Cyberpunk 2 (Orion) idea - additional opportunities

[RAdventurer077]

Another thoughts for CDPR and Cyberpunk 2 (Orion).
Cyberpunk 2077 provides extraordinary immersion through emotionally rich characters, dense environmental storytelling, cinematic presentation, and music woven directly into the world’s identity. At the same time, many of its most compelling concepts remained largely narrative rather than systemic, revealing an opportunity to deepen immersion in the sequel.
List below can be natural areas for expansion for player-facing mechanics that increase immersion, emotional resonance, and long-term engagement:

1. True multi-layered vertical city design
   While visually dense, Night City rarely functioned as a fully explorable vertical ecosystem. Expanding rooftops, skybridges, elevated gardens, wind exposure, aircraft parking, and real fall consequences would transform height into meaningful physical space rather than background scenery.
   
2. Regulated aerial mobility and flying vehicles
   Flying vehicles existed narratively but were not deeply integrated into player systems. Introducing controlled aerial traversal—with air-traffic lanes, altitude restrictions, limited hover duration, recharge requirements that enforce periodic landing and ground interaction, and physical fall risk—would expand vertical gameplay without breaking believability. The ability to land on rooftops, climb onto vehicles mid-air, or use them strategically (within realistic constraints) would enhance immersion while preserving systemic balance. Some air vehicles can hold still in the air while other need to move.
   
3. Persistent modular robotic companion
   The MT0D12 "Flathead" concept demonstrated strong emotional and tactical potential but was not developed as a lasting system. A permanent modular robotic companion — capable of navigating tight spaces, supporting investigations, assisting in combat, and evolving through upgrades—would deepen both gameplay variety and emotional continuity, strengthening the sense of partnership in a hostile world
   
4. Direct cyberware-to-cyberware interaction (advanced Netrunning)
   Hacking primarily targeted devices rather than embodied augmentation. Expanding netrunning into direct cyberware interference similar to Braindance — plug into someone's optics, temporarily overriding augmented enemies to control their body (even fight on their behalf) — would make cyberwarfare intensely personal. At high mastery levels, limited temporary control over augmented opponents could introduce morally complex and strategically rich encounters.
   
5. Cyberpsychosis and consequences of chrome over time
   In Cyberpunk 2077 augmentation largely functioned as empowerment rather than long-term burden (cyberpsychosis lore). A more systemic approach (e.g. increase cyberpsychosis level with augmented chrome) and influence on protagonist could integrate neural fatigue, physical strain, social reaction, and instability accumulation, visual and neurological glitches effects reinforcing the psychological cost of power (e.g. no way you alone can kill an army, you will die out of cyberpsychosis earlier). I have some wider thoughts here, will probably follow up with a separate thread.
   
6. Meaningful recognition of restraint and non-lethal playstyles
   In general non-lethal options are possible in Cyberpunk 2077 but not acknowledged by the world. But a system that meaningfully tracks restraint, control, and psychological discipline could strengthen identity-driven play, game reputation and diversify moral alignment beyond domination. I believe it worth develop more complex value behind non-lethal playthrough
   
7. Deeper civilian and faction reactivity
   The world felt alive visually but less responsive to player identity over time. The protagonist could not meaningfully integrate into faction structures or develop long-term affiliation beyond transactional relationships based on decisions (сommon sense or flashing brutality). Expanding rumor and reputation systems, fear responses based on chrome levels, recognition of past actions, and evolving faction perception would increase emotional investment and world stickiness. Temporary or long-term alignment with specific factions — participating in their activities, social spaces, and internal conflicts — could deepen the immersion.
   
8. Dynamic weather with systemic impact
   Weather was atmospheric but rarely mechanical. Introducing heavy wind, rain, and snow that affect traversal, reduced visibility, surface hazards, drone and vehicles instability, and temperature effects would transform climate from aesthetic backdrop into gameplay modifier — especially meaningful in a city like Chicago.
   
9. Living City: Independent Civic & Cultural Events
   World (Night City and Chicago) should feel alive beyond the protagonist’s presence. Major civic, political, cultural, and social events unfold independently of the player’s current questline — strikes by workers or students (a-la Akira's anime Neo-Tokyo), government motorcades blocking districts, live television broadcasts in public squares, corporate technology presentations, religious processions, national festivals, concert hall premieres, gang-organized riots, or luxury store looting during unrest. These events are not always tied to missions; sometimes they simply occur, tv-broadcasts, peak-hours altering traffic flow, access routes, crowd behavior, security presence, and public mood. The world should not pause or wait for the protagonist to trigger it — it evolves, reacts, and occasionally erupts on its own timeline. Gigs appears and disappears (someone else picked them), world never stops and you are not the only person in it. Such systemic civic life increases immersion, unpredictability, and emotional authenticity, reinforcing the idea that the player exists within the world rather than at its center.

