OPLI - Overhauled PL Integration

The base game and its story exist within a carefully designed and intricate framework -- with the quest Tapeworm serving as a silent, overarching anchor. It is the very completion of Tapeworm that unlocks Act 3 and the meeting with Hanako at Embers.

An excellent showcase of that was done by Breadballer on YouTube:

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By imposing itself in middle of Act 2, Phantom Liberty not only behaves like an uninvited guest, but introduces a myriad of problems into the aforementioned framework due to a contrast between the design/writing choices in the base game and the expansion.

OPLI aims to help with that, while also letting you enjoy the fully tapestry of Tapeworm uninterrupted. It does so by doing 3 things:

• []Changing how Phantom Liberty unlocks:

  Linear: Songbird calls you after Tapeworm is complete and Hanako is ready to meet you. PL now extends Act 3 of the game.

  Flexible: Songbird's call also requires completing Life During Wartime (finding Hellman), rather than only Transmission (Voodoo Boys).

  However, Reed won't call to start The Damned (finding Slider) until Tapeworm is completed.

  Linear is recommended for narrative reasons, but if you'd prefer earlier access to Dogtown and the Relic perk tree, Flexible offers a solid alternative that unlocks the expansion earlier but still gates the bulk of its story until after Tapeworm. You can switch at any time before completing Playing for Time (meeting Takemura at Tom's Diner).[/]

• []Repurposing the "Phantom Liberty" quest:

  In vanilla, this quest guides you towards unlocking the expansion as early as possible, thus contributing to the poor integration. But now it acts as an overarching quest for the entire game, by tracking everything/anything related to solving V's Relic problem -- including eventually unlocking the expansion. At any point, you can open the journal and see a permanent quest that is 100% focused on Cyberpunk's primary plot.[/]

• []Removing logos and the end credits:

  The main menu, the intro sequence during Dog Eat Dog, every single quest in the Journal, and a special end credits just for the expansion? You don't need constant reminders that you're playing something separate from the base game, but this can be toggled in the Mod Settings.[/]

  Why each of these helps, as well as the overall philosophy, is explained next:

  So what exactly are the problems with the vanilla integration of Phantom Liberty?

  Ludonarrative Dissonance: