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SIGSEGV posted:A thing that has always bugged me in shadowrun is how every runner team has at least a mage of some sort along for the ride despite the awakened being supposedly pretty rare.
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Sep 1, 2017 14:57
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Especially in a screenshot LP considerations like combat difficulty or effectiveness basically don't come over to the reader in my experience. If you've played the game, you already have your own feel for the difficulty based on your skill, and if you haven't it's without context. So whatever makes your life easier, or makes a cooler looking project.
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Sep 1, 2017 15:37
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Poil posted:There are so many people that even a 0.1% of the population is still hundreds of thousands. But yes, it can get silly. Such as a party entirely made up of adepts and mages. Which I have totally never participated in with pen and paper, coughcough. There's a decent argument to be made that you're only hearing stories about the notable crews (and that the players' crews are notable by virtue of the fact that you're all getting together and telling a story about them), so it's not that mages are on every crew, it's that the crews with mages tend to be notable, and the ones you hear about. And of course, a crew made up entirely of magically awakened runners would be an extremely storied group.
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Sep 1, 2017 15:42
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That makes a lot of sense. Of course you can just play a campaign where no one is awakened too. I got invited to a prime prime runner game (kinda like epic level) and the GM said he didn't want any pure mages. Adepts, mystic adepts and aspected mages are fine, he just hates all the problems involved with players being able to use astral projection and said he preferred the specialized version of aspected mages over someone who can do everything. Sounded interesting to see how it will work out.
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Sep 1, 2017 16:32
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Golden Boy is an alright look. It's no Tourist but it's also no Mechanic.
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Sep 1, 2017 19:05
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Kanfy posted:What do you think thread, is absolute power worth so high a price? Well if it's absolute power, yes.
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Sep 2, 2017 01:00
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Psion posted:Well if it's absolute power, yes. Historical fact, when Lord Acton said, "Absolute power corrupts absolutely." He was talking about 4 ap drones.
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Sep 2, 2017 01:17
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 ABSOLUTE POWER!!!!
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Sep 2, 2017 02:07
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Part 24 - Dawn of the Metal Age   The Seamstresses Union is lot noisier than usual, guess the whole Ripper thing really had been hurting business. Kubota and Coyote are hanging out at the front, but only the latter deigns to grace us with their attention.  It's interesting to see the prototype of the crew members with personalities and opinions present in the later games in Coyote (and to a lesser degree Shannon). Going back to Returns after them really hammers home what a big difference it makes to have people with actual character with you.  Seems the Universal Brotherhood is all about Belonging - to a hive or something. And Sam's sister is their leader. If I didn't see it, there is no way I'd believe it. Giant unkillable bugs.  Coyote's personality revolves almost exclusively around taking revenge on people. At least she shoots things real good while at it. Will do. Okay. Later. We have some bad news to break to the busy bartender, so let's just get that out of the way.  Hey, Cherry. Listen, we need to talk about Shane. Shane? What about Shane? It's not good, Cherry. [She looks you in the eye.] Just tell it to me straight, Amazon. I'm a Barrens girl. Shane's dead. I can't tell you anything else right now. It's too dangerous. But I thought you should know. Somehow this whole thing reads a lot more serious than what you'd expect from Shane being a bothersome ex. [She continues processing the information. Then she remembers something.] Oh hey, Johnny Clean asked me to flag you down the minute I saw you. Said he's got someone who wants to talk to you. Sounded a little freaked out about it. He's waiting for you downstairs. Johnny Clean freaked out? Did he say who he was? [The wind is out of her sails.] Uh, I can't remember. He made it sound like royalty. You know someone called The Duke or something like that? The Baron? Jon Bartlett is at the bar as well, but he mostly just advertises the Nephilim Network again for some reason, despite the fact that we're slowly but surely approaching the end of the game already. Screw him.  Now here's somebody more interesting.  