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wedgekree posted:I was kinda ambivalent on HK Decking, but that was mostly as I was flat out completely abysmal when it came to how you bypassed nodes and security (patrolling IP are -nasty- and hard to avoid) and a Matrix alert is actually dangerous The bright side about being caught by one of the patrolling ICs in HK was that the game switching to turn-based mode made it real easy to slip through the rest of 'em. IIRC they don't follow you past "area" transitions either, so if you weren't at your goal yet you could just use your turn to move on to the next part instead of fighting them and accumulating alarm.
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Jun 8, 2017 09:49
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Kanfy posted:The bright side about being caught by one of the patrolling ICs in HK was that the game switching to turn-based mode made it real easy to slip through the rest of 'em. IIRC they don't follow you past "area" transitions either, so if you weren't at your goal yet you could just use your turn to move on to the next part instead of fighting them and accumulating alarm. Oh, yeah. I was just really bad at it was all. And alarms going off made things nasty enogh couldn't just brute force your way through the system!
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Jun 8, 2017 10:16
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Kanfy posted:The bright side about being caught by one of the patrolling ICs in HK was that the game switching to turn-based mode made it real easy to slip through the rest of 'em. IIRC they don't follow you past "area" transitions either, so if you weren't at your goal yet you could just use your turn to move on to the next part instead of fighting them and accumulating alarm. I just wish you could go to turn based mode immediately instead of realtime, since I was rear end at avoiding patrolling ICs as well, even though it theoretically would be easier to do so in the latter. Usually wind up getting caught and having to either quickly kill off the patrollers before my alert went too high or just book it best I could. Also, the Matrix always was one of weakest parts of both these games and the tabletop, but of course it has to included in the latter because it's a required cyberpunk trope and people would bitch if it wasn't in the games. Just wish the rules regarding doing decking stuff in tabletop weren't so convoluted and terribly designed and laid out. I think there was a problem with my install of Hong Kong, because in the revamped Matrix, none of my avatars would make any kind of running animation when moving like they were supposed to, instead just floating a little above the ground in mid stride. Dunno if that was a glitch or just weird some graphical fuckup on my substandard off the shelf laptop I had the game on. I think it happened to me in Dragonfall too, but I forget.
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Jun 9, 2017 02:36
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GhostStalker posted:I think there was a problem with my install of Hong Kong, because in the revamped Matrix, none of my avatars would make any kind of running animation when moving like they were supposed to, instead just floating a little above the ground in mid stride. Dunno if that was a glitch or just weird some graphical fuckup on my substandard off the shelf laptop I had the game on. I think it happened to me in Dragonfall too, but I forget. I could be wrong, but I believe that was an intentional design choice.
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Jun 9, 2017 03:15
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I dont know posted:I could be wrong, but I believe that was an intentional design choice. I wasn't sure, because I could've sworn that avatars in the Matrix were supposed to run like normal from what I remember of seeing Hong Kong videos online, the Giant Bomb Quick Look of the game to be specific, though I may be misremembering the small Matrix bit in that video.
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Jun 9, 2017 03:46
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[quote="GhostStalker" post="473197820"]I just wish you could go to turn based mode immediately instead of realtime, since I was rear end at avoiding patrolling ICs as well, even though it theoretically would be easier to do so in the latter. Usually wind up getting caught and having to either quickly kill off the patrollers before my alert went too high or just book it best I could.[quote] And was I just being dumb or was there no way to use your abilities (like healing and reducing alarm) without going into turn-based? Also, those gate things with the puzzle mingame thing? I have no idea what you were supposed to do with those, I always ended up just shooting my way through them when using the matrix was unavoidable. I feel like I'm missing some fundamental information about how the matrix stuff works whenever I play these games.
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Jun 9, 2017 10:07
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Tiggum posted:And was I just being dumb or was there no way to use your abilities (like healing and reducing alarm) without going into turn-based? Also, those gate things with the puzzle mingame thing? I have no idea what you were supposed to do with those, I always ended up just shooting my way through them when using the matrix was unavoidable. I feel like I'm missing some fundamental information about how the matrix stuff works whenever I play these games. Yeah, I'm pretty sure you couldn't use any of those abilities except in turn based mode either. If there was a way to use them from the menu during real time Matrix exploration, I never found it. As for the code things, you just had to match the string with the right symbols in time, with the numberpad thing on the side just for giving you extra time to do so or something like that. I didn't realize numberpad thing was optional and you could just do the symbol decoding straight off the bat if you felt confident in your matching skills. I usually got it right the first time, but that was after doing the numpad thing.
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Jun 10, 2017 06:05
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GhostStalker posted:Yeah, I'm pretty sure you couldn't use any of those abilities except in turn based mode either. If there was a way to use them from the menu during real time Matrix exploration, I never found it. I got really good at the numberpad part of the decking once I started repeating the numbers as they appeared in a kind of song in tune with the beeps and background music. I got a few odd looks from Mrs Trout but once I told her I was breaking ICE she understood.
