Posted April 15, 2021
As they are, the police in Cyberpunk 2077 don't really add anything entertaining or valuable to the gameplay... They're just like the Sentinels in No Man's Sky — purely there as punishment for doing particular things (sometimes even accidentally!) Here are a few ideas that could help make them more meaningful and "fun"...
▶ Cops & Robbers : Beat Cops are usually found in pairs or trios. Being NCPD, you can expect them to have semi-decent equipment, so why not make a high-risk/high-reward mini-game out of looting them for an increased chance of rare/epic items? Basically, you'd be given a very narrow window of time in which to knock-out the entire group... quietly and in a non-lethal manner (via carefully-timed quickHacks that go off almost simultaneously, or a rapid round of silenced PAX for everyone.) If your tranq-and-grab goes wrong and they become aware of you, or you accidentally flat-line one of the NCPD, then Dispatch is alerted and you get swarmed / MaxTACed as usual. If you successfully render the entire group unconscious, then you have a couple of minutes to loot their gear and run away before drones (and worse!) arrive to see why they're unresponsive.
▶ Blue's Clues : Sneaking up to and eavesdropping on Beat Cops could add new scanner-hustles on the map... (ie. pick any nearby pedestrian navMesh marked as back-alley/sidewalk/stairs that's 50+m from the player, then drop a cluster of random enemies there.) This would be a small step towards a badly needed random events generator (like TW3's "Random Encounters" mod) which would also fix ANOTHER problem, by preventing the map from feeling totally predictable, or barren after all the hand-placed content is completed.
▶ A Scanner Darkly : If you avoid detection by nearby beat cops and sneak up to a patrol car, you can then jack-in by cable to release the locks to either loot the trunk or hop into the driver's seat and listen to the dispatcher on the scanner. Listening to the scanner adds a minor cyber-psycho (a regular gang-goon with the CyberPsycho quickhack applied, but hostile to V), a rogue NCPD mech/combat-drone, a rogue auto-drive vehicle, or other mini-boss to the map. Fail the hack, and the car-alarm goes off, turning all nearby NCPD hostile. (Note: in DyingLight, the world does NOT stop while you're picking a lock, which makes it super-terrifying because there's always a risk of being discovered and attacked while you're fiddling with the lock. Much more exciting.)
▶ I'm Bringin' the Party to You : The map often has groups of beat-cops relatively close to groups of street thugs. In other open-world games like Skyrim, it's quite fun to engineer inter-faction battles (for example, tick-off a mammoth and then lead it straight into a bandit-camp), so... why not make the NCPD foot patrols useful in a similar way by allowing the player to arrange meet-and-greets for gang-goons and the NCPD? Any gang-goon that has "searching/suspicious" or higher alert-status on the mini-map brought within a certain range of an NCPD foot patrol is perceived as hostile and will spark a conflict.
▶ UnTrue Blue : If V is equipped entirely in NCPD gear (or has a P.I. badge) and is able to successfully apply a BrainFog quickhack to a Beat Cop, he can convince them to desert their post and become a temporary follower (limited to travelling about 2-3 blocks from their original position, outside of which they start whining that they're going to get in trouble and then eventually abandon V to return to their original post.) Casting BrainFog a second time on an active follower dismisses the recruited NPC immediately. Failing to successfully perform the BrainFog quickhack or engaging in obvious criminal activity when accompanied by an NCPD follower results in the follower becoming hostile to the player. Otherwise, they function just like Jackie/Panam/Rogue and trail along a few steps away from V, fighting alongside you, sneaking when you sneak, etc.)
▶ Please Put Down Your Weapon : Net Runners can currently inhabit cameras and turrets, so why not a "Take Control" option for drones, droids, and mechs too? :) Taking it a step further, it would be incredibly cool if you could "take control" of the NCPD officers too, in a much riskier way... ie., you find a lone NCPD patrol officer, but because they're immune to quick-hacks you have to PAX them and carry them to a safe area, then jack-in via wrist-cable like you do with the NetWatch agent in Pacific Mall incident... after which you're linked, and you can inhabit their cyberware just like a drone/mech and "sleep walk" them into high security areas as if you were them. Useful for reconnaissance, sabotage, theft, and deceptive dialog-options (ie. asking other officers for passcodes, giving someone the rest of the shift off, starting a fight, faking a medical emergency, etc), or just stirring up trouble with some "combat by proxy"... Could even be a great way to spark inter-faction conflicts. ;P The possibilities are endless. :)
Anyways, those things would give the NCPD a proper in-game purpose.
