Why does this lame fixer system still exist in this game?

[BlackGhost1267]

I know they reworked the gig progression a while ago, but if you ask me, it's still a pretty bad system. In some ways, it's even worse than the original, open-ended system at launch.

Say what ya want about the original launch system, but at least it was an open-ended system, meaning the player is never forced to do gigs they don't want to do just to do gigs they do want to do. Sure, the "Ubisoft syndrome" this caused all over the map was an issue, but the reworked system doesn't exactly solve that problem either, just cuts down on it. They just took the open-ended, player-choice of the original system and turned it into a more linear progression system, which you could argue is a downgrade for an open-world game.

Not to mention that it practically removes the one and only functionality the fixers had in this game, which was talking to them to at least reveal what kind of gig the icons on the map were before activating them. Now that gigs are served up piece-meal style, talking to fixers to find out what type of gig it is before activation is inconsistent at best. Exhausting all of Regina's dialogue revealed every gig in every wave of her progression for me, (save for the new ones they added post-launch) while talking to someone like Dakota did jack-sh**. Other fixers like Wako only revealed the current wave I was on and not the next wave, so something is clearly not right or consistent between the fixers. And that was literally the only FUNCTIONAL reason you'd ever actually want to talk to any of them. Now that that's borked, they literally serve as little more than talking heads on the map that the player could give less of a damn about, which is a step backward if you ask me, especially if you have to keep engaging in the same dialogue we've had since launch for multiple waves of jobs just to reveal the gig type each wave.

What really confuses me is that I think there is, and always has been, a much better way to handle the gig system, and it's always been to let the player call/talk to the fixer for work. It still baffles me that they went through the trouble of turning the system into a linear progression system but still have the fixers just randomly call you up every time you walk into the trigger. Sure, they added the function to just ignore the call with a hold of a button, (even more so added a switch in the menus to just auto-ignore it all together, which I find laughable) but that doesn't really solve the issue of how unimmersive a sequence of events like that is in the first place, and it still doesn't get rid of the text message the fixer sends you right after.

Why even have phone calls/dialogue of the fixer explaining the details of the gig to you in the first place if they're so sloppily implemented like this? To the point where players find the phone call for the gig details more annoying than immersive that you felt the need to add an auto-skip phone call function? Having the player call/talk to the fixer to ask for work would literally solve all of these issues.

1. It would remove the need of having to uselessly engage in small talk with fixers just to find out what type of gig the icon on the map is. I really don't know why this is even a thing in the game, to be honest. Fixers like Reyes and Mr. Hands CLEARLY state to you that they don't really do small talk, only Biz/work talk. So why is V going to them just to talk about the freaking weather? Or Wako's multiple husbands? Or the state of what ever borough they oversee is in or whatever? Why would V or the player care about this? If V instead called them for work first, none of this would even have to be a thing.

2. It brings more functionality to the fixers themselves. Especially with those damn phone calls. Instead of the fixer calling you out of no where for simply walking into the area, which makes it feel like these people are straight up stalking your location, how about V just gives a verbal agreement to the fixer that this is the job they want to take and THEN they give V the deets? Imagine every fixer contact point having a "cork board" of sorts of jobs that haven't been taken yet and V can just peruse through them. This could be a supplement to the texts fixers send you after the phone call currently in the game. The details in the texts can just be on the paperwork, which I honestly think would be much more immersive than a freakin' text message since paperwork can be definitively destroyed. Deleted text messages could still be floating around the net somewhere though. (Not that V deletes any of the texts they get from fixers anyway... but you get my point.) This would also bring some functionality to their contact points on the map which are still functionally useless all these years later.

3. It ACTUALLY solves the Ubisoft syndrome problem. If the player first has to select and accept the job from the fixer first, this means that the markers on the map don't have to appear until the player has done that, meaning less overall markers on the map at one time, meaning less of a "forced" feeling of exploration for the player and locations where gigs take place can have more dynamic states without them all having to activate their "gig" state all at once with other gigs.

4. This system would work with or without the level-scaling added in 2.0. And I'd argue it would work even better WITHOUT level scaling, because then that means gigs could be scaled by level appropriately, and the player would actually be able to see this BEFORE taking the gig, creating a more dynamic-feeling sense of restriction for the player without straight up telling the player 'no, you can't do this right now'. The level of the gig could be listed next to its selection prompt, and if a gig happens to be too high level for the player, the fixers could ask if they really want to do this one, because it might be a rather tough one for them, but the player can still choose to do it if they want to challenge themselves like that.

