#shorts #cyberpunk #lore

Before the 4th Corporate War, The Net was a robust global communication network that was able to transmit and store all kinds of data. Net access via a traditional computer or cybermodem and interface were the methods in which you could access the Net and it’s infinite potential. A cybermodem allowed you to view the net in 3 dimensions, and accelerated data transfer rates for virtually no latency from brain to machine.

The Net was divided and fragmented after the events of the 4th Corporate War, largely due to one of the most brilliant and paranoid Netrunners of all time, Rache Bartmoss. He likely created the Demon and Hound series of programs, both with the ability to track and kill netrunners.

There are many rumors circulating on Rache’s death, but there is no debate on how his demise triggered one of the most cataclysmic events for the net. In the moment Rache died, his life-support system ceased sending delay codes, unleashing a flurry of advanced programs, namely the RABIDs into the net, corrupting data, damaging files, scattering them across the Net & frying all netrunners that were connected to the Net at the time. These RABIDs of Roving Autonomous Bartmoss Interface Drones were sleeper programs that when awakened were designed to create as much havoc in the net destroying as much data as possible, leading to a net wide DataKrash. Distributed randomly through cyberspace, this meant that any hope to combat it relied on an airtight emergency protocol. No such protocol existed and by the time one did, it was much too late and the net was irreparably damaged.

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First let’s jump into our favorite part, the gameplay section. As we make our way to a Maelstrom hideout on the edge of the city, we see a new ad. THis says “Sweet, clean speed because life is too short to be slow.” THe music on the radio strikes me as something Nina Kraviz would play and we hear grimes later in the badlands driving sequence so the behind the music artists are here in full effect. Our controls are finally shown on the bottom right using the Xbox Controller. We have sprint, jump, draw weapon and double tap to dodge. Apparently this double tap mechanic was mentioned as pretty awkward in some of the previews, so hopefully that gets rectified.

As we scan the Malestrom ganger on the outside of the crates, we gain access to the NCPD database. This is where you can check the wanted levels and bounties of enemies and is likely tied to some sort of eye upgrade or hacking mechanic to get full access to this. YOu can quick hack enemies or another option tag them for later, which to me sounds like they’d be marked on the map even if you leave.

Now hacking is also heavily tied to our cyberdeck and it’s memory which acts as mana if you are familiar with many fantasy games. THis particular character has 11/11 memory slots to use on the quick hacks. COmms noise to distract for example takes 1 memory unit, overheat to override cybernetics takes 4, pin and breach protocol take 1, and to make the enemies weapon malfunction takes 3.

Detonate grenade is shown in the side window as a tier 3 skill, which takes 2.43 seconds to channel and has a 420 second cooldown. In comparison overheat which is actually used only takes .739 seconds and has a 0 second cooldown. I’d imagine these numbers are still being tweaked, but balancing cyberdeck memory and cooldowns and prioritizing the stronger enemies with these skills is probably pretty essential.

As overheat is used and this gang member burns up, we see our healing inhaler and some grenades on the bottom left, which we end up using both of. The radius of our grenades is shown, similarly to the 48 minute demo so no major changes here.

Whipping out our shotgun, and taking a closer look this is an iconic weapon we have seen before. The Crusher is the pistol sized shotgun used on the Cyberpsycho by the MAXTAC officer in the teaser trailer.

We also auto loot the eddies this guy has on him, And as you can see above the minimap we transition from public to combat to show the player this area is not safe, and that hostiles have probably noticed your presence.

We whip out a rifle known as the Genesis 19:24. Doing a brief google search this is from the bible and the passage reads “Then the lord rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah – from the lord out of the heavens.” Interesting little easter egg here.

We end up killing the leader, where is says removed MAXDOC Mk3, and we get a boost to our stats and levels.

A little further on there is one more baddie, so we whip out our mantis blades, where it appears we can have a fast attack, a strong attack and the ability to block. Killing the final maelstromer, there is a brief frame where we can loot her as she has a constitutional arms unity, which is likely this pistol, an X-22 flashbang grenade, which we pick up along with a frag grenade. There are likely more variants and styles of grenades as the lore had some pretty interesting ones that I would love to see in 2077.

