I have an idea for some DLC. DLC I would personally pay $30 for. this DLC would have the following content:
- Multiple repeatable quest types specialized for cars
- new car stats. Not new cars, but existing cars get roles and stats
- An order regional takeover meter. Killing an enemy in japantown would give cred for that area, and assist with the takeover of japantown for order and the ncpd.
- A chaos regional takeover meter. Killing an ncpd in japantown would make the local gang more friendly to you, and replace beat cops with gang members.
- A permanent wanted/not wanted meter that is influenced by killing cops/killing gang members globally.
- A build your own gang minigame. This would allow you to induct people into your gang, and station them in place of normal gang members on the streets. They would fight with the existing gangs, and if enough of them died, the normal gangs would retake control.
- A civilian reaction menu. This allows you to pickpocket civilians from stealth using F while undetected, (like 10-20 eddies) and talk to civilians and convince them to join your gang using F while not in stealth and the civilian is just walking around. Convincing civilians to join your gang costs eddies, and might require increased stats or certain backgrounds. For example, a person who starts corpo cant easily recruit badlands civilians, but a country boy start can recruit them easily.
- A civilian crash response. If a civilian crashes their car (or even dings it) they become hostile to the player, they become an eligible target, and they open fire on other eligible targets. Killing an eligible target wont rouse the NCPD. This means that if two civilians crash, they will get out of their cars, and have a gun fight. Possibly with you.
- Limited MAXTAC. If you beat maxtac, the police will shift to a mitigation response instead of sending more cops. They will run from you, and engage with netrunners and snipers, while at the same time an AV will fly around warning everyone of an omega level cyberpsycho on the loose, and asking everyone to go inside and lock their doors. The streets will be deserted, and police drones will attempt to shadow you and chase you to prevent you from hiding. To successfully hide, you need to eliminate all of the drones watching you. They don't fire on you, but netrunners on the ground can reflect hacks through them to you.
Car types:
- A netrunner car. This is specialized at following enemies, and gives you an ai that engages while you are scanning. The AI will more or less drive straight while you scan and hack. In addition, while in this car, your vehicle hacks cost 15% less. Its also good at follow and shadow quests where your asked to tail a target car for 1-2 minutes, and then hack it when the enemy parks it and steps out. Most cars that are armed with only machine guns get this.
- A hauling car. This is specialized at hauling goods from A to B. You require one of these cars to accept these missions. Trucks like the tanishi T400 fit this car class.
- An armed escort car. All armed cars with rockets fit this class. They are required to do missions picking up VIPs and delivering them safely through hell to their destination. You will face multiple attacks on these missions.
- A racing car. This is of course for rayfields and the like, but they are used for speed delivery missions.
No new guns, vehicles, story, or cutscenes are added.
Some interesting ideas in there but the short answer is no, I wouldn't pay $30 for added gameplay tweaks, additions and fixes without any additional story missions.
I really love Night City and the world has a lot of potential for more stories which is why some people lament PL being the only and last expansion. I
would however pay for an expansion that features:
-a fully expanded Prologue in which you actually play through the montage shown when you first meet Jackie and the other introductory characters through multiple missions.
-a 6-8 hour set of Life Path specific missions with gear/weapons/clothing/vehicle unique to each Life Path as the final payoff when they are completed.
Playing off the idea of building your own gang would be featuring a new fixer or new gigs with existing fixers that require you to build out a crew that you actively do the gigs with. It would work something like this:
You pick up a gig that requires you to recruit at least one other member to function as either a getaway driver, lookout, or muscle. Depending on how many crew members you recruit the cut gets smaller but the chances of success much higher. The type of skills your recruits have would impact the way the gig plays out and could either help or hurt. So, if you are a netrunner you could hire a tanky merc (maybe from the Animals) who would manipulate the levels environment in unique ways, or if you're a melee ninja you could hire a sniper to cover you, if you hire a netrunner in addition to quickhacks you can get blueprints of the gigs location in advance.
In the game there are already times when clients reach out to V directly instead of going through a fixer so it could fit that element. In several missions you do get help from other characters, but you still do the missions solo (with some exceptions, River, Panam, etc...) and you don't have much agency in how those outside resources are used in a strategic way. Higher street cred would allow you to recruit mercs with better and more varied abilities for higher level gigs with better payouts.
Gang affiliation or type could also play a role as in certain mercs from certain gangs have specific advantages like Voodoo Boys and Corpos have great netrunning, Valentinos have a heavy arsenal, Maelstrom have loads of melee cyberware and explosives, corrupt NCPD make sure no cops come around, the Mox can distract guards/get information out of people/scroll BD's to blackmail people etc...
Maybe on lower levels of Street Cred you can't mix members of different gangs on the same crew, but as you progress you can mix them building a better team. There are other modifiers that could be added to your recruits' stats like mental stability (possible cyberpyscho if it falls too low), fatigue, in addition to their own set of attributes, skills and cyberware. Integrating your "civilian reaction menu" could fit here.
Keep the same crew for multiple gigs and their cut lowers or they level up their abilities. All mercs killed in action are perma-dead and hurt your street cred and/or make prices for recruiting mercs higher as a penalty.
Basically, I think instead of adding in totally new ideas (territorial control) it would be better for them to expand the integration and mechanics of existing ideas, if not from 2077 than from the tabletop.
Overall, I appreciate your creativity and I do agree that more of a sense of gang presence, specific gang relationships with the player would be better if more heavily emphasized. The impact your choice with Maelstrom in that first mission to get the Flathead on the later mission with Samuraai was something the game touched on but never becomes a major factor.
You don't build your own gang like San Andreas for territory, but you can develop a crew like David or Maine from Edgerunners for gigs outside the main story.
Yes, this would be more strategy focused but I think it could be implemented naturally given the lore and world.
