CyberPunk 2077 - It's Ready when its Ready

[mogbert]

If crafting isn't tied to the tech tree anymore... well, with the build I want I'm still probably taking the tech tree, but that clears up a lot of points for me regardless. It seems that stats tied to your cyberware will heavily require the tech tree. So I guess your other option is very light on the cyberware and playing it more like a FPS. Regardless, you have enough points, you will probably be maxing STR.

Also, it seems there are more points available with the DLC (if you assign too many points it says it can only be done with the DLC). So the DLC will give additional points.
I noticed that I can get three trees to 20 points, and the other two to 10 (technically one of those would be at 11). So while you can't MAX everything, you can pretty much get the first two tiers of everything and max out most things. If you ignore one tree, you can get the other to 18, but not quite max.

This really feels like a new game. We don't yet know a lot of the mechanics, and it seems that a number of systems are different then how they had been (stats on cyberware for example). I don't know enough to properly armchair theorize my build, but since it seems points are plentiful, it almost seems you will be fine just taking what you want at the beginning until you figure out what you want to do.

The main thing for you to decide is what you want for your 'magic' (sandy, cyberdeck, etc) and what kind of arms do you want. You main choice of guns play into those decisions. While you CAN mix and match, for the most part reflexes gets you one type of build, strength gets you another. It's almost better to choose what you DON'T want and work from there.

My favorite build after they nerfed contagion was sandy and a katana with a back up weapon (can't recall what I used, probably a handgun). I prefer tech weapons over smart weapons. You can go hacking and smart weapons or sandy and tech weapons. Again, you can mix or match, this is just a 'optimal' type thing. You also have to think about progression, since you will slowly be getting points and it is possible you won't get all of them.

 

[Sunner]

Neon Knight has his review out.
He does bring up the crafting vs talent tree thing, and apparently crafting is entirely core now, i.e. there's no need to spend skill points on it.

 

[CPX]

And there was much rejoicing...

 

[jamoau]

Neon Knight has his review out.
He does bring up the crafting vs talent tree thing, and apparently crafting is entirely core now, i.e. there's no need to spend skill points on it.

Good to see the point made that it is not a new game but much refined for the better. Being able to respec whenever you want offers major changes in play styles to mix things up. 30hrs on DLC with main quests and side quests. CDPR have redeemed themselves in my eyes.

I wonder if my motorcycle will still do 180s when called or be 80m away. Fun times.

 

[Diabolical]

I'm just glancing at reviews - I've avoided this game (not to mention the expansion!) almost in it's entirely until now and am entering nearly spoiler free - but even those rudimentary glances are showing positivity pretty much across the board.

Will finally be jumping in next week.
Can't wait.

 

[Anacher]

I'm just glancing at reviews - I've avoided this game (not to mention the expansion!) almost in it's entirely until now and am entering nearly spoiler free - but even those rudimentary glances are showing positivity pretty much across the board.

Will finally be jumping in next week.
Can't wait.

I purchased the game at the summer sale, and basically all the teething problems I heard about seemed gone. I loved the run (and just finished this past weekend, to get in before the expansion came out and changed the underlying mechanics. Going to take a break before coming back in and doing another run with the DLC.

 

[Mister E. Meat]

I bought the game day one and the perception of technical problems on PC was really overblown. I’m not saying there were no issues but they were no different than any other open world game. I’m not trying to minimize the issues on consoles, some of which were substantial, but the game they delivered worked fine on PC.

There were issues with game design and things like that but it wasn’t horribly broken there either.

 

[Tom Foolery]

I bought the game day one and the perception of technical problems on PC was really overblown. I’m not saying there were no issues but they were no different than any other open world game. I’m not trying to minimize the issues on consoles, some of which were substantial, but the game they delivered worked fine on PC.

There were issues with game design and things like that but it wasn’t horribly broken there either.

Quoted for truth. I played 300+ hours in the first three months post-release, and despite having one quest chain that I just couldn't finish no matter how hard I tried, it was a blast. I think I burned out on it, though, as every time I fire it up for a replay, I bounce off of it. Maybe get Phantom Liberty for Christmas, and give it a go during that period of the year where time to play games is more plentiful, AKA winter.

 

[mogbert]

BTW- 2.0 is out now.

