Posts made by Wizz

@lotherio said in How to launch a MU*:

@carma said in How to launch a MU*:
What can I do when nobody is around for public RP? Give me bite-size tasks I can do during downtime.

For me this isn't a seller. Most MU's I've been on have not had NPCs or tasks or mini-games to do when no one else was around; unless one counts the rise of wiki's in the past 15+ years and prettying up the wiki as a minigame. I see this closer to MUD-type play and they do it better. Whether its farming, fishing, trading, econ, quests, mobs, interacting with old-school style 'AI' npcs, whatever. If I want these I'll go there or just get the app that fits my fun for minigame.

For a lot of people this isn't something you can just dismiss out of hand though; once you've been on a game with some sort of task system, it's hard not to see the benefit of them. Having ways to engage players with their characters/orgs/the game at large that doesn't require like, a solid 4-hour sit down commitment for a roleplaying scene is genuinely interesting and seems to build a lot more investment.

It doesn't necessarily need to be some elaborately coded thing, either. I never got a chance to play it but IIRC Requiem for Kingsmouth got a loooooot of mileage out of its house-ruled territories system. It's definitely something new games should at least consider.

I'm rewatching Fringe and man...it is so weird how different aughts media feels already. Only twelve years ago but our priorities were so different. I FEEL SO OLD

@auspice

Honestly? I had a second during the Aldecaldo questline where I had to take myself aside and be like, "ok chill out dude, this is a fictional character, your love is not real"

@reason said in Interest in Cyberpunk MU*?:

@prototart said in Interest in Cyberpunk MU*?:

i didn’t read any of this and im drunk but can i play judy

You'd have to settle for a PC roughly inspired by Judy, as CP:Red doesn't take place in 2077 -- it takes place about 30 years earlier.

JUDY IS ALL
JUDY IS E T E R N A L

@derp said in The Cyberpunk 2077 Snuff Chip Problem:

@kireek said in The Cyberpunk 2077 Snuff Chip Problem:

We reach the crux of the problem... and the original post. It isn't freaks that make the market, there are too few to really make such a detailed operation sustainable..

You're making an assumption, here. A pretty big one. Niche markets are still markets. It just means that you have less competition and can, in fact, charge higher prices, especially given the danger/effort involved in making it.
Yes, it absolutely can be sold to 'a couple of freaks' for very high prices, just like any other item in a niche market.

This.

Also, we see the producers and the buyers in-game, and go through the process of making such a purchase ourselves. The producers are scummy, desperate people and it's clear that this product -- even in a city where most illicit goods and services are easily available -- requires an extra level of precaution before you can even meet the distributor. And other buyers are portrayed as scumbags too.

They're not just average dumb, complacent consumers who are numbly stumbling into it. They're clammy desperate types who are taking a huge risk and absolutely knowing what they're getting into.

I really don't get why you think otherwise, other than you maybe weren't paying enough attention to the dialogue and all the steps and their implications. The main characters comment on almost every single aspect, too, expressing their disgust and contempt with literally everyone involved.

There is nothing insidious happening here. Nobody at CDPR is trying to BRAINWASH THE MASSES, that just...well.

@kireek

The game makes it pretty clear IMO how unacceptable it is and shows you the consequences in a very stark way with what happens to Evelyn.

I really don't think it's trying to "trick" you into indulging.

@kireek

I've read this whole thread and I am still not 100% clear what it is exactly you're trying to get across here.

Like, if you chose to let that one segment of the game play out without interruption, you're an immoral person who is contributing to the degradation of society?

Or like...by allowing it to play out, you are unwittingly being molded to accept a reality where snuff VR actually exists, and to help bring it about? Like German soldiers were pressured to conform with the atrocities of the Holocaust?

That's...uh. That's pretty extreme.

