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CD Projekt's Cyberpunk 2077 Update 2.0 + Phantom Liberty Expansion Thread

Yosharian

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If they make a sequel I really hope that they do a simple main quest.

One thing I really hate about storytelling in a sandbox open world game is main story with a sense of urgency.

"I need to find my father!", "I need to find my child!", "I need to find a solution for my consciousness being taken over!"

When you have a game that its all about exploring having a main quest with a sense of urgency creates a disconnect between the player and the game.

Only time this actually worked was in Fallout 1.

Just make something like in Saints Row, a rise to power from a lowly gang member to a crime lord or something like that.
The problem is not with the type of story being told, but the quality of the writing
 

markec

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If they make a sequel I really hope that they do a simple main quest.

One thing I really hate about storytelling in a sandbox open world game is main story with a sense of urgency.

"I need to find my father!", "I need to find my child!", "I need to find a solution for my consciousness being taken over!"

When you have a game that its all about exploring having a main quest with a sense of urgency creates a disconnect between the player and the game.

Only time this actually worked was in Fallout 1.

Just make something like in Saints Row, a rise to power from a lowly gang member to a crime lord or something like that.
The problem is not with the type of story being told, but the quality of the writing

Sure a good writers could have made those plotlines work, any poor idea can be made interesting by a competent writer.

Problem is that creating a sense of urgency of a main quest in a sandbox world is putting a writer in a unnecessary bind and making his job more difficult.

This is especially relevant if your writing staff lack talent, in which case you are better off making a simple story.
 

typical user

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The whole dying part in the storyline is so out of whack. They just drop this bomb halfway through and expect people will go explore rest of the - now unlocked - city. Like couldn't Victor just pull-out burned chip, say all is dandy and then V would get Johnny's hallucinations, only for 'Meet Hanako at Embers' to get the terminal diagnosis? Like this doesn't take a genius to rewrite the story, V would still have motivation to remove virus from his head but wouldn't be in constant rush.
 

Xelocix

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The only time I ever remember Cyberpunk 2077 even exists is when this thread gets bumped. The suicidal disappointment and extreme denial from normies when this "game" dropped was divine though. Almost made me nut.
 

Fedora Master

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The only time I ever remember Cyberpunk 2077 even exists is when this thread gets bumped. The suicidal disappointment and extreme denial from normies when this "game" dropped was divine though. Almost made me nut.

Who do you think keeps this thread alive if not normies in denial.
 

Perkel

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Idk why people argue this is an issue.

- You get shot in brain and you should be dead.
- Chip revives you preparing you to be engram host, giving you second life effectively after you failed first.
- You get diagnozed with curious case of being dead in unknown amount of time "maybe weeks, days who knows"
- You are not given straight answer how to fix it.
- You are at loss of what to do only having some vague "maybe arasaka knows how to fix it".
- After short exploration of options you get a whiff of what could help you but that requires either connections of money.
- Ergo V have to earn that money thus doing shit outside. You desperately race with time to do a lot of stuff that normally you wouldn't do because it is too risky etc.
- You scourge NightCity trying to find fix.

I mean it perfectly follows trope of "short live = live twice as bright"

I would agree if path to cure was straight and easy to understand. But in this case even when game ends basically there is no straight answer.

And it is RP thing. If you care for RP then go straight doing what V would do in your place. Which is what i did in first playthrough. I didn't explore whole game first time. IT felt logical all the way through it. It is not logical when you stop RPing and start to powergame.

The only time I ever remember Cyberpunk 2077 even exists is when this thread gets bumped. The suicidal disappointment and extreme denial from normies when this "game" dropped was divine though. Almost made me nut.

Game is older than your account. If nor for you reminder that you exist i might have thought you never existed in first place.
 

gurugeorge

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The whole dying part in the storyline is so out of whack. They just drop this bomb halfway through and expect people will go explore rest of the - now unlocked - city. Like couldn't Victor just pull-out burned chip, say all is dandy and then V would get Johnny's hallucinations, only for 'Meet Hanako at Embers' to get the terminal diagnosis? Like this doesn't take a genius to rewrite the story, V would still have motivation to remove virus from his head but wouldn't be in constant rush.