Smells like a side mission! In my experience, it's never a milk run.[He grins, exposing a set of unnaturally white teeth.]  Don't worry... this one's as straightforward as they come. The job's a simple extraction. The people I represent are interested in acquiring the talents of a scientist named Saada. Unfortunately, Mr. Saada is currently engaged with Renraku... which means he's engaged for life. That doesn't sit well with the people I represent. They see it as a... subversion of the free market. And you want me to secure Mr. Saada's freedom to work for your people, instead. In other words, "you have to do this mission before continuing the main quest or it's lost forever". The place should be lightly guarded - probably rent-a-cops. Get in, grab Saada, and get out. In exchange, I'm authorized to remit 9,000 nuyen in payment.[He fixes you with a hard stare.] I am not, however, authorized to negotiate.9,000 isn't bad at all, it's more than we've gotten from anywhere else up to this point. And it's not like we have any pressing matters to attend to or anything. I'm in. Let's see the nuyen. We pay on delivery, friend. That's how it always works. He never specified who these mysterious employers are, but that's probably not relevant.  I'd recognize that hat and dorky face anywhere.  Can I uh... trust you? Nobody's more trustworthy than ol' Bobby. Kubota wouldn't let me in the place if I wasn't legit.Bobby now sells Jazz in addition to Nitro and Kamikaze, but he's not of much interest to us. Amazon's more of a techno girl anyway.  Van Graas is enjoying the show in the back room. Kluwe is glued to his spot as usual as well.  How about a list of every politician the Universal Brotherhood has bribed to date? I could certainly find someone interested in that information. Will take some legwork to verify the veracity of such a list though... how about 2,000? This info is about to be worth a lot more in the next few days.Shadowrunner etiquette choice here. Remember etiquettes? They're a thing.  Socialite etiquette works here too, and is actually slightly better than Shadowrunner but it's not a huge difference. I think you get 500 more or something. How's our troll buddy doing?  I've had better days. I heard you made trouble with the Universal Brotherhood. Stirred up a hornet's nest, you might say."Kicked an ant hill" would've worked too. People are starting to say there is some dark drek going down in those chapter houses. Like they're taking advantage of the poor folk who go there looking for help. I gotta say, that makes my blood boil. And I hate to bring race into it, but it's a fact that a good number of people who go to the Brotherhood for help are metas like me. But what options do we have? Do you realize that it would take an act of Congress to grant me full citizenship? And they have yet to do it once. Wars are started more easily than a meta gets a SIN in this country. So it's no wonder we turn to people like the Brotherhood, who claim to listen to our woes, and speak on our behalf.Kluwe seems to be the only character in the game who brings a societal point of view instead of focusing solely on talking about themselves or our latest deeds.  Whatever's going on there, I trust you'll put an end to it, one way or another. You can count on it. Go get 'em, ma'am. That's all there is to do up here, so let's go see what's hot in the underground scene these days.   Mr. Delilah's by the entrance, and as usual he's the one we'll be talking to once we want to put together a team for a run. For now let's start from Castle.  Please, our deliveries are handled by drones these days.  I don't suppose it would do me any good to suggest an early retirement? Or, at the very least, that you might delay whatever is coming long enough for you to get a decent night's sleep and a full meal? I never knew you cared, doc. Who said I do. A good cash cow like you only comes around every so often, and you're no good to me dead. So, fine. Do what you will. Just tell me what I can do to keep you alive that much longer. So what have you heard, doc? Well, let's review. In the past few days, I've lost one patient and nearly lost a second. I've also learned that a man claiming to be a fellow doctor was responsible for the first of those deaths. And now I hear that another supposed force for good has been committing heinous acts on innocent men and women. Quite frankly, it's almost enough to make a woman give up on the whole human race. Whatever happened to Paco anyway, the kid seemed to vanish into thin air after the whole Gino business. Shame too, he could do some real work with that SMG of his. And that's the real reason why you won't hear me argue against your chosen course of action. Because I agree that it must be done. I only hope it can be done without any more innocents coming to harm. If I could make that deal, I would. Then do the next best thing. Put an end to this. I'd like to wake up to a world short one less evil. Now, how can I help make that happen? The doc has upgraded her wares to include the best medkit in the game. Range aside these things are pretty much universally superior to magical healing, unless you take a really massive hit.  