@kireek said in General Video Game Thread:

Furthermore, a blackman writing about white people appropriating culture isn't.. like the most horrific thing I've seen. Clumsy written? yah, but it isn't like..
You know all of Owod Werewolf, even the well written books are aging incredibly poorly...

Point taken. I think the reason it irked me so bad was that the Voodoo Boys are there next to gangs of literal evil clowns and people who dress up like John Wayne and Abraham Lincoln. If the gangs were supposed to be critical social commentary, it was extremely muddled by the sheer...80's-ness of everything in that section. You're sort of left without any real context and the author could have made it a little clearer, but... ‍️

@kireek

I get that? But Pondsmith himself was defending it in 2019 as if it were still relevant, not admitting that like...hey, I wrote this 30 years ago, maybe a better take was necessary. That's my only beef with it.

The only reason I brought this up at all was to point out that some people have found a lot of fault in the game's politics but given the source material they're using, I understand the struggle. Change it too much and it's not recognizable, change it too little and it's dated and awful by our standards.

@arkandel

I enjoyed it, a lot. But man, it dipped a liiiiiiittle too far into the Uncanny Valley for me at the end. It was a really cool reveal, and I am impressed on a technical level and shit but like...I really, really hope they don't try to do that with any sort of regularity.

@ominous

FATE still provides a mechanical framework for these effects, with clear requirements and results you can point to, so not necessarily? But since this is going to be a very strictly PVE game, in practice yes.

@ominous

So I think the easiest way to clarify and ease your concerns is to point out that this is not going to be Vancian magic. There are no spell lists. Workings are not like D&D schools, they're like Spheres in WoD Mage. FATE is a much more narrative system so if you want to do something and you can explain how you're doing it through the lense of your Working, it's likely that I would just let it fly.*

*Y'know, within reason, and hopefully the Workings are intuitive and broad enough to cover your bases.

You want to blast something? Evocation. You want to call and trap some supernatural beastie? Summoning. You want to make a magic doohickey? Enchanting.

Again, the words themselves are in flux, but that's the general idea.

@ominous said in The Celebrated Company of Mongrels:

Excuse me, @Wizz, as I go through your post and kind of elaborate my thought processes on it. Hopefully it helps you see how someone reads it and their thinking, so you can polish it more in the direction you want to take things.

This is exactly what I was hoping for in posting some of this stuff man! I appreciate it.

@wizz said in The Celebrated Company of Mongrels:

One more quick peek, this time aaaaat

MAGIC

Ahhhh, magic systems - the thing I geek out the most over. Let's see what we got.

Overview: While the true nature and source of magic has been a hotly-debated subject, one thing most every scholar agrees on is that magic is a fundamental essence from outside of reality with which the Gods and other Powers That Be become manifest on this plane of existence. It is through them that it must be "filtered" before mortals can make any contact with it -- or else risk madness, mutation, death, or quite frequently all of the above...and not always in that particular order.

Alright. Magic is outside of reality and needs gods to give it to us. Sounds like we have divine magic, specifically divinely granted magic. Not my favorite, but it can work in the right setting. Let's keep reading to see the particulars.

Magic is inherently chaotic, and breaks down the laws of the mundane world in its rawest form, mana: liquids become solid, light becomes sound, the boundaries between minds and/or bodies become weak or dissolve altogether -- there's an ancient tale of hubris told to any who have dared to work with mana about a town that tried to place a well over a raw manaspring, and how every single inhabitant became part of a massive storm cloud that still roams the world, raining psychic agony instead of water and absorbing those unfortunate enough to come too close to the Eye.

And we zig, when I expected a zag. It is not divinely granted magic. We have a "naturally occurring" manaspring that a town tried to tap into. If magic can be naturally occurring, gods aren't the access points. So to backtrack my last conclusion - we have Warp magic, but is it the divinely regulated variety - you need a regulator (god) on that compressed air (magic) or it'll blow when you try to tap it - or is it the belief as grounding wire variety - you better have something you unshakably believe in to keep yourself tethered to reality or you'll lose yourself to the infinity. The first has an objective divine entity as the focus and the second is more about the individual and what they believe, whether that's a god or even just a fervent belief in something mundane like king, country, ideology, family, or even self.