Another way I've always thought - just don't have Viktor say "two weeks, tops," have it more indeterminate ("could be a few weeks, a few months, maybe even a year, impossible to say with tech like this, you might be able to fight it off some with these pills, but I can't say how long for") and don't have Goro contacting V in the cafe till a much later trigger, with the hallucinations starting to intrude more to the extent that you're feeling the crisis looming closer. You could even have the staving-off effect of the pills you're taking be more prominent, like part of the gameplay (They're hard to get and you have to source them from underground criminals or something). (In fact, the pills should have served that staving-off purpose, they're introduced like that when Misty gives them to you, but the theme doesn't appear again.)

Bingo, you have a much more immersive and suspension-of-disbelief-continuing excuse to explore the city after the heist, look for some of the other clues and build up rep for a while (even though the exploring and rep-building should have been the bulk of the early to mid game, and the whole heist/chip thing the beginning of the endgame, but that would require too much re-jigging).

It's the same as the Bethesda shit - a supposedly urgent MQ that's inexplicably not actually urgent, just so you can have an excuse to explore the world. It's silly that they have to have atemporal workarounds like the fact that you can agree to meet Goro at the waterfront and leave him hanging there for as long as you like - it's just ridiculous. By that stage there should be more urgency and momentum to the thing.
 

SpaceWizardz

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I mean it perfectly follows trope of "short live = live twice as bright"
The script certainly tells you this is the theme but the mechanics of the game do nothing to reinforce it and instead are contradictory to it. You cannot do a well-done ticking clock plot in an open world game when there is no actual ticking clock! (And if there was, it would run into the same problems as Fallout where time running out is just a "Fuck you, game over." state, they wrote themselves into a corner.)
I would agree if path to cure was straight and easy to understand.
The game clearly marks critical path quests in the journal and there's nothing to stop you from just shotgunning all of them and ignoring sidegigs. Just headcanoning away the disjointedness between gameplay and narrative is a tired Bethesdrone-tier cope.
 

Perkel

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The game clearly marks critical path quests in the journal and there's nothing to stop you from just shotgunning all of them and ignoring sidegigs. Just headcanoning away the disjointedness between gameplay and narrative is a tired Bethesdrone-tier cope.

Sorry but what ? You know what RPG stands for ? ROLEPLAYING game you fucking dumbnut. You are now arguing that because developers gave you out of game hint how to proceed further somehow this makes logical sense that there is a fix if you follow that path for in game character. And like i said even by the end of the game it is not clear if you can be cured so your argument fails completely.

What is next ? Arguing that there is no point in playing FPS if there is crosshair that tells you where bullets will fly ?

Either you are RPing or powergaming. In both cases whole argument is invalid in first place.

IF you RP then you just do logically what V should do.

If you are powergaming then inside logic of game doesn't really matter in first place because you care only about some stats and you will do everything regardless of logic.
 

SpaceWizardz

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You are now arguing that because developers gave you out of game hint how to proceed further somehow this makes logical sense that there is a fix if you follow that path for in game character. And like i said even by the end of the game it is not clear if you can be cured so your argument fails completely.
Whether there is a cure at the end or not is irrelevant to this, you handwaved the dissonance with the lousy "Just ignore it, it's called roleplaying!!" excuse.
IF you RP then you just do logically what V should do.
There is no logic in playing mercenary for $$$ when you're dying and you could instead follow leads on how to hopefully fix it, you can only engage with the sidegigs purely from a "powergaming" stance (haha EXP bar go up!) since the narrative fails to give you one.
 

Perkel

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Whether there is a cure at the end or not is irrelevant to this, you handwaved the dissonance with the lousy "Just ignore it, it's called roleplaying!!" excuse.

