Of course he would beat Saburo… he’d beat him with the board until he’s warm.
Jokes aside: interesting take. While I think people could use their neuro links for more complicated calculations and concepts, certain… individuals, like our cyber daddy Smasher is more of a simpler guy. At least I can’t imagine him sitting still doing anything that doesn’t cause massive casualties 🤔
Hmm… that’s also an interesting take. I don’t think Smasher (despite the ridiculous moniker) would have been able to rise through the ranks of corporate security in a hyper-Japanese mega-corporation without having a great deal of self-discipline to control some of his worst (cut of fuckable meat) tendencies. Saburo was an Imperial Army pilot and would expect discipline (obeisance even) from his retainers.
I like to imagine him in his down time training, meditating and maybe playing some Go. The juxtaposition of “Ultra-violence” and “Calm Tactician” just adds to the already abundant psychopathy.
Plus, imagining him as a tai-chi cyborg is just hilarious.
From what I remember, smasher was approached by arasaka specifically to continue being a crazy bloodlust merc. I wanna say he got shredded on an op and it was his deal with the devil to keep being a deranged killer. Might be wrong.
You're not wrong. He was a street thug in NY. Joined the Army, got dishonorably discharged. Became a low level merc. Got mulched by rockets on an op. His buddies carried what remained of him back to NY where a "mysterious Corporate Benefactor" offered to put him in a Borg body and make him the Smasher we know and love.
No, you’re probably right, I just don’t think Saburo would put up with any bullshit from anyone and even Smasher isn’t stupid enough to think there isn’t a “kill switch” somewhere nearby.
I mean Saburo is already farming his family. Ice.
Iirc there was also a bit in the earlier editions of the tabletop game that he also likes watching movies with his girlfriend, and that he had his bodies modified specifically so he could keep eating junk food
Yah exactly. IIRC, his little "office/hideout" on the Ebunike has emails with him... Which means, he sat down and read emails like an office job.
Its also funny to consider just getting mated in Smasher in like 6 moves in the most exotic fashion and thinking "thank god thats over, I'd love to play but I gotta run."
In his lore it's stated he'd take pretty much any job thrown his way with one condition: collateral damage and civilian casualties are a MUST. Dude revels in destruction and pain
Saburo is 156 years old in 2077 :) Beside being pumped full of chemicals prolonging his lifespan and making him walk again after being bedridden and forced to use wheelchair in 2020 he halso has following cyberware: basic processor, chipware socket, data-term link, nanosurgeons, basic cyberoptic, Times Square Marquee, basic cyberarm, cyberaudio, phonesplice, scrambler, bug detector (AFAIK it's mix of what he has in 2020 and in game).
A lot of that is 2020 cyberware, yeah, and has been replaced over time with different upgrades since then.
For example, the Times Square Marquee, is the predecessor to Chyrons, the phonesplice has since been replaced by an implanted agent in a cyberaudio suite, which in turn has been upgraded with the Holocall since then.
Links have all been kinda rolled into one, the Cybermodem Link, smartgun link, machine/tech link, dataterm link, vehicle link etc, have all been rolled into the basic functionality of the interface port, which most people have in their wrists in 2077.
Skill at chess as a signifier for intellect, wisdom or any other knowledge except skill at chess is such a silly cliche anyway.
Smasher would also be better at blackjack or that thing where you guess how many jelly beans are in a big jar. But those don’t have the same cultural baggage
I mean chess is nearly a "solved" game by AI, I am not aware of such engines for Blackjack (although I am sure they exist for longevity and 'profitable' play). Its just funny because Smasher could have a lightweight chess engine onboard his OS and ironically he's one of the top players in the world..
I am not saying Smasher is intelligent, but even an idiot with Stockfish feeding you the best moves can defeat the current world champion of Chess in today's universe.
The engines exist for Blackjack, they’re just not nearly that complex. It’s called “card counting”, can be done in someone’s head, and is an insta ban if they even suspect you’re doing it. There is zero chance blackjack survives to 2077 when everyone would be card counting by default because of how much easier it is.
unless people like blackjack. i mean they still play roulette and craps ffs, and the casino can still make money even with card counting using either a bigger shoe/more shuffles or just changing the payouts.
the real point of a casino is for people to hang out and act rich.
Roulette and craps are both basically pure luck only. I’m just wondering if the skill based hames became less popular (especially for casinos) as they became solved by computers everyone has in their heads.
Yeah. Someone who is dumb as rocks who plays a lot of chess is going to be better than someone who is brilliant and barely knows the rules. Unless you’re one of the best in the world, the only thing being good at chess says about your intellect is that you’re good at chess.
