Game Concept stuck in my brain:
* if it reads like a video script, it's because it is one
What if our choices affected more than the ending and a few side quests? How far can we push this, and still have a playable game?
You want “true immersion”? Make players accountable for their actions.
Give us Systemic Consequences.
**Systemic Consequences**
Here's how we build this system. Let'slook at one mission, the different ways we can go at it and how it impacts thegame.
We're in the prologue. Our character'sname is… B
We meet this Fixer, Padre… No wait… Madre.(genius). She's been having trouble with the Tyger Claws gang from a neighbourdistrict. She asks us to steal a breakthrough cyberdeck from Militech. Thatcrap is so OP it will make her gang almost invincible. She doesn't want to ruleover Night City, but she's hoping this will get the Tygers off her back. The tech is being moved to Max tac, tonight. So, this is our chance.
Scenario 1
Because we're a good boy, we go along with the quest and fetch the cyberware. When the head of the Tyger Claws gang calls us to offer a better deal for the cyberware, we say nah. Our word is our bond.
But because this is Cyberpunk, we mess up, end up with the cyberdeck in our dome and "little did we know", thatshit was still in testing phase because it's guaranteed to turn us into a cyberpsycho.
(Epic Music)
Roll the intro, welcome to cyberbunk2079…enjoy spending 50h talking to the 12 new voices in you heads and waking up from blackouts where you must discover all the horrible things you've done.
That is what I'd call The Loyalist mission choice. We did as we were told. Madre likes us. She'll give us the best merc missions available with a 15% bonus. Her goons are now a bit friendly.
The more missions we do for Madre, the friendlier her gang will be. The other NPC in this district will slowly start to acknowledge us, too. They'll remember our name and even tell us they've heard about our last job.
The Tyger Claws are a little salty so they're mildly hostile towards us when we're on their turf. They yell at us to go back to our neighborhood and if we stick to close to them, they might end up shooting.
That's the consequences of the Loyalist path.
But I want this quest to have 3 more options; Betray the fixer, ignore the fixer or kill the fixer. That's right, this is the FromSoft mechanic. Every NPC can be killed, and you can't reload to erase your mistakes. Those 3 options will impact more than just this quest. We'll see how in a minute.
So, let's jump right away to what I call the Assassin Path.
**Assassin Path**
We meet Madre and while she explains the plan, we screw up. We drop a nade at her feet by mistake and "she dead". The game saves automatically, you can't go back.
Oh, I'm sorry, is this too harsh? You wan tthe game to hold your hand? Assassin's Creed will do that for you. But not this game.
Going back to Madre's dismembered body.The people in the bar start screaming and running. Security tells us to pack our shit and leave. 10s later, if we're still here, they start shooting.
If we die here, the game auto saves again. We take a page of the old Demon Souls book, and we wake up to a changed world. Madre's goons drop us, near death, at the edge of the district. Saying we're not welcomed in Heywood anymore and we'll be shot on sight it we come back.
That's if we died. But if we left without trouble or shot our way out and cleaned house, a day later we get a call from Big Tony. He was Madre's 2nd and the new main Fixer in Heywood.
He tells us we're gonk for killing Madre for no reason and that we'll never work in this district again. These merc quests are locked for this playthrough and Madre's gangers are now hostile. Everytime we come back to this district, we might run into these guys, and every mission may turn into the wild west.
The Tyger Claws are neutral and becausethe Madre's gone, they see this as an opportunity. We'll see them raid this neighborhood from time to time to expand their territory. We'll see them patrolling around and we can lure the two gangs into fighting each other. Maybe even get the Tygers to clean a hide out for us.
Now, the Claws still call us to offer a deal on the cyberdeck and now it's our only option and mission, so we still get the cyberware. The major plot still happens.
Now, I know what you're thinking
What if by mistake I kill Big Tony too? And I gotta say, I like how you think.
Now this neighborhood is in chaos. With no true leader around, Madre's gang are getting invaded by the Claws. Remember thestart of Phantom liberty? That's what it looks like.
Burning cars, gang shootings all over theplace. Police officers can't handle it and we sometimes hear them curse who evers tarted this shit. When one of them gets shot we hear their partner scream"Jenkins!!! Dispatch 10-108 Officer Down oh my god Jenkins is dead!"
We really messed up this district
Now let's see the Betrayal path
**Betrayal Path**
So, we took Madre's job but when the TygerClaws offered more money we decided to do the job for them instead.
