Once again, this contains spoilers for the Gig: Last Login. Please stop reading now if you've not done this gig and care about the story.
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Now with that out of the way, I must say that I'm really not a fan of how Charles Buck is handled in this game. He is, perhaps, most well-known for his potential 20% discount, which is covered in countless online guides. As it is revealed during the Last Login, Charles is getting his cyberware by harvesting it from people. If you confront him with this information, he will panic and offer you a discount, which you can accept or refuse. If you refuse, he will use a lame excuse to get up and leave the store, and then he will run for it. You can let him go or knock him out / kill him. Regardless of how you handle him, refusing his discount is the worst decision you can make gameplay-wise. His clinic will be forever closed and you will not only lose the potential discount, but also lose access to his exclusive Legendary Adrenaline Booster and Legendary Feedback Circuit. The game essentially forces you to side with a criminal and be rewarded, or be completely cut off from his exclusive legendary cyberware. The only way to acquire them afterwards is to use console commands.
Now I realise that some of you may wish to say something along the lines of "Tough luck, the game has consequences", so allow me to counter it straight away.
Every ripperdoc can install any cyberware that V owns, meaning that all these cybernetics are factory-manufactured products, that ripperdocs install, they are not some bespoke services that only a particular ripperdoc can perform. Therefore I do not think that ANY ripperdoc should have exclusive cyberware.
Some may say "Developers want you to explore the world and visit many stores. Think of these exclusive cybernetics as phones in an American network provider. Maybe each ripperdoc has a certain exclusivity contract with certain manufacturers."
Well okay, fair enough, however Charles harvests people, he does not acquire his supplies legitimately. That means that his victims acquired these cybernetics somewhere else legitimately. Let V visit those same ripperdocs that Charles' victims did. Out of all the ripperdocs, Charles is the one that really shouldn’t have any exclusive stock. His "thing" should be the potential discount. In addition he could rotate his stock every 24 hours, like regular vendors, it would even make sense story-wise, him being a harvester and all. He would still be appealing to players who wish to side with him and don’t mind his "supply method".
If the above still sounds unconvincing, or would be too much work to develop, then why can't we simply loot his supplies off his body or storage locker or something? He is storing those harvested supplies somewhere in his clinic.
In addition to that, nobody seems to care about Charles at all. It's as if V is his only customer. In my case, I knocked him out and he was laying on the floor of his shop, squirming for at least 6 in-game days. Nobody else visited his shop? Nobody found him, not Landlord, not other customers, not NCPD? He finally disappeared, but the store remains unlocked. No NPC takes over for him, NCPD does not close the shop as a crime scene, you can still enter his empty clinic. It just really feels like CDPR expected everyone to take him up on his offer and left the other option awkwardly unfinished.
Here are several suggestions on how Charles' clinic could be improved:
1) Give the Legendary Adrenaline Booster and Legendary Feedback Circuit to ANY other ripperdoc. Make Charles alternate his stock every 24 hours. This will make him even more unique, while still maintaining consequences for refusing to side with him, but without the severe penalty that "vigilante" V is currently being handed. It will also make his 20% discount more useful.
2) Charles sells generic cyberware only, no special legendaries. Upon discovering his dirty secret, he offers a random selection of legendary loot from all other vendors in the game, which changes every 24 hours due to the nature of his "trade". Eliminating him, would still close his shop and player would have to visit each shop individually for the exclusive stock. This would be a far more impactful choice, than the current one, which can be completely negated with the power of hindsight (Buy all his exclusive loot before starting the quest).
3) Keep everything as is, but move Legendary Adrenaline Booster and Legendary Feedback Circuit to any other ripperdoc upon Charles clinic's closure.
4) Let us loot Legendary Adrenaline Booster and Legendary Feedback Circuit from Charles or his store, similar to how Legendary Monowire and some other cyberware can be looted.
5) Create a new ripperdoc, perhaps as part of a DLC, that sells Legendary Adrenaline Booster and Legendary Feedback Circuit from "legitimate" sources.
6) Some combination of the above
I prefer options 1 and 2 personally. I realise that this is not a priority, compared to all the technical issues, but I still think this should be reworked at some point as part of a big update or a DLC.
Final thoughts: If I was a shady surgeon and my customer attempted to blackmail me, I'd "grant" them their discount, then the moment they went under for a surgery, I'd slit their throat. I'd save myself from being exposed, I would not have to offer any discounts and I'd harvest the blackmailer's cyberware too. I'd kill 3 birds with 1 stone, but alas, I'm not a writer of this quest. I'm not asking for the quest to be changed in this manner, it’s just that the idea of blackmailing my surgeon seemed a bit silly and dangerous.
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This has now been reworked in 2.0. Cyberware is no longer exclusive, like it never should have been. Thank you, CDPR.