 

[Tarille]

True multi-layered vertical city design

It would be nice to have more improvement over verticality.

Though it would need an overhaul in ways to actually engage with it besides the 2 jump related leg cyberware options.

Stuff like parkour mechanics, grappling hooks, additional cyberware options (Arm cyberware that let you grab onto flat surfaces, rocket propulsion cyberware etc)

In addition, simply having more design that rewards exploration on multiple levels and means to access these levels. More side entrances, openable windows on rooves, ventilation systems access etc. Ideally without being tied to an obnoxious skill check system...

Regulated aerial mobility and flying vehicles

I dunno about that. As it is in the setting, aerial vehicles are still somewhat uncommon. Mostly being found in the hands of the government or corpos, even then it's not particularly common there either. It doesn't seem like the sort of thing the average Joe has access to.

I suppose it'd depend on how technology exists at the time and location of the next game.

Persistent modular robotic companion

I suppose...

It was never really a thing I thought about during my playtime. It was also iterated that the Flathead was a "One time use" machine.

I'd rather get vehicle customization with mods, upgrades, cyberware abilities and aesthetics than a robit companion that I probably would get annoyed by more than actually like.

Direct cyberware-to-cyberware interaction (advanced Netrunning)

I'm all for more advanced Netrunning. Both in terms of quickhacking as well as the actual depicted "Jack into a chair to enter cyberspace"

Though I'm not sold on the whole concept of controlling others. Doesn't make a whole lot of sense, especially given that cyberware is connected directly to a person's brain and there's plenty of ICE around to protect from malicious attacks...

Cyberpsychosis and consequences of chrome over time

The issue with this is trying to balance things. Especially when people want to get cyberware to make themselves better.

Like, there's a reason why you can use Sandy constantly when canonically (According to Edgerunners) using more than 2-3 times per DAY will fry your brain.

Cyberware is a major point of appeal for the IP. It's the source of its very iconic character designs and it's simply a fun thing to engage with, much like how the implants of Deus Ex are what make that IP stand out (And what makes the original title such fun to play, the abilities you could get and the ways you could interact with the world thanks to those abilities set it apart from other sci-fi titles)

Of course, there's also the point in regards to Regina's work regarding cyberpsychosis which could push technological advancements to a point where cyberpsychosis is less of an issue.

Really, I think one of the major steps they need to take first, is equalizing Cyberware vs Non-Cyberware playstyles. Which is part of the problem with CP2077, that basically no matter what you're doing you are probably going 20 points into Tech to get all the extra Cyberware slots and capacity and chroming out more than Adam Smasher because it's one of the only ways to increase your overall power in a meaningful way.

Meaningful recognition of restraint and non-lethal playstyles

It would be nice to have things more fleshed out. Not just for non-lethal, but also general playstyles being recognized as a whole. Including stealth vs full open and even preferred weapon types/cyberware usage. For example, comments about you teleporting around when using Sandy, or being an unkillable juggernaut using Berserk, being a Netrunning god wiping people out without drawing a weapon etc.

At the very least... Being able to find out what happens to the gonks you stuff into the boot of a car during a gig would be cool. Especially if they can lead to new gigs if the gonk somehow escaped and you have to recapture (Or just kill) them.

Deeper civilian and faction reactivity

Faction interactivity will depend a lot on who the player character is.

In CP2077, the lack of interactivity makes sense. Since V is just a merc, who's on a short timer to deal with the proverbial bomb in their head. They don't really have time to intergrate into any particular faction, nor any reason to care to.

Orion's player character will determine how plausible having any ability to affiliate with a faction would be.

However, besides that... One thing that would be great is the existence of interfaction conflicts and events. I.e. If you do a bunch of gigs hitting a particular faction, then rival factions will move in to their territory and/or start conflicts while they're weakened.

