fair enough, but I honestly don't think this is the case of "one or the other".
Neither do I, but that’s what I was told.
fair enough, but I honestly don't think this is the case of "one or the other".
I'm not suggesting a lifesim. Not at all. Just gameplay and characterbuild variety and diversity.
A skill biology to learn things from animals and plants? A skill for anatomy to learn from your fallen foes? Geology for minerals? Languages for... getting to try and interpret spoken and written words of foreign languages, and speak them yourself? Cryptology to decipher hidden messages in graffiti and posters? Forgery to make different levels of counterfeit ID (maybe you can decieve yourself a loan from bank with counterfeit ID and good negotiations skill, but you'd also need to spend the money fast before they notice you were a fraud and shut your fraud account... or perhaps you can get access to palces you'd otherwise couldn't with fake ID, just be careful you don't get caught inside... etc)? Human perception to learning behavioral psychology by oberving people? Swimming, so that you can... swim? Driving so that you can... drive? Negotiation so that you can haggle a better bargain (and I mean actually having to do the haggling, not just skill automatically adjusting prices...).
But, you are. This bit in particular:
Adding things like a geology skill or biology, languages and who knows what other profession lifelike-skill would undeniably shift the focus of the game (and the player) to a much more broad specter of possibility without playing an important part in the overall experience.
While those certainly serve a purpose in the PnP RPG ... in videogame RPG's they end up as a amusing alternative at best or a tiresome chore at worst.
The thing with TTRPG's...
But all things considering, i agree with you. A simulation, a true virtual simulation is one that would allow you to take any role, in any way, with as many or as little skills/activities as you'd want (or can) and the world it takes place in allows, including but not limited to NPC activities/skills while still presenting a purpose, a narrative that's fluid, changing but substantial at the same time. But that wouldn't simply be an RPG or Immersive Sim anymore, but something much much more.
Keep in mind D&D was origionally a supplement/expansion for a miniatures wargame (i.e. Chainmail).
While it's true a good many PnP games focus on combat just as many don't.
Try "Call of Cthulhu" sometime.
I'm not asking for a series of pointless activities to keep the player busy for the sake of being busy. Everything needs to have a purpose of some sort in the overall scheme of things... like how the missions and stories unfold and where they lead to.
All the skills are... "lifelike" already. And the focus of the game - to tell a story of V through your actions and decisions about characterbuild - isn't going anywhere. Not in the slightest. If anything, it would give V - the role you are playing - a much bigger sense of ownership because your options over what s/he is and will become and what all ways you have of interacting with the game are far greater in numbers, even if some of those stats might not carry the same weight as, say, gun skills.
Adding skills to govern a broader spectrum of tasks and activities, some of which are already in the game but without skill governance, only shifts the feel of gameplay and makes even the lesser tasks feel like they matter more (since there'd be a progressable range of aptitude to govern each of them) to the player, and the gameplay through them is more rewarding.
There's no need to lecture me about PnP games and their differences to cRPG's with their limitations. I'm well aware, I assure you. And I have (always) taken that into account when writing my posts.
This isn't an issue about the accuracy of PnP simulation. It's about the narrowness of gameplay opportunities.
This is a problem when trying to communicate complex issues through text on a limited format and foreign language. Misinterpretation, accidental and sometimes even willful. And through that, the arguments make it seem (and I'm not convinced that that is entirely out of misinterpretation) like there's so much opposition to RPG mechanics here (over years of observing the forums), that one might think people don't really even want the game to be an RPG, but only in the slightest of senses.
fair enough, but I honestly don't think this is the case of "one or the other". Adding skill checks for everything is not that demanding (not talking about development time, just CPU/GPU/RAM), I think it's a deliberate choice of devs who want to make an action-RPG (action game with C&C and stats) which needs to be fun and appealing for a broad range of gamers.
Plus, CDPR failed TW3's progression system where geralt had like only 50 skill points to spend throughout the game in few "+X% DMG" skills (it didn't offer much more than that in terms of skills) and still it was unbalanced as fuck at the point they had to gate everything behind levels not to break the game completely (and if we got it right, they did the same for CP2077).So I wouldn't look at CDPR for deep RPG mechanics, since they haven't made a single game so far which has them and has them right. Obsidian and Larian are more trustworthy on this regard.a couple of weeks ago I was replaying the mission when you save hjalmar in undvik, I was level 20-1 and, since I was there, I diverged for like 20 meters from the dotted line to get the tools for the master blacksmith and a level 26 (only five levels above me) troll was there. 20 fucking meters away from level 20 enemies I was supposed to fight. I decided to try anyway but nooooooooo.... 5 levels! I hit that troll with the best witcher sword, oil and potions, nothing, I couldn't even see a small HP loss... I can't believe we'll have the same shit in CP2077, 5 years later
Yeah, but I'm not really talking about sneaking past battles or speaking my way through, nor tinkering for better weapons and armor or brewing potions to help in fights for that matter. That's the basic stuff that's pretty much expected of RPG-likes these days.
I'm talking about the less usuals stuff. Interacting with the world in different ways.
Say you had a fantasy game like Skyrim where you're a newbie in the land... what about a skill for mapping that let's your character draw his own maps or read premade ones? Or navigate without one if that's not what you'd want to do...