I'm downloading it in steam while I also try to find all my old mods and remove them (I THICK I got them all). Also, removing all my old saves (I do this every time I start a new character).

Noticing some differences between their skill calculator and what the skills say in the game.
For example, in the calculator, Ninjitsu lvl 1 says "+15% movement speed" but in game it says "+15% crouch movement speed"

Also, even though I updated the video card drivers and rebooted, I ran into graphical glitches in the character creator. Not a good sign, but finger crossed.

Edit:
OK, so some of the new graphics settings I can't enable with a 2080 super.
Well, there is also DLAA and DLSA or DALS... LADS? I dunno. There are a few different options, but it seems you can only turn on one of them at a time. I tired one and (DLAA) and I don't think I saw any difference. So I switched to DLSS on balanced. I can do 90FPS with most of the settings maxed (at least at the start, we'll see how it goes). I remember that DLSS used to cause artifacts on brake lights, so we'll have to see once I get some wheels.

Just going through the beginning of the game. Figured I can probably get through to where the game opens up before Phantom Liberty drops.

So for builds, it seems you will be limited more by perk points than attribute points. However, the way you earn them seems a bit different now, so you may not even get the full amount (for example, if you don't do any hacking, then you probably won't fill out the hacking progression for a couple of perk points. Still, I expect to be a brute by the end anyway. Not going to make a stealth archer build in this game...

Edit2:
Further on in the game. Only get occasional graphic problems when I'm looking at my own character (like in a mirror). The variety of weapons is crazy. I got to the first time you can walk around normal, and the second guy I killed dropped a precision rifle (one of the weapons that my build will be using) and the fourth dropped a quasar. I've jsut started and I've got some of my favorite weapons (I'd LIKE a tech precision rifle, but I'll settle for what I can get at lvl 2 )

 

[mogbert]

Weird problem with 2.0 so far. There are a lot of times I'm picking up a gun, but it isn't showing up in my inventory. Not sure if it is breaking it down into components automatically (I have NO skills yet, so that shouldn't happen). I mention it because sometimes I'll pick up a gun, and I'll see something on the side of the screen saying Tier 1 components. It goes by fast, but I have picked up a tech shotgun and a quasar and not see them in my inventory. After the next fight, I'll try and do it slowly to confirm what is happening.

Edit:
OK, did it slower this time. Seems that everyone drops weaposn when they die, but to stop you from getting over loaded (and screw the economy) a lot of the weapons that drop are "Broken". These weapons immediately become crafting components.

 

[CPX]

Bleh, two steps forward, one step back. All NPCs scale to the player directly now.

 

[crombie]

I bought this for PC, but even in a broken state I put in probably close to 200 hours on the original XBox. I had tied my old game to the PC, but I am thinking of removing that link and starting a new play through.

 

[Semi On]

Bleh, two steps forward, one step back. All NPCs scale to the player directly now.

Like everyone is your level?

 

[CPX]

Like everyone is your level?

That's how I read the release notes. I kind of get why. With the new level cap and area, it pretty much wrecks the original balance. But I fucking hate "always scaled to you" because it leaves every place feeling same-ey.

 

[Diabolical]

Preordered the expansion. I feel dirty, but I did it anyway. About half way through Edgerunner - will finish before next Tuesday.

Thinking I'm going to have an eye problem for Tuesday - I can't see myself getting to work if I'm standing at my desk playing Cyberpunk...

 

[Semi On]

But I fucking hate "always scaled to you" because it leaves every place feeling same-ey.

Absolutely. What's the point of leveling up if everyone is always the same as you?

 

[jamoau]

That is disappointing. Smarter and better equipped enemies Is the way to go. Everyone the same level just adds tedium.

 

[ShePearl]

I really appreciate Ray Reconstruction. That denoiser is a BIG improvement. It's also impressive that RR provides more defintion to shadows.

 

[mogbert]

I have to say, I'm usually against scaling, but so far not feeling any problem. Mooks are pretty easy to take out. There seem to be certain enemies around that aren't random spawning that have a skull over them and drop loot, as far as I can say (avoiding what loot they drop for spoilers). In CP2077 most of the time the scaling just kind of locked me out of places bu making it not worth it to go there. I haven't unlocked the full map yet, so not sure how it affects the upper range, if I can just wander into the middle of the city and pick a fight. I'll probably see today.