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Jun 10, 2017 06:57
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The big downside to Hong Kong decking is that it makes esps pretty useless since the goal is avoidance, not confrontation. It's still fun, I just wish it had a proper place for my super hackers super programs.
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Jun 10, 2017 09:05
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FoolyCharged posted:The big downside to Hong Kong decking is that it makes esps pretty useless since the goal is avoidance, not confrontation. It's still fun, I just wish it had a proper place for my super hackers super programs. You need ESPs in some of the later servers, it's almost impossible to get through without having to fight at least some IC.
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Jun 10, 2017 17:36
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wiegieman posted:You need ESPs in some of the later servers, it's almost impossible to get through without having to fight at least some IC. Not good ones. I think I didnt even max the skill with a 6 cap because they almost never saw use and I wanted cool cyber limbs. Never had any problems, you want the extra bodies more than the stats. Then again maybe it was like that in the first two games and I was just wasting points
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Jun 10, 2017 17:51
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No, esp control is a waste of skill points. You just need the extra bodies and actions to overcome the stacked odds.
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Jun 10, 2017 17:55
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Stalk up on Exploders. No skill needed to make those extremely dangerous.
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Jun 11, 2017 07:07
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mauman posted:Stalk up on Exploders. If it's all the same to you I'd rather stalk AWAY from anything named "Exploder."
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Jun 11, 2017 22:00
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Part 15 - Watts on My Mind   Time to get back on track. The plan for today includes hiring some suckers to take bullets for us and potentially meeting Sam's sister.  Before we get two steps into the quiet establishment, Cherry Bomb addresses us and confirms Jessica's presence within the premises.  Thanks, Cherry. No charge, chummer. Why's the bar so empty? We don't get much action in the early afternoon. Just a few salarymen slumming Touristville and hoping to talk to "Madam Sinful" and some die-hard regulars.As a side note, "salaryman" is another term derived from Japanese and in the real world generally refers to white-collar Japanese men who work long days at some given corporation or government office, often for their entire lives. It's kind of a depressing concept in its own way and while some of the Japanese stuff in Shadowrun feels a little shoehorned in, this one fits the setting pretty well. Madam Sinful? That's what the Downtown folks call Mrs. Kubota. It's a Touristville thing - they like her to have a naughty name like that."Madam Sinful" is the only name she ever gets called in the Anthology stories which expand on the backgrounds of certain characters. The Seamstresses Union's status as brothel was far more explicit there than in the game's final version, so the moniker also made a bit more sense there. Is that guy still bothering you? You mean my ex? Shane? Yeah. No, he hasn't been in since that last time. No calls or pages or handwritten notes either. Weird - he was so persistent. I guess he finally got the message. Maybe he'll find someone at that Universal Brotherhood of his and settle down.We meet enough weirdos on a daily basis already, I'm all for having one fewer to deal with. So, who's around? I just got in but I think Coyote's cleaning the back bar. Mr. Delilah is hanging out in his usual place. The vendors downstairs came in a few minutes after me. Oh, and Bartlett's here. Don't think you've met him yet. Who's Bartlett? Jon Bartlett. Big presence at the end of the bar. He's in the biz. Connected. You might want to meet him. Alright, I'm gonna have a look around. Have fun. Since he's standing right here, we might as well start today's question tour from this Bartlett fellow.  The way this artist draws lips throws me off a bit, they often end long before reaching the sides of the character's mouth. Amazon has it too, but with this guy it's especially obvious. And now that I've mentioned it, you can't unsee it either! What's it to you? I got something that might rock your world. If you got time.That better not be some terrible attempt at a pick-up line. Time is money. I'm listening. You ever heard of the Nephilim Network? Of course you have. An in-the-know lady like you has to have heard of *the* premier merc team out there. If you say so. We're a tight unit. We cost a bit more than the common rabble but we're worth it.Debatable, but we'll get to that soon enough. Outside of his advertising, Jon has nothing of relevance to tell us.  Van Graas is our next stop since we picked up a little something he'll probably be interested in.  Data from the NTSB. Renraku would pay to keep it quiet, and Ares would pay to know what it is.In case you've forgotten, this is the plane crash data we swiped from the dead guy's computer during our visit to the NTSB.  I've got 800 nuyen for something like that.We have the opportunity to make use of our Shadowrunner etiquette here, and so we do. I know you'll double dip on this one. Make it 1,000. As long as you keep bringing in stuff like this, sure.Doesn't exactly make an earth-shattering difference but hey, every little bit counts.  With our metaphorical purse metaphorically fattened once again, we move on. This lady has a main quest objective on her head, so it's not hard to guess her identity. Get comfortable, we'll be here for a little while.  Ms. Watts? Jessica Watts?[She eyes you up and down warily. She does a good job of hiding it, but it is clear that she is well outside her comfort zone.]  