It would also be nice if gameplay reflected the lore the game provides... Like how the datashard that Dex gives you says the Maelstrom only has a couple of dozen members... Then you go kill 3 dozen Maelstrom members in The Pickup mission and then there's still a bunch of Maelstrom all over Watson and they even have enough members to send a bunch of cars full of gonks to try and take you out...

Dynamic weather with systemic impact

A big issue with this is how it can provide annoyance to players. Having weather shift to something that is negatively impactful to gameplay will be annoying. Especially if it happens at an inopportune time (Such as a major story mission). Where if you try to mitigate this by forcing weather states upon mission start you get the wierd dissonance from the sudden shift.

Living City: Independent Civic & Cultural Events

There's 2 major issues with this.

1) For how long do you write and program in progression? 10 hours? 100 hours? 1000 hours?

All this stuff needs to be written and implemented. At a certain point things will just stop, since you cannot make infinite progression. This is why games always have game worlds progress with player interaction. Since then there's a set scale of time to work with, from when the player starts the game, to when they finish the main story.

At best you can have things occur in the background as the player progresses the story. But you cannot have a fully living world just working in the background as the player exists.

2) Time-gated things suck. Especially in a game that's very much about the idea of player freedom and choice. Like, it was an intentional choice to not actually give V a timer to play through the game before they died. Allowing people the ability to play through at their own pace.

At best I could see certain, minor, things being time sensitive. Similar to El Capitan's vehicle acquisitions or Dog Town's airdrops. This could be extended to things like NCPD Hustles that would randomly pop up for a short period of time when you were in the area (Rather than people being held at gunpoint for literally ever until you decide to mosey on down to deal with it)

 

[RAdventurer077]

I dunno about that. As it is in the setting, aerial vehicles are still somewhat uncommon. Mostly being found in the hands of the government or corpos, even then it's not particularly common there either. It doesn't seem like the sort of thing the average Joe has access to.
I suppose it'd depend on how technology exists at the time and location of the next game.
I suppose...

You know, as city legend you can have 25+ luxurious cars and 10+ apartments across all Night City and cannot even order aerial taxi?
I believe that is something definitely sacrificed at the later production stage.
However with all potential values it should be designed quite cautiously. It cannot be flying vehicle chaos a-la "5th element" aerial city streets.
I believe if there are strict rules (regulating altitude, no-flight zones, limiting time you can spend in the air, some impact on hovering because of wind, rapid lethal aerial corpo/government force response in case of crime behavior) it can add great fun and player experience. At the same time I understand that it adds such a huge slice to the gameplay design and production, that would probably require re-review a lots paths, locations and quests.

I suppose...
It was never really a thing I thought about during my playtime. It was also iterated that the Flathead was a "One time use" machine.
I'd rather get vehicle customization with mods, upgrades, cyberware abilities and aesthetics than a robit companion that I probably would get annoyed by more than actually like.

After a first 48 min demo from 2018/19, I somehow assumed that Flathead can be your companion. And it can be great addition for Stealth and Netrunning playthrough. Due to I myself prefer to play that way, not unbeatable Rambo, I would definitely like to have such an option. You can use it, can leave it "home" for certain missions. CP2077 have tons of quest here you need to stay quiet. But the fact that such a great technology just totally disappeared after mission with Maelstrom is a bit сut storyline for me.

I'm all for more advanced Netrunning. Both in terms of quickhacking as well as the actual depicted "Jack into a chair to enter cyberspace"
Though I'm not sold on the whole concept of controlling others. Doesn't make a whole lot of sense, especially given that cyberware is connected directly to a person's brain and there's plenty of ICE around to protect from malicious attacks...
The issue with this is trying to balance things. Especially when people want to get cyberware to make themselves better.

I agree here. It should be used very carefully. Take full control probably is probably an ultimate state applicable only on later stage of the game and for heavy augmented NPCs/enemies. But at least to see through someone's eyes, listen to their communication is a cool immersion experience and gives a nice advantage for Netrunner's path which is naturally a bit more challenging than shooter.

Like, there's a reason why you can use Sandy constantly when canonically (According to Edgerunners) using more than 2-3 times per DAY will fry your brain.
Cyberware is a major point of appeal for the IP. It's the source of its very iconic character designs and it's simply a fun thing to engage with, much like how the implants of Deus Ex are what make that IP stand out (And what makes the original title such fun to play, the abilities you could get and the ways you could interact with the world thanks to those abilities set it apart from other sci-fi titles)
Of course, there's also the point in regards to Regina's work regarding cyberpsychosis which could push technological advancements to a point where cyberpsychosis is less of an issue.

