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

[Turjan]

One thing that bugs me a bit about the game is one that many games with a story have when they allow you to do lots of other stuff in between. For example, I did this whole Nomad quest line a long time ago (40 hours?), with basically ending up in a relationship with Panam - or so I got the impression. She sent one sequence of texts afterwards, and since then, she's like eaten by the ground. You can't call her, she's silent, and I don't see her anywhere in the Nomad camp, either. There are no calls coming anymore, anyway, except if you start one of the missions. Most NCPD calls seem to have gone with the patch (it's kind of jarring now, because the star is only visible for a short moment, and then all hints at the random quest are gone).

Anyway, what I meant is that if you take a break from the story, you also take a break from any relationships you may have thought you built. It's weird. You just have Johnny, who makes a rare appearance.

I'll call it a day for today. I shouldn't try any vehicle pursuits when I'm tired. Some of the accidents were... interesting, to say the least.

 

[Wunderbar]

-I don't know anything about the source material but I can't believe there's no cyberware for boosting your movement speed.

probably was cut due to graphical pop-in.

 

[deama]

didn't follow the game before the release, did they actively push the "cyberpunk GTA" angle or did that just come from fans? I just went in treating it like the Witcher 3 in Cyberpunk form and that seems to work for the game.

They pushed it in the beginning, but around middle of this year changed their tone, but was kinda too late for that.

 

[Gargaune]

not seeing lighting effects until you got really close to them like shop windows and neon signs lighting up the ground.

You are right. A little after I wrote that post, I started up the game and went to see Regina Jones in her base. When I exited the elevator and turned the corner right, into her room, I saw her black friend there just as he was materializing out of thin air, the same way that cars do. Then there was a very easy to notice moment when I took one step towards Regina and suddenly big stacks of white smoke became visible through the big glass wall behind her back. They were not there until I took that step towards her. From then on I could walk around the place, turn around, but the smoke wouldn't be culled, it was staying there.

Yep, looks like they are just optimizing for PS4 and pushing the same code for all platforms atm. Probably they are working with minimal staff around the holidays, who knows. Anything to slow the torrent of PS4 refunds I guess I feel sorry for the devs butchering their own work.

Damn, guess I'll stick with 1.04 for now. I really hate it when devs just chuck shit like that in there instead of providing some Options entries. What's the point, anyway? Culling visual effects like that should give the GPU extra breathing room, but I was under the impression most of these console bugs seemed more like the CPU or RAM choking, didn't they?

 

[moon knight]

I need to actually play around with the inventory and other interfaces in CP2077 more to do a full critique of them, but I think there are two root problems from which most other UI/UX issues stem:

1) Inconsistent and/or unexpected control mapping for keyboard and mouse, which feels like a consequence of designing and playing with controllers exclusively/dominantly until late in development. M3 and keystrokes are not the same as 3rd and 4th face buttons on a controller, but controls have to go somewhere.

2) Overloaded controls. Sometimes designers develop controls to give equal access to every interaction at a given point. That’s usually not good, because every interaction doesn’t have equal importance, frequency, or even similar use cases. When you force the controls to support every interaction you could possibly want to do at a single point, the mapping gets complicated, crowded, and unwieldy.

I need to play more with the RPG systems as well, but I don’t like sifting through half a dozen variants of the same pistol or scope mod that differ in DPS or ADS time by single digit percentages or literally hundredths of a second, respectively. It’s inconsequential noise. If it doesn’t make any perceptible difference to the action economy or the utility of how I use the gear, it doesn’t matter to me and the process is just tedious.

Yes, I understand this is how many looter shooters work and also how The Outer Worlds works. It’s not gameplay I personally find enjoyable or interesting.

It looks like the perks get more useful / interesting later on, but when base level perks are giving things like 3% increases to damage, it falls into the same pit of “this makes no difference in gameplay”. This is exacerbated by the fact that the pace at which you will upgrade or swap out weapons is much faster than the pace at which you gain perks.

You have a rifle that does 100 DPS. You take a perk that increases damage from cover by 10%, so that goes up to 110 DPS. Unless the per-shot damage increase from the perk results in fewer bullets to take out an enemy, that is completely imperceptible. Then, after taking that perk, you upgrade to a different weapon, which becomes your new baseline inclusive with the perk. So if you take another perk that increases damage by 10 or 15% under certain circumstances, you’re not comparing its efficacy to the old rifle, before you took the first perk. The delta will feel the same, i.e. inconsequential, especially if enemies gain HP at a rate that matches your progression.