Yes? And you are? Name's Amazon. I used to work with your brother, Sam. I should have guessed. How's that? You look like the type. Seedy.This again? Please, we're obviously just a normal tourist. We got socks in our sandals and everything! [She seems to instantly regret saying it.] I'm sorry. Look, I just want to understand what's going on here. A woman who called herself "Coyote" contacted me this morning to inform me that my brother was dead, and that I should come to this place and speak to someone about an "investigation". That's right. And I'm hoping you can help me get to the bottom of this. I don't know what use I'll be. Just answer a few questions is all. All right, but...[She then furrows her brow, regarding you more critically.] You're not with the police, are you? I'm getting that a lot lately. But no. I don't think the "proper channels" handle anything especially fast unless you're willing to lubricate the gears of justice with some ¥¥¥-brand oil. Surely, there is an official police investigation going on. Why not let the professionals handle this? Lone Star? Professional? Not the ones I've seen. But you must have better things to do than waste your time searching for whoever killed my lowlife brother.I resent both of these ludicrous-yet-recurring notions of us looking like some kind of a shady lowlife and we supposedly having something better to do. With this kind of payday, there's few things I'd rather be doing. [She seems genuinely surprised.] Someone's paying you? I find it hard to believe that anyone who really knew Sam would put up the money. Who is it?We could just tell her, but... I'm afraid that's on a need-to-know basis. This is ridiculous. He was my brother. And you seem real shaken up by his death. Fine. I'll pay you a hundred just to tell me. Done. Sam Watts....that'd be like throwing away free money. Refusing to tell her the name isn't an available option, so I guess Amazon is just as easily bribed as the rest of 'em. I don't understand. He set it all up before his death, as a contingency. [Jessica composes herself, and in a breath, the mask is back in place.] Listen to me, Amazon. You seem like a decent person. But I'm trying to move on with my life. Our mother killed herself last year and Sam... Well, Sam was Sam. You know? I've worked so hard to put my family issues behind me. I don't want to see this drag on. You're not asking me to quit, are you? No. I don't know. Maybe.For someone who doesn't want this to drag on, you sure love making this needlessly difficult. But it's not like we're doing this out of love for Sam, so there's one obvious win-win solution available. Sam's paying a hundred thousand. Can you beat it? So just like everything else with Sam, he finds a way to use people, whether he's alive or dead. No, I don't have that kind of money.Let's not pretend that was ever going to work, but it's the thought that counts. [She sighs. She's done.] Nevermind. I can see that you are not going to let this go and I respect that you are honoring my brother's memory - in your own way. But I hope you understand how emotional this is for me.We've had a couple dozen people of various levels of crazy try to murder us over the course of this mess already, I'm sure you can bear the emotional strain of five minutes of harmless questioning.  Finally! We have a veritable wall of topics we can ask about, though funnily enough they're all completely optional despite us questioning her being the whole point of this meeting from the start.  Where were you on the night of Sam's murder? I will overlook the implied accusation and tell you that I was at a fundraiser all evening. A very crowded fundraiser.A fundraiser for... murder, perhaps? Did Sam have any enemies? Sam's biggest enemy was Sam. I don't know any others. You would likely know better than me these days. When was the last time you saw or spoke to Sam? It's been ages. I can't even remember. There was a note on Sam's body. Sounded like an apology. An offer to meet up and bury the hatchet. It was signed "Jessica". I wrote many such notes, in the beginning. But I haven't made such an effort in a long time now. I don't know why he would have kept it.I guess that's plausible, there was no date on the note so we don't know when it was sent or received. The tone was decidedly different from the way she talks about Sam now, as well. Were you and your brother close? I think I've made my feelings about Sam pretty clear, don't you? You don't seem to care whether his killer faces justice. Of course I want justice. I just can't let him drag me down again.This is going nowhere fast, so let's go for the guilt trip method by showing her the childhood picture of her and Sam we found.  Sam's bunk. I can't believe he kept this... It was one of the few possessions he had.[She studies the old photo for several silent moments.] What happened between the two of you? Things were different back then. We were different. We were a family. [Jessica then steels herself to tell the rest.] Sam tried to be "the man of the house". He truly did. But he couldn't handle it, and pretty soon he had spent every dime of our father's life insurance. Every dime. After that was gone - with Mom working two, three jobs - he spent all her money, too. I couldn't stand the way he abused her trust... so finally, I just had to leave.I don't think anyone has had anything good to say about Sam outside of Coyote's "he was pretty cool when he was sober which was about never". I can certainly see how one's reserves of sibling love could easily run dry with a guy like that.  We could refuse, but let's not be jerks for no good reason. Sure, I got what I needed from it. Thank you. Where were you living before you moved back here? CalFree.I know that's short for "California Free State" but it could just as well be the brand name of some cheap weight loss product. What brought you down there? It was less of what brought me there than what made me leave here. I felt lost in Seattle, so I moved to California to see if I could find myself. And did you? Actually, yes. While I was there, I developed a whole new outlook on life. A vision for what the world could become, and I came back here to help make it happen.Great, maybe you can go exchange notes on the subject with the local brotherhood clowns we got hanging around in these parts, if you're not with them already. Tell me about your mother and her death. She was a devout Catholic. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that she sacrificed her life for Sam and me. But she turned a blind eye to what Sam was becoming, refused to acknowledge his downward slide. I couldn't watch her do it anymore so I moved out. After I left, we drifted farther and farther apart. I wasn't here when she died, in fact I didn't even know about it until I returned to Seattle five months ago.That's all we got. I don't know how much of this has been of practical use, but at least we've another suspect and a better idea about Sam's family circumstances. I've taken up enough of your time. Thank you, Ms. Watts. Just as well. I need to get back to the office. Why not, maybe someone relevant we haven't met yet will be attending too. Wouldn't miss it. Goodbye, Amazon. I hope you find what you're looking for. Stay safe.Phew. We get 2 Karma for our conversational efforts.  Coyote, Kluwe and Mr. Delilah are hanging out in the back, but let's take a quick trip downstairs first.   The vendors here don't actually have anything new to sell, but a few of them have some new dialogue. We'll start with the good doctor.  Just a pit-stop, doc. Night's not over yet. I suppose it's nights like this that ensure I have plenty of work come morning. Granted, a repeat customer means a person courting death more often than any good doctor should condone. But I don't suppose I can dissuade you from your course of action? If only life was so simple. Very well. Then let's talk about how I can help ensure you make it back alive once more.Slowly getting to know the people in your base of operations as the story progresses is a tradition in these games. Actually doing so is almost always optional, but we're going for the complete package in this LP so sit tight. How'd you fall in with this operation anyway, doc? But the reality is that I grew up knowing this is what I would do with my life. My parents were both shadowrunners, and very successful ones at that. So successful that they retired in a very large house and raised a litter of kids who grew up hearing the impossible tales of their parents' younger years. Of course, we were expressly forbidden to follow in their footsteps. We were all expected to attend university and take full advantage of the opportunities they had fought so hard to give us. So I suppose you could say I was born into this life, after a fashion.Well that was much longer and less interesting than I had hoped, so let's just move on. Neither Fry or Mersmann have anything new to say, so Gruberman is up next.  Tell me a little about yourself, Buster. Were you military? After a fashion, yes, ma'am. Sergeant in the 31st California Militia. It's no longer a recognized unit, and there are those who would say we never were. But someone had to stand up to the Tir, and it fell to us. Tir Tairngire?Tir Tairngire is a primarily elven nation which declared independence from the Native American Nations in 2035. It's located on the west coast of North America and run by the High Prince Se'Har Maera Lugh Surehand together with the very fancily named Council of Princes. Their capital is Cara'Sir, more familiarly known to us as the mythical city of "Portland".  California itself was kicked out of the United Canadian and American States in 2036 and as anyone who has played Paradox games could've predicted, they got themselves all kinds of invaded by their neighbours immediately afterwards. We drove them elves all the way back to Yreka. Would have pushed them all the way back to Portland, too, but some ninny down south reached out to the Japanese for aid and got our own version of Normandy for the trouble. Things went to hell in a handbasket from there. Don't much like to talk about those later days... So let's talk about guns instead. Can I get you anything?As mentioned earlier he has nothing new to sell, not that we're big on guns anyway. The magic vendor is the last remaining person down here with something new to say.  Tell me a bit about yourself, Aljernon. My story is not so different from those who have come before. I am but a merchant, though one whose wares are far from mundane.If you love hilariously cryptic mystical elves who seem to know everything and will tell you none of it, Aljernon is definitely your man.  At times I miss the Tir, but as unlikely as it may sound, this new home of mine is far more interesting. Is there anything else I can help you with?Nothing whatsoever, and so it's back upstairs with us. Still hanging in there? Good, we're almost done. Let's see how Coyote's feeling.  How's Gino doing? Good man at shooting people at least, and that's all that really matters to us.  The world looks pretty different for me, now that I've got Gino back. So what happens now? Now I'm gonna finish my shift and get some sleep. I think I'm due some. After that? Probably buy some ammo. I'm running low.Silly Coyote, we all have infinite ammo already. See you around. And don't forget about me if you need some backup of your own.Despite her offer, we can't actually bring her with us on the next mission. She'll be around later on, though. The big man is next.  You, too, Mr. Kluwe. What's the state of the troops? Combat ready. Perhaps more so than usual, tensions are up. Word got around about that latest Ripper killing, and people aren't feeling safe. And when people feel unsafe, they either go to ground or they huddle up.Or surround themselves with killer drones, though I guess that might have the opposite effect on some.  Not that we need numbers here. I got it covered. All I ever needed was one. Later, bud. Later. Was real great chatting with you all, but now we've at last arrived at our final stop.  Yes, Mr. Delilah. I have a need I think you can fill. Of course you do. That's why you came back. Street talk is that you are tracking down the Ripper. What can I do for you, Ripper Tracker? I need to put a crew together. You got scratch or you planning to pay me out of your earnings?He just gets pissy if you choose the latter, which makes me wonder why he even bothered asking in the first place. I can pay the runners upfront. Excellent. We agree on terms. I've got some runners on call if you've got any special requests. Yeah, I'm ready. Let's go see 'em. So, here we are. This is the first mission where we're allowed to bring a group of our choosing into it, hand-picked from a list of available runners. For me personally this is also the one aspect that clearly puts base Returns below Dragonfall and Hong Kong - The lack of a set crew with their own distinct personalities present in the later games means we have to bring these boring and mute nobodies along instead. We have two available categories, "Fixer Contacts" and "Nephilim Network".  "Fixer Contacts" are a set of 12 runners created from the ground up by the developers. The exact pool of available people is randomized and changes between missions, but to my knowledge it'll always include runners of each archetype. Any available extra characters are here as well, in this case we have Shannon who is automatically included in our party for this mission. She doesn't charge anything, at least.  "Nephilim Network" which Bartlett talked about is a set of 15 Kickstarter backer characters which always remain the same. They tend to come with better equipment than the runners in the Fixer Contacts category, but skill-wise they're roughly on par with them depending on who you happen to get. There's a couple of decent guys here but I'm planning on sticking with the non-backer characters, at least for the most part. Regardless of where you grab your people from, they're pretty much universally weaker than the main character.  Keeping Amazon and Shannon company on this second trip to the docks will be the mage Gallowglass and the street samurai Hidden Fancy. I'll go over their stats and gear next time as this update is quite long as it is. See you there. Kanfy fucked around with this message at 12:05 on Dec 6, 2017 |
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Jun 12, 2017 18:21
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I usually ran with as many Nephilim Network runners as the job allowed. The small uptick in price is worth it for the utility they bring. My favorite team was N, my combat mage that focuses on offensive spellcasting, but has some utility spells like Armor and Heal Wound, Kendon, who has enough decking capability to be useful but can also use a gun well enough so he's not pointless when he's not decking, Justin Case, who is the same except for drones instead of decking, and El Duce, who provides more firepower on top. That's four characters with solid offensive output plus utility in decking, rigging and magic, which is everything you need for a solid run. That team served me well throughout the game.
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Jun 12, 2017 19:07
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Putting together your own team is a neat concept, but with limited resources it can kinda feel like an unnecessary drain on your Nuyen. Bizarrely, you can still hire generic runners in Dragonfall and Hong Kong despite having a set team who have decent build, interesting dialogue, and work for free. Building your own crew would work better if the game were more like an Etrian Odyssey type of thing, where the plot takes a backseat to dungeon crawling/running missions.
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Jun 12, 2017 19:09
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For whatever reason, when I hired runners, I always used Winterhawk, because he was a Shadowtalk character and I wanted to believe it was the same dude. Not a bad choice for magical support too.
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Jun 12, 2017 19:12
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Personally I just hired freebies only, because I'm a greedy bastard. whats that? you gave me a ton of cash to hire back up? sure thing! *Shows up later loaded up with guns because reloading is for squares* Got our back up rifles right here!
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Jun 12, 2017 20:07
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I had no idea that tab was there, somehow completely missing it every time I played this game, and did not understand what this "Nephilim Network" that guy mentioned was. Wow.
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Jun 12, 2017 20:16
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Huh. Didn't realize El Duce and Kiluminati were hireable in the base game. Dudes must have really liked Shadowrun.
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Jun 13, 2017 19:16
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The only Nephilim guy I used routinely was the support mage, Falk. He tended to bring the magical end my PC never had, it worked well. Beyond that team selection in this is pretty mediocre, so free runners > *
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Jun 13, 2017 21:29
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Psion posted:The only Nephilim guy I used routinely was the support mage, Falk. He tended to bring the magical end my PC never had, it worked well. Beyond that team selection in this is pretty mediocre, so free runners > * Yeah he was the best for AP warfare. I especially loved having him and Shannon Half-Sky buffing my hitters all the time. Too bad she's only around for a couple runs.
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Jun 14, 2017 00:46
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Aw, no Coyote? I guess she's not really up to this level of game right now.
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Jun 14, 2017 03:22
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Ah yes, the hire-able runners, back when they still mattered Evil Hong Kong not withstanding
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Jun 14, 2017 03:23
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All caught up with this LP, glad I got into the Shadowrun Returns games a long time ago. Beat Dragonfall a while ago as well, and purchased Hong Kong recently. Been having a lot of fun with these games, and each installment got better, running a Decker character was a lot more fun when I learned more on the Matrix stuff when I first started. Hong Kong changed it up some, but I found it interesting in how it was handled, ESP was less useful but since I haven't finished it yet I'd probably get some on later missions.