I noticed that guns sell for a LOT more now. So it is trivial to earn enough to pay Victor back and buy a certain plot related device.

Your perks that improve your guns don't really become available until you've leveled up quite a bit, so deciding on what you are going to go for first really seems to be important.
It also appears they removed the 10 body requirement from some of the guns. Also, it appears perk points are easily swappable? If that is the case, it make mean you can play around with your build other than abilities.

Edit:
Still running into bugs, but nothing big. Picked up a Kappa out of a box, tier 2. It didn't show up in my weapon inventory. When I went to All Items, I was able to see it, and it claimed it was $0 and 4-point-something lbs, and already equipped (I still have three other weapons equipped). I couldn't sell it or drop it. Shrugged and continued the game, and the gun is missing now. I'm not using a smart weapon build so no skin off my nose, but that is worrying.

Edit2:
Thinking about scaling. I notice that it isn't just the enemies, the weapons no longer have a level and rarity, it is only Tier. I hit level 10 and green things have started dropping. With items not having levels, it seems that guns sell for max amount right off the bat. But also cost max amount. So economy is pretty balanced, but balanced around end game. That means that plot based dollar amounts are no longer difficult to get. I'm not feeling like enemies are too easy or too difficult. Also, a previous problem with arm weapons like the mantis blades is they didn't scale, so they should be more viable now. Issues with scaling usually show up more towards endgame than in the beginning. Things like starving muggers being equipped with enchanted glass weapons worth enough to buy a house. So I can't say if it is good or bad yet. I will say I just died for the first time to a random group of enemies. It might be because I just stepped past a tier threshold and haven't upgraded my gear yet.

With semi-random stats being available on your mods, it may lead to rerolling your cyberware until the mods you want show up.

Solo seems to be the easiest skill to raise at the beginning. In the beginning you don't have weapons skills, so all weapons work just as well for you. Using a shotgun up-close gets around 500 skill points for solo per fight. Headhunter also goes up fast, mainly on headshots, which I'm also getting with shotguns. Was going to be a tech pistol/precision rifle/katana build, but figured I'd switch to those towards endgame when the bonuses will probably be more important. If Int is your dump stat, raising Net-runner seems near impossible.

Edit3:
Hmmm, stats added onto your cyberware during upgrade don't appear to be random, exactly. But when I upgraded one to the second option and then upgraded again, I was expect to get slightly higher of the two options, but instead, I got a third set of stats. Seems to cycle around. Maybe there are three options total (since there is a skill that at tier 3 you get three options).

At this point, I'm thinking that probably every 10 levels a new tier is 'unlocked'. Don't know if that is player levels or street cred levels, since they are staying neck and neck this playthrough. Also, rather than just everythign being green at level 10, it seems your odds start improving to find green items. I suspect that tier 1+ items were probably sprinkled it at some point (one of my weapons is a 1+ but hadn't been paying attention.)

Not sure what stats I should be going for, or what abilities to put points in first. I have five levels worth of points saved up. One more and I have more options. I can get one of three abilities at rank 5 to rank 9 in order to unlock second tier, or I could take tech up to 15 (in one more level) and be able to really start kitting out my cyberware. IT does cost money to install or swap cyberware you already own, but it costs a lot less than buying it and installing it.

 

[Apteris]

Absolutely. What's the point of leveling up if everyone is always the same as you?

It really depends on the game's combat system and its context.

In The Witcher 3, combat was so much fun that I enabled enemy level scaling just to continue to have a gameplay challenge, given that the way I played the game I became over-leveled around the time I was 40% of the way through the story. Also, while Geralt became more experienced and stronger with leveling up, it still made sense in-context for him to be cautious when picking a fight with a pack of wolves.

---

Apparently you get a bonus car if you preorder Phantom Liberty on GOG. Am I going to preorder it just because of this? Yes.

Well, not just because of this, I do it because I like CDPR and want to give them money. Still, though.

 

[mogbert]

Now I'm happy about restarting the game. Just got a new iconic weapon. Looks like they aren't just in the DLC. Not going to say where it was, but it is a new knife that pairs with a specific sword.

