Hello,
In this thread I will be sharing ideas I had for overhauling the armour/clothing and skills/abilities, as well as what should be added to the open world to make, the open world, feel more immersive and alive. I'm sure these ideas have been shared somewhere before, but in case they haven't, I wanted them to be posted so they existed. Warning, you might want to grab a cup of coffee and some chocolate chip cookies, or some popcorn and something sweet to drink. I don't know, those combinations are quite classic. It's going to be a long one. Okay, let's begin.
Armour & Clothing
What I think could be added to make the clothing/armour system more realistic, would be to separate "armour" and "clothing" completely. You could have armour plates, vests, tech, combined to form different levels of armour. Their effectiveness would be determined quite literally, if the armour piece is just a bullet proof vest for instance, then that is all it will cover and affect statistically as damage input for the hitbox area covered by the item, i.e. armour just protects stomach and chest, so that's the only place where the stats will benefit, everywhere else will take damage like normal as there's no armour covering it.
But to take it a step further, you could combine this armour, with a piece of cosmetic clothing which sits on top of the armour. So again, going with the example of a bullet proof vest, let's say you equip a vest with a Legendary rarity (meaning it has great stats for taking damage, other stats might include mobility, stealth, explosive, bullet, and melee damage resistance that scales proportionally to what makes rational sense based on the design of the armour) and on top of that armour, you equip a piece of clothing, let's say a jacket. (This would also act as a form of a transmog system) The jacket itself, might add some extra protection (most likely slight melee resistance) but it too will have its own category of unique stats.
So for instance, the jacket might be concealing the armour completely, so you might get a stat of concealment, granting you less attention from bystanders and criminals (or more if the criminals think you "appear" harmless, but then maybe higher level enemies that study you can see/scan you and see you're deadly and avoid confrontation). Other stats would include: style, reputation/social credit, mobility, stealth, damage resistance etc. Where the stats overlap/stack with armour, these would obviously be significantly lower but still viable, however, the key ones would be your reputation and style, as they would determine how the world reacts to you dynamically. As an example, if you dress as a corpo, people avoid eye contact in certain districts of the city, whilst in others, it's an invitation to get robbed. Or if you dress like a celebrity, you get a lot of attention from the public which could act as a good crowd for concealment and distraction, or it could make you a highly desired target to be assassinated in public. While maybe dressing as a gang street kid, will earn you the rep to not be underestimated by other mercenaries and criminals, but at the same time result in some competition.
All of that would just be with the clothing effects, but again, the armour would have the flip of that where the only reputation and style you get for wearing the armour ONLY is "military" and "dangerous". Which could put you on high alert for police as you're openly carrying military grade items. But again, other npcs might want to avoid contact with you as you are boldly and confidently displaying your power. All scaling in proportion with the level and rarity of gear you have for both clothing and armour.
So in effect, what you would have, is a system which combines the practical effectiveness of combat with armour, and the practicality of blending into environments with your clothing. Furthermore, the stats would also scale in proportion to how compatible the armour and clothing you chose are when paired together. To elaborate, if you have armour which completely covers the body, but you equip a t-shirt or vest that only covers your chest and stomach, you won't really benefit any concealment stat as your tech is on full display, whilst other stats scale in logical proportion based on the rational pairing of the two items.
Armour and Clothing would also be accessible in different places, more on that later...
Skills & Abilities
Next, the skills and abilities. In my opinion, they need to change it almost completely. They need a second branch of unlocks called abilities which would be separate from skills. These two could be subcategories of a tab called "Specs" or whatever makes sense.
For the skills tree, it would involve statistical upgrades only (the ones that make up the majority of unlocks in the game currently). These would improve the statistical increase you have on your existing abilities. So some skills would be locked as you would need to unlock that ability first to access it. But for instance, depending on which life path you choose (if we pretend that system made any significant difference) you are set up with some pre-existing abilities, for instance street kid could already be handy with using weapons and punching, so you would already have those skills unlocked and as you fight and shoot more you gain xp to level up those abilities.
