The Cyberpunk 2077 modder behind a bunch of the game’s most popular romance mods is set to make NPC showering an optional extra in two of their works, with the hopes that these “non-sexy mods” will no longer be “hidden unnecessarily”.
Their decision comes as a response to recent changes Nexus Mods have made regarding creations that’re classed as “adult”, something the modding site’s done as a result of the Online Safety Act coming into force in the UK. The legislation’s seen the likes of social media and porn sites also have to adopt new age verification checks before allowing users to access a range of content deemed unsuitable for children.
Naturally, this has meant that mods which tinker with or add to how romancing characters works in the likes of 18-rated RPG Cyberpunk have been flagged as adult by Nexus. This currently includes Judy Romanced Enhanced and Panam Romanced Enhanced by prolific modder Phil ‘Deceptious’ Wright, as of writing the fifth and sixth most downloaded mods of all-time when it comes to CD Projekt’s Bladerunnery adventure.
While you might think from their names that these mods would be obvious candidates for age-restriction, the situation’s a bit more complicated than that. You see, unlike plenty of Wright’s other works, these Judy and Panam mods don’t actually add in new sexual encounters, instead simply giving the two affected NPCs more detailed daily schedules and the ability to be quickly hugged/kissed. Less x-rated smut fest, more just helping make it easier for you to roleplay as boyfriend, girlfriend, or partner.
According to a Twitter post from Deceptious – which ironically ended up being briefly hidden from me by one of the Musk platform’s new adult content blocks – the thing that’s seemingly led these two pretty innocent works to be pinged as NSFW is the fact they make Judy and Panam have regular, non-sexy showers as part of their schedules. To be fair, the mods don’t lock their respective bathroom doors, though the Panam one does look to include optional opaque shower curtains in the name of privacy.
So, in order to avoid having “these non-sexy mods hidden unnecessarily”, Wright’s currently putting together new “family friendly” versions that’ll see the two ladies permanently barred from having a wash, unless you download what’ll either be optional plugins or separate mods that give them the ok to pick up a sponge.
It looks to be a pretty unique case as far as Cyberpunk mods that’ve been flagged as adult go. It’s also exactly the kind of strange situation that folks had envisioned might happen with the new rules, given the notoriously unprudish nature of games like Cyberpunk. After all, mods with Sims-style shower blurring wouldn’t really fit with the rest of the game. Though I guess you could spin it as a bit of cyberware V’s secretly had installed, so that they aren’t permanently scarred by the sight of a nipple or two during their breaks from brutally murderdeathing goons.
Anyway, it’s good to see Deceptious has seemingly found a solution that works for him, in terms of both keeping the mods highly visible on Nexus and ensuring 90% or so of the stuff they include stays as is. Plus, it’s helped him unearth a bug that was trapping Panam in the shower.