All of this amounts to a linear “ramp” incline where your numbers go up but the feeling of efficacy/”time to kill” is largely the same and you’re not usually gaining any new mechanics or different ways to engage with the content. I prefer less frequent, more impactful upgrades that do not directly overlap with how content (i.e., enemies) progresses.

Visually, it’s like two staircases going up, one for your stats/abilities, one for the monsters. The monsters’ steps don’t overlap with your steps, so there will be points where you upgrade and just clobber the hell out of enemies for a while until you hit the next monster step. Then you struggle for a while before you step up, repeating the cycle.

Classic AD&D has this feeling, as does Fallout 1. There are a lot of things I wouldn’t want to emulate from those classic games, but I still really feel they have a better sense of progression, especially in the 4-12 level range.

That said, I’m only 7ish hours in and I need to play a lot more to do a fair and thorough critique of everything.

https://jesawyer.tumblr.com/

 

[AwesomeButton]

Just a fun fact from a fan of pre-decline American music - Peggy Lee wrote this song a couple of years after her divorce with her first husband who was himself a guitarist. They had left Benny Goodman's orchestra in order to marry, because Benny was against mixing personal relations with work.

What's the point, anyway? Culling visual effects like that should give the GPU extra breathing room, but I was under the impression most of these console bugs seemed more like the CPU or RAM choking, didn't they?

I wonder the same thing, but it may be down to streaming from the hard drive. Both base consoles have 8GB RAM but there is certainly caching and transfer on/from the HDD.

As for switching versions, didn't someone complain that the 1.04 version is taken off from GOG now even for manual installing? On Steam, everything is already cleared out, you can't choose versions in the dropdown

I can see the point in putting underwear on NPCs - after all people usually have underwear - but pasties on strippers is tasteless and the worst of both worlds. I remember all the talk about being a mature game, and what - in the cutscene where V is sitting down in the bathroom, he is wearing pants under the shower. You'd think he has served in the Turkish military.

 

[AwesomeButton]

I need to actually play around with the inventory and other interfaces in CP2077 more to do a full critique of them, but I think there are two root problems from which most other UI/UX issues stem:

1) Inconsistent and/or unexpected control mapping for keyboard and mouse, which feels like a consequence of designing and playing with controllers exclusively/dominantly until late in development. M3 and keystrokes are not the same as 3rd and 4th face buttons on a controller, but controls have to go somewhere.

2) Overloaded controls. Sometimes designers develop controls to give equal access to every interaction at a given point. That’s usually not good, because every interaction doesn’t have equal importance, frequency, or even similar use cases. When you force the controls to support every interaction you could possibly want to do at a single point, the mapping gets complicated, crowded, and unwieldy.

I need to play more with the RPG systems as well, but I don’t like sifting through half a dozen variants of the same pistol or scope mod that differ in DPS or ADS time by single digit percentages or literally hundredths of a second, respectively. It’s inconsequential noise. If it doesn’t make any perceptible difference to the action economy or the utility of how I use the gear, it doesn’t matter to me and the process is just tedious.

Yes, I understand this is how many looter shooters work and also how The Outer Worlds works. It’s not gameplay I personally find enjoyable or interesting.

It looks like the perks get more useful / interesting later on, but when base level perks are giving things like 3% increases to damage, it falls into the same pit of “this makes no difference in gameplay”. This is exacerbated by the fact that the pace at which you will upgrade or swap out weapons is much faster than the pace at which you gain perks.

You have a rifle that does 100 DPS. You take a perk that increases damage from cover by 10%, so that goes up to 110 DPS. Unless the per-shot damage increase from the perk results in fewer bullets to take out an enemy, that is completely imperceptible. Then, after taking that perk, you upgrade to a different weapon, which becomes your new baseline inclusive with the perk. So if you take another perk that increases damage by 10 or 15% under certain circumstances, you’re not comparing its efficacy to the old rifle, before you took the first perk. The delta will feel the same, i.e. inconsequential, especially if enemies gain HP at a rate that matches your progression.

All of this amounts to a linear “ramp” incline where your numbers go up but the feeling of efficacy/”time to kill” is largely the same and you’re not usually gaining any new mechanics or different ways to engage with the content. I prefer less frequent, more impactful upgrades that do not directly overlap with how content (i.e., enemies) progresses.

Visually, it’s like two staircases going up, one for your stats/abilities, one for the monsters. The monsters’ steps don’t overlap with your steps, so there will be points where you upgrade and just clobber the hell out of enemies for a while until you hit the next monster step. Then you struggle for a while before you step up, repeating the cycle.