It doesn't matter who gives us the job, westill get the cyberware in the end. Now the Claws are friendly, and we getbetter merc jobs in their district.
Madre calls us. she says she understands"business is business" but warns us about what kind of merc we want to be. Night City does not forget.
She'll still hire us but only for dangerous and low paying merc jobs, now. And her men will be slightly hostile. We might hear some of them in the streets, yelling "hey, are you lost, pal?"
For a while, things aren't so bad. We make a couple jobs for her but eventually we fall into an ambush. Which mission? RANDOM. Each one has a hidden chance of being an ambush where we find ourselves in the middle of a death hole, surrounded by her goons.
If we make it, Madre calls us and says "You're tough, I'll give you that"). "But you're not welcomed in Heywood anymore. I'll give you one hour (in-game) to leave. Then you'll be chased out.
If on the other hand, we don't make it out, Madre's goons kick our ass to the curve. We wake up to a changed world. Wesbrook is hostile.
But what if we totally ignore Madre?
**The Walkaway Path**
You know how sometimes npcs give you"urgent quests" but they'll wait for you while you do 75 side quests."V, it's Panaam. Can you come, like now? I really need you're help. Itcan't wait"
Yeah, nah it did wait because you were allthe way across the map, and I cleaned 3 districts before I got back to you.
But that won't work here. Madre told us this needed to happen tonight while they're moving the tech. If we miss it, the mission is lost and the main plot advances in a different way.
So, let's say we got distracted. Ourfriend inside the Trauma Team warned us that they're planning on kidnapping kids tonight. Human trafficking. What? Yeah, business is bad and "yougotta do whatcha gotta do". But this will happen tonight. We can't do bothjobs.
Even when the Tygers call to offer us thejob, we say "nay, I got real shit happening man. I can't run around town playing fetch for you."
We can't allow Trauma Team to hurt kids, so we head out to sabotage their opperation. Shit hits the fan when we catchTrauma Team selling kids to Militech. We ignored the main quest, but it foundit's way back to us. So, we still end up with the cyberdeck.
The next day, Madre calls us. She's not thrilled we forgot to do the job for her, after we said we'd do it, but she heard about what we did and thanks us for saving kids in her district. We'l lstill get good jobs from her, but no bonus. Her guys are friendly.
Tyger Claws are still neutral.
This opens a whole new side quest chain against Trauma Team and their operations with Militech.
And because V, my bad… B chose to help make the city a better place instead of pursuing personal gain, this will reflect in his dialogue choices throughout the game. Because another thing that makes the world believable is the WHY behind our main character's choices.
**Morality???**
In Cyberpunk 2077, on many occasions, I wasn't satisfied with my dialogue options because none was really aligned withhow I was playing V.
What are B's motives? What does he want? V wanted to be the biggest merc of night city, or perhaps it was Jackie's dream, but it got passed on to us.
In this concept, I want each choice duringthat prologue mission to kickstart our character's motivations. But we don't get a big meter on the screen saying, "You've been a good boy, here's a nickel". No, this isn't 2004. This isn't Fable.
Each of the 4 paths will nudge you towardsa different set of values and morality, but it all happens under the hood. The only manifestation will be in our character's dialogues and the way the npc interact with us.
Like in Judy's quest, if we killed Hellman, Maiko calls us a murderer when we first meet her. This is a big deal in making the world feel alive.
It's not like Rogue mentioning T-Bug and Jackie, those were scripted. We didn't have to kill Hellman. We chose this.
NPCs react to things we've done in thepast because someone told them about it. They weren't there.
And the more we tip towards a certain kind of action, the more changes we'll see.
So, The Loyalist path will lead us to a B that wants recognition and seeks approval. He's following the rules of the streets in night city. When Madre approves of our work and says, "we'll do great business together", B will be relieved, like a kid when his dad says,"good job, son."
The Walkaway path hints at a characterthat doesn't care about this "legendary merc" status. He wants to build Night City up and create a better life for the people around him. He's selfless.
We'll have many occasions to choose the greater good instead of personal gain. By the end of the prologue, B will realize how messed up Night City is and that if no one's gonna do anything about it, he's gonna have to.
"You're friendly neighborhood…murdering merc."
The Betrayal path is the complete opposite. B wants money, not friends. He'll sell is friends if he must, but he's gonna be the richest merc in town. He wants money and the power that comes with it.
