Killing people

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I see the point and understand the general idea here. I do. Yeah. And yet...



So when did Witcher players turn into little butchers of Novigrad or White Orchard or what have you?

Not even Geralt was the Butcher of Blaviken, killing innocents, but was dubbed thus because
the idiot yokels of Blaviken never really understood that he saved their lives. They only saw him kill 'innocents' and not their own would-be killers.

So freedom in games is great...but Witcher 3 isn't Skyrim. It really isn't, nor is it any other TES game. In fact I'm counting on it.

I remember what total freedom in games can result in, going about killing random people.

In TES:Oblivion I once started to go down the path of the Dark Brotherhood. You know, just to try it out. Initiation means you have to go kill a random guy or gal on a whim. Targeting a roadside bandit doesn't suffice, it must be someone who isn't attacking you. As in innocent NPC.

Now being me, I really had problem with this, so I traveled around the world, and really really went out of my way to find the perfect assassination victim. I remembered that I had already met him in my travels, and he was always so rude and impolite. Yeah...my motivation for choosing him was based on the NPC being a dick. I should have known then this path wasn't for me. But I was going to test it. Just for once.

I found him traveling the countryside. I let him offend me one last time, then let him flip me off and go about his way. I landed a headshot with my bow from really long ways away. A shot I was proud of. And he really was a dick anyway.

Sure enough, the result was that I was allowed into the Brotherhood, following that guild's path.

There is just one...little...detail. Spoilers ahead. No, really. Spoilers ahead! The path is actually entertaining to play, so do not venture beyond spoiler tags unless you don't want the faction path spoiled for you.

In the story the quests and assassination contracts you are given suddenly come under a certain change. Not even within spoiler tags I'm spelling it out completely. But one of your targets is a guy called Alval Uvani. This guy: http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Alval_Uvani

So it turns out that there is a power struggle within the Brotherhood, and Alval Uvani is actually pretty high up in the Dark Brotherhood hierarchy. Ergo you are killing off other members of the Brotherhood believing you are following normal contracts.

Okay cool. So what is the problem then? Well, you know that idiot dick I went out my way to find? My initiation kill? The very first kill that declared my ambition and motivation to join the Brotherhood? Yeah, it was the guy I linked to. Immersion breaker right there, because what effin assassination guild would allow this without any repercussions?

"Oh, we have a new member. Welcome. By the way, who was your initiation kill again? Oh it doesn't matter. Now, where is that collegue of mine? He should have returned by now."

So...going about killing a random guy...and not getting the reactions there ought to have been? No, it doesn't have to pan out perfectly just because it's an open world and you're free to do whatever and kill whoever.

I'm glad the devs are doing what they're doing, and in their own way. In fact, during my ten playthroughs of the two Witcher games I've never even tried to go on a killing spree among innocents. I've not even been curious to try it. That is how good these games are. So go devs! ^_^
 
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I read somewhere, some article "Geralt won't lay a finger on innocent civilians", which doesn't say much or mean anything really, but it does conflict with the calling the guards mechanic-- since that implies Geralt can lay his fingers on people. Either way, I'm under the impression you will be heavily discouraged from slaughtering innocents, regardless of how the mechanic works.

I'm *sure* there will be a mod in the future for people who are into mass homicide, though, of that's any consolation.
 
He started hacking people on the market from eyewitnesses POV.

So? The fact - without spoiling it - is that

Geralt did not kill civilians in Blaviken. I don't care what other people saw, the "character" himself knew that they were not civilians. The very reason that he killed them was to save the aforementioned civilians.

Which makes it out of character for Geralt to go ahead and kill freaking civilians :)

(I'm not against the idea for a mod though. I'm just saying that it makes perfect sense if they don't allow it in the vanilla game)
 


That's one thing Geralt would never do. He would rather die fighting racist-murderers in Rivia... oh wait
 
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I read somewhere, some article "Geralt won't lay a finger on innocent civilians", which doesn't say much or mean anything really, but it does conflict with the calling the guards mechanic-- since that implies Geralt can lay his fingers on people.

I think the keyword here is innocents.
I can very much imagine the tavern scene where you can start a fight with bunch of cocky peasants can lead you to jail.
 
but it does conflict with the calling the guards mechanic-- since that implies Geralt can lay his fingers on people.

Unless a dev said it too and I've forgotten it, I think the mention of the "calling the guards mechanic" first came from me. And it was speculation - what I said, paraphrasing, was that IF the game allowed you to kill civilians, I'd expect it to go into an unavoidable cutscene that shows Geralt being killed by the guards.

Anyway, there are cases in the first two games where non-hostiles turn into killable enemies. The obvious one that first comes to mind is in TW1, where if you accidentally hit one of the militia while escorting Vesna home, they turn on you. The same with the low-life hanging around outside the Hairy Bear, if you scratch one of them while attacking fleders. I'd also expect TW3 to have scenes where, for one reason or another, you can turn a civilian into a hostile, and then kill him.
 
@MFrost the op is taking about random NPCs, innocents. The guys in the bar would probably be hostiles to begin with anyway.

@Dragonbird I think I recall reading it in an article before I even joined the forums, so I suspect it was at some point a part of the game plan. Who knows what it is now.

I'm sure tw3 would avoid your accidentally turn NPC innocents into hostiles RE: the fleders in tw1 somehow. I did like the "put your sword away before the guards come!" mechanic in tw2. I'm curious whether innocents can be killed at all, ala children in most video games. Probably not going to test it -- never felt the need to in tw2 bar getting into the short cut to Philippa on ioverth's path.
 
I remember it too, could just be memory playing tricks on me but I remember Konrad and Damien in two separate unrelated videos saying that you cannot go around killing random people. IIRC Damien said something along the lines of "Geralt/Witchers help humans, solve problems they wouldn't go around massacring people". It could be fuzzy 'visual' memory but I remember the voice pretty distinctly.
 
Civilians I don't mind, but if you can't put guards to the sword it'll be a little disappointing, I loved strolling around flotsam in W2 obliterating corrupt loredo's guards.
 
It is far better that you cant kill ordinary civilians, but you can make choices that can lead to innocents death, it is more complex and realistic. in the end who wants to go around and kill people who do their own job every day, I mean it can be fun in GTA sometimes, but for me it become dull pretty soon.
 
So.... Perhaps CDPR have done a mistake with the trailer game narration when they're trying to explain that TW3 is a game of free choice but THERE'S NO GOOD / BAD SIDES, there's no PARANGON to achieve. Don't confuse RIGHT and WRONG with GOOD and BAD. There's a huge differences between them.

If some of you are newer in the saga and think you'll find a DA or ME good/evil you'll be very disappointed.
 
So.... Perhaps CDPR have done a mistake with the trailer game narration when they're trying to explain that TW3 is a game of free choice but THERE'S NO GOOD / BAD SIDES, there's no PARANGON to achieve. Don't confuse RIGHT and WRONG with GOOD and BAD. There's a huge differences between them.

If some of you are newer in the saga and think you'll find a DA or ME good/evil you'll be very disappointed.

This ! and they learn it the hard way by making a very good "sounding" decision and then finding that it ended up killing several innocent people. This is Witcher !
 
I understand that Geralt would not kill innocent civilians (and I wouldn't either, playing as him), but what about stealing people's shit? that's been a mechanic since the first witcher game and (though it's not on the same level as killing someone) I'm pretty sure book-Geralt wouldn't do that either. why is one non-canon mechanic okay and an other not?
 
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