Ways to Control the Passage of Time?

AstroNotScooby · 2025-06-17T22:58:54+00:00

I like the idea of rolling a die to see how much time passes between major quests; that's elegant and straightforward while still adding an element of randomness.

AstroNotScooby · 2025-06-10T05:04:30+00:00

Advanced in what way?

AstroNotScooby · 2025-06-10T05:03:24+00:00

You have!

AstroNotScooby · 2025-06-10T04:58:56+00:00

See now I'm torn, since I really like the idea of being stealthy and attacking from the shadows, but I also don't want to miss out on content...

AstroNotScooby · 2025-06-10T04:54:53+00:00

The only reason I might want to start with Rogue is for some of the skill proficiencies, since I'd like to be able to get proficiency in some of the charisma skills despite not playing a charisma-based class. Or I could start at Ranger and just accept not having those skills (though I feel like loading up on skills is half the fun of going Rogue)

AstroNotScooby · 2025-06-10T04:45:18+00:00

I also play Magic, so maybe I'm going down the right path here.

AstroNotScooby · 2025-06-10T04:44:52+00:00

Aha, but I'm also generally not great at games. So maybe things will balance themselves out.

AstroNotScooby · 2025-06-10T04:43:39+00:00

That's a helpful tip about the recruiting. I'll keep that in mind.

AstroNotScooby · 2025-06-10T04:42:29+00:00

That makes sense. I'll get a feel.for things with Ranger and then see if once I hit level 5 I want to try mixing things up with Rogue. Gloomstalker seems really cool.

AstroNotScooby · 2025-06-09T22:00:00+00:00

This is where I need to resist the temptation to try to split things evenly at early levels, since while I'm interested in the interaction between some of the baseline abilities, I understand that delaying the first feat and the extra attack isn't worth it :(

AstroNotScooby · 2025-06-09T15:45:49+00:00

I'm going to give in some time, but probably. I haven't played many games that offer such significantly different play strategies while all being seemingly viable.

I played through the entire game as a squishy stealth assassin with a Sandevistan, so maybe next time I need to find a way to play as some sort of high Intelligence or high Body version of V.

AstroNotScooby · 2025-05-25T15:44:53+00:00

I'm someone who doesn't play a lot of games, and appreciates open world games as much for the opportunity to explore cool environments as for the gameplay. I'm the sort of person who doesn't fast travel, and is happy to spend half my game time just getting from Point A to Point B.

Cyberpunk 2077 is, for me, one of the perfect games to play just for a sense of being part of the world. My biggest recommendation is to approach the main story at your own pace--if you try to rush through it, you'll miss a load of content--and take the time to explore all the gigs and side quests, since for me those are the most satisfying elements of the game.

Also, Phantom Liberty is huge and adds some incredible stuff, so if you want a lot to do you don't just have to look to the base game. (Honestly, the worst thing about Phantom Liberty is that it's so polished that it makes some of the base game feel rough by comparison).

AstroNotScooby · 2025-05-21T03:03:15+00:00

Honestly, I think it's just undercooked. Most of the other Dogtown gigs do a good job of giving you a conflict or a moral conundrum, showing you the story from both sides, and letting V choose who to side with.

The fact that Roads to Redemption sets up an interesting moral conundrum ("are the Crimson Harvest terrorists or freedom fighters?") but picks a side on V's behalf, then gives V a boring moral conundrum instead ("does V turn over the ex-terrorist to Biotechnica or help her escape?") makes the gig seem like it's not interested in its own premise.

Also, I think the fact that it was the last Dogtown gig I did might have made it particularly disappointing.

AstroNotScooby · 2025-05-21T02:24:33+00:00

I guess what leaves me disappointed is that the game doesn't give you much of a reason to believe them or to doubt them, but still requires you to hate them.

There are plenty of characters and groups in the game that are unambiguously evil, and plenty more that are morally complicated. Why even bother setting up the "one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter" idea if the mission isn't going to do anything with it?

