The story based elements, gunplay, levelling and gear are all quite enjoyable and I've sunk over 100 hours into Cyberpunk now! There are issues but nothing that seriously detracts from these elements with perhaps the exception of combat ai which is a little simplistic. However that'd be a lot of work to improve that.
I've spent a lot of time messing around in the city and by far the biggest issue (gameplay wise) is the basic NPC's and the lack of variety in what happens if there is a gunfight going down or your attack them along with how the police react to events (or dont at all). I would love to these areas given complex systems to control behavior and it might happen over the next two years but I can't see them working on this aspect of the game in any large capacity for quite a while. The console versions are definitely the priority, still Id like to see some improvement sooner rather than later. I have been thinking about how you could improve these with minimal effort and came up with the below
Change : Keep track of guns being fired, if a gun fires more than x times or more than x guns are fired within n meters place a 'gun battle' marker in the world at the average position of all combatants in involved. It should have a timer that counts down but is reset if a gun is fired within that radius and adjusts the position of the marker to keep it in the middle of the combatants. Crime missions that have spawned NPC's should generate gun battle markers if they are shooting to generate reactions in the NPC's walking around
Reasoning : While NPC's react to gunfire they don't seem to react to an area of battle and often wander in or stay cowering. if an NPC gets closer than the n meters to the 'gun battle' marker they react to it like it is gunfire. This can also be used to enhance police (below). Story missions probably shouldn't generate these or pull in NPC's that might be nearby to keep them as they are.
Change : Add a chance that some NPC's that react to gunfire or a violent act can switch into the games combat mode, with the Player/NPC that did the act being the enemy.
Reasoning : In the world of Cyberpunk it is really strange that there isn't a sole among the crowd that will fight back or stand up for 'justice'. Most of the NPC's we see now should not fight back but there should be a chance, even with fists.
Change : Take the existing NPC models for Animal bouncers and other 'tough' looking non-unique characters and add them into the NPC crowd system. They should be few and far between. If they don't react to something can be just like the rest of the NPC's and not react/be reacted to by key mission NPC's. Give them a chance of having a holstered weapon and random cyberware. If they go into combat they should have a level about equal to the player for a good challenge.
Reasoning : There should be other mercs and tough citizens all cybered up walking around Night City that you might not want to mess with, there is a whole occupation of mercing in the Cyberpunk world. With the below change to police these NPC's become like enforcers if the player is doing illegal stuff. They should also be able to engage with NPC's at crime missions to create emergent gameplay opportunities. If the player is fighting bad guys at crime scenes and they react make them 'friends' and turn green on the map until the mission ends (unless the player attacks them!)
Change : When an NPC reacts by cowering there should be a check every so often on each one to see if they switch to running away. If they are cowering and a 'gun battle' moves over them have them flee.
Reasoning : This one is pretty obvious, the NPC's cowering forever even in extreme danger or as your walking down the street killing people should happen rarely rather than all the time. There needs to be a regular check on them with a high chance they will switch to fleeing
Change : Remove the teleporting NCPD officers entirely and use the below instead.
Reasoning : Again pretty obvious the teleporting thing is terrible and totally ruins immersion and makes no sense. For non-pathable situations just spawn high level drones far off and fly in.
Change : Add some NCPD officers into the NPC crowd system, also rare so you see the odd officer walking round. When a 'gun battle' marker is placed into the world, do a check for any spawned non-mission NCPD officers. Give them a chance to switch to combat and path to the gun battle marker from where they are with all combatants registered on the gun battle marker as enemies.
Reasoning : The police are pretty corrupt and also overworked in Night City and there shouldn't be such a rapid and strong response from the police everytime. With NPC's that can fight back and random 'Mercs' walking around the total amount of combatants can overwhelm the player without teleporting.
A system to figure out if its safe to run over a road would be nice, but Id accept them ghosting through vehicles at crosswalks and running along the footpath to get to the marker quickly from wherever they are.
With these changes the entire dynamic of the non mission world would change dramatically. It would feel much more reactive and even generate emergent gameplay for the player to see and interact with. Now I'm not saying these are 5 minute overnight quickies to implement but I know enough to know this wouldn't be very hard to add or use much in the way of resources. Considering the state of this aspect of the game I really hope that CDPR see this and take inspiration for quick improvements to quickly breathe some life into the amazing world they have built
Thanks for making to end lol and Merry Christmas!