Agree. I requires some thoughts through to encourage protagonist to have chrome and also feel cyberpsychosis impacts without breaking player's experience. I have some ideas here. I shall probably organize separate thread about cyberpsychosis.

A big issue with this is how it can provide annoyance to players. Having weather shift to something that is negatively impactful to gameplay will be annoying. Especially if it happens at an inopportune time (Such as a major story mission). Where if you try to mitigate this by forcing weather states upon mission start you get the wierd dissonance from the sudden shift.

I was thinking more about Chicago which can be quite unpleasant during cold seasons. And also if we add real vertical city and flying vehicle - weather (wind, heavy rain and snow) should play significant role in sake for realism and immersion.

There's 2 major issues with this.
1) For how long do you write and program in progression? 10 hours? 100 hours? 1000 hours?
All this stuff needs to be written and implemented. At a certain point things will just stop, since you cannot make infinite progression. This is why games always have game worlds progress with player interaction. Since then there's a set scale of time to work with, from when the player starts the game, to when they finish the main story.

Yes, that is exactly what I mean. Main plot events cannot just sporadically reappeared - they are heavily dependent on player. But students strikes, peak hours, concert announces, tv police raids, gangs rob banks and stores, tv broacasts, etc - for sure they should. Also nice to have gigs lifecycle a little bit more real - appear/disappear. I believe some randomness can be add here.
It would be just great that game avoids "scorched earth" effect, when you done everything and nothing happens, Night City is calm for days and weeks, nothing else to do. Ideally in open-world game it should be more player's choice to move on to "story quest" rather than world choice.

And very thankful for you your thoughts and responses, choom!
Finally I understood how to use quotes ))

 

[Tarille]

You know, as city legend you can have 25+ luxurious cars and 10+ apartments across all Night City and cannot even order aerial taxi?

To be fair, some of the stuff like that doesn't make any sense in the story.

Literally, in the Street Kid start it was mentioned that only 4 Rayfields exist in the city entirely and they are owned by the wealthiest.

Then cue 6 months later and no-name V themselves owns 3 Rayfields...

As far as aerial taxis go... I don't think any exist. The only aerial transport we see are the hover craft transports used by Maxtac, Trauma Team and Corpo AV's. A helicopter used by Johnny and co in the year 2020. The jet plane used by Myers (And presumably whomever is doing the airdrops in Dogtown). Also the news report of that Arasaka blimp thing.

Aerial vehicles simply seem to be very uncommon and exclusive to people with a large amount of power. We'd have to see if such technology becomes more available by the time the next game occurs.

And it can be great addition for Stealth and Netrunning playthrough. Due to I myself prefer to play that way, not unbeatable Rambo, I would definitely like to have such an option. You can use it, can leave it "home" for certain missions. CP2077 have tons of quest here you need to stay quiet.

As someone who mostly played stealth... I'm still not sure exactly what a bot would provide that simply having more quickhacks wouldn't do.

Like, at best, you can argue being able to have a bot do hacks while you use Sandy/Berserk... But the entire point of opting to use those OS instead of a Cyberdeck is you give up hacking for their powers.

Honestly I barely even saw the point of the Flathead in the actual mission it was used. Given every other mission in the game let you hack your way to any netrunner without one...

But the fact that such a great technology just totally disappeared after mission with Maelstrom is a bit сut storyline for me.

I mean... It was a stolen piece of experimental Millitech weaponry. Also, it was latched onto the netrunner of Konpeki Plaza's face when you had to get the heck out of there (Then subsequently die and spend some time recovering)

The fact it doesn't show up again makes perfect sense in the story.

But students strikes, peak hours, concert announces, tv police raids, gangs rob banks and stores, tv broacasts, etc - for sure they should. Also nice to have gigs lifecycle a little bit more real - appear/disappear. I believe some randomness can be add here.

The issue is that gigs are stories. Being able to miss them would suck for a lot of people.

Not to mention, how much you can repeat stuff before it gets old and repetitive. The longer you try and pad out stuff with extra variations to randomly occur, the more work that needs to be put into actually implementing it.

Unless you do extremely generic things like El Capitan's car missions where it's "Take [car] to [place] with [secondary objective]"

Like, how many times can you see the same gang rob the same bank before it stops feeling like an immersive event and more of just video game filler junk? Personally, 2 times is too much for me.