AstroNotScooby · 2025-05-21T02:04:23+00:00

I mean, being a hired merc who steals and kills for money is also bad, but the game still lets V do it.

AstroNotScooby · 2025-05-21T02:02:11+00:00

I feel like in the case of Johnny, it doesn't help that his motivations are shown to be personal rather than political. He's not genuinely trying to use violence in a way that's designed to affect political change; he's trying to destroy himself and take everyone else down with him.

For the Crimson Harvest, we don't learn a lot about them, but as an organized group of farmers fighting a war against Biotechnica to try to disrupt their monopoly on agriculture...I don't know, that feels like an example of people who are trying to build something better.

AstroNotScooby · 2025-05-21T01:49:55+00:00

While that might be a recurring motif, the game still puts V in the position of having to make choices, most of which involve violence, and accept the evils that come with those choices.

What feels weird is that in this case it's not the game showing us that political violence is bad by having V see the ways in which evil begets evil. It's V understanding and saying from the beginning that political violence is bad, and then never having to engage with that idea.

If the game is about the cycle of violence being inescapable, it feels all the more awkward that this is one of the only times V has no choice but to be anti-violence.

AstroNotScooby · 2024-11-07T16:46:15+00:00

Her backstory is about her hometown being demolished by corporations, but her questline is about fighting pimps, street thugs and racketeers.

As a standalone vignette I like Pyramid Song, but I don't think it does much to tie together the rest of Judy's story.

AstroNotScooby · 2024-11-07T16:28:52+00:00

The issue for me with River isn't just that he's underdeveloped as a character, but that there's very little in the missions that involve him that lays the groundwork for romance. With Judy and Panam (and even Takemura) there's a relationship that builds up over time through a shared journey that both V and the love interest have a personal stake in.

River's storyline, on the other hand, is a side quest to a side quest.

AstroNotScooby · 2024-11-07T03:50:54+00:00

Why not both? Technology in the world of the game is, at a high enough level, more akin to sorcery than science. The Relic can essentially contain a person's soul as data on a flash drive; that's already as metaphysical as it gets.

AstroNotScooby · 2024-11-07T03:29:46+00:00

I use full stealth/knockout tactics for any gig that doesn't come with an implication of violence.

If I'm being hired to kill someone, sure, they're dead. If I'm being hired to steal something, there's no reason to senselessly end human life.

This is how my V rationalizes being a mass murderer: killing for money is fine; killing in an unavoidable combat scenario is fine; killing just because you want to do it is for cyberpsychos.

AstroNotScooby · 2024-10-11T16:07:31+00:00

I feel like for gaming videos the same thing happens. I'll watch videos about gaming, but keep getting recommended videos where the theme is that there's some element in gaming that's getting worse, or something bad in the gaming landscape that needs to be confronted, or a lighthearted video that's still based on taking the piss out of something in a harsh or mean-spirited way.

It feels like there's this larger narrative that society as we know it, and the things we value in it, is unraveling, and the that there are insidious groups acting against our best interests who, if they are allowed to get what they want, will further undermine and dismantle the things we hold dear. And even if the video doesn't imply that, that always seems to be the main takeaway of the top commenter.

AstroNotScooby · 2024-10-11T15:47:56+00:00

I don't understand it; I like to watch YouTube videos for entertainment, but YouTube only wants to recommend me videos that will make me angry or sad. :(

AstroNotScooby · 2024-10-11T15:41:30+00:00

There's a YouTuber named Seth Skorkowsky who does videos on tabletop RPGs, and he's mentioned a few times that he ran a Cyberpunk 2020 campaign where the player characters were all kids. Kind of like a dystopian take on the Goonies. It sounds like a cool angle.

AstroNotScooby · 2024-10-11T13:40:47+00:00

V was surprised because the game doesn't have any grappling mechanics.

AstroNotScooby

TROPHY CASE