I assume you mean Santiago Aldecado and not Trace Santiago of the Aldecados.
I.e. Father not the Son.
Because Trace is still going to be in his fifties in 2077.
I thought the Santiago that would replace Saul would be Trace (i.e. Rogue's son) not her ex.
Edited by CharlesPhipps on Sep 22nd 2023 at 1:20:29 AM
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.I think we've got some crossed wires on the Elon thing.
TLDR; in some new book about Elon Musk, Cyberpunk 2077 comes up. Grimes, his wife at the time, was recording her parts for Lizzie Wizzy in 2077 (btw, Lizzie Wizzy is back for the Phantom Liberty DLC) and Elon came to the studio with a 100+ year old gun and demanded they give him a cameo in the game.
As far as I'm aware, the story ends there and there's no mention if the cameo was made or ever in the game. I somewhat doubt it was.
Considering his adorating for a game that utterly shits on people like him, I would be more amused if they made something up, told him it was in the game, and then never added it.
And, yes, I mean Santiago Aldecaldo. As in Johnny's friend from the 2020 era that also was part of the rescue Alt quest.
TLDR; It sounds like the Nomad and Edgerunner storylines were a bit more even paced with one 2020 era rep for each; Santiago for the Nomads and Rogue for the Edgerunners. Each got their own ending. I presume that Santiago would have had some quests with Johnny to tie up loose ends with him.
At some point, Santiago was removed but Saul was added in replacement. And it was late enough that virtually nothing was rewritten about the character except that lines were removed. I would bet money that Saul's model is Santiago's 2077 model just with a different hair color.
I wrote up a bunch of things here on reddit if you're interested.
Far as I can find, Trace was never in the game. As a model and character at least. The only ever mention was in the Sun ending emails.
I believe the same book (or maybe it was their kid who has since separated themselves from Elon?) alleges that Elon bought twitter... and then realized what it meant... and his response to the stress and depression this brought on was to play Elden Ring all night.
Dude does not know how to cope healthily with anything...
I mean, I don't want to say I don't escape into games either, but I also don't have billions of dollars and own three or four major tech companies. And I do cope in other healthier ways.
I would love if a sequel featured a very Elon corpo villain. Not one that's "Palate swap with the serial numbers filed off" but was more genuinely and enthusiastically inspired by the man... and showing what a horrible horrible affect someone like that has on the world.
Slightly off-topic but I'm convinced that this is the exact origin of the character Walter Stroudnote from Starfield. Unlike here he was actually invited to visit by the developers there and supposedly gets along swimmingly with Todd Howard. It genuinely would not surprise me to learn that the dude had Musk's face right up until he started publicly losing his shit.
Edited by Dirtyblue929 on Sep 22nd 2023 at 9:53:16 AM
There's a not even rumor that Elon Musk was convinced to buy Twitter by Talulah Riley to fight "wokeness."
https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-ex-wife-texts-fighting-twitter-woke-ism-report-2022-10
But this is Bloomberg so take it at your discretion.
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.Playing more, I do think making weapons have fixed stats massively improved the game. I have a reason to look at guns that drop now, instead of being tied to one gun I'll upgrade the entire game. Gone through half a dozen tier 2 (green) pistols, and now moving finally to where Tier 3 starts to drop.
There's also at least a new side quest to get you a free car with built in weapons (A new Type-66 Nomad Variant).
Edited by Ghilz on Sep 22nd 2023 at 12:38:46 PM
Some heist thoughts:
- To Dex's credit, I'm fairly of the mind that he brought onboard baby mercs because he fully was planning on swindling us. His whole 20% offer was something no seasoned Night City merc would ever accept, no matter the payday. I also believe that he might have been planning on leaving us holding the bag to begin with. The 40% is only because you rat out Evelyn and he'll undoubtedly be taking her cut for you (and if they were splitting 50-50, he's doubling yours but also doubling his). Remember when Jackie asks how they get paid, Dex says in "two weeks"
- I actually think Evelyn's plan was arguably a lot smarter than many let on because she planned on getting V (clearly the brains of Jackie and V) on her side before going to Netwatch. Netwatch is the one group in the world she could flee from the Voodoo Boys to—sadly she didn't have what they wanted.
- Evelyn was also going to screw up since she betrayed Yorinobu, the Voodoo Boys, and was going to betray Dex if you let her. You have to wonder if she had enough mind leftover to note the irony of V saving her.
- Judy may have been abandoned by Evelyn as well. It depends if you assume Judy and Evelyn were together at the time or it was just a crush on Judy's part.
- T-Bug, I think is a mid-tier Netrunner working with newbs like V and Jackie. She's doing info-gathering normally and is way out of her league with Konpecki plaza. It's why she gets zeroed once Arasaka Netrunners show up.
- Jackie is a dumbass. A lovable dumbass but I don't believe he was any smarter than your typical Valentino grunt you zap in the middle of any Assault in Progress.
- Yeah, V is still a greedy criminal like the rest of them. Arguably, they have the biggest blind spot of them all because they THINK they're smart enough to have all the angles covered.
