Explain Cyberware to Me, Please

[Minty]

So, V appears to be the only person in the world who has quickhacks like Reboot Optics, Short Circuit, System Reset, and Cyberpsychosis.

I can just System Reset cyberpsychos, right? Why can't MaxTac do this?

All these pedestrians on the street appear to have cybernetics like V. Arasaka employees are all chipped, right? The police surely have cyberdecks, no? How come none of these people ever use their cybernetics? Why do they all just either try to shoot V or run away?

Is this part of the power fantasy? Because it seems really weird that V is the only human being who has the ability to actually use his/her cybernetics effectively. What is the actual reason why everyone else in this world are just sheep?

Come to think of it, how do any of these gangs survive and threaten the population? There are a lot more ordinary people than there are gangoons, and they all have cyberware, so how exactly do these gangs manage to threaten Night City so much?

[Mansen]

Originally posted by Good Whiskey:

So, V appears to be the only person in the world who has quickhacks like Reboot Optics, Short Circuit, System Reset, and Cyberpsychosis.

Wrong - You'll get attacked by hostile deckers in some fights. Especially some of the more bodymod/hacking friendly gangs.

Originally posted by Good Whiskey:

I can just System Reset cyberpsychos, right? Why can't MaxTac do this?

Because MaxTac are the guys you send in to DEAL with the "insane wacko out of control psychos" - If you've got cyberware, you're at risk of getting hacked. Most of their numbers are "reformed" psychos probably with mods preventing their wares from working to avoid them getting hacked (The lore contradicts itself a bit here between the books and 2077)

"Hacking" is also very gamified for 2077. In the tabletop roleplaying game, you don't really hack PEOPLE as much as the systems in buildings and so on. And you do it more like the "bathtub" scenes, except you don't need to go far that physically to "jack in"

Conclusion: 2077 is a video game - And CDPR took some liberties to make hacking more fun and action friendly. NPCs in the game DO have hacking but it's not something you see in every single fight. (You'll find a couple in the early prologue mission dealing with Maelstrom and the bot - You'll see an orange? loading bar at the bottom of the screen warning you, that you're getting hacked)

[Wisp Cat]

System Reset only works on some cyberpsychos. Not all of them are vulnerable to that quickhack.

Also, there are netrunners who have access to quickhacks that V cannot use. For example: Alt Cunningham They mostly do not happen to be combat encounters for V.

There are netrunners in act 1, though, who seem to have the legendary ping quickhack, or something that works similarly. (For example.)

[Minty]

Originally posted by Mansen:

Wrong - You'll get attacked by hostile deckers in some fights. Especially some of the more bodymod/hacking friendly gangs.

With Overheat, right? I didn't ask about that. I've played the game through several times, and I have never been rebooted, rooted, or had an enemy resist an attack.

Originally posted by Mansen:

Because MaxTac are the guys you send in to DEAL with the "insane wacko out of control psychos" - If you've got cyberware, you're at risk of getting hacked. Most of their numbers are "reformed" psychos probably with mods preventing their wares from working to avoid them getting hacked (The lore contradicts itself a bit here between the books and 2077)

So, neither MaxTac nor the regular police are capable of using System Reset because they deal with cyberpsychos and criminals? I'm confused by this.

Originally posted by Mansen:

CDPR took some liberties to make hacking more fun and action friendly. NPCs in the game DO have hacking but it's not something you see in every single fight. (You'll find a couple in the early prologue mission dealing with Maelstrom and the bot - You'll see an orange? loading bar at the bottom of the screen warning you, that you're getting hacked)

Again, I have never been attacked by enemies using the same quickhacking suite that V has access to. Also, what about all these people walking around on the street with crazy cybernetics? Why do none of them ever use them for anything?

I guess the idea is that the average person wouldn't have aggressive quickhacks and combat cybernetics, but that makes no sense. In a city/world this dangerous? Really? These crowds of people have no ability to fight at all despite having all this cyberware?

[Mansen]

Originally posted by Good Whiskey:

With Overheat, right? I didn't ask about that. I've played the game through several times, and I have never been rebooted, rooted, or had an enemy resist an attack.

I figured the question was more general since you brought Maxtac into it.