It was your argument not mine, idiot. So you are saying that what you said earlier is irrelevant.

Like i said there is no dissonance because it is perfectly logical in context of in-game world and RP. It is not logical when you start to powergame and want to do absolutely everything but if you start to powergame then i don't see why you should care about story or logic in first place. It is like killing good dragon as good character for its scales so that you can get that nice white dragon scale armor and complaining that game didn't excuse your actions.

There is no logic in playing mercenary for $$$ when you're dying and you could instead follow leads on how to hopefully fix it, you can only engage with the sidegigs purely from a "powergaming" stance (haha EXP bar go up!) since the narrative fails to give you one.

Did you even play game ? One of the major leads to finding cure is getting money for Rogue and it happens very earily. 21k if i remember correctly. That alone means you have to work as mercenary. Besides even if you ignore money for Rogue it is pretty clear that you will be facing enemies much higher in food chain than you and you need to upgrade or you will die before you even can find so called cure.

Now that i think about it. This plot makes logical why suddenly out of nowhere there is some dude who does ridicolous jobs like crazy in short timeframe. Speaking of 4th wall breaking usually in game there is 0 logical explenation why suddenly so many events happen over course of few days, in case of C77 this is normal according to logic of plot.
 

SpaceWizardz

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Did you even play game ? One of the major leads to finding cure is getting money for Rogue and it happens very earily. 21k if i remember correctly.
I played at launch and haven't touched it since, if there are moneygates I don't remember them.
Let me just clarify what I'm saying to end this back and forth:
The NARRATIVE wants urgency so it declares time is of the essence (Two weeks, tops) but the GAME wants the player to dick around and do side quests so the GAME puts the NARRATIVE's urgency on pause and this is BAD for the player's suspension of disbelief as the NARRATIVE's passage of time isn't cohesive with the GAME's passage of time.
 

Perkel

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I played at launch and haven't touched it since, if there are moneygates I don't remember them.
Let me just clarify what I'm saying to end this back and forth:
The NARRATIVE wants urgency so it declares time is of the essence (Two weeks, tops) but the GAME wants the player to dick around and do side quests so the GAME puts the NARRATIVE's urgency on pause and this is BAD for the player's suspension of disbelief as the NARRATIVE's passage of time isn't cohesive with the GAME's passage of time.


Vic says FEW(not two) weeks tops but he is just guessing. Vic outright says he doesn't know shit about it. He just judges based on his limited ability.

If you actually play game and even power game it takes few weeks in game to do everything. Which is pretty much in ballpark of what Vic said, If you roleplay then it takes like maybe 2 weeks top.

GAME doesn't say anything. You as player decide what is more important. If you want to RP you have all tools in your hand to RP. If you want to ignore story and just powergame voila they left window open for you.

And like i said. Fucking around in Night City is perfectly logical considering goals of V. HE doesn't know what to fucking do. He needs money and power to "pay" for a chance to get some answer what to do.

I mean me being rude is least of your problems. Being brainlet is one of them. I guess you just don't like clock hanging above your neck which is understandable but don't try to explain it with arguments that run counter to game logic.

TW3 also had something like that and people also complained about it. And yet game also was perfectly logical about it. You didn't know where CIRI was you were just scouring lands searching for any clue. It was less logical than in C77 but it was there and game had open ending where you could muck around after you finished main quest in the world.
 

Gargaune

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Another way I've always thought - just don't have Viktor say "two weeks, tops," have it more indeterminate ("could be a few weeks, a few months, maybe even a year, impossible to say with tech like this, you might be able to fight it off some with these pills, but I can't say how long for") and don't have Goro contacting V in the cafe till a much later trigger, with the hallucinations starting to intrude more to the extent that you're feeling the crisis looming closer.
Yes, something like this could've worked with minimal development effort off of what CDPR actually shipped. You could've still kept all of the Silverhand commentary - which I suspect is why the devs rushed things to begin with - and just skipped on the "you're dying bit" at the outset. Just tell the player that Vic needs to study it some more and then let them decide when to go in for the big followup after a certain threshold. Though I still argue the proper narrative solution would've been to structure Act I around V and Jackie working their Street Cred up to Dex's notice before getting tapped for the Heist. Either way, BG2 managed this, CBP2077 didn't.

