Let's talk about Perks!

[G30M1]

Aight let's have a chat about perks and stats, shall we?

After navigating TW3's menus, I'm always worried Cyberpunk will be as clunky and secretive as TW3's was. It seemed to have hidden ways to access things - your health points, for example. I'm sure they told me how to use everything at the beginning, but most people aren't going to memorize 20 things in one sitting before they use them. And once your tutorial is over for navigating, if you didn't remember, it's going to be hard to use. And it's really iritating having to go online to look up how to use things on the menu.

That being said, I hope Cyberpunk's menus are intuitive and make sense. So let's look at the screenshot~!

From what I gather, Attribute points will be put in Reflexes, Cool, Technical, etc. and Perk points will be put in the smaller boxes branching from those. I figured that the Attribute point is the bottom number in the smaller boxes - Handguns, Rifles, Blades. But, what is the top number? And what is the bar? Handguns and Rifles are both at 3/4, and the bar is at different points. Blades is at 2/4 but it's bar is more full than the other two.

Also, if we keep looking at the points in Reflexes, the boxes in there are all labeled at 0. Maybe this means you have the option to put points there but haven't yet. If so, what is with the 3/4 and 2/4 numbers if points haven't actually been put there? Especially if you look down at Body where most are at 1/4, but none of the boxes are available to put points into.

Perhaps someone else can make sense of this?

Also, what are speculations of what is in Bio Monitor and Stats at the top?

 

[CyberBobber]

I think it looks pretty basic stuff, Im getting The Secret World vibe from it. They didnt start to innovate it, pretty much went with what has been done already.

As for Biomonitor its Fashionware.

"Biomonitor: A favorite of Solos and Corporates, this is an under-skin display mounted on the forearm. It provides a real-time readout of common body functions like heart rate, blood pressure, blood chemistry, brainwave activity, temperature, cholesterol levels and a number of other bodily functions. "

 

[Draconifors]

What I think:

#1) Each skill has a set number of levels, and that set number is determined by the character's stats. Each skill is governed by one of the five stats: Reflexes, Intelligence, Body, Cool, and Technical. The bar represents progress towards the next skill level.

#2) A perk slot is unlocked at every two skill levels. A stat can be no higher than 10, which means skills have a maximum of 10 levels -- which, if what I think is accurate, perfectly corresponds to the five perk slots (10/2 = 5).

Here's an edited version of your screenshot, with colour-coded highlights to point out what I mean. The circly ones are about #1, the purple quadrilaterals about #2. Intelligence and Technical only govern one skill.

(Right-click and 'View Image' to see the full-size version.)

 

[Snowflakez]

What I think:

#1) Each skill has a set number of levels, and that set number is determined by the character's stats. Each skill is governed by one of the five stats: Reflexes, Intelligence, Body, Cool, and Technical. The bar represents progress towards the next skill level.

#2) A perk slot is unlocked at every two skill levels. A stat can be no higher than 10, which means skills have a maximum of 10 levels -- which, if what I think is accurate, perfectly corresponds to the five perk slots (10/2 = 5).

Here's an edited version of your screenshot, with colour-coded highlights to point out what I mean. The circly ones are about #1, the purple quadrilaterals about #2. Intelligence and Technical only govern one skill.
View attachment 11013911
(Right-click and 'View Image' to see the full-size version.)

Technical really only has one skill? That can't be it in the final game, right? Intelligence, too.

Anyway, pretty sure you're right. Your maximum skill level is capped by the corresponding attribute.

 

[mhl333]

So no skills related to social, driving or crafting? Is there going to be crafting at all? Haven't seen any in the demo.

 

[Draconifors]

Technical really only has one skill? That can't be it in the final game, right? Intelligence, too.

It's just my interpretation. Does seem a bit odd but I could be completely wrong.

 

[Snowflakez]

So no skills related to social, driving or crafting? Is there going to be crafting at all? Haven't seen any in the demo.

Yes there will be crafting, no, it doesn't appear there is a skill for it, nor are there skills for driving or social.

It's just my interpretation. Does seem a bit odd but I could be completely wrong.

I think you're probably right, I'm just surprised that's all there is to it. Perhaps more skills are in the works, but seems unlikely.

I'm quite confused why you'd even need attributes like Technical and Intelligence if they are never actually used for anything passively ('far as I can tell, that is).

Maybe there will be other, non-skill situations where these attributes come in handy. Like crafting?

I dunno. Guess we'll have to wait for the full game to say for sure.

 

[mhl333]

Yes there will be crafting, no, it doesn't appear there is a skill for it, nor are there skills for driving or social.

Was crafting showed on the demo somewhere?

 

[Snowflakez]

Was crafting showed on the demo somewhere?

No, but there's a tab for it in the demo, and it's been confirmed to still be in quite recently (within the past couple weeks at max).

 

[mhl333]

Thx! The demo was so quick I have not seen many things and had just one reply so far.

 

[Snowflakez]

Thx! The demo was so quick I have not seen many things ahd nad just one reply so far.