I've spent a lot of time messing around in the city and by far the biggest issue (gameplay wise) is the basic NPC's and the lack of variety in what happens if there is a gunfight going down or your attack them along with how the police react to events (or dont at all). I would love to these areas given complex systems to control behavior and it might happen over the next two years but I can't see them working on this aspect of the game in any large capacity for quite a while. The console versions are definitely the priority, still Id like to see some improvement sooner rather than later. I have been thinking about how you could improve these with minimal effort and came up with the below
Change : Keep track of guns being fired, if a gun fires more than x times or more than x guns are fired within n meters place a 'gun battle' marker in the world at the average position of all combatants in involved. It should have a timer that counts down but is reset if a gun is fired within that radius and adjusts the position of the marker to keep it in the middle of the combatants. Crime missions that have spawned NPC's should generate gun battle markers if they are shooting to generate reactions in the NPC's walking around
Reasoning : While NPC's react to gunfire they don't seem to react to an area of battle and often wander in or stay cowering. if an NPC gets closer than the n meters to the 'gun battle' marker they react to it like it is gunfire. This can also be used to enhance police (below). Story missions probably shouldn't generate these or pull in NPC's that might be nearby to keep them as they are.
Change : Add a chance that some NPC's that react to gunfire or a violent act can switch into the games combat mode, with the Player/NPC that did the act being the enemy.
Reasoning : In the world of Cyberpunk it is really strange that there isn't a sole among the crowd that will fight back or stand up for 'justice'. Most of the NPC's we see now should not fight back but there should be a chance, even with fists.
Change : Take the existing NPC models for Animal bouncers and other 'tough' looking non-unique characters and add them into the NPC crowd system. They should be few and far between. If they don't react to something can be just like the rest of the NPC's and not react/be reacted to by key mission NPC's. Give them a chance of having a holstered weapon and random cyberware. If they go into combat they should have a level about equal to the player for a good challenge.
Reasoning : There should be other mercs and tough citizens all cybered up walking around Night City that you might not want to mess with, there is a whole occupation of mercing in the Cyberpunk world. With the below change to police these NPC's become like enforcers if the player is doing illegal stuff. They should also be able to engage with NPC's at crime missions to create emergent gameplay opportunities. If the player is fighting bad guys at crime scenes and they react make them 'friends' and turn green on the map until the mission ends (unless the player attacks them!)
Change : When an NPC reacts by cowering there should be a check every so often on each one to see if they switch to running away. If they are cowering and a 'gun battle' moves over them have them flee.
Reasoning : This one is pretty obvious, the NPC's cowering forever even in extreme danger or as your walking down the street killing people should happen rarely rather than all the time. There needs to be a regular check on them with a high chance they will switch to fleeing
Change : Remove the teleporting NCPD officers entirely and use the below instead.
Reasoning : Again pretty obvious the teleporting thing is terrible and totally ruins immersion and makes no sense. For non-pathable situations just spawn high level drones far off and fly in.
Change : Add some NCPD officers into the NPC crowd system, also rare so you see the odd officer walking round. When a 'gun battle' marker is placed into the world, do a check for any spawned non-mission NCPD officers. Give them a chance to switch to combat and path to the gun battle marker from where they are with all combatants registered on the gun battle marker as enemies.
Reasoning : The police are pretty corrupt and also overworked in Night City and there shouldn't be such a rapid and strong response from the police everytime. With NPC's that can fight back and random 'Mercs' walking around the total amount of combatants can overwhelm the player without teleporting.
A system to figure out if its safe to run over a road would be nice, but Id accept them ghosting through vehicles at crosswalks and running along the footpath to get to the marker quickly from wherever they are.
With these changes the entire dynamic of the non mission world would change dramatically. It would feel much more reactive and even generate emergent gameplay for the player to see and interact with. Now I'm not saying these are 5 minute overnight quickies to implement but I know enough to know this wouldn't be very hard to add or use much in the way of resources. Considering the state of this aspect of the game I really hope that CDPR see this and take inspiration for quick improvements to quickly breathe some life into the amazing world they have built
Thanks for making to end lol and Merry Christmas!