Betrayal choices will always get more money, but people will eventually stop trusting B and treat us like a tool. Our relationships will be very transactional. Madre would warn us of this path, saying "in Night City, if you got no one's back, no one's gonna have yours".
And the Assassin path paints a characterthat wants to take over night city. Being a merc is "small time". Hewants to rule it using fear and force if he needs to. If you've played PhantomLiberty, he wants to be like Hanson.
Now, killing one npc won't turn us into acomplete psycho on day one. But the more npc we off, the worst we'll get, until most of our dialogue options reflect this madness.
For example, if we dismembered Madre, BigTony would call us and ask "What the hell was that man?
Since this is still the prologue our character is still balanced in the morality meters, so we'd get answers ranging anywhere from:
- "I got scared and panicked. If I could take it back, I would"
All the way to:
- "Man, the old skunk had it coming. You think you can ask ME to work for YOU, man? You ain't got enough goons to hurt me, pal. Do your worst"
And there's no holding hand here. You don't get a big "careful, this convo choice is evil". No. You decide what your character says, and the game moves the morality meters accordingly. Killing someone then saying you're sorry doesn't drop your Assassin meter.
But saying “F. U. I’ll murder you!”, might add one more because you're obviously leaning into this path lol. But you don't see it pop up on the screen. You feel the character evolving.
**Life in Night City**
But I hear you. "Dialogue options, goons that like or don't like us, NPCs that get dismembered for no reason. Cool, but is that the best you got?"
Tough crowd. Alright, what about this:
Who's your favourite ripper doc? That's right, his name is… uh… Bic!
Bic's shop is linked to the state of Heywood, not the morality score.
As we do more of Madre's quests and increase her power, Bic gets better gear. Not because we've hit level 10 so maybe we should sell green shit now. He'll start selling legendary cyberware when we hit a certain completion level in Madre's quests. Let's say 90% AND Heywood is thriving (meaning Madre is alive and there's no all-out war with the Tyger Claws).
We can see him smoke a cig outside his shop from time to time and he's generally in a good mood. He'll eventually ask us to steal cyberware plans for him. Leading to legendary crafting recipes for us.
If Heywood is in total chaos and war state because we've deleted Madre and Big Tony, when we visit his shop, he's gone. If we hack his computer, we'll find a crypted note, saying he moved to a hide out. He left clues to find him but no address.
He'll sell black market, random AF stuff. Always a double edge sword (get 10% more RAM but increase DMG taken by 30%). He's in a scared and miserable state. BTW, nobody tells you to hack his pc. Yougotta figure it out on your own.
If the game tells you to, you'll forget this quest every existed. If it doesn't, 3 weeks after the launch, someone will post on Reddit saying, "Have you ever hacked Bic's computer?" This is what we want.
Now if Madre's dead but Big Tony, her second, is alive. That means the Claws are patrolling Heywood, looking to stir shit up but it's not total chaos. We'll eventually walk on Bic getting extorted by the Tyger Claws.
We’re, off course, gonna have a few ways to deal with this situation. 1) Kill them on site and possibly make it worst. 2) Pretend we didn't see anything and leave. Bic won't be happy about that or 3) try to cool off the Tygers. For which they'll probably ask us a big favor, like an impossible heist or to clean a hideout filled with 100 rival gangmembers.
In that scenario, Bic's stock will be mid. No legendary stuff.
If we were more on the walkaway path and both gangs are fairly neutral, Bic's shop is stable but nothing special.
If we did the Trauma Team side quest during the prologue, he'll eventually call us saying they came by and were very aggressively looking for us. He doesn't want to betray us, but he can't keep them at bay forever.
Bam, Trauma Team quest part 2.
You see, if Heywood's neutral or thriving, we don't get the "find Bic's hideout" secret mission, and the Tyger Claws don't try to extort him. These missions only happen as consequences of our actions.
NCPD quests
Now, this is just Bic and his shop. Imagine what we could do with other NPCs and side quests in the district. Take the NCPD mini quests for example.
When Heywood is thriving, we get regular jobs; bag and tag a criminal, recover some data or intimidate a punk teenager to steer him away from a life of crime. Easy stuff.
But if the district is in a chaotic state,the cops can't handle it. We gotta help them in all out shootouts, rescue cops taken as hostages or deal with gangers that are throwing civilians out of their homes to use them as temporary HQ. Heywood is ablaze and it's our fault.
