Cyberpunk 2078

[Kalbear]

So pretty sure this is close to the build. I don't think that should be surprising. Based on that, you'd get the following:

• +50% damage based on low health
• +60% damage with control hack
• +21% damage for 3 unique hacks
• +15% damage for a locked queue (so four hacks)

In addition to that, you probably have something like the following:

• Tetratronic Rippler (40% boost to damage when combat followed by noncombat in the queue)
• COX-2 Cybersomatic Optmizer (100% crit chance, 10% damage based on int)
• Regular monowire (+2.5% quickhack damage, possibly stealth damage?)
• Deep Field Visual Interface (increases crit damage by 20%)

But the most important thing is the iconic synapse burnout. +400% damage based on -40 RAM, +100% damage if overclock is active (so up to -50 RAM)

My bet is that some of those bonuses multiply and don't add. 

[akh]

7 hours ago, Kalnak the Magnificent said:

So pretty sure this is close to the build. I don't think that should be surprising. Based on that, you'd get the following:

I can't launch the game at the moment but I recreated the build off memory as best I could. There isn't anything important missing: I swap around some car perks a lot so those are probably wrong.

There's only a few very slight things differing from what you listed. I am not running monowire and no Deep Visual Interface (since I've got no Cool). I prefer gorilla arms because 15 body + gorilla arms ends me at 20 body for conversation and world interaction checks. And the damage is obviously already at an insane overkill anyways.

Other than that, Adrenaline adds another flat 10% and Edgerunner adds another 10% (and 50% increased crit damage). I don't recall Edgerunner proccing often, however, so not sure what those numbers might look like.

Also, "Race against the mind" increases damage up to 50% depending on missing HP. Yesterday I was wondering why the damage range is so wide and now I'm guessing that's where the difference comes from actually.

 

7 hours ago, Kalnak the Magnificent said:

My bet is that some of those bonuses multiply and don't add. 

Yeah. I was considering of doing the math but I don't think there's enough info on how damage gets calculated (additive/multiplicative and so on).

 

[Ran]

The  Edgerunner procs are unnerving. Got it several times as I waded in and mowed people down, and having the screen turn red and hearing David's maniacal cyberpsycho laughter ....chills the first time it happened.

I will say that the netrunner damage numbers being thrown around here are just absurd. An order of magnitude more than what I could do with my melee build. It reminds me of CP2077 1.0 and pistol damage with various perks and such attached -- I think people were pushing past 1 million damage from a single shot of a Burya tech pistol.

Edited October 4, 2023 by Ran

[karaddin]

Well I found the problem and it was a single thing - that 100% crit cyberware increased my damage from 3-7k on a crit to 20k-80k (that I saw in a couple of hours). Nothing in it's description would expect that large a boost from it so I wonder if there's a bug.

[karaddin]

19 hours ago, Kalnak the Magnificent said:

Otherwise it's been good, though I did run into a weird NCPD thing where I found, like, this christmas tree of rare and legendary knives just floating out of a chest. Nice for parts, but very weird. 

Missed this before, that ones an old bug that apparently isn't worth fixing - it just used to give white/green and a couple of blue. Now it scales off your level lol. That's also one scanner mission that if you go back the next day there's a corpo clean up crew trying to cover up the whole thing - the initial mission was union busting by killing a bunch of striking workers. I like to kill the clean up crew too.

I actually finished PL tonight, got the credits and all. Noticed a good auto save to get both outcomes so the PL ending is accessible from one of those although that route isn't my personal canon choice for this V. I embraced spoilers for the game ending though so know how it plays out. 

Spoiler

Not sure why I let myself decide at any point that there might be a happy ending to be found here lol. I suspect putting Song on the shuttle to the moon will probably be the 'best' PL ending for me. Alex presumably gets to live, Song at least got to fly free (no idea if she lives), I did have to kill Reed but he got to do it on his own terms and seeing someone try and save Song.

Watching the shuttle launch is also quite beautiful and the conversations with Johnny during that and the next morning are oddly optimistic. At least in my interpretation it matches the tone of the Star ending. Things didn't work out quite according to plan, but you're still alive, you didn't sell your soul and you can still keep searching for a cure.

On the whole this was really just a spectacular expansion. The game play the whole way through was fantastic, the surface level spy thriller was engaging, but I actually think it's strongest on the thematic level - Songbird's fight for her own survival is such a perfect accompaniment to V's story of the same. This was already one of the things that I thought stood out about the base story - one of the smallest scopes of any game in a long time. Not trying to save the galaxy, humanity, Earth or anything else. Just V is dying and fighting like hell to survive. 

Spoiler

So enter Songbird - with a similar prognosis although a different cause and a different path to death. She's also doing everything in her power to survive. Her plan isn't perfect, she makes mistakes, improvises, lies, and betrays. And sitting there on the train to the near the shuttle with Songbird unconscious...V can't judge that. She's fighting the same fate with the same ferocity and probably would have made the same choices. 

To judge Songbird for the betrayal would be to damn herself. Maybe V will never manage to save herself, but if Songbird survives then that's something at least. Someone in a similar position actually managing to win.

If only I didn't want V to live so badly, I just have to settle for the hope in the Aldecaldo's contacts in Tucson.

Finally on the fight front

Spoiler

Glad I figured out the cyberware before trying the fight at the space port - that was a ridiculous number of NUSA elites swarming at the same time and if I wasn't dropping them in a single hack I don't think I could have actually done it with my build. Took a few tries even with that.

 

[Ran]

On Songbird:

Spoiler

The difference between her and V in most endings... is that V never does sell out any of his actual friends, and in most of them he doesn't even sell out Johnny.  The Arasaka ending (and now this one) is the exception -- Johnny gets wiped from your engram or whatever, and you don't ever actually strike a blow against Arasaka (on the contrary, in the Devil ending they come out stronger as Saburo takes over Yorinuba), so you break your promise there. In the other endings, you may choose to keep your body, but Johnny at least helped you strike that blow against Arasaka, and becomes subsumed into AI Alt's being.

But in all the other endings, you may push friends to help you by pushing at how they owe you ... but that's because you did a bunch of shit for them. Otherwise, fine, if you saved Takemura but go on to destroy Mikoshi, Hanako dies and he hates you, but is he really a friend? You're two ships on the same course for awhile, but with very different goals, and though you may warm to one another it's always clear that Arasaka will always be his priority and I'm not sure he would ever risk his life for yours just for your own sake. 

Song has suffered betrayals and lies, but ultimately she made her choices herself -- she could have opted for jail rather than recruitment to the FIA, and everything after that has been the long, slippery slope of compromising herself (quite literally!) to take the easier path. And now she's prepared to destroy everyone, including you, to get her way. It's understandable, her desperation, but when I compare her to Reed... Solomon Reed may be a fool with blind, misplaced loyalty to the FIA and NUSA, but he always treats you honorably and fairly -- he never lies, he never breaks a promise he gives you. At its worst, he's optimistic about what can be done for your or Songbird, but he genuinely believes what he says, it's not an act, it's not a put on.

Songbird is tremendously sympathetic, but she runs roughshod all over you because you're only a stepping stone to what she wants. I'm not even sure I'd call her a friend, not like Panam or Rogue in those endings where they risk themselves on your behalf. I don't get the sense that Songbird would risk her life for yours. Yeah, in the end she doesn't want to actualyl unleash AI hell and she fights to keep you alive... because you may at least help her end her life, before Reed or the FIA gets ahold of her, not for any really altruistic reason.

It's amazing they could make her and Reed both sympathetic, given how different they are, and that's a testament to the writing, as well as to the performances of Minji Chan and Idris Elba.

 

[karaddin]

I think a better way to say what I was trying to get at is

Spoiler

The V that initially sides with Songbird (remembering that this is a betrayal of Reed and Alex) and then betrays Songbird once she tells you the truth is no different to Songbird. By forgiving her and putting her on the shuttle you choose to be better than that.

And sure Song's situation is ultimately the consequences of her own actions, that's true of V as well - V chose to go to Konpeki and try and klep experimental tech from Arasaki despite it being tantamount to suicide (as you can say to Dex).

This isn't a judgement of V, just that I think Song's fight to survive is a superb foil for V's fight for the same.

 

[Ran]

4 hours ago, karaddin said:

I think a better way to say what I was trying to get at is

 

I admit, I've yet to do that variation of the endings for Phantom Liberty, so what I have is mostly hearsay. I'll have to play it through to see how it feels, but from hearsay..

 

Spoiler

I think it's just the way she goes about it that rubs me the wrong way. Yes, you have the option to accept  her having used you (and everyone else) to her own ends, and apparently her seemingly not caring that a lot of innocent people die because of her plans, and I definitely understand that that V is a very forgiving person. But I find it hard to swallow. I suppose there's not a huge difference between making the choice of helping her die and sending her away -- both of them likely preclude your ever getting the neural matrix cure -- but at least in my playthrough of the King of Cups, seeing her own memories and interacting with her makes it easier to grapple with making that decision. 

To me, she reminds me of Evelyn in that run of things -- she threw everything into this big play to try and save herself, and it all turned to shit, and the only dignified way out on her own terms is... well, death.

Still, I need to play that ending to really get a feel for it.

 

Edited October 4, 2023 by Ran

[karaddin]

I think part of it

Spoiler

Is that she's basically dead on her feet during that sequence. You see the toll that reaching through the black wall is taking on her, you know that it's Myers forcing her to do it all and that Myers will keep pushing her even past the point of her being basically a zombie without letting her die. Knowing that they still want to capture her alive and force her back into her role even after everything that's happened in the game.

The only real choice she made was the one to join the FIA at 19 and that's just too young and stupid to really keep that against her.

I guess I'm viewing her as a slave and there's not much I can't see as acceptable when slaves fight to break free. The moral culpability for that falls on their "master" and that's definitely where I'm placing this one - Myers is to blame.