Did you even play game ? One of the major leads to finding cure is getting money for Rogue and it happens very earily. 21k if i remember correctly. That alone means you have to work as mercenary. Besides even if you ignore money for Rogue it is pretty clear that you will be facing enemies much higher in food chain than you and you need to upgrade or you will die before you even can find so called cure.
Nah, come on, you're inventing interpretations on the dev's behalf now. Even if you wanna roll with the idea that Rogue's 15K fee is the narrative milestone for the player to engage with the open world (and it really didn't feel that way to me, but I played through it a long time ago by now), you gotta remember that the game keeps unlocking tons of major side content well after that point. Consider the BG2 comparison, you've got Chapter 2 to engage with the open world as much or little as you want with minimal abstraction, then Chapter 3 funnels you in and you've got the Asylum and the Underdark progressing linearly towards the climax. This is not the case with CBP, V's taking gigs and socialising and buying pretty cars (and now, by popular demand, apartments), all the while having been told that their demise is a matter of "weeks", their banter with Silverhand's constantly referencing this situation, they've got blood pouring from their nose every morning etc. etc.

Look, I thought that the plot in CBP2077 was well written, but the narrative design is a clusterfuck across the board, from the prevalence of cosmetic agency to the staggering conflict between the critical and side content. At least in Fo4, you can reason the Sole Survivor's just a bad parent when they're building mud huts instead of chasing after their baby. But V's literally too stupid to live.
 

Perkel

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But how does that point makes sense when finishing all of side content literally takes weeks ? Not months or years. Moreover like i said Vic is guessing. He literally says weeks tops.

Also my point with Rogue is exactly what you said. It forces you to take part in side content. Yes there is stuff well after that point but narratively wise you are the one that chooses to do those sidejobs and motivation could be varied.

And like i said before. No one forces you to do anything. It is your choice to do everything if you wish so.

I mean if you don't like clock hanging around your neck that is fine. But it has place in narrative and it is perfectly reasonable for V to pursue other things than cure at times. Especially later on depending on your relationship with Johny which kind of teaches you that there are things in life more important than life itself.
 
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lukaszek

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roguey requested sum is too low actually. If you clear most police content in starting area, you will have enough money to buy expensive cyber piece, pay of vik debt AND immediatelly hand cash to roguey once you come back from heist.
And its just starting area low reputation content. Im not even talking about gigs nor quests nor selling drops you find. All done while you are just testing random weaponry. It should be 100k but then you would be over leveled?
 

gurugeorge

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Though I still argue the proper narrative solution would've been to structure Act I around V and Jackie working their Street Cred up to Dex's notice before getting tapped for the Heist.

Yep, that would have been the ideal, and I'm sure that probably was the original intention.
 

mediocrepoet

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Though I still argue the proper narrative solution would've been to structure Act I around V and Jackie working their Street Cred up to Dex's notice before getting tapped for the Heist.

Yep, that would have been the ideal, and I'm sure that probably was the original intention.

That would make a lot of sense and fit the story that they rejiggered the game at last minute to expand Keanu Reeves' part because he was into it and the execs were star struck / saw dollar signs.
 

Wesp5

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Though I still argue the proper narrative solution would've been to structure Act I around V and Jackie working their Street Cred up to Dex's notice before getting tapped for the Heist.

Yep, that would have been the ideal, and I'm sure that probably was the original intention.

Well, shouldn't this be easy for some modders to implement once CDPR stops supporting the game?
 

gurugeorge

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But how does that point makes sense when finishing all of side content literally takes weeks ? Not months or years. Moreover like i said Vic is guessing. He literally says weeks tops.

