You can make decisions that "the character" would make and not yourself. Like in TW3, I usually choose not to get involved in killing Radovid, because Geralt wouldn't IMO. However if it were me personally, I would totally want to go help assassinate Radovid.
a shave wouldn't hurt, either
the soviets used to call their new nuke "the mechanism", or "our dear one"
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Generic?
Did you saw the list of social skills I posted before?
Social heavy games usually have quite a lot of possible social interractions, with one skill governing each of them.
Besides, don't make bad design decision (well, for you. Personally U love when games have the guts to screw me about a bad decision, as long as it's realist of course) problems on social systems, cause that could very well be anything else.
The Head Red himself Marcin Iwiński recently admitted to perusing our forums, to check what his ratlings.. i mean fans.. PEOPLE are saying. Ok so he might not have said that. Or did he? Go see.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gaming/...interview-keanu-christianity-building-one-e3/
Let’s talk about the game’s dialogue options. The demo featured a lot of optional dialogue choices determined not just by the character’s class but also by skills and attribute points. Are these properly branching discussions? Is it possible for players to miss out on content due to choices?
The dialogue is written in a way that it can splinter off into different directions. And yes, sometimes you can cut off some content if you choose this path or that path. But we prefer not to cut off content but offer you a different kind of content based on which path you take. On top of that you add a lot of flavour, a lot of dialogue options that can impact how you talk and relate to these characters, but the main story you can still progress.
That’s how we build it in general. For the side quests we allow ourselves a little bit more liberty because we can basically just fail the quest and it ends at that specific point. For example, if you piss of some character, or is you refuse to help them. So it depends if it’s the main narrative or the side narrative. In the main narrative the general rule is you need to be able to complete the game.
One of the many great things about The Witcher 3 were the relationships you could form with incidental characters and the stories that developed from purely optional (and easy to overlook) side quests. Have you carried that over into Cyberpunk?
Yes, definitely. We tried to take the things that worked in The Witcher in terms of narrative and game design and implement similar things in Cyberpunk. Your relationships with characters can be vastly different depending on how you engage with the content - like did you complete side quests or not? There are even main storyline paths locked behind specific side content based upon if you found it and if you did it.”
Does that make you concerned you’re creating a lot of content that many players might never actually get to experience?
That was a big fear for me when I was a lead quest designer for The Witcher 3. It’s scary at first but then we shifted our thinking and said that’s a good thing actually because different people experience the game differently. In conversations with their friends they will say, ‘I had this situation…’, and their friend will say, ‘Oh, where was that? I never found that. That sounds cool!’ This designer’s urge to shove everything in your face is something you actually need to fight because it’s actually better for the game if you don’t.
...
The demo also offered a first glimpse at Cyberpunk’s overarching storyline when it transpired the protagonist, V, has a stolen chip which could hold the secret of immortality. Are you able to offer any more details?
We’ve shown you interact with this personality construct could Johnny Silverhand, played by Keanu Reeves. This is a big part of the narrative to the main storyline so you might expect to delve deeper into that. Also it touches upon the topic of transgression, which is a big thing for us in the story and the quests. The idea that the people of Night City continue to cross different borders in terms of what’s ethical and what should be done and where technology should tread in the world. The immortality problem and the problem of the construct will be properly treated in the game. It is a very big subject for us.
Are you taking stands on these subjects?
We prefer to paint a picture and let the players interpret it in their own ways. Like with this religious quest we want to be thought provoking but leave the interpretation to the players. Because I think that’s how good narration works. If you give players a problem and the solution to the problem it’s just not as interesting.
So Cyberpunk won’t have an explicit message about the dangers of technological advancement?
It’s like a thought experiment on what society could look like if it followed very specific principles. The world of Cyberpunk is governed by the corporations, they have all the power, they can do whatever they want with the puppet government. And of course they are using it to maximise profit and to push products. So a lot of it is ideological but the interpretation of it is left to the player.
The dialogue is written in a way that it can splinter off into different directions. And yes, sometimes you can cut off some content if you choose this path or that path. But we prefer not to cut off content but offer you a different kind of content based on which path you take. On top of that you add a lot of flavour, a lot of dialogue options that can impact how you talk and relate to these characters, but the main story you can still progress.
That’s how we build it in general. For the side quests we allow ourselves a little bit more liberty because we can basically just fail the quest and it ends at that specific point. For example, if you piss of some character, or is you refuse to help them. So it depends if it’s the main narrative or the side narrative. In the main narrative the general rule is you need to be able to complete the game.