The Gods and Powers consume mana and then refine it within themselves, sustaining their own manifestations and empowering their followers. How this power works through them and how it can be used varies quite dramatically, but all require some form of bond with the deity or force in question and an alignment of will -- the ancient druids of the Greenheart, for example, had to zealously reject the trappings of society and strive to bring humans back to their beginnings as hunters and gatherers or else their supernatural connection to plants and animals would fail, while the Magi of the Unseen Star were required to insinuate themselves into worldly courts to try and guide them to peculiar destinies decided by visions granted by the Star. Try to prevent these bizarre events, and the Magi would suddenly find that their incantations were only babbled words.

Huh. It's a little hard to say whether divine regulation or belief grounding wire is what we got, as I see hints of both. The first sentence makes it quite clear that divine beings exist and consume mana, so we have objective divine entity. However, the examples given sound more like belief as grounding wire, as the magic seems tied collective belief and adherence to idiosyncratic rituals and taboos.

It is a little bit of both! Think of it kind of like WoD Werewolf's Totems -- the gods or spirits or elementals or what have you offer power, but require something in return, whether that's the consistent set of rituals and taboos or advancing their agenda, something that sort of symbolically or literally reinforces the being's place or purpose in the world (how literal it is depending on the being in question).

Whether or not the devotees actually believe in what they're doing doesn't matter quite as much as going through the motions, but they usually do because their goals align with whatever patron they worship, if that makes sense?

The potency of any God or Power (and thus their gifts) depends entirely on how many followers are "pacted" to them and their divine purpose; it is said that slaughtering the cults during the Holiest Nights is truly how the Church of the Crimson God rose to ascendancy. In these troubled times, most devoted followers must keep their heads down, and worship is done with the utmost secrecy and care.

Ahhh, now I think it is coming into focus. It seems to be Warp magic of the divinely regulated variety with collective belief shaping reality a la gods get power from worship. It's not belief as grounding wire, because collective belief is essential to create a big enough lightning rod. You can't believe really strongly in yourself to keep yourself grounded, like with CHIM in the Elder Scrolls. It's sort of a Runequest mixed with Warhammer vibe.

System:

Enough with the fluff! Let's get to the delicious, delicious crunch!

Magic is available to every character in the game as long as one of their Aspects reflects it (usually this is their High Concept, but not always) and they have bought the requisite power stunt.

I...uhhh...don't know what an Aspect is. It's capitalized so that makes me think it's a keyword and has a definite meaning within the context of the game, but I don't think it's been discussed any. <checks thread> It's mentioned in one place (nonhuman races) where it is also vague as to what it is but still clearly "A Thing" in the game mechanics.

FATE Core! I mentioned the system only once in passing, and these are copy-pasta'd from my own notes so if it's unclear that's...understandable.

I will be sure to clean it up on the actual wiki and provide plenty of references.

However, this does confirm divinely regulated magic rather than divinely granted magic, since anyone can do it, not just priests or divinely chosen wonderworkers/prophets.

Correct!

Gods/Powers grant access to three of the eight Workings -- Evocation, Divination, Enchantment, Summoning, Alchemy, Warding, Transmutation, and Planewalking

A verb-based magic system - a tried and true method. Though, we have some fluff names for the verbs. I'm guessing Evocation is Create, Divination is Know, Warding is Protect, Transmutation is Change. The other four are a little vaguer, though. Enchantment could be Control, as in I enchanted your mind so I controlled your actions or I enchanted the rock so I made it roll without anything having to touch it. Summoning could be Travel, but I imagine that's what Planeswalking does too. Alchemy I have no clue on. Usually alchemy is a crafting thing not a spellcasting thing, and when it is a spellcasting thing, it's usually for Change but we already have Transmutation.