And this is just one fixer, one district, one npc vendor. Imagine how deep this will get once we start adding more. What happens to food vendors in the area? Do we see more or less cops walking around? Are they still walking all stiff, like their AI hasn't kicked in yet? Or are they more careful, always watching their backs?
Maybe they’re always in pairs. Never get out of the car unless they're in full swat gear.
And none of this is linked with the morality system. It changes as our relationships with the Fixers evolve. It affects the balance between the districts. They can't all be thriving. There are no good endings in Night City.
So, let's say we went full psycho Assassin mode, Madre's dead and Heywood is burning. We even killed Bic, cause why not .But if we've advanced the Tyger Claws quests enough, their district is tip top. The vendors over there are thriving, cops are chilling.
It's not only a matter of, “you're a dick, so the whole world is ending”. It's not that simple. Night City does not revolve around us. But we can tip the balance if we want to, or if we mess up lol.
And suddenly, fixer jobs aren’t just xp boosts anymore. They’re building the world around us.
And don't tell me that a game like this is impossible. If the focus is to have a map that's "4 times bigger than the last game" and that every town has a guard with a line that ends with "but then I took an arrow to the knee", yeah maybe THEN it's impossible. Make your game a little smaller but make it real.
We have enough "big games". It's not enough, not anymore.
We can't make cities feel real by adding 500 brain dead, no name npcs on every street corner.
**What we want**
Cyberpunk had many cool mechanics. Double jumps and air dashing, Tech weapons that shoot lightning and arms that let us cosplay as Mantis. But ultimately this isn't why we keep coming back. It's that world and the characters they've created, that make this game so special.
Make a game with a deep Consequences System and choices that are linked to the main character's desires and motivation. Make our actions affect more than the ending but also the state ofevery district and it's NPCs.
That would be "the RPG experienced".
CDR raised the bar with Witcher 3, and people are still talking about it.
Give us the Cyberpunk 2 I know you can do and take your time too lol. Push back the launch as much as you need to, Idon't care. I'll wait. F your investors, they don't play games. They don't care if you launch a broken game. They don't write 3000 words video essays about your game. But we do. We care.
* if it reads like a video script, it's because it is one
What if our choices affected more than the ending and a few side quests? How far can we push this, and still have a playable game?
You want “true immersion”? Make players accountable for their actions.
Give us Systemic Consequences.
**Systemic Consequences**
Here's how we build this system. Let'slook at one mission, the different ways we can go at it and how it impacts thegame.
We're in the prologue. Our character'sname is… B
We meet this Fixer, Padre… No wait… Madre.(genius). She's been having trouble with the Tyger Claws gang from a neighbourdistrict. She asks us to steal a breakthrough cyberdeck from Militech. Thatcrap is so OP it will make her gang almost invincible. She doesn't want to ruleover Night City, but she's hoping this will get the Tygers off her back. The tech is being moved to Max tac, tonight. So, this is our chance.
Scenario 1
Because we're a good boy, we go along with the quest and fetch the cyberware. When the head of the Tyger Claws gang calls us to offer a better deal for the cyberware, we say nah. Our word is our bond.
But because this is Cyberpunk, we mess up, end up with the cyberdeck in our dome and "little did we know", thatshit was still in testing phase because it's guaranteed to turn us into a cyberpsycho.
(Epic Music)
Roll the intro, welcome to cyberbunk2079…enjoy spending 50h talking to the 12 new voices in you heads and waking up from blackouts where you must discover all the horrible things you've done.
That is what I'd call The Loyalist mission choice. We did as we were told. Madre likes us. She'll give us the best merc missions available with a 15% bonus. Her goons are now a bit friendly.
The more missions we do for Madre, the friendlier her gang will be. The other NPC in this district will slowly start to acknowledge us, too. They'll remember our name and even tell us they've heard about our last job.
The Tyger Claws are a little salty so they're mildly hostile towards us when we're on their turf. They yell at us to go back to our neighborhood and if we stick to close to them, they might end up shooting.
That's the consequences of the Loyalist path.
But I want this quest to have 3 more options; Betray the fixer, ignore the fixer or kill the fixer. That's right, this is the FromSoft mechanic. Every NPC can be killed, and you can't reload to erase your mistakes. Those 3 options will impact more than just this quest. We'll see how in a minute.
