Upper Limit of Tech

+
Upper Limit of Tech

So. This is ACPA - Assisted Combat Personnel Armour.

View attachment 538

It -does- look awesome, doesn't it? The question you're perhaps asking yourself is, "how is THAT Cyberpunk? Where is the grit?"

Good questions! The presence of Powered Armour - and satellite Killsats, energy weapons, androids/replicants, all that fun stuff - is a matter of some debate among CPunk players and Refs.

At what point is too much, too much? When do you lose the Street and end up in Gundam? Should we see or have ACPA? Should man-portable plasma cannon be an option? True cloak technology? And yet we have full-body conversions.

Thoughts?

Edit: Picture now a Russian Arms Boris. Kilravok lambasted me for my earlier laziness. I cried. HAPPY NOW?
 

Attachments

  • Boris.jpg
    Boris.jpg
    81.9 KB · Views: 875
So. This is ACPA - Assisted Combat Personnel Armour.

View attachment 263

It -does- look awesome, doesn't it? The question you're perhaps asking yourself is, "how is THAT Cyberpunk? Where is the grit?"

Good questions! The presence of Powered Armour - and satellite Killsats, energy weapons, androids/replicants, all that fun stuff - is a matter of some debate among CPunk players and Refs.

At what point is too much, too much? When do you lose the Street and end up in Gundam? Should we see or have ACPA? Should man-portable plasma cannon be an option? True cloak technology? And yet we have full-body conversions.

Thoughts?

It's a hard question to answer.

If the tech goes too far it definitely loses the feeling of cyberpunk... hence the problem with Firestorm. But at the same time, these things do exist in the game, but unless the players are cops, or military, they are very very very rare, even to the most high end pro's.

ACPA and hardsuits.... I do want to see them in the game, but not until pretty much the very end... they are so high leveled that they should be there only for the climax.... you should be able to get them however, and play with them all you want after the game is over and you just wanna run around the city.

Laser weapons I would leave out... they are pretty much military issue only, and even then generally only used in orbital enveironments. Insanely expensive and insanely rare.

This also puts Laser Kill sats right out, since that is really something that should be restricted to the highest levels of military gaming possible.

Androids.... I just find them goofy.

Hell even some of the larger conventional weapons should be left out... but that's just personal taste. 90% of my players characters have never seen an ACPA outside of C-Swat or the occasional Linear frame used for construction.
 
I think there should be a limit to what a player can feasibly get, and also a limit to what kind of tech is around.

As for powered armors (BTW, that picture is a Heavy Gear, I think type Jaeger...a mech, not just an armor)...I am certain exoskeletons work as "unarmored" powered armors. They are already these days experimenting with functional exoskeletons, the next step really is just slapping some plating on it, give it an engine and VR controls and mount an over-sized gun or two....powered armor.....and if you need bigger guns and more armor, you scale it up, exchange the VR controls for a cockpit Heavy Gear/Patlabour/ADPolice, or seperate the VR controls from the limbs allowing the machine to hold an over-sized gun while the pilot holds a normal gun of same type (Appleseed...but without the flying...even in CyberPunk, anty-grav and maglev modules are not that small)...technologically, if nano surgeons and brain implants can be mass-produced, then powered armors, hardsuits and mechas are not a problem....But it still might/would break the feel and theme of the world....maybe limit those things to strictly military use and only outside of cities.....
 
It -does- look awesome, doesn't it? The question you're perhaps asking yourself is, "how is THAT Cyberpunk? Where is the grit?"

Good questions! The presence of Powered Armour - and satellite Killsats, energy weapons, androids/replicants, all that fun stuff - is a matter of some debate among CPunk players and Refs.

Wait what, how is that even a debate?
Just because it exists in the world doesn't mean you -HAVE- to get it nor does it mean that you even -COULD- get it.
Consider it being a military unit only. It even sorta resemble somewhat the landmate of the Appleseed.

What says that this is not gritty?
 
I think there should be a limit to what a player can feasibly get, and also a limit to what kind of tech is around.

