NPC's and Death

[Calistarius]

Going down a route of being able to kill just about anyone, including importent quest givers would need the devs to make some kind of system where you might still be able to get to the main quests things. Backup ways for the game to give you those importent main game missions.

Like if you kill a quest giver and loot them you might find a datapad or something which gives you some kind of information that opens up the quest. And/or if you did not loot the quest giver you will some time down the road maybe get a message on your phone/email-type of equivalent thing in the CP2077 world, where someone maybe says somehting like "It has come to our attention that X person is dead, and that you killed them... we would like you to... etc etc etc".

Of course... it should not be just that easy... kill important npc and get away with it... no if you kill someone like that then you should get some kind of penaltis for it... be it in a lot more enemies in the mission area, or a major reduction in payment for the mission, lose reputation with X factions (although, you might gain reputation with others), possibly have you hunted by the law enforements and/or faction the quest giver came from, and maybe even suddenly finding your self hunted by an unknown person who takes potshots at you and disappear befor you can do anything about it... which might cause problems with where you are since it might draw attention to you by law enforcements or the people who live there, etc.. and might be really bad if you are in a sneaky kind of a mission at the moment... it might even if your unlucky (due to maybe already being seriously hurt) kill you... that person might in the end turn out to be a familymember or loved one of the NPC which you killed, etc.

 

[BjornTheBandit]

Everyone should be killable, with serious repercussions. Just do like Fable did and make people switch between a "safe" mode and "hostile" mode so that you can't accidentally kill someone you're talking to by scratching and bumping the wrong button or something

 

[Gaidheal]

I say make them all killable, and let the player (and their character) face the consequences. If CyberPunk 2077 is at all like the game it is based on, that will likely end very badly, quite quickly, for the character, unless there is some justification or they somehow cover their tracks.

 

[Neuronin]

In the past if you killed an essential NPC you missed out on, or broke something. But too many players cry when their own actions make them miss out on something, thus essential, unkillable, NPCs. Don't blame the developers ... blame your fellow gamers.

Agreed. Spoiled little brats.

If CP2077 is programmed to be anything like CP2020 PnP murder sprees aren't going to last very long.

You should have the freedom to kill anyone. However, the player has to feel the consequences of his actions. If you kill someone the police should descend upon you so hard that you'd regret doing it in the first place (they should implement an eye-witness system, where if you kill someone in highly populated areas, you'd have twenty cops descend upon you within the next few minutes). The player has to feel the force of deterrence (fear, doubt, reluctance). This will make the world feel more realistic.

 

[walkingdarkly]

I will quote what I posted 4 years ago about this exact same topic:

This is Cyberpunk, this is Night City
Everyone is a target
No one should be safe
There should always be a way to kill anyone no matter who he is.
No one should be immortal

Everyone also has connections
Don't hate on Teddy-Bear down on 42nd to much, you never know, down the road he may have vital info you need to finish an important mission...but you went and pissed him off cause you thought it would be fun to shoot up that group of bums one night that just happened to be some old war buddies of his.

Yes I think every npc should be killable and there should be consequences for killing npcs next to have NCPD coming for you.
Like that that guy that bumped into you one day and you were mad so you capped him, come to find out he was an undercover agent planted by NCPD or Militech trying to find some stolen weapons.

 

[Rawls]

Yeah let everyone be kill-able. If the main quest is dependent on their survival and they died, guess who failed the main quest? You get a notification that says the next main quest failed, a cut scene showing the "bad-guys" win and a return to the world where you can reload before the NPC death or just do side quest stuff.

 

[kofeiiniturpa]

Yeah let everyone be kill-able. If the main quest is dependent on their survival and they died, guess who failed the main quest?

Indeed. If you kill someone, you are cut off from the content that was related to that particular NPC (his missions, wares, dialog, information...) and that's that. Sometimes there might be a proverbial "backdoor" as missions should have multiple ways to get through, but that NPC and all that came with him is gone for good and you need to live with that, like it or not. You killed him, now enjoy him being dead and make do with what you're missing.

The "main quest" and the storyline should be structured with as little "absolutely essential" parts as possible and without a strict from A to B to C script in the first place, and offering as much reactivity to the players choice of approach as possible. I've said it before, and I say it again, this happens quite well in Fallout, Fallout 2, and even in New Vegas -- you are give a goal and gently nudged (not forced) to a certain direction, and after that - whether or not you stay on that direction - the storyline is a compilation of what and how you did during your journey (and what you didn't do and who you didn't meet isn't your concern until a subsequent playthrough where you touch those matters).

There's a start and an initial motivation to put things rolling and keep the character going on, but how and where is up to the player. And in an optimal case, there's very little content that isn't is one way or another connected to the characters "storyline" and the main mission -- that most of what you do affects the outcome and the conditions of reaching it (some more heavyhandedly, some more subtly...), but there's no "this hero's epic" like in Witcher. And the important thing is that the game doesn't just give the player shit to do, but reacts and keeps tabs on what's done.

 

[Suhiira]

Yeah let everyone be kill-able. If the main quest is dependent on their survival and they died, guess who failed the main quest?

Have I ever mentioned I like the way you think?

 

[walkingdarkly]

Yeah let everyone be kill-able. If the main quest is dependent on their survival and they died, guess who failed the main quest? You get a notification that says the next main quest failed, a cut scene showing the "bad-guys" win and a return to the world where you can reload before the NPC death or just do side quest stuff.