The level-scaling added in 2.0 wouldn't exactly ruin this, but it would make the system that much more boring, as level-scaling in games like these usually do, but I digress.

5. This system could also still work with the more linear system they added, making it so there's only so many gigs available to take from any particular fixers during any particular juncture in the game, but I recommend turning it back to the open-ended system like before for reasons I've already gone over. The more linear system could work better with the level-scaling they added, but again, I digress.

All-in-all, I'm honestly surprised that such an obviously superior system in just about every way was never implemented in a rework. It probably wouldn't even have taken any more effort/resources to implement it then the actual rework. Nothing "new" would really need to be added, just a little repurposing of things that already exist in the game, like the phone call dialogue/audio and the text messages. You wouldn't even have to write out those new texts fixers send you when you move onto the next wave of gigs. All you would need is maybe a small, new set of assets here and there for that "cork board" idea for every fixer. Some small, reworked dialogue for V that probably already exists in the game as well, and boom, you're done.

Not really sure why they went the route of limiting the open-world engagement even more instead of just repurposing it for a much more immersive experience. What do you guys think though? And please, be civil. No smart aleck comments. Either read the full post and give a good faith response or move on.

 

[Tarille]

Honestly, the whole way that Gigs and NCPD alerts are done is pretty bad.

I'm not sure how much time they're going to spend on trying to put lipstick on a pig with CP2077's system, what with Project Orion in the works.

But the most immersive system would be having both V (Or whatever PO's character is called) calling up a fixer and fixers calling you.

With NCPD alerts being more like El Capitan's car "Aquisition" missions, where they'll randomly pop up when you're in an area (Simulating a sudden crime occurance that you pick up over the radio). Of course, this would require a design where key items aren't found in them (Though this is mostly only the case for the Organized Crime ones which likely would be their own unique content type - Even more so if it was expanded on to be more than just a "Kill the perps in this location" type event) though they did put notable items into the random Airdrops events (Which makes trying to obtain a specific iconic rather annoying. Especially for the ones that aren't guaranteed from the first airdrop in a specific area)

For fixers, you'd probably have some sort of individual reputation with them, alongside your overall "Street Cred".

So when they barely know you, you'll call up for a gig and get offered some small time jobs.

When they know you a bit better they might call you to see if you're interested in some gigs they need doing in between you calling them for some more substantial gigs.

Upon impressing them, they'll just call you for some big gigs that they only want you to do since they know you're good, such gigs would likely be more like "The Heist" in scope. Where you and the fixer will personally meet a client and get detes for the job and you can ask the fixer for some extra goodies to help with the job if you're really on good terms with them (I.e. You've been doing all the bonus objectives for their gigs)

You can even have it so certain fixers won't even talk to you until you have enough street cred to stand out as a person of interest to them (Instead of the current thing where the second you step into their district you get a call introducing them...) in addition to certain gigs being locked behind both street cred (So they know you're capable) and personal reputation (So they know they can depend on you). Which would be more immersive and better capture that feeling of gaining noteriety with obtaining street cred.

Their current system seems to envision something like that, with it being a sort of "Progression" where you do X gigs and then get offered Y gigs. It just falls apart when all the gigs are equally banal since they're all the old 1.0 gigs which were all freely accessible right from the get go. With it also doing little to help with "Ubisoft Syndrome" when fixers are clearly labelling that you've done however many of /X of their total gigs. With also NCPD alerts on the "Dynamic" setting by default only appearing when closeby giving a quasi-"Random" feel to them (But you can go to custom and toggle them on to get the full map full of NCPD icons as they're all just right there waiting)

 

[Nixilos]

It's not a fix for any of this but you'd be surprised how much better it feels if you just turn off your minimap/markers and just go where your eyes take you. Especially when you've already played the game so you have some idea where things are in your head but can still get lost. It feels a lot more organic when you are just walking/cruising the streets and the call comes in.

If you play the game a lot you start memorizing the layout of the city a bit too much and some of the magic goes away but it's still a better experience overall imo. Plus once you've played without it for a while you can turn it back on if you want and be amazed how much less you stare at and rely on it.

