Cyberpunk 2077 - Your Ideas For A Dream RPG

[Poet_and_Gentleman.598]

Beth has UNPARALLELLED FREEDOM.

Gamers WANTS and DEMAND unparralled FREEDOM CDPR!

Else you might be beaten by Beth!

See, even the peopel who do not like Beth and would like nothing to do with Beth are referring to Beth!
This! You cannot stand CDPR! To be beaten by Bethesda!

 

[Froshshock]

I honestly can't point this out enough, but please don't go the way of ''Bigger is better'' with this game. Know your limits when designing the world, and the story / gameplay will follow with quality content instead of stretching it out and leaving a mess behind.

I mainly base this on Witcher 3, because that was another game made by CDPR: The structure of Witcher 2 worked much better story-wise.

 

[Nars]

Gamers WANTS and DEMAND unparralled FREEDOM CDPR!

Well, I'm a gamer and I'm not demanding unparalleled freedom or such. Bethesda is great at making games that I have no interest in (open world RPG sandbox). So I hope CDPR will stick to the "story first" formula. They manage to implement story in to open world quite nicely and I hope they'll perfected it in CP2077.

 

[kofeiiniturpa]

I will be pruning things like that out

I suppose a "Good luck" is in order then. Quite a few posts among these 3000+ posts that both hold stuff on topic and take part in a discussion/debate. Like this one.

------------------------------

So, on topic, again.

Four way difficulty setting. In effect, two gauges: Gameplay and Combat (both going for Easy-Normal-Hard).

Where Gameplay adjusts the stat effects (distortions on player control, skill checks, et al) on gameplay. Put it on easy and you have an RPG lite shooter in your hands where skills and stats are helpful but not really all that mandatory for succesful character; put it on hard and they pack a serious effect becoming a pivotal element of gameplay that the player must concern him/herself with in order to create a succesful PC, like any RPG should.

Where Combat adjust not HP values and delivered damage, but enemy proficiency, possibly gear, AI and amount and such (availability and cost of gear and provisions, for example). Set it on easy and you have a relatively carefree shooter in your hands, set it on hard and you have a pretty brutal combat experience.

Combine these two to let the player tailor the hands on experience to his/her liking for as far as it can go. Set both on easy, and you have an all around easy game in your hands that does not concern itself much with anything but letting you stroll. Set both on hard and you have a heavyweight cRPG with brutal combat in your hands. Set combat on easy and gameplay on hard and you have an easy cRPG, do the opposite and you have a brutal shooter. Set both for Normal to have the intended default experience.

Mix and match.

Something along those lines.

It'd likely be a balancing nightmare, but it would play towards "catering to a lot of people" and also towards innovating the genre as it currently stands (most current "RPG's" are just bland tryhards trying to monetize with the genre label).

Another, an easier route, would be to have a set general difficulty, but with a one "sort of" difficulty gauge that controls the charactersystem effects along with few other things. (Hard = proper cRPG with heavily character driven gameplay; Easy = the afore mentioned "helpful but nonmandatory stat build; and Normal = the "something in between").

THe REAL question is :What if Mr.Bean was an alien infiltrator alll along?

Would make sense.

 

[Sardukhar]

I suppose a "Good luck" is in order then. Quite a few posts among these 3000+ posts that both hold stuff on topic and take part in a discussion/debate. Like this one.

Yeah, thanks. It's going to suck in every way. Ugh.


So,playing Witcher 3, something to add to my Dream RPG hopes:

Hard Decisions.

Lots of them. Every major one and many minor ones. Tough, hard choices. Make me regret my choices even as I make them.

Witcher 3 has really brought home how memorable that makes a game for me. ANd how life-like.

Not every decision has to be life and death or freedom vs safety, but most should have that falling sense of "I don't know what happens now, what have I done?"

Small stuff, like "Do I pay for this Kibble or try to steal it" and even if you get away with it, the game has learned you that their may very well be consequences later. Not FOR SURE, but maybe you missed that camera or maybe that clerk spotted you and wants something later...just a small sinking feeling that nearly everything might connect to everything else.

And big decisions should -always- have that sense. Always. Grey area, traps, side effects, spiralling out of control.

 

[Poet_and_Gentleman.598]

Add to this hard decisions /w time restrictions. The dialogue should flow like a normal conversation.