A skill biology to learn things from animals and plants? A skill for anatomy to learn from your fallen foes? Geology for minerals? Languages for... getting to try and interpret spoken and written words of foreign languages, and speak them yourself? Cryptology to decipher hidden messages in graffiti and posters? Forgery to make different levels of counterfeit ID (maybe you can decieve yourself a loan from bank with counterfeit ID and good negotiations skill, but you'd also need to spend the money fast before they notice you were a fraud and shut your fraud account... or perhaps you can get access to palces you'd otherwise couldn't with fake ID, just be careful you don't get caught inside... etc)? Human perception to learning behavioral psychology by oberving people? Swimming, so that you can... swim? Driving so that you can... drive? Negotiation so that you can haggle a better bargain (and I mean actually having to do the haggling, not just skill automatically adjusting prices...).
The list is endless. I could go on and on. And the post would become unreadable if you started listing what all you could do with the information and effects that might come with all that.
Stuff outside combat is almost always taken for granted. The character is expected to do it all no matter how complex the issue might be when looked past the surface and when there is a skill or stat governing the task, it is streamlined for babies and it's ultimately naught but a moment in passing as far as gameplay longevity goes. But for some reason he never can shoot a gun or swing a blade until late game. It's skewed and neglecting a great deal of potential, and just to make combat the centerpiece of the game because most games do.
What if combat was an incident you'd just have to cope with, a result of your (usually bad) choices, but the game centered around a broader level of interactivity? That if you were to specialize just for combat, you'd only get around a fourth of what the game had to offer in terms of getting through it because there'd be so much more at the center of the gameplay experience to find and do and excell at and to build your character for (and not just random activities to fill the world with, but missions and storylines that relied on things that weren't related at all to combat or active combat avoidance, and which, at times, denied combat altogether).
Yeah, but I'm not really talking about sneaking past battles or speaking my way through, nor tinkering for better weapons and armor or brewing potions to help in fights for that matter. That's the basic stuff that's pretty much expected of RPG-likes these days.
I'm talking about the less usuals stuff. Interacting with the world in different ways.
Say you had a fantasy game like Skyrim where you're a newbie in the land... what about a skill for mapping that let's your character draw his own maps or read premade ones? Or navigate without one if that's not what you'd want to do...
A skill biology to learn things from animals and plants? A skill for anatomy to learn from your fallen foes? Geology for minerals? Languages for... getting to try and interpret spoken and written words of foreign languages, and speak them yourself? Cryptology to decipher hidden messages in graffiti and posters? Forgery to make different levels of counterfeit ID (maybe you can decieve yourself a loan from bank with counterfeit ID and good negotiations skill, but you'd also need to spend the money fast before they notice you were a fraud and shut your fraud account... or perhaps you can get access to palces you'd otherwise couldn't with fake ID, just be careful you don't get caught inside... etc)? Human perception to learning behavioral psychology by oberving people? Swimming, so that you can... swim? Driving so that you can... drive? Negotiation so that you can haggle a better bargain (and I mean actually having to do the haggling, not just skill automatically adjusting prices...).
The list is endless. I could go on and on. And the post would become unreadable if you started listing what all you could do with the information and effects that might come with all that.
Stuff outside combat is almost always taken for granted. The character is expected to do it all no matter how complex the issue might be when looked past the surface and when there is a skill or stat governing the task, it is streamlined for babies and it's ultimately naught but a moment in passing as far as gameplay longevity goes. But for some reason he never can shoot a gun or swing a blade until late game. It's skewed and neglecting a great deal of potential, and just to make combat the centerpiece of the game because most games do.
What if combat was an incident you'd just have to cope with, a result of your (usually bad) choices, but the game centered around a broader level of interactivity? That if you were to specialize just for combat, you'd only get around a fourth of what the game had to offer in terms of getting through it because there'd be so much more at the center of the gameplay experience to find and do and excell at and to build your character for (and not just random activities to fill the world with, but missions and storylines that relied on things that weren't related at all to combat or active combat avoidance, and which, at times, denied combat altogether).
That's the problem, it's shooter by gameplay and stealth by story. They said that your play style will impact the story. So as I understand, to have a good story and ending you must to be not lethal. That means we have a shooter, where you don't allowed to kill people.I think this will become a more apparent "fear" once the next couple gameplay videos come out. I might be wrong but a good chunk of the gameplay we saw in the 2018 stuff was shooter. From what we've been told, this years E3 demo sounds like similar gameplay. Go here, get this, shoot anything that gets in your way. With a little bit of sneak past anything that gets in your way sprinkled on it
That's the problem, it's shooter by gameplay and stealth by story. They said that your play style will impact the story. So as I understand, to have a good story and ending you must to be not lethal. That means we have a shooter, where you don't allowed to kill people.
they never said anything like that, actually the game has no moral system at all.So as I understand, to have a good story and ending you must to be not lethal.
It's the same thing, when the story depends on your playstyle.they never said anything like that, actually the game has no moral system at all.
but it doesn't. They added the non-lethal approach after the game structure was pretty much done, there's no count for kills. It'll be like TW3, different endings will be decided through dialogue choices.It's the same thing, when the story depends on your playstyle.
I don't really get your fear/point.It's the same thing, when the story depends on your playstyle.
I hope so.but it doesn't. They added the non-lethal approach after the game structure was pretty much done, there's no count for kills. It'll be like TW3, different endings will be decided through dialogue choices.
That what i want to be a paragon, but play in the game as a bloody shooter. Thought you can't complete Mass effect without killing. Also machine guns with not lethal bullets sounds rediculous in that setting.I don't really get your fear/point.
This is not Mass Effect, where for the "good" ending you need to be full paragon.
The story will play out on what you'll decide throughout the mainstory and major plotrelated sidequests and not if you kill or spare cyberthugs.
I don't really get your fear/point.
This is not Mass Effect, where for the "good" ending you need to be full paragon.