She's also carrying what I believe is to be the best cyberware available in the game. We might look into these soon since we might finally have some money to spare and there's no downside to them for non-spellcasters. I wonder what having kevlar bone lacing installed feels like.  Fry has nothing to say, but he does carry something interesting in his selection.  The best cyberdeck in the game, and the future games as well, the Fairlight Excalibur! With 4 AP and six programs this thing is a hilarious overkill, but we don't actually have the skill to use it anyway because we're about to spend our Karma elsewhere. While we'll pass on it at least for now, we do upgrade our level 2 Programs into the newly available level 3 ones. Buster's up next, and while he also has nothing to say, he too has upgraded his wares.  First of all he's now selling the top-tier weapons for every single category. The pricing varies a lot, being a pistol slinger is a lot easier on the wallet than running around with rifles. The best shotgun is surprisingly cheap as well, considering its power.  Second of all the best Drone Repair Kits are available now as well, and they're dirt cheap compared to Expert Medkits. We'll make sure to grab a few of these.  Third of all, Class A drones!  While the Steel Lynx is statistical upgrade compared to Strato-9 (+10 hp, +1 armor, +2 damage plus whatever invisible stat increases they get) it suffers from same low movement of 6 as its predecessor.  It has also added the art of shooting people in the face to its skill arsenal.  True to its name, the Sundowner is actually a bit of a downer. While its armor and damage are slightly higher than the RoboDoc's, it's yet another 6 movement drone which makes it noticeably slower than the doc and which is especially troublesome due to the short range of support mortars. And no, I didn't accidentally switch the drone images around. For some reason the attack drone's model has an obvious mortar while the support drone clearly has a small gun.   Sundowner's saving grace are these babies. Forget about Jazz, Ares Concussion Grenades are the real gamebreaker item of Shadowrun Returns. -3 AP is usually enough to fully stun enemies in a single hit, making them easy targets while also forcing them to skip their next turn. Now normally we'd jump at the chance of buying both of these things, but...  ...it turns out there's something even better available. That's right, A Class and S Class drones become available at the same time, so seeing as we now have access to the absolute best in robotic murder there's no reason to go for the second best.  And believe me, they're not S Class for no reason. With +20 HP, +2 armor, +2 movement and +2 damage alongside other stat boosts compared to the Steel Lynx, the Guardian is an absolute beast and an enormous upgrade in every aspect compared to the already serviceable Strato-9 we're currently using.  The fourth and final attack drone ability is a disarm skill, a variant of the one normally only available to pistol and melee specialists. Target Weapon has about 50% crit chance on average which usually makes it a high-stakes coinflip - a disarmed enemy is practically harmless (assuming it was using a weapon in the first place) but since it costs 2 AP, two normal shots aimed to actually kill the target tends to be the more reliable option.  The Wolfhound boasts equally large upgrades in both offense and defense, and unlike Sundowner retains the RoboDoc's 8 movement.  Remember what I said about Ares Concussion Grenades? I'd hope so since it was about thirty seconds ago. Wolfhound comes with a whopping three of the things and can reliably land them even over longer distances, so while its mortar is still a little lacking in accuracy (if not in damage) it can provide a ton of lockdown even in prolonged fights and missions. Long story short we're buying the hell out of both of these magnificient specimens of botmurdering, and we shall name them Prime and Jade Rabbit.  True to the pattern so far, Mersmann has nothing to say but is now selling all top-tier armor in the game. We're not actually going to get any of these, opting instead for one of the older outfits.  Yeah, we're finally saying a tearful farewell to our trusty tourist look and switching to Golden Boy instead. The reason for this is the +1 Drone Combat it provides, and while The Mechanic also provides the same while also being statistically superior, it's also so ugly that I'm willing to sacrifice the extra armor to avoid having to wear it.  This is the ideal Rigger body. You may not like it, but this is what peak performance looks like.  Let's see if Aljernon has any pearls of wisdom to share with us, being the local spirit expert and all.  I've never really thought about it before, but Aljernon's probably the smuggest-looking elf I've ever seen.  Welcome, Amazon. Is there anything I might provide to make your life easier, or perhaps make another's more difficult? Ever heard of a bug spirit or a bug shaman, Aljernon?