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

[Theodora]

They added a lot of missing small details example npcs will use umbrellas during rain. Weather system is out of alpha too you can even hear weather announcements on the radio now.

I was going to say the umbrellas could do with some variance, but those two guys appear to be essentially clones of each other.

Weather announcements on the radio sounds kinda neat though. Are they different by channel?

Noticed also that it got the fancier elements of DualSense support on PS5; hopefully that that code is still present and can be enabled with a mod on PC, because it'd make driving way more engaging.

 

[gurugeorge]

To be serious for a moment, from just reading the patch notes there's a lot of small yet positive changes to visuals and UX, and a handful of new toys, but it's mostly things that probably should've been there 'out of the box':

Yeah, I think basically what the current team's job is, is to "finish" the rest of the game (the non-Johnny-story part of it) to the level it coulda shoulda woulda been finished at, if they hadn't wasted a year and a bit on the Keanu story. Given that that would have been "crunch" work if it had been done at the time, the team will probably take another year to get to that level, so a couple of years in total.

Note: I say "wasted" even though I quite liked the Johnny story - it was time and effort wasted from the point of view of what the game should have been at release. I, and I'm sure most other people, expected no more than a cameo from Keanu after that expo reveal. But as has been said many times (disavowed by CDPR, but who believes them now?) when they got Keanu, he only had a certain window of opportunity to do stuff, and by all accounts he got quite into the project, so they crammed as much as they could into that time, and more or less dropped tools on the rest of the game.

If they'd only finished the damn game properly and postponed a big Keanu thing to a DLC a year or two down the road, things would have been much different. Bad executive decision in hindsight, but it's easy to see how it must have made sense at the time - I think, ironically, they underestimated the anticipation for the game, and felt that they had to cram Keanu in for maximum impact. It was unnecessary, people were poised to buy the game in droves anyway, and they'd have been much happier with a better bulk-of-game and a mere cameo from the big man.

 

[Gargaune]

It is a patch not an expansion.

I agree, and it's actually a pretty decent patch for a change. Very late, but it delivers some stuff. People just built it up in their minds as some sort of "enhanced edition" but it was never gonna be that.

Let's put the question thus: Is there anything in this patch that would make an impression on you if you ditched this game in January 2021 and would start it up now?

Eh... "an impression?" No, but I don't expect a patch to make an impression. Finally improving ambient AI is definitely a worthwhile development and I'm curious whether the revamped perks schema's any better. I see CET's been updated for 1.5 support so maybe I'll try the new build in the next couple of days.

Compare it to RDR2 - an open world game where the main quest is still on rails, but the open world offers functioning systems that power side activities and single player "challenges". The big difference is that RDR2's setting doesn't pressure the game and its main quest into offering so much variety and so much C&C. I think that's the ultimate reason RDR2 manages to not feel lacking in the C&C department, whereas Cyberpunk feels empty.

Don't know about Grand Theft Horsies, but TW3 itself is the more pertinent comparison. CBP's running on the same structural format, but that design just can't meet the expectations fostered by a first-person urban-set experience. It's a different beast and it leaves players wanting.

So somebody stated you still don't have a flashlight. But with all the new scopes, some of which probably are night visions ones, do we finally have a night vision eye implant?

I'm sure they'd have said it if there were new cyberware. Scopes have night vision, cars have working headlights, but V's only got the gamma slider.

 

[AwesomeButton]

to the level it coulda shoulda woulda been finished at, if they hadn't wasted a year and a bit on the Keanu story

If this by any chance includes gang interactions and "faction mechanics", it would have been wonderful, but I doubt it.

 

[Anonymous Wife Scholar]

Yeah, I think basically what the current team's job is, is to "finish" the rest of the game (the non-Johnny-story part of it) to the level it coulda shoulda woulda been finished at, if they hadn't wasted a year and a bit on the Keanu story. Given that that would have been "crunch" work if it had been done at the time, the team will probably take another year to get to that level, so a couple of years in total.