So, let's jump right away to what I call the Assassin Path.
**Assassin Path**
We meet Madre and while she explains the plan, we screw up. We drop a nade at her feet by mistake and "she dead". The game saves automatically, you can't go back.
Oh, I'm sorry, is this too harsh? You wan tthe game to hold your hand? Assassin's Creed will do that for you. But not this game.
Going back to Madre's dismembered body.The people in the bar start screaming and running. Security tells us to pack our shit and leave. 10s later, if we're still here, they start shooting.
If we die here, the game auto saves again. We take a page of the old Demon Souls book, and we wake up to a changed world. Madre's goons drop us, near death, at the edge of the district. Saying we're not welcomed in Heywood anymore and we'll be shot on sight it we come back.
That's if we died. But if we left without trouble or shot our way out and cleaned house, a day later we get a call from Big Tony. He was Madre's 2nd and the new main Fixer in Heywood.
He tells us we're gonk for killing Madre for no reason and that we'll never work in this district again. These merc quests are locked for this playthrough and Madre's gangers are now hostile. Everytime we come back to this district, we might run into these guys, and every mission may turn into the wild west.
The Tyger Claws are neutral and becausethe Madre's gone, they see this as an opportunity. We'll see them raid this neighborhood from time to time to expand their territory. We'll see them patrolling around and we can lure the two gangs into fighting each other. Maybe even get the Tygers to clean a hide out for us.
Now, the Claws still call us to offer a deal on the cyberdeck and now it's our only option and mission, so we still get the cyberware. The major plot still happens.
Now, I know what you're thinking
What if by mistake I kill Big Tony too? And I gotta say, I like how you think.
Now this neighborhood is in chaos. With no true leader around, Madre's gang are getting invaded by the Claws. Remember thestart of Phantom liberty? That's what it looks like.
Burning cars, gang shootings all over theplace. Police officers can't handle it and we sometimes hear them curse who evers tarted this shit. When one of them gets shot we hear their partner scream"Jenkins!!! Dispatch 10-108 Officer Down oh my god Jenkins is dead!"
We really messed up this district
Now let's see the Betrayal path
**Betrayal Path**
So, we took Madre's job but when the TygerClaws offered more money we decided to do the job for them instead.
It doesn't matter who gives us the job, westill get the cyberware in the end. Now the Claws are friendly, and we getbetter merc jobs in their district.
Madre calls us. she says she understands"business is business" but warns us about what kind of merc we want to be. Night City does not forget.
She'll still hire us but only for dangerous and low paying merc jobs, now. And her men will be slightly hostile. We might hear some of them in the streets, yelling "hey, are you lost, pal?"
For a while, things aren't so bad. We make a couple jobs for her but eventually we fall into an ambush. Which mission? RANDOM. Each one has a hidden chance of being an ambush where we find ourselves in the middle of a death hole, surrounded by her goons.
If we make it, Madre calls us and says "You're tough, I'll give you that"). "But you're not welcomed in Heywood anymore. I'll give you one hour (in-game) to leave. Then you'll be chased out.
If on the other hand, we don't make it out, Madre's goons kick our ass to the curve. We wake up to a changed world. Wesbrook is hostile.
But what if we totally ignore Madre?
**The Walkaway Path**
You know how sometimes npcs give you"urgent quests" but they'll wait for you while you do 75 side quests."V, it's Panaam. Can you come, like now? I really need you're help. Itcan't wait"
Yeah, nah it did wait because you were allthe way across the map, and I cleaned 3 districts before I got back to you.
But that won't work here. Madre told us this needed to happen tonight while they're moving the tech. If we miss it, the mission is lost and the main plot advances in a different way.
So, let's say we got distracted. Ourfriend inside the Trauma Team warned us that they're planning on kidnapping kids tonight. Human trafficking. What? Yeah, business is bad and "yougotta do whatcha gotta do". But this will happen tonight. We can't do bothjobs.
Even when the Tygers call to offer us thejob, we say "nay, I got real shit happening man. I can't run around town playing fetch for you."
We can't allow Trauma Team to hurt kids, so we head out to sabotage their opperation. Shit hits the fan when we catchTrauma Team selling kids to Militech. We ignored the main quest, but it foundit's way back to us. So, we still end up with the cyberdeck.