[The elf's face curls into a grimace.] I'm sorry. I find the very thought repugnant. You must understand, a shaman does not follow the literal incarnation of his totem. One who pledges himself to Cat does not drink milk from a saucer or claw the drapes. Instead, a shaman follows the ideals of his totem. Dog is less a canine and more a symbol of loyalty. Coyote is less a scavenger and more a trickster. Maybe they're big on building communities and working together? Please, let us speak of more pleasant things. Perhaps, commerce? Spells remain useless for us, but here's a look at some of the best. The absurdly powerful Haste 4 eventually got a fairly high Quickness requirement to make it harder for most shamans to access. Mage lockdown spells like Confusion and Petrify here are also incredibly good and a big reason why the archetype remains arguably the most useful game after game.  We've run out of shops, so it's time to get things moving along again.  Yep, that's me. The friendly type. [He frowns.] Apparently so. You seem to have made a new friend in the Matrix at least, calls himself Baron Samedi. He's been asking about you on Shadowlands. Has a pretty distinctive icon - skull face with a top hat. I can't tell what he wants... but the guy seems pretty serious. I wouldn't ignore this if I were you, as you well know Deckers have a way of making people's lives miserable if they're so inclined. This Baron character - what do you know about him? "Janitor" sounds like the lamest Persona. Samedi, like the voodoo spirit? Yeah, that's the one. He sits at the crossroads of the living and the dead. Think that has any significance? I've been around a long time and I've seen a lot of avatars running around the 'trix. A lot of 'em. You ask me, it's just some guy trying to look scary to make a name for himself. Think of it as "personal branding". How long has he been looking for me? He's been spamming Shadowlands for the last hour, I'd say. He's new on the scene but everyone's talking about him - even the hottest deckers like Dodger are saying he's a force to be reckoned with.Nothing says you're a bona fide internet badass like spamming message boards. Guess he's not the patient type. Something I should know? Could be. I'll tell you after I talk to him. Incidentally, know anything about giant, magic, indestructible bugs?Maybe his janitor equipment includes some insecticide we could borrow. Is that a joke? No. I saw one underneath the Universal Brotherhood an hour ago. Bigger than a troll. What do you mean, "indestructible?" As in, I couldn't kill it. Will do. But that's enough talk, I need to chat with the Baron. Okay, you can use my secure jackpoint. I've already set up a portal to Shadowlands, so feel free to jack in whenever you're ready..jpg)  Luckily we don't need to go through a Matrix dungeon or anything as our new pal addresses us the moment we enter.  So, what do you want? Samedi wishes to thank you for saving Marie-Louise from the Universal Brotherhood. The girl is quite... precious. If harm were to come to her, he does not know what he would do. I don't know, that sounds more like a job for the QA department. I think I'm getting into a lot more than I bargained for... Now, now. Listen. Hear Samedi. Unfortunately this manufacturing plant in the Columbia Valley was recently... blown up. It could have been corporate espionage or it could have been something else. This is unknown. What is known is that a large sample of the formula survived. And what does this have to do with Jessica and the Universal Brotherhood? We want Aegis because it kills bugs. Big ones. Like the ones you met at the Universal Brotherhood. If you want to go back there and bring the Watts woman to justice, you'll need Aegis.So we need this Aegis to make the final push and end the game, huh? And here I thought my Dota days were behind me.  Convenient. Good thing they didn't manufacture this stuff in Japan or something. You want me to break into one of the most influential corps in the Pacific Northwest? You've got to be joking. Would that I were, but it is the only way. It is the only place to get what we need. But take heart! You will have Samedi with you! And he is clever in the ways of the Matrix. We cannot lose. So. Will you do this thing? Will you ally with Baron Samedi? I have some questions first. First of all, why not just let Telestrian take care of it? Sounds like they're already halfway there. Telestrian! Do not talk to me of Telestrian. He is an executive. A businessman. Do you know what his reaction was when he learned of the insect threat? He called a meeting! He and his associates will be debating action forever. Then why not just tell Lone Star and let them take care of the Brotherhood?Besides the fact that they probably couldn't find the address. The Universal Brotherhood has connections - high level connections in the government and in Lone Star. And their message resonates with those who need something to believe in. We have no proof and we have no time. We must act. And how do you know all of this about Aegis? Because Samedi has personal connections into James Telestrian's affairs. You see? He knows! Personal connections? I want to know more about you, who are you really? Right. By the way, you never explained how you and Marie-Louise know each other either. Oui, that is true. And it is for her to say, not Samedi. He has nothing to lose, while she... You must ask her. I'm done asking questions. And you are