Note: I say "wasted" even though I quite liked the Johnny story - it was time and effort wasted from the point of view of what the game should have been at release. I, and I'm sure most other people, expected no more than a cameo from Keanu after that expo reveal. But as has been said many times (disavowed by CDPR, but who believes them now?) when they got Keanu, he only had a certain window of opportunity to do stuff, and by all accounts he got quite into the project, so they crammed as much as they could into that time, and more or less dropped tools on the rest of the game.

If they'd only finished the damn game properly and postponed a big Keanu thing to a DLC a year or two down the road, things would have been much different. Bad executive decision in hindsight, but it's easy to see how it must have made sense at the time - I think, ironically, they underestimated the anticipation for the game, and felt that they had to cram Keanu in for maximum impact. It was unnecessary, people were poised to buy the game in droves anyway, and they'd have been quite happy with a better bulk-of-game and a mere cameo from the big man.

Johnny story was nonsense anon because it was OVERTAKE anon of V anon main character story anon because it was JOHNNY STORY ORBIT nonsense game anon and V anon was WEAK WORTHLESS main character anon anon in OWN GAME anon! It is true anon! It is!

 

[Justicar]

I was going to say the umbrellas could do with some variance, but those two guys appear to be essentially clones of each other.

?

 

[Grotesque]

 

[Theodora]

If they'd only finished the damn game properly and postponed a big Keanu thing to a DLC a year or two down the road, things would have been much different.

I pretty much agree with all this, but if they had done this we wouldn't have been able to have Keanu inside us.

Don't know about Grand Theft Horsies, but TW3 itself is the more pertinent comparison. CBP's running on the same structural format, but that design just can't meet the expectations fostered by a first-person urban-set experience. It's a different beast and it leaves players wanting.

Comparing anything to RDR2 is going to leave you wanting. Even with its own cut content, development scars, and ongoing outsourced nonsense for RDO, it still totally blows every other "open world" piece of storytelling out of the water.

 

[gurugeorge]

Yeah, I think basically what the current team's job is, is to "finish" the rest of the game (the non-Johnny-story part of it) to the level it coulda shoulda woulda been finished at, if they hadn't wasted a year and a bit on the Keanu story. Given that that would have been "crunch" work if it had been done at the time, the team will probably take another year to get to that level, so a couple of years in total.

Note: I say "wasted" even though I quite liked the Johnny story - it was time and effort wasted from the point of view of what the game should have been at release. I, and I'm sure most other people, expected no more than a cameo from Keanu after that expo reveal. But as has been said many times (disavowed by CDPR, but who believes them now?) when they got Keanu, he only had a certain window of opportunity to do stuff, and by all accounts he got quite into the project, so they crammed as much as they could into that time, and more or less dropped tools on the rest of the game.

If they'd only finished the damn game properly and postponed a big Keanu thing to a DLC a year or two down the road, things would have been much different. Bad executive decision in hindsight, but it's easy to see how it must have made sense at the time - I think, ironically, they underestimated the anticipation for the game, and felt that they had to cram Keanu in for maximum impact. It was unnecessary, people were poised to buy the game in droves anyway, and they'd have been quite happy with a better bulk-of-game and a mere cameo from the big man.

Johnny story was nonsense anon because it was OVERTAKE anon of V anon main character story anon because it was JOHNNY STORY ORBIT nonsense game anon and V anon was WEAK WORTHLESS main character anon anon in OWN GAME anon! It is true anon! It is!

Yeah. As I say, it would have been brilliant as a DLC - it would have put an interesting capstone on a V career that had gone through the original game in a proper RPG fashion. It would even have been brilliant from a marketing point of view and revitalized interest in a successful game a year or two down the line.

OR, the game could have been marketed as that "action-adventure" story from the beginning, and it would have been fine. But the cockteasing about "be your own V in an amazing cyberpunk RPG" marketing made the Johnny/V story sit uneasily in an unfinished game.

 

[Anonymous Wife Scholar]

I pretty much agree with all this, but if they had done this we wouldn't have been able to have Keanu inside us.

Theodora anon! Good strong friend anon! It is many superior anon because game would have real main character anon not WORTHLESS SIDEKICK V character anon! It is true anon! It is! You are a good strong friend anon!