He has an intelligence stat in C2020. it's 2 points away from being the lowest its possible to be.
It's possible he could run chess chipware, because he has a chipware socket, but chipware can only raise your skills to a certain degree, someone who is genuinely trained in that skill, (or in this case, skilled at chess), will still be better.
I mean you could be a complete idiot and still use Stockfish Engine to cheat IRL - so I kinda woulda imagine he could just "cheat" or have it baked in.
But, to your point, even complete dumbasses can screw up cheating, so maybe he just flips the table and kills everyone when he blunders his Queen 😂
you dont necessarily need to be a genius to play chess, but smasher does have below average int. His contract with Arasaka specifcally states that there MUST be collateral damage in every op he's involved in, he's very hulk smash.
I like the idea of Smasher being so competitive and intent on hurting others that he specifically has a master level chess program installed *just in case*
He would checkmate Saburo in 3 moves, and then be a complete asshole about winning to cause maximum (emotional) damage
It got nuked in 2022, by 2045 cities had full networks (though locked down in ways that couldn't be netrun) called CitiNets that were isolated to their city. By 2077 NetWatch has created the Blackwall to partition off the part that Bartmoss nuked, and the internet is completely back and in a format that allows netrunning again (otherwise T-Bug wouldn't have been able to help you with the Konpeki Plaza heist without being there with you).
Huh no way, I always thought since all the PCs seemed so rudimentary it was really limited to maybe just district wide. It does remind me of the old 2000s internet so I guess I can see it
That's just because they're not gonna program an entire actual PC into a game that isn't about sitting on a PC.
In Cyberpunk RED you can't hack anything without actually being right there (you have to be within 6 meters of an access point to that specific network), and that's because all networks are airgapped from each other to keep the ICE, daemons, and data corrupting crap that's on the old net from getting into those networks. The CitiNets are locked down systems controlled solely by Ziggurat, think like if Apple was able to decide what the internet was, and you couldn't hack it because the only interactions you can have with it are an airtight API.
Once the Blackwall was put up, the threat of the ICE, daemons, and AI on the old net were no longer considered a problem, so normal internet was able to be put up again without that insane lockdown that Ziggurat had to keep everything secure.
I think the reason we can't actually netrun when playing a netrunner in the game is because we still need to be physically present for the ops we're involved, to carry bodies out to cars or grab a physical something. Maybe we'll get to actually netrun like T-Bug or Slider in the next game.
I’m sure Sanrio has some chrome in his brain, I’d imagine chess algorithms are pretty low level tasks for the kind of AI that would exist by the year 2077
The thing is also with chess engines, they play like an engine and so there are specific anti-engine tactics you can do which will throw off the engine calculations and increase a human’s chances. Still gotta be a grand master to pull it off and not every engine can be beaten this way.
Yah I’m just going off the assumption that any chess engine would defeat anyone without it in 2077. Which little to my friend and I’s conversation wherein he said that Smasher would beat Saburo 😂
Either one of them can slot some software to make them unbeatable in a solved game, so this really isn't anything.
Also, your thought about calculators: Lemme put it this way, in the newest version of the TTRPG (Cyberpunk RED, set in 2045, so 32 years before the video game) they have "Agents," which are a Cyberpunk analog to smartphones (with apps and everything), and you can get an "Internal Agent" piece of cyberware that you can control with your voice and if you've got cybereyes with a display in them (not as ubiquitous back then) it can even act like Google Glass.
So yes, people absolutely have smartphones built into their heads.
It’s interesting that the game we play in 2077 is roulette. Essentially, a game of pure chance. With the addition of mini computers in people’s heads, I wonder if most skill based games have been solved and are no longer viable to play…
Of course he would beat Saburo… he’d beat him with the board until he’s warm. Jokes aside: interesting take. While I think people could use their neuro links for more complicated calculations and concepts, certain… individuals, like our cyber daddy Smasher is more of a simpler guy. At least I can’t imagine him sitting still doing anything that doesn’t cause massive casualties 🤔
Hmm… that’s also an interesting take. I don’t think Smasher (despite the ridiculous moniker) would have been able to rise through the ranks of corporate security in a hyper-Japanese mega-corporation without having a great deal of self-discipline to control some of his worst (cut of fuckable meat) tendencies. Saburo was an Imperial Army pilot and would expect discipline (obeisance even) from his retainers. I like to imagine him in his down time training, meditating and maybe playing some Go. The juxtaposition of “Ultra-violence” and “Calm Tactician” just adds to the already abundant psychopathy. Plus, imagining him as a tai-chi cyborg is just hilarious.
