Freedom to the player?

[213]

also, your character isn’t a blank slate, he has a set personality and background. you’re not going to turn him into a raging psychopath because he isn’t written that way, therefore having gaming options which enable raging psychopath/spree killer behavior is never going to overpower the gameplay features which prevent that from happening.

in grand theft auto you just run a few blocks and hide and after a minute, you’re clear because that game i designed for mindless boring run and gun. in this game, you’ll likely get tracked down and hunted by peasants and constables alike until you’re dead. and if you cheat to stay alive, the game will likely break.

[HolyDeath]

also, your character isn’t a blank slate, he has a set personality and background. you’re not going to turn him into a raging psychopath because he isn’t written that way, therefore having gaming options which enable raging psychopath/spree killer behavior is never going to overpower the gameplay features which prevent that from happening.

Is that so?:

[quote]Emergent Gameplay

Our world is a living, breathing, and COMPLEX ecosystem, ready to be toyed with. Everything happens for a reason, every character has his/her daily routine, and every routine can be affected by the player. Characters are able to react properly to all player actions and adjust their routines to them.

Advanced reputation and law system.

The world will organically react to your deeds. NPCs will report your crimes to authorities, who will punish you for your crimes accordingly, either with a fine, time in jail, or by subjecting you to the stocks or torture. Crime will affect economics and NPC behavior; people will get suspicious or aggressive after unresolved crimes. Your reputation will spread by word of mouth.[/quote]
To me it looks like we will be able to turn our character into a criminal and a murder is not out of the question, given that game will feature emergent gameplay and one of the backgrounds is focused on stealth, stealing (we can even see this in a trailer, when a player steals a purse from someboy) and probably silent killing (if you look at the image showing all three classes you’ll see that the first one represents a player character holding a dagger up someone’s throat).

And for the argument that “he isn’t written that way” - it’s an RPG. Ultimately it’s up to the player to decide if he wants to do something or not. The only real problem is being able to deal with the consequences.

[ProkyBrambora]

if you look at the image showing all three classes

There are no classes.
Only ways how to deal with situations. These ways have just three main classifications: Force, Charisma, Stealth
But that does not mean that you will always have just three options. For example in tech. alpha there are conversations which use charisma for more than one option.

So even if you focus on using always force you will still have more options how to use it.

And for the argument that “he isn’t written that way” - it’s an RPG. Ultimately it’s up to the player to decide if he wants to do something or not. The only real problem is being able to deal with the consequences.

To my knowledge you should be able to do anything you want.
Though killing whole village might be impossible because you could be killed before finishing your deed. But sure as hell you can try!

[tomtom]

Why we are interested mainly for the destructive side of freedom? Think about it …

[HolyDeath]

There are no classes.

It was mostly semantics on my part - I was looking for a quick synonym and “class” came to mind. Even more so, because I already saw a couple of threads on forums and the IGN site, where they called these approaches “classes”. I agree with you that such classification is not entirely correct if ways to deal with situation won’t be gathered under a skill tree separated into three parts. I am very curious about the emergent playstyle.

To my knowledge you should be able to do anything you want. Though killing whole village might be impossible because you could be killed before finishing your deed. But sure as hell you can try!

In games I enjoy playing as a warrior the first time, but stealth characters are close second. Playing as a thief - and a murderer, if I will need to silence someone because I was sloppy - can be very interesting. Especially if they get everything right.

[winningedge101]

I think this would be a fine mod to be added to the game. It’s sort of like the Witcher 3, Geralt isn’t just going to go around murdering everybody. Even though there are sandbox elements to this game I have the conception that we are going to ultimately be put on a path. Although this path will split in many many ways based on how we play.

[lutzderlurch]

Some games, like GTA, allow you to wreak havoc, and it is fun to do. But it is essentially totally silly and laugeable.

Fully implementing a realistic system how the world reacts to you going rogue is not nearly as easy as it sounds, but assume we’d put that system in place, whilst sticking to what is real an plausible.

one option is, that you piss off the lord of the land, and he sics his men at arms at you. And his servants, hired swords and game keepers, huntsmen and the guys with the hounds for hunting.

You can be fulla armoured and on horseback, but you can’t survive -THAT-. uh uh. nope. no chance.

Or the lord doesn’t give a fuck, but the population knows you.

You pay for a night at the inn, the innkeep, whos brothers wife you recently raped and murdered, according to a plan hatched at the last village meeting, gathers the rest of the town folk, and you are surprised in your sleep, with nothing but your shirt on. beaten, cut, strangled, maimed cut to pieces, broken, torn apart and burnt.

the idea of one man taking on a whole army is largely fictional.

Or say, you are known to be a mad and vicious killer…you enter a village, and the 12-15 villagers flock together. with pitchforks, clubs and knives.
Sure, from horseback you cut down one to the right of you…and the guy to your left cant kill you with his pitchfork. but by pushing it into you, whilst you are busy hacking to pieces the first guy, gets of off balance, someone grabs your sword arm, some milkmaid grabs your horses reigns… you’re pulled down your horse and fall down, and you better hope you die quickly, because that dozen angry peasants doesn’t like you.

[peirceg]

Its quite easy killing a horde of warriors if you are on a horse with a little practice!