Calling for your questions! Gamescom 2018 Edition

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I am not a fan of skill trees because they require a strict progression. You MUST take 'A' before you can take 'B'. What if you don't want 'A'? In CP2020 while skills had levels (0-10) the only restriction was "did you have enough skill to reliably do X". Nothing like perks existed, there were no restrictions like "you can't do 'B' because you haven't learned to do 'A'".

It's even worse when you have a learn-by-doing system where you have to grind A so you could somewhere down the road learn to grind B to eventually learn to grind C.

In the context of this kind of game, of course. There are games where that kind of grinding works.
 
1) Will we start out as nobodies and become famous, start out famous and stay famous, or start out nobodies and stay nobodies? I'm basically asking about the overall tone of the campaign.
 
Hello! :D

1) When are we going to get to see another 'game engine' preview? One from Fem V's perspective, so we can put a voice and face to all the demo articles from E3. Also, show us the damn bike already! ;) :love:

2) Will we be able to travel by subway? You keep mentioning cars, bikes, taxi's but as of yet, haven't seen mention of subway, only implied with the trailer. Just want confirmation.

3) How in depth currently is the character creator? What can we expect (at this point) to see at launch for it, will we be able to completely customize the structure of our character's faces? (Beyond make-up, hair and scars.) Will we be able to save our creations to either share or go back to for later use? (Basically, I want to live on character creator for a little while and have the option to save all of my creations and have access to them whenever I do a new play through.)

4) Not sure if this has been covered already... But will romance options be with only select characters or will I be able to walk up randomly to anyone in the street and start a romance with them? (I'm talking beyond one night stands...)

5) In some of the E3 preview articles it mentioned there were hit numbers showing up for damage caused while in battle, will we have the ability to turn that off? Also will we have to ability to turn off head bob, motion blur and adjust field of view? How much customization can we expect for the HUD?

Thank you! Hope you have a wonderful Gamescon. <3
 
This is some really good stuff guys, I'm flying out in a bit but I'll constantly be checking the thread up until tomorrow.

While I cannot guarantee they'll answer all of this, I'll try my damn hardest!

Thank you! Hope you have a wonderful Gamescon. <3
 
How do you know that?, are you a developer?

So iirc CDPR mentioned that they had moved on from those characters and we are unlikely to see them again, same as the one from the first images, the guy with the swag jacket.

Not that I could find a source so I could be wrong. Not likely CDPR will tell us, but you can always ask.
 
So iirc CDPR mentioned that they had moved on from those characters and we are unlikely to see them again, same as the one from the first images, the guy with the swag jacket.

Not that I could find a source so I could be wrong. Not likely CDPR will tell us, but you can always ask.
Oh that is bad news indeed :(

thank you for the info anyway.
 
I know. I hope I'm misremembering, because I liked both those characters - the look anyway.

We'll see.
Those two characters built up the hype, not the car or the gunshots, those two characters did.
Biggest hype ever. If those 2 charatcers are in the final version, this game would be epic beyond words.
I try to stay optimistic, still lot to discover. :)
 
Those two characters built up the hype, not the car or the gunshots, those two characters did.
Biggest hype ever. If those 2 charatcers are in the final version, this game would be epic beyond words.
I try to stay optimistic, still lot to discover. :)
CDPR said these characters were only used for teaser trailer. Iirc that woman was polish model. I don't know why, maybe that's their decision or maybe she didn't wanted to collaborate more. If you want you can search for some answers on the internet. I'm sure you'll find something about that.
 
Hey guys!


Sorry it took so long to transcribe the interviews, real life stuff got in the way.


You'll notice some of my own questions made their way into the interviews mainly because the whole thing turned out to be more of a conversation rather than it having a traditional interview structure. I've broken up the conversation into more of a digestible structure, also removing a lot of my interjections and rude interruptions. Hah!


Without further ado, I hope you all enjoy:


How do skills and stats work in CP2077?

I.e. How does a gun skill affect shooting, how does hacking skill affect hacking, how do stats affect V and his/her mobility and activities, etc - are there RNG checks for anything (i.e. proper skilltests), or just hard thresholds (skill level 1 + task level 2 = can't pass)?


