The canon conclusion to the 4rth Corporate War
In the V3 thread, we are discussing the outcome of the 4rth coporate war.... However, since V3 is going to be disregarded (like highlander 2), this discussion should really be its own thread... especially since most people (including me up until I went back and actually looked closer) seem to think it was this major catastrophic event.... when in actuality, the nuke at Arasaka tower had pretty minimal effects...
There are things to consider... although it would seem that changes are being made to the Shockwave finale... or perhaps whoever was giving the interview was mis-speaking or under-informed...
Here is Night City as presented in the full color map that came with the Sourcebook. The red highlighted portion is the area where the damage was limited.
At the end of the book Firestorm: Shockwave, it definitely describes the nuke as being underground, in the foundation of the building. The nuke itself doesn't seem to do any damage to the surrounding city, but the collapse of the towers causes the larger twin towers of Araska to fall 1 to fall nowrth east, the other to fall West and slightly north, over onto other buildings, causing massive damage to WNS, The Stock exchange, Marshals department store, a night club(presumably Rainbow Nights), the 10th street center, the West Plaza Executive Tower, and some abandoned Militech Facilities are all completely destroyed, Other buildings take massive damage from debris as the two smaller Arasaka towers collapse to the eats and south west... including the US Federal Building, The Japanese Consulate, and the Microtech and WNS Towers. The Damage caused by both nuke, and complex collapse, is detailed fully on page 133 of Firestorm Shockwave.
This map is a close up of the damage zone that shows the buildings destroyed or damaged by the event.
The Nuke caused the 4 Arasaka Towers to topple in an x formation outward. The large NW tower was the first to fall, then its twin, then the two smaller towers...
This map shows the path of destruction caused by the Buildings, RED is for the two larger towers, who pretty much obliterated what they fell over on, except for the FED and Consulate, which only substained massive damage, as opposed to outright deastrustion... Yellow is for the two smaller towers who managed massive damage, but did not destroy the buildings they impacted with.
During this fight, Johnny and Rache are confirmed dead. Thompson is grievously wounded, perhaps dead... Morgan and Adam Smasher are on the rooftop when the building collapses, and are presumed Dead. Saburo Arasaka has fled to Japan.
In the epilogue, Kei Arasaka, Saburo's heir, is forced to download his consciousness via Soulkiller into a digital prison by Rogue, Spider Murphy, and Shaitan.
Now... the important bits...
First, the nuke was detonated underground, it was a small low-yield device, primarily designed for excavation. As such, upon closer inspection, the damage from the nuke to the city is almost inconsequential. It was certainly NOT detonated at the top of the tower, if it was, all the iconic characters would be dead, as it is clearly stated to have been detonated while some were still on it, and others were hovering above.
Second, while the damage caused by the collapsing towers was heavy, it was not the major city destroying book described by V3, there is no way the body count reaches even a million.... It would be about triple the effects of 9-11, but really no more. There would be n need for a relocation of the city... and in fact the larger buildings could be, and would be repaired...
Arasaka would most likely spin it as a terrorist attack on their towers, and this would likely go unchallenged save for a few floating conspiracy theories. After all, the nuke itself was detonated, under orders from General Eddington of the United States Army, under orders from the POTUS. This is treason on an unimaginable scale... this is like if George Bush were directly responsible for 9-11 levels of treason... No one ever gets to Challenge Arasaka's claims that this was a terrorist attack.... and if Arasaka discovers themselves that the strike teams that attacked them were operating under military authority... Christ...
(See, this is why I dislike the conclusion, and really the idea of a corporate hot war of this scale altogether, from the firestorm books.... seriously what the fuck.... )
Anyway, if they do decide to include the 4rth corporate war, and I would honestly rather they just ignored it.... then this would explain why Arasaka is Still around, and still a powerhouse.
In total the death toll from this even would be somewhere between 1 and 5 thousand people. The explosion happened at night, after hours for most of these places. The most populated buildings that were destroyed would be of course Arasaka, the Japanese Consulate, Plaza West Tower and the night club. WNS and Microtech would see casualties at well, but weren't total losses. The other buildings destroyed were either empty or had skeleton crews at most. Non-essential Arasaka personell had already been sent home, expecting an attack. And even Plaza West and the Japanese Consulate would have far fewer people in the buildings than during the day.