Classic AD&D has this feeling, as does Fallout 1. There are a lot of things I wouldn’t want to emulate from those classic games, but I still really feel they have a better sense of progression, especially in the 4-12 level range.

That said, I’m only 7ish hours in and I need to play a lot more to do a fair and thorough critique of everything.

https://jesawyer.tumblr.com/

Poor Josh has repented, give him work already!

 

[Agame]

I need to actually play around with the inventory and other interfaces in CP2077 more to do a full critique of them, but I think there are two root problems from which most other UI/UX issues stem:

1) Inconsistent and/or unexpected control mapping for keyboard and mouse, which feels like a consequence of designing and playing with controllers exclusively/dominantly until late in development. M3 and keystrokes are not the same as 3rd and 4th face buttons on a controller, but controls have to go somewhere.

2) Overloaded controls. Sometimes designers develop controls to give equal access to every interaction at a given point. That’s usually not good, because every interaction doesn’t have equal importance, frequency, or even similar use cases. When you force the controls to support every interaction you could possibly want to do at a single point, the mapping gets complicated, crowded, and unwieldy.

I need to play more with the RPG systems as well, but I don’t like sifting through half a dozen variants of the same pistol or scope mod that differ in DPS or ADS time by single digit percentages or literally hundredths of a second, respectively. It’s inconsequential noise. If it doesn’t make any perceptible difference to the action economy or the utility of how I use the gear, it doesn’t matter to me and the process is just tedious.

Yes, I understand this is how many looter shooters work and also how The Outer Worlds works. It’s not gameplay I personally find enjoyable or interesting.

It looks like the perks get more useful / interesting later on, but when base level perks are giving things like 3% increases to damage, it falls into the same pit of “this makes no difference in gameplay”. This is exacerbated by the fact that the pace at which you will upgrade or swap out weapons is much faster than the pace at which you gain perks.

You have a rifle that does 100 DPS. You take a perk that increases damage from cover by 10%, so that goes up to 110 DPS. Unless the per-shot damage increase from the perk results in fewer bullets to take out an enemy, that is completely imperceptible. Then, after taking that perk, you upgrade to a different weapon, which becomes your new baseline inclusive with the perk. So if you take another perk that increases damage by 10 or 15% under certain circumstances, you’re not comparing its efficacy to the old rifle, before you took the first perk. The delta will feel the same, i.e. inconsequential, especially if enemies gain HP at a rate that matches your progression.

All of this amounts to a linear “ramp” incline where your numbers go up but the feeling of efficacy/”time to kill” is largely the same and you’re not usually gaining any new mechanics or different ways to engage with the content. I prefer less frequent, more impactful upgrades that do not directly overlap with how content (i.e., enemies) progresses.

Visually, it’s like two staircases going up, one for your stats/abilities, one for the monsters. The monsters’ steps don’t overlap with your steps, so there will be points where you upgrade and just clobber the hell out of enemies for a while until you hit the next monster step. Then you struggle for a while before you step up, repeating the cycle.

Classic AD&D has this feeling, as does Fallout 1. There are a lot of things I wouldn’t want to emulate from those classic games, but I still really feel they have a better sense of progression, especially in the 4-12 level range.

That said, I’m only 7ish hours in and I need to play a lot more to do a fair and thorough critique of everything.

https://jesawyer.tumblr.com/

Poor Josh has repented, give him work already!

+% skills and items are boring? SHOCKING.

Good thing we have Mr. Balance to rescue us.

 

[Generic-Giant-Spider]

Sawyer is one of those rare people in life that if he says things you agree with you immediately want to disagree with just because you cannot stand the thought of tarnishing your soul by saying, "I agree with Josh Sawyer."

So no, CP2077 is fine. It's perfect. I HATE you, Josh Sawyer.

 

[The Jester]

 

[Correct_Carlo]

I recall people taking the delay pretty well, but maybe I'm not hanging out in the right places.

 

[catchaser]

The missions try to be Deux Ex but there's no multiple paths tied to skills, it's basically "kill everyone" or "sneak around". Your l33t hacking skills and cyberware don't open new paths, just help you sneak or shoot everyone.

