So, why a lvl 20 intelligence V couldn’t tell they had a virus from the VD boys? Are they stupid or something?

31 Comments

  1. Interesting-Copy-657

    Because the voodoo boys are 25 intelligence?

  2. beetboxbento

    Because accepting the job meant letting them take up a spot in V’s cyberware for the duration

  3. FeralKuja

    Honestly, after all that at Clouds about the Personal Link not being secure, how the VDBs spiked Evelyn Parker at Clouds, and how Placide forced you to link to VDB devices by personal link, there should have been an option for high intelligence/tech V to do multiple diagnostics and catch the spoofed results by themselves, thus letting Johnny in on the VDB ploy and giving us a more reasonable in with Netwatch.

    Netwatch has always been portrayed as one of the close-to-ethical corps even in the tabletop, compared to the VDBs which have always been chaotic evil scopsuckers to the last man.

  4. beckychao

    Johnny tells V they’re the dumbest merc in Night City haha

  5. The way I understood it wasn’t the virus that fried you. And it was just a simple backdoor for VDBs to be able to fry you remotely. Since you already know shit that allowed Placide to see through your eyes was already there, it would have been a very subtle additions to that that allowed them to fry you both.

    A better question would be, how multiple VDBs there don’t pick up on Netwatch virus if you side with Bryce.

  6. neonlookscool

    Because V is never an actual netrunner, he is a merc with uncommon hacking skills at best.

  7. KamLanJiao

    The plot is for v to either get f by netwatch or get f by voodoo boys, either way v gets f

  8. LeButtfart

    Is V stupid? Canonically, yes. Hell, there’s even that one gig that is predicated on V being the dumbest motherfucker in Night City, when they get hit with a spiked BD where it’s so obvious even Stevie Wonder could see it coming, and V wakes up naked, presumably with the shocked Pikachu face, in the iced bathtub.

  9. The whole story operates under the assumption that V is in a dire emergency situation and messed up and desperate. V doesn’t have the time or mental state to play things safe. No pain no gain, no guts no glory, you know, stuff like that.

  10. “What are plot devices, what a story telling contrivances”
    -this subreddit, daily

    You are observing a story in a video game, not a real one that is logically sound. Stop acting like a child.

  11. heyitscory

    You mess with the VD boys, you gonna catch somethin’.

  12. SkynBonce

    It’s not that V’s stupid, you’re not given the choice to refuse. You have to work with the VD Boys to get to Alt.

    I refused the scan and sat there staring at Placide for 5 mins, before getting bored and having the scan.

  13. Few-Astronomer7631

    yes V is stupid + he/she is just a quickhacker not a real netrunner

  14. Party_Captain_2170

    You gotta remember that even though the relic allowed V to learn this stuff REALLY FAST, he and or she has only spent maybe a few weeks doing all that, maybe 2 months max. V spent two years being a field merc that uses assault rifles and pistols, it kind of makes sense she would miss something like this 🙂

  15. Placide is also a basic animal, but still in charge of everything if brigitte is away….

  16. GilroySmash1986

    Isn’t all the Voodoo Boys tech and software custom to them? Every possibility they were able to circumnavigate regular cyberware without anyone being any wiser.

  17. Dagobert_Juke

    V is just a merc. 20 int and tech doesn’t mean they are an insane netrunner or hacker,just a reasonably smart and tech-savvy merc.

    The actual netrunners are full on specialized mages, while V is a spellsword or bard at best.

  18. Ieatkids2883

    V isnt a netrunner per say, you need pretty advanced and large equipment to properly netrun but Most high level quickhacks are actually crafted so if anything V is an extremely dangerous script maker

  19. BigBlueWookiee

    Stats are a matter of potential. Whether or not V uses his full potential is a different story and it wouldn’t make sense for him to use his full potential all the time.

    As an example – V with Gorilla arms – if V used them to their full potential all the time, they would end up crushing every can of NiCola he picked up.

    Likewise, with the Voodoo boys thing, V has the potential to spot it, but it never occurs to him to look for the VDB to be infecting him. It’s not that big of a stretch.

  20. ResolveLeather

    As a net runner build I hated this. It’s probably because they didn’t want you knowing from the get go as most players V’s would immediately massacre the VD boys which would impact the story they wanted to tell. What they really needed was a netwatch equivalent to Bridgette.

  21. Canonically V has no way to reach “level 20 intelligence” by that point of the story 

  22. Silica_123

    Typically when i play 20 inteligence v i try to fight johnny and placide on jacking into their system because they know its sketchy. As for knowing if there was a virus, even professionals who work in network security can miss things, and some viruses are very very elusive and hard to catch. Nothing happened immediately with V, and have no history with the vdbs, so theres not much reason to do a deep scan of a virus or bug, and even if V *did* perform a scan, its a virus made by a team of the most skilled netrunners in night city if not the world.

  23. Burnsidhe

    V is good, but V is a script-kiddie who’s learned a bit of programming.

    VDB are dedicated, full-time, full-immersion netrunners. They write the kinds of programs V buys to hack with.

    That said, V *knew* it was a virus. V *didn’t* know it was a virus that was also meant to flatline them.

  24. Even with 20 INT, V would still need the tools to scan deep enough to see the code buried (I assume) in the subroutine Placide uploaded to him to be able to see and hear what V was up to. But for V not to be extremely suspicious about the VDBs putting more than eyes and ears in that code doesn’t make sense.

    *Still, every playthrough I come away from that wanting to fly to Serbia, drive to the Rostović corporate offices, find the person who created the self-ICE I always have installed at this point, and kick them in the nuts.*

  25. ErectLurantis

    The only excuse I can think of for V’s occasional stupid ideas is that there’s a short moment where the brain just shits itself because of the conflicting war going on inside, and rational decision making is all but a fairytale. This is a real big reach, I know, I just need some way to cope with the fact that V got conned by some nasty homeless guy living in a pile of trash

  26. Stupid? Um… no. Not really. It may seem like semantics, but I think someone stupid can’t learn. V can learn, but still tends to default to seeing the good around them. Evelyn’s assement of V = hopelessly naive. In other words, “The Fool” in the Tarot deck. Again, not stupid. Not *unable* to learn. But on a journey to be sure, where sometimes their faith in the good of humanity isn’t helpful.

  27. SuperMichieeee

    Bro V slots XBD virtus and etc that he found on trash on the streets straight to his core. I think that answers your question.

  28. Short answer: Story.

    Long answer: its a matter of perspective, V probably didn’t think to check his/her virus scan for any VDB backdoor or virus, even if they did the NetWatch agent wouldn’t have debunked that the virus scan was a dupe.

    Also batman Arkham subreddit “are they stupid”

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