The ability points would be tied to the skills and abilities you are pursuing. So for example, in Dying Light 1, there is a total of 4 skill trees you can access, Survivor, Agility, Power, Driver, and Legend. For each of those skill trees, you earn points that you can spend to unlock new abilities/skills within that tree. The way you earn the points is by engaging in gameplay that's tied to those trees. Parkour more and dodge attacks and you will level up your agility and with enough xp you earn a point you can allocate to that skill tree. If Cyberpunk had a similar system where fighting will give you points to allocate for upgrading combat skills stats, and driving more gives you more points for driving abilities etc. it would greatly enhance the players ability to immerse themselves in how their character levels up and progresses.
On the other side, abilities. For abilities, this is where you would have actual new abilities you can unlock, wall running, double jumping, gorilla arms, mantis blades, takedowns, drifts, etc. For some of these abilities, you would unlock via completing certain story and side missions that make V learn a new skill dynamically (or as a reward a character teaches you a new ability) and others you would unlock by purchasing mods at a Ripperdoc shop (mantis blades etc.). So some you would unlock dynamically via gameplay, some you would earn by finding more illegal vendors that sell high tech augments (that would also affect your cosmetic stats, more on that later...) effectively allowing you to target specific abilities that actually expand the gameplay and make you play differently. More tools at your disposal basically, rather than shallow stat increases.
***IMPORTANT***
As of writing this post, an idea came to mind that would maybe organize this tab of the game menu better. The path could be; Abilities (which would show you the different categories of abilities, Combat, Tech, Driving etc.) then selecting one would take you to a web of abilities that once you select opens a web of SKILLS for that ability, so then you have skills surrounding the ability, that you can allocate points earned via utilizing that ability in gameplay to increase the stats of that skill. I think that would be much better from a design perspective and keep things more local, precise and organized.
Open World
The open world is the biggest offender, there is nothing to do/dynamically interact with as we were promised. So here's what I had in mind be changed. First of, I think everyone's mostly in agreement that the A.I. is non existent.
So for NPCs, I would add a day/night cycle, actual dynamic crowds that behave realistically (including changing the animations, no one runs like that in real life) make them more interactable and just unpredictable with some scripts that can activate dynamically to create interesting scenarios like a poor kid randomly robbing your wallet or whatever.
But wait a sec, let's not forget about the POLICE, yeah I'm not gonna beat on a dead horse too much but this still needs to be pointed out, THERE IS NO A.I. NOR A REAL SYSTEM. Police should try to stop you for a random civilian search (especially if you set up your gear via clothes and armour to favour suspicion like I mentioned earlier) patrol the city, actually chase you, try to arrest you first (instead of just shooting when agro like in GTA V), etc. It would also be fun to rob a police car and hack into their communications to see where to avoid them or ambush them etc.
GANGS, this is another place where there is nothing, they need to be dynamically contesting over territories (which could be influenced by our decisions in the story and side quests but don't even get me started on how they wasted the opportunity to have the story be dynamic via branching decisions) as well as having an individual "Standing" feature which measures your standing with a gang which might offer you protection and safe zones in otherwise hostile areas or make dangerous areas even more dangerous by placing bounties depending on this level. Each gang should have this. Your standing could also earn you a spot in the inner circle of each gang and allow you to get close to the bosses, allowing you to take jobs from them, earn rewards, and eventually becoming their right hand man, allowing you to hang out with them in nightclubs and secret service type dynamic where you protect them. Or, you get close enough to them that you challenge them for the throne, or just outright kill them and sabotage a gang. Nemesis system esc from Shadow of Mordor. You could also maybe convince enough gang members to start a riot and rebel against their leader via speech and also sabotaging missions to make the leader seem bad for them. All of this could result in an endless possibility for replayability and dynamic evolution to make your world unique to other players experiences.