This might be a mish-mash magic system with confused verbs and nouns schools a la Dungeons & Dragons, but I hope not.

It's for sure a little mish-mash right now and definitely not the final draft, I'm adapting them from Dresden Files RPG's Thaumaturgy rules so bear with me as I hammer out the choice of words and definitions!

and players can choose one of the example Gods/Powers or come up with one of their own; the difference in how players portray each Working's source is largely in roleplay but can also reflect specialization in some domain. Once a God/Power is chosen, the character is considered a devotee and can spend a Fate point in a scene to have their deity/force power their spell instead of taking a Stress hit.

So @Wizz doesn't plan to create a specific list of gods and their related schools, giving players a lot of freedom to come up with crazy faiths, which could be very good. That also means lots of gods and minor faiths and lends further credence to the belief as power for gods thinking I have.

Spot on. I'll provide a few examples to set a standard but I really enjoy the idea of people coming up with their own minor gods and obscure cults and stuff.

This gives them a remarkable flexibility and a reputation among the greater forces of the world as intermediaries between mortality and the divine, shrewd bargainers who are among the rare few that can traverse the wilds and ancient ruins unharmed and unchanged (at least, not permanently).

Shamans. Maybe @Wizz should look at Runequest 6 (now called Mythras) and how it handles Shamanism and dealing with spirits. It's a very interesting take on the spirit world, making deals with spirits, and "enchanting" items with spirits.

I will take a look! I want Pactmakers to have a more "dirty occultist" feel, there's certainly nothing "holy man/holy woman" about them like you might imply by calling them shamans.

Players are not only allowed but encouraged to play these sort of characters.

I want a strong "default" option just in case people don't want the pressure of coming up with something or trying to adopt something another player made, for sure.

It is whispered that the Pactmakers are all that remain of the Royal Alchemists once employed by the court centuries ago before the rise of the Church, and there is certainly no love lost between them -- Pactmakers are officially heretics, and any who are caught in the practice are condemned to death.

Ooooh! Mysterious backstory to uncover and potential for drama llama RP between mongrels and the Church!

Not just between the Mongrels and the Church, but also between Mongrels -- the Royal Alchemists are the jerks that made the dwarves in the murky past!

Don't know if my thoughts were any help, but it was a fun way to kill some time while quarantined.

It definitely did help and I will try to clarify as I go. Please keep the feedback coming, it's great!

One more quick peek, this time aaaaat

MAGIC

Overview: While the true nature and source of magic has been a hotly-debated subject, one thing most every scholar agrees on is that magic is a fundamental essence from outside of reality with which the Gods and other Powers That Be become manifest on this plane of existence. It is through them that it must be "filtered" before mortals can make any contact with it -- or else risk madness, mutation, death, or quite frequently all of the above...and not always in that particular order.

Magic is inherently chaotic, and breaks down the laws of the mundane world in its rawest form, mana: liquids become solid, light becomes sound, the boundaries between minds and/or bodies become weak or dissolve altogether -- there's an ancient tale of hubris told to any who have dared to work with mana about a town that tried to place a well over a raw manaspring, and how every single inhabitant became part of a massive storm cloud that still roams the world, raining psychic agony instead of water and absorbing those unfortunate enough to come too close to the Eye.

The Gods and Powers consume mana and then refine it within themselves, sustaining their own manifestations and empowering their followers. How this power works through them and how it can be used varies quite dramatically, but all require some form of bond with the deity or force in question and an alignment of will -- the ancient druids of the Greenheart, for example, had to zealously reject the trappings of society and strive to bring humans back to their beginnings as hunters and gatherers or else their supernatural connection to plants and animals would fail, while the Magi of the Unseen Star were required to insinuate themselves into worldly courts to try and guide them to peculiar destinies decided by visions granted by the Star. Try to prevent these bizarre events, and the Magi would suddenly find that their incantations were only babbled words.

