Community Q&A – Time for some answers

[daddy300]

That was actually a surprise, I never expected my question to be answer. Thanks.

Probably you guys are not sure yet or you just can't tell people about it. Either way I hope in the future we can have a more direct conformation and again thanks for all the answers.

You have to give them some credit since they can’t reveal everything related to the gameplay when probably half of the ideas are still written on the white board. They just started the the project, 2014 is still far away.

 

[cyberarmy.603]

I do too, but I also value their character designs over mine, so if it's one male or female with character models as awesome as Geralt, then I won't complain about the lack of a character creator.

After seeing some Shell Shock gameplay, I'm really wondering if he meant System Shock.

Yeah i really wonder that Shell Shock part too.
There was an old Tank simulation game named Shell Shock i hope that was not they meant that.
I hope its System Shock too becasue Shell Shock games are shite with their so called "maturity"
Or maybe they were refering to shellshock effect?

 

[Marcin Momot]

Thanks!

I'm curious about the answer to the inspirations question though - the only games called ShellShock I know of are the rather mediocre third person shooter Shellshock: Nam '67, and its even worse sequel. Is there any chance you meant System Shock?

EDIT: There's apparently also some sort of gangsta-themed tank game(!?) called Shellshock, but that can't be it either?

Yes, thanks for pointing this out! I meant System Shock obviously. Already edited the original post.

 

[Kodaemon5924]

At last! I can sleep easy.

 

[Aditya]

Thanks for the answers.
If it's a customizable protagonist, I do hope we can change the gender. I want to play as a woman.

me too

 

[nocny.945]

You didn't really clarify if you could choose your character's gender or not, because, while I will probably enjoy the game regardless I know a lot of people who didn't like the Witcher just because of that. I'd just appreciate if you made that clear.

Google Translator

I hope will not be a choice of gender, because in this case, the game story becomes blurred. Relationships become blurred. Boring and uninteresting. My favorite RPGs (Gothic and Witcher) have a specific character. And this is the best! And if they added something like a choice of sexual orientation, then this game is not for me.

I gladly will play in a game where the main character is a woman, but from the beginning defined as a woman, with no choice.

 

[Sirnaq]

Google Translator

I hope will not be a choice of gender, because in this case, the game story becomes blurred. Relationships become blurred. Boring and uninteresting. My favorite RPGs (Gothic and Witcher) have a specific character. And this is the best! And if they added something like a choice of sexual orientation, then this game is not for me.

I gladly will play in a game where the main character is a woman, but from the beginning defined as a woman, with no choice.

Pretty much this.

 

[gregski]

Google Translator

I hope will not be a choice of gender, because in this case, the game story becomes blurred. Relationships become blurred. Boring and uninteresting. My favorite RPGs (Gothic and Witcher) have a specific character. And this is the best! And if they added something like a choice of sexual orientation, then this game is not for me.

I gladly will play in a game where the main character is a woman, but from the beginning defined as a woman, with no choice.

Agreed. Not only the story gets blurred and not so personal, it will also cost a lost more to record voice overs and stuff like that. That money could be spent far better elsewhere.

 

[kofeiiniturpa]

I would've liked to hear about some early plans on gameplay. Like will the game play out like Witcher 2 in Cyberpunk or will it have more "slowpaced" character/skill&attribute oriented gameplay. Oh, well. Good to have at least some information, so thanks for the answers.

Just please do not make it a play out like a twitchy 1st/3rd person shooter with some vague and hasty RPG rules tacked on for the show (like games like Mass Effect or Fallout 3). The cRPG market is already saturated with those, so it could well tolerate something at least a bit different.

 

[Anwell]

I get what everyone is saying about the gender choice, it does take a lot of resources to do it properly.
Its just when it come down to a choice of male or female, it almost always ends up being a male protagonist. I would love a game with a set female character, its just that they rarely ever happen. So I do really hope we do get a choice.

I also dont think what went wrong with mass effect for example, had anything to do with the choice available of playing as female Shepard. Gender choice wont make CD project into Bioware if thats what worries people

 

[Mihura]

Google Translator

I hope will not be a choice of gender, because in this case, the game story becomes blurred. Relationships become blurred. Boring and uninteresting. My favorite RPGs (Gothic and Witcher) have a specific character. And this is the best! And if they added something like a choice of sexual orientation, then this game is not for me.

I gladly will play in a game where the main character is a woman, but from the beginning defined as a woman, with no choice.

I respectably disagree choosing a genders to me has a high replay value but this a personal preference.
"And if they added something like a choice of sexual orientation, then this game is not for me." So if the main character is a guy/girl that is bixesual by default are you ok with that?

I get that TW 2 has a more linear approach to character customization but cyberpunk is base on a game, that I am pretty sure has a lot more freedom of choice in all regards.
I never saw TW2 as a pure RPG because of the character limitations, more like a Jrpg in more ways the other actually.

Agreed. Not only the story gets blurred and not so personal, it will also cost a lost more to record voice overs and stuff like that. That money could be spent far better elsewhere.

Yes having choices cost money is more easy to do an FPS game like CoD or Halo with a set story then a story with choices, it would have been more easy to do TW 2 with only one path and not two with Iorveth and Roche.
In the end everything can go wrong and everything costs money but if they decide do give the player choices I don't think this will affect the quality of the story, like having two different paths didn't.

 

[Mohasz]

Its just when it come down to a choice of male or female, it almost always ends up being a male protagonist. I would love a game with a set female character, its just that they rarely ever happen. So I do really hope we do get a choice.

