The Character Progression System

[slvrcobra]

For GTA V, Rockstar opted to use an RPG-like character progression system based on skills that you can improve over time, and since I haven't seen anyone bring it up, I figure I'd ask people's opinion. You have one active ability for each of your Singleplayer characters in addition to passive buffs/abilities that apply to each individual, including your Online character. This was an ambitious idea, however it does have it's flaws.

 

For me, the issue is that it goes from one extreme to the other in a rather inconsistent and ungraceful manner; At the beginning it's very obvious as your characters are very fragile and somewhat uncoordinated, but by endgame I had forgotten it even existed (it took me starting a second playthrough to remember how much it sucked starting out). The system, while a great idea in itself, just doesn't have the "flow" of a progression system of standard RPGs and there is little freedom in how you go about improving your character, and at first glance it only serves to senselessly take away fun elements like a high health bar and infinite Sprint for the beginning of V and Online.

 

They could do away with the system entirely in later games, but I think many players would still like to use this feature as it does add depth to the Single Player and Multiplayer experience. Therefore, I think it needs improvements such as:

 

1) Upgrade Tiers/Skill Trees - The Special Abilities for each character are nice touches, but they lack a sense of usefulness and customizability and just feel bland and mostly pointless. Being able to apply specific upgrades through a tiered or tree upgrade system would be a great addition to the feature, for example being able to choose to extend the duration of Michael's "Deadeye", adding a "Boost/Nitrous" to Franklin's ability, or adding a bottomless clip to Trevor's "Rage Mode". It would add a deep new layer of gameplay and a unique flair to the characters.

 

Same goes for Passives; The way you acquire them in V is either boring/pointless or just odd in some cases and doesn't feel like it correlates to the skill. For instance, upgrading Strength can only be increased by punching things rather than working out. Others just kind of have you stuck for a while until you max it out, like Running/Athleticism, Driving, and Lung Capacity. Being able to work toward a specific upgrade to them or playing minigames that pertain to each skill would add more player activity and choice to the matter.

 

2) Freedom of Choice - Simply give players more options to customize their characters skills to suit their play styles. Allow players to specialize their characters if they want, then let them tackle missions with a wide variety of Skills and Upgrades that affect decisions like what character should go in guns blazing, what character should be lookout, what character should pick the lock, etc. instead of just forcing roles onto a pre-determined character. This could also extend into Online, where player's Skills can drastically compliment or detriment a certain strategy in Co-op or Competitive.

 

I dunno, I just really don't like the system in GTA V and I hope they change it in games looking forward. That's just my opinion though, and I understand this is their first attempt at something like this (minus San Andreas's). Any thoughts? Anything to add?

[TheFlareEntercounter]

The concept is a cool idea, and I like it, but adding skill trees to GTA (VI?) may not be the best idea because:

 

A bunch of games already have the same thing. Take a look at pretty much every newer Ubisoft game - they all have a skill tree that works exactly the same.

They would get sh*t for it because it may seem unoriginal, especially of GTAForums where every second topic would be "hurr durr gta vi is unoriginal hurr durr gta vi is like saints row hurr durr gta iv is better"

 

The Freedom of Choice is an amazing idea and I really hope that it will make it into the next GTA (again, VI?). It would also be great if we could actually switch to characters whenever we want. Take for example Caida Libre from GTA V. When you, as Trevor, kill Madrazo's cousin and retrieve the breifcase the game switches you to Michael and makes you destroy the van with the sniper rifle. But what if I want to play as Trevor? The game doesn't let me. I'd really like to switch to Trevor, bring the breifcase to Madrazo, have a fight with him over the payment, bite his ear off and kidnap his wife. Something like that should definetly be added to further GTA games (if they use multiple protagonists, that is).

[Osho]

The character progression system made a lot of sense ( and was done really well too ) with CJ than V trio.

I can do without them in future games. Back then in SA it was quite cool but now with so many other games be RPG's or any genre make these more of "been here, done that" type.

Instead Rockstar should completely focus on better activities, better crime side missions, better AI, etc which I find V sucks a lot compared to other games.

[slvrcobra]

The concept is a cool idea, and I like it, but adding skill trees to GTA (VI?) may not be the best idea because:

 

A bunch of games already have the same thing. Take a look at pretty much every newer Ubisoft game - they all have a skill tree that works exactly the same.

They would get sh*t for it because it may seem unoriginal, especially of GTAForums where every second topic would be "hurr durr gta vi is unoriginal hurr durr gta vi is like saints row hurr durr gta iv is better"

 

The Freedom of Choice is an amazing idea and I really hope that it will make it into the next GTA (again, VI?). It would also be great if we could actually switch to characters whenever we want. Take for example Caida Libre from GTA V. When you, as Trevor, kill Madrazo's cousin and retrieve the breifcase the game switches you to Michael and makes you destroy the van with the sniper rifle. But what if I want to play as Trevor? The game doesn't let me. I'd really like to switch to Trevor, bring the breifcase to Madrazo, have a fight with him over the payment, bite his ear off and kidnap his wife. Something like that should definetly be added to further GTA games (if they use multiple protagonists, that is).

I could definitely see people wanting the system gone. It doesn't really add anything to the gameplay and as I said it's really just a nuisance when starting a new game.

 

I just hope that if they don't drop it that they don't just use the simplistic crap of a system they have in V lol.

The character progression system made a lot of sense ( and was done really well too ) with CJ than V trio.

I can do without them in future games. Back then in SA it was quite cool but now with so many other games be RPG's or any genre make these more of "been here, done that" type.

Instead Rockstar should completely focus on better activities, better crime side missions, better AI, etc which I find V sucks a lot compared to other games.

I can see what you're saying. I agree that those other aspects are much more important and wouldn't mind seeing Progression get dropped if it means those aspects will be better.

Edited July 8, 2015 by slvrcobra

[fac316]

The problem with the progression in V it feels like nothing really changes(driving/ when you fly you get turbulence etc