Now this whole sequence was to rescue a monk who are against implantation, but were being forced to receive cyberware at the hands of the malestom. As we’ve seen in the 48 minute demo and some screenshots, it seems like monks are big targets in this world for forcibly undergoing implantation a stark contrast to the harvesting of cybernetics and organs by the scavengers.

Moving on we have the brief Street Kid Lifepath beginning. At 6:29 we see a timed sequence to gun it as Jackie holds us up because he wants the car you are stealing to himself. TImed sequences are a pretty common occurrence and this was something i really wanted more from in the witcher 3 so its nice to see it become more prevalent.

Officer Stints looks like a familiar face, and for those who don’t recognize him, he is reminiscent of gaunter o dimm aka master mirror from the witcher 3 expansion hearts of stone. In an interview lead quest designer Pavo Sasji was asked on why stints looks like O’dimm to which he responded along the lines of you’ll have to wait and see.

CONT IN VIDEO …

Cyberpunk 2077 is a story-driven, open world RPG set in a dark future from CD PROJEKT RED (CDPR), creators of The Witcher series of games. As the release of Cyberpunk 2077 drew closer, CDPR has begun trickling hidden messages and puzzles to the community. The ARG is comprised of these puzzles, and quick solvers are often rewarded with Cyberpunk merchandise.
Today we are opening Envelope #2 sent to us by CD PROJEKT RED to give the community another clue into the ongoing Cyberpunk 2077 ARG.

“HUD by Madqueen, base design by Benjamín Goldenberg inspired in the original design by CD Projekt Red”

Join the Neon Nation Discord to discuss the Cyberpunk 2077 ARG – https://discordapp.com/invite/QJESTCd

The remaining envelopes!

ENVELOPE 1 – VOD
Channel: MadQueen – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBY7QJO9x6k

ENVELOPE 3
Channel: Last Known Meal: https://www.youtube.com/user/LastKnownMeal
Day: Monday, December 23
Time: 8am MT/4pm CET

ENVELOPE 4
Channel: Triple S League: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMWKb-id2icjihQdTL0btuw
Day: Monday, December 23
Time: 2pm MT/10pm CET

Netwatch is a policing organization, which was initially a private entity heavily sponsored by corporations. Founded in 2013 in a joint US & Eurotheatre treaty, NNetwatch is tasked with patrolling the Net in search for illegal activity, rogue hackers and general computer crime. NetCop netrunners work in tandem with corporations, the government and large organizations in this attempt to protect all the beats of the net. These beats have expanded far and wide and cover cities, regions and continents. Arresting anyone associated in illegal activity on the Net is the role of Netwatch, but they are also known to use black programs and malicious software to main their opposition if necessary.

Netwatch operators are paid a base salary but collect bounties on felons captured while on duty. They do have specific titles to distinguish their efficacy including Wolves, Weasels & Icemen. Operating anonymously is important for operators and thus each of their icons are the same within the Net.

Ops typically run in packs of 2-3. If a NetCop is running by himself, he is either very good or very cocky. Just as an aside, Bryce Mosely, the NetCop from the deep dive demo seems to be operating with only the help of The Animals to stop the Voodooboys from breaching the Net, and he also seems to be a Wolf based off of some comments from these gang members.

The job description of Netwatch operators are to immobilize net criminals by involving the local police or sometimes corporate security to go pick them up for arrest after they’ve been tracked down. NetCops can use programs that can freeze a netrunners cyberdeck in a loop, making him or her unable to jack out until the program allows for it. This is the digital equivalent to handcuffs and makes arrests far easier.

When things do not go as smoothly as this, “Net show downs “occur where black ice and malicious programs are traded like gunfire between ops and other Netrunners.

Rache Bartmoss was a particular thorn in the side of Netwatch in 2020, who was coined as one of the greatest hackers in the world and who invented the Demon and Hound series of programs. Rache was a mastermind netrunner and was keen in adding his own digital footprint into the net by creating backdoors and entrances in locations only he knew about so he could traverse the net with covert chaos.

Knowing how risky this was, he set up a deadman switch just incase he got flatlined, that would in tern release a virus known as the Rabbids, a program which released self-replicating rogue AIs into the net. 2 weeks after Rache was actually killed in the early 2020s the switch triggered and the DataKrash occurred.

