After having played the game a bit more, currently level 21 and have gotten a good feel of the gameplay loop, mechanics etc. I think we will see a lot of changes being made to CP in the future. (I will look past the bugs in this and just assume that they have been fixed 
)
I will also say that, this is not a post in regards to me not enjoying the game, I freaking love it, but will also admit its shortcomings in its current state.
When that is said, I think that the Cyberpunk we play now, is going to be vastly different in the future, for the very simple reason that there are to many things now, that simply doesn't allow the game to be something that you can expand upon in a meaningful way.
1. Combat and difficulty
I play on very hard difficulty and besides jumping enemies that are all marked with a skull, I really don't think the game is very difficult. If I didn't knew better, I would think I played on normal or hard to be honest.
And it's not that im good at FPS, because I never play them. But I never find myself especially concerned about what gear im using, I pretty much go for the "Just look good while you do it." Same goes with weapons, I don't really cared for them as much as one would think you would in a RPG, like having to get better mods for them etc. I check the gear once in a while or if a special one drops. But compared to playing on the hardest difficulty I feel like I should be much more concerned than I am.
I think it can be narrowed down to two things that are worth talking about:
1. The AI is not clever enough.
2. Some of the weapons the enemies simply can't defend against. The smart weapon and tech weapons, homing and shooting through walls, what can the AI do? I critted an enemy for 18k with a smart sniper rifle. And I have no points assigned to sniper weapons.
So I don't really know how they are going to make an expansion where the enemies are going to keep up with you. Because it's not really funny for the player to be one shotted by tech weapons or killed by smart guns all the time either. So how they are going to balance that and still allow the player to keep getting levels and even better weapons, I don't know unless this is changed, because when they are your level they go down fast with these weapons.
My character is specced as a crafter, think I have 18 in Technical and all the points in crafting and at no point have I felt that I was struggling due to not having invested in combat skills.
2. Economy and loot
In its current form, I would say that the economy of Night city is close to non existing. Besides cyberware, implants and mods*, there is not really a lot of reason to spend money on anything. And this is something that occurs pretty much from the very beginning of the game.
(*Mods unless you have points in crafting so you can get your mods back, I really don't feel like its worth spending money on them, simply because you might as well replace the weapon instead.)
I rarely check shops, I do it once in awhile and only for crafting patterns, because I think they could be fun to have and not because i need them. I have crafted one weapon that I use. Otherwise I only craft ammunition and frag grenades, which I believe everyone can craft?
The issue as I see it, Is that there are way to much loot in the game. And most of it, is better than what you can craft anyway, so it's simply not worth crafting them. And the same with buying weapons or armor, so much drops that there simply ain't a reason to buy them. You never really get attached or care to invest in any of your gear, as upgrading stuff is far to expensive, compared to just putting on some random stuff. And upgrading items is capped anyway, so they can't even be upgraded to the level of the stuff you find.
Then you obviously have the ability to buy cars, but this is purely a luxury thing and unless you grind a lot of money you probably won't be able to buy more than a few of them anyway.
The whole economy of CP needs to be redesigned. The amount of loot that drops have to be severely reduced, if they want these shops to have any meaning. Also the items themself need to be rebalanced and they have to redesign how crafting works. Because as it is now, and me having invested so many points in it, I would say that it is close to being a useless way to spec your character and I might as well not have spend any skill points here at all. Besides that, having to convert one crafting component into another one at the time, is very boring. And you have to do it a lot of times, and I mean a lot of times
And when you finally have done it and upgrade your weapon, it's not even as good as those you find and pretty much instantly reach the level restrictions anyway. Which basically make you feel like you just wasted a lot of time and resources for no good reason.
Food and drinks are plenty which again ruins the point of food vendors or buying them.
Personally I would think the economy would work the best, if the player were somewhat pressured for money and have to make choices of what to spend them on, again to enhance the feeling of this world not being easy to function in, and you having to struggle for the things you want. They could even add missions, where you have to do things that are highly immoral, but will force you to make a choice between money and being a scum like everyone else, or if you want to maintain your good morals.
3. Weapons, Armors and customization
As mentioned above with the combat, some of these weapons doesn't really serve the game well in the current form I think. Especially the tech and smart weapons, the ricochet weapons I don't really see a huge need for and I personally haven't noticed whether they are good or not.
So will just focus on smart and tech.
Smart weapons just as with tech weapons, pretty much ruins the idea of enemies using cover. Which makes it very difficult for them to defend themselves. Weapons ought to be completely overhauled in my opinion. Exactly how they would do this im not sure, because of how they currently work.
Because smart weapons could be balanced so the chance of homing were based on a % and the better the quality the more likely they were to do it, but due to the way they lock on target, it might be difficult. But with tech weapons it's not really easy to find a solution either, because their main idea is to shoot through walls, but you don't really want to blow your cover, if this were based on a % chance and they don't penetrate the wall, maybe this could be done in a way so depending on the quality of the tech, it could shoot through certain things and not others.