Not "We must get out of here! Choice A B C"
*Player takes 5 minutes to think*
"Hm, sounds like A is the best answer"

more like
"We must get out of here! Choice A B C"
*Player takes more then 5 seconds to think*
*NPC gets shot in the head*

 

[kofeiiniturpa]

To add to the time restrictions... Quests that actually utilize those. A burning house or a running fugitive shouldn't wait for the player to bother. Certain (major) things should be triggered to happen with or without the players presence (though it should be clearly implied or straight up told that "something will happen in a given timeframe" and that doesn't mean that every quest/event like this requires a ticking doomsday clock in the HUD, etiher, the description note should just be clear enough). Though the consequence doesn't always need to be "Quest failed" (only when such is called for), but rather a different state of the governing narrative which sometimes might mean a new branch or a set of branches opening, or leading to completely other quests being made possible. That things don't always "just stop" when you are too late.

Eg. Being given info that some gang is going invade a building occupied by civilians, and failing to get there in time to warn them (for what ever reason) or otherwise failing to prevent the raid changes the condition of the quest and the location. The gang squats the building and enslaves the civilians there. Maybe it now becomes more profitable to strike a deal with the gang by providing them a bodypart merchant, or perhaps saving the civilians will give you some needed leverage with the law.

Shit like that.

 

[111elf]

I've just remembered something I had forgotten to add to my last post: Please make stealth a thing. I think it's way more satisfying to fool your enemies and reaching your goals thinking "man those guys will be so pissed when they find out what just happened" as opposed going in guns blazing and more or less seeing any character just as cannon fodder.

And because I've just experienced a certain case yesterday: Please no artificial barriers (i.e. progress conditions)! When a player manages to avoid certain confrontations let them progress. I've been playing Divinity 2 and at a certain point some of your former allies turn against you. Basically at that point however, you just have to get to a place they are guarding. So I thought I'd just mock them by rolling around in front of them and later sneak to the target. Didn't work out, though. And why? Because the devs had implemented a condition that would tie the door of a temple to the deaths of those characters. Note that I already had the keys to the temple. It just refused to open as long as I hadn't killed those guys (or met a certain condition - it can be generalized here). That doesn't make any sense and it's really a bummer when you think you're being clever and then the game puts you back on a leash with completely random restrictions. So please don't do that!

 

[DarknessWalker]

May be it will be great to see in cyberpunk 2077 some interesting places from nowadays and how they will change in future. For example a soccer,basketball or football stadium, players with new technologies, a park on the toppest building in the world, a big library in a creative setting. Okay i didn't say it must be only these locations, i gave some examples. For example some of these places can give you possibility to make some great and unusual quests, for example on stadium you can help a soccer player that has drugs or to kill somebody on the time of the play. In park it can be a detective story about a murdered, in library, a great fight or may be a deal between bandits or agents. Okay, that's all good luck!

 

[Lazerlatte]

Recently seen a press conference recording for Cyberpunk 2077. Not sure if anyone else heard but it will be more player skill than player character stats that determines the outcomes of combat, and broad character customization is in the game. In fact, it's less customization and more creation. It actually somehow affects the story. I WILL be VERY mad if I can't play as an Exotic Rockerboy now that I know character creation is confirmed.


Also, Kalashnikov A-80. Do NOT forget that lovely beast. I have never played 2020 pen and paper but I can tell that thing is the perfect weapon for me just from the stats. 6d6+2 damage and slightly below average accuracy means lovely lovely bullet hose

 

[Gascogne]

- 3rd person perspective.
- Cover system.
- Plenty of optional side quests and other activities.
- Go wild creating "Afterlife?" Club. Perhaps two different clubs in the city with a bit different kind of music or types of people inside? high class and low class? techno/dubstep and metal/rock?
- Highly customizable character creator.
- Female role. (just like in ME series)
- Some sort of NPC clothing and face generating script, so we rarely see same people on the street.
- Awesome Radio/music selection.
- Humor. (dark humor)
- Your own apartment, option to buy new properties perhaps?
- Awesome graphics!
- Smart enemy AI.
- Random AI behavior. Accidents on the roads, people fighting in the alley etc.

Thanks

This sums up my thoughts pretty much.
If I need to pick one of them, then it is -> Female role.

 

[111elf]

I just stumbled upon something else I really don't like in games: Forced drama. When you're being forced to choose between two characters/companions or you're supposed to kill off a character (like in Borderlands 2 for instance) when there's absolutely no logical reason for the binary choice. Like you've just spent hours of getting out of the most ridiculous situations and then suddenly in an equal situation, you're told that it can only be solved by sacrificing a dear character. That stuff sucks! Imho there should always be multiple options. Those could come with harsh penalties or increased difficulty - but simply restricting all options to a forced melodramatic binary dialog choice is more annoying than anything else. And, at least for me, such situations don't lead the player towards hating the antagonist/villain/boss, but rather to hating the game devs

Edit: It's basically as annoying as a forced bad ending. Bad endings or bitter sweet endings are great as long as there are multiple endings and you can, with enough effort, get a satisfying resolution. In that case bad endings are great since they introduce consequence to your actions. However implementing just a bad ending without any alternatives is pretty bad.