In the Fallout Series you could kill "important" quest npcs and in doing so you lose out one what they had to offer and their groups became extremely hostile to you. This needs to be possible in Night City, to show how hard life is in Night City.

Also, I'm gonna give ya'll this tip about Night City, there are no Heroes and Villains in Night City, not even the CEO's of the biggest corporations are villains, they're just business men. You wanna be some kind of hero? You're gonna get marked hard and fast and taken out and left in the gutter. There's nothing but dark grey, from the cops that walk the beat to the corps that dine on fine cuisine in their high rises, they're not black and white, they're all grey and just trying to survive The Streets. Something I mentioned once in an old thread, Night City itself is a character like LA, New York and Chicago it has it's own personality. Which I hope CDPR gets right in some way, it's more than just a back drop for the world of Cyberpunk, it's the main character in the story and everyone else is just an extra. Also, Night City is not some soft cushy little city, it's a place harder than current day LA that would have that town crying for it's mamma.

 

[Suhiira]

Oh I'm sure there's an idealist somewhere in Night City.
Chances are you'll never meet them tho, given the population and the shadows most characters lurk in.

 

[walkingdarkly]

Oh I'm sure there's an idealist somewhere in Night City.
Chances are you'll never meet them tho, given the population and the shadows most characters lurk in.

>.> I just remembered..there is this one guy, he dresses up as batman, calls himself batguy, beats up "evildoers" through out the night, then when morning hits he goes home, jacks into the net and throws big huge parties. Some people would shut him down but his parties are to awesome.

2020 Core Rule Book, Ch 10 page 170.

 

[walkingdarkly]

Everyone should be killable, with serious repercussions. Just do like Fable did and make people switch between a "safe" mode and "hostile" mode so that you can't accidentally kill someone you're talking to by scratching and bumping the wrong button or something

A thing to note, in certain parts of Night City, the really unsafe parts are Booster Gangs. They tend to be K.O.S. anyone that's not them and especially if they're high off their butts and rampaging.

 

[Suhiira]

A thing to note, in certain parts of Night City, the really unsafe parts are Booster Gangs. They tend to be K.O.S. anyone that's not them and especially if they're high off their butts and rampaging.

I doubt it's that bad ... rob, perhaps beat up, but kill?
If they were THAT homicidal there would be absolutely no one in their territory to prey on to buy drugs.

 

[falconwingz]

So, Witcher 3 is my personal favorite RPG of all time. And I'm a RPG enthusiast.
But the thing i dont like in witcher is.

1. THE DROP / FALL DAMAGE is too crazy.
2. The movement is a bit rigid in my opinion
3. more filled land in empty spaces (open world at its best )

After I played Dying Light, where the movement is one of the best movement game ever made. I played witcher and feels very rigid movement.
I know I shouldn't compare both of the game, because one is a parkour game.
But an improvement in movement would really be appreciated.

 

[walkingdarkly]

I doubt it's that bad ... rob, perhaps beat up, but kill?
If they were THAT homicidal there would be absolutely no one in their territory to prey on to buy drugs.

Oh yeah, they are that bad. Though they do tend to stick to certain no-go areas so they don't go whole-sale over the entire city. Though like i said, they tend to kill on sight but not always just depends on their mood, how high or blitzed they are and if there's a Punknaught nearby, that's not saying always kills people just most the time. The real fun is if CDPR will throw in the best random encounter in Cyberpunk ever...the Cyberpsycho, guy so metaled up he doesn't see you as a person but as a weak pile of skin and bones that he can just snap in half so easily. Course then C-Swat would have to pop up moments after he spawns and you'll be in for one hell of a fire fight...with a fixer nearby taking bets on how many it'll take to take down the cybberpsycho.

 

[Suhiira]

One often has the take a games rules and content with a grain (or box) of salt.
It really depends on the "flavor" of the game you want to run/play in; high power over-the-top action or a relatively realistic portrayal of a viable setting.

 

[CyberUser]

They could have an alternate ending, for anyone that goes completely ever the edge, becomes a public known serial killer.

You've got one hour to get out of the city...fail and cinematic plays out: caught and thrown to be torn apart by an angry mob. Or all this plays directly in gameplay. Multiplayer could also work here...other player join in on the hunt.

Succeed and you get to live the rest of your life in the wastes as loner/outcast.

Having a double life, being a known serial killer, but unknown. It could be like a long side quest. You could stay hide, and face the main story. If you go crazy, you could break your main quest, but keep the secondary ones, as long as the different npc would like to work with you, even if they know.
That side quest become the main one. Hide, investigate and killing people who work to find you, fight cops and differents hunters, and be caught, and why not being "recruit" by a psycho squad and start a new part, a story line for that case.

We could also be a violent criminal, and be free after some hard braindance sessions. With huge consequences, we could lost habilities, skills... But could it affect the main quest?
I already hope for a unique story for each class, so why not imaging few more possibilities in case of real deviant way?

 

[Guest 4149880]

It needs to be hardcore. If you kill an NPC, its permanent. I mean hell, I see so many people that want to be cyborg badasses and wrack havoc on everyone else but if it effects them, nope they want easy mode, let em live. Nah, Action and Consequence is the name of the game right.

 

[falconwingz]

Agree

 

[Cyberkowloon]

More blood! Wait.. why is this in white?