Also, Mercenaries, what the hell happened to that, as well as bribing cops or gangs bribing cops against you. Anyways, there should also be a faction for Trauma Team, MaxTac etc. Elite type stuff to do, private missions, unique encounters, maybe conspiracy/corpo branching storylines to uncover (again don't get me started on story stuff because this post would be 20 times longer).
Now onto the meaty stuff, the interaction with night city itself, so much to expand upon. First of, common food stands, actual interaction to sit down and eat, have conversations with companions, buy takeaways, groceries/grocery stores etc. Nightclubs, Bars, basically every interaction that is in the story where there are clearly animations for drinking, eating, dancing, and talking while sitting down, but outside of missions for the player's enjoyment. Gyms, more gun stores, different types of gun stores, some less legal than others, have other Ripperdocs who again, offer more military grade stuff that's more black market, risk and reward types of systems that could be influenced by the before mentioned "Standing" system. But what is also annoying, is the lack of shops, clothing, saloons, barbers, decorations (for apartment customization), "plastic" surgery clinics, drug stores, banks, car saloons, car customization shops (yes they need to add that back) just more interiors to interact with dynamically.
To bring back a point I made earlier, with a clothing store, you would have a place to buy cosmetics that would have logical sense for their location, in gun stores you could buy armour. This would complete the system of immersion for acquiring such items (also more weapon customization because why not). Certain brands could also be bound to certain stores which would reflect what quality of stock you would be buying from. That would then dynamically influence your reputation and style stats. Or needing to go to sketchier places to acquire higher level gear like armour and weapons that would naturally put you in environments of higher hostility. Barbers and Saloons could also give different quality makeovers that also influence your style, as well as hair growth for regular trimming (you did it in Witcher 3 come one guys).
This game also DESPERATELY needs a cosmetic surgery clinic, I remember Adam (I can't get enough high end positions even if I ain't qualified) Badowsky saying how the human body will play a big part in the character's arc over the game, making the game ask you questions about identity and when do we draw the line between human and machine, but that too is obviously not present. So I thought it would be cool if there were clinics (again better and worse/cheaper and expensive) that you could go to for specific makeovers varying in quality and effect based on where you go to have a surgery done. This is where you could go for cosmetic makeovers such as changing your face, gender, body parts, size, etc. Basically a character creator after the start of the game that's always accessible if you have the money, the surgery could also leave scars that again depending on the quality of where you go to, will either have the scars stay and be noticeable, or subtle and heal over time. But, you could also throw in other cosmetic options not present at the start of the game, for instance, you could chrome yourself out like certain characters shown in trailers as "celebrities" and "rich people". You know what I mean? Some wacky stuff to really get the cyber and punk styles in and how that affects your stats within the world which would bring it back full circle.
Closing Statement
Most of what I mentioned is what CD Projekt Red promised with their marketing and interviews. I don't care if it was never put down on an official statement with signatures, their words made such a promise, and with that promise they scaled the possibilities of the game's content to be expected and achievable. If they came out and said, "this is a linear action adventure game with bare bones rpg mechanics, but the story encompasses an open world which is very immersive from a visually artistic standpoint" I think more people would have expected to get the game at launch but without the bugs and glitches. They did this to themselves and they need to be held accountable by reminding them of their promise and pointing it out when they underdeliver and keep a close eye on new releases.
I hope this wasn't too scatter brained, these systems are complex to visualize and imagine to a point of vividness that allows me to express in detail what is it I envisioned for what this game could be/could've been. I wish I could've gone into more detail, but again, without writing down any structure and just kind of winging it based on pre-meditated thoughts, this was the best I could do in one sitting.
Finally, if you have made it this far, thank you for your time and consideration to read my thoughts, I really appreciate it, and I hope this wasn't too much of a bore to sit through. Hopefully, I have put down some ideas that you resonate with, or simply appreciate that there is someone else out there who has the same thoughts as you do. If not through patches, DLC, and Expansions (doubt it), then I hope at the very least some of this reaches the devs so they can implement these features in the sequel.
Thank you for reading, and I hope you have plenty of fantastic days ahead filled with good health and happiness.