A game can be truly great or truly horrible, based on the ending. When a game has an awesome ending I'm inclined to play it again right away - even if I didn't like it that much. However when a great game has an annoying ending I might never touch it again...

 

[kofeiiniturpa]

A game can be truly great or truly horrible, based on the ending. When a game has an awesome ending I'm inclined to play it again right away - even if I didn't like it that much. However when a great game has an annoying ending I might never touch it again...

That's agreeable; to a certain degree. A lot of the appeal for a videogame comes from what kind of aftertaste it leaves. A notable amount of that comes from the journey, but even a good journey can be staled by bad goal to a point where it feels like not bothering to reach it again.

I don't think a good ending (for an RPG) is one of reaching an ultimate high end climax (like bigass final boss, or saving the world, or resolving a grand dilemma that plagues the "community", or what ever). That's a cliche I'd rather not see in Cyberpunk 2077. Instead, I'd support an ending similiar to Fallout (the first two games) where the ending is like a bunch of grapes the growth of which you, the player, dictate through your journey towards the goal. The more comprehensive you are, the more comprehensive ending you'll get - and on the other hand, if your PC is not inclined to meddle with the shit of the world, he doesn't need to know what happens to it.

Such design doesn't necessarily need a heavy weight core storyline (neither of the Fallouts had one) because the storyline is open by its nature and unfolds as per your (chosen) participation to a variety of different outcomes. I remember there being people who replayed those games because they felt bad for what they had caused to some of the people and things they meddled with (and as a fun trivia, iirc, Ron Perlman threathened to pummel Chris Avellone when he learned how many variations of different endings he needed to narrate for Fallout 2).

That kind of stuff I'd like to see in CP. A personal (to the PC) core storyline and expands and grows through your participation and reacts to your choices and actions if you choose to participate outside the core, and if you do not, you get only the personal ending that reflects the PC's urge or how the circumstances drove him to keep to himself.

Also, what would be neat, would be alternative endstates where the player can at certain stages (through certain choices and character builds) end the story abruptly and still get a unique ending. Like, if he just chooses to hop on a plane or a motorcycle and get the fuck out because shit is starting to hit the fan, or he just decides that this is the goal he wanted (the personal journey). In effect, you could basically tailor the length of the game to suit you; and the game would recognzie and support that. For a fun little gimmick, I would even allow the player to end the game (the story) during the first minute of gameplay, and offer a small ending to support that (that was your story, brief as it was ).

With the sort of reactivity I'm asking for, I don't really need the game to be "HUUUGE" like Witcher 3 or GTA or what ever other big game CP really doesn't need to ape; just as big enough to provide the sort of reactive RPG experience it deserves.

 

[Decatonkeil]

Snip.

I think that the endings of Cyberpunk 2077 shouldn't be something very grand, but should always be very satisfying. I think they should only go as big as something like the ending to Johnny Mnemonic (I'm talking about the movie here, as I haven't read the short story, and I kinda like it), admiring the views of something like a corporate building burn in the distance with your ingame chick or hunk, maybe leaving together in your ride of choice at the end... or only as good as
SPOILER: Angie Mitchell's ending in Count Zero, only since we are a kind of edgerunner, someone who is much more active, it would feel more
END OF SPOILER:like retirement in one of the very few paradisiac places left in the world (are there any, I wonder, in Mike Pondsmith's Cyberpunk?)... although that's more of an epilogue than an ending and wouldn't allow for the player to continue the game if not before the last mission or whatever... maybe change this paradisiac place for a very cool penthouse with holographic windows or something. Braindance would feel too much like a bad ending. Even bad endings should feel somewhat badass and providing closure.

 

[111elf]

I fully agree that the scope of the story should be a personal one. That Johnny Mnemonic ending sounds kind of great in that regard - reminds me of a certain ending of Vampire Bloodlines. Which by the way are pretty great. Though the Kuei-Jin ending was a little unsatisfying. Consequent, maybe, but unsatisfying. I would have hoped for a little more influence in that ending sequence.

Maybe I should clarify that by unsatisfying I mean an ending where your choices or overall efforts turn out to be in vain. Or for instance as in Mass Effect 3 where you've been working to achieve a goal from the very first installment and in the end there's a stupid deus ex machina where you choose the color of the outro sequence. That's a perfect example of how not to do it. Or when your character decides to sacrifice him-/herself in the end even when it makes no sense since you've already come that far and the logical choice would be to either keep fighting or back off and try something else entirely.