You don't HAVE to play it Ubisoft mode with map icons and indicators if you don't want to. Same way you don't have to use the most overpowered options in the game if you like more difficulty for example. Most of the fun I've had in this game is playing it my own way like that.

 

[tavellone]

Yeah I also really dislike how fixers are implemented in this game. First of all I don't think they have much character to them as people to begin with, except for Rogue and Wakako (and after PL, Mr Hands) who are integral to the story. The rest are barely characters at all and I can only really distinguish the 'personalities' and motivations of them because I have played the game multiple times.

More importantly though, I think that you should either have to call fixers for a job or they call or text you for a job and only after that (I.E. them telling you the job and its location) does the location appear on your map. Also I think that jobs should be gated to some extent, they do it with Rogue and it would make perfect sense that fixers are only going to give their more difficult and dangerous jobs to a top level merc who they know is reliable, rather than the smorgasboard it is now, which makes most fixer jobs indistinguishable from each other, other than by area.

Finally I really think that you should be able to turn down jobs. I mentioned this before in another thread, but it feels a bit weird to me when I'm trying to act like my character is becoming more like Johnny Silverhand and being some sort of anticapitalist rebel then five minutes later is smearing some anti corporate councillor for some corporation or essentially being an amoral hitman and no way to get rid of that mission if I don't want to do it.

In general I really dislike the way that most gigs and quests that aren't main quests are just dumped on the map like V is some sort of clairvoyant. The Witcher 3 handled side quests really well, with the majority of them being on notice boards, which thematically makes sense, or being spun off from a main quest or another quest. Very rarely, if ever, did you just mindlessly follow a beacon and trigger an event that Geralt would have had no in game way of knowing had any relevance, unlike Cyberpunk, though I get the feeling that a lot of this specific issue has to do with the problematic development than bad game design, as in a lot of quests were originally going to be this way but the game was pushed to be released way before it was ready and the developers panicked and just dropped quests in where they occurred rather than having a sensible in game trigger.

 

[pliskards]

I enjoyed Cyberpunk and Phantom Liberty - but the fixer system was one of my least favorite parts of the game. That is until Phantom Liberty and Hands, which they did a great job with, IMO.

Going from The Witcher 3 to Cyberpunk one of my first reactions to the game was "This is the side content that they are offering in this game? This is pathetic in comparison". Because to me it seemed like the fixers would all be structured like Hands was in Phantom Liberty. The gigs would have a growing meaning behind them, the fixers would be characters that you met and interacted with - they would have their own goals, schemes, etc. You might even have the ability to overthrow them, stab them in the back, repace them or something like that. So that is what I started trying to do right off of the bat and was like... what the heck is this?

But instead they just gave you kind of bland missions when you went to a quest marker. I didn't realize the actual high quality side content was going to be the side quest type things that were delivered to you via text, phone call, etc. (Like the Peralez mission, romances, etc.) Then in Phantom Liberty I don't want to say they blew me away... but they did what I thought they would do in the base game. All of the gigs actually had quality content included with them, they built up the character of Hands and it felt high quality, like I was expecting it to be... with the air drops and car stealing missions being the type of repetitive side content (kind of filling the role of the bandit camps in Witcher 3, but taken up a notch) I was expecting out of the base game as well.

All of that to say... I'd rather Night City be smaller and only have a few fixers that are well put together than have a larger map with more fixers that are really bland.

 

[Orikon25]

Pawel (Quest Director) was asked about this on one of his streams, and his response was that this was one of his regrets for the game. If I recall correctly, he's fully aware that the system is very flawed, but he thinks it's better than launch and the overhaul was the best they could come up with.

If I recall correctly he argued why letting the player call the fixers wouldn't work, but I don't remember exactly what he said. Somebody would have to go through the uploaded streams on his YouTube channel.

In a later stream, I proposed a solution for NCPD hustles where they would randomly spawn on the map and have a timer. Ironically this is the very thing they did in Phantom Liberty for El Capitan's vehicle missions. The system works and is immersive, because if a "crime is in progress" then it wouldn't be in progress forever. Not to mention there's more than enough NCPD hustles to cover an entire playthrough if you spawn 2-4 each in-game day.

Pawel's response? He agreed but ultimately concluded that they can't do everything during development and they have to prioritize what they work on.

Then in Phantom Liberty I don't want to say they blew me away... but they did what I thought they would do in the base game. All of the gigs actually had quality content included with them, they built up the character of Hands and it felt high quality, like I was expecting it to be...

