Cyberpunk 2077 - Phantom Liberty

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Madner Kami
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Re: Cyberpunk 2077 - Phantom Liberty

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CharlesPhipps wrote: Fri Sep 22, 2023 4:24 am
Madner Kami wrote: Fri Sep 22, 2023 12:09 am Quickhacks actually became even more powerful. For example, you can explode enemies suffering from Contagion now, by throwing Overheat at them. Memory Wipe is actually useful now, since it makes queued quickhacks untracable as well. And so on.
Funny thing, I've been playing for ten hours and my response is, "Wow, they really nerfed Netrunning. It's now actually really difficult now!"
To be fair, you need to manage your resources a bit more, compared to the "What's RAM? Never heard of it!" from before, but overall, it's more bang for the buck now.
hammerofglass wrote: Fri Sep 22, 2023 5:54 am I was planning on just playing the DLC on my last character but now I want to start a new one just to play with the new leveling system.

Might even do something crazy like actually use guns.
Same here. I always ended up net-running, because crafting kinda leaned into it heavily. Not anymore 😅
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hammerofglass
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Re: Cyberpunk 2077 - Phantom Liberty

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The early game is way easier than it used to be. The new skill system means none of that "grinding five levels to access the play style you actually want" nonsense.
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CharlesPhipps
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Re: Cyberpunk 2077 - Phantom Liberty

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Some heist thoughts:

1. To Dex's credit, I'm fairly of the mind that he brought onboard baby mercs because he fully was planning on swindling us. His whole 20% offer was something no seasoned Night City merc would ever accept, no matter the payday. I also believe that he might have been planning on leaving us holding the bag to begin with. The 40% is only because you rat out Evelyn and he'll undoubtedly be taking her cut for you (and if they were splitting 50-50, he's doubling yours but also doubling his). Remember when Jackie asks how they get paid, Dex says in "two weeks"
2. I actually think Evelyn's plan was arguably a lot smarter than many let on because she planned on getting V (clearly the brains of Jackie and V) on her side before going to Netwatch. Netwatch is the one group in the world she could flee from the Voodoo Boys to—sadly she didn't have what they wanted.
3. Evelyn was also going to screw up since she betrayed Yorinobu, the Voodoo Boys, and was going to betray Dex if you let her. You have to wonder if she had enough mind leftover to note the irony of V saving her.
4. Judy may have been abandoned by Evelyn as well. It depends if you assume Judy and Evelyn were together at the time or it was just a crush on Judy's part.
5. T-Bug, I think is a mid-tier Netrunner working with newbs like V and Jackie. She's doing info-gathering normally and is way out of her league with Konpecki plaza. It's why she gets zeroed once Arasaka Netrunners show up.
6. Jackie is a dumbass. A lovable dumbass but I don't believe he was any smarter than your typical Valentino grunt you zap in the middle of any Assault in Progress.
7. Yeah, V is still a greedy criminal like the rest of them. Arguably, they have the biggest blind spot of them all because they THINK they're smart enough to have all the angles covered.
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Madner Kami
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Re: Cyberpunk 2077 - Phantom Liberty

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CharlesPhipps wrote: Sat Sep 23, 2023 10:00 pm Some heist thoughts:

1. To Dex's credit, I'm fairly of the mind that he brought onboard baby mercs because he fully was planning on swindling us. His whole 20% offer was something no seasoned Night City merc would ever accept, no matter the payday. I also believe that he might have been planning on leaving us holding the bag to begin with. The 40% is only because you rat out Evelyn and he'll undoubtedly be taking her cut for you (and if they were splitting 50-50, he's doubling yours but also doubling his). Remember when Jackie asks how they get paid, Dex says in "two weeks"
2. I actually think Evelyn's plan was arguably a lot smarter than many let on because she planned on getting V (clearly the brains of Jackie and V) on her side before going to Netwatch. Netwatch is the one group in the world she could flee from the Voodoo Boys to—sadly she didn't have what they wanted.
3. Evelyn was also going to screw up since she betrayed Yorinobu, the Voodoo Boys, and was going to betray Dex if you let her. You have to wonder if she had enough mind leftover to note the irony of V saving her.
4. Judy may have been abandoned by Evelyn as well. It depends if you assume Judy and Evelyn were together at the time or it was just a crush on Judy's part.
5. T-Bug, I think is a mid-tier Netrunner working with newbs like V and Jackie. She's doing info-gathering normally and is way out of her league with Konpecki plaza. It's why she gets zeroed once Arasaka Netrunners show up.
6. Jackie is a dumbass. A lovable dumbass but I don't believe he was any smarter than your typical Valentino grunt you zap in the middle of any Assault in Progress.
7. Yeah, V is still a greedy criminal like the rest of them. Arguably, they have the biggest blind spot of them all because they THINK they're smart enough to have all the angles covered.
V can express quite a lot of doubt about the validity of the entire Heist and it's sub-components, right from the get-go. The one mistake V comitts and keeps comitting is, to go along with it regardless and finding Vself out of Vself's depth time and time again. This is something that keeps happening in the game and this never becomes clearer than during Judy's attempts to free the Clouds. You're a seasoned merc now, you again see all the flaws in the plan. You know it's going to go sideways and you can point out exactly what is going to go sideways to Judy, but just like V, Judy goes in regardless and steps right into it and even the argueably best outcomes leave Judy fucked in one way or another. The only thing that keeps V floating is Vself's incredible talent to fumble Vself through even the most sticky situations and come out alive and V is very aware of that, as it also gets pointed out through one of the fixers. Wakako, if memory serves right, at some point says, that it's Impossible to get V into a team of Runners, because V is regarded as someone who throws Vself into obviously impossible situations, where nobody who goes in, gets out alive, but V.
"If you get shot up by an A6M Reisen and your plane splits into pieces - does that mean it's divided by Zero?
- xoxSAUERKRAUTxox
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ProfessorDetective
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Re: Cyberpunk 2077 - Phantom Liberty