The potency of any God or Power (and thus their gifts) depends entirely on how many followers are "pacted" to them and their divine purpose; it is said that slaughtering the cults during the Holiest Nights is truly how the Church of the Crimson God rose to ascendancy. In these troubled times, most devoted followers must keep their heads down, and worship is done with the utmost secrecy and care.

System: Magic is available to every character in the game as long as one of their Aspects reflects it (usually this is their High Concept, but not always) and they have bought the requisite power stunt.

Gods/Powers grant access to three of the eight Workings -- Evocation, Divination, Enchantment, Summoning, Alchemy, Warding, Transmutation, and Planewalking -- and players can choose one of the example Gods/Powers or come up with one of their own; the difference in how players portray each Working's source is largely in roleplay but can also reflect specialization in some domain. Once a God/Power is chosen, the character is considered a devotee and can spend a Fate point in a scene to have their deity/force power their spell instead of taking a Stress hit.

Alternatively, players can choose to be a Pactmaker (see below), and temporarily mix and match their three Workings, but do not have the option to have their spells empowered.

Example Practioners, the Pactmakers: It is said there is an exception to every rule, even the divine ones; the only people bold enough to say that openly, however, call themselves the Pactmakers -- but are more commonly sneered at as sorcerers, warlocks, or ironically and extremely derisively as the Pactbreakers. These pragmatic men and women are devotees to no God or Power, but forge temporary bonds with them in exchange for vows of a single deed or geas.

This gives them a remarkable flexibility and a reputation among the greater forces of the world as intermediaries between mortality and the divine, shrewd bargainers who are among the rare few that can traverse the wilds and ancient ruins unharmed and unchanged (at least, not permanently). Unsurprisingly, this is why the Celebrated Company of Mongrels offers them employment and protection; there is a coven of Pactmakers in every regiment, and every expeditionary force the Company sends into the wilderness includes at least one or more Pactmaker to arrange safe passage with any Power or old god or goddess they encounter.

It is whispered that the Pactmakers are all that remain of the Royal Alchemists once employed by the court centuries ago before the rise of the Church, and there is certainly no love lost between them -- Pactmakers are officially heretics, and any who are caught in the practice are condemned to death.

Another draft of setting documents I'm still working on slowly but surely:

Nonhumans

Overview: While what they actually call themselves (and even how accurate the more general term applied to them is) can vary pretty dramatically, the land now called Goëtika has been home to a wide variety of sapient beings since the earliest recorded histories; some of these have come and gone, while others have changed over time, due to exposure to powerful magical forces, divine meddling, alchemical experimentation, or simple natural selection.

Humans currently outnumber the others by an order of magnitude or more, but this was not always so, and had much to do with the "Holiest Nights" purges committed by the fanatical Church of the Crimson God after it came to power.

The following are summaries of each playable "race," with more in-depth write ups to come. In terms of mechanics, players of nonhumans should work their nonhuman status into their High Concept Aspect ("Disdainful Elven Bard," "Grimly Cheerful Beastfolk") and take an additional Trouble Aspect specifically tied to their nature.

Elves: Somewhat taller than humans, with long pointed ears, skin that comes in a range of metallic colors -- from the scintillating like silver and gold, to earthy copper and bronze, or dark as iron -- and limbs that are proportioned and formed differently, the elves are perhaps the most uncanny to the average human perspective, being so close and yet so different...more so because the elves have no cultural concept of gender and find the idea alien.

While only subjugated clans remain, the elves are not native to these lands; they came to Goëtika several thousand years ago, during a period legends say was heralded by a hundred-day eclipse of the sun, an invasion force that quickly wore itself out against the combined strength of the peoples already established there. If there are any physical records of where it was they came from, they've long since been destroyed, and the clans are notoriously tight-lipped about their fragmented oral histories to humans.

