The illusion of time pressure

[SofaJockey]

I'm finding it weird how the critical path keeps urging you to move forward, with characters waiting for you and even messaging you trying to hurry you up.

Yet unless you engage with some of the cruft that passes for side content, you won't be sufficiently levelled or equipped to deal with it. My understanding is that there are no consequences to leaving your quest buddies hanging, but it hurts my sense of RPG, engaging with the urgency of the story (particularly in Act 2).

I find I'm trying hard to pick up all the side-content en route to main missions, just to keep my character growing.

How are you dealing with this?

 

[MM0Junkie]

what I've been doing is before and after a story mission, I check the map and see if there's any NCPD/side gigs close by , I usually do 2-3 of them before proceeding to the next story mission.

 

[Tony-Nova]

I'm thoroughly enjoying the beginning of the story however I feel rushed by the narrative after I get Johnny Silverhand. I want to explore the rest of the world without it intermingling with the story. When is the ideal point to do so? Plus It doesn't help that you can't deactivate the main quest while doing side stuff.

 

[ToyboxK]

I lost all interest in the main storyline as soon as I saw how dead, lifeless and stupid the world outside of the cutscenes and scripted events are.

I don't care about Jackie. I don't care about V. I don't care about Johnny or any of the other characters I've met that I can't even remember the names of.

I don't care about them because the game world doesn't care. About me, or them, or anyone. The cops don't care if I go down the block. Enemies don't care if I toss a grenade at their feet. NPC's don't care if I point a gun in their face. Cars don't care if I'm walking in the middle of the road, or care enough to go around another parked car.

The world just doesn't care, and so I really have a hard time caring about it, or anything in it.

It's basically just a dumbed downed GTA only I can make someone blind or set them on fire with a computer in my brain. That's about all there is to this.

 

[Sild]

After dealing with time restrictions while playing Pathfinder Kingmaker, I'm really glad CDPR was inspired enough to not include them in this game. Time pressure might sound good on paper but in reality it's very frustrating. A decision I'm behind 1000%

 

[ToyboxK]

After dealing with time restrictions while playing Pathfinder Kingmaker, I'm really glad CDPR was inspired enough to not include them in this game. Time pressure might sound good on paper but in reality it's very frustrating. A decision I'm behind 1000%

Time pressure would have made this game worse, to be sure. The only fun I have with it now is running around doing side missions. The main plot is just there for when I run out of things to do and have to end the game at some point.

 

[MRM70]

Unfortunately, this "illusion of time pressure" in the main story, while you are supposed to do side content first, is a problem many games have. This creates a disconnect to me. Not sure what a good solution might be - perhaps building in some major breaks into the main story, so you don't feel bad for doing side content?

 

[Hudatyebam]

I just bounce around doing whatever takes my fancy at the moment be it side mission, gig or just exploring NC, unless Panam calls then I'm straight out to the badlands in the hope of a booty call

 

[Grindders]

I have to say I'm surprised that the game has such a problem.
V always has access to a phone. Why didn't the developers make it so that the characters sometimes say - call me when you're ready? And after that the player can go to the start of the mission.

 

[ToyboxK]

I have to say I'm surprised that the game has such a problem.
V always has access to a phone. Why didn't the developers make it so that the characters sometimes say - call me when you're ready? And after that the player can go to the start of the mission.

That's really the core issue with the game. If you want to see the whole game you press J. That list there, the one with all the missions? That's the whole game.

Now press M. See all that there? There's nothing there. You could remove the whole goddamn thing and not miss a single thing this game has to offer.

If this is the game they were going for they should have just used the same game design concept used in the Hitman games and just offer up mission by mission. The idea of throwing this into an entire open world only for that open world to be completely pointless is just a waste of time, energy and resources. If this is the way they wanted to make the game, it would have been better served being mission based rather than open world.

 

[Kikinho]

Unfortunately, this "illusion of time pressure" in the main story, while you are supposed to do side content first, is a problem many games have. This creates a disconnect to me. Not sure what a good solution might be - perhaps building in some major breaks into the main story, so you don't feel bad for doing side content?

Definitely, or simply change the NPC dialogues into something like:
"Okay, call me when we can meet!" Give us the control over when we wanna continue it. Not "Okat meet me there in an hour."

And that is especially immersion breaking when you have to skip 7 or more days just to trigger side quests you wanna do.

Post automatically merged: Dec 17, 2020

That's really the core issue with the game. If you want to see the whole game you press J. That list there, the one with all the missions? That's the whole game.

Now press M. See all that there? There's nothing there. You could remove the whole goddamn thing and not miss a single thing this game has to offer.

