Hey there, choomba! Let's talk about something that's been on my mind lately as I wander the neon-drenched streets of Night City. We all know Cyberpunk 2077 has some fantastic mods, right? From community patches that smooth out the rough edges to ray-tracing that makes the rain on the asphalt look like liquid chrome, the dedication is real. But here's the thing that gets me thinking... when I look over at the modding scenes for Skyrim and Fallout, especially the recent buzz around projects like Fallout London, I can't help but feel like Night City's modding potential is still, well, booting up.

Let's be real for a sec. Comparing the modding landscapes is like comparing a sleek, new Archer Hella to a classic, heavily customized Thorton Colby. Both are awesome, but one has had way more time for the community to take it apart and rebuild it into something wild. Skyrim is, what, nearly 14 years old now? That's a lot of time for modders to get under the hood of the Creation Engine, even with all its... let's call them "quirky" animations. Cyberpunk 2077, with its REDmod tools released a few years back, is the new kid on the block. The tech is flashier, the assets are incredibly detailed, but that also means the bar for creating something that feels seamless is sky-high.

This complexity gap is a double-edged monowire. On one hand, it makes creating those massive, DLC-sized story mods way more daunting. We haven't seen a Cyberpunk equivalent of The Forgotten City yet, and honestly, that's understandable. Crafting new narratives with voice acting and new mechanics that match CD Projekt Red's cinematic polish? That's a monumental task. But on the other hand—and this is the exciting part—imagine what could be built with Cyberpunk's foundation. The potential for mind-blowing results is just sitting there, waiting for the right crew of edgerunners to crack it open.

So, what's holding us back from going head-to-head with the Skyrim and Fallout modding legends? It's not just about tools or time. It's about scale and storytelling ambition. Those other communities have proven they can build practically standalone games. Cyberpunk's scene? It feels like we're still in the phase of awesome tweaks and visual overhauls, which are great, but... I'm craving more. I want to see modders tell the stories that CDPR never could.

Let me paint a few pictures for you of what could be:

• Untold Stories of Night City: We've scratched the surface, but there are entire megabuildings of stories left unexplored. What about a deep-dive mod into cyberpsychosis from the victim's perspective? Not just a combat encounter, but a slow-burn narrative about losing your grip on reality.

• Prequel Adventures: A full modded campaign showing Johnny Silverhand's raid on Arasaka Tower, not just as flashbacks. Or what Solomon Reed was really up during his years in the FIA. The lore is begging for it!

• Life in the Gutter: A "day in the life" mod where you're not V, the legendary merc, but a low-level corpo drone trying to make rent in Corpo Plaza, or a Tyger Claws grunt navigating the brutal politics of Watson. The high-tech, low-life setting is perfect for these intimate, gritty stories.

CD Projekt Red has some of the best writers in the biz, no doubt. But opening up Night City to independent storytellers could lead to a more diverse, weirder, and more fascinating world. Think about it—different voices, different perspectives on the same dystopia. That's how you build a living, breathing universe that lasts for years.

The ingredients are all here:

What we need now is for that passion to coalesce around bigger, narrative-driven projects. It's about time Cyberpunk's modding scene stepped into the major leagues. The technical hurdles are real, but if modders have proven anything over the years, it's that you should never underestimate them. They can turn a game into a platform for endless creativity.

So, here's to the future. Here's to hoping that by next year, we're not just talking about better lighting or new cars, but about the first massive, community-made story expansion that makes us all see Night City in a brand new light. The city's full of dreams, and some of the best ones might still be waiting in the mod folders of talented fans. The potential is electric, just like the city itself. Maybe it's time we really plug in.