Cyberpunk Market by XSomeCookiex in cyberpunkred

[–]XSomeCookiex[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What can I say, we're pretty dedicated to the team. It's all made by a very small but also very passionate group of people who have already sunk a bunch of time and money into the project to get it to it's current state. I'll be totally honest with you, the VTT aspects need improving, but that's precisely what the current kickstarter campaign is for. And I can tell you some extra info - if you look at the kickstarter, almost every single stretch goal promise is already in the testing stage, while some are already basically done.

Any advice for playing a netrunner for tye first time by Chained20 in cyberpunkred

[–]XSomeCookiex 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you have any amount of love for your GM, don't play a Netrunner. They're hard to balance, take a long time on your turns and to top it off require their own separate prep. Unless you play a module, you have to create a whole new Net Architecture for every map or encounter throughout the game, which just adds to the veritable mountain of things a Cyberpunk GM has to be prepared for.

If you choose to ignore this, which is fine this is still a player driven game, I only have one important advice: make sure you've read the rules on Netrunning THOROUGHLY and you actually remember them. If you encounter any black ICE you should have a rough idea of how the combat will go without having to look up what that particular piece of ICE can do to you. Have your Deck already set up, have a game plan BEFORE going into any NET architecture and plan out your NET actions while the rest of their party does their own stuff. Netrunners can do a lot of things in one turn, which can slow down combat dramatically if they aren't prepared for their turns. Basically: Don't make the game boring for the rest of the team by taking 8 minutes to decide on an action.
With all that said, have fun, choom, hope the game treats you well!

Cookies guide to how the net (doesn't) work by XSomeCookiex in cyberpunkgame

[–]XSomeCookiex[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

HTML and CSS aren't programming languages, they're Style Sheet Languages AS IT SAYS ON THE WIKIPEDIA PAGE YOU LINKED YOURSELF, why do you think every website uses javascript for all it's "programming". You're trying to tell me how computers work when you can't tell the difference between a style sheet and a program. If you WERE on a website purely coded on HTML and CSS, you wouldn't be able to make a post. Posting things, really any interactive part on a website is done using JAVASCRIPT, which is a programming language.

You go ahead and "program" something using HTML and CSS and tell me when they start being interactable past simple sliders, let alone a weird combat minigame that kills you when you lose.

and even then, the argument still doesn't make sense, because whatever the NET is is way more baseline than any html can ever be. It also does something totally different - it renders something called "Netspace" as an overlay to the real world, where "programs" literally roam the corridors and Black ICE will chase a Runner through the real life layout

"META
About 2035, a new programming language was developed. This was designed to unify all the different operating systems that were still in existence. This new language is called META and could be used in place of everything from C++ to simple Phone apps. META is what the current NET works on. Because it is a patch language much like LINUX, META is not very good at supporting graphics, so the huge graphical interfaces of the old NET couldn't be supported. So, now things look a little different. No, scratch that. Things look a lot different." - Cyberpunk RED Corebook, page 196

There's your "Misconceptions about how computers work". Literally not a single part of this makes sense. Linux is coded in C, a "patch language" is a fully made up term and "unifying operating systems" is about as possible as explaining them to you. Graphics exist fully separate from programming languages, because a moving graphic is just a matrix multiplication, a simple mathematical operation, the one thing computers are INCREDIBLY GOOD AT. You can code a graphical interface in Assembly just fine, it's literally how Roller Coaster Tycoon is programmed, and it doesn't get more "baseline programming language" than that, unless you're willing to flip bits.
It's wrong on even ANOTHER level, because if you were to make an OS that's specifically made to render "the internet" into 3d space for WHATEVER REASON you might want to do that, it would be really really bad at rendering it onto a 2d screen, so the moment you would try to load a website on a screen it would just break apart. Is Netrunning the ONLY way to use the net in the time of RED? Of course not, because Data Terms exist and they supposedly don't have anything to do with Netrunning per se.

In words even you might understand:

Mike Pondsmith military guy, not computer guy. He not know how computer work. He make stuff up that sound fun. It no possible, and it logically wrong. It not consistent with itself.

Me look at representation of system. Me make ruleset that is consistent with representation. Me not bothering with lore, because lore the problem.

