GEAR and Crafting: Clothing, Armor, and doohickeys...

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Let's talk Drugs.

Yes, controversial I know. Well, somewhat. Depending on your age and nationality, possibly religion.

Anyway, Cyberpunk 2020 has many, many drugs. Some recreational, some combat-boosters. Because R.tal is definitely NOT in favour of drug use, ( they say so in the main book) drugs in CP2020 are both potent and reallllly nasty in side effects and addiction. And the cure for them will mess you up. Stay Away is the general message. Don't Dorph - Don't Let Friends Dorph.

However.

Videogames LOVE drugs. We generally use them as healing potions or mana potions or strength boosters or whatever. Witcher, of course, makes constant use of combat drugs. With little to no side effects. in CP2020, Black Lace addiction will fairly quickly and easily turn you into a cyberpsycho just like in the trailer.

Only in the PnP, your character is done-done. Roll a new one, the book instructs.

How do you feel CP2077 should handle chemical augmentation and recreation? Harshly? More gently? Like potions? Should you just regenerate a la Call of Duty? Or should you need medical attention and addictive painkillers?
 
Hmmm. I'd say stims and painkillers in battle, and then afterwards you need to seek medical attention. I don't like the COD regen and magic potions aren't realistic enough.

Would be sweet if criminals have to seek out dirty underground docs to patch them up, which leaves them with scars and side effects :) Cops on the other hand can go to a hospital since they aren't wanted felons. Better treatment, etc.
 
Its a mature rpg so its ok that there are drugs.

I think there should be more drugs than those drugs who heal you or give you strengh.

There should be drugs with big besides factory ingen.
 
If both continue use and cold turkey side effects are done well, it could well lead to some interesting game play choices - use and get the effect but suffer penalties later on and possible addiction effects or take the drop in some stats by going cold turkey in the hope of getting 'better soon'

Also rehab and stuff would be quite an interesting effect as well as relapse.

Also would you take alcohol as a drug?
 
Hmmm. I'd say stims and painkillers in battle, and then afterwards you need to seek medical attention. I don't like the COD regen and magic potions aren't realistic enough.

Would be sweet if criminals have to seek out dirty underground docs to patch them up, which leaves them with scars and side effects :) Cops on the other hand can go to a hospital since they aren't wanted felons. Better treatment, etc.

I really dig this idea...

As for cyberpsychosis and drug addiction... yeah their should definitely be a mechanic for that...

For Cyberpsychosis, if your emp drops too low, your character has the chance of randomly going apeshit at the slightest provocation... someone in a bar bumps into you, control of the character is removed, as you go on a rampage... cops show up, kill the snot out of you... or you just end up massacreing a bunch of innocents... or both...

You want to regain lost humanity... Expensive therapy

Drugs can give you a bonus, but they should also change your perception... Black Lace should give you tunnel vision. Blue glass won't do much for you in combat, but man will it make things trippy and melty, as if looking at the world from behind a gentle waterfall, everything is distorted. Speedheal maybe puts a very slight yellow haze on everything...

Get addicted to the drug, withdrawel kicks in... you blink a ot, you shake, vision is blurred, your health drops by half...

Want free of addiction... again therapy is expensive...
 
Good topic. Alchemy in the Witcher games provides a solid template for drug use in CP 2077. I would have a vast array of both recreational and performance enhancers, long term and short term drugs, all with varying degrees of side effects. Mixing potions in TW2 was fun, so I hope we can get jacked up on more than one thing at a time. Maybe we could get street grade drugs which have worse side effects than the more expensive pharmacy grade. The most important thing is to make it a fleshed out system like Alchemy in TW2.
 
Sure, why not, pull no punches with mature content I say. The change in perception is important, and you can have them there for casual use as well. It's just a little thing that's easy enough to tack on that adds more detail (you just gonna change the filter to simulate effects). Not a big deal but helps fill out the world...and you can do it in an entertaining way with the right effects.
 
And coming to choices, not in terms of health/boost/consumption etc. but story wise, I wonder will there be ramifications for endorsing or being against the use of drugs in game. That will be interesting. In The Witcher, it didn't matter for Geralt as he is a mutant immune to mostly everything and he didn't care what others did, we had the option of vetting against it, or just ignoring it in small aspects (like the guard in TW1 and that side mission in chapter 1 in TW2)
 
I'm all for making health stims ( not packs ) have differing effects one's character after use. As I recall the stims were an instant heal so in the CP universe thats likely nano-bots with painkillers that more or less rebuild tissue on the fly while packs were more in line with first aid kits aka slower heals but were the more natural method. Any stat booster were likely to be painkillers plus "uppers or downers" to whatever biological system that represented said stat.

So in summary, except for the packs all other boosters including stims should have a chance to place a debuff that requires you to maintain that boosters effects or suffer withdraw symptoms. Withdraws can be mild, gut wrenching up to an including "lethal" (once again depending on RNG to the severity). An overdose condition should also be possible again set by RNG to prevent rampant over use of boosters i.e. I love the idea of the character that can't get out of a boss' aoe effect so has to self heal constantly till he/she hits that final med stim and dies from it.

This also helps 'enhancement crafters' as the better your "product" the less chance you get hooked.
 