The next day, Madre calls us. She's not thrilled we forgot to do the job for her, after we said we'd do it, but she heard about what we did and thanks us for saving kids in her district. We'l lstill get good jobs from her, but no bonus. Her guys are friendly.
Tyger Claws are still neutral.
This opens a whole new side quest chain against Trauma Team and their operations with Militech.
And because V, my bad… B chose to help make the city a better place instead of pursuing personal gain, this will reflect in his dialogue choices throughout the game. Because another thing that makes the world believable is the WHY behind our main character's choices.
**Morality???**
In Cyberpunk 2077, on many occasions, I wasn't satisfied with my dialogue options because none was really aligned withhow I was playing V.
What are B's motives? What does he want? V wanted to be the biggest merc of night city, or perhaps it was Jackie's dream, but it got passed on to us.
In this concept, I want each choice duringthat prologue mission to kickstart our character's motivations. But we don't get a big meter on the screen saying, "You've been a good boy, here's a nickel". No, this isn't 2004. This isn't Fable.
Each of the 4 paths will nudge you towardsa different set of values and morality, but it all happens under the hood. The only manifestation will be in our character's dialogues and the way the npc interact with us.
Like in Judy's quest, if we killed Hellman, Maiko calls us a murderer when we first meet her. This is a big deal in making the world feel alive.
It's not like Rogue mentioning T-Bug and Jackie, those were scripted. We didn't have to kill Hellman. We chose this.
NPCs react to things we've done in thepast because someone told them about it. They weren't there.
And the more we tip towards a certain kind of action, the more changes we'll see.
So, The Loyalist path will lead us to a B that wants recognition and seeks approval. He's following the rules of the streets in night city. When Madre approves of our work and says, "we'll do great business together", B will be relieved, like a kid when his dad says,"good job, son."
The Walkaway path hints at a characterthat doesn't care about this "legendary merc" status. He wants to build Night City up and create a better life for the people around him. He's selfless.
We'll have many occasions to choose the greater good instead of personal gain. By the end of the prologue, B will realize how messed up Night City is and that if no one's gonna do anything about it, he's gonna have to.
"You're friendly neighborhood…murdering merc."
The Betrayal path is the complete opposite. B wants money, not friends. He'll sell is friends if he must, but he's gonna be the richest merc in town. He wants money and the power that comes with it.
Betrayal choices will always get more money, but people will eventually stop trusting B and treat us like a tool. Our relationships will be very transactional. Madre would warn us of this path, saying "in Night City, if you got no one's back, no one's gonna have yours".
And the Assassin path paints a characterthat wants to take over night city. Being a merc is "small time". Hewants to rule it using fear and force if he needs to. If you've played PhantomLiberty, he wants to be like Hanson.
Now, killing one npc won't turn us into acomplete psycho on day one. But the more npc we off, the worst we'll get, until most of our dialogue options reflect this madness.
For example, if we dismembered Madre, BigTony would call us and ask "What the hell was that man?
Since this is still the prologue our character is still balanced in the morality meters, so we'd get answers ranging anywhere from:
- "I got scared and panicked. If I could take it back, I would"
All the way to:
- "Man, the old skunk had it coming. You think you can ask ME to work for YOU, man? You ain't got enough goons to hurt me, pal. Do your worst"
And there's no holding hand here. You don't get a big "careful, this convo choice is evil". No. You decide what your character says, and the game moves the morality meters accordingly. Killing someone then saying you're sorry doesn't drop your Assassin meter.
But saying “F. U. I’ll murder you!”, might add one more because you're obviously leaning into this path lol. But you don't see it pop up on the screen. You feel the character evolving.
**Life in Night City**
But I hear you. "Dialogue options, goons that like or don't like us, NPCs that get dismembered for no reason. Cool, but is that the best you got?"
Tough crowd. Alright, what about this:
Who's your favourite ripper doc? That's right, his name is… uh… Bic!
Bic's shop is linked to the state of Heywood, not the morality score.
As we do more of Madre's quests and increase her power, Bic gets better gear. Not because we've hit level 10 so maybe we should sell green shit now. He'll start selling legendary cyberware when we hit a certain completion level in Madre's quests. Let's say 90% AND Heywood is thriving (meaning Madre is alive and there's no all-out war with the Tyger Claws).
We can see him smoke a cig outside his shop from time to time and he's generally in a good mood. He'll eventually ask us to steal cyberware plans for him. Leading to legendary crafting recipes for us.