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Jun 14, 2017 07:57
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Falk is arguably the most useful character of the bunch, he starts with Haste 2 which is very handy to have. James starts with Blindness which is a real strong spell as well, but he's dragged down a bit by having lowered Essence due to his datajack. In fact Falk and Winterhawk are the only casters with full Essence as all but 4 NN recruits have datajacks, mostly for their Smartlink weapons. I'll probably bring Falk or someone along at some point to at least show them off, I'm just not big on using backer characters.Starbridge64 posted:All caught up with this LP, glad I got into the Shadowrun Returns games a long time ago. Beat Dragonfall a while ago as well, and purchased Hong Kong recently. Been having a lot of fun with these games, and each installment got better, running a Decker character was a lot more fun when I learned more on the Matrix stuff when I first started. IIRC ESP uses are refreshed between every Matrix "room" in Hong Kong so they're pretty handy to have as semi-permanent "party members", especially later on when there's more Matrix combat.
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Jun 14, 2017 11:52
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Losing one entire essence and only grabbing a datajack with no other ware is a terribly bad idea for anyone who's got magic. They better be amazing sharpshooters to even hope to make up for that. 
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Jun 14, 2017 13:15
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Or be Jake and have Dog cheating on your behalf.
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Jun 14, 2017 14:39
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Oh, yeah, Falk is good people. I didn't need him on my Very Hard playthroughs thanks to my main character bringing the magic, but he was a fixture of every other one of my playthroughs. Support magic is some good poo poo.
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Jun 14, 2017 17:15
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Kanfy posted:IIRC ESP uses are refreshed between every Matrix "room" in Hong Kong so they're pretty handy to have as semi-permanent "party members", especially later on when there's more Matrix combat. Oh that's good to hear! So far I've been doing well the special deck that's new in Hong Kong, good stats but with less health, has a built in DOT regular attack, along with some nifty 2.0 versions of some of the programs I bought. I'll keep this in mind so I'll have more back up while in the Matrix.
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Jun 15, 2017 00:04
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TheMcD posted:I usually ran with as many Nephilim Network runners as the job allowed. The small uptick in price is worth it for the utility they bring. Huh funny I chose Kendon and El Duce back in the day (Troll Melee Char) and I always wondered if it was a sub-optimal choice; good to learn that maybe it wasn't!
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Jun 15, 2017 07:27
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Starbridge64 posted:So far I've been doing well the special deck I picked that up the last time I ran HK and I was pleasantly surprised. They really did a nice job fleshing out sidegrade options with equipment in HK.
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Jun 16, 2017 19:43
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Woah there's apparently a shadowrun manga that came out in ninety-six!
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Jun 17, 2017 06:35
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I've been somewhat short on spare time lately and Stormblood ate most of what I did have, but now things are looking up again so we'll get back on track soon enough. Apologies for the delay. In the meantime, have some catchy cyberpunk tunes from the Japan-only Shadowrun game. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8qjGWqZRVU
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Jun 26, 2017 11:37
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i had wondered what happened, glad to see this resume
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Jun 27, 2017 03:36
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Part 16 - Warehouse Warfare .jpg)  We're back to the exact same place as on our earlier trip here, on the streets outside the docks. Bigger crew this time though. In case you've forgotten, we're here to chat with some plane crash victims to see if they know anything about the serial killer we're chasing.   A bunch of mercs have locked down the area. I don't think they're here for us, though. My guess is there's something worth a bit of coin in that warehouse. Any chance we can sneak past? Probably not. They've been doing regular patrols around the perimeter, and the front door looks like it's locked.To the surprise of absolutely no one, the reason we could recruit people for this mission wasn't for the extra company and emotional support. In fact, this'll be the most combat-heavy mission yet. Let's take a quick look at our lucky participants.   Shannon is obviously a shaman, and a surprisingly strong one at that. Going purely by numbers she's statistically superior even to Amazon, though with a somewhat less efficient Karma spread.    Unfortunately her talents are somewhat wasted on a set of equipment for which "serviceable" is about the highest praise one can muster. Fichetti Security 500 is the weakest pistol in the game and Manabolt 1 is pretty much the same for magical attacks. Her saving grace is the Haste 1 spell which is very handy due to extra AP being the most powerful combat effect in the game.  She's also carrying a Basic Medkit and a pair of nature elemental fetishes. These are consumable items which allow for the summoning of a spirit without having to find a summoning spot in the environment, such as the puddle Sangoma used to conjure up Typhoon way back when. While their single use nature is a bit of a pain if your player character is a shaman, they're quite nice on companions like Shannon who automatically replenish their supplies between missions.   