I have a strong feeling that lifepaths were intended to be secondary ending, or at least the mid game game main content, and the biggest backing to that is Panam's questline.
Panam's entire questline does not make sense even if you account for some content that was cut.
We first encounter her talking to rogue and when you ask rogue what was that about she tells you "ask her yourself she's probably still around" this is a strong indication that Panam's entire questline was an "optional path" that the play could chosen to take rather than her being involved in the main quest line.
Her response makes absolutely no sense because it feels like she's basically sending you to another optional quest but you can't really talk to Panam until you convince Rogue to help you get Hellman at which point she sends you to Panam.
Now Panam beyond getting Hellman is still optional but not really, based on datamining at least as some point Panam could die at some point in the quest chain panam_death_last_breath, panam_death_short, panam_death_long.
The Nomad ending is also the only one in the game files and internal state that doesn't have it's own special name, the Arasaka (Q201) is called "Heir", the Rogue (Q203) is called "Legend", Jonny's secret ending (Q204) is called "Reborn", the Nomad/Panam ending which is Q202 has no name.
Lifepaths indicate something more than just "choosing your background" and based on the fact that they were advertised as being substantial in terms of both impact and play time I have a feeling that much if not all of the content we have with the nomads was intended for the nomad lifepath, heck after you rescue Mitch Panam basically says "you're one of us now" and the player can respond "what am I a nomad now?".
Another interesting tidbit is that apparently wasn't as important as she turned out to be.
The game files structure of Cyberpunk has 7 primary characters:
I have a feeling that Sobchak/River was intended to be part of the street kid lifepath for V, as River is also a street kid from Haywood.
Jackie was never intended to be a big thing he is a secondary character, Dell and Evelyn are a conundrum both of their contents are quite scarce compared to Panam/River but they are still primary chars as far as the game structure goes.
Panam's entire questline does not make sense even if you account for some content that was cut.
We first encounter her talking to rogue and when you ask rogue what was that about she tells you "ask her yourself she's probably still around" this is a strong indication that Panam's entire questline was an "optional path" that the play could chosen to take rather than her being involved in the main quest line.
Her response makes absolutely no sense because it feels like she's basically sending you to another optional quest but you can't really talk to Panam until you convince Rogue to help you get Hellman at which point she sends you to Panam.
Now Panam beyond getting Hellman is still optional but not really, based on datamining at least as some point Panam could die at some point in the quest chain panam_death_last_breath, panam_death_short, panam_death_long.
The Nomad ending is also the only one in the game files and internal state that doesn't have it's own special name, the Arasaka (Q201) is called "Heir", the Rogue (Q203) is called "Legend", Jonny's secret ending (Q204) is called "Reborn", the Nomad/Panam ending which is Q202 has no name.
Lifepaths indicate something more than just "choosing your background" and based on the fact that they were advertised as being substantial in terms of both impact and play time I have a feeling that much if not all of the content we have with the nomads was intended for the nomad lifepath, heck after you rescue Mitch Panam basically says "you're one of us now" and the player can respond "what am I a nomad now?".
Another interesting tidbit is that apparently wasn't as important as she turned out to be.
The game files structure of Cyberpunk has 7 primary characters:
- vset_delamain
- vset_evelyn
- vset_johnny
- vset_panam
- vset_sobchak
- vset_takemura
- vset_v
I have a feeling that Sobchak/River was intended to be part of the street kid lifepath for V, as River is also a street kid from Haywood.
Jackie was never intended to be a big thing he is a secondary character, Dell and Evelyn are a conundrum both of their contents are quite scarce compared to Panam/River but they are still primary chars as far as the game structure goes.