Furthermore, weapons and armors should be much more about customization and upgrading those you think look cool, rather than just replacing them all the time. Because if you simply go with what is best, your character is going to look like something out of a carnival and not a badass merc
So either upgrading items in a much more detailed way or allowing players to style their clothing is an absolute must as I see it, which could be done, so either you have to visit a clothing shop and they can offer to redesign you item for a price and each of them could offer you different options depending on district they are in.
4. Hacking and skills/perks
This one is a bit of a weird one, but personally I think this need some rework as well. And hacking certain things should be linked to a security level, so if you want to be all about hacking, you would have to invest in it and make that your way of dealing with things. So depending on the level of the area you are infiltrating, if it is a high level one, most of the hackable equipment, like turrets and cameras should only be possible for those that have specced for it. In a world like CP where so much hacking is going on, one would assume that those with the means and knowledge would try to protect themself from it.
In general I think skills are not utilized as well as they could be, to really give you a feeling of the RPG elements linked to them.
5. Quests, V's personality and skills/perks
As it is now, there doesn't seem to be a lot of connection between your build and what you can do as far as RP your character. I think this could be done better, by allowing your build to give access to different missions.
So for instant my character is specced with Technical (18/20), and if we assume that this illustrate how good a person is with a given thing. My character should be seen as close to a genius when it comes to handling technical stuff. But besides some few dialog options I don't really feel that it is part of my V's personality, also I wonder, if I had simply had 7 in Technical, if I would have gotten the same options, anyway, I haven't check that so don't know.
But I think it would be very cool if missions were linked to this as well. So for instant, Judy could call and say she is working on this robot, but are having some problems, but since she know you are an expert in these things, if you would care to help her with it. This could then lead to some mission, where you have to help her gather some part for it give her some advice or whatever it could be and the same could go for fixers calling you, that they have a client that need an expert to help them check something before they buy it, again leading to missions based on V's skills. And these missions would only be available if your character have a certain level. So if you just have 5 or 7 you will only get so many of them.
I think that would be a good way of supporting your character build, get to know the other characters in unique ways and open up unique missions, that you wouldn't have gotten, had you specced into something different.
Conclusion
So for me at least, I think there is going to or need to be made a lot of changes to Cyberpunk first, before they release expansions for it. They have to get the "basic" mechanics correct first in my opinion. And they have to push for it being much more of a RPG than an action game, if that is what they want it to be. I don't really agree, with it being a RPG first and a action game secondly. I would probably go the other way and say that it's an action game with some very good story RPG elements in it. But when it comes to the rest of the RPG elements like stats, skill checks etc. it really doesn't go to deep into that.
)I will also say that, this is not a post in regards to me not enjoying the game, I freaking love it, but will also admit its shortcomings in its current state.
When that is said, I think that the Cyberpunk we play now, is going to be vastly different in the future, for the very simple reason that there are to many things now, that simply doesn't allow the game to be something that you can expand upon in a meaningful way.
1. Combat and difficulty
I play on very hard difficulty and besides jumping enemies that are all marked with a skull, I really don't think the game is very difficult. If I didn't knew better, I would think I played on normal or hard to be honest.
And it's not that im good at FPS, because I never play them. But I never find myself especially concerned about what gear im using, I pretty much go for the "Just look good while you do it."
Same goes with weapons, I don't really cared for them as much as one would think you would in a RPG, like having to get better mods for them etc. I check the gear once in a while or if a special one drops. But compared to playing on the hardest difficulty I feel like I should be much more concerned than I am.I think it can be narrowed down to two things that are worth talking about:
1. The AI is not clever enough.
2. Some of the weapons the enemies simply can't defend against. The smart weapon and tech weapons, homing and shooting through walls, what can the AI do? I critted an enemy for 18k with a smart sniper rifle. And I have no points assigned to sniper weapons.
So I don't really know how they are going to make an expansion where the enemies are going to keep up with you. Because it's not really funny for the player to be one shotted by tech weapons or killed by smart guns all the time either. So how they are going to balance that and still allow the player to keep getting levels and even better weapons, I don't know unless this is changed, because when they are your level they go down fast with these weapons.
My character is specced as a crafter, think I have 18 in Technical and all the points in crafting and at no point have I felt that I was struggling due to not having invested in combat skills.
2. Economy and loot
In its current form, I would say that the economy of Night city is close to non existing. Besides cyberware, implants and mods*, there is not really a lot of reason to spend money on anything. And this is something that occurs pretty much from the very beginning of the game.
(*Mods unless you have points in crafting so you can get your mods back, I really don't feel like its worth spending money on them, simply because you might as well replace the weapon instead.)
I rarely check shops, I do it once in awhile and only for crafting patterns, because I think they could be fun to have and not because i need them. I have crafted one weapon that I use. Otherwise I only craft ammunition and frag grenades, which I believe everyone can craft?
