Why the open world form WILL work in CP2077

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Why the open world form WILL work in CP2077

I'm gonna keep this brief because nobody likes reading walls of text.

Disclaimer: In my opinion, TES: Skyrim, Fallout 3 and Far Cry 3 are good games. The fact I'm criticizing some aspects of these games doesn't mean I don't like them.

Many here are worried that Cyberpunk 2077 isn't going to have an intense story because it's open world. In other open world games (such as the ones I mentioned in the disclaimer), the story always feels kind of meh. While all of them give you an important main quest, such as saving the world or rescuing your friends from being sold for slavery, you have an option in each one of those games to screw around for an unlimited amount of ingame time. The main quest loses importance because it feels like the whole world is going to wait for you to go to that cave and exterminate inside. In short, all the sidequests unrelated to the main story objective make it feel as if it's less important.

However, the main quest, it seems to me, will not be about saving the world or affecting it in an extremely important way. From what I've seen, the game will be about your character's path to the top, not something so urgent as the main quest of say, Skyrim. So basically, screwing around and doing various schemes WILL be always connected to the main story.

In short, I believe the open world aspect of Cyberpunk 2077 will work with its story. I think CDPR can make a story that fits an open world setting.
 
I'm going to go ahead and say that this game will go down in history as the greatest game ever made. EVAR. A future will be built on top of this.
 
I'm going to go ahead and say that this game will go down in history as the greatest game ever made. EVAR. A future will be built on top of this.
 
I'm gonna keep this brief because nobody likes reading walls of text.

Disclaimer: In my opinion, TES: Skyrim, Fallout 3 and Far Cry 3 are good games. The fact I'm criticizing some aspects of these games doesn't mean I don't like them.

Many here are worried that Cyberpunk 2077 isn't going to have an intense story because it's open world. In other open world games (such as the ones I mentioned in the disclaimer), the story always feels kind of meh. While all of them give you an important main quest, such as saving the world or rescuing your friends from being sold for slavery, you have an option in each one of those games to screw around for an unlimited amount of ingame time. The main quest loses importance because it feels like the whole world is going to wait for you to go to that cave and exterminate inside. In short, all the sidequests unrelated to the main story objective make it feel as if it's less important.

However, the main quest, it seems to me, will not be about saving the world or affecting it in an extremely important way. From what I've seen, the game will be about your character's path to the top, not something so urgent as the main quest of say, Skyrim. So basically, screwing around and doing various schemes WILL be always connected to the main story.

In short, I believe the open world aspect of Cyberpunk 2077 will work with its story. I think CDPR can make a story that fits an open world setting.

Actually, taking your observation, Openworld is the ONLY way to make the game work...screwing around with personal fluff and unimportant distractions IS the Mainstory.
I have spent in Skyrim the first 12 hours having getting the money for the Whiterun home and full furnishing as my main quest. I am not interested in taking sides in the war yet, I want to get money and fame and assemble all the Thane equipment items.
In Cyberpunk I expect to be just doing my thing, living my life, running the edge only to pay the bills and hoping for the big score. I don't want a "expose the bad guy and save the world" mainstory, I want the entire thing being about developing my character and her relationships.....which should include two or three co-op player character friends who have the development of their own character as mainstory
 
Actually, taking your observation, Openworld is the ONLY way to make the game work...screwing around with personal fluff and unimportant distractions IS the Mainstory.
I have spent in Skyrim the first 12 hours having getting the money for the Whiterun home and full furnishing as my main quest. I am not interested in taking sides in the war yet, I want to get money and fame and assemble all the Thane equipment items.
In Cyberpunk I expect to be just doing my thing, living my life, running the edge only to pay the bills and hoping for the big score. I don't want a "expose the bad guy and save the world" mainstory, I want the entire thing being about developing my character and her relationships.....which should include two or three co-op player character friends who have the development of their own character as mainstory

I agree. In fact, the "save the world thing" I think is quite out of Cyberpunk idea. We are survivors, after all, not heroes/heroines. Bills don't have the "you pay less `cause you're a hero/heroine".

Side quests are actually the main quest. Meanwhile, perhaps we might team up with others (always bearing in mind that any of them could betray us, or could be a future "problem"), and do big things. But just as a part of our surviving aim. "Big things" meant "bigger problems, but bigger chances of hitting the jackpot".

Open world is the only thing that could work for that.

Besides, Cyberpunk, as least how I always undertood it, meant risk every 5 seconds. Not simply big quests danger. (Actually, "bigger" did not necessarily mean "more deathly".

Many times, you could randomly meet a cyberpsycho while drinking in a pub, or turning the corner and find ourselves in the mid of gunfire. (Apart fromt he fact that "friends within the game" where quite rare. My own teammates where a bigger problem than most of the "outsiders").

Where could we find such random events if not in a open world?
 
Which leaves the big issue of how to create a competent random quest generator that does not end up making everything feel like a repeat? Are there any viable AI algorithms that can do that? or will there be essentially a limited number of missions after which it is either repeat same old quests in new locations or end of game?
 
At the end the number would be limited.

Perhaps what could help is how those quests are interrelated. Or how doing a quest A, you suddenly find yourself in the mid of quest B. Or even how there could be consequences afecting future quests.
 