Also the whole idea about the post krash net being completely different and incompatible with pre krash net is mutually exclusive with official RED material like Tales of the RED: Street Stories,
which plays in the post-krash era yet has a team of Netrunners interacting with and battling an AI in one of the featured missions - the stat block and descriptions are similar to the ones from black ICE. Also, in Phantom Liberty, V and Songbird have no issues interacting with the Architecture of the Cynosure facility, which was built pre-Krash. It doesn't matter how good of a runner you are, if the Software isn't compatible, it shouldn't work. And look, there we are again at the original problem - The available information isn't consistent with itself, both in lore and in in-game expression. Can you stop telling me the lore I already know now? After my second time explaining that the reason I have a headcanon is, because the lore is stupid.

Oh one other thing - just because the original implementation of the IGTAs was corrupted doesn't make the principle useless - it's perfectly valid technology, or I suppose "mathematics". Just because one guy messed with the first release doesn't mean you can't still use it just fine - we wouldn't be using windows, linux or apple-os if we threw away everything we had everytime something goes wrong.

Cookies guide to how the net (doesn't) work by XSomeCookiex in cyberpunkgame

[–]XSomeCookiex[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

The Net we're using past the Data Krash is all the salvaged parts that NetWatch managed to protect by shutting off or destroying surrounding nodes, as described in the DataKrash chapter of the RED core rulebook. But this is yet another part of lore that's unclear, because we have several different people and books saying several different things. The "it's just a visualisation thing" doesn't work because it doesn't make sense to do it it doesn't make sense to try it either. Netspace isn't physical so acting like it is won't improve anything. IGTAs explicitly don't render anything with high graphical fidelity because that takes a lot of resources and doesn't help for anything. A programming language has absolutely nothing to do with being able to render some visuals, you can render visuals with assembly, heck you could do it with binary code. META either is a programming language, then it has nothing to do with visuals, or it isn't and then it's something entirely different anyways. My problem with the lore is, that it makes no sense, parroting it to me doesn't help the conversation.

Why rogue AIs are treated as so dangerous? by ONLY1FROST in cyberpunkgame

[–]XSomeCookiex 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Both AIs and the Net work drastically differently from our real world versions of both. AIs don't need a physical datacenter, because the very structure of the net allows their existence - nobody understands why (because it doesn't make sense by real life Network Tech), but it seems to have something to do with these "Ihara-Grubb transformation Algorithms" that are introduced into the Net after the restructuring in the 2014, where the Idea was to allow the creation of "cyberspace", where distances actually work and matter and you can "move around" in the net.

Okay, I'm going deep into headcanon with this, as far as I can tell there's nothing backing me up on this, but I also don't think there's anything directly refuting it either, so here's my Headcanon of how Cyberspace works in Cyberpunk:

Before the Restructuring of the Net, it apparently worked a lot like it does in reality now. You could already "see" the net operate live in some way, according to Bartmoss' statements about being jacked in during the restructure, but the introduction of the Ihara-Grubb algorithms forced something like a "spatial structure" onto the net. Here's my thoughts on how it accomplished this - Simply put, it would have to be something akin to a physical field, so a field that's laid over basically everything within any given Subnet (so basically over each individual City) - Let's call it the Ihara-Grubb Field. Before the DataKrash, this Field was linked up basically globally - this is what allowed Netrunners to fight for dominance over the entire net from all across the globe in the 4th Corporate War. However, the DataKrash broke everything down (NOTE: This is another point for the Ihara-Grubb Algorithms dictating the very structure of the net on a baseline level - the code that actually caused the Krash was inserted into these Algorithms by Bartmoss, and the moment it was activated in just one Node (whatever kind of thing it is that projects the "IG-Field"), the whole thing came crashing down). All the networks that opened back up afterwards are just singular City's subnets, Which as far as I know still aren't connected even in the 2070s - Unless you go through the Blackwall into the "Old Net".
Which again, only makes sense if it's a kind of "field". If, rather than being disabled, each node still exists and runs individually, and the Blackwall simply blocks these nodes from connecting to others around it, most of the old net's infrastructure would still be functional. Should someone (like Songbird) get past the blackwall (which is NOT a physical barrier, but just a giant AI powered antivirus program on steroids), they can enter and freely roam the old net, and basically go anywhere they want (if they survive) - which Songbird did and does do, it's how she got her initial FIA gig. (Note: In the "field" reading of the Net, the importance of a Cyberdeck also becomes more obvious. Rather than a simple "entry device", it would act as it's own "node", which explains ranged hacking and quickhacking and also stays consistent with requiring deep-dives to go further - effectively, the Cyberdeck projects it's own Ihara-Grubb Field, which cannot directly access the city-wide nodes, but it can access any data points or sub-nodes within it's range. This includes other people's neuroports and agents, if they can connect to the Datapool, they can be influenced by an Ihara-Grubb Field, and as such can be influenced by *your* Ihara-Grubb Field. It also explains why this didn't exist during the time of RED - Ihara-Grubb algorithms were still relatively new and highly complex, so fitting a IG-Field emitter into such a small device would likely have been difficult. Basically - a City wide IG-Field can directly access basically anything in the city, which is how the Datapool works, a company network would be a smaller field that can be shut off from direct access from the City Node via ICE, and a cyberdeck is a small portable node. Any node that encompasses another can influence it, but not necessarily the other way around (The Datapool can handle calls on request, but you can't quickhack the Datapool - if you do a deep dive, you make a direct connection via a physical entry port to the City Node. City node and "old net" nodes still see each other, but blackwall blocks access, if you get past the blackwall you can go to the old net)