I am strictly against any drugs or cyberware that can instant heal. As for recreational, combat and medical drugs, they should not all have instant efect.
Those drugs that are injected should be instant but wear off just as suddenly, inhaled drugs are almost as fast but not quite, ingested drugs take between 10 and 30 minutes before they start to work, slowly building up to their potency, trans-dermal patches (only works on natural skin) takes between 5 and 90 minutes (depending on what the transmitter fluid is based on) and has a steady effect until it starts to slowly wear off (almost impossible to overdose), Eyedrops have also their own speed to start working, reach top effect and wear off time.
Taking several different drugs needs to have new types of sideeffects that the straight drugs would not have, like medical drugs taking bad effects if you had taken any recreationals or combats in the last 12 hours.
Additional to the Substance drugs (Chemicals) there should be electronic drugs to be used with brain implants, self-deleting virus programs that are "injected" through the brainware interface port in your skull, after copying it into your brain it causes it's effects until your brain's and cyberware's firewall and natural counter functions filter it out. Virtual drugs can permanently damage your mental stats and your hardware, not only the brain implants, if used too often or overdosed.
Of course all drugs, sybstance and virtual, in overdose or real bad withdrawal can lead to death, medically or suicidal.
 
I like the idea of an "addiction" mechanic, similar to Fallout 3 / NV, where you incur penalties if you're not currently rolling on your recreational pharmaceutical of choice.

However, I'd like addiction to be harder to kick in CP2077, rather than going to the nearest clinic and paying your 50 or 100 eb.
 
As for recreational, combat and medical drugs, they should not all have instant efect.
What's your argument against combat drugs being instantaneous?

A shot of adrenalin into your bloodstream is pretty much instantaneous. With the miracle of modern pharmacology ('specially in 2077,) there's much, MUCH more potent things you can inject / ingest than adrenalin.
 
What's your argument against combat drugs being instantaneous?

A shot of adrenalin into your bloodstream is pretty much instantaneous. With the miracle of modern pharmacology ('specially in 2077,) there's much, MUCH more potent things you can inject / ingest than adrenalin.

If you continue reading, you will find that the purpose of the drug is not the variable in question, it is the application.
Take a combat drug that is uncertain how long it needs to last, like estrogen based drug for snipers (keeps the hands calm for longer...see Metal Gear Solid), use it as a patch on the skin, a patch can last 12-24 hours, but takes at the very least 5 minutes to start taking it's effect and up to 4 hours to be at it's full efficiency.
As in injection or inhaler, of course it works near-instantaneously, but injections also wear off faster, unless the injection is only the carrier fluid and the drug is stored in depositories that slowly release it. That then too would take, similar to the patch, some time to kick in.
Ingested drugs might kick in faster if you have an augmented metabolism, but if so, they also wear off faster and don't have as storng an effect as with an unaugmented metabolism.
 
Something like pain-suppressants would be nice, so that you can get the hell out of dodge before you bleed to death. Speaking of bleeding, i'm sure someone who is versed in the lore could tell me if there is a sort of cellular regeneration agent somewhere that could be used for quick 'organic' bandaging of flesh wounds. This would be the videogame staple of the 'medikit'. I wouldn't want the 'regen' from the cod-games or other interactive movi..ehm i mean modern military boredom induc...ehm, well you get what i mean.

For combat boosters, hell yeah , give me all of it, in ingredients, and let me tinker with formulas. If i screw up the compound, let me pass out in alley and suffer the consequences.
 
If you continue reading, you will find that the purpose of the drug is not the variable in question, it is the application.
Take a combat drug that is uncertain how long it needs to last, like estrogen based drug for snipers (keeps the hands calm for longer...see Metal Gear Solid), use it as a patch on the skin, a patch can last 12-24 hours, but takes at the very least 5 minutes to start taking it's effect and up to 4 hours to be at it's full efficiency.
As in injection or inhaler, of course it works near-instantaneously, but injections also wear off faster, unless the injection is only the carrier fluid and the drug is stored in depositories that slowly release it. That then too would take, similar to the patch, some time to kick in.
Ingested drugs might kick in faster if you have an augmented metabolism, but if so, they also wear off faster and don't have as storng an effect as with an unaugmented metabolism.

Um.... didn't Snake take Diazepam in that game....or are you thinking of something else.... because I am pretty sure Diazepam doesn't contain estrogen...
 
I am certain there are coagulants that can stop you from bleeding to death, but they are no cellular patch, they only clog your blood, so you better don't move to much until your nano-surgeons have stabilized you. Nano Surgeons are the only thing that can give you a regeneration rate and they theoretically also work in mid combat..not that it helps anything, they still are too slow to have your health bar going up while reloading (think a vacation at the nearest E&A for only a week instead of a month). Nice thing also, nano surgeons are (if using realism, not sure how the game handles it) immune to EMP, but should be vulnerable to microwave...
For a spray on bandage (like in Serenity) there should be plenty products out that just stick to the skin and prevent you form leaking, but they don't clog your blood, don't fix cells, don't help healing, might kill the pain if it contains the right drugs, but unless you really seal the blood vessels, there is still risk of internally bleeding to death.
 
I'd like drugs to be in, but with potentially harsh side effects, preferably not necessarily stats decrease, but ie. impaired visuals, loss of fine tune control in movement etc (ie. stuff that affects you playing, not the dice rolls)
 
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