Edit:
Only problem is my crippling indecision in where to put my points and when. Without my respec mod, I'm worried that as soon as I put points in Cool, I'll have needed them in Tech... or maybe Strength to open a door with a one shot chance at an iconic or something. So I've got about 6 levels saved up by now. I can take my Tech to Pro, or I can take my tech to 15 or anything else to 9. So far the levels have come really fast. I'm probably going to just chill a little on the main story missions. Probably do some side missions and NPCD type things.

I've gotten to Love Like Fire, which brings up another change I kind of wish I could get. While I understand WHY the flashbacks aren't skip-able, I wish they were. They happened in the past, so your choices don't matter, ever. You can't pick up anything. They are just there for the story, and by the fifth or sixth time going through them, you just want to skip it. Really want to open the world up a bit so I'm progressing a little. Probably won't do the next steps of the main story until the DLC releasess. Not sure where it comes in, but I want to see how it transitions organically, rather then see how they introduce it if you load up a save where you are past that point normally. Sinc ethe DLC apparently involves a specific fixer, I figure if I don't trigger that fixer I'm probably good to go.

BTW- DLSS is still great for getting more out of your computer, but there are still... miscalculations? Places where it changes something. In Love Like Fire, there are some bottles on a table near a candle. With DLSS on, they literally look like moltolov cocktails, as if they have flames coming out the top of the bottles. With DLSS turned all the way down to Quality, it is still noticeable, though not as bad... I mean, it's like the bottle is a candle rather they on fire.

With DLSS off and DLAA on, I get none of the frame rate boosts (from 40FPS with DLSS off (with or without DLAA on) to 100 FPS with DLSS on) but I STILL get the artifacts on the bottle the bottle appearing to be on fire). Still not sure what DLAA is supposed to do, give you all the same artifacts as DLSS but without any frame rate improvements?

Dynamic Resolution Scaling hits the target FPS (if possible) but at a noticeable reduction in quality.

AMD FidelityFX Has a big improvement, but with a very noticeable reduction in quality... but in a different way than above. Things looks jaggedier and flakier rather than just blurier.

Intel Xe Supersampling is about the same.

They can be adjusted so that the level of jank is lowered and the improvement in speed is increased.

I would have liked some sort of combination of these features, like dynamic resolution being able to be hard set (I guess less dynamic) and then of of the other solutions being able to be turned on at a lower level.

So far, even with the occasional weird artifacting, DLSS still seems to be the best solution.

And while I can usually get around 60FPS with DLSS set to performance and all of the ray tracing turned on and psycho, I really haven't seen it improving scenes that much. It also leads to slowdowns when entering or exiting menus. Where for a couple of seconds I'm at 14FPS while the DLSS tries to reengage. I find it easier to turn off ray tracing, and turn ALL my other graphics settings up. Then with a DLSS setting of Balanced, I can get around 90 FPS.

This is done with a RTX 2080 Super. It was a pretty high end card in it;s day, but a few generation old by now.

BTW- One thing I turned on, which I USUALLY leave off for every game, is Motion Blurring. In most normal games this hides details as you turn around, but with CP2077 having such high contrasts, bright slights and dark areas, it really helps with the strobing effect I get with it off.

 

[Ulf]

Edit2:
Also, a previous problem with arm weapons like the mantis blades is they didn't scale, so they should be more viable now.

That was half the issue. The other half was getting turned into swiss cheeze during a kill cam, which happened all the time. With scaled enemies, unless they added invulnerability, you're basically guaranteed dead when one triggers.

 

[mogbert]

That was half the issue. The other half was getting turned into swiss cheeze during a kill cam, which happened all the time. With scaled enemies, unless they added invulnerability, you're basically guaranteed dead when one triggers.

Well... I don't know if that has been fixed or not. I THINK finishers might be manual now. Not sure because I haven't gotten that far yet.

 

[Tijger]

Weird problem with 2.0 so far. There are a lot of times I'm picking up a gun, but it isn't showing up in my inventory. Not sure if it is breaking it down into components automatically (I have NO skills yet, so that shouldn't happen). I mention it because sometimes I'll pick up a gun, and I'll see something on the side of the screen saying Tier 1 components. It goes by fast, but I have picked up a tech shotgun and a quasar and not see them in my inventory. After the next fight, I'll try and do it slowly to confirm what is happening.