Yes, Pawel fully acknowledged that Hands's gigs were light years ahead of the base game ones, and that if he were doing the game from scratch he'd try to make the base game ones like that too.

However, consider that there was only 10 of them. In a 30 dollar expansion. The base game has dozens more. Knowing the state of the game's development leading up to launch, it's a miracle that the base game gigs are what they are.

To be fair, in 2.1 they improved over 16 base game gigs by implementing possible vehicle chases and gang responses, which I very much appreciated.

With NCPD alerts being more like El Capitan's car "Aquisition" missions, where they'll randomly pop up when you're in an area (Simulating a sudden crime occurance that you pick up over the radio)

Since this very system already exists in the game (El Capitan's missions), I'm 100% sure this could be made into a mod. Just gotta find a modder skilled enough to do it. I'd love to give it a try but 2077 modding seems to have such a high entry bar.

 

[BlackGhost1267]

First, I just want to commend everyone for being very civil about this. Reading over the responses so far has been very pleasing. Just going to respond to a few key things I found in each post so far.

...But the most immersive system would be having both V (Or whatever PO's character is called) calling up a fixer and fixers calling you.

With NCPD alerts being more like El Capitan's car "Aquisition" missions...

Calls for work going both ways would be great, but also would mean they'd have to get the VA's in to record more dialogue to have it make sense/flow better. CP2077 is WAAAAY pass that point in its lifecycle, which is why I didn't bother suggesting it. I only wanted to suggest what I thought could still be possible within this game's current scope. Repurposing the already existing phone call dialogue and maybe adding a new asset here and there I think very much would be.

I do like the idea of the scanner hustles acting like 'pop-ups' on the map though, yeah.

It's not a fix for any of this but you'd be surprised how much better it feels if you just turn off your minimap/markers and just go where your eyes take you. Especially when you've already played the game so you have some idea where things are in your head but can still get lost. It feels a lot more organic when you are just walking/cruising the streets and the call comes in.

If you play the game a lot you start memorizing the layout of the city a bit too much and some of the magic goes away but it's still a better experience overall imo. Plus once you've played without it for a while you can turn it back on if you want and be amazed how much less you stare at and rely on it.

You don't HAVE to play it Ubisoft mode with map icons and indicators if you don't want to. Same way you don't have to use the most overpowered options in the game if you like more difficulty for example. Most of the fun I've had in this game is playing it my own way like that.

Well, I never really said you HAD to play it that way. I get what your saying, but you're also more arguing hypotheticals/semantics here. CP2077 also isn't necessarily a game that conveys a sense of relaxed pace to the player either as say a game like Horizon Zero Dawn, a game that I often play at a super-relaxed pace when exploring that game's world. Remember, V IS dying after the first act, and as such, whenever I do a playthrough, I usually like to play in a way that reflects this 'sense of urgency', at least a little bit. I like to use my time wisely. I don't usually like to waste days of time casually driving around with no real sense of purpose or agenda for the day just waiting to see what comes to me. When I have V get up out of the bed every morning, I make a plan of what gigs/activities I wish to do for that day, and when doing that, IF something comes out of the blue, I treat it like an 'inconvenient' monkey wrench or a pleasant surprise that's just getting me off-track towards my ultimate goal of surviving the relic. I like to roleplay that time is truly short for this character, as I do believe that's the kind of vibe the game is mostly going for, which isn't any more or less valid of a way to play the game than what you're suggesting, but what my original post was saying when addressing the Ubisoft syndrome, is that people who DO play the game similar to me could get a better experience as a result, while also in no way harming the way you wish to experience the game as well.

...Also I think that jobs should be gated to some extent, they do it with Rogue and it would make perfect sense that fixers are only going to give their more difficult and dangerous jobs to a top level merc who they know is reliable, rather than the smorgasboard it is now, which makes most fixer jobs indistinguishable from each other, other than by area...

Finally I really think that you should be able to turn down jobs...

Yeah, progression-gating some jobs does make sense because what happens to the merc on the job does reflect on the reputation of the fixer as well. I can see that. With that said, the current system's restrictions and freedoms are still all in the wrong places in that regard.

Being able to turn down jobs as well as just refuse to do quests would be great as well, especially if they want to keep all those yellow markers on the map, but this is getting into a different topic altogether.