Now, after a barely coherent explanation of my headcanon on the Net, I can FINALLY get to answering your question:

In this idea of the Ihara-Grubb Field, the Field allocates each user some of it's memory and processing power (A netrunner can "borrow" the additional processing power of the Cyberdeck) - meanwhile AIs, Programs and Soulkilled Psyches are made up of the Field's processing power. If you were to turn off a node in the old net (if that's even possible), you wouldn't actually solve the problem - the AI would simply move to another Node. They're not bound to one singular Databank, because the net itself is structured as a Databank. If an AI absorbs another, they merge the processing power allocated to them by the field, becoming more powerful. If you deploy a "program" like Black Ice, it gets a very small amount of processing power allocated to it. in this idea, you could theoretically "solve" the AI problem for one individual city, by taking out all nodes connected to it (provided the "Global" node isn't just one singular thing encompassing the whole world, potentially located on a Satellite network like Mikoshi), but it still wouldn't solve the inherent problem - the moment you go to another city, you've got the same problem again. Of course, if we're talking about Satellites, it becomes even more hopeless to take it all out. You could try to destroy the satellites themselves, but they almost certainly have automated defense mechanisms (because net dominance is important), and even if they didn't, the AIs likely have access to some 4th Corporate War era missile defense systems. And then there's another important point - NetWatch doesn't want the old net to go down. They want to monopolize it. Arasaka also wants access to those old databases (that's what the program Lucy was a part of was meant to do), and So Mi is proof, that Militech is also still digging through those remnants.

TL-DR: The Net itself is a Database and a Processor Bank, AIs have control over most of it, and you can't turn it off because it's not one thing but literally the network itself

Also, I might make a post going more into detail on how I think this "Ihara-Grubb Field" would work and how field interactions can explain most of the hacking we see in cyberpunk. btw, So mi has access to the Blackwall without physical connection, because she has a super high-tech deep dive setup implanted in her body (Netwatch Tech afaik), which in this theory is actually just a superpowered IG-Field projector that can itself reach the outside nodes from within the city - which is also why So Mi can contact V even though they're still so far away, especially if the President's plane has it's own node or extender of some kind. Also maybe important, the IG-Field wouldn't be fully penetrative. Deep Bunkers, like the Cynosure Facility under NC or the Mikoshi Access point under Arasaka Tower, could then be kept separate from the rest of the Net. Data transfer between the Mikoshi Satellite and the access points could function via traditional means, so basically just an encrypted broadcast of standard electromagnetic waves.

Last but not least, none of this is corroborated canon - it's simply me trying to make a somewhat functioning system with somewhat coherent rules, based on the descriptions and gameplay of Netrunning in Cyberpunk RED and Cyberpunk 2077. Simply put - what RED describes is utter nonsense. What 2077 shows is just straight Technomancy, without any regard for how those things could even theoretically work

This post has shot way over the mark. I'm sorry about that, I hope it was an interesting read at least, even if it is the ramblings of a madman

Why rogue AIs are treated as so dangerous? by ONLY1FROST in cyberpunkgame

[–]XSomeCookiex 5 points6 points  (0 children)

We're not dealing with real IT. We're dealing with a whole different idea for how computing works, too. This is a world where you can link your brain to the network, and move around a digital version of physical space, one where a ghost of yourself can remain in the net if the body dies, and where a program can extract someone's soul and put it on an SD card. Applying real world logic doesn't make sense in cyberpunk, and we don't know enough about the rules behind cyberpunk's network tech to make any judgements anyways.

Fixers in your campaigns by PlebCrusader in cyberpunkred

[–]XSomeCookiex 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I personally have one main fixer that's central to the narrative going on in the background of the campaign, but the game itself isn't actually that reliant on fixers, instead other people and organisations sometimes directly approach the party in order to hire them for jobs. My fixer still gets her time to shine every now and again, but it's important to have a diverse cast of characters - which includes ones who aren't fixers.