The Target and other interested parties
- Yorinobu had made himself very vulnerable with no Arasaka security and only Konpeki plaza folk (he'd have been better with some mercs but who could be trusted). The thing was that he was already planning on selling it to Netwatch and who knows what they planned to do with it.
- Netwatch was already planning to screw Yorinobu since Evelyn Parker was in contact with them. They were pretty cagey about the whole thing.
- Yorinobu would know, immediately, about who helped steal the Relic even if blinded by the hot steamy sexy he was having with Evelyn.
- Brigitte basically says Placide is an idiot and dumb muscle, so that's why he doesn't know about the Relic. The Voodoo Boys, absolutely will know about the Relic and Dex actually reached to them.
- Arasaka was willing to nuke Night City to keep the Relic out of the hands of either Militech or Netwatch.
- Rogue sold herself to Arasaka so she absolutely would be able to rat Dex out to them.
Edited by CharlesPhipps on Sep 23rd 2023 at 4:45:28 AM
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.Don't think it requires much of a rewatch to get that point. Several people kinda make it clear that between V and Jackie, V is the brain in the pair. Dex basically straight up tells you he gave V the pre-op Jobs coz he doesnt trust Jackie to handle them. T-Bug's very critical of Jackie in general. Jackie spends most of the heist focused on the payout and not the red flags and the job at hand. Jackie's main thing is that he's a _really_ good guy. Not a good Merc, but a solid buddy. You see it in all the intros, and he shows it again and again.
On the topic of T-Bug, it's kinda weird how little she comes up after death. The one merchant covers how she died, and Rogue mentions her. And it's weird coz T-Bug totally sacrificed herself to save V and Jackie. She could've cut her connection the moment shit when sideways and delta'd, but instead she remained and hacked the door to let them escape.
Evelyn's plan is fucked coz it all hinges on everyone, Yorinobu included, looking at Yorinobu's list of visitors and not finding her to be suspicious, when she'd immediately be the most suspicious person on that list. Like she straight up tells you that and the game gives no reason to point out her explanation is stupid.
Edited by Ghilz on Sep 23rd 2023 at 2:43:09 PM
Heck, even Adam Smasher gets clued in on what's happening, and he's Dumb Muscle incarnate.
Disgusted, but not surprisedLike, her entire logic is the big names on Yorinobu's guest list will draw all the attention. But no one who is a big name would've risked exposing themselves this way to steal the chip. While her, a no name who'd be an easy cheap method to get free intel? She'll stick out like a sore thumb. And that was exactly what the VDB were using her for.
Heck it's probably half the reason they had her disposed of. Not just to punish treason but because she was always gonna be the link that could lead back to them.
Edited by Ghilz on Sep 23rd 2023 at 2:39:22 PM
Evelyn kind of screams Femme Fatale and it's interesting to wonder if that's a persona as her e-mails with Judy point to a far less cultivated woman and more, you know, normal person. But of course, as a doll, it's part of her job to put on a sophisticated dangerous mask.
Yeah, she'll be out of Night City by then and probably living in the NUSA.
Ironically, the plan WOULD have worked because when Yorinobu kills Saburo, he loses all interest in the Relic because it no longer matters. It's why he doesn't send anyone after V during the post-mission. Indeed, it's better if V is never found because that means his story will hold up.
Edited by CharlesPhipps on Sep 23rd 2023 at 11:40:45 AM
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.A move that'd slow Arasaka for like, a femtosecond.
Yorinobu doesn't send people after V ever because it's in Yorinobu's interest that V never turn up, alive or dead. So long as V's alive and out there V acts as a deflection to anyone who questions Yorinobu's legitimacy coz he can point to all the dead guards at the hotel as proof that there was a third party involved.
Edited by Ghilz on Sep 23rd 2023 at 2:45:52 PM
Doubtful, NUSA is Militech's territory. They have all the reason in the world to stop Arasaka running any kind of operation in their territory and all the motivation to act against them out of principle. If Arasaka were motivated enough they might one day be able to get to Evelyn in NUSA, but it would be difficult for them to pull it off.
Mind you, that is something Saburo has in spades.
Though there is a Subversion to his Disproportionate Retribution. Saburo has mostly gotten over his hatred of America in 2077 after the events of Firestorm. Basically, losing the Fourth Corporate War and his son removed a lot of the, "Yeah, we could win round two of WW 2" feeling he'd been carrying around.
It's why he doesn't want war with Militech anymore even if he still takes pot shots at them.
(His diary is available in the Plaza)
Edited by CharlesPhipps on Sep 24th 2023 at 8:29:11 AM
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.Yeah, it's been stated that he genuinely loves his family even if abusive so losing his son because of his own lost causer Imperialist ambitions would cause him to rethink his life.
But not enough that he actually wants to improve Japan or anything.
"The Black Rage makes us strong, because we must resist its temptations every day of our lives or be forever damned!"

EDIT: This is in response to a question on where in the game a cameo of Elon Musk was before it got patched out.
Edited by TrashJack on Sep 22nd 2023 at 3:07:29 PM
"Cynic, n. — A blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be." - The Devil's Dictionary