So really, there is no reason for a relocation of the city... and in fact it makes little sense.
It's possible CDPR does not want to attempt the massive undertaking required to reconstruct the Night City map from the sourcebook (which any way you slice it is pretty disappointing)... and is using the 4rth corporate war as an excuse as to why the map looks so different... however it's not necessary, and makes little sense under the circumstances...
A quake would be a much more plausible reason for a massive change to the city, I am still dissapointed that the NC sourcebook is going to be completely tossed out and made irrelevant by this... but I understand that CDPR has limitations....
Regardless, if the 4rth corporate war is included, as they said it will be, it's effects in Night City are pretty minimal... and in the end, Arasaka won the corporate war... Saburo is still in charge afterwards, his Daughter Hanako is safe in Osaka at the family compound, his other son, Yurinobu was imprisoned with the soulkiller, and may or may not have been extracted fromt eh bulding, but with the loss of the virus, there is no way to put either him, or Alt, back into a body...so Hanako will be completely influenced by her father, and the loss of her brothers, both of whose deaths will be blamed on the terrorists/Militech/United States....
Militech on the other hand suffers major losses, its CEO, Donald Lundee is forced to all but dissolve the company, seeling off assets or relocating them, the company is devastated, and Lundee is seen as a traitor by the United States public. What is known to the general public is that Militech and Arasaka had been involved in covert operations with each other following the CINO-OTEC affair, then Militech initiated the Hot War by attacking an Arasaka instillation directly and openly. Militech is commonly seen as the aggressor in the affair, though they tried to play on patriotism and home team angles with the media... In the end, Militech comes out having sustained much heavier losses than Arasaka, both financially, resource wise, and from a public viewpoint... especially on a global scale.
In the V3 thread, we are discussing the outcome of the 4rth coporate war.... However, since V3 is going to be disregarded (like highlander 2), this discussion should really be its own thread... especially since most people (including me up until I went back and actually looked closer) seem to think it was this major catastrophic event.... when in actuality, the nuke at Arasaka tower had pretty minimal effects...
CDPR INTERVIEW said:"So what is the world in 2077. What will change?
The fourth corporate war in Cyberpunk 2020 ended with the detonation of a nuke on top of the Arasaka Tower, resulting in the entire corporate district being annihilated. We have the reconstruction of the buildings somewhere else. It is the same city, but it moved a little closer to the coast. You’ll find some legendary places like Afterlife. The corporations will also remain present – Arasaka, Dynalar, KiroshI etc, be sure to find them."
.
There are things to consider... although it would seem that changes are being made to the Shockwave finale... or perhaps whoever was giving the interview was mis-speaking or under-informed...
Here is Night City as presented in the full color map that came with the Sourcebook. The red highlighted portion is the area where the damage was limited.
At the end of the book Firestorm: Shockwave, it definitely describes the nuke as being underground, in the foundation of the building. The nuke itself doesn't seem to do any damage to the surrounding city, but the collapse of the towers causes the larger twin towers of Araska to fall 1 to fall nowrth east, the other to fall West and slightly north, over onto other buildings, causing massive damage to WNS, The Stock exchange, Marshals department store, a night club(presumably Rainbow Nights), the 10th street center, the West Plaza Executive Tower, and some abandoned Militech Facilities are all completely destroyed, Other buildings take massive damage from debris as the two smaller Arasaka towers collapse to the eats and south west... including the US Federal Building, The Japanese Consulate, and the Microtech and WNS Towers. The Damage caused by both nuke, and complex collapse, is detailed fully on page 133 of Firestorm Shockwave.
This map is a close up of the damage zone that shows the buildings destroyed or damaged by the event.
The Nuke caused the 4 Arasaka Towers to topple in an x formation outward. The large NW tower was the first to fall, then its twin, then the two smaller towers...
This map shows the path of destruction caused by the Buildings, RED is for the two larger towers, who pretty much obliterated what they fell over on, except for the FED and Consulate, which only substained massive damage, as opposed to outright deastrustion... Yellow is for the two smaller towers who managed massive damage, but did not destroy the buildings they impacted with.
