New 'Red Dead Online' Update Will Add Anti-Griefing Measures

Rockstar Games has a new Red Dead Online update coming on February 26th with new features to combat griefing in Red Dead Redemption 2's online component.

Like any other online game where players can interact with one another, Red Dead Online has an issue where some players are out to ruin others' fun. It's a problem Grand Theft Auto Online players can relate to where Red Dead Online players seek out others to kill them or commit other crimes repeatedly.

To combat this, Rockstar Games is changing how the player visibility system works and is also making it possible to have NPC Bounty Hunters go after players with high bounties. In the first change, blips which show other players won't appear unless two players are within a certain distance of each other so that they can't be targeted over and over.

"Firstly, we're reducing the visibility of blips over long distances – your map position won't display to other players unless you are nearby (within 150 meters) and if you are slightly further away you will only appear when firing your weapon," Rockstar Games said. "Players in other towns or regions, for example, won't be visible. This prevents players from being repeatedly targeted across the map at long distances."

New features and more coming to the Red Dead Online Beta on Feb 26th with new improvements and enhancements to the game’s open world, including a new Law and Bounty system, weapons balancing, changes to player blips on the mini-map and more. //t.co/MOSaXStj7m pic.twitter.com/huXgpk4Dcd

— Rockstar Games (@RockstarGames) February 12, 2019

For those players who do commit crimes excessively, they'll also become more visible to others in the server. "Overly aggressive players" who are consistently hostile will be marked with a dot that progressively gets darker when crimes are committed outside of structured modes. This feature draws more attention to players who keep committing crimes, so expect to have other players retaliate if you're marked with a dark dot and become more visible to them.

Another anti-griefing change is the NPC Bounty Hunter system that'll send AI enemies after players who have high bounties. Players will be notified if Bounty Hunters are after them just as they are in Red Dead Redemption 2's base story mode, and committing more crimes will make evading the Bounty Hunters more challenging.

"Criminal behavior will have bounty values and honor consequences that scale based on the severity of the crime," Rockstar Games said. "For example, killing another player can incur a higher bounty, while assaulting townsfolk or animal cruelty could give you a lesser bounty if the crime is reported, while lower level crimes like looting and ransacking will only decrease your honor."

Red Dead Online's next update is scheduled to release on February 26th.