I thought I posted this here, but, I might've, maybe posted the idea in another thread.
The old trope of having a "level" or quest in a game where you get all your gear taken away is a thing.
I personally laothe it most of the time, BUT, I think there's ways it can get got done in interesting ways.
In a previous post, I advanced the idea of a "VR" experience inside the game. Putting V into a VR quest, a world that could depict any setting, with any rules could plausibly work as a way to part V from his/her reliance on gear/cyberware.
One potentially fun and interesting way to do that would be to use assets CDPR already owns.
Put The Witcher world INSIDE Cyberpunk as a "VR" quest.
No, it wouldn't have to be entirety of any of The Witcher titles. The "VR" quest could be a simple, limited bit of virtual real estate hemmed in by walls, or impassible terrain.
Whatever the case, V is contacted to "rescue" a mind that's been imprisoned in a VR Fantasy RPG simulation. Braindance technology might be involved where the trapped personality/client can't disengage of their own free will.
It could be a classic fairy tale fantasy save-the-princess thing, but, details beyond that are vague.
V potentially picks from several fantasy archetypes to "play" inside the VR; fighter, rogue, magician, etc, or, for the sake of simplicity, V just gets a generic fantasy character archetype with sword and whatnot.
From there, V sets to rescuing the "princess", but, is the princess really represented in the VR as a princess, or, perhaps, as a twist, your client's mind is trapped in the big bad that's guarding the princess, and you have to actually kill the princess to save your client? ... or, perhaps, your client is trapped in the man-behind-the-curtain bad guy that controls the big bad guarding the princess and V has to slay both the big bad AND the princess to free the Machiavelli from the logic loop of the VR where they're compelled to kidnap princesses forever.
Viola, you've just played some budget throw-back "Witcher" inside Cyberpunk ... even though it doesn't have to actually be Witcher, just using those old assets to create a fantasy setting for a full sensory "VR" experience inside CP 2077.
Extra twisty, twists on twists could put V into an awkward situation where V discovers, after the fact, that the client, or the trapped mind inside the VR was actually an early rogue AI too valuable to destroy, but, locked away, and eventually forgotten, and now V has just freed something potentially VERY dangerous into the world. That AI "mind" could manifest inside a specially modified for AI Full Body Conversion shell like a Gemini, or even the deadly Raven Microcybernetics Black Raven Ghost.
The AI could present such a hazard V is forced to pretend to be it's friend as a matter of self preservation, or, maybe it could be an actual friend, and it was misunderstood way back when in the early days of AI?
Leaving such a scenario to sit in such a grey area could open doors to more quests involving the rogue, now free thanks to V, AI, for bad, worse, or, surprisingly beneficial.
Alternatively, the AI could be "weak" by AI standards; a relic from the dawn of Singularity, and potentially a quirky relic only considered "dangerous" by the standards of the time it was imprisioned and eventually forgotten. Freeing the AI, and having it download into a obsolete general use Full Body Conversion shell specially modified to house an AI, could offer a more game-balanced NPC character that could pose as an ally, become an enemy, get into trouble and call on V to bail it out, and/or get V into troubles by asking V to assist with with a series of tasks.
As previous, there's lots of potential for personality, especially with a quirky relic AI, and numerous associated additional quests, like, for instance, when the company that bought the company that absorbed the company and traded ownership several times that engineered this AI discovers, through ... reasons and methods, this old forgotten AI has gone missing and is now running around Night City in a robo-body, that company (pick one) might be VERY interested, if only on a risk assessment/liability factor level (at first) to see what's what about this forgotten tech.
There's lots of potential for additional play beyond the initial "Witcher" inside Cyberpunk.
Edit/update:
The above could also tie in to an earlier Story Line Suggestion.
The netrunner you get into contact with in the below (quoted) scenario is actually one of the old retired programmers that worked on this AI project, and one of the leads responsible for locking the rogue AI away in its virtual prison, and designing the VR for it.
That netrunner could be the one that points you to the AI locked away (not telling you its an AI), that triggers that quest, or, the AI, once saved, puts you on the hunt for this old programmer that's now an outlaw netrunner.
... now I'm beginning to wonder how I can piece together and tie all these suggestions I'm making into a one united serving with bits that fit them together.
Maybe Optimus Rhyme is a no-go as a silly thing, and the story that NPC has to tell is that he too was loosely associated with the AI project; perhaps his mother, and/or father worked for long-dead-and-gone company and he might have old files stashed away in a garage relating to that project.
Perhaps Optimus Rhyme is hesitant to help you and give you access to his parents old junk, but, if you help him out with something, like, perhaps do some favors for his younger brother that's an up-and-coming street racer (earlier street racer story line suggestion connection), he'll give you access to those files.
ideas ...
