Cyberpunk 2077 has made me realize how much I want a MMORPG set in Night City. I’ve got some thoughts below on how it might be done and I’d like to hear how you would do it. As in the present game, I wouldn’t include classes, but would instead allow people to specialize according to their preferred weapon.
Combat Roles
For group activities, it might be nice if characters could take on specialized combat roles.
A Controller role is easy to fill. Not only netrunners, but anyone with a weapon that can hit multiple targets at once (like a shotgun or SMG) might function as a controller.
Melee types with high Body would inevitably function as Tanks, though the idea of tanking does seem weird in a cyberpunk world.
Healers are difficult. While Medtechs are a class in Cyberpunk 2020, a party healer would either need to be able to heal at a distance or would have to be sprinting all over the battlefield to heal people. Healing at a distance is hard to justify while running all over the battlefield would make them an easy target.
Gathering
Instead of the mining and wood-chopping that goes on in fantasy MMORPGS, or the mining of EVE, it would be nice to give the PCs the option to “harvest resources” in an area in the ways that a criminal might, say by stealing, selling contraband, or extorting money from businesses. If PC groups can fight over valuable turf, as in Eve, so much the better.
Crafting
Following the pattern of a typical MMORPG, you could have players collect loot in fights that they sell to other players who turn it into goods like weapons, cyberware, and vehicles. That’s a bit clunky, though, since we know that megacorps manufacture these things. Maybe it works better if PC crafters are presented as modifying goods rather than producing them. A techie might use scrap to soup up your weapon or your car.
Social Roles
Ideally, there should be social roles available too, like the media, fixer and rockerboy roles from Cyberpunk 2020. I’ve got no idea how to tie these to the economy, though. Maybe Medias can manufacture reputation bonuses for people. Maybe characters out on adventure can gather “information”, a resource that can be sold to medias and fixers for them to make something out of.
Factions and PvP
With so many factions in Night City potentially fighting over turf and assets, it seems natural to let players fight over territory for different factions in PvP. Conflicts could be gang vs gang, nomad vs nomad, corp vs corp, gang vs NCPD, nomad vs NCPD, gang vs nomad, gang vs corps, nomad vs corps and maybe more.
That’s all the ideas I have so far. What are yours?
Combat Roles
For group activities, it might be nice if characters could take on specialized combat roles.
A Controller role is easy to fill. Not only netrunners, but anyone with a weapon that can hit multiple targets at once (like a shotgun or SMG) might function as a controller.
Melee types with high Body would inevitably function as Tanks, though the idea of tanking does seem weird in a cyberpunk world.
Healers are difficult. While Medtechs are a class in Cyberpunk 2020, a party healer would either need to be able to heal at a distance or would have to be sprinting all over the battlefield to heal people. Healing at a distance is hard to justify while running all over the battlefield would make them an easy target.
Gathering
Instead of the mining and wood-chopping that goes on in fantasy MMORPGS, or the mining of EVE, it would be nice to give the PCs the option to “harvest resources” in an area in the ways that a criminal might, say by stealing, selling contraband, or extorting money from businesses. If PC groups can fight over valuable turf, as in Eve, so much the better.
Crafting
Following the pattern of a typical MMORPG, you could have players collect loot in fights that they sell to other players who turn it into goods like weapons, cyberware, and vehicles. That’s a bit clunky, though, since we know that megacorps manufacture these things. Maybe it works better if PC crafters are presented as modifying goods rather than producing them. A techie might use scrap to soup up your weapon or your car.
Social Roles
Ideally, there should be social roles available too, like the media, fixer and rockerboy roles from Cyberpunk 2020. I’ve got no idea how to tie these to the economy, though. Maybe Medias can manufacture reputation bonuses for people. Maybe characters out on adventure can gather “information”, a resource that can be sold to medias and fixers for them to make something out of.
Factions and PvP
With so many factions in Night City potentially fighting over turf and assets, it seems natural to let players fight over territory for different factions in PvP. Conflicts could be gang vs gang, nomad vs nomad, corp vs corp, gang vs NCPD, nomad vs NCPD, gang vs nomad, gang vs corps, nomad vs corps and maybe more.
That’s all the ideas I have so far. What are yours?