As for powered armors (BTW, that picture is a Heavy Gear, I think type Jaeger...a mech, not just an armor)...I am certain exoskeletons work as "unarmored" powered armors. They are already these days experimenting with functional exoskeletons, the next step really is just slapping some plating on it, give it an engine and VR controls and mount an over-sized gun or two....powered armor.....and if you need bigger guns and more armor, you scale it up, exchange the VR controls for a cockpit Heavy Gear/Patlabour/ADPolice, or seperate the VR controls from the limbs allowing the machine to hold an over-sized gun while the pilot holds a normal gun of same type (Appleseed...but without the flying...even in CyberPunk, anty-grav and maglev modules are not that small)...technologically, if nano surgeons and brain implants can be mass-produced, then powered armors, hardsuits and mechas are not a problem....But it still might/would break the feel and theme of the world....maybe limit those things to strictly military use and only outside of cities.....

Dig your whole post, however I will say, if it appears in the game, players should be able to get their hands on it and keep it, even if doing so is next to impossible...

I erally really bloody hate it when a weapon, or vehicle, or clothing item, or whatever shows up, and its just impossible to get your hands on.... I cannot tell you how much was spent in SR2 getting all the missions specific vehicles through glitches, wierd co-op play, and or even jumping out of a helicopter to land on another helicopter, so you could pilot it back to your garage... all while getting shot at relentlessly by the other choppers...

In SR3 the only mission specific vehicle like that you can get is the Turretless N-Forcer, and I am proud to have been the one to figure out how to get it first... but not being able to get the syndicate condor, or the purple saints choppers, or the deckers apc's... or even the gimp cart... just really bloody sucked.....
 
Everyone aspires to ascend the heavens, and to dwell in the Crystal Palace.

Almost no one makes it, though. I'm fine with ACPA or other ultra-high tech being in the game, as long as it's nigh-impossible to obtain. ACPA, and other ultra tech, should be the "big stick deterrent" that Saburo Arasaka and Militech uses to keep players in line.

Everyone can feel like they're King of Night City... until the Punknaught they're in gets vaporized (with them in it) by a squadron of military trim AV-8 aerodynes.
 
It looks like extremely good and not good at the same time.But if I do see something like that in the street like a old cop watching some street and the feeling of the NC having both old and new technological aspect living in the same world. It does look GOOD but being that me?...no thanks.
 
Everyone aspires to ascend the heavens, and to dwell in the Crystal Palace.

Almost no one makes it, though. I'm fine with ACPA or other ultra-high tech being in the game, as long as it's nigh-impossible to obtain. ACPA, and other ultra tech, should be the "big stick deterrent" that Saburo Arasaka and Militech uses to keep players in line.

Everyone can feel like they're King of Night City... until the Punknaught they're in gets vaporized (with them in it) by a squadron of military trim AV-8 aerodynes.

If AV-8's show in the game then they damn well better let me grab one, no matter how hard it is to do... cause those things are just bloody sexy....

 
If AV-8's show in the game then they damn well better let me grab one, no matter how hard it is to do... cause those things are just bloody sexy....


God, yes. But then you've read my posts blathering on about fun things to do in Aerodynes.

AV-8s should have some pretty serious encrypted VR-only lockout. I can see players never being able to get or fly one for the same reason I can't just hijack an F-35, as well.

Now, what about energy weapons. They are in the base game, of course you know that, Wisdom. They just suck. CDPR has said there are goingt o be more in 2077, but do you see them as serious contenders to chemical weapons by then? Would blue-light across your screen everywhere take you away from your Cpunk feel?
 
If you ARE able to get a hold of military-grade tech, there should then be the ADDITIONAL problem of where to store it. Obviously, if you're living in a coffin hotel out by the docks, or a crappy safehouse somewhere in the Zone, it doesn't exactly behoove you to park it on the street...

Agreed with Wisdom's comment earlier; things like getting yer grubby hands on an AV or an ACPA should be near end-game loot. Being able to (successfully!) get your hands on this kind of tech right out of the gate would be WAAAY unbalancing.
 
Well. Unless they go with a more Applessed-style Landmate approach. landmates are much weaker than ACPA, you can pop them without too much trouble with man portable weapons if you do a ittle bit of prep.

ACPA is hard to drop because a) stupid high SP and b) inherent Toughness.

If they made them more fragile, they could actually be kind of fun to whip around in and fight.

But would they make it a more..Heavy Gears style game and less Cyberpunk if you could flit around in Powered Armour?
 
God, yes. But then you've read my posts blathering on about fun things to do in Aerodynes.

AV-8s should have some pretty serious encrypted VR-only lockout. I can see players never being able to get or fly one for the same reason I can't just hijack an F-35, as well.