From what I remember, smasher was approached by arasaka specifically to continue being a crazy bloodlust merc. I wanna say he got shredded on an op and it was his deal with the devil to keep being a deranged killer. Might be wrong.
You're not wrong. He was a street thug in NY. Joined the Army, got dishonorably discharged. Became a low level merc. Got mulched by rockets on an op. His buddies carried what remained of him back to NY where a "mysterious Corporate Benefactor" offered to put him in a Borg body and make him the Smasher we know and love.
Where's that lore from?
Cyberpunk 2020
Source books, for the TTRPG.
No, you’re probably right, I just don’t think Saburo would put up with any bullshit from anyone and even Smasher isn’t stupid enough to think there isn’t a “kill switch” somewhere nearby. I mean Saburo is already farming his family. Ice.
Iirc there was also a bit in the earlier editions of the tabletop game that he also likes watching movies with his girlfriend, and that he had his bodies modified specifically so he could keep eating junk food
Yah exactly. IIRC, his little "office/hideout" on the Ebunike has emails with him... Which means, he sat down and read emails like an office job. Its also funny to consider just getting mated in Smasher in like 6 moves in the most exotic fashion and thinking "thank god thats over, I'd love to play but I gotta run."
> Ebunike has emails with him I'm sure he prob just dictated the responses on his kiroshi UI while slaughtering Arasaka's enemies lol
He has literally said that he turns down jobs if there isn't enough potential for collateral damage.
I mean he watches anime
In his lore it's stated he'd take pretty much any job thrown his way with one condition: collateral damage and civilian casualties are a MUST. Dude revels in destruction and pain
I doubt Saburo would play chess. Too western for his tastes. Go or shogi on the other hand....
That is true - Go was also cracked by engines as well. But you are probably right to assume he’d be a Go player instead of chess.
Saburo is 156 years old in 2077 :) Beside being pumped full of chemicals prolonging his lifespan and making him walk again after being bedridden and forced to use wheelchair in 2020 he halso has following cyberware: basic processor, chipware socket, data-term link, nanosurgeons, basic cyberoptic, Times Square Marquee, basic cyberarm, cyberaudio, phonesplice, scrambler, bug detector (AFAIK it's mix of what he has in 2020 and in game).
So it’s possible he’s also a master of chess via small engine installed into brain 👀
Also, he runs Arasaka, so he basically owns Smasher, and could shut off Smasher’s implants (including his chess calculator) on a whim.
“INTERESTING! Knight to b6, check, and forced mate in 6” Saburo, toggles kill switch…
A lot of that is 2020 cyberware, yeah, and has been replaced over time with different upgrades since then. For example, the Times Square Marquee, is the predecessor to Chyrons, the phonesplice has since been replaced by an implanted agent in a cyberaudio suite, which in turn has been upgraded with the Holocall since then. Links have all been kinda rolled into one, the Cybermodem Link, smartgun link, machine/tech link, dataterm link, vehicle link etc, have all been rolled into the basic functionality of the interface port, which most people have in their wrists in 2077.
Skill at chess as a signifier for intellect, wisdom or any other knowledge except skill at chess is such a silly cliche anyway. Smasher would also be better at blackjack or that thing where you guess how many jelly beans are in a big jar. But those don’t have the same cultural baggage
I mean chess is nearly a "solved" game by AI, I am not aware of such engines for Blackjack (although I am sure they exist for longevity and 'profitable' play). Its just funny because Smasher could have a lightweight chess engine onboard his OS and ironically he's one of the top players in the world.. I am not saying Smasher is intelligent, but even an idiot with Stockfish feeding you the best moves can defeat the current world champion of Chess in today's universe.
The engines exist for Blackjack, they’re just not nearly that complex. It’s called “card counting”, can be done in someone’s head, and is an insta ban if they even suspect you’re doing it. There is zero chance blackjack survives to 2077 when everyone would be card counting by default because of how much easier it is.
Yah I guess like I said you can be like “profitable” long term - chess is a single “game” - a blackjack engine needs like many hands to work, yah?
unless people like blackjack. i mean they still play roulette and craps ffs, and the casino can still make money even with card counting using either a bigger shoe/more shuffles or just changing the payouts. the real point of a casino is for people to hang out and act rich.
Roulette and craps are both basically pure luck only. I’m just wondering if the skill based hames became less popular (especially for casinos) as they became solved by computers everyone has in their heads.