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Madner Kami wrote: Sun Sep 24, 2023 1:18 am
CharlesPhipps wrote: Sat Sep 23, 2023 10:00 pm Some heist thoughts:

1. To Dex's credit, I'm fairly of the mind that he brought onboard baby mercs because he fully was planning on swindling us. His whole 20% offer was something no seasoned Night City merc would ever accept, no matter the payday. I also believe that he might have been planning on leaving us holding the bag to begin with. The 40% is only because you rat out Evelyn and he'll undoubtedly be taking her cut for you (and if they were splitting 50-50, he's doubling yours but also doubling his). Remember when Jackie asks how they get paid, Dex says in "two weeks"
2. I actually think Evelyn's plan was arguably a lot smarter than many let on because she planned on getting V (clearly the brains of Jackie and V) on her side before going to Netwatch. Netwatch is the one group in the world she could flee from the Voodoo Boys to—sadly she didn't have what they wanted.
3. Evelyn was also going to screw up since she betrayed Yorinobu, the Voodoo Boys, and was going to betray Dex if you let her. You have to wonder if she had enough mind leftover to note the irony of V saving her.
4. Judy may have been abandoned by Evelyn as well. It depends if you assume Judy and Evelyn were together at the time or it was just a crush on Judy's part.
5. T-Bug, I think is a mid-tier Netrunner working with newbs like V and Jackie. She's doing info-gathering normally and is way out of her league with Konpecki plaza. It's why she gets zeroed once Arasaka Netrunners show up.
6. Jackie is a dumbass. A lovable dumbass but I don't believe he was any smarter than your typical Valentino grunt you zap in the middle of any Assault in Progress.
7. Yeah, V is still a greedy criminal like the rest of them. Arguably, they have the biggest blind spot of them all because they THINK they're smart enough to have all the angles covered.
V can express quite a lot of doubt about the validity of the entire Heist and it's sub-components, right from the get-go. The one mistake V comitts and keeps comitting is, to go along with it regardless and finding Vself out of Vself's depth time and time again. This is something that keeps happening in the game and this never becomes clearer than during Judy's attempts to free the Clouds. You're a seasoned merc now, you again see all the flaws in the plan. You know it's going to go sideways and you can point out exactly what is going to go sideways to Judy, but just like V, Judy goes in regardless and steps right into it and even the argueably best outcomes leave Judy fucked in one way or another. The only thing that keeps V floating is Vself's incredible talent to fumble Vself through even the most sticky situations and come out alive and V is very aware of that, as it also gets pointed out through one of the fixers. Wakako, if memory serves right, at some point says, that it's Impossible to get V into a team of Runners, because V is regarded as someone who throws Vself into obviously impossible situations, where nobody who goes in, gets out alive, but V.
V is a CRPG player character in an established TTRPG setting. Being impossible by the setting's standards comes with the position. Just as VTM Bloodline's Fledgling or any of the D&D Infinity Engine PCs.
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hammerofglass
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Re: Cyberpunk 2077 - Phantom Liberty

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For #6: Jackie definitely isn't the brains of the operation but he also deliberately plays up the dumbass. Like how he plays up not being a deep enough thinker to get Dex and T-Bug's Aristotle quotes but he loves Hemingway.

He's also the only member of the gang with friends outside of work and people who care enough to mourn him. Even V doesn't get a social circle beyond people who like them because Jackie likes them until afterwards.
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Re: Cyberpunk 2077 - Phantom Liberty

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Incredibly petty gripe: nomad V's starter gear is still the only good vest in this game.
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CharlesPhipps
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Re: Cyberpunk 2077 - Phantom Liberty

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ProfessorDetective wrote: Sun Sep 24, 2023 4:39 am
V is a CRPG player character in an established TTRPG setting. Being impossible by the setting's standards comes with the position. Just as VTM Bloodline's Fledgling or any of the D&D Infinity Engine PCs.
To be fair, that's how home games tend to be played.

"You are the biggest badass who ever lived."

It's just the tabeletop game writers say that's wrong while making signature PCs like Morgan Blackhand and Johnny Silverhand invincible.

:)
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Re: Cyberpunk 2077 - Phantom Liberty

Post by hammerofglass »

CharlesPhipps wrote: Mon Sep 25, 2023 2:19 pm
ProfessorDetective wrote: Sun Sep 24, 2023 4:39 am
V is a CRPG player character in an established TTRPG setting. Being impossible by the setting's standards comes with the position. Just as VTM Bloodline's Fledgling or any of the D&D Infinity Engine PCs.
To be fair, that's how home games tend to be played.

"You are the biggest badass who ever lived."

It's just the tabeletop game writers say that's wrong while making signature PCs like Morgan Blackhand and Johnny Silverhand invincible.

:)
V and the fledgeling actually aren't all that unusually powerful except for two things:

1) the game is more generous with XP than tabletop

2) they can keep reloading saves every time they die.

Ok technically the fledgling is also 8th or 9th generation when most PCs are twelth, but still.
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