Philipp Weber: Actually we have that in a very, very broad sense in that we actually have many different versions of progression, we have classical attributes where you get experience and you can level up and then spend those points on attributes like strength and so on. These attributes can also change depending on what cyberware you use, but cyberware can also change other things, an example being the mantis blades with which you get an entirely new ability to use.


You also have street cred, you can get it from doing various things like side quests and so on, you will get it where it makes sense to get street cred. To use the demo as an example you have Dexter Deshawn, he is a fixer, if you start doing contracts for him you get street cred, people start learning your name, and this could unlock higher level fixers that give you more dangerous jobs that yield more rewards. It can also give you access to higher class vendors and so on.


Kyle Rowley: The general progression system is very much a work in progress. The way it works now is that V has attributes and skills, skills are things like long gun, short gun, hacking, engineering etc. Skills have levels that you gain by doing actions. So the more I use a long gun, the more I get good at long guns. They are gated by attributes, so a certain attribute level is needed to gain a certain skill. Skills affect handling of weapons, so the higher my skill in long gun the higher my handling is of rifles, for example. This is in addition to things like certain weapon modules and attachments that also affect handling and so on. We also do skill checks like hacking and engineering on interactions in the game. So using the demo as an example, you had the engineering skill check, so you'd actually need a certain level of engineering to override certain devices.


In the demo we also showed you using an NPC to access a network, it's called breaching a network. So when you plug into an NPC or what we call access points then you are able to interact with systems inside that network. So these will be gated by your hacking skill, if I'm a competent netrunner then I can plug in into specific NPCs around the game and access the networks they are associated with.




How do smart guns work specifically and how do the characters shooting skills and other possible stats and abilities affect that (if at all)?

Are they just an auto-hit crutch to simplify combat, or will they have a more "RPG-like" implementation (i.e. hit chances based on a number of factors like skill, focus, range, visibility...).



PW: While we are still balancing all of this the general idea is that there will be a trade-off, so a weapon that requires aim will generally do more damage compared to a weapon that has smart aim.


In one sentence I would say that we want to deliver the full RPG experience while polishing the shooting aspect so that it feels just right.


KR: In order to actually use smart guns you will need a specific connection to the gun via a piece of cyberware that will unlock the ability to use the targeting system that will actually multi-highlight the enemies, so when you pull the trigger the bullets track them. The player's actual skills do not affect the smart weapon technology at all, it's all based on the gun. The targeting system itself is from an eye augment so that is what unlocks the bullet tracking, but how efficient it is at tracking is based on the weapon, not the player skill.


The way the weapons work now, obviously this is all very much work in progress so anything can change, but what we have right now are pistols, shotguns, rifles - they can be either Tech or Street. A large percentage of those weapons can fit modules that can change they way they handle, those modules being Tech, Smart or Power. So I can aquire a Tech pistol but I can replace the module so it can become a Power or Smart pistol. Gameplay mechanics can change based on what modules you pick and modules will also have rarities attached to them as well.


In the demo you saw a Corporate smart rifle, while these have less modability they are generally more powerful. So these are dedicated weapons for a specific type of gameplay.



Empathy and Attractiveness -stats are apparently cut.

Is there any sort of mechanics to replace them, are there any other social stats and skills, and if yes, how do they work?



PW: I actually don't know if certain skills were cut or not, because that is still something that is very much in flux, the list of skills is not final. So if we think that a certain skill will help us in one way or another then we will add it. It is too early to say that a certain skill is cut or something replaces it entirely.


How much skill checks can be found in the environment - mundane and more important ones?

Or in other words, how much interactivity does the city contain and how much does the character build play into it all?



KR: So the way we have it set up right now is that for a quest you have a critical path. Because it is a roleplaying game we do not know what skill a player has picked or what skill level they are currently. So in terms of designing a quest we have a main path, for this path we know a player will a specific type of skill because at certain points in the story we force players to visit ripper docs to attain specific cyberware. We then have optional side content for quests or shortcuts that are rewarded for having a certain skill, even for the critical path of a quest. As long as we have one way through that is not gated by specific skill checks then we will make it so that you can play around and solve problems based on your skills around that.