Also my point with Rogue is exactly what you said. It forces you to take part in side content. Yes there is stuff well after that point but narratively wise you are the one that chooses to do those sidejobs and motivation could be varied.

And like i said before. No one forces you to do anything. It is your choice to do everything if you wish so.

I mean if you don't like clock hanging around your neck that is fine. But it has place in narrative and it is perfectly reasonable for V to pursue other things than cure at times. Especially later on depending on your relationship with Johny which kind of teaches you that there are things in life more important than life itself.

This has been rehashed tons, but here it is again:-

1) There is a vast open world with tons of quests, that have absolutely no function in the V/Johnny story as presented. None. That whole pile of stuff might as well not be there.
2) Given the effort to make it, that vast, open world must have been part of the intent of the original design (we also know that they wanted some multiplayer aspect, so that fits too).
3) The V/Johnny story, while good, only makes sense in the context of someone having built up rep in the city, as it starts with being hired by the second biggest fixer in the city for a super-bold heist.
4) Building up rep and the vast open world dovetail so neatly that one can't help but think that was the original intent, but
5) It's only represented by the montage.

Keanu was not guaranteed. But Keanu agreed, they had a window of opportunity, so they made the fateful decision to squeeze as much as possible out of him in the time available and expand what would probably have been either the endgame (with some standard voice actor, if they couldn't get Keanu) or a DLC (if they couldn't get Keanu then for anything more than a cameo, but might have been able to get him later) into virtually the whole game (plus, by all accounts, Keanu got into the story and role himself, and it must be psychologically difficult to deney such a big star's wishes when you have him in the palm of your hand).

There was no time to finish both a) the full open world with quests as originally intended, and b) a very involved story with Keanu, so they plumped for rushing the latter and didn't finish the former, and they rejigged the game to have the V/Johnny story happen far earlier in the game than it otherwise would have.

They've denied this, but the logic of it, and the results in the game we've gotten, are just too obvious to deny. They're lying, just like they lied about the console stuff.

It's really a simple and easy mistake to make and one can understand how the rationale must have looked at the time, but basically it was a mistake. What they should have done is said, "OK we don't have time to do any more than a cameo now, but it would be really cool if you could come back and we'll do a big DLC in the next window of opportunity you have, that fully utilizes your talents." But it might be that they discovered that there was no later window of opportunity, so having the V/Johnny story as DLC was a no-go, so they had to utilize him when they had him, they had no other choice.

To me, it's pretty obvious that the huge, under-utilized voodoo boys area, and the brilliantly-started but rudely truncated AI quest (which obviously must have had ties to the Delamain quest, which fizzles out into nothing in the game we have), betoken that the original plan was to have the uncovering-the-AI plot be the original endgame (much more revolving around the voodoo boys and the net cops - who, be it noted, were presented as a more substantial faction in one of the teasers), with the V/Johnny story (supposing they got Keanu) as DLC. That would have been absolutely perfect. You'd have had the original game being that build up of rep plus the gradual uncovering of a vast AI plot leading to potential armageddon if not stopped, then you'd have had an amazing, surprise DLC with Keanu in the V/Johnny story we have now (with V being in a perfect position to be the guy chosen for the heist), making a perfect, bittersweet ending to V's story arc. It would have raked in an absolute shit-ton of extra money as a substantial linear action/adventure DLC.
 

Gargaune

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But how does that point makes sense when finishing all of side content literally takes weeks ? Not months or years. Moreover like i said Vic is guessing. He literally says weeks tops.
Because it's not a believable reading of the circumstances, of V's motivations. When someone gets told they've got "a few weeks" to find an unknown cure, that's an extremely urgent situation, they would naturally beeline on that objective. Nobody right in the head would deviate from that goal to help Peralez with his voyeur problem or go to River's for a barbecue, and these happen well after Rogue's fee. You gotta remember, V doesn't know exactly how much time they've got nor whether there's a cure, let alone how long it would take to get it.