One of the many great things about The Witcher 3 were the relationships you could form with incidental characters and the stories that developed from purely optional (and easy to overlook) side quests. Have you carried that over into Cyberpunk?
Yes, definitely. We tried to take the things that worked in The Witcher in terms of narrative and game design and implement similar things in Cyberpunk. Your relationships with characters can be vastly different depending on how you engage with the content - like did you complete side quests or not? There are even main storyline paths locked behind specific side content based upon if you found it and if you did it.”
Does that make you concerned you’re creating a lot of content that many players might never actually get to experience?
That was a big fear for me when I was a lead quest designer for The Witcher 3. It’s scary at first but then we shifted our thinking and said that’s a good thing actually because different people experience the game differently. In conversations with their friends they will say, ‘I had this situation…’, and their friend will say, ‘Oh, where was that? I never found that. That sounds cool!’ This designer’s urge to shove everything in your face is something you actually need to fight because it’s actually better for the game if you don’t.
...
The demo also offered a first glimpse at Cyberpunk’s overarching storyline when it transpired the protagonist, V, has a stolen chip which could hold the secret of immortality. Are you able to offer any more details?
We’ve shown you interact with this personality construct could Johnny Silverhand, played by Keanu Reeves. This is a big part of the narrative to the main storyline so you might expect to delve deeper into that. Also it touches upon the topic of transgression, which is a big thing for us in the story and the quests. The idea that the people of Night City continue to cross different borders in terms of what’s ethical and what should be done and where technology should tread in the world. The immortality problem and the problem of the construct will be properly treated in the game. It is a very big subject for us.
Are you taking stands on these subjects?
We prefer to paint a picture and let the players interpret it in their own ways. Like with this religious quest we want to be thought provoking but leave the interpretation to the players. Because I think that’s how good narration works. If you give players a problem and the solution to the problem it’s just not as interesting.
So Cyberpunk won’t have an explicit message about the dangers of technological advancement?
It’s like a thought experiment on what society could look like if it followed very specific principles. The world of Cyberpunk is governed by the corporations, they have all the power, they can do whatever they want with the puppet government. And of course they are using it to maximise profit and to push products. So a lot of it is ideological but the interpretation of it is left to the player.
You're saying "decisions", why that's not my point.
I was pointing at what you said before: that the ability for the player to find what the NPC wants to hear should be the way to manipulate NPC.
Even so it would be easy to at least implement social skill (or even more C2077 style: perks) to simulate V (not the player) ability to find what to say and predict NPC reaction, like:
-A perk which gives you information on NPC in general ("like to be insulted" so you know what kind of way to talk to bed her)
-A perk which gives you information on NPC current state of mind ("is lying" "is about to attack you" "doesn't listen to what you say")
-A perk which give you glimpse of information about NPC possible reaction to the choices ("That choice will anger the NPC")
-Etc...
After all, isn't it what best socially skilled peoples, like pick up artist, good salesman, mentalist, are able to do?
I wouldn't be surprised if there are perks related to opening dialogue options. I would very much like that. We already know some stats and lifepath options open up dialogue. I just don't think there will be a "skill" that impacts how likely one is to succeed at a persuasion attempt. The point is, the dialogue choice itself IMO is a better tool to see if you succeed than a dice role. So if you have the option that works, and pick it, it works. If you don't have the right perk/background/stat level, you don't get the option.
I like that much better than a hidden dice role that reflects the unexplained mood swings of NPCs.
EDIT: Unrelated - https://www.e3expo.com/e3-coliseum CDPR on stage in 10 minutes apparently. Check schedule for Wednesday. I think it will be streamed here -
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As long as it's real social perks, and not just side use of another perk (like using a "wrecking ball" melee perk to break something and intimidate), why not.
There have to have a way to make both a good at social V character sheet and a bad at social V character sheet, be it a skill or something else.
Without that, it's just playing make believe, and there's no reason why social mechanic should be make believe when combat isn't.
Then there should be a way to know what are the good options, like the examples I gave before, so that it's V ability to socialize which is taken into account, not the player's.
what if he gets chopped into pieces? or is this the resurrection system from Satellite Reign?
There's a lot of potential skills in 2020 that - since they aren't skills in the game - could appear as perks.
Streetwise, persuasion, education, human perception, intimidation, interview, interrogation.... you name it.
Not expecting to see any of that, but... it'd be... nice to have some of those actually playing a part in the gameplay.
Was there going to be an announcement of that other game too at some point in this E3, or did I read it wrong?