Whilst AIs can be fairly docile, the Malware unleashed by Rache was far from it and by 2022 78.2% of the net was infected by the DataKrash Virus. Naturally this was a huge security concern for NetWatch and the corporations who had interests in protecting their data and secrets, and although NetWatch attempted to quarantine areas of the net and contain the ability for this virus to spread, By 2045 they had lost the battle. The net is fully sectioned off by 2077 where America now relies on subnets constructed in the 2030s in reclaimed cities. These CitiNets are far more secure than the old net.

Moving on we also have the Blackwall. The Blackwall is a wall of ICE or counter intrusion software enacted to keep the AIs unleashed by Bartmoss isolated within the net.

In 2025 Alt Cunningham, Johnny Silverhand’s ex-girlfriend established what is called the Ghost World in the ruins of Hong Kong, which the Chinese government put a 100 foot-wall around to keep isolated. Last we know about Alt was that her consciousness was absorbed by The Soulkiller, a black program developed by Arasaka to imprison netrunners in oddly the same year NetWatch was founded in 2013.

This is where it gets interesting. By 2026 AIs start to ocassionally creep out of the old net to seek out other AIs to join this “ghost world”. It may seem that leading up to 2077, AIs have been looking to pull other sentient AIs into the ghost world which presumably lies behind the Blackwall for a particular reason. What’s even more intriguing is that at the end of the Cyberpunk 2077 2019 demo, Alt Cunningham herself is trying to breach the Blackwall to meet with Silverhand, V and the Voodooboys.

Weapons include the Militech Saratoga, Militech Rifle, Nanowire, Constitutional Arms Defender, Unknown Revolver, Unknown Shotgun & Throwing Knives

Quick hacks include, Pinpuller, Hardshutdown, Jackpot, Override Weights, Override Training Bot & Nanowire hack

Takedowns include Environemental Takedown, Meatshield, and Non-lethal Takedown.

First up we have an interview around E3 from our good buddy Andre from NightCityLife a German Cyberpunk 2077 fan-site, who sat down with Miles Tost the Senior Level Designer at CD PROJEKT RED to talk specifically about Hacking.

The first question was about just how many things in the world of Night City we could hack. With the E3 demo including a large variety of environmental tech to hack like the weight training bench and the training bot, they wanted to find out if hacking things like phones, ATMs and billboards would be viable.

“If you want to hack an ATM, you first must find the access point, which controls the machine. Certain hardware can be instantly hacked, but only when it’s connected to the network and you will have to gain access to that first.”

Miles also references something akin to “Hacker mana” where to perform a certain hack you need to consume certain points.

While lethal and non-lethal hacks are part of the game, they are all tied to specific programs called Daemons which can be bought an installed into your cyberdeck.

Next up we have news that Keanu Reeves was almost cast in another triple A title coming out next year which may have impacted him even being in Cyberpunk 2077 as the snarky Rockerboy Johnny Silverhand.

Next up we have some more details from NightCityLife and Miles Tost. Now at this point we all know the Voodooboys are of Haitian descent and have taking refuge in Pacifica. We also have further details that they have moved to the US because Haiti is underwater due to global warming. The voodooboys of 2077 are not precisely the frat boy drug lord terrorists of 2020, and Miles Clarifies that this is 50 years in the future and it’s the same timeline but there is a lot going on with the Voodooboys.

Next we have a ton of details about Cyberpunk 2077 that we have yet to cover. We won’t go over repeated points from this article that I’ve made in previous videos so if you want even more details I suggest watching these 2 videos to catch you up to speed on all the gameplay mechanics and details from Cyberpunk 2077 we have learned recently.

Next we have some brief new details about Jackie Welles, our Hispanic companion we’ve come to love from the 2018 demo and 2019 CGI trailer. This is via a new cosplay guide where his bio is as follows. “As a teenager Jackie joined the Valentinos gang, but ditched it after a few years when his mother found out. He always wanted to be his own master so eventually settled on a career as a mercenary. Friendship, loyalty and family ties are what drives him. To Jackie, blood is always thicker than water. He’s a rock-solid, composed professional who respects other mercs. Eventually he wants to provide for his own family and live in luxury, but he’s getting impatient because this is still just an elusive dream.”