If this is the game they were going for they should have just used the same game design concept used in the Hitman games and just offer up mission by mission. The idea of throwing this into an entire open world only for that open world to be completely pointless is just a waste of time, energy and resources. If this is the way they wanted to make the game, it would have been better served being mission based rather than open world.

Yep, that would solve the confusion why places have no purpose once you are done with the quests there. Like Lizzi's bar or the Clouds. Heck, probably would make the lack of braindance and other activities feel less dissapointing.

 

[Bloodartist]

This is just poor quest design. No eye for the bigger picture of player game experience.

 

[Kikinho]

Oh and another thing! At one point I literally had 3 side quests pop up on my holo communication at the same time, all come over I need your help right now! And I didn't have any dialogue option to tell them to just wait till I'm done here then I'll be with them. I didn't chose the "I can't come" options because it felt like I just flat out decline to help.

 

[Silariell]

Time pressure might sound good on paper but in reality it's very frustrating.

So here's an idea for future game developers: If you know time pressuring the player is bad, don't write a story with time pressure?

They could've easily made it so the whole thing with being rushed by the narrative was resolved differently, eg. not have it be a passive thing that just happens but have it be for example the work of an experimental super weapon that before the crucial story junction zaps you, making you have to resolve it within the confines of that one mission chain, rather than throughout the entire game, except not really because you can literally AFK in your apartment for 10 months and nothing will happen.

It would've also helped if resolving the narrative rush didn't also lock you out of continuing to play the game, which is such a huge conflict of interest for the player it's almost insulting.

 

[FLyingMonkeyPaints]

CDPR could learn a lot from Skyrim. There is a main quest, and you know it's out there hanging and waiting for you, but you know it's just another thing to get to, you're not pressured to go do it RFN. Occasionally an NPC will say something like "you should really go visit X about Y" but that is about it.

I think a good RPG lets the player set his own pace and how deeply they want to explore/discover the world. It almost seems like CDPR knew the world discovery would not be deep enough, so they put pressure on you in the hopes you'll gloss over how superficial the world is.

 

[Razira]

The time pressure annoys me because to keep immersion, I feel like I have to find natural stopping points in the main plot before I run off and do side-quests, but as far as I can tell, there just aren't any in this game. I've managed to justify it at times with thoughts like, "Well... V's only got a few weeks to live, so maybe she just wants to live it up for a while and enjoy her run and gun life instead of taking on an impossible mission!". It kinda works at times. Sometimes I just have to leave everyone hanging because whatever, I want to go shopping.

 

[MRM70]

So here's an idea for future game developers: If you know time pressuring the player is bad, don't write a story with time pressure?

They could've easily made it so the whole thing with being rushed by the narrative was resolved differently, eg. not have it be a passive thing that just happens but have it be for example the work of an experimental super weapon that before the crucial story junction zaps you, making you have to resolve it within the confines of that one mission chain, rather than throughout the entire game, except not really because you can literally AFK in your apartment for 10 months and nothing will happen.

It would've also helped if resolving the narrative rush didn't also lock you out of continuing to play the game, which is such a huge conflict of interest for the player it's almost insulting.

You can even fix this story quite easily.
Just tell the player, that the chip can not be removed, BUT don't tell him in the beginning, that the chip tries to overwrite your consciousness. Keep that part of the story for the end game. Let the player explore night city BEFORE revealing this info.

 

[IskrasFemme]

Spoiler

in title ll be good.

Post automatically merged: Dec 17, 2020

This is just poor quest design. No eye for the bigger picture of player game experience.

I would like to know how this was possible in a game of this dimension ... where the key is to try to take advantage of what the city - open world - has?

This department cannot or should not be the responsibility of just one person ...

 

[MRM70]

This department cannot or should not be the responsibility of just one person ...

I don't think that is the problem of just one person. You find the same problem in other games from other devs as well. Fallout 4 for example. You are told your son is in immediate danger, and yet you are told to build settlements for others first? Hmmm ...
I think the story in Cyberpunk would be a great movie story. But movies and games with open world exploration don't work the same way. The story needs to take the exploration part into account.

 

[IskrasFemme]

I don't think that is the problem of just one person. You find the same problem in other games from other devs as well. Fallout 4 for example. You are told your son is in immediate danger, and yet you are told to build settlements for others first? Hmmm ...
I think the story in Cyberpunk would be a great movie story. But movies and games with open world exploration don't work the same way. The story needs to take the exploration part into account.

Agree.

Post automatically merged: Dec 17, 2020

just a tip, moderation can you edit the title of the topic with 'spoiler' alert *