 

[Anonymous Wife Scholar]

Yeah. As I say, it would have been brilliant as a DLC - it would have put an interesting capstone on a V career that had gone through the original game in a proper RPG fashion. It would even have been brilliant from a marketing point of view and revitalized interest in a successful game a year or two down the line.

OR, the game could have been marketed as that "action-adventure" story from the beginning, and it would have been fine. But the cockteasing about "be your own V in an amazing cyberpunk RPG" marketing made the Johnny/V story sit uneasily in an unfinished game.

Thank you guru anon! You are a good strong friend anon anon! You are! I do not know anon V career DLC game anon after Cyberpunk game anon because it is YOU DIE nonsense ending story anon from Johnny SilverAIDS anon! It is true anon! It is!

 

[Theodora]

Theodora !! Good strong friend !! It is many superior ! because game would have real main character ! not WORTHLESS SIDEKICK V character !! It is true !! It is! You are a good strong friend !!

It is a cuckold sim, where your w-life is not your own. Perfect codex game!

?

Don't take my comment too seriously, there's just a common enough experience playing Cyberpunk where multiple NPCs are wearing the same (or similar) pieces; gives you an uncanny feeling like with NFTs that basically look the same as each other. (And resolution diffs can amplify such an impression.)

 

[Anonymous Wife Scholar]

It is a cuckold sim, where your w-life is not your own. Perfect codex game!

It is American California setting Theodora anon! It is! It does make me think anon! It does!

 

[Perkel]

They definitely changed how loot is spawned. There is shitload less of crap to pick up. Previously every room was filled with crap like guitar picks, discs etc that was literally "junk". Now almost 95% of that is removed.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

This is it? They were working for a year on this?

back in my day, in one year a whole system shock 2 could be made.

 

[Crispy]

I did some testing myself last night, and here's what I'm seeing and have made note of so far:

- Random NPCs may act slightly less robotic now, but they definitely still disappear into thin air often enough to shatter any sad sense of immersion you might be trying to enjoy. I can't believe this is still a thing in this game.

- Performance may be somewhat better, despite what most of the Steamtards are screeching about. Ray-tracing is about the same, which still utterly murders framerate when enabled, so I continue to just run maxed settings with DLSS enabled in Auto mode. I can still sustain 100fps at 1440p with only minor dips when looking at crowded scenes.

- Some of the bugs "embedded" within a select few of my saves are still hilariously present. One example is a phone call I can trigger to talk to -- someone? -- about the murals that you see on the walls around the city, and that phone conversation is one-sided. You can't hear anyone talking on the other end. Also, one of my saves still has a mysterious little floating object in the garage at the start of the Nomad campaign. Disappointing that these little yet simple things weren't cleaned up.

- Unless I'm crazy, some of the game's audio has subtly changed. Walking around in boots, for example, produces a predictable heel-to-hard-surface sound, but they mixed in an occasional little squeek that is exceedingly irritating. If you take off your shoes, walking still produces a boot-like, albeit quieter, sound. "Sneaking" offers no decrease in walking volume whatsoever. I don't recall any of these prior to this big patch.

- Speaking of walking, the walk toggle they implemented sucks. It "resets" whenever you enter any new location, even your own apartment, so you suddenly find yourself jogging again. I still use this mod which requires the fix on this page to correct the inability to exit from logging on to computers and so forth if used.

- The combat and general flow of the game does seem to have been smoothed out somewhat, so CDPR deserves some credit for that.

I'll post more impressions later, if I can be bothered to keep playing.

 

[Perkel]

Another thing i noticed is that by default now all NCPD quests aka bandit camps are not displayed on map. Only jobs aka gigs and sidequests are. They only show on minimap when you are close to them and you don't get NCPD calling you. So you no longer get spammed while traveling town.

This is basically another "switch off POI" like in witcher 3 which massively improves game.

Another thing about map is that they massively improved readability of it. Previously it was annoying to find anything as everything was overloaded with jobs sidequests, ncpd calls and icons were very similar to each other. Now you can easily see stuff like bars, ripperdocks and so on.