_________________________________________________________________
Now with that out of the way, I must say that I'm really not a fan of how Charles Buck is handled in this game. He is, perhaps, most well-known for his potential 20% discount, which is covered in countless online guides. As it is revealed during the Last Login, Charles is getting his cyberware by harvesting it from people. If you confront him with this information, he will panic and offer you a discount, which you can accept or refuse. If you refuse, he will use a lame excuse to get up and leave the store, and then he will run for it. You can let him go or knock him out / kill him. Regardless of how you handle him, refusing his discount is the worst decision you can make gameplay-wise. His clinic will be forever closed and you will not only lose the potential discount, but also lose access to his exclusive Legendary Adrenaline Booster and Legendary Feedback Circuit. The game essentially forces you to side with a criminal and be rewarded, or be completely cut off from his exclusive legendary cyberware. The only way to acquire them afterwards is to use console commands.
Now I realise that some of you may wish to say something along the lines of "Tough luck, the game has consequences", so allow me to counter it straight away.
Every ripperdoc can install any cyberware that V owns, meaning that all these cybernetics are factory-manufactured products, that ripperdocs install, they are not some bespoke services that only a particular ripperdoc can perform. Therefore I do not think that ANY ripperdoc should have exclusive cyberware.
Some may say "Developers want you to explore the world and visit many stores. Think of these exclusive cybernetics as phones in an American network provider. Maybe each ripperdoc has a certain exclusivity contract with certain manufacturers."
Well okay, fair enough, however Charles harvests people, he does not acquire his supplies legitimately. That means that his victims acquired these cybernetics somewhere else legitimately. Let V visit those same ripperdocs that Charles' victims did. Out of all the ripperdocs, Charles is the one that really shouldn’t have any exclusive stock. His "thing" should be the potential discount. In addition he could rotate his stock every 24 hours, like regular vendors, it would even make sense story-wise, him being a harvester and all. He would still be appealing to players who wish to side with him and don’t mind his "supply method".
If the above still sounds unconvincing, or would be too much work to develop, then why can't we simply loot his supplies off his body or storage locker or something? He is storing those harvested supplies somewhere in his clinic.
In addition to that, nobody seems to care about Charles at all. It's as if V is his only customer. In my case, I knocked him out and he was laying on the floor of his shop, squirming for at least 6 in-game days. Nobody else visited his shop? Nobody found him, not Landlord, not other customers, not NCPD? He finally disappeared, but the store remains unlocked. No NPC takes over for him, NCPD does not close the shop as a crime scene, you can still enter his empty clinic. It just really feels like CDPR expected everyone to take him up on his offer and left the other option awkwardly unfinished.
Here are several suggestions on how Charles' clinic could be improved:
1) Give the Legendary Adrenaline Booster and Legendary Feedback Circuit to ANY other ripperdoc. Make Charles alternate his stock every 24 hours. This will make him even more unique, while still maintaining consequences for refusing to side with him, but without the severe penalty that "vigilante" V is currently being handed. It will also make his 20% discount more useful.
2) Charles sells generic cyberware only, no special legendaries. Upon discovering his dirty secret, he offers a random selection of legendary loot from all other vendors in the game, which changes every 24 hours due to the nature of his "trade". Eliminating him, would still close his shop and player would have to visit each shop individually for the exclusive stock. This would be a far more impactful choice, than the current one, which can be completely negated with the power of hindsight (Buy all his exclusive loot before starting the quest).
3) Keep everything as is, but move Legendary Adrenaline Booster and Legendary Feedback Circuit to any other ripperdoc upon Charles clinic's closure.
4) Let us loot Legendary Adrenaline Booster and Legendary Feedback Circuit from Charles or his store, similar to how Legendary Monowire and some other cyberware can be looted.
5) Create a new ripperdoc, perhaps as part of a DLC, that sells Legendary Adrenaline Booster and Legendary Feedback Circuit from "legitimate" sources.
6) Some combination of the above
I prefer options 1 and 2 personally. I realise that this is not a priority, compared to all the technical issues, but I still think this should be reworked at some point as part of a big update or a DLC.
Final thoughts: If I was a shady surgeon and my customer attempted to blackmail me, I'd "grant" them their discount, then the moment they went under for a surgery, I'd slit their throat. I'd save myself from being exposed, I would not have to offer any discounts and I'd harvest the blackmailer's cyberware too. I'd kill 3 birds with 1 stone, but alas, I'm not a writer of this quest. I'm not asking for the quest to be changed in this manner, it’s just that the idea of blackmailing my surgeon seemed a bit silly and dangerous.
_________________________________________________________________
This has now been reworked in 2.0. Cyberware is no longer exclusive, like it never should have been. Thank you, CDPR.
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