I didn't think that open world would affect the quality of the story in the first place.
While TW2 isn't directly open world, you can see that the side quests are extremely well written, I don't see why this would be any different just because the playing field is bigger.
Besides, while I personally think that Fallout 3 and skyrim had rather poor side quests, older RPGs, especially the D&D and turn based ones have shown time and time again that open worlds don't ruin anything.
And I don't think Skyrim or Fallout 3 can really use open world as an excuse for a plot that seems insignificant, since I never felt that they tried all that hard in the first place. YMMV
 
Well other great and outstanding title is RDR is not even to save the west at all but clear conscious and deep memories from the character to redeem himself. What better deep story line in this great open world pretty intense if you study the metaphor of the history RDR have. That is what we want in this game of course. A game worthy of impress us with a great story telling by the character and for the player. forget saving the world. I want to be my own life hero.Is a moral personal thing.
 
How about....no quests at all......You just go and do your thing......Cops will be send to crime scenes and accidents...which will occur naturally through interacting AIs, Hackers can go for their own reasons into data fortresses and sell the loot to fixers who can just buy and sell from and to NPC edgerunners, Solos can have themselves hired by corps and gangs and just see where the party is or just break into random apartments and loot the hell out of them, media follow the NPC cops to film the action, Rocker Boys go from one gig to the other orgy and enjoy whatever party and drugs they can find.....just make a living in the mids of well fleshed out and autonomously thinking AI.....

OK....have a few quests in between all that...but since this is not about saving humanity, why not just go and play and live? There is bound to be enough work for the businessman without having to search for quest giver Agent Smith.
 
I should stress that I don't want to seem like I'm teaching people to suck eggs, just explaining my rationality.

I agree with an open world environment.

To create a realistic environment that can account for each action a player takes is not feasible, and there is currently no AI program that can adjust in real time and create story arcs.

Each option a character chooses has to have been considered by the creator in the games production, with relevant dialogue and countermeasures scripted.

That being said, some games have given the illusion of free will and consequence, with varying degrees of success;

1) Alpha Protocol - Although heavily scripted, Alpha Protocol was the first game I played which accounted for every action I took and the order I took them. The order, and outcome, of each mission directly effected choices and conversations throughout the game.

2) Spec Ops - The Line - Although highly controversial in its content, and game play, the game captured a free play environment, in that there were no 'right or wrong' decisions, only decisions and their consequences.

3) The Witcher - An open world environment in which consequences are only understood long after you have made the decisions that effected them.

4) Skyrim - The first game to boast (successful or not) a functioning AI that can randomly create single missions from a pool of pre-defined options, ranging from location to setting.

Each game listed above (and I'm sure there are more) gives the illusion of free will, but in each case it is just (hours, days, weeks, mouths, years of programming...) down to creative and intelligent scripting and story creation.

What I am trying to say is that every game must have an underling story/plot. Now, the plot could be to live, survive and prosper, but as I said before, currently no AI can create this kind of adapting environment, which is why the only way to develop this type of game is to make it a full MMORPG.

If you do not want an MMORPG, and you want to immerse yourself into a single player game with similar environments, then there must be a story arc, which has a final conclusion.

Having said all this, I have full faith in the CD Projekt RED Team to visualise our fantasies.
 
I know...sadly there is so far as of yet no AI capable of autonomous reaction and evolution....but a girl may dream, yes?
 
imo Far Cry 3 already proved to me you can have a great storytelling experience & yet have the world be open enough for intensive exploration. It's possible to have both thought-to-be mutually exclusive elements working together. In the right hands, it's possible.
 
Awesome post guys. I completly agree on what was pointed out. Indeed we need a great story that fits in a open world setting. Such story, the main quest should not be something that "It can be done later" in the Game.
 
Wouldn't it be absolutely brilliant to have such advanced AI as to be able to synthesize realistic voices, create content, and piece it together into a story all on its own? Can't wait for that day.
 
Wouldn't it be absolutely brilliant to have such advanced AI as to be able to synthesize realistic voices...

Actually, I've wondered about the feasibility of something related. It's always bugged me that each unit in an RTS game sounds like every other unit of its type. Might it be possible to quickly apply modification to a line of speech, so that while each unit says the same thing, it sounds like a different person speaking it? I know its possible, but would it be overly resource consumptive...?

Sorry for getting this a little off topic. As for an open-world design of CP2077, I'm not really that familiar with single-player RPG, but from the sounds of it the game is safe in the hands of CDPR.
 
Actually, I've wondered about the feasibility of something related. It's always bugged me that each unit in an RTS game sounds like every other unit of its type. Might it be possible to quickly apply modification to a line of speech, so that while each unit says the same thing, it sounds like a different person speaking it? I know its possible, but would it be overly resource consumptive...?

Sorry for getting this a little off topic. As for an open-world design of CP2077, I'm not really that familiar with single-player RPG, but from the sounds of it the game is safe in the hands of CDPR.

As far as using it in an RTS, I'd prefer to keep it with unit-specific voices. I'll use it to identify the type of unit I select at times, subconsciously or otherwise. But applying synthesized realistic voices -- I'm kind of wondering if we'll see that in 5-10 years time.
 
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