It would be just great that game avoids "scorched earth" effect, when you done everything and nothing happens, Night City is calm for days and weeks, nothing else to do. Ideally in open-world game it should be more player's choice to move on to "story quest" rather than world choice.

The thing to remember is that while the genre of CDPR games are "Open World" they are still more "Story Driven" than "Sandbox" experiences.

The design is about you going through a story that has an end. Rather than being a playground you spend forever interacting with.

This is what CDPR focus on with their games. They are stories to experience. As opposed to something like Minecraft where it's all about creating your own experiences within a sandbox environment.

 

[RAdventurer077]

To be fair, some of the stuff like that doesn't make any sense in the story.
Literally, in the Street Kid start it was mentioned that only 4 Rayfields exist in the city entirely and they are owned by the wealthiest.
Then cue 6 months later and no-name V themselves owns 3 Rayfields...

I look at this a bit differently. V and Jacky dream was always to became a merc legend, get into the highest league of gigs an fixers and income. Therefore there is nothing bad to had some luxury stuff. A certain tribute to the chosen path of the super-merc.
You earn eddies, you can spend them as you wish and it does not matter if you are dying or not.

As far as aerial taxis go... I don't think any exist. The only aerial transport we see are the hover craft transports used by Maxtac, Trauma Team and Corpo AV's. A helicopter used by Johnny and co in the year 2020. The jet plane used by Myers (And presumably whomever is doing the airdrops in Dogtown). Also the news report of that Arasaka blimp thing.

Come on! Arnold Schwarzenegger in the real world bought himself a tank, John Travolta and Tom Cruise - flying jets. And a super rich merc in a world with flying vehicles cannot have a flying vehicle? Can you imagine how many tactical opportunities will it bring. I am all for it. Even foresee potential nice quests.

Aerial vehicles simply seem to be very uncommon and exclusive to people with a large amount of power. We'd have to see if such technology becomes more available by the time the next game occurs.
As someone who mostly played stealth... I'm still not sure exactly what a bot would provide that simply having more quickhacks wouldn't do.
Like, at best, you can argue being able to have a bot do hacks while you use Sandy/Berserk... But the entire point of opting to use those OS instead of a Cyberdeck is you give up hacking for their powers.

I can invent plenty of stories here. Imagine - you need to infiltrate into heavily guarded facility. Instead of going yourself, you, as a skilled tech operator, send "Flathead". It goes through ventilation system, ceilings, in stealth-cloak, etc. Player looks through its cameras, sitting in a car near by. Flathead can shot with sleeping darts/gas barrels or electroshok (I am all for non-lethal). It gets deeply into the facility, server rooms. I imagine it can even execute tasks with no attention from player, just specify building plan and target. Potentially Flathead can cover you in a fight with some disruption, or knocking off easy opponents from some cover. I do not assume it "killing machine", it should be pretty easily shot and broken and then you can bring it to some skilled Ripperdoc to restore it. I believe can be nice stealth experience, nice "pet" experience. Remember "Skippy" gun. Can have voice, mischievous AI personality - tons of immersion and fun opportunities

The issue is that gigs are stories. Being able to miss them would suck for a lot of people.
Not to mention, how much you can repeat stuff before it gets old and repetitive. The longer you try and pad out stuff with extra variations to randomly occur, the more work that needs to be put into actually implementing it.
Unless you do extremely generic things like El Capitan's car missions where it's "Take [car] to [place] with [secondary objective]"
Like, how many times can you see the same gang rob the same bank before it stops feeling like an immersive event and more of just video game filler junk? Personally, 2 times is too much for me.

Yes, it should be carefully thought through. Courier tasks probably should always be there to get some extra eddies. Police radio to hear about some raids. Gang robs - probably rare things. Bodyguarding somebody.
But you know that people playing CP2077 not just to run though the story. It is known statistic that AAA game have only 40% of players finishing game to the very end. And still people playing 400, 500, 1000 hours wandering around getting eddies and looking for some action (avoiding Hanako in Ambers). As for quests-stories - they can appear, disappear but in the end they should wait for player to take them. However some reappearing repeateble/randomly adjusted quest - IMHO fine to have as well. My intention - avoid an emptiness of landscape and the perception - nothing happens in huge live city.

