Namur: Mostly it's supposed to ruin characterization and narrative and it does a great job.

In terms of mechanics what it means is that skill checks are no longer set from the start, they're set in accordance to V's level at the time you first come across those skill checks in the game world.

In practical terms it leads to situations like this, you interact with a front line charismatic character and in order to get more dialogue from that character you need to pass a skill check of X in attribute Y.

Fast forward 15 or 20 levels and you're now interacting with a secondary choom with the charisma of a baked potato only now, on account of the level ups, the requirement to pass the skill check is 2X or 3X that of the front line character..

The next character you meet is always going to be the most badass, or the coolest choom ever because V keeps levelling up.

And you can't counter it. You can counter enemy level scaling with perk efficiency - aka, progression linearity - but this you can't counter, you'll have have to fight with it by either metagaming meaningful skill checks (main chars, companions, (potential) love interests) and try to plan progression accordingly - even more progression linearity - or by walking around with enough attribute points in your pocket to allocate as needed - simply ludicrous.

Outside of dialogues this also applies to other checks like forcing doors open, containers and such. So if you spot a door at level 2 the body skill check is, say, 5. But if you miss it early on and only spot the same door at level 15 or 20 the body req jumps to 10 or 15 or whatever.

So in reality with each level up V is in fact getting weaker. And less cool. And less everything.

With each level up V becomes objectively all around less capable in the game world they inhabit.

NewPyk: You mean those few marketing moves like a gun skin, armour and virtual mascot... Yup, a deal breaker. So if I don't buy 100 or so Fighers passes or amiiboa for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate it make mine cartridge for 60$ somehow inferior or DRMed? NOPE.

MarkoH01: Did tzhey ever confirm that the skill checks are scaling based on Vs actual level?

Hustlefan: Let me shed some light on this:

There seems to be a (non universal) bug in the latest Galaxy versions where the "Extras" tab doesn't get updated properly.
Look at the attached screenshots. Both were taken a few minutes ago on two different PCs with two different Galaxy versions.

HappyPunkPotato: You not buying the extras doesn't affect whether the game has DRM or not. I've no idea about Super Smash Bros. Ultimate but in the case of Cyberpunk there are items that do not allow you to reinstall them without an online check (or a hack) and that is DRM.

Namur: The skill checks are scaling off of V's level, we don't need confirmation, it's there, in the game, if you're willing to spend some time testing it for yourself you'll see it's there. Just tackle some checks in the world with V at different levels.

NewPyk: What are those items? Becouse if your talking about My Rewards that is not a core part of a game but as name says a reward for something, just like buying an extras! Open game page and you will see what you get. All of this is offline. No DRM for a full game.

SargonAelther: Oh.... weird. And the affected Galaxy was restarted, right? It probably was, but just double-checking.

MarkoH01: So maybe I was just lucky and did not encounter those scaling options.

MarkoH01: And here is CDPRs stand on this (from same forum thread from their support):

"This is as designed, skill checks now scale with player's level (they're set the first time you encounter them and won't change)."

Namur: Ah, so working as intended then?

That's just...ok.

Thanks for letting me know btw, as least there's no more doubt.

HappyPunkPotato: But it is *part* of the game and it is DRM being facilitated by Galaxy and promoted by GOG. This has been discussed to death here previously though.

MarkoH01: If I understood their quote correctly it also means that you have the option to "lock" some of those checks simply by encountering them early enough. So if you can't open a door and you train to get enough attributes yout still CAN come back later to open it since the check has been locked from the first encounter.

NewPyk: And the discussion still goes on...and on... and on... No, bonus content, paid/free dlcs, mission packs, skins, pre-order rewards, mods etc. are not core part of this particular type of game (WoW, FIFA online etc. whole other story). These are things that you as a consumer chooses to have or not and if some of them requires online activations (common marketing practice) you still have a right to ignore it. Game if playable in full offline. Simple as that. CP77 have about 10 cosmetics that are availible for anyone to agree to the terms developer chooses. Few skins! Milion others waits in game, but one gun and now whole game is DRMed! This is ridicules!

Namur: Yes, that's how it works in terms of world activities, that much i was able to verify on my own on a friend's install of 2.0.

Things is, it's meaningless, no one is going to go around the map at level 1 or 2 to secure skill checks values in place and V will, inevitabily, level up.

On missions it becomes significantly more annoying since the scaling will deny you pathways that were previously open to you (assuming similar characters in 1.63 and 2.0.)

But my main concern is dialogue checks because not only it wrecks characterization - main character, puny skill check, random choom, mighty skill check because we're now x levels later - but specially because it deprives you from a ton of potential extra dialogues with/from main chars.

MarkoH01: There already does exist a mod to fix this so it seems to be changed easily - maybe CDPR will make it an option in some later releases.

NewPyk: Nonsense.