Elves and humans are capable of interbreeding, and while their offspring most strongly resemble the parent that birthed them, there are several telling signs that can give their lineage away unless they go to great lengths to "pass" as one or the other -- a necessary effort, considering the long and deeply-held antipathy between the remaining clans and the Church.

Dwarves: In the King's Court, a game often played is to find the most droll use of a common response among the wealthy and idle nobility -- "we've a dwarf for that." The reason is simple: unlike humans, born into this world without a purpose and seeking their whole lives for it, the dwarves of Goëtika were literally made with one in mind. Originally crafted seven hundred years ago by the royal alchemists, dwarves were designed to work where and when common laborers could not, in the deepest and darkest mines and hottest smithies, from dawn until dusk in shifts that would leave even the hardiest human dead from exhaustion.

What their taskmasters did not foresee in their arrogance was that the dwarves would not stand for these conditions and rebelled in a series of conflicts known as the Workers' War. While the dwarves won their freedom to a degree and took possession of the Birthing Kilns, it was only centuries until the rise of the Church forced them back into subservient roles.

Now, new dwarves are only made by holy concession when the old finally wear down after hundreds of years of toil, and each begrudgingly takes the work available to them -- or finds a place among the mercenary companies.

Mutants: Outside the sheltering walls of castles and villages, the lands of Goëtika are dark and wild, and to wander them alone is the deepest folly; in crumbling ruins and twisted woods, old powers still lurk, and vanishingly few could ever be considered benign. It is said that those who encounter these powers become twisted in body and mind to serve their purposes, and pass their cursed forms down to their children.

While many mutants are unique, some share a common origin and even culture. Coming out of the Elderbark -- an old forest far to the west of the capital -- is one such example in the Beastfolk, massive chimerical creatures that stride on two legs and claim to have been human generations ago. It is said there was once a small barony on the fringes of the Elderbark whose noble family gravely offended the power there, and the woods swallowed the people and the land whole overnight; the Beastfolk still live in the root-entangled ruins and thrive.

To say they are tolerated by the Church is perhaps a stretch, but the King's Court still recognizes them as citizens of the realm, permitting their strange trade caravans to travel unmolested and sending tax collectors into the Elderbark (even if they occasionally never return). Gold is gold, after all.

@auspice

You mean, onto your buddy Ghost, where it sometimes applies?

Rude and condescending I'll take, I could work on it.

@warma-sheen said in General Video Game Thread:

You're welcome, even though I wasn't talking about you. That would be why my experience doesn't seem to take into account your personal situation.

God, wow my mistake. When your defense only came as a reply after I called out the game as buggy? Shocking to belatedly learn how forums actually work after all these years, it's all just people shouting into a void with no context.

@warma-sheen said in General Video Game Thread:

Many reviewers seemed to be more angry about having been 'tricked' into giving the game good reviews than the actual gameplay itself. That was what I was referring to.

Maybe include that nuance in your original post next time so you don't have to explain it like a condescending asshole to anyone who scoffs? Just a thought.

@auspice said in General Video Game Thread:

Welcome to the internet where you have to let people like things but you also aren't allowed to like things they don't like.

Yeah, I said I hated the game and everyone who enjoyed it was objectively wrong. Sure. Couldn't be I was just rolling my eyes at someone who claimed negative reviews were an overreaction like the vast majority of inexplicable CD Project Red bootlickers out there right now.

Again, I enjoyed the story a lot. But downplaying how unacceptably buggy the release was is pretty dumb.

@wizz said in General Video Game Thread:

The Voodoo Boys writeup I'm referring to in the Night City sourcebook casts them not only in an extremely unflattering light, but also they're...like, literally white college boys posing as vodoun practitioners to sell drugs. That's their whole shtick.

Just going to revisit this after reading Pondsmith's statement about it myself, that it was actually meant to be criticism of cultural appropriation -- like, fair enough I guess, doubting his intentions would be shitty. But there is so little of that criticism to read in the actual text and players were absolutely free to portray Voodoo Boys themselves and completely miss the mark by a mile. It's just...very, very dated.