This particular fetish summons a wooden avian creature with a coked-up expression, humanoid limbs, four wings and a row of faces circling around its back called a Primeval. Probably throws killer parties.   Gallowglass is a mage whose stats are downright depressing compared to Shannon. To be fair most of the left side is of little use to a pure mage but even still, Ms. Half-Sky has more skill points under Charisma alone than this slacker does in total.      What he lacks in the skill department he somewhat makes up for with a basic but versatile set of spells. Powerbolt isn't much of a weapon and Armor 1 is a waste of AP, but a healing spell and an accuracy buff are pretty much all he needs to contribute. Since he seemingly blew his entire budget on his magical selection, he carries no items.   Hidden Fancy is a very solid street samurai who can both take and dish out damage like a champ. She has all the important bases covered and as a nice bonus, enough strength to toss grenades from Seattle to Vancouver.   The AK-97 is the same bottom-tier rifle we've seen plenty of times before, but look at that beauty of a shotgun! The Mossberg CMDT is a monster at this part of the game with +4 damage and twice the ammo capacity compared to the Benelli Raffaello from one tier below it. For reference, no weapon in the entire game deals more than 16 damage per shot with the exception of the three shotguns above the CMDT. Make no mistake, it's this thing that's going to be the star of today's show. She also carries a Basic Medkit and a couple of grenades, whatever.  And in case you were wondering, this is where Amazon is at right now. Drone Combat 6 is where drones really start to shine so we've mostly been working towards that, though we're still 18 Karma away (6 IN -> 6 Drone Control -> 6 Drone Combat). The +1 Intelligence we get from our extremely cool outfit sadly doesn't count for this purpose.  There are no hookers or bums to chat with this time, so we head straight for the busted gate. Seems like they've left a doorman to greet us, how polite.  This guy doesn't look like one of the hired mercenaries. Hey! Are you even listening? Get outta here!Another opportunity to use our Shadowrunner etiquette. Really, guy? They aren't paying you enough. Especially not once Lone Star sends a response team. Frag, I knew she was lying. Told me they jammed all the Lone Star channels. Dammit. I'm out.You're a veritable human lie detector, buddy. If you can't talk your way through him then you'll just have to put bullets through him instead, which is only marginally more troublesome. Very marginally. Had we had it, we could've also used Corporate etiquette here like so: quote:
 Heading inside, we spot a couple of security guards on the ground. Must've slipped and hit their heads pretty bad, wet pavement is no joke.  Oh, right. (Also I adjusted my screenshot settings a bit so all red text should be much more readable from now on. Progress!) .jpg)  Like Shannon said, there's no avoiding this fight as they carry the key we need to get inside the warehouse. We're up against four mercenaries here, though only three are visible. Shannon and Amazon take cover while Gallowglass prepares Hidden Fancy for the bloodbath to come.  Shannon begins with an 8 damage Manabolt at the first merc, and Hidden Fancy teaches him why you always put at least 3 points into Body. She uses her second AP to blast the troll next to him for the same amount of damage, but he lives for now.  In an excellent demonstration of the flight or fight response, the third merc immediately bolts off to the opposite direction while the troll stands his ground. Perhaps due to his shaky hands, he fails to land a single shot.   If this game had modern 3D graphics, this is the moment you'd be able to visibly see all hope flee from the eyes of our enemies.   While running away was definitely the smarter plan, it's also one that only works if you can run faster than the other person.  In a laudable and extremely suicidal gesture, the heretofore unseen mercenary shaman tries to cover the fleeing man's escape with his body and an air spirit which rudely zaps Murphy with lightning.  Standing in the way of a shotgun-wielding gas masked killer orc empowered by magic works out for him exactly as well as you'd expect.  And his noble sacrifice is ultimately in vain anyway as HF puts an end to the remaining mercenary's desperate flight at the pier. Maybe he was hoping to escape with the chopper like Jake back in the day.  And that's that, four people dead in the blink of an eye. Hidden Fancy never even needed to stop to reload because killing everyone only took her 7 shots in total. Good times.  We receive 4 Karma and snatch the warehouse key from the merc's corpse.  Our job's only halfway done, still plenty of blood left to spill tonight.   No rest for the wicked and all that as it's straight into another fight, this time against a team of shadowrunners.  Gallowglass and Shannon spend their initial turn re-boosting Hidden Fancy while Amazon repairs Murphy who got zapped earlier.   Already on it Shannon, please keep up.  Three more runners remain in the room. HF switches to her lame rifle due to the distance but since every shot seems to be a critical hit it's still decently effective.  The man takes cover behind a table and returns fire, but trying to bring HF down with the bottom-tier pistol is an exercise in futility.  Another runner bursts into the room from the door to the right, the machete adept from the bottom left advances and the guy behind the plane does nothing. Maybe he's hoping we haven't noticed him, but you can't escape the all-seeing eye of the isometric view.  The newcomer troll has a very respectable 50 HP so she actually eats quite a few bullets before going down, but in the end all succumb to the shotgun.  Murphy shows off its smoke grenades, though I forgot they deal minor damage upon detonation as well. For as long as the smokescreen persists it applies a flat -15% to all hit chances into, out of and through the smoke for both allies and enemies. Smoke is a bit tricky to use well but it does occasionally come in handy.  A second rifle hit puts the pistol man to the ground for good.  