In this thread I will be sharing ideas I had for overhauling the armour/clothing and skills/abilities, as well as what should be added to the open world to make, the open world, feel more immersive and alive. I'm sure these ideas have been shared somewhere before, but in case they haven't, I wanted them to be posted so they existed. Warning, you might want to grab a cup of coffee and some chocolate chip cookies, or some popcorn and something sweet to drink. I don't know, those combinations are quite classic. It's going to be a long one. Okay, let's begin.
Armour & Clothing
What I think could be added to make the clothing/armour system more realistic, would be to separate "armour" and "clothing" completely. You could have armour plates, vests, tech, combined to form different levels of armour. Their effectiveness would be determined quite literally, if the armour piece is just a bullet proof vest for instance, then that is all it will cover and affect statistically as damage input for the hitbox area covered by the item, i.e. armour just protects stomach and chest, so that's the only place where the stats will benefit, everywhere else will take damage like normal as there's no armour covering it.
But to take it a step further, you could combine this armour, with a piece of cosmetic clothing which sits on top of the armour. So again, going with the example of a bullet proof vest, let's say you equip a vest with a Legendary rarity (meaning it has great stats for taking damage, other stats might include mobility, stealth, explosive, bullet, and melee damage resistance that scales proportionally to what makes rational sense based on the design of the armour) and on top of that armour, you equip a piece of clothing, let's say a jacket. (This would also act as a form of a transmog system) The jacket itself, might add some extra protection (most likely slight melee resistance) but it too will have its own category of unique stats.
So for instance, the jacket might be concealing the armour completely, so you might get a stat of concealment, granting you less attention from bystanders and criminals (or more if the criminals think you "appear" harmless, but then maybe higher level enemies that study you can see/scan you and see you're deadly and avoid confrontation). Other stats would include: style, reputation/social credit, mobility, stealth, damage resistance etc. Where the stats overlap/stack with armour, these would obviously be significantly lower but still viable, however, the key ones would be your reputation and style, as they would determine how the world reacts to you dynamically. As an example, if you dress as a corpo, people avoid eye contact in certain districts of the city, whilst in others, it's an invitation to get robbed. Or if you dress like a celebrity, you get a lot of attention from the public which could act as a good crowd for concealment and distraction, or it could make you a highly desired target to be assassinated in public. While maybe dressing as a gang street kid, will earn you the rep to not be underestimated by other mercenaries and criminals, but at the same time result in some competition.
All of that would just be with the clothing effects, but again, the armour would have the flip of that where the only reputation and style you get for wearing the armour ONLY is "military" and "dangerous". Which could put you on high alert for police as you're openly carrying military grade items. But again, other npcs might want to avoid contact with you as you are boldly and confidently displaying your power. All scaling in proportion with the level and rarity of gear you have for both clothing and armour.
So in effect, what you would have, is a system which combines the practical effectiveness of combat with armour, and the practicality of blending into environments with your clothing. Furthermore, the stats would also scale in proportion to how compatible the armour and clothing you chose are when paired together. To elaborate, if you have armour which completely covers the body, but you equip a t-shirt or vest that only covers your chest and stomach, you won't really benefit any concealment stat as your tech is on full display, whilst other stats scale in logical proportion based on the rational pairing of the two items.
Armour and Clothing would also be accessible in different places, more on that later...
Skills & Abilities
Next, the skills and abilities. In my opinion, they need to change it almost completely. They need a second branch of unlocks called abilities which would be separate from skills. These two could be subcategories of a tab called "Specs" or whatever makes sense.
For the skills tree, it would involve statistical upgrades only (the ones that make up the majority of unlocks in the game currently). These would improve the statistical increase you have on your existing abilities. So some skills would be locked as you would need to unlock that ability first to access it. But for instance, depending on which life path you choose (if we pretend that system made any significant difference) you are set up with some pre-existing abilities, for instance street kid could already be handy with using weapons and punching, so you would already have those skills unlocked and as you fight and shoot more you gain xp to level up those abilities.
