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

[DeepOcean]

When that "leak" talk about doors they don't talk about every door. They talk about doors with "locked" hud info. Aside from those there are a lot of doors that are closed that don't give you this "locked" hud status. But generally it is 3 to 1 when it comes to locked vs no hud. Which leads to reasoning that they they intended to do something with them.

I wouldnt be so excited about that if I were you, that sort of unfinished shit is very common on games and even more so on open world games, most developers just place invisible walls around them so players cant see the unfinished areas, with the way CDPR rushed the game, it is probable that they just didnt have time to hunt those areas to wall them off. No developer leave unfinished areas accessible intentionally, this is probably an oversight of their part because of the rushed development.

You would be surprised with the amount of unfinished, out of bounds content in disk that games are released. Most games are just a jury rigged piece of software where things are hold together by spaguetti code and tape barely holding everything together so alot of garbage being left over is expected.

I believe some of those areas might even be used on DLC but they returning this game to the state it was pre 2020 cuts? No way. They already pivoted 80% of the studio to the online version by now.

 

[Perkel]

I wouldnt be so excited about that if I were you, that sort of unfinished shit is very common on games and even more so on open world games, most developers just place invisible walls around them so players cant see the unfinished areas, with the way CDPR rushed the game, it is probable that they just didnt have time to hunt those areas to wall them off. No developer leave unfinished areas accessible intentionally, this is probably an oversight of their part because of the rushed development.

I know that. The thing is that usually in production there is certain standard set by production team. Like in case of TW3 where every door was intractable but hud said "locked". So clearly they set standard.

Here it is weird. Like 3:1 ratio of doors that are interactable and those who are not. Moreover most of those interactable doors are in places that could be reasonably deduced that player could go inside if something wasn't cut. Examples: Trauma hospital, that motel doors in one of missions etc.

The stuff you don't get hud warning are stuff that doesn't fit into it like V neighbor apartments or minor shop doors on streets. Moreover there are doors closed for some stuff that has clearly interior fully finished as you can see through window etc. They could just not do interior if they didn't plan to do something with it and place texture instead of transparent glass.

That kind of weird stuff leads me to believe that this could be reasonable. The point is that there seems to be pattern here. This doesn't seem to be TW3 situation.

 

[WhiskeyWolf]

1.07 patch soon? They say the 1.06 was 18gigs? about 1/3 game size? Are all the patches that big?

If you are on a console, yes. If you are on PC, no, but you still need space to unpack your game files for the code to be inserted into them.

 

[gurugeorge]

The best action encounters are at the very beginning of the game when you don't have any healing items and could potentially run out of ammunition. After the first couple encounters, that period ends and you have full cheats enabled that only become more powerful as the game goes on.

It's odd because if you take the "two weeks tops" thing seriously (as I did on my first half-playthrough with my first char), because you aren't leveling up like crazy clearing all the side-quests, the difficulty is pitched about right if you go through the game glued to the MQ and a few side-quests - IOW it stays quite similar to the way it feels at the beginning, with a reasonable degree of challenge.

This must have been a deliberate decision, with the devs knowing that that's how most people will probably play the game (I myself didn't really "discover" the open world aspect until that point, when I started a new character, and got into doing things like Watson-clearing just after speaking to Dex, etc.). That starting character barely had any perks and levels, right up to when I'd narrowed the MQ down to where I was just about to do the parade with Takemura (I think I was about level 12 or so at that point).

 

[AwesomeButton]

Regarding the purported developer comments, some of my posts from the last weeks:

It's easy to imagine that CDPR devs are under extreme pressure to get the game to a state where it will be allowed back on the playstation store. This must be the absolute imperative top priority. What would their ETA be for that - maybe mid-January, maybe even by the end of this year? And I guess that while they are working on that, they are temporarily allowed anything, including pushing changes meant for PS4 into all the other platforms with the expectation that they will handle platform-level tuning at a later stage. Probably the expectation is that "we'll add some more LOD sliders later" or simply "we'll up the LOD again for PC in a separate patch".

So what is happening before our eyes is reversing CDPR's process. It used to be "PC first, then scale down" before release. Now after release it's "Consoles first then scale up". We get to watch how a modern game gets optimized for consoles

That's why it gets so interesting to understand what the arrangement was between CDPR and Sony. I watched a Yongyea video where he assumed, I think correctly, that if the game is pulled from sony's storefront but not from MS' storefront, then it must have been Sony who pressured CDPR not the other way around. He reasons that if the initiative for pulling it was in CDPR they would have pulled it from both storefronts. Now if the push was from Sony that the game should be removed, was there any arrangement as to when it will be allowed back? My guess is they just said "you work on it as much as you think you need, then give it to us again for certification". Corps love to work "according to the existing process" for everything and it's not an offer that CDPR would have reasonably been able to bargain against.
If there was real gaming journalism, people would be going after the storefront owners as well.