On the next turn Murphy cleans up the adept who almost managed to reach someone and accomplish something, but ultimately failed miserably at both. The other ork remains motionless behind the plane.  And now he'll never have to move away from his spot again. Glad Hidden Fancy and her gun are on our side, that crit was big enough to one-shot Amazon from full health.  We're still not done though, the rest of the group alongside their very angry leader are chilling in the next room.  As a friendly tip from your fellow runners, trying to act all tough and intimidating works a lot better if you can actually hit something.  Yet another adept makes his appearance from the southern room, seemingly gunning for Murphy. Bringing this many people and hiring a mercenary team on top seems like a bit of an overkill for a simple data retrieval job from an old warehouse.  In an uncharacteristically poor showing, Hidden Fancy manages to land nothing but Weak shots on the runner leader, forcing Murphy to finish the job afterwards.   More for the sake of showing it off than for any practical reason, Shannon uses the nearby junk pile to summon Primeval's hosed up trash uncle, Pestilence.  In addition to being able to spit acid and reduce AP with its normal attacks, Pestilence has access to Confusion which is just a hilarious dick move all around.  Murphy takes a hit for the greater good. The shotgun ability to hit adjacent characters from range isn't always a blessing, but it doesn't really matter at this point.  Amazon, who is still standing over at the warehouse entrance two rooms away, uses her drone duo to finally put a proper end to this lengthy battle. .jpg)  Shannon turns into a primary objective marker and runs off into the back room.   But first we loot the leader's corpse, completing the optional objective of finding out what the runners were after and netting us some extra paydata.  Time to do what we came here to do, and no extra hoops to jump through this time either. Let's have a chat with some dead people!  Dead children as it turns out.  We are the innocents who have perished in the flames... choking on smoke... as we fell from the sky, crying for our mothers. You bring anchors to your world... which was once home to us... and we will use them to testify.Geez. Well at least they seem cooperative, so we show the spirit one of the items we picked up during our last visit. We no longer see the world of flesh, Seeker. Only the essence and auras of living things. Words, though... words may echo through the veil, and sometimes... sometimes we may hear them. Great, there's some super evil spirit messing up corpses for some reason. Not exactly our area of expertise, but hopefully our tried and true tactic of shooting it with robots will work should we ever cross paths. Let's show them another one of the items.   So we're looking for an evil elf wizard and a dumb cybered up troll, the latter of whom we've heard of before. I guess that narrows it down a bit, though you're just as likely to bump into three of each in the bus on your way to work. The elf... his essence remains in this place. Where the man died. Something has been left behind. A small part of him, perhaps.Better not be something gross. This information is all we need to move on, but we did pick up two additional items we can show the spirit. The third one gives you a hilariously spoilery flashback which directly gives away the perpetrator's identity and indirectly reveals another major aspect of the killings, so for the sake of keeping you in suspense for a tiny bit longer I'm going to skip directly to the fourth item.  Well, glad we could brighten up someone's day at least. May I depart, Seeker? I wish the rest I have long waited for. Yes. Go now and rest, spirit. Thank you.And with that, they vanish. You could try and tell the spirit to stay, but it doesn't take it well and disappears afterwards anyway. No sense in angering any more ghosts than we absolutely need to.  You all right?[She takes a series of controlled breaths, only shuddering with the first few.] No, but I will be. I... I don't want that for him. Not what those poor souls have endured. My brother deserves to be free. He will be, once we find his killer.That's how it works, right? It's not like we've ever met the guy or know a single thing about spirits for that matter. Yes. The elf and the troll. We have to find that piece of the elf the spirits spoke of. It's our best hope of stopping this. We backtrack to where the corpse had been earlier to see what we can find.  Killing people from a distance simply by using someone's blood? Pff, as if, nobody'd ever try something that crazy. Also, +8 Karma  Can you track him with that? I can, given enough time. But I'm still feeling quite drained, I'll need to rest before I can try anything so involved. When I'm able, I'll commune with Bear, consult the spirits, and do what must be done. But in the meantime, you might take some portion of the sample to pursue a more... conventional avenue of attack. I have some friends who might be able to help. Good. Let me know if you learn anything about this elf and troll pair. Glad to have such motivated workers under our wing. I'll see what I can do. Time to get out of this haunted place and let Lone Star clean up the dozen or so corpses we left behind. I'm sure they're used to it. Kanfy fucked around with this message at 12:04 on Dec 6, 2017 |
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Jun 30, 2017 18:57
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I love that the team of Runners you just iced were apparently completely incidental to what was actually going on.
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Jun 30, 2017 20:00
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Running into another team of runners is usually a bad thing, even if you're on completely different targets. It's just that this time we were the assholes that show up wanting to steal your target. Well, not necessarily wanting, but hey, nuyen is nuyen.
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Jun 30, 2017 20:13
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| # ? May 18, 2024 02:41 |
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Hidden Fancy is a quite excellent name
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Jun 30, 2017 22:40
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