...All of that to say... I'd rather Night City be smaller and only have a few fixers that are well put together than have a larger map with more fixers that are really bland...

I get you disappointment, but I'm also not really arguing about the quality of the gigs themselves, more just how they're presented/given to the player and the process in which they're dolled out to the player. I do agree though that most gigs in the base game are pretty meh.

Pawel (Quest Director) was asked about this on one of his streams, and his response was that this was one of his regrets for the game. If I recall correctly, he's fully aware that the system is very flawed, but he thinks it's better than launch and the overhaul was the best they could come up with.

If I recall correctly he argued why letting the player call the fixers wouldn't work, but I don't remember exactly what he said. Somebody would have to go through the uploaded streams on his YouTube channel.

In a later stream, I proposed a solution for NCPD hustles where they would randomly spawn on the map and have a timer. Ironically this is the very thing they did in Phantom Liberty for El Capitan's vehicle missions. The system works and is immersive, because if a "crime is in progress" then it wouldn't be in progress forever. Not to mention there's more than enough NCPD hustles to cover an entire playthrough if you spawn 2-4 each in-game day.

Pawel's response? He agreed but ultimately concluded that they can't do everything during development and they have to prioritize what they work on...

I suppose I can agree that it's better than launch, but only because the launch system had no direction whatsoever to begin with, which I can only assume is because of the game's tumultuous development.

I'm not really interested in the streams they have about this game, but if he thinks calling the fixers wouldn't work then I can only assume it's because of some game limitation. I can probably even guess that the limitation would be not being able to account for a situation where the player calls and accepts a job in the location where the job they just accepted takes place in, but surely you could design some sort of failsafe for that? Because narrative/world/immersion-wise, it makes all the sense in the world, at least for most of the gigs in the game. It's not out of the realm of possibility that fixers would like to save particular gigs for particular mercs, but I don't see why the player should be called by the fixer for every single damn gig in the game. It just makes it feel like the fixer world only revolves around the player.

As far as the response to the Scanner Hustles goes; it mostly just makes it sound like the team doesn't care about minor stuff like that. And, to be fair, I'm not really that crazy about the scanner hustles either. BUT I'd also argue a lot of things they worked on/reworked on for this game over the past 3 years weren't all really a huge priority for the game in the first place like reworking the driving system several times in a game that never really challenged the player's driving skills to begin with, or nerfing builds into the ground for no reason, or the whole perk system rework in 2.0 that turned the game into more of a character-action game now, erasing the major build variety freedom the game had, or the level-scaling, or the roaming cops that completely ignore the scanner hustles and regular gang activity all over the city, but then are all over you like a tick on a dog's ass when you accidentally kill someone out in the badlands of all places or try to help then in one of the pre-placed fights around the map, lol, but I digress...

Thanks for the responses so far, guys.

 

[Nixilos]

Well, I never really said you HAD to play it that way.

Yea no sweat there, it wasn't my intent to imply that you did. I see stuff like this brought up a lot and it's something that I personally had to overcome with games like this. I'm not really arguing for anything, just offering a partial solution that does it for me.

I usually like to play in a way that reflects this 'sense of urgency', at least a little bit.

Especially now with level scaling it's not like you can't take a more meandering path to completing things while still going fast. My playthroughs rarely exceed a month of in game time post heist, probably add another week due to the expansion what with all the weird full day time skips coded in, but I can hand wave that for my own purposes.

It also made me a way better driver when I quit taking my eyes off the road for that little square at 130mph.

 

[ShinAkira00]

I don't know, this seems like a case of trying too hard to find something to complain about.

"meaning the player is never forced to do gigs they don't want to do just to do gigs they do want to do." I don't even understand this critique. It was the same in Witcher 3, you didn't have to do every quest either. If you triggered a quest in an area you can choose to not do it, you'd just first be forced to sit through several lines of dialogue that you might not even want to. This is especially annoying if you're on a 2nd or 3rd playthrough. I don't know many players who want to be forced to do quests that they don't want to do. People typically play these games for freedom of choice.

I'm fine with the Fixers themselves, the only thing I would want them to add is a system where players start out getting quests on the holo but as you progress and earn the fixers trust then you can meet them in person. They sort of did that with Mr Hands in Phantom Liberty. I think getting quests over the phone removes some of the interactions that separate the fixers from just being another NPC. Once we've built a reputation, I think they should send us to meet the client once the job is accepted and then from there we can decide how to handle the quest. That would of course, increase the budget so that's another factor to consider.