The old trope of having a "level" or quest in a game where you get all your gear taken away is a thing.
I personally laothe it most of the time, BUT, I think there's ways it can get got done in interesting ways.
In a previous post, I advanced the idea of a "VR" experience inside the game. Putting V into a VR quest, a world that could depict any setting, with any rules could plausibly work as a way to part V from his/her reliance on gear/cyberware.
One potentially fun and interesting way to do that would be to use assets CDPR already owns.
Put The Witcher world INSIDE Cyberpunk as a "VR" quest.
No, it wouldn't have to be entirety of any of The Witcher titles. The "VR" quest could be a simple, limited bit of virtual real estate hemmed in by walls, or impassible terrain.
Whatever the case, V is contacted to "rescue" a mind that's been imprisoned in a VR Fantasy RPG simulation. Braindance technology might be involved where the trapped personality/client can't disengage of their own free will.
It could be a classic fairy tale fantasy save-the-princess thing, but, details beyond that are vague.
V potentially picks from several fantasy archetypes to "play" inside the VR; fighter, rogue, magician, etc, or, for the sake of simplicity, V just gets a generic fantasy character archetype with sword and whatnot.
From there, V sets to rescuing the "princess", but, is the princess really represented in the VR as a princess, or, perhaps, as a twist, your client's mind is trapped in the big bad that's guarding the princess, and you have to actually kill the princess to save your client? ... or, perhaps, your client is trapped in the man-behind-the-curtain bad guy that controls the big bad guarding the princess and V has to slay both the big bad AND the princess to free the Machiavelli from the logic loop of the VR where they're compelled to kidnap princesses forever.
Viola, you've just played some budget throw-back "Witcher" inside Cyberpunk ... even though it doesn't have to actually be Witcher, just using those old assets to create a fantasy setting for a full sensory "VR" experience inside CP 2077.
Extra twisty, twists on twists could put V into an awkward situation where V discovers, after the fact, that the client, or the trapped mind inside the VR was actually an early rogue AI too valuable to destroy, but, locked away, and eventually forgotten, and now V has just freed something potentially VERY dangerous into the world. That AI "mind" could manifest inside a specially modified for AI Full Body Conversion shell like a Gemini, or even the deadly Raven Microcybernetics Black Raven Ghost.
The AI could present such a hazard V is forced to pretend to be it's friend as a matter of self preservation, or, maybe it could be an actual friend, and it was misunderstood way back when in the early days of AI?
Leaving such a scenario to sit in such a grey area could open doors to more quests involving the rogue, now free thanks to V, AI, for bad, worse, or, surprisingly beneficial.
Alternatively, the AI could be "weak" by AI standards; a relic from the dawn of Singularity, and potentially a quirky relic only considered "dangerous" by the standards of the time it was imprisioned and eventually forgotten. Freeing the AI, and having it download into a obsolete general use Full Body Conversion shell specially modified to house an AI, could offer a more game-balanced NPC character that could pose as an ally, become an enemy, get into trouble and call on V to bail it out, and/or get V into troubles by asking V to assist with with a series of tasks.
As previous, there's lots of potential for personality, especially with a quirky relic AI, and numerous associated additional quests, like, for instance, when the company that bought the company that absorbed the company and traded ownership several times that engineered this AI discovers, through ... reasons and methods, this old forgotten AI has gone missing and is now running around Night City in a robo-body, that company (pick one) might be VERY interested, if only on a risk assessment/liability factor level (at first) to see what's what about this forgotten tech.
There's lots of potential for additional play beyond the initial "Witcher" inside Cyberpunk.
Edit/update:
The above could also tie in to an earlier Story Line Suggestion.
The netrunner you get into contact with in the below (quoted) scenario is actually one of the old retired programmers that worked on this AI project, and one of the leads responsible for locking the rogue AI away in its virtual prison, and designing the VR for it.
That netrunner could be the one that points you to the AI locked away (not telling you its an AI), that triggers that quest, or, the AI, once saved, puts you on the hunt for this old programmer that's now an outlaw netrunner.
... now I'm beginning to wonder how I can piece together and tie all these suggestions I'm making into a one united serving with bits that fit them together.
Maybe Optimus Rhyme is a no-go as a silly thing, and the story that NPC has to tell is that he too was loosely associated with the AI project; perhaps his mother, and/or father worked for long-dead-and-gone company and he might have old files stashed away in a garage relating to that project.
Perhaps Optimus Rhyme is hesitant to help you and give you access to his parents old junk, but, if you help him out with something, like, perhaps do some favors for his younger brother that's an up-and-coming street racer (earlier street racer story line suggestion connection), he'll give you access to those files.
ideas ...
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