Freedom to the player?

Story & Setting
#1

Okay, this will sound a bit weird because I’m letting all my inner demons write this thread so…

To begin with I’ve been wanting to do this ever since I saw the gameplay trailer, you cut the guts of someone who looks like a peasant to me:

So, In this game, can I go into a church/chapel/monastery whatever, a place that’s full of monks, priests and all that and then just butcher each and every one of those fuckers? After I’m done can I torch the building and see it burning to the ground? Same with villages, can I gather some guys, and pillage a village? Kill all who resist, rob homes, and later burn everything to the ground.

There’s a reason why games like GTA are popular, you can just go and put all your inner anger in that game, some pedestrian annoys you? Shoot him in the head. So, when some stupid peasant gets in the way of my horse, can I just kill them? (Obviously with bad consequences) Seriously, can you make your character a psychopath in this game or not? That would be true freedom to the player though, always a good thing in RPG games.

Also, when you’re such a scumbag of a player as I described, the game would become more challenging too. People wanting you dead for your crimes and all that, or are you forced to be the good guy with morals in this game?

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#2

No, Freedom is not always a good thing in a RPG.

In this one they want to tell a specific story, that is why we play a specific person.

If you allow the players to go into a monastery and kill the munks you would also need to implement all the consequences… the local Lord sending his men-at-arms to find you and hang you. Other people reacting to your actions.
This will take devtime.
But is that worth it when the time could be used at more quests, more story???

The other option is simple hard coding that you leave your weapons at the door… Realistic since you did that. Easier to do and much faster. But it do limit the options for the player…

Not sure exactly how the Devs will solve this…

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#3

Freedom is a good thing in an RPG if it truly wants to be an open world game where you immerse in your character and have full control of it. Why else have this game in first person, don’t you want to feel like you’re the one in that medieval world? So if you want to go pillaging and all that, why say: ‘‘nooo, you can’t, it’s important to the story not to do it!’’ Maybe have an alternative story, like you can choose whether to go the good way or bad way Similar to Mass effect series where you build up Paragorn and Renegade points, at a certain point you couldn’t act a nice guy anymore because you’ve gone the bad route or the opposite, you’ve made your character too much of a niceguy, no more bad options available to you.

That’s just my 2 cents anyways.

#4

I don’t think this is a proper request for the game developers. I think a mod that would let you kill npcs (agro guards) would be much better. The developers have enough on their hands.

#5

It’s easy - make game react to what player does. It does not necessarily have to involve making some hand crafted, scripted stuff in terms of the player actions and world reactions (think: the first Gothic).

Stealth is supposed to be a thing in this game, so why not make the player-murderer-character stealth his way through the game. Since he’s hunted for being a murderer he can also be a thief to boot and experience vastly different gameplay than a regular knight-character. You could also make it so that some factions don’t care that player is a murderer if he’s allied with them or you could gain strong enough position for your sins to be overlooked/paradoned.

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#6

You make it sound like implementing this would be a cakewalk. It’s a good idea and I like it but I think there should be a line between what can be in the vanilla game, and what we should add as a community(via mods).

#7

Just asking, is the story one way or there’s an alternative? Because I watched the Alpha footage and when you’re talking to NPC’s there are multiple ways to handling the situation. For example you can try convincing them with telling some bullshit or you make a threat.

So for example if you go and treat everyone like shit, and make threats, provoke fights and all that is the story still going to play out the same? And HolyDeath mentioned about going around in stealth, this could be awesome, be a serial killer or something. Would be nice, but I guess this game is not aiming for that sort of freedom as for example Elder Scrolls series are. You can’t really make your own character, you play this one guy so I sort of understand why the limitations, the dev’s are trying to tell a story of this character, and that character isn’t yours. A shame though.

Fingers crossed that the story is good and you can actually make some choices, something like Mass effect series or Witcher. Both are sort of limited, but you still have the freedom of changing your character’s personality.

#8

It’s certainly simpler than making a lot of scripted branching paths in which everybody has to be animated, voiced, etc. It’s also simper if there are some systems already in place or are being implemented to support that idea (like stealth and crime system: read here). I am not saying it wouldn’t require work - because everything does - but people should keep in mind that “making the story” can eat more time and resources than setting up systems in place that can run on their own and can provide more gameplay (especially in RPG-like games) in return with less effort put in their creation.

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#9

Yes you can kill just about anyone, the devs have confirmed this. There will how ever be essential npcs that will be immortal due to story reasons.

But the devs have stressed that massacring a whole town will not be a walk in the park like for example Skyrim. Taking on more than three people is going to be almost impossible, because they will not attack you one at a time, they will gang bang you. And the only way to keep word of your crime from getting out is by killing everyone who witnessed the crime, but i think the devs have mentioned you can bribe the guards to look the other way.