 

[LeKill3rFou]

"meaning the player is never forced to do gigs they don't want to do just to do gigs they do want to do." I don't even understand this critique.

Yes in my opinion, it's a rather valid critique/complaint... and many members pointed out this at time
Because you must complete every GIGs available to unlock the next batch of GIGs. Before the change, you were able to complete only the GIGs you wanted or in the order you wanted. In TW3, as far as I remember, there is no contract locked in this way.

 

[ShinAkira00]

Yes in my opinion, it's a rather valid critique/complaint... and many members pointed out this at time
Because you must complete every GIGs available to unlock the next batch of GIGs. Before the change, you were able to complete only the GIGs you wanted or in the order you wanted. In TW3, as far as I remember, there is no contract locked in this way.

Witcher 3 100% had this, it was just approached in a linear way. Many quests had 2 or 3 parts to them. So even if you only cared about doing that last part to obtain an item or interaction you still had to do the first 2 parts before getting to the 3rd.

In Cyberpunk it's still linear but the quests lines aren't linked or related. It's different but I kind of understand why it couldn't be done the same. Geralt didn't have a cell phone so he had to ride from point A to point B to get details on these quest and there would be interactions at each point. In this modern world you would just get a phone call so they would have to restructure how quests work. Is it perfect? No. Obviously they are still trying to find the best approach, I just don't think it's as bad as OP is making it out to be.

 

[tavellone]

I don't know, this seems like a case of trying too hard to find something to complain about..

Well, I don't know about that. The developers have consistently downplayed a lot of valid criticism of this game and downright lied about the absence of certain features and systems being intentional, only to add them in later and even with that in mind, one of the developers has admitted that the whole fixers system was a big flub and they regret how it is in the game. Now given how many things in this game are not up to the standard that CDPR claimed they would be upon release, sure you could say relatively having a poor system for fixer jobs isn't that big of a deal, but It still is a system that is badly implemented, it's not even like it's a stylistic disagreement, the implementation is just plain bad. I can expect this from a triple A developer where they clearly don't give a shit about the thing they're working on and are simply repeating a known formula for a paycheck, but I do believe and I think it is clear from at least the previous games and the intent behind Cyberpunk, that the developers in CDPR actually care about this game and the things they're working on in general and try to do things differently and in a more interesting and unique way. You can see this in this game when they actually managed to finish a system in this game properly.

Also, I don't know about anyone else in this thread, but for me personally it isn't like I sat around for hours looking at the minutiae of this game and went 'AHA! another thing to complain about!' It's really obvious to me how badly implemented fixers are. After doing the third or so job from [insert fixer name here] it starts to feel like I'm aimlessly going from one point on the map to the other just for the sake of getting rid of the points on my map without any purpose real in game reasoning to do so or understanding of why my character is going there. I suppose if you are used to the Assassin's Creed games then it might not be a big deal but I stopped playing that dump of a series after the second game and I cannot for the life of me figure out why anyone finds that series interesting anymore. Gameplay like that makes me feel like the developers think I'm some lobotomized cattle, being shunted from point A to point B with no understanding of whor what, just a senseless dopamine reward at the end. I'd rather have a real in game reason and understanding as to why I'm going to a place and doing what I'm doing. If I wanted to pay a lot of money for a cheap reward I'd put £60 into a gumball machine.

 

[LeKill3rFou]

Witcher 3 100% had this, it was just approached in a linear way. Many quests had 2 or 3 parts to them. So even if you only cared about doing that last part to obtain an item or interaction you still had to do the first 2 parts before getting to the 3rd.

I don't talk about quests, I talk to the equivalent in The Witcher 3 of the GIGs in Cyberpunk, the contracts.

None of the contract is "locked". You explore the world, find a village, find the billboard, read the note and the contracts is available, no matter which level you are, how far you are in the story/side quest. All contracts are directly available as long as you find the billboard (being able to complete it is another thing, but they're available).

In Cyberpunk, GIGs are "locked". You have one batch directly available and you can only access to following ones by completing them. At release, it was like The Witcher 3, all GIGs were available directly, but it's no longer the case (since 1.5 I think).