Trying to see Sony's perspective, they are the ones who have to handle returning the money directly, whereas CDPR bravely and generously "offered" to players to seek their money back. When CDPR makes the payment to Sony it will be in bulk, but processing the thousands of individual refunds falls to Sony's personnel, as well as the frustration of gamers.

It should be kept in mind that Sony is also culpable for the whole shitshow because it was Sony's employees who greenlit the game to go on the Playstation store. But if they got flooded with refund requests, withdrawing the game seems the most practical course.

'm almost done clearing Northside of side content, and I'm even more convinced that these quests were meant to be interconnected but were turned into Outposts in order to save resources and time during the production phase. They just scream that they needed to be reduced in number and consolidated into bigger "gigs". The contrast in complexity of the heist preparation vs the gigs, as well as the pre-release talk from CDPR of seamless transfer between main quest and sidequests points to the same. I suspect that what all those exclamation marks on the map present is not even the first pass state of the side content. It was simply unfinished stuff that was converted from the initial vision to Far Cry outposts. That's the biggest loss of all, because it will probably never be returned to the original vision. The most I imagine CDPR will do is to break down these "gigs" in more granular portions which will be gated by main quest progression or street cred level.

there is a notable disparity in the amount of detail put into some gigs vs others. The "Occupational Hazard" gig is one of the most developed I've seen yet. It features two NPCs besides the cyberpsycho, enough backstory, and doesn't end with an IM exchange with Regina. Instead Regina calls you to say "good work". This surprised me so much that at first I suspected the gig has bugged out and I should have received a message.

I'm talking specifically about cyberpsychos. I've done 8 out of 17. In only one case I had to IM Regina and she didn't write me back - "Bloody Ritual". That was a bug because I later saw in youtube that she does reply. And the only cyberpsycho case where she called me and didn't IM me was "Occupational Hazard".

1. Grouping Cyberpsychos and gigs under Regina.
2. Not being able to call fixers but having to specifically IM them
3. Fixers acting as second hand car salesmen
4. Fixers calling you out of the blue instead of having to converse with them in person, possibly convince them you are good via means of dialogue checks, street cred and what not.
5. Confusion about whether Wakako Okada is a Tyger Claw leader or a free agent.

All of these point to the fact that not even fixers were fully implemented.

I'm convinced that what was released on the 10th was what Josh was calling "Critical path" in PoE's development. The point where the game was complete-able and the team sat down to play it over the holidays, it was December 2014 I think.

In CP77 it's the main quest that's complete, the rest was in state of production when the board pressed for a 2020 release, so they could have a better looking balance sheet for the year. Serves them right.
Judging by the fact that they postponed from November to December for "optimization for consoles", I'd wager the cuts were already completed with the intention for a November 19th release, meaning the cuts were decided somewhere in summer 2020, and completed by September. Maybe we'll get a leak from CDPR to confirm or deny this. The big question remains if any of this can or will be brought back/finished. Personally, I doubt it.

There are also the obvious - in my opinion - cuts. So far I've seen two instances where in the course of the main quest I am looking for a favor from a fixer. I can guess that this was intended to be one of multiple options, and that I was supposed to be developing my relationship with multiple fixers whose missions become available gradually. My estimation based on that leaked timeline of development was that these plans were dropped in April.

I'm not sure there haven't been compromises even with the "popamole design". There is a noticeable disparity in the amount of detail given to some side missions vis-a-vis others. As for the gigs, and the fixers functioning *as a system* of their own, as opposed to gigs being a pokemon hunt and fixers serving to deliver a few introductionary lines, I believe this is where there was original design which was downscaled in the last months.

My theory is that production, as in filling the game with all the planned, written, probably even voiced, content, was lagging too much, and consoles optimisation is a process which was dependent on production being finished. CDPR announced the game is gold on Oct 5. This was already after the second delay - the one for Nov 19. My guess is that if it wasn't for console optimisation, CDPR could have easily carried on scripting quests and working on systems such as the police/crime system some months into 2021 without preparation for consoles even starting. That's how late they are.

The presumtion here is that the devs need to finish putting stuff in the game in order for optimization to start. This sounds very reasonable to me, but if anyone can prove this isn't required, go ahead.

One issue with these shards in "Assault in progress" and NCPD-marked locations is how repetitive the structure is. Another is that you only get to read them after the fact.