@testament

And? He wasn't the sole writer for the game or the supplements, and unfortunately being black doesn't prevent things like internalized racism from manifesting.

The Voodoo Boys writeup I'm referring to in the Night City sourcebook casts them not only in an extremely unflattering light, but also they're...like, literally white college boys posing as vodoun practitioners to sell drugs. That's their whole shtick. CP2077 at least makes them actually people from Haiti or West Africa and/or their descendants.

As for the Neo-Tribes book...I mean, just read it. It blames cultural identity for the collapse of America, spends a lot of time confused about Native Americans and whether they should be sympathized with or appropriated from, and even has that classic bit everyone loves about the Roma and how they suffer because of the unfair stereotypes of them being swindlers and thieves...that are actually completely true because they're literally all swindlers and thieves. Yeah.

@warma-sheen said in General Video Game Thread:

Are there bugs? Sure. But overall, they are minor. I think some people and reviewers I've read are overly harsh about the problems in the game, especially on day one releases.

Sure generous of you to dismiss other people's experiences like that given your complete lack of evidence to the contrary as you aren't even playing on the same platform.

Like @Derp, my game crashed like clockwork even after the day one patch -- almost exactly every two hours. Until I became extremely meticulous about manually saving (when the game arbitrarily allowed me to) that often meant losing 30 mins of progress, more if the autosaves got corrupted. The game even managed to crash during the credit scroll, but at that point I could only laugh.

The walls and floors popped in and out sometimes so dramatically that once I managed to die by hopping off a two foot drop, which the game somehow registered as like a seven story fall. NPCs and vehicles regularly clipped through doors and walls, sometimes in hilarious bursts of particle effects but also sometimes inexplicably triggering a police bounty on me -- one time, my parked bike burst through the ground under where I had previously left it on the sidewalk and slaughtered a bunch of civilians and a cop netrunner, instantly bringing me to 2 stars which...was not survivable at that point in the game. Funny, but also frustrating as hell given that I had to repeat a tedious sequence.

More frustrating was the item pop -- landmines are instakill and they were sometimes invisible because the game hadn't rendered them yet, which...boy, lemme tell you, after some extremely difficult fight sequences? I almost embedded my controller in the wall.

At times random UI elements would just...stop working. I wouldn't be able to summon my vehicle, or open the map, or toss grenades/use quick slot health items, or change the camera POV until I stopped and force quit the game. Some cyberware that you needed to manually trigger just straight-up stopped working at all because of this, even after a reload, which was extremely uncool given how expensive they were.

Quest triggers often failed to fire -- I'd get a message about doing something but wouldn't get the accompanying quest, or even worse they would fail midway through a quest line meaning I had to reload the entire thing from the beginning. The game often got stuck in "glitch mode" (where your character is suffering the side effects of a plot device) looooong past the point it was supposed to wear off and navigation and interaction became impossible until (again) I rebooted the game.

I am usually extremely forgiving and patient with bugs, but altogether it was almost enough to make me stop playing and go really hard after that promised refund. If it had been any other game and I didn't enjoy the genre and story as much as I do, I absolutely would have. This was a very, VERY sorry state to release a game in and had I known in advance I would have held off until I could afford a PS5.

@carma said in General Video Game Thread:

I heard it was anti-punk. Contained racist and transphobic subtexts. Things like that.

The problematic transphobic stuff is pretty well documented. Kinda borderline to some degree IMO because some of it seems to be an intentional thing you're supposed to rail against? But there's for sure like, near zero in-game representation.

As for racism...I mean, they did the best they could with what they had, I think, given the source material. You wanna cringe so hard your head and neck invert into your body? Go read some of the tabletop books like Neo-Tribes, or the original write-up for the Voodoo Boys. Huuuuuuuuge yikes.