Edit:
OK, did it slower this time. Seems that everyone drops weaposn when they die, but to stop you from getting over loaded (and screw the economy) a lot of the weapons that drop are "Broken". These weapons immediately become crafting components.

Thats actually a pretty smart move by the devs that I dont think I've seen before in another game.

I'm waiting for Phantom Liberty to drop before starting a new game now which, now that we're close, seems to take ages

 

[CPX]

Thats actually a pretty smart move by the devs that I dont think I've seen before in another game.

Yeah, 99% of guns I ever picked up were not just junk from a usability perspective but also nigh worthless from a sale perspective. Auto-composting means so much less time stuck in menus.

 

[Tijger]

Yeah, 99% of guns I ever picked up were not just junk from a usability perspective but also nigh worthless from a sale perspective. Auto-composting means so much less time stuck in menus.

Same here, most of the stuff I picked up I immediately turned into materials manually but to not have to do that grunt work is very nice.

 

[PhaseB]

I've gotten to Love Like Fire, which brings up another change I kind of wish I could get. While I understand WHY the flashbacks aren't skip-able, I wish they were. They happened in the past, so your choices don't matter, ever.

Depending on how you treat Alt in the past, certain conversation options will be available or not in one of the endings.

 

[mogbert]

Depending on how you treat Alt in the past, certain conversation options will be available or not in one of the endings.

I didn't realize this. I always treated her the best I can, though Johnny is a real jerk. It's another of the reasons I don't like playing in the past is because of how much of a jackass he is.

Other than that, just pushing through. I'll probably start the first part of the main missions, where you go and meet a guy. But probably going to go do cyberpsycho stuff and NCPD sites.

Speaking of which, I had the idea of using my shotgun to get the guys lower (because fighting a range boss at melee is pretty painful). Well, I misjudged it, and apparently got a lot of good hits on them with my last shot, but they went down at 1% and survived. I didn't even know you COULD get non-lethal takedowns with the shotgun. I mean, sure after a gun fight with my pistol there might be a few bad guys rolling on the ground in pain, and I mercifully help them pass on and gain a few extra skill points while I do, but that was just pure luck dropping him just right to take him alive. Next one was a melee guy, and I couldn't land a hit on them. I got them about halfway with the shotgun and switched to a crowbar (cause we are in the future, so we have to use futuristic weapons like 'crowbar' and 'steel pipe' (which sells for $900 credits for some reason)). But after a minute of swinging at them, they were at the exact same health percentage.

So instead, I had to do the fight with counters. You get a counter on them and they are open for a few extra hits. That is the FIRST time CP2077 made me use counters. I know they've been in there, the training program at the beginning shows them, but I had never used them after that. Now, they may be nearly required (barring using non-lethal range weapons, time slowing, or probably one of a dozen other ways to take a boss down non-leathaly).

Edit:
Woot! Just found that using smart weapons gives you Netrunner skillpoints. So those perk points aren't out of your reach even if you do tank Intelligence! Now, smart weapons aren't very strong per bullet, so if you do choose to use them, stack headshot damage on your cyberware. Now, I'm just using them in the interim to stack up skill points. Shotguns stack up Solo points, headshots stack up Headhunter, and tech weapons stack up Engineering. After a fight, I often have a bunch of skill points going everywhere. Also, I expect tiers are done by player level, not street cred like before. Because I got to level 20 street cred while still at level 18 player level, and I didn't have any new options int he stores yet.

It seems Technology tree is the key to armor. So it is still probably going to be a must have unless you want to be a glass canon. And seeing as how you can't really be a 'cannon', glass or otherwise, it is probably best to stack Technology so you can grab those cyberware upgrades that give large armor bonuses.

I will say that the game isn't nearly as easy as it used to be. You CAN get killed in just a random fight even on normal. All it takes is a few enemies rolling up behind you and you go down pretty quickly. Also, the limit of only two health packs (on a timer, so you can usually use three or four in even a fairly short fight) is a lot tighter then the nearly infinite number you had before. (mini-edit: I already had 9 points in tech, and you can move perk points around, so got the one that gives you an additional health pack). Additionally, you used to be able to get pretty high level stuff early on, but here everything is level gated. Also, you can't upgrade non-iconic weapons. So you are very dependent on drops or stores.