Interesting fact. Cyberpunk world as we know it in the game is pretty much invented by William Gibson author in his book "Neuromancer", 1984. Mike Pondsmith created "Cyberpunk 2020", "Cyberpunk RED" board game using strong basis and terminology of the Gibson's universe (BTW even Wachowski Brothers created "Matrix" movie taking many ideas and name "Matrix" from "Neuromancer"). Ideas of "looking from someone else eyes", capture someone's Cyberware control, cyberspace as Matrix and recognizable landscape, manipulative AI - all exist in the book. Highly recommend to read if you did not yet. Fascinating story.

 

[Tarille]

I look at this a bit differently. V and Jacky dream was always to became a merc legend, get into the highest league of gigs an fixers and income. Therefore there is nothing bad to had some luxury stuff. A certain tribute to the chosen path of the super-merc.
You earn eddies, you can spend them as you wish and it does not matter if you are dying or not.

The issue isn't in that V spends their money.

The issue is the amount of money/cost of things relative to their station.

Literally, V doesn't actually make it to the big leagues. Their first actual "Big League" mission ends with a bullet to the brain, not a fat check. But then they suddenly buy 2 Rayfields and 5 luxury apartments despite that?

Outside of the singular mission from Dex... They just do random low tier merc stuff with other Fixers and then jobs for themselves to get answers not money (Yes, even helping Rogue with Panam is Rogue doing V a favour and not paying her primo-fixer rates)

V becomes a Legend, but they don't actually get any wealthy fixers to support them.

And a super rich merc in a world with flying vehicles cannot have a flying vehicle?

Again, in the case of V, it's not like they should actually be rich.

Then of course, who knows what the Orion protagonist will be. They might not necessarily even be a Merc.

I can invent plenty of stories here. Imagine - you need to infiltrate into heavily guarded facility. Instead of going yourself, you, as a skilled tech operator, send "Flathead". It goes through ventilation system, ceilings, in stealth-cloak, etc. Player looks through its cameras, sitting in a car near by. Flathead can shot with sleeping darts/gas barrels or electroshok (I am all for non-lethal). It gets deeply into the facility, server rooms. I imagine it can even execute tasks with no attention from player, just specify building plan and target. Potentially Flathead can cover you in a fight with some disruption, or knocking off easy opponents from some cover. I do not assume it "killing machine", it should be pretty easily shot and broken and then you can bring it to some skilled Ripperdoc to restore it.

I mean, sure it's possible to come up with how a Flathead might be used...

But even in this scenario... Why can't I, the supposed skilled tech operator, just hack people through the cameras I'm having to look through to use the Flathead in the first place?

Which is quite literally a mechanic that already exists in CP2077 (There are even perks and an entire cyberdeck based around doing exactly this)

Again, what is this bot providing that simply having an improved suite of hacks doesn't? More hacks to control and disable enemies, hacks to create traps to manipulate and effect enemies (Both lethally and non-lethally), better quickhack economy in combat (So that the best solution isn't 99% of the time to just set everyone on fire).

Like, the only possible reason a Flathead might be relevant... Is if there's arbitrary writing that says a hack needs a direct interface. Which already has to ignore the massive amounts of stuff that can be done without such a thing with Quickhacks already. Something that also got FAR worse in Phantom Liberty given all the stuff that So-Mi does entirely remotely throughout the DLC (Including hijacking the Relic, disabling the Johnny engram on it and then also creating a visual image of herself on it)

But you know that people playing CP2077 not just to run though the story. It is known statistic that AAA game have only 40% of players finishing game to the very end. And still people playing 400, 500, 1000 hours wandering around getting eddies and looking for some action (avoiding Hanako in Ambers).

I am aware. But this fact doesn't change how CDPR designs their games.

They are very much all about the story driven narratives. It is the premier focus of their design. It is also something that has gained them their fanbase.

The sandbox world takes a backseat to their story. Which will likely hold true for their future titles too.

It's not that they can't have some more stuff happening in the world, it's just you'll have to keep in mind that their priority will always be their stories.

 

[RAdventurer077]

I am aware. But this fact doesn't change how CDPR designs their games.
They are very much all about the story driven narratives. It is the premier focus of their design. It is also something that has gained them their fanbase.
The sandbox world takes a backseat to their story. Which will likely hold true for their future titles too.
It's not that they can't have some more stuff happening in the world, it's just you'll have to keep in mind that their priority will always be their stories.

