immersion of characters

[axonnervosa]

I can shoot down anyone at anytime, causing a stir of chaos and consequence, but i can only hang out and interact with only very few characters. They should add a deeper set of interactions to engage with any and all characters, using dynamics that already have been established in deeper relational threads. Add in situational drama for picking random strangers to hang out with that lead into consequential side missions and quest lines such as instead of running up on a gang holding someone up, lets say to hook up with a character from a gang, when you get caught with them, or leave them hanging, then the gang is triggered to come after you or attack on sight, or, that is how you learn of where they keep the stash, so basically requiring different choice levels of interactive interpersonal engagement to get details and advantages over side quest missions. It could be random but typical and secret details you might find just by talking to strangers all over the city. making it a more immersive experience and giving something to do even after the main quest are done. I would say in the next expansion a way to keep everything and make the city a livable fun place to visit would be the optimal way to go forward. Currently all the detail and sophistication of the city world and culture is very shallow, undeveloped, it is a limitation surface feature. I would like to be able to talk to and engage with every character, say go get a bit to eat, go dancing, drinking, go home with them, get caught by jealous partners that turns into an orgy or killing spree or just wake up early and rob them after they fall asleep. but have a set of character types that can activate at random and by area for every character in the city, this way after completing the game, I have a reason to keep playing, OR maybe this type of interaction is so fun, that one may not even at first consider the story threads, or even it could slow the story down. What I have liked in my first week of play, I always know what i need to do next, some games like Destiny always leave me confused and wasting so much time getting places that I had to quit it. I like this environment and would like to get the sense of living in the city and getting to the story more organically and naturally, You can do this by offering more sophisticated and detailed social engagements that might distract. Not that you can't go right to the story if you want, but you can also have an slow take your time, lived in experience of the game world, that could even lead to eventually a reset open ended potential for future installments that requires V to return, defend, in set up for the next expansions. or chapters of this story.

 

[Netrunner2go]

Kinda reminds me of Watchdogs Legions…

 

[tavellone]

I agree that there should be more interactivity Inthe game and that pedestrians and NPC's are too static and obviously lifeless, but you're taking it way too far. This ain't The Sims. Even if what you want was technologically feasibile there's no way it would pan out the way you want it. It would take way too long to make and probably would be very low quality work given the sheer scope. Probably this would be much more feasible and possible with more advanced AI than we have now creating interactions on the fly, but that opens up a whole other set of issues.

So my advice is to wait 20 years, you might get this. I still think it wouldn't be as fun as you imagine it though. It would be a gimmick, tied down by the limitations of AI. Maybe if you want it at the same quality as hand crafted quests you'll have to wait 100 years, but obviously by that time you and probably modern society as we know it won't exist, but if you're incredibly rich maybe you could go all Walt Disney and get frozen before you die and get to experience what you want to the quality level you want.

By the way, there is an indie game that does allow you to dynamically interact with everyone in the world, called Shadows of Doubt. It's a detective game where all the content is dynamically created by an algorithm, but the issue is the obvious limitation I mentioned. It is very simple in terms of your interactions with people. The game is in early access and this aspect is being improved but still, what you're asking just isn't feasible on a technical or practical level. The game I mentioned is also much smaller in scope than a game like Cyberpunk, but it is a small step towards the sort of interactivity you're asking for.

 

[northwold]

I think the problem is that if you want a game this big to function as a life simulator, you need to accept that anything even approaching that would have to be procedurally generated / randomly generated from templates. More likely than not, therefore, it would be utter rubbish.

The reason, I suspect, that people are so impressed by Cyberpunk's world is that it was made by hand. But filling it to the level you're asking for by hand is simply not realistic given how long it would take.

I can see space for more idle chat with the various already featured characters who pop up in the game. Real, meaningful interaction with random strangers in the street, coupled with real, meaningful events arising from those interactions, however, just feels either too ambitious or would end up so shallow as to not be worth doing.

I could see a studio like Bethesda attempting something like that. But Bethesda don't prioritise narrative quality (not a criticism as such -- they by design want their games to serve up random world activities and the player doing whatever they like; pretty much by definition you have to compromise storytelling to do that).

 

[axonnervosa]

OK. so here is another suggestion that would keep me playing for much longer, after the current story lines are exhausted. While implementing a tactic toward world building that is more cumulatively open ended. Such as the time last night when I took out a data specialist who had this great home with armed security. I am thinking, why not let me live here? Why not let me take ownership of all these locations that I take down. Let me arm them and create battle simulation protections, from gangs, or corpo's with grudges that want to take them back or take them for themselves. Kind of like that way save the world fortnight has. But or this could be a driving story of actually becoming the underground ruler of night city, giving the city back to the people and fulfilling the goal of Johnny, but liberating the city from crime, taking over the police or building a new city force with rules and regulations for population control. giving people on the street jobs and getting them off drugs, or becoming the drug supplier in the city ect. I knocked down a few bars, I could own those bars now, and have quick travel to any of my locations, eventually have a flying car and be the architect of the city. In this way NIght city could become a city (a game) that never dies. the cities people build would become the backdrop for fan fiction and eventually online visitation of a vast invitational matrix of cities that span the NUS, competitions could be built travel to other cities and attempt to live LIVE in someone elses city, or form treaties, that eventually you could have puplic open world locations, taking some of that Fortnight, Apex market. But in a way that does not compromise or make routinly boring and empty storied of the future of the cyberpunk franchise. the city that we make today could be a metropolis in 5 years, A sim like arena for virtual engagement and interactive play. Heck maybe I could open a hotdog stand in a city and make ingame money, or even licence an idea and sell it for a real profit inside the game, it could be art or infromation packs, strategies, such as those found on Youtube for gamers who could put the youtube videos in a theater found in the game. Ideas are endless, but this is the future of a living breathing game, that survives the next evolutionary leap and who better than Johnny Nemonic Neo Silverhand to usher this world into existance. XGEN NERVOSA (use Ai for every citizen of the city with a random personality generator and tiered relational developmetnal currency).

 

[TMRC317]

I would really like that you see an animation of V eating in food stands as you can see V drink in the bars! It would be a fine detail.

 

[LadyMiseryAli]

More interactivity with the love interests would have been nice. More dialogue that gets unlocked at the relationship progresses. The 'hangouts' were a nice start, but it was done so half-assedly.