If Heywood is in total chaos and war state because we've deleted Madre and Big Tony, when we visit his shop, he's gone. If we hack his computer, we'll find a crypted note, saying he moved to a hide out. He left clues to find him but no address.
He'll sell black market, random AF stuff. Always a double edge sword (get 10% more RAM but increase DMG taken by 30%). He's in a scared and miserable state. BTW, nobody tells you to hack his pc. Yougotta figure it out on your own.
If the game tells you to, you'll forget this quest every existed. If it doesn't, 3 weeks after the launch, someone will post on Reddit saying, "Have you ever hacked Bic's computer?" This is what we want.
Now if Madre's dead but Big Tony, her second, is alive. That means the Claws are patrolling Heywood, looking to stir shit up but it's not total chaos. We'll eventually walk on Bic getting extorted by the Tyger Claws.
We’re, off course, gonna have a few ways to deal with this situation. 1) Kill them on site and possibly make it worst. 2) Pretend we didn't see anything and leave. Bic won't be happy about that or 3) try to cool off the Tygers. For which they'll probably ask us a big favor, like an impossible heist or to clean a hideout filled with 100 rival gangmembers.
In that scenario, Bic's stock will be mid. No legendary stuff.
If we were more on the walkaway path and both gangs are fairly neutral, Bic's shop is stable but nothing special.
If we did the Trauma Team side quest during the prologue, he'll eventually call us saying they came by and were very aggressively looking for us. He doesn't want to betray us, but he can't keep them at bay forever.
Bam, Trauma Team quest part 2.
You see, if Heywood's neutral or thriving, we don't get the "find Bic's hideout" secret mission, and the Tyger Claws don't try to extort him. These missions only happen as consequences of our actions.
NCPD quests
Now, this is just Bic and his shop. Imagine what we could do with other NPCs and side quests in the district. Take the NCPD mini quests for example.
When Heywood is thriving, we get regular jobs; bag and tag a criminal, recover some data or intimidate a punk teenager to steer him away from a life of crime. Easy stuff.
But if the district is in a chaotic state,the cops can't handle it. We gotta help them in all out shootouts, rescue cops taken as hostages or deal with gangers that are throwing civilians out of their homes to use them as temporary HQ. Heywood is ablaze and it's our fault.
And this is just one fixer, one district, one npc vendor. Imagine how deep this will get once we start adding more. What happens to food vendors in the area? Do we see more or less cops walking around? Are they still walking all stiff, like their AI hasn't kicked in yet? Or are they more careful, always watching their backs?
Maybe they’re always in pairs. Never get out of the car unless they're in full swat gear.
And none of this is linked with the morality system. It changes as our relationships with the Fixers evolve. It affects the balance between the districts. They can't all be thriving. There are no good endings in Night City.
So, let's say we went full psycho Assassin mode, Madre's dead and Heywood is burning. We even killed Bic, cause why not .But if we've advanced the Tyger Claws quests enough, their district is tip top. The vendors over there are thriving, cops are chilling.
It's not only a matter of, “you're a dick, so the whole world is ending”. It's not that simple. Night City does not revolve around us. But we can tip the balance if we want to, or if we mess up lol.
And suddenly, fixer jobs aren’t just xp boosts anymore. They’re building the world around us.
And don't tell me that a game like this is impossible. If the focus is to have a map that's "4 times bigger than the last game" and that every town has a guard with a line that ends with "but then I took an arrow to the knee", yeah maybe THEN it's impossible. Make your game a little smaller but make it real.
We have enough "big games". It's not enough, not anymore.
We can't make cities feel real by adding 500 brain dead, no name npcs on every street corner.
**What we want**
Cyberpunk had many cool mechanics. Double jumps and air dashing, Tech weapons that shoot lightning and arms that let us cosplay as Mantis. But ultimately this isn't why we keep coming back. It's that world and the characters they've created, that make this game so special.
Make a game with a deep Consequences System and choices that are linked to the main character's desires and motivation. Make our actions affect more than the ending but also the state ofevery district and it's NPCs.
That would be "the RPG experienced".
CDR raised the bar with Witcher 3, and people are still talking about it.
Give us the Cyberpunk 2 I know you can do and take your time too lol. Push back the launch as much as you need to, Idon't care. I'll wait. F your investors, they don't play games. They don't care if you launch a broken game. They don't write 3000 words video essays about your game. But we do. We care.