This is a thread for discussing the changes to the Cyberpunk 2077 game from the 1.5 Patch and theoretically any further Patch-based content until we get some proper content. Some actual new content has been added to the game and this the thread for discussing it--or at least that's the plan.
From what I can tell, here's the biggest things added with story effects:
1. The new apartments, which I'll get to.
2. More texts between you and your romance partner, which helps deepen the relationship and make it not so bare bones.
3. The fact you can wake up next to your partner in bed, which is a small deal but emergent storytelling.
4. The Fixer relationships have been fundamentally changed.
5. Immersion additions like playing guitar, making coffee, taking shower buffs, and sleeping buffs.
All of these things are definitely for the better and I think actually improve the quality of the main story significantly even if they're "subtle" changes.
1. The New Apartments: I mentioned this in the Ludonarrative Dissonance thread but the fact is that the new apartments and apartment customization now provide a visual sign of your rise to power. If you want your V to be motivated by wealth and materialism to explain why they're going outside to bust heads every night in the side content, you could worse than a home. Even if you've got a month to live, it doesn't sound INSANE to want to buy yourself a place to spend your last few weeks that's beautiful. There's a reason houses have been traditionally seen as symbolic signs of having "made it." You can get a penthouse mansion in the finale of some endings but you can't really enjoy it.
So, props CDPR.
2 and 3. Romance Texts and Waking up in Bed: We've got multiple threads about how the romances felt incomplete and rushed. The texts add the sense of a slower progression and the fact that you're keeping in touch with them inbetween missions. You also have, by waking up next to them, a sense that this is something happening beyond one or two nights. Canonically, V only knows their partner for a few weeks at most but that's a different thing than knowing them a couple of days or however you think the game COULD progress.
I really liked Panam talking about the "Peter Pan" case too.
4. Fixer Texts: The change to how your relationship with the Fixers progresses now actually fundamentally changes how the relationship with organized crime in Night City "feels." Before, you basically go into an area and people call you to go murder someone and you do a bunch of these then are done. Now, you have a reputation with each Fixer and they're slowly trusting you with bigger and bigger deals. This was already the case with Rogue and now it feels like all of them are gradually coming to like V. Except Mr. Hands. Now we have something unique about him in the fact Mr. Hands doesn't think shit about you.
There's actually a lot of writing on them at the end of the game in your journal too. One of the more fascinating things I liked was the fact that V actually despises Padre. It's interesting to note that (s)he's disgusted with the man's self-righteousness and hypocrisy by the end. They're also of the mind that Regina Jones is wasting her time trying to fix Watson but is glad they at least made the attempt.
5. Immersion activities: The buffs in particular encourage you to come back to your apartment and DO things like shower, drink coffee, and sleep. That encourages, again, a sense of time passing and your apartments being important to you.
From what I can tell, here's the biggest things added with story effects:
1. The new apartments, which I'll get to.
2. More texts between you and your romance partner, which helps deepen the relationship and make it not so bare bones.
3. The fact you can wake up next to your partner in bed, which is a small deal but emergent storytelling.
4. The Fixer relationships have been fundamentally changed.
5. Immersion additions like playing guitar, making coffee, taking shower buffs, and sleeping buffs.
All of these things are definitely for the better and I think actually improve the quality of the main story significantly even if they're "subtle" changes.
1. The New Apartments: I mentioned this in the Ludonarrative Dissonance thread but the fact is that the new apartments and apartment customization now provide a visual sign of your rise to power. If you want your V to be motivated by wealth and materialism to explain why they're going outside to bust heads every night in the side content, you could worse than a home. Even if you've got a month to live, it doesn't sound INSANE to want to buy yourself a place to spend your last few weeks that's beautiful. There's a reason houses have been traditionally seen as symbolic signs of having "made it." You can get a penthouse mansion in the finale of some endings but you can't really enjoy it.
So, props CDPR.
2 and 3. Romance Texts and Waking up in Bed: We've got multiple threads about how the romances felt incomplete and rushed. The texts add the sense of a slower progression and the fact that you're keeping in touch with them inbetween missions. You also have, by waking up next to them, a sense that this is something happening beyond one or two nights. Canonically, V only knows their partner for a few weeks at most but that's a different thing than knowing them a couple of days or however you think the game COULD progress.
I really liked Panam talking about the "Peter Pan" case too.
4. Fixer Texts: The change to how your relationship with the Fixers progresses now actually fundamentally changes how the relationship with organized crime in Night City "feels." Before, you basically go into an area and people call you to go murder someone and you do a bunch of these then are done. Now, you have a reputation with each Fixer and they're slowly trusting you with bigger and bigger deals. This was already the case with Rogue and now it feels like all of them are gradually coming to like V. Except Mr. Hands. Now we have something unique about him in the fact Mr. Hands doesn't think shit about you.
There's actually a lot of writing on them at the end of the game in your journal too. One of the more fascinating things I liked was the fact that V actually despises Padre. It's interesting to note that (s)he's disgusted with the man's self-righteousness and hypocrisy by the end. They're also of the mind that Regina Jones is wasting her time trying to fix Watson but is glad they at least made the attempt.
5. Immersion activities: The buffs in particular encourage you to come back to your apartment and DO things like shower, drink coffee, and sleep. That encourages, again, a sense of time passing and your apartments being important to you.
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