Funny how the expansion made me willing to give her a chance only to loop right back around to viewing her exactly the same way as I did just from the base game alone. In case you hadn't seen this detail we get to hear Reed and Myers talking and it makes it very clear just how much she doesn't give a fuck about what she's done or the danger she puts everyone in.

 

[Ran]

Opinion does seem to  be that the Cybersomatic Optimizer is bugged out and as Kal says, it's probably acting as a multiplier to all the other crit, rather than just additive to it.

2.01 drops sometime today, I think. That falling through the elevator thing @Relic had appears to be one the things they're fixing. Also performance improvements in Dogtown, which is indeed heavier than the rest of Night City -- my FPS tends to hover around 50 out in the open there, as opposed to 58-60 elsewhere. 

 

[Ran]

And a story question:

Spoiler

For those who cut a deal with Jacob and Tyler to help Myers, what happened to them in your run, do you think?

Spoiler

There appear to be two options: if you got caught on cameras in the tunnels and didn't wipe the footage, Barghest will burst in on you and you'll find that Jacob and Tyler were killed trying to defend the place. 

But if you did not get caught on camera, they just disappear, and when you ask Reed, he says they've been taken care of and not to think about it. This is what I got. Now, Myers had a note on her desk about points to remember that included an anonymous payment to them, and she swears she has no problem paying themn out... but Reed hates loose ends. Did he make the decision to take them out? Or did he simply have them exfiltrated to someplace secure until the operation was done? 

The fact that their weapons are in the safehouse seems possibly suggestive, but I don't know. So too is the fact that we just never hear about them again, as far as I know. 

The way Reed and Alex deal with the twins ... Again, I don't know, man. Reed's a hard man and would have no problem getting rid of two hoodlums who were temporarily mercs for Myers.

 

 

Edited October 5, 2023 by Ran

[karaddin]

Yeah I'm thinking there's not a happy end for them lol. 

[karaddin]

3 hours ago, Ran said:

Opinion does seem to  be that the Cybersomatic Optimizer is bugged out and as Kal says, it's probably acting as a multiplier to all the other crit, rather than just additive to it.

2.01 drops sometime today, I think. That falling through the elevator thing @Relic had appears to be one the things they're fixing. Also performance improvements in Dogtown, which is indeed heavier than the rest of Night City -- my FPS tends to hover around 50 out in the open there, as opposed to 58-60 elsewhere. 

Hadn't actually thought to check for people talking about it, but did just now and this comment seems a likely explanation

Quote

COX-2 grants +50% quickhack damage per Attribute Point, 100x the intended damage bonus.

If it's just messed up with the decimal point in the wrong spot it's an easy bug to understand and hopefully to fix.

[IlyaP]

GoG's front page advertises PL with patch 2.1 as of this evening, but it's also the only place suggesting that. What do they know that everyone else doesn't? 

[Werthead]

Cyberpunk 2077's sales have surged past 25 million, whilst Phantom Liberty has sold 3 million copies since launch. None too shabby.

[Kalbear]

Per variety a live-action CP2077 movie or series is being talked about and workshopped. Early stages, etc. 

Not sure how I feel about it; I wasn't super thrilled with Last of Us given how closely it went with the storyline in the game. But TLOU has many fewer choices in the story, so adapting V's story may work. I think I'd prefer something akin to Edgerunners though - another story set in the city, possibly adjacent to V's story. 

[Ran]

Give me a great script from CDPR and a talented writer, have Mike Pondsmith consulting and have Gareth Edwards direct it. What he did, visually, with The Creator is exactly the approach that should be used for a Cyberpunk film.

ETA: The head of television at Anonymous Content is specifically involved, so I think their first instinct, at least, is a TV series rather than a movie. No doubt targeting streaming. 

Edited October 5, 2023 by Ran

[Kalbear]

Here's the full article from Variety. Anonymous Content is the production group - they did things like Mr. Robot and True Detective, but I don't know that they're specifically known for any direct style. It does mean that it's likely to be fairly dramatic and serious in tone and direction. They also appear to do pretty well with famous stars and directors so it's likely going to be pretty well-cast overall. 

[Ran]

The first thought for a potential story that hit me? Idris Elba as Solomon Reed, operating in Night City in the last year or two before his "retirement". You've got a young Songbird, you've got Alex, Myers, Saburo Arasaka is around, the Unification War is about to happen/is happening/has just happened (and in that case the establishment of Dogtown by Hansen can be a thing), and you can basically tell original stories that intersects with the corporations, crime syndicates, gangs, fixers and edgerunners, the NUSA, etc.

OTOH, if they want synergy with the CP2077 sequel, I guess they'd set it post-game. I guess they'll be deciding on what is in fact a canon ending as far as the larger world, e.g. what happened to Mikoshi and Arasaka.

Edited October 5, 2023 by Ran

[Werthead]

I wonder if Keanu would appear, or if they'd recast.