Now, what about energy weapons. They are in the base game, of course you know that, Wisdom. They just suck. CDPR has said there are goingt o be more in 2077, but do you see them as serious contenders to chemical weapons by then? Would blue-light across your screen everywhere take you away from your Cpunk feel?

If it is impossible for the player to get them or keep them, then they really shouldn't appear in the game.... SR2 spoiled me for that...

As for energy weapons... well I think they are a bit goofy.... C-SWAT with a pulse rifle makes sense, and I wouldn;t really blink on that one too much, but the laser rifles... leave that shit in space... and if it does appear, it should be more like Akira laser weapons than any star wars or star trek bullshit.

If you ARE able to get a hold of military-grade tech, there should then be the ADDITIONAL problem of where to store it. Obviously, if you're living in a coffin hotel out by the docks, or a crappy safehouse somewhere in the Zone, it doesn't exactly behoove you to park it on the street...

Agreed with Wisdom's comment earlier; things like getting yer grubby hands on an AV or an ACPA should be near end-game loot. Being able to (successfully!) get your hands on this kind of tech right out of the gate would be WAAAY unbalancing.


Amen to that. But having a hanger somewhere would be pretty nice... after all, you don't want to park your AV-7 Swan on the ground either... think of the enighbors... who will steal your shit....
 
Now, what about energy weapons. They are in the base game, of course you know that, Wisdom. They just suck. CDPR has said there are goingt o be more in 2077, but do you see them as serious contenders to chemical weapons by then? Would blue-light across your screen everywhere take you away from your Cpunk feel?
<-- not Wisdom, but answering anyways. =p

I'd be fine with more / new energy weapons, and again, if they're difficult to obtain. EVEN IF you're able to put down that Militech security squad and not get killed in the process of getting away, I'd imagine that the weapons would have a smartgun interface security system, so the weapons are chipped to a particular code-key or user. Which THEN would introduce the problem of trying to make the weapons functional in the dirty hands of the players.

...the laser rifles... leave that shit in space... and if it does appear, it should be more like Akira laser weapons than any star wars or star trek bullshit.
/co-signed

...having a hanger somewhere would be pretty nice... after all, you don't want to park your AV-7 Swan on the ground either... think of the enighbors... who will steal your shit....
Fo' real!!
 
It was for anyone, not just Wisdom, of course.

I have no problem with being unable to obtain certaint hings in game - I don't get to have that building or the plane far above me or a bank account at the bank. Lots of things I see in games I can't have.

Same for real life.

In fact, when games like SR2 and GTA let me just hop in and fly, I wince. I've flown a bit and you know what? It's hard. I can sort-of forgive the whole "I'm an incredible shot!" crap if that's the character, but who learns to fly a single-engined fixed wing as a gangster?!

Anyway.

Not to say I wouldn't like to fly an AV-8, I just don't have a sense of entitlement to whatever game asset I see. UNLIKE SOMEONE I KNOW.
 
Actually. PnP-wise, you can't really boost ACPA. Its coded to each individual wearer. You would need to somehow magically hack in and even if you did, the whole thing is set up for someone else...I'm not sure they are hijackeable without weeks of effort in the PnP. I'd have to look up my Maximum Metal, though.

Encryption - outside of Hollywood, it's actually pretty hard to beat. Impossible, depending on application. You can work around it, though. Hel-LO Jury Rig.
 
Encryption - outside of Hollywood, it's actually pretty hard to beat. Impossible, depending on application.
Depends on who you know.

The average New Jack in the game, though, probably wouldn't / shouldn't have those kinds of skills / resources, though.
 
Yeah, see...encrpytion is an Arms Race and the code-makers are almost always ahead. WAY ahead.

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/ou/is-encryption-really-crackable/204

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/news/researchers_crack_923-bit_encryption_set_new_world_record

Are a couple good points. Note how long it took to crack the 923-bit - 148 days - by some of the best in the world, using 21 computers and top of the line minds.

So you'd need a bypass of some kind, I'd expect. And given the complexity of the VR interface in future military craft, well. WELL.
 
Not to say I wouldn't like to fly an AV-8, I just don't have a sense of entitlement to whatever game asset I see. UNLIKE SOMEONE I KNOW.

Man whoever that guy is sure must be an arse.,... we should string his ass up.... the wanker
 
Top Bottom