What if we got a specific female character, without choice of gender? I wouldn't mind that.

 

[wichat]

It seems nobody remember Lara Croft

 

[Kodaemon5924]

I'm not buying the new Tomb Raider unless I can play Larry Croft.

On topic though, while none of the perspective questions has been answered, both games mentioned as inspirations are first person. This makes me hopeful for first person in Cyberpunk.

And include leaning, please! No crappy third person cover mode and conveniently placed waist-high walls!

 

[colibrie]

Google Translator

I hope will not be a choice of gender, because in this case, the game story becomes blurred. Relationships become blurred. Boring and uninteresting. My favorite RPGs (Gothic and Witcher) have a specific character. And this is the best! And if they added something like a choice of sexual orientation, then this game is not for me.

I gladly will play in a game where the main character is a woman, but from the beginning defined as a woman, with no choice.

I have been thinking if they could build the game so that there is always, let's say, a group of five persons involved deeply in a story. Each have their own story and speciality and there could be like 2 female characters. You can choose your character from the group of: a male hacker, female leader, female cyborg etc.. (I'm not too fond to cyberpunk so I don't know much of the specialities they can have).. So if you want to create a female character you have to choose one from the 2 of them and create one, for example the leader. So she has some part of the story developed already (like the position in a group or career/speciality, probably a past too) but you can change the appearance and affect to the story from her perspective. In that way relationships wouldn't be harmed since the females would have their own stories compared to the males from the start.
For example the cyborg would have entirely different past compared to some other character who could for example have lost their family. Sure the past would be determined already quite a bit but in many/every(?) rpg-games your character's been given a role/past/plot so I don't think it would restrict too much to choose from five pasts?

Does this idea have some major errors? I would like to hear some opinions

 

[Jackinthegreen.152]

I have been thinking if they could build the game so that there is always, let's say, a group of five persons involved deeply in a story. Each have their own story and speciality and there could be like 2 female characters. You can choose your character from the group of: a male hacker, female leader, female cyborg etc.. (I'm not too fond to cyberpunk so I don't know much of the specialities they can have).. So if you want to create a female character you have to choose one from the 2 of them and create one, for example the leader. So she has some part of the story developed already (like the position in a group or career/speciality, probably a past too) but you can change the appearance and affect to the story from her perspective. In that way relationships wouldn't be harmed since the females would have their own stories compared to the males from the start.
For example the cyborg would have entirely different past compared to some other character who could for example have lost their family. Sure the past would be determined already quite a bit but in many/every(?) rpg-games your character's been given a role/past/plot so I don't think it would restrict too much to choose from five pasts?

Does this idea have some major errors? I would like to hear some opinions

I DO like the idea of choosing or playing more than one set character...
It could be implemented as having the oportunity to play the same story from 5 different perspectives; or like Heavy Rain, choosing the characters alternatevely to forward the story, and if one character dies, that path closes, and you have left the others to complete the tale...

 

[KnightofPhoenix]

Agreed. Not only the story gets blurred and not so personal, it will also cost a lost more to record voice overs and stuff like that. That money could be spent far better elsewhere.

I don't buy that argument.
If from the get go the PC is customizable, with customizable backgrounds, classes and appearance, the game is already blurred as all of this is virtually unrecognized in the game, story and relationships. Adding gender is not going to make it more blurred.

I prefer a set protagonist like Geralt. But if it's not set, I do not see how gender choice would be a bad thing.

Yes resources would be spent on it. But you know what, if CDPR can take gender choice and then make two paths out of them a la TW2, then it's not unfeasible. CDPR has shown that it is cost effective and capable of doing things that devs with a much bigger budget can't hope to do.

Just as CDPR showed the real meaning of C&C, I believe it can do wonders with gender choice.

 

[wichat]

CDPR had not big resources when they made TW1 and they've DO the undevisable, haven't they?

 

[thentomwaslike]

i trust cdp completely. the witcher 2 was my favorite game of all time

 

[gregski]

I don't buy that argument.
If from the get go the PC is customizable, with customizable backgrounds, classes and appearance, the game is already blurred as all of this is virtually unrecognized in the game, story and relationships. Adding gender is not going to make it more blurred.

I prefer a set protagonist like Geralt. But if it's not set, I do not see how gender choice would be a bad thing.

Yes resources would be spent on it. But you know what, if CDPR can take gender choice and then make two paths out of them a la TW2, then it's not unfeasible. CDPR has shown that it is cost effective and capable of doing things that devs with a much bigger budget can't hope to do.

Just as CDPR showed the real meaning of C&C, I believe it can do wonders with gender choice.

I too prefer a set protagonist. What I meant is more about the all possible variations of story-class-gender we would get in the Cyberpunk game. Let's assume you will have 5 classes to choose from(sounds reasonable for a Cyberpunk setting) and 2 genders:

Approach no. 1 - record only 2 voice over/dialogue options for male/female character, but then no matter which class you choose, you end up with the same voice overs

Approach no. 2 - make unique voice overs for each class AND male/female, but then you end up with 10 voice over options you have to record and that's gonna cost A LOT of money. Maybe this sounds unlikely to happen, but remember CDPR's attention to detail?

So, maybe the optimal choice would be 2 voice over options for male and female no matter which class you choose, but as you said - make a branched story a la TW2 for each gender. But then, what with the classes and the story variations they could add?