You're asking why a specific, game mechanic isn't used by everyone? Because... it's a game.

Originally posted by Good Whiskey:

I guess the idea is that the average person wouldn't have aggressive quickhacks and combat cybernetics, but that makes no sense. In a city/world this dangerous? Really? These crowds of people have no ability to fight at all despite having all this cyberware?

Again - Deckers are fairly rare. If you walk down a street, you're unlikely to walk past any.

Quickhacks like "System Reboot" don't really exist within the lore. It's a gameified version of how decking works in the books. You can take over turrets, you can open doors, you can find documents and data that is crucial to your task. You might even be able to boot another decker from the network you're on.

But "hacking" a person? Not so much. Blocking such attacks are fairly simple and not really considered a thing in the universe. But "jacking in" to every building like in the books wouldn't really work in the game. It'd be like the Matrix (except a LOT more simple) - You'd leave your meatbody and enter a virtual space. That wouldn't be of much use in a fight.

[TGC> The Games Collector]

According to one Maxtac officer; Because Mantis Blades are more fun.

There are a few "netrunner" characters in the game that throw hacks. No system reset, I guess that one's just legendary...

AFAIK there's always a netrunner cop standing around the street with Misty & Viktor's shops.

[wendigo211]

I think the only enemy hacks I've seen used against me were Contagion, Overheat and maybe Short Circuit (I think it was Short Circuit, I might have triggered the cyberware that does an electrical pulse on the enemies you hit). Personally I wouldn't mind if an enemy used Reboot Optics, Weapon Glitch or even Suicide against me, but I'm a bit of a masochist.

You are right that most enemies do not use their combat cyberware effectively, you will encounter some enemies with Mantis Blades, a few that use the Kerenzikov to "Matrix dodge", a couple of the brawlers seem to have Sandevistan systems and Gorilla Arms. I guess the enemies who use smart weapons have smart links as well... Still it's mostly one or two heavily cybered enemies per encounter, you don't really fight groups of cybered enemies.

From the in game lore (shards), it appears that you should need an OS mod (Sandevistan, Cyberdeck or Berserk) to be hackable. Without those, you shouldn't be networked, so hacks shouldn't work. However, the game doesn't really follow it's own logic. I.e. on the shard about the Animals' leader it mentions that the Animals avoid cyberware that can be hacked, so they shouldn't be hackable when you fight them, yet they are. It seems that NCPD and a couple of the boss enemies are the only ones who have hack immunity.

[Minty]

Originally posted by wendigo211:

on the shard about the Animals' leader it mentions that the Animals avoid cyberware that can be hacked, so they shouldn't be hackable when you fight them, yet they are.

I noticed this too. Seems to have been a bit of an oversight, because clearly they were intended to be enemies you needed to subdue physically, but they just applied V's blanket hacking ability to them as well. Bit of a shame, really.

Originally posted by Mansen:

You're asking why a specific, game mechanic isn't used by everyone? Because... it's a game.

I get that. What I'm trying to point out here is that if 2077 had actually followed its own lore a bit more closely, not only would it be less overtly and inescapably "videogamey", it would probably be more of a challenge.

[talemore]

Lord of the cyberdeck

[talemore]

I feel snared by the cyberdeck, a part of me is in the network

[The Last Unicorn]

Originally posted by Good Whiskey:

So, V appears to be the only person in the world who has quickhacks like Reboot Optics, Short Circuit, System Reset, and Cyberpsychosis.

I can just System Reset cyberpsychos, right? Why can't MaxTac do this?

All these pedestrians on the street appear to have cybernetics like V. Arasaka employees are all chipped, right? The police surely have cyberdecks, no? How come none of these people ever use their cybernetics? Why do they all just either try to shoot V or run away?

Is this part of the power fantasy? Because it seems really weird that V is the only human being who has the ability to actually use his/her cybernetics effectively. What is the actual reason why everyone else in this world are just sheep?

Come to think of it, how do any of these gangs survive and threaten the population? There are a lot more ordinary people than there are gangoons, and they all have cyberware, so how exactly do these gangs manage to threaten Night City so much?