I think gurugeorge has covered most of it above, the urgent nature of the plot is sold hard to the player, both through the events of the critical thread and in various open world interactions, but then altogether ignored in the larger narrative scope of V's engaging with the side content. And I think he's right about the behind-the-scenes too, the plot really feels like it was suddenly rewired midway through development and certain critical elements were overlooked. Though I don't believe the hypothetical, original plot wasn't based around Silverhand - with or without Reeves, I suspect V getting stuck with the Relic was always the plan, but that the first chapter leading up to the Heist got cut down when a big Hollywood name came back asking for a larger part.

But I'd like to add a little story onto that to demonstrate the issue, because I'm long-winded like that...

So here I am, playing Cyberpunk 2077. For some darn reason, I'd decided to do a follow-up mission with Panam, something after I'd already gotten what I needed from her for the main plot. Can't remember what possessed me to do so, but I do recall quite clearly I was fighting a gut instinct on it. So Panam and her merry band of junk cowboys have decided to rob a train. We go in, kill some poor dudes who were just minding their own business, squatting in a train station, then we fall back into CBP's "social" gameplay - follow marker, click button, receive heartfelt cinematic moment, you know the drill. And at one point Panam asks me a question, and pay attention 'cause here's where it gets good...

She asks me why I'm helping her. And my options are to tell her:
a) that we're ch00ms;
b) some other stupid shit along those lines;
c) that I wanna get paid.

And this is the moment where my gut instinct turned into a full blown realisation, the one that I was missing the proper dialogue option:
d) because I paid €60 for this fucking game and I'm trying to wring the fucking content out of it!

See, here's the rub, at this point in the plot, there is no reason for V, short of being a literal imbecile (in the deprecated medical sense), to engage with Panam's bullshit. You're on the clock, you're past Rogue's money gate, you're not "chooms" with someone you met 24 hours ago and even if you were, you've a far more urgent need than she does. Unwittingly, the devs shone a light on their own gaping inconsistencies.

So I wrapped up and never came back for any of Panam's content until I was done with the main plot. Didn't even think about doing Judy's crap. "Help me get revenge for Evelyn." But I did, the Voodoo Boys are dead, Netwatch fried the eggheads and I mopped up Flacide. "No, no, I mean help me in this labour dispute with Pimps-R-Us." Bitch, I'm dying here! The irony is that I ended up preferring Gigs for side content, because they were mostly gameplay-driven and it was easier to turn my brain off and just pew-pew without having to face these glaring reminders that the plot progression wasn't structured correctly.

And that's how I became the fresh prince of Night City.

Bottom line is, sure, you can ignore the urgency of the main plot and plenty of games ask you to gloss over certain details to play your own way, but CBP2077 is particularly and gratuitously egregious in this department.

Well, shouldn't this be easy for some modders to implement once CDPR stops supporting the game?
No, there's pervasive quest flows, dramatic assets, modders just don't have the tools for that sort of thing, not for a seamless refactor. Fallout 4 has something like that with Start Me Up, but you're talking about a game with a systemic approach to cinematic interactions and one of the most powerful public toolsets in the industry.
 
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Barbarian

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I am having quite a bit of fun with the game, honestly. It is quite playable now, regardless of remaining flaws.

(I'm at the meet Hanako part - holding off on it to complete side quests).

Mostly liked the writing so far, specially on some of the side quests. Also contrary to what I expected, woke BS didn't jump the eye or ruin things. There are a lot of strong independent wymmin, sure, and many nods to fags and dykes, but nothing that feels out of place in a urban cyberpunk dystopia that is supposed to mirror our bleak future. There was no forced YOU WILL TOLERATE DIVERSITY AND ENJOY GAY BUTTSECKS and surprisingly no focus on RAYCYSM! discussions or things of the sort.
 

gurugeorge

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I suspect V getting stuck with the Relic was always the plan

Yeah I do believe that part of their disclaimer, I'm pretty sure that the game was always meant to lead up to that in one way or another. There are too many links to the other big side-quests for that not to be the case. The doubt for me is whether that was intended for the endgame of the main game or for a major DLC (with Johnny if they could get him, without if not, Plan A and Plan B). At any rate, it's definitely shoehorned in as the main story throughout the game, right from the beginning of when you're playing the game proper, the other design elements like the open world just don't gel with it.