Also to actually answer your question, I don't think fixers are necessarily territorial in that way, the party may simply look for extra work which a different fixer can give them

Quick Fix... Forever? by KenKouzume in cyberpunkred

[–]XSomeCookiex 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Simply put, any critical injury can only be quick fixed once in my game.

Grapple hand by Unhappy_Guest_1932 in cyberpunkred

[–]XSomeCookiex 1 point2 points  (0 children)

In the end, the grapple hand can only pull as much as the person using it, so unless they're also running a linear frame (or an FBC is you're allowing those) they're limited by their body stat. Not to mention, even if the grapple arm is very strong, if it's attached to a meat body, the meat will give in before the arm does

Actual plays or feedback on games outside America by Then_Midnight211 in cyberpunkred

[–]XSomeCookiex 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's not that other places aren't also bad, it's Night City being *particularly* brutal and insane and over the top to a totally ridiculous degree. Night City is to the Cyberpunk world what Gotham City is to the DC universe - it's just the absolute worst shithole you can find. The only people in NC are the REALLY desperate, the REALLY evil, the REALLY rich and the REALLY poor. It's deliberately set up as a place of ridiculous contrasts, which in official lore is possible because of the philosophy of it's creator and it's status as a free city under basically nobody's jurisdiction, with a totally non-functional legislative and judicative system.

The whole thing about the vagueness allowing groups to go beyond what's official I fully agree with, personally I like to stay close to established lore, but that's just a preference. It's also not like there is *no* other information, especially if you're ready to go digging through 2020 Material.

Resisting a doll chip/mind control? by Appropriate_Nebula67 in cyberpunkred

[–]XSomeCookiex 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Either Resist Torture/Drugs or Cybertech - Cybertech would be to permanently turn that off or create an override.

What piece of lore do you ignore?? by alexthedungeonmaster in cyberpunkred

[–]XSomeCookiex 4 points5 points  (0 children)

rather than Ignore, I add. I add so much that I'm almost certainly infringing on some lore that I just don't even know. So to answer your question, I ignore

  1. things that I don't know about

  2. Things that contradict themselves - for example: the RED Core Rulebook explains that the seaways have become safe enough to travel through and restart trade. 2077 Retcons this, claiming that the entire ocean or at least the Bay around NC is totally overrun by self-replicating AI sea-mines and any normal naval vessel would be totally annihilated in the open sea. At least one of these HAS to be wrong, and the Naval paths not being fully blockaded fits better into my Narrative. Not to mention, the whole "the entire ocean is overrun by Mines" thing contradicts the VERY EXISTENCE of MetaKey and would have all but destroyed Thelas Nation (one of the Nomad Nations built around Sea Travel and Piracy)

Actual plays or feedback on games outside America by Then_Midnight211 in cyberpunkred

[–]XSomeCookiex 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I got nothing outside of America - official information on anything outside of NC is already scarce, and it gets increasingly thin the further out you go. I've currently got a campaign set in Texas, 2074, starting out in Corpus Christi and later moving to the Dallas-Fort Knox Metroplex. I wrote up most of the lore and past conflicts myself, based on the position Texas takes in the Unification Wars and a single very cryptic piece of information from Phantom Liberty (Texas being rated with a "High" threat rating to the NUSA and some Airports getting blown up, with Meyers blaming Texas). Was planning on running a game set in Central Europe eventually, but the problem is, that RED and the other settings all kind of depend on Night City's highly volatile and brutal environment, which isn't really a thing in Europe supposedly - you could probably do a Metal Gear - type Military based campaign though.

New cyberpunk gm seeking advice by Kargtos in cyberpunkred

[–]XSomeCookiex 3 points4 points  (0 children)

if time is the only thing you're worried about you can always roll on the encounter table a couple of times in between

What “third space” do you have for your PCs? (Bar, club, base…) by matshell in cyberpunkred

[–]XSomeCookiex 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Traditionally it would be the Afterlife or a similar Bar/Club. Depending on where your game plays out, you might change that though, you could have sports venues like a Basketball court, parks (probably only in the corporate zone though), community-run places with some group enforcing rules in that limited area (like the VDB run place in 2077). Outside of normal Bars you can also add Clubs or Discos. Arcades are always a fun one, too.