As far as I can tell, there isn't an option to remove mods from guns or swap them without destroying what is on there. However, mods appear to be a lot more plentiful and you CAN upgrade them. Or rather, you can combine two lower level mods to make a higher level one. So technically a tier 2 mod costs twice as much as a tier 1, because you just buy two and combine them.

Edit2(?):
Wait... so I can't even replace mods on the gun with another mod? And I can't remove a mod on a gun? Is there a service I can pay Wilson for to remove mods or something? Just weird that I can change out my skeleton easier than a mod on a gun...

 

[PhaseB]

Edit:
Woot! Just found that using smart weapons gives you Netrunner skillpoints. So those perk points aren't out of your reach even if you do tank Intelligence! Now, smart weapons aren't very strong per bullet, so if you do choose to use them, stack headshot damage on your cyberware. Now, I'm just using them in the interim to stack up skill points. Shotguns stack up Solo points, headshots stack up Headhunter, and tech weapons stack up Engineering. After a fight, I often have a bunch of skill points going everywhere. Also, I expect tiers are done by player level, not street cred like before. Because I got to level 20 street cred while still at level 18 player level, and I didn't have any new options int he stores yet.

For skill points, each you get those points if you use weapons from the tree and other effects. Monowire also gives Netrunning skill. A Shingen Mark V (iconic Smartgun SMG) gives Shinobi and Netrunner XP, a Smart Shotgun gives Netrunning and Solo XP, etc...
Possibly certain element types like Shock or Fire are typed as XP as certain skills well, but I'm not 100% sure on that.

So not to hard to grind up different skill trees at least to the first perk point if you invest a bit of time into that.

 

[mogbert]

Yeah, I've been using weapons that raise at least two skills at a time, jsut trying to mix whatever is lowest.

BTW- They've found a near game breaking glitch... actually it's a return of a previous glitch that they never really cleaned up but had a workaround.

This is not much of a spoiler, just a quest name and one line of dialog you MUST NOT say or your game becomes glitched from then on.

In the quest AUTOMATIC LOVE, DO NOT say the line "Fucked in the head worse than me." If you do, the game will have a graphic effect applied from then on which will make playing difficult. CDPR is aware of the problem and is working on a fix.

Edit:
Also note that the Overture no longer appears to support muzzle slots. This means you can't make it a silenced weapon anymore, along with all the other power weapon muzzle mods they added to the game. (checked patch note- all revolvers lost the muzzle slot).

So kind of appears there are three MAIN builds. A Body build focuses on blunt and shotguns/machine guns, a Reflex build focuses on blades and smg/rifles, and a Cool build focuses on handguns and sniper rifles. After that, you have two 'sub-builds', Tech weapons and Smart Weapons. That is pretty much six builds. And while you have enough attribute points to go down multiple builds, the perk points are what is holding you from becoming a master-of-all-trades. That said, most weapons work well enough that they are useful even without skill points, at least in the beginning.

For my first 2.0 playthrough I'm going for tech and I wanted to go Blades. The problem is the limited number of tech weapons. My favorite is the tech shotgun, but the tech precision rifle is also rad as heck. I'm less than impressed with the tech pistols now. My favorite was the Quasar, as it kind of doubles as a tech smg. However, the things kicks so hard now it is nearly uncontrollable. Maybe I can get some cyberware that helps with that, or skills, but not sure if it is worth it. I wanted to go with handguns because a silenced Overture used to be my faorite power weapon, but now that I can't put a silencer on it, I'm wondering if I should go assault/smg now... except there are no assault/smg tech weapons, and I'm definitely going tech. There is kind of a disynergy between tech and blades. The slowdown effect from a sandy is boosted by reflex, and useful for blades, Likewise, the blade tree has some skills that need time slowing to work. But the tech weapons and reflex weapons have no overlap. Still thinking... (sub edit- hold up, this is a TECH smg?!? OK, taking this for a spin...)

