Okay. Take the world map for the city. Remove all the people and cars and other actors. Do something cool to it visually. Chrome is a little or neon it or something. Crystal would be nice, but not too much. Maybe change up the logos and ads.
Now, for clouds, set distant powerful AI systems far, far up there - military systems. Nice little Neuromancer reference.
Like this, perhaps:
or this:
Instead of people, add in programs and Daemons in the street and sky and entering the buildings. Occasionally something like a Hellhound races by. Add aerial and subterranean entrances, protected by ICE.
Now, anyone can jack into this world and many do. You can see them , in ghost-form, at secure Dataterms, at virtual meetings, etc. You can see the fainter ghosts of hackable taxis, drones and AVs moving around.
Certain functions require a Deck, however. Hacking functions, control remote functions. Anyone can buy and use a Deck, but how well depends on your Interface and Programming abilities, as well as your System Knowledge and your INT and TECH and maybe COOL.
Using a Deck is like using any other tool - equip and activate it. Unlike other tools, your CyberDeck lets you activate offensive -and-defensive tools, as well as whole suites of mini-programs called Daemons. Think of it like a Wizard's Spellbook.
How MANY spells you can activate at once depends on your Interface and/or Programming and/or INT total. How MANY spells you can carry depends on how good your Deck is.
What can your Deck do? Well, it can let you fly up and around the City, speed determined by Deck, altitude determined by Deck and nerve. It can let you go "underground" and access sub-nets - if you are good enough to find and hack their entrance codes. It can, perhaps, if it is very top-end and you are, too, let you access the micro-architecture of cyberware.
When you purchase a Deck, you pick your Avatar from a range of options - this is what you look like in the Internet to other users and viewers. You might be a samurai, a pirate, a chrome dragon(bird), Cthulhu or something worse, like, say, slimgrin without pants. You can buy more Avatars.
Exploration in the Net consists of moving around the CIty. Legitimate users tend to stay ground-bound or the first few levels. Other users who aren't running Invisibility might be running up walls or flying around NCPD taunting the police. Some bound carefully from building to building, avoiding trouble, intent on their tasks.
Tasks like hacking into, say, Net News 54. To do so, you have to break or bypass their DataWall, using either a brute force program or a slower, sneaker Worm.
Like all program use, this will rely on the power of your Deck and your skills, in this case allowing you to tunnel through quietly or by using your target cursor, focus on a wall section to hammer at quickly. The better the program, ( more expensive, more Deck space needed) the easier it is.
If you get in undetected, you are inside a fairly simple structure - basically a dungeon with rooms. In these rooms you might find systems to control, ( doors, lights), data storage, passcodes..enemy ICE, (Intrusion Countermeasures Electronics) or even a SysAdmin. What you do in these rooms depends. Extract the data if you can, ( depends on Programming, System Knowledge, strength of programs used), fight off the ICE or Admin if you can, (like a firefight or melee fight in MeatSpace, only using your Deck Programs as spells and Daemons as ally NPCs), or run and hope you make it outside so you can jack out.
IF you just jack out, it makes it easier for them to Trace you. The idea is to run and hide, (your software tries to confuse their traceroute), until you are clear, then jack out.
A Hellhound may be set on your path to find you. If it does, it can burn up your Deck..and maybe you.
If you lose a battle in Cyberspace, several things can happen. You can be forced to jack out. You can have your Deck damaged. You can be physically harmed with feedback. You can be held and prevented from jacking out unless a friend does it for you. You can be brain wiped.
All good fun!
Once you have what you came for, you retreat or run out of the NN54 building, dodge a bit to dump any traces and then either go do something else in the virtual Night City or just jack out to Meatspace where your cheering comrades wait to shower you with praise.
-----------------------
The beauty of this method is that it makes use of existing assets: the City. The combat methods and engine are the same - you use your Deck as an all-in-one arsenal,a rmour and inventory, the Programs your weapons and defensives.
Anyone can do it - but the higher your Interface, Programming, System Knowledge, INT and TECH and COOL the better your chances. In order to use Decks of a certain calibre, you need Interface and INT of a certain scale. In order to stand a chance against ICE and AIs and SysAdmin, you need a good INT and TECH - they act as REF and BODY would in Meatspace. Also, the length of timer before disturbance, for example, might be based on System Knowledge, or the amount of keys known before starting a multi-variable hack a la Fallout, perhaps.
So, that's how I would do it, probably. What do you think?