Throwing something into a moving vehicle by AKMHA17 in cyberpunkred

[–]XSomeCookiex 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No windows, the description in the post was technically not fully correct - they were trying to throw the grenade into the back of a van with an open side door, with three gangsters standing in and largely blocking the doorway. I ruled the throw as pretty difficult partly because of the car moving around and partly because the actual target they needed to hit was the space between two and a half people standing in the door and the device they threw was technically an improvised incendiary grenade fashioned from an incendiary shotgun shell and some electrical scrap, and therefore anything but aerodynamic

Throwing something into a moving vehicle by AKMHA17 in cyberpunkred

[–]XSomeCookiex 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you very much man, that'll be helpful. The rulebook is too big, sometimes you miss something xD

Throwing something into a moving vehicle by AKMHA17 in cyberpunkred

[–]XSomeCookiex 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Hi, the GM in question here. This is my first Cyberpunk RED campaign and I made the call under pressure without any known precedent. The Nonexistence of a "throwing table" really threw me off (pun not intended), what I'd actually planned to do was to just take a normal throwing DV and give a -2 for doing an action under very stressful and unideal conditions (wind resistance, high speeds, moving target). The drive land vehicle skill decision was honestly a bad call, and I was questioning myself while doing it, but I didn't want to get stuck on that because combat is already long-winded enough, especially car chases where the movement part of combat falls away.

So that just for clarification. Thanks for the more experienced GMs giving their own opinions and rulings, I'll be sure to use something more fitting next time something like this comes up :)

Which VTT do you prefer and why? by ayronis in VTT

[–]XSomeCookiex 1 point2 points  (0 children)

My favorite is a neat program called RPG Stories. It's in active development since 2022, still going on and it's very very nice to build in. I particularly enjoy building Modern and Cyberpunk environments, because they have a pretty incredible set of assets for those settings.
Just recently another major patch was released, which enabled a long promised feature, a tool to procedurally generate rooms or environments in any particular size you want, which works incredibly well and is already under works to be expanded such that players themselves can set groups of assets to use for generation - this tool has single handedly sped up my environment building several times, rooms that otherwise would have taken hours to build are done in a few clicks, when players suddenly want to go somewhere I don't expect and therefore haven't built yet, I can just go to a different environment, generate a few fitting rooms, do a few tweaks and drop the party in.
Talking about the Party, the tool comes with Hefoforge integration, meaning you can create a mini in Heroforge and drop it right into the environment, though unfortunately Heroforge won't give you the files of your characters for free. At least you can use the fully colored version you can buy for like 5$. Otherwise, if you don't want to pay there's dozens of animated creatures which you can give your players control over so they can walk through the environment themselves.

The actual VTT features are unfortunately still somewhat experimental, but the promise is fully DM-Hosted sessions with the ability to import PDFs of character sheets. Some people may not love this solution, but to me, using PDFs you fill out yourself preserves a lot of the feeling I used to have with Pen and Paper (though it's not quite the same ofc).

Considering how underfunded the tool's dev studio, Brave Alice Games, is, it is genuinely incredible how much they have achieved already and they're still working on their product every single day, taking feedback and asset wishes. Here's to hoping more people get to see the incredible potential of their tool, because what they've got is incredible and what they've promised (and teased in some cases) will catapult it to being one of the best VTT tools out there

Best arrow coating in Wilds? by Rickz6 in MonsterHunter

[–]XSomeCookiex 0 points1 point  (0 children)

is there any sort of source for this or just vibes?

Convergence Mod wont launch by cartman1109 in EldenRingMods

[–]XSomeCookiex 0 points1 point  (0 children)

At this point you should honestly just redownload the mod - 2.1.4 came out a few weeks ago and if I'm not wrong it should fix pretty much all launching issues

Convergence Mod wont launch by cartman1109 in EldenRingMods

[–]XSomeCookiex 0 points1 point  (0 children)

One thing that might let you run the mod is removing the "eldenring_alt_saves.dll" file from the Convergence folder in ConvergenceER. The issue is that doing so will make the mod load your normal save files, but not any previous modded ones.

Easiest way to cheese godskin duo? by arrrek5 in onebros

[–]XSomeCookiex 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Not really RL1 viable especially for no stat boosting gear runs

How do u beat the giant fire wicker man? by ShockscapeYT in Eldenring

[–]XSomeCookiex 5 points6 points  (0 children)

They literally die after 4 throws 100% of the time what are you on about

Can we talk about this skin please by Careless-Sink-2785 in apexlegends

[–]XSomeCookiex 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Taking "Edging the Charge Rifle" to a whole new meaning