I need to look over the skills again and determine which way I'm going to go. For progression, I can't rush down one tree and get a high end sandy anymore. Have to level up to unlock the higher end cyberware. For that matter, I don't even know if they HAVE the sandy I want in the game anymore. I'm only interested in the short duration/short cooldown sandy. Even then, most of the fights were over before the duration ran out. But 55 seconds is too long for a cooldown. Even 30 is too long.

Found this note:
Added new weapon mods and reworked some existing ones. Once installed in a weapon, mods are irreplaceable.
Can you guess what mod I'll be downloading as soon as it becomes available?

Vendors no longer sell crafting components. So as you get more money, eventually it seems money will become useless and you will be breaking down all the items that drop that you don't need.

Mods are being made for the 2.0 as we speak. So if you got caught by the above glitch, there is now a mod for you:
Glitch Begone

 

[Diabolical]

And after 3 years of avoiding pretty much everything I could about this game, then finishing Edgerunners yesterday?
Notepad? Check.
Pen? Check.

Alright.
Here we go.
click

 

[CPX]

What's the notepad about?

 

[mogbert]

Please enjoy yourself. For me, I'm enjoying a lot of the new stuff, but sad at some of the things I liked being taken away. Getting into it at 2.0 is probably the best thing you could do, especially if you are going in blind. You get one ability point respec, but have unlimited perk point moves, so you really shouldn't ever have any spare perk points. Spend them as soon as you get them, and when you unlock another tier, move them.

In the beginning, try out all the different gun types. See what you like. You can usually pick a handfull of different types. Also, you can craft bullets easily at any time (I think, I haven't tried in the middle of combat), so even if you like pistols and SMG, which both use the same ammo, you can still make it work. There are a FEW time sensitive quests, though a lot of others will claim to be time sensitive. Some quests don't really have rewards, it is mostly about the story. Others have no story and it is mostly about the rewards.

You can't get every ability, but you can max out three out of five of the trees. Take a look at the cap stones and figure which ones you NEED. You can have some ability points in the other trees, but don't put many until you have gotten to the capstones on the ones you want.

Enjoy yourself and feel free to ask any questions you have. I have work, so I can't always be in this thread, but I will answer to the best of my ability.

 

[Diabolical]

What's the notepad about?

I take notes as I play. I like actually writing, and it helps me to process story elements AND lets me take enough notes to come back to a game after a week of not playing because, you know, life, and pick up where I left off without being confused.

Edit: And now I’m ducking out of the thread until I’m MUUUUCH further into the game. I am not reading any advice or commentary, so I won’t have anything substantive to add to the conversation.

 

[jamoau]

Started a new game. I’m finding I have to be a lot more careful around Night City. The NCPD have foot patrols, so accidentally nudging a pedestrian is aggressively frowned upon, as is nudging a Patrol Car.
Getting hacked by enemy Netrunners in combat was a novel first, as in, hmm, I wonder what ‘waring complete system shutdown imminent’ is all about. Lots of little details have been added, eg, I don’t recall Jackie‘s ARCH gear changing the way it does now. CDPR have been busy. Sadly I can‘t spend much more time on it atm. Phantom Liberty should be a blast.

 

[Yagisama]

Haha I used to crash into pedestrians and just say 'scuse me.

I just finished Starfield (and started NG+). This is a good stopping point for that, but BG3 was calling me back since I put that one on hold. But now V is calling too.

 

[Telwar]

I installed last night and played. Driving is "interesting," and I had my car half-destroyed the first time I drove.

Then I got into accidents with a cop car nearby and, ahem, had to, um, exchange rounds with the police before I got into Lizzie's bar.

 

[mogbert]

For the police, the number of times I was aggressively defending myself, they would see a firefight and attack both sides. I've always done a runner rather than fight them (after finishing the fight and picking up the loot, as long as you don't fight back, it stays at one star). A few times a patrol would join the fight and I'd either hide or put my gun away. That way I could play the concerned citizen and say that I saw they were in trouble and decided to help. In those circumstances they haven't turned on me.