The ability points would be tied to the skills and abilities you are pursuing. So for example, in Dying Light 1, there is a total of 4 skill trees you can access, Survivor, Agility, Power, Driver, and Legend. For each of those skill trees, you earn points that you can spend to unlock new abilities/skills within that tree. The way you earn the points is by engaging in gameplay that's tied to those trees. Parkour more and dodge attacks and you will level up your agility and with enough xp you earn a point you can allocate to that skill tree. If Cyberpunk had a similar system where fighting will give you points to allocate for upgrading combat skills stats, and driving more gives you more points for driving abilities etc. it would greatly enhance the players ability to immerse themselves in how their character levels up and progresses.
On the other side, abilities. For abilities, this is where you would have actual new abilities you can unlock, wall running, double jumping, gorilla arms, mantis blades, takedowns, drifts, etc. For some of these abilities, you would unlock via completing certain story and side missions that make V learn a new skill dynamically (or as a reward a character teaches you a new ability) and others you would unlock by purchasing mods at a Ripperdoc shop (mantis blades etc.). So some you would unlock dynamically via gameplay, some you would earn by finding more illegal vendors that sell high tech augments (that would also affect your cosmetic stats, more on that later...) effectively allowing you to target specific abilities that actually expand the gameplay and make you play differently. More tools at your disposal basically, rather than shallow stat increases.
***IMPORTANT***
As of writing this post, an idea came to mind that would maybe organize this tab of the game menu better. The path could be; Abilities (which would show you the different categories of abilities, Combat, Tech, Driving etc.) then selecting one would take you to a web of abilities that once you select opens a web of SKILLS for that ability, so then you have skills surrounding the ability, that you can allocate points earned via utilizing that ability in gameplay to increase the stats of that skill. I think that would be much better from a design perspective and keep things more local, precise and organized.
Open World
The open world is the biggest offender, there is nothing to do/dynamically interact with as we were promised. So here's what I had in mind be changed. First of, I think everyone's mostly in agreement that the A.I. is non existent.
So for NPCs, I would add a day/night cycle, actual dynamic crowds that behave realistically (including changing the animations, no one runs like that in real life) make them more interactable and just unpredictable with some scripts that can activate dynamically to create interesting scenarios like a poor kid randomly robbing your wallet or whatever.
But wait a sec, let's not forget about the POLICE, yeah I'm not gonna beat on a dead horse too much but this still needs to be pointed out, THERE IS NO A.I. NOR A REAL SYSTEM. Police should try to stop you for a random civilian search (especially if you set up your gear via clothes and armour to favour suspicion like I mentioned earlier) patrol the city, actually chase you, try to arrest you first (instead of just shooting when agro like in GTA V), etc. It would also be fun to rob a police car and hack into their communications to see where to avoid them or ambush them etc.
GANGS, this is another place where there is nothing, they need to be dynamically contesting over territories (which could be influenced by our decisions in the story and side quests but don't even get me started on how they wasted the opportunity to have the story be dynamic via branching decisions) as well as having an individual "Standing" feature which measures your standing with a gang which might offer you protection and safe zones in otherwise hostile areas or make dangerous areas even more dangerous by placing bounties depending on this level. Each gang should have this. Your standing could also earn you a spot in the inner circle of each gang and allow you to get close to the bosses, allowing you to take jobs from them, earn rewards, and eventually becoming their right hand man, allowing you to hang out with them in nightclubs and secret service type dynamic where you protect them. Or, you get close enough to them that you challenge them for the throne, or just outright kill them and sabotage a gang. Nemesis system esc from Shadow of Mordor. You could also maybe convince enough gang members to start a riot and rebel against their leader via speech and also sabotaging missions to make the leader seem bad for them. All of this could result in an endless possibility for replayability and dynamic evolution to make your world unique to other players experiences.