Honestly he sounds a total bro, and the part about him ditching the gang life because he was scared of getting an ass whoppin’ from his momma is pretty funny as well. Better be dodging those high velocity sandal rounds from Momma Welles.

Next we have some clarification on what exactly CD PROJEKT RED meant when they brought up the fact that religion will be present in the game.

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More details about hacking: Quickhack, Daemons, Cyberdeck and Memory explained
by incyberpunkgame

https://nightcitylife.de/index.php/news-artikel/182-e3-2019-neues-zu-pacifica-den-voodoo-boys-und-einer-rueckkehr-der-bozos

https://wccftech.com/cyberpunk-2077-details-skills-perks-religions/

https://www.dsogaming.com/news/new-cyberpunk-2077-details-from-new-demo-inventory-mini-games-interactive-discussions-more/

https://www.gamewatcher.com/news/cyberpunk-2077-religions

https://ca.ign.com/articles/2019/07/23/heres-what-cd-projekt-red-really-said-about-religion-in-cyberpunk-2077?amp=1

http://www.pushsquare.com/news/2019/07/cyberpunk_2077_has_no_pre-order_bonuses_we_dont_do_that_everyone_gets_the_same_game

https://gry.wp.pl/cd-projekt-red-o-cyberpunk-2077-keanu-reeves-bedzie-jak-elvis-nowe-informacje-wywiad-6401055234623617a?fbclid=IwAR0TOozkcgPoR-hzxPqMW6GdT-aq3eFgat86u9DyjyiCo9GL6FbSCeVzcdY

https://www.techradar.com/news/keanu-reeves-was-almost-cast-in-death-stranding

Starting with the WCCFTech interview. The first question from them is in regards to the E3 2019 demo and the dominant theme of people in the world attempting to upload human consciousness into machines to attain immortality.

Liu responds as follows. There’s a lot of things we’re trying to do. The Voodoo Boys specifically are very obsessed with that, but other gangs such as the Maesltrom gang we showed last year want to becom “perfect humans” We explore it all as it’s a very big game and we will talk about Transhumanism, and corporate greed as well.
When it comes to romances, Lu confirms that you can exhcnage money for sex, and that NPCs have been richly crafted in a similar way to Yennefer and Triss in diversity in regards to certain NPCs tou can romance.

Next we have a question regarding how many corporations will be in the game. Lu responds saying that he’s lost count and that there will be both big and small corporations. He references the standouts as Militech, Arasaka and Orbital Air oddly enough as some of the main entities. I say oddly enough because in our CYbeprunk 2077 community Podcast Cyberpunk 2077 community manager Lilayah kind of squashed theories that we would be heading to space, and Orbital air is a corporation in charge of this.

When asked if there are factions beyond gangs and corporations, Liu mentions the Nomads, who have very strong ties to family and community and reject being a corporate slave or even working for gangs. Liu mentions we will be able to go to the outskirts of the desert in California and see things like power plants, and abandoned highways. He also mentions this is the best place to max out the speeds of your vehicles since It is hard to do in the city.

In a questions about commiting crimes and if the police come after you, Lui mentions that if you start to wreck havoc in a big town, people will come and try to stop you and they are pretty powerful, and mentions that Trauma Team is one of these enforcing entities. If you are in an isolated area, it’s comparable to the witcher in that if you chop the head off a villager in the middle of nowehere, guards wont just magically show up.

They also ask if it’s possible to get arrested and go to jail, to which Lui coyly mentions that he can’t spoil anything about that. Maybe we get locked up in the slammer and depleted of resources if we take it too far.

As far as dynamic weather goes, Night City is incredibly polluted, and has acid rain as a feature and they’ll be some exploration on pollution, and global warming.

Lui also mentions that the entire city is unlocked from the get go, and that the UI will help lead players to different locales. You will be able to see all these higher leveled characters and enemies just like in The Witcher, where you could say go to Novigrad or Skellige underlevelled but you may have a hard time actually completing any of the quests.

Difficulty settings were also something mention by Liu where he speaks on the fact that there will be multiple difficulty settings, and that there is a hardcore mode where the UI is turned off, which will be a real challenge. They also want to make the game accessible to those who aren’t accustomed to shooters with smart weapons which help you aim.