As it has been implemented now, the player gets to first clear the area, and only then when he is checking out the loot, does he get to learn "who are those guys I just killed here". Well, big deal, the player thinks to himself as he continues filtering through the trash loot. Loot that will be disassembled seconds later, or sold - wow so immersive, I'm a merc in Night City who makes his living by killing random punks and pawning their gear. But my point isn't about the game's unbalanced economy.

Imagine these encounters were implemented in a less cheap and more immersive way. You go to one of the many bars, overhear the same conversation that one character is having on the phone. Only then does the location with the combat become visible on the map - I would suggest it's even available only for a limited time. You go there and have your combat and loot. Yes, it's more expensive to script the conversation and record the same lines that you find written but brings more character to the activity and makes the activity feel more connected to the world, exactly like the mini-quest it should be.

As a matter of fact I suspect those shards with "chat history" were originally intended to be voiced and listened to. I can't imagine someone just decided to have all the premises written as dialogues "just because".

I just played through a miniquest called "A Day in the life". How it goes - you overhear a conversation between a client and a food vendor at a market in Arroyo. You approach and order something from him. At this moment someone throws a rock or something at his stall. The vendor asks you to help with kids around the block. You follow him to where two punks are stealing his motorbike. I killed the punks when they threathened him with knives. Had a conversation with him afterwards. Had one blue question I could ask in addition to the yellow dialogue to continue the qest. He returned to his stall saying he will give me a nice discount in the future. When I approached his stall he said "Ah, it's you again" before we even started dialogue.

This alone had more scripting work and voiced dialogue put into it than two or three Regina Jones jobs. You can't convince me that the gigs are complete and represent CDPR's idea of how they should look and play.

It's not even about caring about reputation or not caring. They can't afford to invest the time into working on stuff which gets noticed by a small percentage of players. It also makes no business sense - restoring cut interactions with fixers won't tilt virtually anyone who is on the fence towards buying the game, so why do it.

Fixing the police system, enriching the "GTA Clone" within the trinity of games composing CP77 (Deus Ex + On Rails Story/Witcher With Guns + Cyber GTA), which is what the mouthbreather audience and media are most vocal about seems most likely to receive attention in terms of adding functionality.

It's been well established in the history of RPGs that the details we appreciate them for are almost always snuck into the game by an enthusiastic developer and aren't central or even planned features. In CP77 the ship has sailed for inserting such features.

Most likely the decision to use this system in CP77 preceded the decision to ship the MMO as a separate game at a later time.

The cut reactivity will probably remain cut forever, unless there are literally unused assets sitting in the game's .archive files and commented out scripts, but I personally doubt that.

I'm more inclined to doubt the veracity of the leak. It's being too unspecific about some things, while strangely specific when it comes to patch dates, especially six months ahead.

 

[Perkel]

I don't think they intended to implement blue markers as full on "immersive" quests. They were just there to have things to shot.

 

[moon knight]

True, there are open doors who lead to nowhere.

Spoiler

This is not cut content, it's butchered content

 

[502]

To me the leak reads like your average "my uncle works at Nintendo" as far as my uncle works at Nintendos go.

Anyone can come to the general conclusions in that text and get a tad creative. Permanently locked doors were meant to be usable. Johnny was completely different but execs wanted a big star for PR and starstruck CDPR couldn't say no to Keanu's "creative input". Is this all supposed to be a big revelation? Any one of us can theorize these and we already have.

PS5's code is an improvement on the PC due to the awesome dev kit Sony put together for this gen.

:D

Now that sounds legit.

 

[AwesomeButton]

We will see if some of the leak's claims are confirmed quite soon.

 

[gerey]

We will see if some of the leak's claims are confirmed quite soon.

I do believe that CDPR is likely sitting on a mountain of cut content and features. It remains to be seen if they are actually gonna go through with the supposed NMS-styled overhaul or if they're gonna just do a token effort to silence the most vocal criticism and then hype up the multiplayer (which is what they're really after).

Hell, it remains to be seen if it is even possible to unfuck the game since so much of it is broken mechanically on a fundamental level.

 

[ADL]

That leak reads like bullshit but given all we've heard and seen over the years, I think it's fair to say that the whole project was rebooted pretty late in development. What this means for 2077? Who knows but I'm more interested in what they cobble together for Cyberpunk Online next year or the year after once they can abandon last gen hardware and a couple systemic overhauls.