Thanks for your thoughts.
I believe we are arguing about something we are not actually disagree.
I am not questioning: "can the game exist without all those enhancements?" Answer is absolutely positive, we have CP2077 - the masterpiece by itself.
And it is also not about: "should we switch from open-world story-driven RPG to open-world sandbox RPG?" Answer is totally negative - we are all looking for at least the same depth of the story as we had in CP2077.

What I am trying to highlight is that certain concepts introduced in the preliminary CP2077 playthrough and demoes were deprioritized on later stages ("Flathead", vertical city, flying vehicles). There is even a podcast with Mike Pondsmith where he recalled arguing with CDPR about air transport, that in such a massive game it will be quite challenging to incapsulae flying vehicles on a later pre-production/production stages (it impacts too many stories and quests).

And now, having such a promising backlog and enough time ahead (hopefully), CDPR have a good chance to restore postponed concepts, incapsulate those ideas to the beautiful world they create. I believe it will make game even more immersive and fun to play (for me - 100%). Those items can enrich experience without an impact to the main story (actually become a part of main story).

 

[Tarille]

I believe we are arguing about something we are not actually disagree.

Quite likely, as I'm generally not in disagreement about things.

It's just that there's always caveats for any addition. Be they in terms of immersion (Based on who the protagonist is, in terms of their overall likelyhood of having availability for things like massive funds and secret corpo technology), or in terms of developmental resources.

And now, having such a promising backlog and enough time ahead (hopefully), CDPR have a good chance to restore postponed concepts, incapsulate those ideas to the beautiful world they create. I believe it will make game even more immersive and fun to play (for me - 100%). Those items can enrich experience without an impact to the main story (actually become a part of main story).

Aye. The thing to keep in mind is that, despite how good CP2077 became...

There's still a TON of existing mechanics they need to polish up. Things like;

- Gigs. 1.0 had them all available from the start. 2.0 gated them into groups. Neither felt particularly great or immersive

- Loot. Another system that got restructured in the 2.0 update but still feels kind of awful, especially the random stat modifiers on Cyberware.

- Skills. Again, this system got updated for 2.0. It still feels kind of underwhelming, especially with the obvious balance issue that is Tech being GOATed due to Cyberware capacity upgrades. As well as many Sniper Rifle perks literally not working with different types of Sniper Rifles due to their inherent mechanics.

- Vehicles. In 1.0 these were basically unusable. In 2.0 they are still mostly unusable (With some people still finding them completely unusable)

- Relationships. These are very basic even after all of the updates.

- Weapon balance. Making shotguns not suck. Making Smart weapons not suck. Differentiating melee weapons. Etc.

- Netrunning. After the 2.0 changes to make quickhacks not suck. It's passable. But it's still pretty basic with very little in terms of options.

- Dialogue options. There's a lot to be desired when it comes to availability of things. More options for players to choose to drink/not drink and smoke/not smoke (Though supposedly removing this option is part of the whole "Johnny taking over your brain"), as well as better incorporation of the "Draw a weapon" prompt so you don't just pull a Liberty pistol out of your rear end despite never using one.

All this on top of the things they sort of implemented (Auto-drive, Metro, various "Immersion" interactions etc) or didn't get around to.

Meanwhile, they don't want a repeat of CP2077 development, where they had massive crunch towards the end and it released in a poor state. All the while, they will be getting to grips with the Unreal Engine 5 that they swapped to now as opposed to the REDengine they were using for games up until now.

As such, I'm not entirely sure exactly how much "New" stuff they will end up adding, given the vast amount of existing stuff they will be wanting to work on to properly flesh out with the knowledge and feedback they got from 2077. Since they realized how bad it was in 1.0 but they only had limited capabilities (Both time and existing code) to improve such things for the 2.0 update. So there's no doubt they'll be using Orion's fresh base code and ample time to make these systems good.

 

[RAdventurer077]

Meanwhile, they don't want a repeat of CP2077 development, where they had massive crunch towards the end and it released in a poor state. All the while, they will be getting to grips with the Unreal Engine 5 that they swapped to now as opposed to the REDengine they were using for games up until now.

I mentioned that already in another thread. There is quite a nice book about video game industry - "Blood, sweat and pixels" by Jason Schreier. Based on it the crunch on the late production stages is unavoidable part of any AAA game lifecycle.
Hopefully, the work on Witcher 4+ with UE5 will improve the transition for Cyberpunk, and the situation won't be as dramatic as it was in 2020.