't know why I care about getting Cripps outfits, but I like variety there too; seeing him look the same all the time somehow just doesn't do it for me. Although by the same token, I don't mind not having Maggie or... whats-his-name; Pierre or whatever the French distiller guy is called customization options at all. Although given the money I still need to spend on the moonshiner role for two still upgrades, a bar and band expansion, and bar themes, I've got plenty to do there too once I get around to it.
I'm also a little bit annoyed that the role outfits, unlike the other outfits you can buy in game, don't break up into component parts, with the exception of the hat. You can't wear just the coat, or the shirt, or the boots, or whatever—it's all or nothing. Given that I don't really love most of the outfits, and greatly prefer customized ones anyway, that means that the more expensive ones just become incredibly expensive hats, but... eh. I'm sure I'll get them anyway. And while I have two top-level horses now; the trader horse in silver and the collector horse in brown and white, do I really also need a moonshiner and bounty hunter horse? Yes! With their unique saddles too, and the saddles need to be kitted out with improved saddle bags and lanterns! Sigh.
In spite of all this, I'm getting frustrated enough by glitches that screw me over, that I'm sometimes not really as excited to play as I'd like to be. It's also been a month and a half since I got into it, if my daily challenge streak is correct, anyway. Burnout is a real risk. Especially once my delayed PC finally shows up and I get other things to do during my evening free time that I'm maybe more excited about. Like Old Republic. And writing. And music editing and collecting, etc.
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