That's simply untrue. I can recall plenty of alternate routes i found either by exploration or hacking. In one side mission i walked above the entire area via hidden path and found a hand placed epic rifle. In a certain shady ripperdoc clinic you can hack open a door which (unsurprisingly) leads to a scavengers den. Also, there are many doors which provide shortcuts if you pass a skill check. Some window shutters can be hacked to provide shortcuts, for example you don't have to persuade your way to see Fingers. You can just open a window from the outside and jump your way in. There's multiple ways to enter the Clouds brothel VIP area. That's just from the top of my head, and I'm not even halfway through the game.

Also, non-lethal weapons are required in cyberpsycho gigs, some missions have a different outcome if you don't kill your target (the killer cop gig for example).

 

[gurugeorge]

As for switching versions, didn't someone complain that the 1.04 version is taken off from GOG now even for manual installing?

It seems to be available, I'm installing 1.04 right now from Galaxy. Haven't played it yet though so I don't know if there will be some roadblock or something.

Go to the icon with the two sliders to the right of the play button at the top -> manage installation -> configure -> remove tick for "update automatically" and the older versions appear.

(I'm downgrading because I want to play around with the console.)

 

[Gargaune]

As for switching versions, didn't someone complain that the 1.04 version is taken off from GOG now even for manual installing? On Steam, everything is already cleared out, you can't choose versions in the dropdown

GOG usually updates mainline offline installers to the latest builds as soon as they're available and they add delta patches for people who already have the game installed, that's standard practice.

I'm still on 1.04, I've downloaded the 1.05 patch but haven't applied it yet. I've still got the 1.03 initial setup and the patches on an external drive, I tend to do that with GOG games, even got a 1.3 version of Beamdog's BG EE still kicking around. Anyway, I haven't played the game in a few days, fat chance this thing's gonna get between me and my fifth Deus Ex replay.

 

[HoboForEternity]

CDProjekt RED more like CDProjekt in the RED

 

[Fenix]

Hopefully one day I'll fuck a black girl in a flying tank while we both have double orgasms because our nevous systems are connected.

So V feeling like his penis penetrates his vagina? Yeah, totally not a reference to Sens8 and not a try to make character/player homosexual/tpap.

 

[Fenix]

I just did the quest Dream On and really loved it, doesn't seem there is a continuation so maybe it will be part of an expansion for the secret organization or something, would be kinda cool to see more update about the Peralezes.

I think it's what DLC will be about.

 

[Fenix]

- sell your clothes and buy them back with improved stats

WHAT
THE
FUCK

 

[Semiurge]

Btw what if instead of this "Johnny talks inside your head about bad bad Arasaka while you steal new cybernetic dildo schematics for a client while knowing you have two weeks left to live" shit the story was like:

Prologue: same shit, could make V even more of a disgusting small-time thug, instead of a thug that thinks he has morals.
Act 1 instead of talking to Johnny, V starts getting dreams about him, then starts acting strangely, experiencing memory loss, sudden erections, wants to buy a guitar, etc.
Act 2 V is no more, Johnny discovers that he is born again in a body of a thug, wants revenge on Arasaka\wants to make sure Arasaka won't be making any more immortality chips\whatever. Steals cybernetic dildo schematics not fo fun and money but to gather resources, reputation to prepare for assault on Arasaka. Because people who have information and manpower won't instantly agree to help him. (Like, you know, every other RPG does.) Johnny doens't die in two weeks so he can do racing, boxing, dildo hunting, maybe record some new music in his spare time.
Act 3 etc.

Wouldn't it have been instead of ?

Even if someone had suggested this, there's always some suit who'll sink the idea for being too ambitious. They are risk averse, and whatever the average console owner doesn't "get", won't be in.

panam also has a non retarded haircut and more importantly she has this

Spoiler

i honestly don't know why i was simping so hard for judy before. i think i got fooled by her cute face, now i've seen the light. you just got to readjust your priorities with women sometimes. a valueable lesson learned thanks cdpr.

Spoiler

all the sex scenes are weird as fuck and the opposite of being hot honestly. it feels like watching a cheap softcore porn dvd from the 90s or something. especially the moaning made me cringe. sometimes less is more and i wish they would have just cut to black at that point and i'm saying this as a huge coomer. i thought the whole first person romance stuff was much better done in the darkness (the starbreeze game) even though it's only 2 minutes long or so and the actual sex was better done in wolfenstein: the new order.

Is there even a game with good sex scenes? Whatever that means in the context of video games.

One question from me regarding the censoring shit. For anyone who is playing a version earlier than 1.05, do you have this star on the model's boob like I have it?
View attachment 16789

Welp, if true then it's up to the intrepid modder to restore the t&a. A man's job, sir.