As for torching buildings the devs said that’s not going to happen.

2 Likes
#10

Sounds good, shame you can’t torch buildings though, but as long as you can kill someone that annoys you, all fine if you ask me. Though I must ask, can’t you take more than 3 peasants if you’re heavily armored? Say you’ve got your level high, experienced with a sword, what’s so hard against those peasants with pitchforks? Ain’t like their pitchforks can pierce that plate armor of yours, huh? Even without plate armor, if your character is experienced and you as the player know how to play, why can’t you take 4 peasants at once or even 5? Assuming you’ve got a shield of course and that the peasants don’t know shit about fighting and that they won’t surround you.

Almost forgot, can you pillage villages/churches or not? If they’re not tied to the story that is.

#11

Well i can’t really answer how hard it will be to take down peasants, but i assume it will be pretty easy. When i said you can’t take on more than 2-3 people alone, i was referring to guards/ soldiers.

I’m not even sure the peasants will attack or just run away. But i do know that Warhorse has said repeatedly that taking on 2 or more people will be quite difficult.

One of the devs confirmed there will be a pillaged village scene in the game. How ever they did not say you would be the one doing the pillaging.

Edit:
I don’t think there will be a story segment when you pillage a church seeing how Henry like most people at the time is probably Catholic.

However i don’t think there’s going to be anything stopping you from running in a Church murdering the priests and taking things of value. lock picking, and stealing is already in the alpha.

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#12

Hahahahahaha :joy:
Sorry, that was the best joke I’ve heard in a while xD

To the rest: The main story will not change, because it’s historical and also will be continued in Act 2 and 3. So you probably can’t just kill the King, because it never happened in history.
BUT you play your story inside this framework of happenings. You can kill everyone, as far as I know, except those important history personalitys. The game tries to simulate the consequences and this is one of the most complicated and time-consuming processes in the development.
I don’t think you can torch buildings. But there are models of ruins, so maybe someone can build a mod for it. A problem maybe being the AI (people will probably still cook and sleep in the ruins and not react to fire).

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#13

Where does this hatred of peasants come from? :hushed:

2 Likes
#14

Thank you all for your replies. Oh, and where does this hatred of peasants come from? Not really a hatred for peasants directly, but a strong will to cause a lot of havoc, kill those helpless peasants and priests, go full psychopath. Can’t go killing soldiers, ain’t that tough, peasants and monks are just the right folk to go murderin’ :open_mouth:

#15

Then this probably isn’t the game for you, to be honest. Yes, technically you can attack just about anyone you like, but the devs have made it very clear that this will not be the kind of game where you can just run around casually slaughtering everyone you meet. Your character doesn’t have super powers, and even if you’re in full armour, taking on more than a couple of opponents at once will be a challenge. Anyone who can’t realistically fight back will probably just run away and call for guards if they see you going on the rampage.

1 Like
#16

Kind of Ironic coming from someone with superpowers in their profile picture, lol
Seriously though, did you even read through this thread? It’s just about the freedom to do it, it’s not about whether you get away with it or not(which you won’t, obviously)…then again, these are forums, ignorant people are expected :smile:

#17

Firstly, what the heck has my profile picture got to do with anything? It’s from another game entirely. Secondly, yes I did read everything you said in this thread, but I still got the impression you expected to be able to go on a killing spree in-game with little to no consequences (all your comments about going ‘full psychopath’ etc…) If you don’t mind not being able to get away with it, obviously there’s no problem.

2 Likes
#18

Perhaps I should’ve said “simple” instead of “easy”, because there is still a lot of work involved, but my point stands. Here you can see exactly what I mean and how it all ties to freedom of the player and the game being an actual RPG.

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#19

The development of AI is “on top” of the Cry Engine instead … think that’s an important point. This approach can only be placed reactive. For a story-based RPG with a short time frame of the story you play may be enough. If it is to accept sandbox dimensions, would develop from the bottom to start. As a layman, I can explain difficult, unfortunately. All one does is the need to do it ahead, a desirable goal. Then the possibilities and the degree of experience with which he does it. He does this on / in a real, physical world. And it is subject - in KCD specifically - all social and religious restrictions of the Year 1403 in Bohemia. All the players must know and accept as self-evident reality. Similarly, the NPC’s that have to be with the (certainly very limited actions) a player (understood) (that fit in the grid this time), and this rate creativ it received (also with the restrictions: Story, 1403 Bohemia , physical world, their own goals and I - let’s say, miller or fisherman). Think, if only a small part of it really works, that’s would be quite remarkable … very curious how Act 2 + 3 with the player reactions of Act 1 then treats that will be very formative.

#20

Bah, to be realistic : if you kill lots of innoncents, you get guards/honest swordsmen on you ; 2 or 3 and you’re dead. Game over. What’s the point ?

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