Some ideas for Cyberpunk mods

[hexalby]

I posted this on Reddit and I was sent here. I have no knowledge of modding so forgive me if I make complicated stuff sound easy to implement, but I wanted to share my thoughts on what could be great mods. My intent with these was to keep things as simple and coherent to the current game as possible.

 

Money and economy: The biggest issues here for me are 1) the diminishing importance of money as the game progresses, and 2) the lack of any real *corporate oppression* felt by the player, that make corpos feel like distant enemies instead of being in control of everything.

• Every X days, V would have to pay for their apartment rent, a fixed fee for their vehicles, and a *living expenses* tax to represent costs for water, gas, food, etc.
• I would push this further and have small fees for almost every action in the game, like buying/selling, using elevators and fast travel, summoning your car, entering buildings, causing damage to your vehicle and others', etc. All to push that *corporate dystopia* angle.
• Getting into debt will result in increasingly harsher restriction, at first late payment fines will be applied, then fast travel is disabled, then access to drop points is locked, then certain shops will refuse to trade, and then the apartment is locked. To the extreme end, cars could be disabled too.
• With a high amount of unpaid fees, the police could become hostile by default.
• To balance the fact that vehicles would cost money in maintenance, and that they're no longer money sink No.1, their price should be lowered and there should be an option to sell them.
• [A bit more out there] There could be a simple stock market mini-game, where the player could buy/sell corpo stocks. This could also synergize with story missions and gigs, reflecting V hitting corpo assets with a decline in stock value for that corporation, giving more weight to our actions.

Gigs and Fixers: The biggest issues I have with them currently is that it's too much too soon, and also that the merc-fixer relationship feels inconsistent.

• Completing gigs increase your relationship with the fixer that gave it.
• Failing gigs or failing secondary objectives will hurt your relationship.
• Instead of having street cred unlock more gigs, it's your relationship with the local fixer that does it. Same thing for cars.
• Fixer relationship may also unlock more apartments in the district for you to buy (costly addition).
• Finally, growing the relationship could also unlock more interactions/dialogue with them.

Crafting: My biggest issue with it is that it does not feel very impactful, not in terms of numbers or combat effectiveness, but in game feel terms.

• You can upgrade any weapon to a higher rarity, if you have the recipe for it.
• Crafting new weapons or raising weapon rarity can only be done at home.
• upgrading weapon levels can still be done on the field, but it's cheaper at home.
• High relationships with fixers may unlock unique recipes/allow to upgrade the rarity of a certain weapon type.

Gangs: My biggest issues is that they do not feel very reactive at all, it feels strange that they let the dude that hit half their operations in the district get away with it.

• You have a reputation score with each major gang
• It is worsened by killing gang members.
• It is improved by leaving gang members alive (non-lethal takedowns).
• A low reputation may cause gang members to fire on sight.
• A high reputation may have gang members help the player against the police or other gangs.
• A high reputation may also give access to the player to restricted areas during gigs.
• More instances of gang warfare could be added to the game, helping one side would drastically improve/damage reputation.
• Very low reputation could cause hit squads to spawn and chase the player, when traversing gang territory.
• Very low or very high reputation could unlock unique perks.

Police: Beyond the obvious stuff, the biggest issue I have with the police is the same one with the gangs, they simply do not care about V, despite in-game having multiple missions dedicated to killing gang members for hurting or killing cops. GTA gets away with this stuff because it does not take itself seriously, CP77 does.

• You can accumulate a bounty, for committing crimes or attacking cops.
• You can clear your bounty by paying for it.
• High bounty levels have similar effects to debt/late fees, locking fast travel, access to shops and cars, etc.
• Very high bounties cause cops to fire on sight
• Mercs may spawn and chase the player to claim their bounty.

Edited May 12, 2021 by hexalby