RDR a few more pictures

A few more self portrait style pictures. Mostly to show outfits that I'd tinkered with, but also for a few other reasons; I like the weird pagan ritual thing that I found recently; I don't know how I missed it for as long as I had (it's not that pagan ritual that Arthur draws in his journal, nor is it anywhere close to it geographically. Nor is it as graphic or obvious.)

I've also picked up two Nacogdoches saddles, and have really noticed a difference. I was adamant for quite some time that I wanted to use the role saddles with the role horses, but the difference in stamina drain and speed and acceleration is so noticeable that I can't not use it anymore, I think. A real shame, because I had five very expensive saddles, which I now will probably rarely if ever use. And they mostly all looked great too.  Like I said, so far I have two Nacogdoches saddles, fully kitted out, including with lanterns. The saddle itself is over $500, the lantern is $350, and the saddle bag and stirrup upgrades are somewhere between $100-150 each. A fully kitted out Nacogdoches saddle is over $1,000; more than the horse, even, even if you get one of the most expensive ones.

I also, after not using my Kladrubar much, have really felt like he was super slow using him recently. I just put the second Nacogdoches saddle on him, and I'll run him around for a while, but I'm not sure that I love that horse as much as I thought. He's great when you want to get into gunfights or if you run into a cougar or wolves, but given that I spend most of my time on horseback just crossing space on the map, I've come to really appreciate the Criollo, which had been my least favorite of my horses. I now think that if I were to rank my horses as most likely to use to least, I'd put the Criollo and Norfolk near the top, the Breton next, and the Turkoman and Kladrubar near the bottom. Sigh.  So now I'll probably want a Missouri Foxtrotter even more than I did before, because it's much more likely to be a top tier horse even in my own personal stable, having almost identical stats to the Criollo, but a significantly different look.

My dog is named Robin Hood, and my horses, in order that I got them, are Little John, Will Scarlet, Alan-a-Dale, Friar Tuck and Guy of Gisborne. I'm running out of Robin Hood related names that are meaningful enough to use. King Richard and Prince John are about all that's left; and I'm almost at the point that I'd rather get a mare and name her Maid Marian anyway than use those. But given that I can see myself getting at least two more horses in the relatively short term; the Missouri Foxtrotter and whatever the new role horse will be (I presume that there will be one, and I hope it's significantly different than what we have. A noticeably shaggy little horse of some sort would be cool) and maybe still a white Arabian, that'll use up my stock of names. Not to mention most of my available stable stall spots, even if I buy up all of them that are available.

The only downside with the Nacogdoches saddle is that the single colored Collector's saddle bag doesn't match them very well, and they do have improved saddle bags that specifically are designed to match the various colors of this saddle. While mostly this isn't a big deal, it means that the max number of outfits I can carry on my horse is now five instead of seven. Because I leave one space blank on my horse, to make room for the inevitable "custom outfits" that it creates when my hat falls off or my bandanna glitches away, that means that I can have one cold outfit, one hot outfit, my basic outfit, and only one other. So, I'm spending a bit more time making outfits that I actually want to wear, because I can't quite as easily swap between them if after a while I think I look silly.

Anyway, on to the pictures. A few feature horses, mostly my Criollo, Will Scarlet. In keeping with his name, I tried to give him a reddish mane and tale. I also exclusively use the "mohawk" style mane, because in cinematic mode, it doesn't wave behind the horse's head like a weird, stiff flag. Same thing as the longer tails on my coats; the animation for them just doesn't look right, so I prefer not to use them and look silly. After all, when running across the map for long distances, I have to look at it quite a bit.

The weird pagan ritual site. It was also the location of one of the treasure maps, as you can see by the chest at its foot.

I prefer camp in the Heartlands, although Great Plains would probably be more convenient, being significantly closer to my moonshine shack in Tall Trees. We'll see what the new role brings and where the best place to set up ends up being, but I like the Heartlands prairie for aesthetic reasons as well. Here I am with an outfit I tried out using the weathered blue Hartman jacket. Which, I believe, is the same "design" as the scout jacket from single player, which I also really liked, although most of the colors are completely different.

In the Great Plains with my basic outfit. I'm actually showing off my new reddish beard, which I "grew" as part of a daily challenge, which asked me to change my appearance at the barbers. I'll probably keep it for some time; maybe even until that challenge comes up again in the rotation. And my Criollo and my first Nacogdoches saddle are in the background. I don't like all of the colors, but I'll probably end up with at least three or four of these saddles before I'm done. I have two now.

Another outfit that's not too different; it uses a different hat, vest and shirt (and probably a few other minor things like gloves, bandana and gunbelt, etc.) but which especially uses the tan cordury version of the Hartman jacket. I really need to find another jacket that I like as much as this one, but I'm unlikely to, I admit. With a similar jacket and the same chaps and boots, it looks very similar to my basic outfit. 

A different take on the blue weathered jacket outfit. And my horse, again, up near the foot of Window Rock where I like to fish. I think Madame Nazar was there when I took this picture, which explains what I was doing there too.

Another Hartman jacket outfit using a different variety. It's surprisingly not very warm, even though it really looks like it should be, so not having a vest means I need to try extra hard to make it warm enough to qualify as appropriate for average temps. In this case, part of what I did was put these big furry warm chaps on.

The same outfit, out in Tall Trees where I'd just spawned after starting the game in West Elizabeth free roam after having to switch servers because of a glitch with my moonshine shack (luckily, I was very close to it, at Bear Claw camp.) Without crossing my arms, I was trying to show off my sweet green patterned shirt, but the shadow makes it difficult to make out anyway. Oh, well.

Another outfit and another spot in the Heartlands, this time near Emerald Ranch. Bad weather looming ahead. It rains quite a lot in this game, one of many clues that points to a spring time setting. 

A hot weather outfit made entirely of black leather. Black leather hat, vest, shirt, pants, boots, gloves, sunbelt, and half chaps. In real life I doubt I'd ever wear so much black leather. 

The black leather on a rainy day at Braithwaite Manor. Shortly after this I deleted the outfit and tried out a different look. 

Another average temperature outfit with a new jacket.  I do need some hats that match my tan and brown leather since I wear that so much. 

It wasn't cold, obviously, but this is a cold water outfit with a new color of the sheepskin coat, one of my favorites. I've probably got one more variant color of that that I'd like. Let's see if we get any new limited time clothing options tomorrow first, though. 

My replacement hot weather outfit. The black version of this jacket was rhe first cosmetic piece of clothing I picked up, but I haven't used it or this brown one much since. Unfortunately, it has a short "butt tail" of sorts, and looks a bit stupid from behind, which is how I, as the player, see it most of the time. If the back were the same length as the front, it would look a lot better.