 

[just]

real leaks are always 1 or 2 sentences with a quick info dump
never extremely detailed 500 word essays
what he forgot to wirte is follow me on twitter for more

 

[DeepOcean]

It seems for me that they will only do a token effort with the free DLC, they will just fix the worse bugs and fix some embarassing stuff like the police system and console performance, hype for the paid DLC on 2021 and go straight to Cyberpunk online. No way they gonna delay Cyberpunk online for even a single month for the singleplayer version benefit. People should keep in mind that on contrary to disasters like Anthem, Avengers and etc, Cyberbug actually sold well and there will be no shortage of fanboys defending the game once the worse shit is fixed and the paid DLC are released. Why would CDPR go the extra mile to overhaul the basic single player version if they will soon have an army of sycophants ready to play the online version?

 

[ADL]

Honestly I enjoyed the game and don't think they "need" a No Man's Sky-style overhaul to redeem it and repair their reputation, at least among PC players who are still their bread and butter. 2077 on consoles is about as bad as Skyrim was on the 360/PS3 and consolecucks still jizz their pants over that game. That being said, a lot of the work they'll have to do for Cyberpunk Online will have to be done for 2077 so I'm expecting the more systemic stuff to be patched in over time.

Also I'm under the impression the 2077 team will be split between Online's production and The Witcher 4's pre-production as currently the online team is quite small.

 

[Twiglard]

The abruptly truncated feel of the Peralez quest is one particularly glaring example.

Peralez quest is basically Arcanum Gnomes. There's also some related stuff with Gary the Prophet and the Blue-Eyed Man.

 

[Danikas]

if you try to knock-out these black-ops guys their heads explode.

 

[Robber Baron]

if you try to knock-out these black-ops guys their heads explode.

Cool
If this was Deus Ex, V noticing the black ops dudes would've added an additional line when talking with Peralez in the end

 

[undecaf]

If the big fixes and implementation of the "original 2018 plan" in the supposed leak don't touch the general gameplay and charactersystem dynamics, the game won't get better, just heavier.

 

[Danikas]

Then we have this creepy shit in garry quest.



The same track that is used in Peralez quest is used here.


The shard you find in this quest goes like this:
"Phosphor radiates, occluding jaded eyes, Come titan. Outward ring avian choruses, looping eternity. Cages of men melt as night descends. Emerge Xelhua, Erect Cholula under these expanses. Puppets lie awake, Never sleeping."

Seems it's a Null cipher. 1st letter of every word...

"Project Oracle Command Execute Plans"




The corpo chick in this meeting uses the phrase carpe noctem that's the name of project that Sandra dorsett uncovered:

 

[alyvain]

I like conspiracies, but if it is not Militech, then I am afraid of the upcoming ridiculousness of this questline in DLCs and such.

 

[undecaf]

I just read ”an explanation of another rumoured leak” (yeah, I know what that sounds like) where the main plot was originally about investigating the increasing amount of cyberpsychosis cases in the city... and that the Johnny thing came about later.

It’s a rumour of a rumour, and possibly bullshit, but that would’ve been so much better than the shit that’s there, that it kinda makes me a bit sad for the game.

 

[Twiglard]

Yo. I looked up a way to avoid falling damage regardless of the height. Just make sure you're sliding while falling. Crouch while sprinting when you're about to fall off a ledge. You'll continue sliding and even slide a fair distance on the ground. It's one of the cases where a bug is a good thing.

I just read ”an explanation of another rumoured leak” (yeah, I know what that sounds like) where the main plot was originally about investigating the increasing amount of cyberpsychosis cases in the city... and that the Johnny thing came about later.

It’s a rumour of a rumour, and possibly bullshit, but that would’ve been so much better than the shit that’s there, that it kinda makes me a bit sad for the game.

That Johnny's stuff isn't that bad in itself, but they messed up Alt Cunningham acting like that god of death in the MOTB ending. They ought've integrated it better with the story, and made more relevant side quest chains, made Rogue more relevant and so on. Alas.

 

[KK1001]

The actual game systems are bad: sneaking is too easy and never gets harder; hacking quickly becomes too broken; and shooting is far too effective for characters who aren't shooty (melee body, pure hackers, stealth). They really have a lot to change and it just won't happen.

 

[Turjan]

Yo. I looked up a way to avoid falling damage regardless of the height. Just make sure you're sliding while falling. Crouch while sprinting when you're about to fall off a ledge. You'll continue sliding and even slide a fair distance on the ground. It's one of the cases where a bug is a good thing.

That was the only way I managed to jump off the roof of Konpeki Plaza when I visited that one in Act 2. You can even steer while sliding, which means I could reach the water even with course correction.

 

[Mefi]

Then we have this creepy shit in garry quest.


The corpo chick in this meeting uses the phrase carpe noctem that's the name of project that Sandra dorsett uncovered:

Amusingly the call and response with the Maelstrom gang member is from a German musical, Dance of the Vampires. It's part of the Latin refrains in the chorus of the song Carpe Noctem.