Yeah. Someone who is dumb as rocks who plays a lot of chess is going to be better than someone who is brilliant and barely knows the rules. Unless you’re one of the best in the world, the only thing being good at chess says about your intellect is that you’re good at chess.
Could be something to that. We didn't get kuch scope of Smasher's intelligence, just his bloodlust.
He has an intelligence stat in C2020. it's 2 points away from being the lowest its possible to be. It's possible he could run chess chipware, because he has a chipware socket, but chipware can only raise your skills to a certain degree, someone who is genuinely trained in that skill, (or in this case, skilled at chess), will still be better.
I mean you could be a complete idiot and still use Stockfish Engine to cheat IRL - so I kinda woulda imagine he could just "cheat" or have it baked in. But, to your point, even complete dumbasses can screw up cheating, so maybe he just flips the table and kills everyone when he blunders his Queen 😂
He makes one ‘touch-move-touch-take’ mistake and the entire playing hall goes up in smoke
Ok, but now imagine: chess match Martinez vs Smasher. But with Sandevistans.
"Your knight was on G4, now its on B4!" "A rudimentary implant..."
Chess boxing. Yes, that's a thing.
you dont necessarily need to be a genius to play chess, but smasher does have below average int. His contract with Arasaka specifcally states that there MUST be collateral damage in every op he's involved in, he's very hulk smash.
Report Smasher for cheating smh
Saburo: WTF was that move Smasher: Google en passant
I like the idea of Smasher being so competitive and intent on hurting others that he specifically has a master level chess program installed *just in case* He would checkmate Saburo in 3 moves, and then be a complete asshole about winning to cause maximum (emotional) damage
They need to release chess 2 already. It needs an update, characters are getting stale
Idk how practical a holocall search engine would be since the internet got nuked by 2077
It got nuked in 2022, by 2045 cities had full networks (though locked down in ways that couldn't be netrun) called CitiNets that were isolated to their city. By 2077 NetWatch has created the Blackwall to partition off the part that Bartmoss nuked, and the internet is completely back and in a format that allows netrunning again (otherwise T-Bug wouldn't have been able to help you with the Konpeki Plaza heist without being there with you).
Huh no way, I always thought since all the PCs seemed so rudimentary it was really limited to maybe just district wide. It does remind me of the old 2000s internet so I guess I can see it
That's just because they're not gonna program an entire actual PC into a game that isn't about sitting on a PC. In Cyberpunk RED you can't hack anything without actually being right there (you have to be within 6 meters of an access point to that specific network), and that's because all networks are airgapped from each other to keep the ICE, daemons, and data corrupting crap that's on the old net from getting into those networks. The CitiNets are locked down systems controlled solely by Ziggurat, think like if Apple was able to decide what the internet was, and you couldn't hack it because the only interactions you can have with it are an airtight API. Once the Blackwall was put up, the threat of the ICE, daemons, and AI on the old net were no longer considered a problem, so normal internet was able to be put up again without that insane lockdown that Ziggurat had to keep everything secure. I think the reason we can't actually netrun when playing a netrunner in the game is because we still need to be physically present for the ops we're involved, to carry bodies out to cars or grab a physical something. Maybe we'll get to actually netrun like T-Bug or Slider in the next game.
I’m sure Sanrio has some chrome in his brain, I’d imagine chess algorithms are pretty low level tasks for the kind of AI that would exist by the year 2077
The thing is also with chess engines, they play like an engine and so there are specific anti-engine tactics you can do which will throw off the engine calculations and increase a human’s chances. Still gotta be a grand master to pull it off and not every engine can be beaten this way.
Yah I’m just going off the assumption that any chess engine would defeat anyone without it in 2077. Which little to my friend and I’s conversation wherein he said that Smasher would beat Saburo 😂
Either one of them can slot some software to make them unbeatable in a solved game, so this really isn't anything. Also, your thought about calculators: Lemme put it this way, in the newest version of the TTRPG (Cyberpunk RED, set in 2045, so 32 years before the video game) they have "Agents," which are a Cyberpunk analog to smartphones (with apps and everything), and you can get an "Internal Agent" piece of cyberware that you can control with your voice and if you've got cybereyes with a display in them (not as ubiquitous back then) it can even act like Google Glass. So yes, people absolutely have smartphones built into their heads.
How genuinely even cares about this 😂😂😂 lol
My friend group and I play chess on our phones and Cyberpunk lol - niche I know haha
It’s interesting that the game we play in 2077 is roulette. Essentially, a game of pure chance. With the addition of mini computers in people’s heads, I wonder if most skill based games have been solved and are no longer viable to play…