He also mentions a FoV slider, and subtitles for people who have trouble reading some of the smaller text in the game.

Lu also speaks on unlocking super rare outfits due to super high street cred and being able to see this with mirrors in game and via the character inventory screen. You will also be able to craft and modify your weapons. For example Alvin Liu mentions that you can change a guns ammunition to thermal bullets which light on fire because they’ve built up so much heat.

He ends this particular interview by mentioning that they are showing off ray traced emissives, sky light and ambient occlusion and that he’s seen screenshots internally that have looked better than the demo, so that it’s still a WIP and they are still upgrading the visuals.

Next lets jump to his answers in the PCGameshardware interview.
Our first new interesting detail is when they ask about how open the world of Cyberpunk really is, and what paths we could have taken during the E3 2019 demo.

First we have a look at what could be lootable books in the world of Night City. It seems like paperback books have not ceased to exist in the dark future, and in the character creation hybrid scene for the demo, we see a stack of 3 books and another book cover as the view pans to male V. Now we could have books here because the area is in Pacifica which is a poverty-stricken gang infested district, and it could lack more technological innovations and chips previously seen but that’s just my speculation. The books we see is Sayonara station, rewiring synaptic pathways, the chronicles of titania and the maxtac way. Sayonara means goodbye and is borrowed from Japanese. The maxtac way is likely an interesting book on the methodologies of the Psycho squad who are also referred to as the maxtac. These are the scariest law enforcement group in Night City who focus on hunting down and killing Cyberpsychos who are on murderous rampages under the grip of Cyberpsychosis. Next we have the chronicles of titania, again not really sure what this would be about, Although Titania is the name of a character in Shakespeares play a midsummers night dream. At the top we have rewiring synaptic pathways, which as someone who loves psychology intrugies me. Rewiring neural pathways is a pretty common practice in rehabilitative psychology. Again this might have something to do with Cyberpsychosis as cyberpsychos usually need braindance as a rehabilitative method, which is essentially reqiring your neural pathways using hyper realistic VR.

Next up we have a sports arena in the background of this shot somewhere in Pacifica. In a couple of frames we see that there is a athlete wearing what looks like Football gear, and we know that combat sports are a part of the lore of Cyberpunk. We also see the teams which seems to be the corsairs versus a team whose logo is a dragon in the shape of an S which seems to represent San Diego, but regardless this seems to be confirmation that there will be sports other than boxing in the world. Now Pacifica is pretty run down so it’s also possible the advertisements has just been left there unchanged for a long period of time and sports were a big thing in this district BEFORE it turned into a hellhole.

Next up we have a little placeholder from the movie theatre scene where you are holding up NetWatch agent Bryce Mosely. If you guys remember the E3 2018 art for Cyberpunk 2077s on site booth, youll remember that this was exactly what they had inside. The theatre is projecting the same image, and I’m going to assume it’s a placeholder and there will be a legit movie playing when we get in the game. Obviusly there seems to be a ton of movie posters in the world, so it’s not out of the realm of possibility.

Next we have an audio snippet during the trailer when meeting Placide. Male V can be heard saying Mr. Hand sent me am I right for the job. Now this got me thinking as to which Hand V is referring to. It would be obvious to assume Johnny Silverhand, who is the digital ghost AI attached to the immortality chip in Male V’s brain, but we also recently got an image where the possibility of Morgan Blackhand was questioned. If this scene in the screenshot is before our expedition to Pacifica, maybe Morgan Blackhand is part of the story and is sending us on a mission of some sort.

Next we have the hacking sequence where Male V jacks int the panel. If you look very closely, this panel belongs to Petrochem one of the biggest megacorporations in Night City that have yet to be confirmed in Cyberpunk 2077, although it is implied with the use of CHOOH2 in our super cars. Petrochem is an Agircorp, and the worlds largest producer of CHOOH2 in Cyberpunk 2020. There’s also some intriguing data on the side, one being the name of Valerie Sutnar writing the program or code for this panel. And the little code at the bottom that resembles steam wallet codes or digital content codes you guys can use to redeem for something online. I tried this on GOG already, although I did notice it a while ago so it’s probably been used if it is a code. Regardless, you can try and test your luck or decipher if that’s what it actually is.