During this fight, Johnny and Rache are confirmed dead. Thompson is grievously wounded, perhaps dead... Morgan and Adam Smasher are on the rooftop when the building collapses, and are presumed Dead. Saburo Arasaka has fled to Japan.
In the epilogue, Kei Arasaka, Saburo's heir, is forced to download his consciousness via Soulkiller into a digital prison by Rogue, Spider Murphy, and Shaitan.
Now... the important bits...
First, the nuke was detonated underground, it was a small low-yield device, primarily designed for excavation. As such, upon closer inspection, the damage from the nuke to the city is almost inconsequential. It was certainly NOT detonated at the top of the tower, if it was, all the iconic characters would be dead, as it is clearly stated to have been detonated while some were still on it, and others were hovering above.
Second, while the damage caused by the collapsing towers was heavy, it was not the major city destroying book described by V3, there is no way the body count reaches even a million.... It would be about triple the effects of 9-11, but really no more. There would be n need for a relocation of the city... and in fact the larger buildings could be, and would be repaired...
Arasaka would most likely spin it as a terrorist attack on their towers, and this would likely go unchallenged save for a few floating conspiracy theories. After all, the nuke itself was detonated, under orders from General Eddington of the United States Army, under orders from the POTUS. This is treason on an unimaginable scale... this is like if George Bush were directly responsible for 9-11 levels of treason... No one ever gets to Challenge Arasaka's claims that this was a terrorist attack.... and if Arasaka discovers themselves that the strike teams that attacked them were operating under military authority... Christ...
(See, this is why I dislike the conclusion, and really the idea of a corporate hot war of this scale altogether, from the firestorm books.... seriously what the fuck.... )
Anyway, if they do decide to include the 4rth corporate war, and I would honestly rather they just ignored it.... then this would explain why Arasaka is Still around, and still a powerhouse.
In total the death toll from this even would be somewhere between 1 and 5 thousand people. The explosion happened at night, after hours for most of these places. The most populated buildings that were destroyed would be of course Arasaka, the Japanese Consulate, Plaza West Tower and the night club. WNS and Microtech would see casualties at well, but weren't total losses. The other buildings destroyed were either empty or had skeleton crews at most. Non-essential Arasaka personell had already been sent home, expecting an attack. And even Plaza West and the Japanese Consulate would have far fewer people in the buildings than during the day.
So really, there is no reason for a relocation of the city... and in fact it makes little sense.
It's possible CDPR does not want to attempt the massive undertaking required to reconstruct the Night City map from the sourcebook (which any way you slice it is pretty disappointing)... and is using the 4rth corporate war as an excuse as to why the map looks so different... however it's not necessary, and makes little sense under the circumstances...
A quake would be a much more plausible reason for a massive change to the city, I am still dissapointed that the NC sourcebook is going to be completely tossed out and made irrelevant by this... but I understand that CDPR has limitations....
Regardless, if the 4rth corporate war is included, as they said it will be, it's effects in Night City are pretty minimal... and in the end, Arasaka won the corporate war... Saburo is still in charge afterwards, his Daughter Hanako is safe in Osaka at the family compound, his other son, Yurinobu was imprisoned with the soulkiller, and may or may not have been extracted fromt eh bulding, but with the loss of the virus, there is no way to put either him, or Alt, back into a body...so Hanako will be completely influenced by her father, and the loss of her brothers, both of whose deaths will be blamed on the terrorists/Militech/United States....
Militech on the other hand suffers major losses, its CEO, Donald Lundee is forced to all but dissolve the company, seeling off assets or relocating them, the company is devastated, and Lundee is seen as a traitor by the United States public. What is known to the general public is that Militech and Arasaka had been involved in covert operations with each other following the CINO-OTEC affair, then Militech initiated the Hot War by attacking an Arasaka instillation directly and openly. Militech is commonly seen as the aggressor in the affair, though they tried to play on patriotism and home team angles with the media... In the end, Militech comes out having sustained much heavier losses than Arasaka, both financially, resource wise, and from a public viewpoint... especially on a global scale.