Let's take an example, if for whatever reason you don't want to complete one of the first Regina GIG (doesn't fit to "your V"), you're stuck.... You will never get any other GIG from her, never... As long as you don't complete the one you don't want to do.

 

[BlackGhost1267]

...Especially now with level scaling it's not like you can't take a more meandering path to completing things while still going fast...

Not really sure what'cha mean by this. Level-scaling doesn't really effect this playstyle. Nor did the original enemy-level system, at least not to any significant degree, besides just maybe making some things a little harder early-game. I think you're confusing 'going fast' with just roleplaying being more time-efficient with your days. When I'm engaging in that playstyle, I'm still doing EVERY activity if I'm going for a 100% run. If not, then I just do the stuff I want to do, which unfortunately means I won't be doing some gigs that I want to do because they're now locked behind gigs I don't want to do, which was the jumping-off point for making this thread in the first place.

Days go like this; V gets up, maybe goes to a gun store and/or a ripperdoc for upgrades, does some merc work to make some eds/side quests, possibly gets caught up in a shenanigan during that agenda, then maybe ends the night at a bar or just goes to bed in an apartment/spends the night at a LI's place, and maybe every once in a while I'll have V take a day off and just skip a whole day or just fool around a bit during the day or do a LI hangout if it's available. Depending on what part of the story I'm at determines how much attention I give to it relative to all the other side content I'm doing, and how much of it I feel like doing on that run, and the agenda doesn't always go as planned, but that's the point. It's not like I'm any% speedrunning the game here or something, lol.

Well, I don't know about that. The developers have consistently downplayed a lot of valid criticism of this game and downright lied about the absence of certain features and systems being intentional, only to add them in later and even with that in mind, one of the developers has admitted that the whole fixers system was a big flub and they regret how it is in the game. Now given how many things in this game are not up to the standard that CDPR claimed they would be upon release, sure you could say relatively having a poor system for fixer jobs isn't that big of a deal, but It still is a system that is badly implemented, it's not even like it's a stylistic disagreement, the implementation is just plain bad. I can expect this from a triple A developer where they clearly don't give a shit about the thing they're working on and are simply repeating a known formula for a paycheck, but I do believe and I think it is clear from at least the previous games and the intent behind Cyberpunk, that the developers in CDPR actually care about this game and the things they're working on in general and try to do things differently and in a more interesting and unique way. You can see this in this game when they actually managed to finish a system in this game properly.

Also, I don't know about anyone else in this thread, but for me personally it isn't like I sat around for hours looking at the minutiae of this game and went 'AHA! another thing to complain about!' It's really obvious to me how badly implemented fixers are. After doing the third or so job from [insert fixer name here] it starts to feel like I'm aimlessly going from one point on the map to the other just for the sake of getting rid of the points on my map without any purpose real in game reasoning to do so or understanding of why my character is going there. I suppose if you are used to the Assassin's Creed games then it might not be a big deal but I stopped playing that dump of a series after the second game and I cannot for the life of me figure out why anyone finds that series interesting anymore. Gameplay like that makes me feel like the developers think I'm some lobotomized cattle, being shunted from point A to point B with no understanding of whor what, just a senseless dopamine reward at the end. I'd rather have a real in game reason and understanding as to why I'm going to a place and doing what I'm doing. If I wanted to pay a lot of money for a cheap reward I'd put £60 into a gumball machine.

Just going to let that first paragraph speak for itself as I don't think I could've said it better myself, lol. I appreciate you and LeKill3rFou coming to my defense on this.

And yeah, I don't think most people do that, unless they're trying to do a 4 hour long, wholistic review video on said game, lol. Which, there's nothing wrong with that.

I have plenty of gripes with this game. I'm sure plenty of other people who have played and stuck with it do. Just comes with the territory of spending 'X' amount of time with a video game, or anything, really. But, I also think I'm pretty good at being able to differentiate between when a gripe I have is just a personal taste-thing, and when I think it genuinely ruins the overall experience of the thing I'm engaging with. I think the fixer system definitely sits in the latter category. I wouldn't have made this thread if I didn't think that. I wouldn't've made the suggestions on how the system could be improved if I didn't think that. And while at this point of this game's life-cycle, all of us might as well be shouting into the void, I think discussions like this are still important as it does help us understand why we like, dislike or are indifferent to certain things about our favorite games. And who knows, maybe the devs will do something about sometime down the line in a different game or product.