By the way I really like the idea of an alternative ending where you just get away from everything. I really loved the idea the devs of Far Cry 4 had - even though I don't play UbiSoft games I really applaud that ending - it's something I had been wishing for in games for a long time ^^

 

[kofeiiniturpa]

I think that the endings of Cyberpunk 2077 shouldn't be something very grand, but should always be very satisfying.

We're on the same page on this one.

Mike said in some interview that "Cyberpunk is not about saving the world, but saving yourself". That's why I advocate a highly personal core storyline that explores what it might mean to any one person to "save ones self" in Night City, and which opens up and expands to a more comprehensive closure(s) as per choice and even bends its ending state by that. A lot of the satisfaction from an ending comes from the "I did that" effect -- that comes in spades when the ending is an actual reflection of your journey towards that personal goal and how it affected the lives of those you met (both in an immediate and further future).

Although... on being "satisfying"; I do think bad endings should be possibilities too; that can be very satisfying if it is a narratively clever surprise, or the intention of the player. And sometimes... the road to hell is indeed paved with good intentions.

 

[Overdosing]

Hard, sometimes sudden decisions. I believe The Witcher games and Telltale Games brought me to it.

Nudity as well. Not to be a pervert, but I believed it worked in The Witcher games, so it most likely would work here. Even bodypaint would be fine. Me gusta.

 

[Dragonbeld]

cyberpunk 2077 ideas

healthy I have a couple ideas now inserted the first to add a combat system dual play in the sense of joint finishing off the combat system is a hardcore system hard finishing moves using materials at hand, and second the idea to add the heroine or hero samurai sword with miscalculation bumps and turning the sword from one-
handed to two-handed sword to a stick-katana
system description hardcore blow system moves with acrobatics with repulsion from the wall jump in the opportunity to take the enemies and throw into the crowd fast finishing moves with the capture of up to 6 opponents punchdown hard.

 

[kofeiiniturpa]

One thing I hope CDPR looks, and probably rethinks, a bit further is the purported sandbox design. I know there was that mention of CP having "two sandbox environments", but that's the thing I'd hope they'd rethink.

Sandboxes, by their very nature, tend to work so that there is an ungodly amount of artificially inflated gameplay hours through just trekking in a prop scenery, and that is then attempted to mitigate through an equally boring warp-travel that, in the end, reduces the gameplay to just hopping around the map after the given quests and missions. It gets very boring in the long run both ways as the intended realism from the landscape distances becomes a chore once you get to the back and forth phase, and the realism is readily offset by the warp-travel that ignores everythin (even possibly dangerous that would be there if going for it manually) on the way.

Sandbox design in general feels very choresome and boring to me precisely for the elongated repetition it has. This is obvious in all popular sandbox games, GTA, Witcher 3, Skyrim, Saints Row.... This actually hurt my experience with Witcher 3, it was beautiful to watch but damn.... after a while it just started to taste like stale potatoes despite the good writing.

What I would like instead of the mentioned "two sandboxes" - which will no doubt be very large - is to have something like five to seven a bit smaller hub maps that are not just gigantic props, but more densely detailed (both artistically and contentwise) and clearly different areas that offer different gameplay possibilities. And obviously free movement between them (either safely and uneventfully with paid transport, or through the citymap by foor or vehicle with the possibility for the travel to be interrupted). And by "smaller" I don't mean "Deus Ex small" or "VtMB small", but large enough to provide exploration and finding stuff while still keeping a sensible scope and content density.

The paid traveling methods could even include a scenery watch mode, where you just admire the specifically generated prop vistas through the window of the transportation (and possibly even chat with other passengers, who knows, maybe they have something interesting to say about your current goals).

I dunno, I just think everybody's going for either a boring propsandbox or a linear tube-experience. I'd like to see CDPR go a bit different route with CP on that. And the same goes for gameplay itself, map aside.... Most other are aiming at * RPG------l----*-Action (see the color: shit) with their gameplay conventions. CDPR should boldly take the route for * RPG--*---i------Action, and in general lean more towards the RPG side of the spectrum, even if still going for more fastpaced combat. There are ways to keep the action flowing while still having the mechanics more character driven.

I've implied pretty much all of that before, but... Can't repeat enough.

 

[LionOfVenice]

Character developement comes first for me,more characters like the Bloody Baron.
Fleshed out romances that doesn't feel like a ''bonus'' but deeply interwined with the story and the protagonist. The bond should feel real.
And a satisfyng ending. I still have to play an rpg that leaves me totally satisfied in the end.
Mass Effect 3..... jeez
Dragon Age Inquisition..... meh
The Witcher 3.. quite good... but still, lack of closure

The endings are often rushed because ,probably, done in a hurry in the last phase of developement I think that brief slideshows aren't enough for people that invested hundreds of hours in the game.

My 2 cents.