Immersion: Should NPCs react to rare clothing?

+
Something I find to be lacking in current open world RPGs is how NPCs react to your characters appearance. In a world in which style and beauty is above and beyond achievable standards for most people, having NPCs react to rare clothing that requires high Street cred to aquire, could make the world feel far more alive. It shouldn't be too rampant that people compliment your clothing, but it should be an occasional offhand comment here and there as you walk by. It would be small and in the background, but the small things add up in the end. I feel like this would just be a small but awesome detail, as people would acknowledge your badass look you've worked hard to achieve.

Would it add another worthwhile layer of immersion, or would it be worthless?
 
Well, CDPR already said in an interview that NPCs will react to your clothing and how you customize your character.

Then again that interview was also right after the 2018 gameplay trailer with the more refined and fleshed out CC and UI, so I guess take that with a grain of salt.
 
This is the very definition of feature creep. a fiddly, difficult to get right for tiny returns on a massive investment of time.

Maybe not... If the Street Cred level is a variable for the fame, you could just compare this variable to another NPC status variable that would represent some type of affinity with a 'famous' V. Two numbers, one check.

In practice, e.g. if V is walking down a crowded street :

(gotta add a line here because I mixed Street Cred with clothing : what I meant is that StCrd is prior to clothing, just so a homeless dude wearing a golden Gucci jacket still doesn't get any attention from people) (sorry, my English is bad).

[Too low level Street Cred} : In appearance the player sees no reaction from the NPC, which means that V's level is too low (considered as a nobody). But that's a very common thing because in general many NPC just don't wanna interfere with other people's business, may they be famous or not.

[Required level Street Cred] : In appearance, some of them start looking differently at V, nothing too obvious ofc. They may seem interested just by how they look more intensely at V, like they would be open for discussion, or in contrary they can stiffen their jaw, making agressive eye contact or mumbling things when you get past them. And some potential "midnight chess partners" could make small body language in mark for their appreciation of your presence (look away blushing, play with their hair, whistle, etc.)

That detail within an immersive sim could serve as a whole social feature : if the players pay enough attention to that, they could have a clue to who may be a potential friend or rival, or other type of people that V could have substantial interaction with. Another good point would be to break that rule some times and make scammers looking friendly too, like if you follow them to a dark alley they'd try to rob or kill you.

And last, I think that it would serve the immersion if the same method could apply into the dialogues animation as well : most of people will look neutral, jaded, unfriendly or bored... but some of them must react to your reputation and look at you differently just so the experience feels more tangible.
Post automatically merged:

I would like this but I would like NPCs reacting to your mods and implants more

Oh yeah I forgot about the humanity cost and its consequences... really an important point to cover for the sake of immersion. Even if I'd like that some NPCs appreciate augmented people, cyborgs... and some others hate them and don't wanna have business with borgs. Good point
 
Last edited:
Love when the game world reacts to your characters action whether it's radios in Fallout acknowledging our action or npcs reacting to your outfit. So if they take it a step further by implementing more and more reactions from npcs about our clothing, street cred etc then that would be just great.
 
Last edited:
Love when the game world reacts to your characters action whether it's radios in Fallout acknowledging our action or npcs reacting to your to your outfit. So if they take it a step further by implementing more and more reactions from npcs about our clothing, street cred etc then that would be just great.

Games like Watch Dogs Legion or Vampire TMB2 (and RDR2 apparently, didn't play it*) are going to step up the quality of immersive genre, so we need that attention for details (+ they help the player)
 
Last edited:
Sounds like a nice idea in First Person cutscenes. I would imagine First Person gets kinda boring in the long run, there needs to be ways to keep them interesting. Lets imagine there is a scene, your char, important NPC, you wear some cool clothes, some other female NPC next to important NPC could give a flirt at you etc. Not sure if its worth the time though, Im sure CDPR has their hands full already.
 
I like the idea but in CP wouldn`t street punks / gang members try to rob you if your gear was rare ? That might be a good angle to pursue , if your gun or clothes were super rare :shrug:
 
I don't see the point since we won't be seeing the clothing in FPP.

While you can have this stance of course, I sometimes wonder about such similar arguments from people (where this is true; to those it concerns) who almost sound like they are in a defeatist mood, of sorts.

What I mean is the general attitude of "Ohh why bother with X if you can't see yourself!"

You can look down. Do you see yourself in third person in reality without tools like a mirror or actual real camera? No. Yet what you wear still has a sense (practical use) and impression on others. Some other people in a defeatist mood argued "why have different clothing if you can't see yourself".

Come on...


With that said I am in favor of such more unique reactions depending on what you wear and where perhaps. If you can put on faction specific clothing, it shouldn't be too ignored under some circumstances. Simplest example being automatically shot at or more often in Pacifica if you can theoretically put on an NCPD uniform hiding your face and run into that area. Or people giving you bad remarks. In another place with other people and other clothing you might get above average treatment in then. At least vocally.

No clue how extensive this might be but here I see a "the more the merrier" approach.
 
I've seen this implemented in Rockstar games way back in maybe, like, GTA San Andreas. It's a reasonable request.

If you mean that they react by a throwaway voice line, then yeah. "Hey dude, cool car!"

I was thinking more like muggers leaving the PC alone or treating him with respect if you are a famous mercenary known for combat prowess etc.... but I doubt that will actually happen.
 
Last edited:
Like most things, it rather depends. In Kingdom Come: Deliverance NPCs will react to your overall appearance, so if you're wearing lots of plate, people greet you as a knight when entering dialogue.
I feel that this kind of reaction to an overall style makes more sense than random people on the street calling out a specific piece of rare clothing. I don't know how it is in the US, but in the UK you could walk down the street in a fur suit and very few people would mention it, though it would obviously effect the way people respond to you.
 
Like most things, it rather depends. In Kingdom Come: Deliverance NPCs will react to your overall appearance, so if you're wearing lots of plate, people greet you as a knight when entering dialogue.
I feel that this kind of reaction to an overall style makes more sense than random people on the street calling out a specific piece of rare clothing. I don't know how it is in the US, but in the UK you could walk down the street in a fur suit and very few people would mention it, though it would obviously effect the way people respond to you.

I totally agree it would make more sense. However, since the dialog in the game is going to be voice-acted, this approach would greatly multiply the amount of voice dialog in the game, which is why I think throwaway voicelines are more likely.
 
I was thinking more like muggers leaving the PC alone or treating him with respect if you are a famous mercenary known for combat prowess etc.... but I doubt that will actually happen.

Ganger1: Hey Rock, cool new jacket!
Ganger2: Idiot, don't you recognize it? Thats Vs jacket! The guy that singlehandedly brought down the Animals!
Ganger1: Wow, how did you get THAT ?
Ganger2: Turns out that "legendary" merc wasn't so tough when i emptied my glock in the back of his head...
Ganger1: Savage! Hm, just got an idea.... Rock, isn't that your ex over there ?
Ganger2: What, where ! That fuckin...
BAM BAM BAM
Ganger1: Real nice jacket...
 
Top Bottom