EXPERIMENTAL Implemented and testable, but unstable or incomplete.

Experimental Systems

NCM is fundamentally a motorsports project, but the simulation has grown some strange branches.

None of this is needed to enter a street race. It is here because the code is real, people find it, and hiding it would be dishonest. Everything on this page is unstable, incomplete, or both.

Slipstream EXPERIMENTAL

Drafting is a physical effect: a car in another car's wake loses drag and gains a tow, including under power. Wake quality is continuous, not an on/off bubble. Code: ncm/online/resources/ncm_slipstream/, ncm/slipstream/.

NCM Chrome: vehicle quickhacks EXPERIMENTAL

While the Scanner is up, NCM Chrome offers hacks against other vehicles: X and Z cycle hacks, hold G to upload. The effects are vehicle-only. NPC racers have their own quickhack intelligence. Uploads are recorded in a ledger the server keeps private. Design: DECISION_RECORD L343.

Machines built from physical parts EXPERIMENTAL

NCM's engineering does not stop at tuning. A machine is assembled from physical components on real mounting points, such as the floor-pan underside and the rear, and installed components decide what the machine can do. Fit an impulse actuator facing down and the car can hop. Fit a propulsor facing aft and it can push. Fit enough lift and a flight computer and it can fly.

On a pad: tap Triangle to hop, hold it to push forward, with the right parts fitted.
Flight hardware comes from physical R&D and is spread across the Autofixer markets.
The flight computer (FC-1) caps each engine's throttle to what the attitude parts can trim, and refuses with a reason when it can't hold the machine up.

Code: ncm/core/engineering/*, ncm/online/resources/ncm_engineering/, ncm_build/; authority docs 50 and 54, DECISION_RECORD L321, L324, L342, L359.

AVs EXPERIMENTAL

The game's AVs (aerial vehicles) can be called and flown on NCM's own engineering: lift fans and a flight computer. Flying machines are listed in the Machine Index but are never street cars. Expect rocking, odd speed readouts and fuel surprises; see Known Issues. DECISION_RECORD L368, KB-461..KB-478.

Higher still

Spoiler: what is above Night City (open only if you want to know)

NCM treats this part as a secret to be found in play, not a menu item. Nothing teleports you there, nothing is gated, and anyone who flies high enough finds it.

Above a seam high over the city, NCM takes over position from the game engine and runs NCM Deep, its own universe: a real Solar System and a real star catalogue, multi-body gravity and frames of reference. Your actual machine keeps flying on its own installed parts, drawn by a small native mod, NCM Sky. A propulsion laboratory holds six experimental drives (impulse, fusion, warp, Alcubierre, jump and wormhole). They are lab-only toys with no market, no progression and no balance.

It is the least stable thing in NCM. Thrust drop-outs, view problems and orbit drift are all recorded in the Known Issues. The Race Week reset applies there too.

Code: ncm/core/space/*, ncm/sky/, ncm/online/resources/ncm_universe/, ncm_world/client/deep*.lua; authority docs/ncm-online/60_ASTRONOMICAL_SUBSTRATE.md and 61_EXPERIMENTAL_PROPULSION.md.

Not on the public server

These live in the repository but do not run on NCM Online:

Branch	Status	What it is
NCM 3.0 single player (`ncm/host`, `ncm/host_native`)	IN DEVELOPMENT (on hold)	A native host that runs NCM's server resources inside single-player Cyberpunk over SQLite. See The NCM Family.
NCM Talk	PLANNED	Spoken conversation with any NPC, grounded in NCM's real state. Plan only: `docs/ncm-online/62_NCM_TALK.md`.
Snowglobe, Los Santos (FiveM), Assetto Corsa and KSA bridges	HISTORICAL	Development-server experiments in carrying one machine across games. Kept for the record, not shipped.
CITY_MEMORY ledgers and civil engineering	PLANNED	See City Memory.