 

[racofer]

CDProjekt RED more like CDProjekt in the RED

And soon CD Projekt REKT

 

[DalekFlay]

Also, non-lethal weapons are required in cyberpsycho gigs, some missions have a different outcome if you don't kill your target (the killer cop gig for example).

Agree with everything else you said but cyberpsychos automatically don't die, you can shoot them with whatever.

 

[Heroic Liberator]

Also, non-lethal weapons are required in cyberpsycho gigs, some missions have a different outcome if you don't kill your target (the killer cop gig for example).

Agree with everything else you said but cyberpsychos automatically don't die, you can shoot them with whatever.

Bug or intended?

 

[Old Hans]

This game is missing some dynamic open world shit,looking to the shitty pedestrian Ai, I see why they cut that. I have no idea why to this day, no developer copied the Saints Row system of you having multiple gangs and when you do hostile stuff on their turfs, they get hostile and call reinforcements that get worse and worse culminating, many times, on massive shootouts with multiple gangs fighting each other, Cyberbug 76 has the perfect structure for that, go guns blazing on a mission, enemy back up is called, you flee from the area into another gang turf, they start fighting each other, the police is called and all of sudden, complete chaos.

I mean, common, 300 million dollars on this project and a shitty B studio like Volition can have fun open world shit while Cyberbug 76 only has Far Cry outposts over and over and over.

cdprojekt just doesnt seem to have the chops to pull it off. Witcher 3 was the same way. outside of the story beats the game world was just static and boring. they're good at creating a superficial illusion of NPCS doing things, as long as you dont stick around for more than 5 seconds

 

[gurugeorge]

Also, non-lethal weapons are required in cyberpsycho gigs, some missions have a different outcome if you don't kill your target (the killer cop gig for example).

Agree with everything else you said but cyberpsychos automatically don't die, you can shoot them with whatever.

I killed one by accident, with a supposedly non-lethal blunt weapon. Magic nog kween was upset.

 

[oneself]

Urgh, just finished this nonsense. My impression didn't change. The design of this thing was in a sense entirely predictable, but also probably something like a herculean affair. These open world games just take a shit ton of resources to make. This whole genre has its roots in GTA and such, you can see it merge with rpgs now, even though originally it was rpgs that produced the idea of sandbox gameplay. But without something like faction dynamics and mutually exclusive quest design you're left with the purely inconsequential sandbox design and the "emotional" storytelling. I can't fucking stand this sentimentalism in any kind of media or art. Sure, the writing was alright, some of the characters were funny enough, although some were purely boring ; in the end the game wants to create an "attachment", and when its finished you're supposed to feel some kind of melancholic loss, either because the characters die or simply because the relationship with the game ends (which is the same thing). And you do feel loss, but that doesn't mean anything about the quality of the narrative or its themes, it's just sentimental character based bullshit. Fuck it. Fuck "playing for the story". Fuck playing games to have imaginary relationships. I don't even want relationships in real life, why the fuck would I want it in games? How is this not playing to some pathetic sense of loneliness in people? Disgusting.

The rest of the writing didn't exactly exploit ideas in a very thorough manner. The narrative was very self-centered for the protagonist, which I assume was a way to make the player "care", but it backfired in a big way. In rpgs it's usually too much about the world (and saving it) and not enough about characters, relationships and such ; but now we have the opposite problem, really. The thing is, this is a "modern" world, a world that is potentially very complex in nature, that's very political, very technical, etc ; in a modern world, individuals don't matter, but rpgs are all about making the individual matter. I don't actually know how they were supposed to work around this, but surely making the story about the protagonist's survival in an uncaring world wasn't a very engaging affair. I think making it more about politics might have worked. There's exactly one quest that revolves around politics, and its entirely over the top and ridiculous, but it's pretty engaging. Having the protagonist be involved in faction dynamics would have worked wonders I think not only for the rpg elements, but for the narrative as well. We needed some kind of New Vegas shit here. Work for Arasaka, Militech or the punks in the alleys, etc.

I do think the game had some good gameplay elements, though, at least for its genre (good for what it is). I also think it was disturbingly immersive, for a first person rpg (say it's a rpg or not, I don't care). I don't usually play a lot of AAA games, maybe it's just me that's not used to the graphical orgy, all these details, but fuck if it wasn't beautiful. I'm not sure how I'm supposed to even look at something like DX's urban setting now and think it's any bearable to look at. Sad, I know.

GAME EVOKED FEELINGS IN ME. I HATE FEELINGS. 0/10.