The issue as I see it, Is that there are way to much loot in the game. And most of it, is better than what you can craft anyway, so it's simply not worth crafting them. And the same with buying weapons or armor, so much drops that there simply ain't a reason to buy them. You never really get attached or care to invest in any of your gear, as upgrading stuff is far to expensive, compared to just putting on some random stuff. And upgrading items is capped anyway, so they can't even be upgraded to the level of the stuff you find.
Then you obviously have the ability to buy cars, but this is purely a luxury thing and unless you grind a lot of money you probably won't be able to buy more than a few of them anyway.
The whole economy of CP needs to be redesigned. The amount of loot that drops have to be severely reduced, if they want these shops to have any meaning. Also the items themself need to be rebalanced and they have to redesign how crafting works. Because as it is now, and me having invested so many points in it, I would say that it is close to being a useless way to spec your character and I might as well not have spend any skill points here at all. Besides that, having to convert one crafting component into another one at the time, is very boring. And you have to do it a lot of times, and I mean a lot of times
And when you finally have done it and upgrade your weapon, it's not even as good as those you find and pretty much instantly reach the level restrictions anyway. Which basically make you feel like you just wasted a lot of time and resources for no good reason.
Food and drinks are plenty which again ruins the point of food vendors or buying them.
Personally I would think the economy would work the best, if the player were somewhat pressured for money and have to make choices of what to spend them on, again to enhance the feeling of this world not being easy to function in, and you having to struggle for the things you want. They could even add missions, where you have to do things that are highly immoral, but will force you to make a choice between money and being a scum like everyone else, or if you want to maintain your good morals.
3. Weapons, Armors and customization
As mentioned above with the combat, some of these weapons doesn't really serve the game well in the current form I think. Especially the tech and smart weapons, the ricochet weapons I don't really see a huge need for and I personally haven't noticed whether they are good or not.
So will just focus on smart and tech.
Smart weapons just as with tech weapons, pretty much ruins the idea of enemies using cover. Which makes it very difficult for them to defend themselves. Weapons ought to be completely overhauled in my opinion. Exactly how they would do this im not sure, because of how they currently work.
Because smart weapons could be balanced so the chance of homing were based on a % and the better the quality the more likely they were to do it, but due to the way they lock on target, it might be difficult. But with tech weapons it's not really easy to find a solution either, because their main idea is to shoot through walls, but you don't really want to blow your cover, if this were based on a % chance and they don't penetrate the wall, maybe this could be done in a way so depending on the quality of the tech, it could shoot through certain things and not others.
Furthermore, weapons and armors should be much more about customization and upgrading those you think look cool, rather than just replacing them all the time. Because if you simply go with what is best, your character is going to look like something out of a carnival and not a badass merc
So either upgrading items in a much more detailed way or allowing players to style their clothing is an absolute must as I see it, which could be done, so either you have to visit a clothing shop and they can offer to redesign you item for a price and each of them could offer you different options depending on district they are in.
4. Hacking and skills/perks
This one is a bit of a weird one, but personally I think this need some rework as well. And hacking certain things should be linked to a security level, so if you want to be all about hacking, you would have to invest in it and make that your way of dealing with things. So depending on the level of the area you are infiltrating, if it is a high level one, most of the hackable equipment, like turrets and cameras should only be possible for those that have specced for it. In a world like CP where so much hacking is going on, one would assume that those with the means and knowledge would try to protect themself from it.
In general I think skills are not utilized as well as they could be, to really give you a feeling of the RPG elements linked to them.
5. Quests, V's personality and skills/perks
As it is now, there doesn't seem to be a lot of connection between your build and what you can do as far as RP your character. I think this could be done better, by allowing your build to give access to different missions.
So for instant my character is specced with Technical (18/20), and if we assume that this illustrate how good a person is with a given thing. My character should be seen as close to a genius when it comes to handling technical stuff. But besides some few dialog options I don't really feel that it is part of my V's personality, also I wonder, if I had simply had 7 in Technical, if I would have gotten the same options, anyway, I haven't check that so don't know.
But I think it would be very cool if missions were linked to this as well. So for instant, Judy could call and say she is working on this robot, but are having some problems, but since she know you are an expert in these things, if you would care to help her with it. This could then lead to some mission, where you have to help her gather some part for it give her some advice or whatever it could be and the same could go for fixers calling you, that they have a client that need an expert to help them check something before they buy it, again leading to missions based on V's skills. And these missions would only be available if your character have a certain level. So if you just have 5 or 7 you will only get so many of them.
I think that would be a good way of supporting your character build, get to know the other characters in unique ways and open up unique missions, that you wouldn't have gotten, had you specced into something different.
Conclusion
So for me at least, I think there is going to or need to be made a lot of changes to Cyberpunk first, before they release expansions for it. They have to get the "basic" mechanics correct first in my opinion. And they have to push for it being much more of a RPG than an action game, if that is what they want it to be. I don't really agree, with it being a RPG first and a action game secondly. I would probably go the other way and say that it's an action game with some very good story RPG elements in it. But when it comes to the rest of the RPG elements like stats, skill checks etc. it really doesn't go to deep into that.
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