▶ Cops & Robbers : Beat Cops are usually found in pairs or trios. Being NCPD, you can expect them to have semi-decent equipment, so why not make a high-risk/high-reward mini-game out of looting them for an increased chance of rare/epic items? Basically, you'd be given a very narrow window of time in which to knock-out the entire group... quietly and in a non-lethal manner (via carefully-timed quickHacks that go off almost simultaneously, or a rapid round of silenced PAX for everyone.) If your tranq-and-grab goes wrong and they become aware of you, or you accidentally flat-line one of the NCPD, then Dispatch is alerted and you get swarmed / MaxTACed as usual. If you successfully render the entire group unconscious, then you have a couple of minutes to loot their gear and run away before drones (and worse!) arrive to see why they're unresponsive.
▶ Blue's Clues : Sneaking up to and eavesdropping on Beat Cops could add new scanner-hustles on the map... (ie. pick any nearby pedestrian navMesh marked as back-alley/sidewalk/stairs that's 50+m from the player, then drop a cluster of random enemies there.) This would be a small step towards a badly needed random events generator (like TW3's "Random Encounters" mod) which would also fix ANOTHER problem, by preventing the map from feeling totally predictable, or barren after all the hand-placed content is completed.
▶ A Scanner Darkly : If you avoid detection by nearby beat cops and sneak up to a patrol car, you can then jack-in by cable to release the locks to either loot the trunk or hop into the driver's seat and listen to the dispatcher on the scanner. Listening to the scanner adds a minor cyber-psycho (a regular gang-goon with the CyberPsycho quickhack applied, but hostile to V), a rogue NCPD mech/combat-drone, a rogue auto-drive vehicle, or other mini-boss to the map. Fail the hack, and the car-alarm goes off, turning all nearby NCPD hostile. (Note: in DyingLight, the world does NOT stop while you're picking a lock, which makes it super-terrifying because there's always a risk of being discovered and attacked while you're fiddling with the lock. Much more exciting.)
▶ I'm Bringin' the Party to You : The map often has groups of beat-cops relatively close to groups of street thugs. In other open-world games like Skyrim, it's quite fun to engineer inter-faction battles (for example, tick-off a mammoth and then lead it straight into a bandit-camp), so... why not make the NCPD foot patrols useful in a similar way by allowing the player to arrange meet-and-greets for gang-goons and the NCPD? Any gang-goon that has "searching/suspicious" or higher alert-status on the mini-map brought within a certain range of an NCPD foot patrol is perceived as hostile and will spark a conflict.
▶ UnTrue Blue : If V is equipped entirely in NCPD gear (or has a P.I. badge) and is able to successfully apply a BrainFog quickhack to a Beat Cop, he can convince them to desert their post and become a temporary follower (limited to travelling about 2-3 blocks from their original position, outside of which they start whining that they're going to get in trouble and then eventually abandon V to return to their original post.) Casting BrainFog a second time on an active follower dismisses the recruited NPC immediately. Failing to successfully perform the BrainFog quickhack or engaging in obvious criminal activity when accompanied by an NCPD follower results in the follower becoming hostile to the player. Otherwise, they function just like Jackie/Panam/Rogue and trail along a few steps away from V, fighting alongside you, sneaking when you sneak, etc.)
▶ Please Put Down Your Weapon : Net Runners can currently inhabit cameras and turrets, so why not a "Take Control" option for drones, droids, and mechs too? :) Taking it a step further, it would be incredibly cool if you could "take control" of the NCPD officers too, in a much riskier way... ie., you find a lone NCPD patrol officer, but because they're immune to quick-hacks you have to PAX them and carry them to a safe area, then jack-in via wrist-cable like you do with the NetWatch agent in Pacific Mall incident... after which you're linked, and you can inhabit their cyberware just like a drone/mech and "sleep walk" them into high security areas as if you were them. Useful for reconnaissance, sabotage, theft, and deceptive dialog-options (ie. asking other officers for passcodes, giving someone the rest of the shift off, starting a fight, faking a medical emergency, etc), or just stirring up trouble with some "combat by proxy"... Could even be a great way to spark inter-faction conflicts. ;P The possibilities are endless. :)
Anyways, those things would give the NCPD a proper in-game purpose.