Next we have the BIGGEST revelation of all, the fact that they still use toiler bowl cleaner in Night city.

Finally at the end, we have what looks like the Militech logo as we are netrunning into the deep web with Brigitte and some of the voodooboys. It will be interesting to see if Militech owns a lot of these servers, or if they are funding the Voodooboys and Militech’s involvement into netrunning if any.

Everything from Braindance to it’s real world comparison, to talking about a lesser known project Elon Musk is working on and it’s Cyberpunk 2077 comparison, to Orbital Air being a possibility for us, to real world Cybernetics, to modern day Cyberpsychosis, as well as real life megacorporations from the past and the future will be discussed in this video.

First let’s look into Cyberware. In 2077 Augmenting the human body with Cyberware is as fashionable as it is practical. In fact augmenting the human body is pretty common + natural in the universe that Cyberpunk 2077 lies in.

Now prosthetics are popular in 2077, but people mostly get them out of choice. In our world it’s largely due to the need for amputees to get some normalcy back into their lives, and prostheses main functions are replace missing hands and limbs which make everyday life easier.

However we are moving towards more of a 2077 like way of handling prosthetics. For example Deus Ex a popular Cyberpunk game partnered with Open Bionics to make 3D printed arm for this amputee.

Not only this, but MIT professor High Herr who lost his legs in an accident, has also created real life augmentations to not only replace functioning legs, but to make them much more useful and powerful than our biological ones.

RealSkinn a tough skin like covering for your shiny new cyberlimbs or subdermal armor in 2077 is also starting to become a thing today. Something called “Viper-Skin” is being developed to go over prosthetics to create a more natural looking limb, which can also sense heat changes through it’s membrane.

Now in the world of Cyberpunk 2077, most pieces of tech can be controlled using a brain computer interface called a Neural processor. A Neural router is planted into the bottom of the spine to route signals to different types of cyberware as well as Smart links to weapons and vehicles. In our modern day, Elon Musk is developing a real life Brain computer interface called a Neuralink. This piece of tech also known as a Neural mesh sits within the brain and allows us interact with all of our devices wirelessly with our minds.

Even the USB jack styled cybernetic that we use in the demo is relevant in our real world. A brain can actually be tapped into and read of its intentions using nothing more than futuristic probes.

Brainiacs a boostergang in the world of Night City pride themselves on using skill chips and downloading a variety of skills on the fly. This is a reality in the making with a potential to implant yourself with a brain chip and approach 200 IQ levels.

Let’s also not forget Braindance. Braindance is the sensory drug of the future and what we’ve referred to as VR on steroids in Cyberpunk 2077.

With people literally binging Netflix and with VR becoming a growing industry, Netflix has caught onto the craze and will be implementing VR in the future.

You find a way to involve all the human senses into Netflix and mix VR into the equation and you essentially have the same tools and escapist sentiment as what Braindance offers.

Next let’s take a look at Cyberpsychosis. Cyberpsychosis is a mental affliction in 2077, where if you augment yourself with too many cybernetics, you start to dissociate from your mind and find yourself feeling more machine and human. In our reality, we face a different type of Cyberpsychosis. Social Media and internet addiction.

People are actually getting mental illnesses such as depression and anxiety based on how much time they spend online, these constant comparisons, the wealth of knowledge at your finger-tips, the validation of likes and comments on social media and more. This is our modern day Cyberpsychosis.

In Cyberpunk 2077 combat drugs are largely used by Military puppets and veteran solos as a means to becoming a super human or solider.

Militaries largely use psychoactive drugs with their soldiers to allow them to suppress hunger, sustain effort without food, suppression of fear, reduction of empathy, improving reflexes and more.

Reflex boosters and combat drugs allow the body to feel like time has slowed, and some modern day military drugs have the same effect, especially ones with adrenal responses.

Finally we have Cyberpunk 2077s megacorporations, comparisons to how corporations do business today, and the average human in the future.

The likes of Militech and Arasaka have become such big corporations in the world of 2077 that they supersede governments and Nations.

In our history we have had megacorporations like Hanseatic League and the East India Company who have dominated for hundreds of years in the case of Hanseatic League and made trillions in the case of East India Company.