Also, Mercenaries, what the hell happened to that, as well as bribing cops or gangs bribing cops against you. Anyways, there should also be a faction for Trauma Team, MaxTac etc. Elite type stuff to do, private missions, unique encounters, maybe conspiracy/corpo branching storylines to uncover (again don't get me started on story stuff because this post would be 20 times longer).
Now onto the meaty stuff, the interaction with night city itself, so much to expand upon. First of, common food stands, actual interaction to sit down and eat, have conversations with companions, buy takeaways, groceries/grocery stores etc. Nightclubs, Bars, basically every interaction that is in the story where there are clearly animations for drinking, eating, dancing, and talking while sitting down, but outside of missions for the player's enjoyment. Gyms, more gun stores, different types of gun stores, some less legal than others, have other Ripperdocs who again, offer more military grade stuff that's more black market, risk and reward types of systems that could be influenced by the before mentioned "Standing" system. But what is also annoying, is the lack of shops, clothing, saloons, barbers, decorations (for apartment customization), "plastic" surgery clinics, drug stores, banks, car saloons, car customization shops (yes they need to add that back) just more interiors to interact with dynamically.
To bring back a point I made earlier, with a clothing store, you would have a place to buy cosmetics that would have logical sense for their location, in gun stores you could buy armour. This would complete the system of immersion for acquiring such items (also more weapon customization because why not). Certain brands could also be bound to certain stores which would reflect what quality of stock you would be buying from. That would then dynamically influence your reputation and style stats. Or needing to go to sketchier places to acquire higher level gear like armour and weapons that would naturally put you in environments of higher hostility. Barbers and Saloons could also give different quality makeovers that also influence your style, as well as hair growth for regular trimming (you did it in Witcher 3 come one guys).
This game also DESPERATELY needs a cosmetic surgery clinic, I remember Adam (I can't get enough high end positions even if I ain't qualified) Badowsky saying how the human body will play a big part in the character's arc over the game, making the game ask you questions about identity and when do we draw the line between human and machine, but that too is obviously not present. So I thought it would be cool if there were clinics (again better and worse/cheaper and expensive) that you could go to for specific makeovers varying in quality and effect based on where you go to have a surgery done. This is where you could go for cosmetic makeovers such as changing your face, gender, body parts, size, etc. Basically a character creator after the start of the game that's always accessible if you have the money, the surgery could also leave scars that again depending on the quality of where you go to, will either have the scars stay and be noticeable, or subtle and heal over time. But, you could also throw in other cosmetic options not present at the start of the game, for instance, you could chrome yourself out like certain characters shown in trailers as "celebrities" and "rich people". You know what I mean? Some wacky stuff to really get the cyber and punk styles in and how that affects your stats within the world which would bring it back full circle.
Closing Statement
Most of what I mentioned is what CD Projekt Red promised with their marketing and interviews. I don't care if it was never put down on an official statement with signatures, their words made such a promise, and with that promise they scaled the possibilities of the game's content to be expected and achievable. If they came out and said, "this is a linear action adventure game with bare bones rpg mechanics, but the story encompasses an open world which is very immersive from a visually artistic standpoint" I think more people would have expected to get the game at launch but without the bugs and glitches. They did this to themselves and they need to be held accountable by reminding them of their promise and pointing it out when they underdeliver and keep a close eye on new releases.
I hope this wasn't too scatter brained, these systems are complex to visualize and imagine to a point of vividness that allows me to express in detail what is it I envisioned for what this game could be/could've been. I wish I could've gone into more detail, but again, without writing down any structure and just kind of winging it based on pre-meditated thoughts, this was the best I could do in one sitting.
Finally, if you have made it this far, thank you for your time and consideration to read my thoughts, I really appreciate it, and I hope this wasn't too much of a bore to sit through. Hopefully, I have put down some ideas that you resonate with, or simply appreciate that there is someone else out there who has the same thoughts as you do. If not through patches, DLC, and Expansions (doubt it), then I hope at the very least some of this reaches the devs so they can implement these features in the sequel.
Thank you for reading, and I hope you have plenty of fantastic days ahead filled with good health and happiness.