Another thing that makes me lean that way: they seem to be floundering around for the DLC, but aren't DLCs usually planned out well in advance? It would make a lot of sense if the V/Johnny story was the "missing DLC" so to speak.

An AI plot involving the Voodoo Boys and Netwatch might have been more cliched as an endgame for the main game for diehard cyberpunk fans, but it would have been satisfactory enough for most people (especially if you consider how well the introduction of it is handled - it's hella immersive and really feels like you're lifting the corner on something big). I also think that Alt Cunningham would have formed the link between that main story (probably as a deus ex machina at the end of the main game) and the heavily Johnny-oriented DLC.
 

Gargaune

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Yeah I do believe that part of their disclaimer, I'm pretty sure that the game was always meant to lead up to that in one way or another. There are too many links to the other big side-quests for that not to be the case. The doubt for me is whether that was intended for the endgame of the main game or for a major DLC (with Johnny if they could get him, without if not, Plan A and Plan B). At any rate, it's definitely shoehorned in as the main story throughout the game, right from the beginning of when you're playing the game proper, the other design elements like the open world just don't gel with it.

Another thing that makes me lean that way: they seem to be floundering around for the DLC, but aren't DLCs usually planned out well in advance? It would make a lot of sense if the V/Johnny story was the "missing DLC" so to speak.

An AI plot involving the Voodoo Boys and Netwatch might have been more cliched as an endgame for the main game for diehard cyberpunk fans, but it would have been satisfactory enough for most people (especially if you consider how well the introduction of it is handled - it's hella immersive and really feels like you're lifting the corner on something big). I also think that Alt Cunningham would have formed the link between that main story (probably as a deus ex machina at the end of the main game) and the heavily Johnny-oriented DLC.
The way I recall it, CDPR came out and said that they changed some stuff through development when Keanu Reeves "came back and asked for a bigger part", so he was already cast and recorded by that point. I don't think they'd have relegated such a publicity asset like Reeves to DLC material, by the point he was cast, Silverhand would've already been central to the base game's plot. And this tracks with the nature of the changes on the assumption that we were originally supposed to get a larger Chapter 1, focused on grinding V's rep in the open world, followed by a more linear roll through Chapters 2 and 3 with Johnny. You can easily see how such a refactor, downsizing Chapter 1 to have Johnny through most of the adventure, would result in the structural mistakes we got in the final product.

As for the delayed DLC, the thing is that this game's development has been unusually slow in general as we saw post-launch. For example, patch 1.5 was a good patch for the fixes and polish it offered... or rather, it would've been had it come a full year in advance, back in February 2021. Between the absurdly lethargic progress rate on CBP and how much CDPR's reputation is riding on this one and only expansion, I wouldn't read too much into the delay.
 

gurugeorge

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Strap Yourselves In
I don't think they'd have relegated such a publicity asset like Reeves to DLC material, by the point he was cast, Silverhand would've already been central to the base game's plot.

That might be the mistake though, thinking they needed to have Keanu as the main game for the publicity. I mean it's not as if the game was lacking in hype is it? At the point of the Keanu reveal, the hype was already through the roof. The world and its mother was already set to buy the game anyway. And at the point of the Keanu reveal, did anyone expect more than a cameo, as the icing on the cake?

IOW, maybe they just over-thought it. (It would be interesting to see if the post-Keanu-reveal preorders were all that different from the pre-reveal, like some giant leap.)

But yeah, your scenario is possible too, and my AI-endgame might just be wishful thinking. We may never know :)
 

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