Smart weapons are sometimes good and sometimes bad. I'm sure they are nicer when spec'ed into them, with full int. A netrunner build is assumed to be using them now, rather then fighting with nethacks only. It seems that playstyle is more for throwing out quick hacks while also shooting with smart weapons. Like normal, the tigerclaws are particularly strong against smartweapons with a higher majority of bullets spiraling off to nowhere. Another problem I've found is that for about a quarter second AFTER you get a lockon confirmation (the boxed x on the target) it STILL isn't locked and anything you shoot will not track. So you have to wait a beat after it locks on to fire. This is particularly bad with things like the double-barreled smart shotguns, since you have to reload after the second shot. When done correctly, every pellet in the shot swoops towards their head and they just ragdoll.

I've finally bought into the tech weapon tree. Some guns can use Bolt, and others aren't really suitable for it, I think. The Quasar and the tech SMG, basically ones that charge up to a rapid fire seem like they aren't suited for it. I've gotten a hand augment that reduces recoil and some of the burst fire weapons are a lot better now (reduced recoil is now in my sights as a very good stat). I'm thinking about swapping out the bone one that lets you carry more stuff. Originally it is important, but once you unlock enough body skills, you get a lot of carrying capacity.

With the change to guns, I'm having to go over all of them again. While I'm sad to seem some of my favorites have gone by the way side (Overture for example) a lot of the tech pistols that I wasn't impressed with before are better. Even some of the Smart weapons are much nicer. I found a baseball bat that had a set of mods on it that made it a beast. I'm not spec'd for blunt weapons, but it will often one shot enemies. Occasionally it won't swing at all, which is annoying. I'm thinking I might be stunned or something. Doesn't appear to be out of stamina, but maybe? Dunno. So far I've only gotten one iconic katana. It really isn't that good, focusing on Iaidō, meaning to utilize it's iconic feature, I have to keep sheathing it in battle. I haven't done the quest that got me my favorite sword from my last run, so I don't know if it changed. I do know that I haven't gotten the sandy yet, so it's special features won't be useful yet.

Seeing as how the DLC will launch shortly, I should go meet the fox by the watering hole.

 

[zakael19]

I installed last night and played. Driving is "interesting," and I had my car half-destroyed the first time I drove.

Then I got into accidents with a cop car nearby and, ahem, had to, um, exchange rounds with the police before I got into Lizzie's bar.

I remain genuinely impressed at how bad CPR managed to make driving in this game. Sounds like they haven't changed that at all. Protip: motorcycles defy physics to an absurd degree and are the superior wheeled transit.

 

[mogbert]

Note that if the car you are driving has a flat tire, you will be nearly unable to steer it. I've gotten into a car that I didn't realize had a flat tire and lost it in a corner. With a motorcycle, you lose steering altogether. With that said, it is a LOT easier to drive with a controller instead of a keyboard due to being able to choose something between 'foot off the pedal' and 'petal to the metal'. Cars just can't be steered going at a high speed, even in real life. And once your wheels leave the ground, a car can't be controlled at all (IRL, not sure about the game). This game handles flat tires as if the wheel was already riding on the metal rim. I know there is one street race (I'm not looking forward to) where you have a scripted tire blow out (it's not obvious, but at one point you lose most of your steering).

Also, either melee damage resistance on helmets isn't working at all, the stats page isn't working at all, or they are using Gearbox math, which is the equivalent of not working at all. With no helmet on, I'm at 2% melee damage reduction. When I put a 4% helmet on, I'm at... 2% reduction. When I put a 5% helmet on, I'm at, you guessed it, 2% reduction. So either the helmet is doing nothing, the stats page isn't showing the change, or they are taking the 0.02 and multiplying it by 1.05 and getting 0.021, which is the equivalent of nothing. 0.001 difference meaning that if I was GOING to take 1000 damage, I would take 999 instead (and still die). I say gearbox math because of the BS they pulled with critical hit percentage. You had 5% critical hit chance, and if you sunk 5 perk points into a 5% increase in that, you would have a 5.25% chance instead of a 10% chance in... was it BL2? Anyway, for the time being, just don't count on helmets to be providing the stat it has on it.

Also, the bug of randomly disappearing 1 hour buffs is still hitting. If you get two 1 hour buffs, and play for a short time, you find you only have one buff left. Some of the temp buffs (5 second ones) seem to overwrite them or something. Happened in previous versionand they haven't fixed it. Gotta love the reviewers out there saying "All the bugs in the previous versiona have been squashed!" No they haven't! Some of them are worse than before (like the permanent glitch I mentioned yesterday).