I also think its totaly stupid that in every game except maybe The Sims you get to play this overpowered superhero who can do all the special attacks and tricks normal pedestrains cant, its horrible I think games would be way more interesting if you could just be a normal pedestrain who can do nothing and never be able to go past 1st mission and then we could come here and complain about the game beeing stupid because you cant do any special attacks and its boring.

[[-iD-]]

Originally posted by The Last Unicorn:

Originally posted by Good Whiskey:

So, V appears to be the only person in the world who has quickhacks like Reboot Optics, Short Circuit, System Reset, and Cyberpsychosis.

I can just System Reset cyberpsychos, right? Why can't MaxTac do this?

All these pedestrians on the street appear to have cybernetics like V. Arasaka employees are all chipped, right? The police surely have cyberdecks, no? How come none of these people ever use their cybernetics? Why do they all just either try to shoot V or run away?

Is this part of the power fantasy? Because it seems really weird that V is the only human being who has the ability to actually use his/her cybernetics effectively. What is the actual reason why everyone else in this world are just sheep?

Come to think of it, how do any of these gangs survive and threaten the population? There are a lot more ordinary people than there are gangoons, and they all have cyberware, so how exactly do these gangs manage to threaten Night City so much?

I also think its totaly stupid that in every game except maybe The Sims you get to play this overpowered superhero who can do all the special attacks and tricks normal pedestrains cant, its horrible I think games would be way more interesting if you could just be a normal pedestrain who can do nothing and never be able to go past 1st mission and then we could come here and complain about the game beeing stupid because you cant do any special attacks and its boring.

its called a power fantasy and its what sells. sims has a power fantasy too, being able to control the sims to do your every whim including die.

[Fusei]

Originally posted by Good Whiskey:

So, V appears to be the only person in the world who has quickhacks like Reboot Optics, Short Circuit, System Reset, and Cyberpsychosis.

Ye afaik netrunners can only use the overheat quick hacks. And the scaling is pretty low, even without burn immunity it does minimal damage when V reaches higher levels.

Netrunners enemy really are minimal threats, bit of a shame imo.

On the same topic I have never been afflicted by poison and bleed not sure if I ever got shocked either. Makes a bunch of cyberwares useless.

[Wisp Cat]

Originally posted by The Last Unicorn:

I also think its totaly stupid that in every game except maybe The Sims you get to play this overpowered superhero who can do all the special attacks and tricks normal pedestrains cant, its horrible I think games would be way more interesting if you could just be a normal pedestrain who can do nothing and never be able to go past 1st mission and then we could come here and complain about the game beeing stupid because you cant do any special attacks and its boring.

That's not this game, obviously.

But there are games out there which let you play underpowered non-heros.

Kenshi, for example.

These tend to be either non-combat games, or games that let you play a group of people. (Because combat quickly becomes suicidal for individuals without significant advantages.)

[RawDawg]

Cybernetics you wear.

[Brother PaciFist]

Originally posted by Good Whiskey:

.....?

Voodo boy gang tries to hack you in every bigger fight. Valentino try it too. In most side missions against many enemies they try to hack you if you go loud.

Maxtech does not use family friendly non-deadly hacks because they are are cleaner force. They do not take prisoners they kill. There are some conspiracy splitter in the game that describe MAX-Tech as a cleaning force for the corpos. Cyberpsychos are kill on sight. If anyone wants to get rid of you, you are marked as Cyberpsycho and Max-Tech comes in. And they get rid of real Cyberpsychos too. It is a conspiracy theory ingame.

Why the AI does not use the more powerful hacks. Because you would be a sitting duck or incapicated without any form of resistance. That would not be fun. The hacking system in this game is not really fleshed out. There is no real fight in cyberspace at all. You see an enemy you can hack it.

As hacker you have the cyberdeck installed that gives you double legendary quickhacks. On very hard difficulty every fight is the same: breach protocol -> ping -> mark all enemies > then suicide, contagion, short circuit when they are ready -> after one or two circles of those quickhacks nothing stands.

It would be fun to have actual virtual battles against hackers. But that was too much to ask for. Now we have hacker as a magic all powerfull class. I still like it, you are only very powerfull on level 20 and you have to work your way up. It is very hard to get hacker going. You get an all power full character for your hard work later.

Cant wait to play multiplayer where everyone is a hacker.