------------

Performance wise i switched from GTX1080 which i used to play ultra at around 50ish fps @ 1080p to 6600XT and i am playing mostly 1440p with FSR and raytracing enabled (shadows and lighting on medium, reflections kill FPS) at around 40+fps. With no raytracking i can get around 50ish fps in 4k and around 80-90 at 1440p.

Usually i would pick FPS over res or effects but recent 1.5 change to raytracing massively changes how shadows are handled and game looks noticebly better with raytraced shadows (previously raytraced shadows were only for sun shadows but now they are enabled for most lights).

Also worth noting is that medium setting of raytraced lighting gives you amazing ambient occlusion and proper light bounces and doesn't cost that much in terms of FPS.

 

[Infinitron]

 

[ChildInTime]

They released the Archangel song in full.

 

[Robber Baron]

1440p/30fps on series s? impressive considering I was playing the game on sub720p to get 30fps on release on my 1060

 

[luj1]

amazing how fast this game was forgotten

 

[catchaser]

I don't know if you people noticed, but this was their initial free dlc list. Most of this shit got implemented in their patches already, but it's hilarious what would they market as a free goodie just to make themselves look nice and generous. A fucking mirror that toggles their version of "showracemenu" or a pack with goddamn poses... Fucking disgusting.

• dlc1_swp (smart weapons pack)

• dlc2_jposes (photo mode poses)

• dlc3_kab01 (new gig in kabuki)

• dlc4_quartz (possibly a free car)

• dlc5_jackets (got this already, 4 lousy jackets)

• dlc6_apart (got this recently, it's extremely underwhelming)

• dlc7_pwp (power weapons pack)

• dlc8_mirror (got this recently... no comments)

• dlc9_arr06 (new gig in arroyo)

• dlc10_monster (hard to tell)

• dlc11_jlook (possibly some customization stuff)

• dlc12_mfinish (dunno)

• dlc13_twp (tech weapons pack)

• dlc14_arr12 (another arroyo gig)

• dlc15_ngplus (self explanatory, new game plus which they are still holding in for some stupid reason)

• dlc16_jpn06 (new japantown gig)

• dlc17_bwp (bladed or blunt weapons pack)

And i'm sure all of this crap existed on launch day already.

Another thing i noticed is that by default now all NCPD quests aka bandit camps are not displayed on map. Only jobs aka gigs and sidequests are. They only show on minimap when you are close to them and you don't get NCPD calling you. So you no longer get spammed while traveling town.

This is basically another "switch off POI" like in witcher 3 which massively improves game.

Placebo is strong in this one... It always worked that way.

 

[Caim]

amazing how fast this game was forgotten

Never fade away.

 

[Perkel]

Placebo is strong in this one... It always worked that way.

No it did not. Map was filled with crap and there were ? everywhere which usually were either NCPD bandit camps, gigs or sidequests. NCPD calls aren't on map anymore only when you get close to them and they are not added to map if you get close. Only sidequests and gigs are on map.

Moreover due to change how fixers works only some of gigs are shown on map you currently unlocked instead of all of them at the same time.

old vs new with default settings.

 

[Gargaune]

tl;dr how is the third party group doing in fixing the game and giving modding capabilities to this clunker?

I waited in vain to hear something about improving modding support.

Improve modding? They broke half the shit I was using! And I haven't even installed any scripted stuff. The Deus Ex radio? Fucks with the Additional Content option in the main menu. The car reskins I was using? Now they all load low-LOD versions. Clothes mods? Scrambled icon sets. The one good hair mod? Just doesn't work anymore. Couldn't even start the game until I tracked down the outdated cursor mod that was crashing it.

CDPR stole my Red Ferrari™ and gave my waifu a bad haircut!


P.S. Oh, and just for the record, I also had to update my GPU driver to restore DLSS function and then I found they picked my pocket for another ~3 FPS. I hope Bruxelles takes their €uromoneyz and gives it to Swen, at least he's honest about his shit being Early Access!

P.P.S. False alarm, hair mods still work fine. Maybe it spazzed out because I'd previously edited the save in Save Editor, the slot changed. I no longer hope Bruxelles gives CDPR's €uromoneys to Swen.