Where does double jump fit in relation to a certain class?


PW: I would suspect somewhere in the solo area. We can have strong solos, if you want to make them kinda tanky with big weapons, you can also have a character that you want to be more like the major from Ghost in the Shell, basically a cyberninja, there are skills for that as well.



Would you be able to go deeper on how the skill tree might look like?


PW: The actual shape of skill progression is still something that is in full development, what we know is that there are the 3 directions that you can take. The Solo direction, the Netrunner direction and the Techie direction. Compared to the Witcher we have much more freedom on what these skills can do and how varied they can be, in Witcher 3 all the skills had to make sense to what Geralt, a witcher, can do. Having this freedom also means that now we can solve quests in many more different ways.



In what ways can random AI pedestrians be interacted with other than possibly killing them or bumping into them?


PW: I mean, just like in the Witcher, they can bump into you, they'll have something to say, they react to the day/night cycle, different weather conditions. If you shoot your gun in the city a lot of the normal NPCs will probably run away in fear, meanwhile you someone like a gang member will react a bit differently to those sort of actions.



Can the player kill all NPCs?

-if not, all unessential NPCs?



PW: No, we would like to tell a very good story and our stories have always been very character driven, so some NPCs have to be essential to the story that we are telling.



How many dialog options are visible at most at a time, and do stats and skills affect them in any way?


PW: It really depends as we have a very dynamic dialogue system. So you can have different dialogue options depending on the character you play. As an example, if I am now talking to you and you have a camera there and I notice I am being filmed, then maybe I would now look at the camera and another dialogue option would actually pop up there. The conversation would shift to the camera where I would ask "Oh am I being filmed?!" and when the conversation shifts back maybe another dialogue option would have appeared.


The quest, writing and cinematic teams are working really hard on these scenes and we're trying really hard to make them as dynamic as possible. Another example would be that if you go further into, let's say, being a netrunner and you have a lot of netrunner knowledge, then a new dialogue option might pop up. But usually we like to hide the numbers behind things like that so it feels more natural, so usually we would also not want to show the option to you if it's not available to you at that specific time. This is all something we're still toying around with so it is not final obviously.
 
Will there be non-lethal weapons?


PW: That's a good question, I think that if it makes sense for the situation then yes. Speaking as a quest designer I want to say that if you choose to resolve a situation in a non-lethal way then I might want something else that is interesting to happen, just so you don't think you're missing out. Maybe something that builds towards those types of strengths, so maybe an additional conversation or something along those lines.


But Cyberpunk is a brutal world so you will definitely have to fight in the game, you will not finish the whole game without killing.



Can we still access the character creator once we are in the game?


PW: It is something that is not decided yet, but given the lore of the game I would not see an issue with being able to go to a ripper doc and doing something like that.



Are there subtle augs that allow you to upgrade yourself while still looking fully human?


PW: I mean you have cheap cyberware and then you have cyberware like Real Skin in Cyperbunk 2020. But a thing in the world of Cyberpunk is that it's actually not cool to not be augmented. Cyberware for people isn't a tool, cyberware for people is a fashion statement, a way of life, like a smart phone of Adidas shoes.


There are, of course, also people that do not have augmentations, for example the taxi driver from the trailer looks like someone of the Sikh faith, so part of their religion would be not to necessarily have cyberware in their body.



Do quests have fail states?


PW: Yes, you can fail quests. What we don't have however is a game over state, the only game over that you will get is when you die. So when you fail a quest then it's now part of the story, you have to deal with the consequences.


Will romance options be with only select characters or will I be able to walk up randomly to anyone in the street and start a romance with them?


PW: Romance options are very much treated like in the Witcher 3. Aside from one night stands, we want the romances in the game to have well fleshed out characters and story behind them.



And that's about it! Huge thanks to @Benzenzimmern and @KyleRowley for being ever so patient and putting up with me. Make sure to give these guys, and the entire team really, huge props!
 
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