No worries, happy to help. You might already know this (think I saw you in another thread), but the demo can be re-watched here:

 

[Draconifors]

Alternatively, the bars could be what Attribute Points are used for.

The bars seem too random in how close they are to being full for that to be the case, though, unless there are some hidden modifiers (hidden, as in not shown in the image) involved.

... I'm getting way too deep into this, aren't I?

Or, maybe Attribute Points unlock what I thought were skill levels (which would be what the OP suggested). But then the bars don't seem to make any sense.
Unless skills can be improved through both Attribute Points AND using them. That would explain the bar but also sounds a bit far-fetched and complicated.

 

[Ambergeddon]

I'm curious where heavy weapons land, rifles maybe? Or there just isn't a skill for them, also why is there a melee, blades and two handed skill or is blades the mantis blades? I still find it odd that melee and two handed are separate unless two handed covers everything and not just melee? I'm confused lol

 

[G30M1]

Alternatively, the bars could be what Attribute Points are used for.

The bars seem too random in how close they are to being full for that to be the case, though, unless there are some hidden modifiers (hidden, as in not shown in the image) involved.

... I'm getting way too deep into this, aren't I?

Or, maybe Attribute Points unlock what I thought were skill levels. But then the bars don't seem to make any sense.

Well yeah it's why I was staring at it for so long too haha. Why are there points AND bars? If we gain points to put into attributes to get perks, then what are the bars doing? Can we somehow naturally level things up without getting points? I dunno...
And again why I was concerned about the menus themselves hiding things like how they did in TW3. Playing the game and staring at the bars going 'well... it's going up... what does that mean though?'

 

[Johnysh]

Ok, so my take:

Cool, reflexes etc. are attributes which are upgraded with "attribute points" who could tell.

Skills like Engineering, Handguns etc. are leveled up by using them. That's why I think there's the bar. Each level of the skill also allows to activate more perks of the skill or level up the perk a bit more. (Maximum is 5 levels) so you will need 300 perk points to have every perk on maximum level.

It looks like it doesn't matter if you level up Handguns and you get perk point that you have to use that perk point in handguns. You can use it anywhere else.

In the picture you see 46 levels of skill in total. And 14 perk points used. Character is level 18.
Looks like each perk unlocks after 2 skill levels. So that means, like OP said, you get maximum of 5 perk points from each skill. Which means you can earn by just leveling up 60 perk points? And 300 is maximum? Of course you probably can't get 300 perk points in a first playthrough. But there must be other ways of acquiring perk points. Like buying some programs, some "Places of power" for example ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

 

[sinister.sinner]

So no skills related to social, driving or crafting? Is there going to be crafting at all? Haven't seen any in the demo.

Yes there will be crafting, no, it doesn't appear there is a skill for it, nor are there skills for driving or social.

According to Richard Borzymowski (interview during gamescom) the Techie tree will have benefits for crafting.
So I guess that'd be Engineering.

 

[Restlessdingo32]

... I'm getting way too deep into this, aren't I?

I think you were right the first time. Those bars look like skill progress bars.

It also looks like your skills are linearly gated by your stats. Take note in the screenshot you posted. Reflexes are at 4 and handguns, rifles and blades show 3/4, 3/4 and 2/4, respectively. The Intelligence stat is 9 and the hacking skill shows a cap of 9. Same deal for the other skills corresponding to the various stats.

I wonder how perks play into that. I'd think #2 in your post above could be right. In the sense every 2 levels in a skill unlocks access to a perk related to that skill.

Technical really only has one skill? That can't be it in the final game, right? Intelligence, too.

Right there with ya . Technical and Intelligence having a single skill associated with them is not... cool. Hopefully there is more to it.

 

[Nithing]

I think the core stats are governed by attribute points which might be earned through the Cred system?
In the demo V has earned 11 attribute points (33 total minus 22 in character creation) which is the same as the cred level (top left).

I'm not sure how perk points are earned. They've unlocked 19 skills so far (1 for every 2 levels in a skill, as pointed out by @Draconifors) but only spent 14 perk points, so I'm wondering where the other 5 went?

 

[Draconifors]

They've unlocked 19 skills so far (1 for every 2 levels in a skill, as pointed out by @Draconifors) but only spent 14 perk points, so I'm wondering where the other 5 went?

That's a good question.
I tried to come up with theories but the numbers refused to work for anything of the sort.

I do think character level 18 and 19 unlocked perks could mean that you get 2 free perk points when you start the game, and then one perk point per level.

 

[Johnysh]

I think the core stats are governed by attribute points which might be earned through the Cred system?
In the demo V has earned 11 attribute points (33 total minus 22 in character creation) which is the same as the cred level (top left).

I'm not sure how perk points are earned. They've unlocked 19 skills so far (1 for every 2 levels in a skill, as pointed out by @Draconifors) but only spent 14 perk points, so I'm wondering where the other 5 went?

Cred system unlocks activities in the world. More jobs to do, stores, places to visit. But I think some of those places might have some items that will give us those points.