convinced?There are actually 6 different answers we can give here. Four of them are variations of "I'll do it" (Because Jessica has to pay / because we have a job to do / because we have nowhere else to go so might as well / because if someone's gotta save the world might as well be us). The other two are more tentative and there's a little more to them. I don't know, Baron. Helping a friend is one thing, but this isn't what I signed up for. There are giant insects nesting beneath Seattle. They cannot be killed. Do you know what insects do? Better than anything? They multiply. And they consume. Now that's sounding more like it. But I don't know, breaking into such a high-profile place is a pretty huge risk. Make it an even hundred. Sacre bleu! Fine. Seventy-five. Done. And they say crime doesn't pay.What if we had refused again though? quote:
Yeah, it's a linear game so of course you can't actually choose not to proceed with the mission. But at least the game provides a justification for it rather than just solely limiting your choices to variations of "I'll do it".  We have 8,000 nuyen added to our account here. You get this money whether you asked for payment or not, and it'll simply get added without explanation if you didn't. Samedi will be part of this evening's events, but must remain remote. He will keep all of Seattle law enforcement and off-duty Telestrian Security away, while you locate the information we need from inside. And what about the on-duty Telestrian Security? The ones that will shoot me as soon as I step past the lobby. His business finished, Samedi disappears and we return back to reality.  I'm not entirely sure whether the "second decker" is referring to Samedi or if it's because we have points in Decking. That means you, right? [He sighs.] No... I'm not an inside-man anymore, my running days are over. But there's an elf who owes me a favor, goes by "Dodger" - you may have heard of him. He's one of the best deckers in Seattle - and this is *me* saying it. I'll get you his contact information. You'll know him by the way he talks, like he's in a drat Charles Dickens novel.Dodger is actually an established Shadowrun character and featured in the "Find Your Own Truth" book trilogy. Here he's just as mute as every other random hireling, making the way he talks completely irrelevant. And he's not particularly outstanding as a decker either. Disappointing all around. Our talk with the Baron rewarded us with 4 Karma. This is quite significant for one simple reason:  It allows us to reach Drone Combat 8. As a reminder, Drone Combat 9 is where drones get a second bonus AP which brings them up to 4 AP per turn. Now normally going from Drone Combat 8 to 9 would require going through Intelligence 9 and Drone Control 9 first, but...  Because we switched outfits to Golden Boy which provides a direct +1 to Drone Combat, we bypass all of that and now have our Drone Combat maxed! We've gone from B-Class drones with 3 AP to S-Class drones with 4 AP in a single update, and while Amazon was already no slouch before, her power level has now skyrocketed. Seriously, it cannot be overstated how immensely powerful a drone-user with Drone Combat 9 is. With nine AP's worth of actions every turn we now have a small army's worth of firepower at our disposal.  Time to get to work. We're going to do the Renraku job before moving on with the main plot, obviously.  Even this late there are a few faces we haven't seen before amongst the hirelings. Coyote is also available but she's wisened up, now merely asking for half the normal price instead of coming along for free.  Something curious is going on in the Nephlim Network side though. For some reason all the prices there have now been set to either 3,000 or 1,000 nuyen. I have no idea why this is or what the logic behind the pricing is for that matter. For example Tom here who has always been cheaper than all the rest due to only being able to punch things now costs 3,000 while many stronger characters like Alexander Falk only cost 1,000. Of course none of this really matters.  After all, why would we spend thousands of our precious nuyen on some fleshy mortals when we already have the most reliable team one could ask for?  Last time we went up against Renraku security way back when, we were droneless and helpless. This time, it's going to be different. This time, we're going to be er... droneful and... helpful? Well, whatever. The results are sure to speak for themselves anyway. Kanfy fucked around with this message at 12:08 on Dec 6, 2017 |
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Sep 8, 2017 15:43
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Kanfy posted:Part 23 - Dawn of the Metal Age 
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Sep 8, 2017 17:00
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Kanfy posted:
Or rather, THE side mission. That's my biggest problem with this game: it's called "Shadowrun" but any actual running is limited to THIS mission (and I GUESS the Telestrian mission). Everything else is just a rather standard whodunnit plot that segues into a "saving the world" plot. I don't think this is a bad game but, and you must be tired of hearing this already, Dragonfall is VASTLY superior in nearly every way. You have an actual crew of regulars with personalities AND the game has a pretty good excuse as to why you need to run around being a freelance criminal while the fate of the world potentially hangs in the balance. In this game you just have a bunch of ciphers going on a fairly standard adventure and all of a sudden the game goes "Oh yeah, we have to put at least ONE actual run in this game". Edit: Just noticed the meaning of Tsilon Siereht's name. Heh. AceOfFlames fucked around with this message at 17:14 on Sep 8, 2017 |
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Sep 8, 2017 17:03
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AceOfFlames posted:Edit: Just noticed the meaning of Tsilon Siereht's name. Heh. ... Oh, goddamn it.  And also in "goddamn it" news: I could've gotten 75K nuyen for the AEGIS thing? Geez, I'm... not really a good shadowrunner at all, am I? (I never even explored those latter two options, because I know a little bit of Shadowruns backstory, and.... well, as has been discussed, insect spirits are not nice, y'all. Not. Nice.) But I am eager to see a decker do a mission in all of their glory. Wow... decking is cool. (As these games have it.)
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Sep 8, 2017 17:30
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yeah, upcoming are the two actual shadowruns in the game "shadowrun returns" the Telestrian one is actually pretty good, this one's distinctly mediocre
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Sep 8, 2017 17:33
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resurgam40 posted:... Oh, goddamn it. I sort of assumed, with sums that high, that the AEGIS mission is the last one and the payout is purely for flavor. (No need to spoil one way or another.)
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Sep 8, 2017 17:36
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resurgam40 posted:... Oh, goddamn it. I've discovered a fair amount of dialogue stuff I didn't know about in the course of this LP as well. Going through each individual dialogue choice, screenshotting them all and then choosing what to include in the LP itself is actually one of the more time-consuming parts of this whole thing but it's neat to find new stuff. Of course I can always look at the convo files themselves but that's also a bit of a pain due to the way they're arranged and structured. Looking at one I did by chance notice that the Baron apparently warns you that you have to bring a decker if you aren't one, and more humorously that you have to bring a BETTER decker if you have the skill but suck at it. Incidentally, going purely by file size (which isn't necessarily 100% accurate) the Baron conversation contains the largest amount of text out of any single conversation/interaction in the game, followed by the initial Jessica meeting and then Father Willy. I doubt it'd reach even top 50 in Dragonfall or Hong Kong, which is one reason I still haven't made up my mind on whether to try and tackle one of those monsters once this is done. Kanfy fucked around with this message at 20:02 on Sep 8, 2017 |
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Sep 8, 2017 19:57
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Kanfy posted:I've discovered a fair amount of dialogue stuff I didn't know about in the course of this LP as well. Going through each individual dialogue choice, screenshotting them all and then choosing what to include in the LP itself is actually one of the more time-consuming parts of this whole thing but it's neat to find new stuff. Of course I can always look at the convo files themselves but that's also a bit of a pain due to the way they're arranged and structured. Firstly, thank you for another enjoyable update. Secondly, I wanted to point out a potential typo: quote:Please, our delivers are handled by drones these days.
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Sep 8, 2017 21:25
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JustJeff88 posted:Firstly, thank you for another enjoyable update. Secondly, I wanted to point out a potential typo: Fixed the typo, thanks. I try to keep an eye out but something's bound to slip through every now and then I guess. And I kind of struggled with this update which is why it took pretty long, so it's good to hear you enjoyed it.
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Sep 8, 2017 21:45
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I can see how they wanted to get the tactical angle of things down for the first campaign, and one of the things I really liked about, say, the Genesis game, was that you could do shadowruns whenever you wanted.
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Sep 9, 2017 00:46
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New update, sweet!  As for the potential of a Dragonfall/Hong Kong lp in the future, I for one would not mind if you skipped exploring literally every single dialogue option. It's obviously a ton of work, and while there's occasionally neat flavour, there's been at least as many instances thus far of "all these options just lead to the same answer". I am really enjoying this lp, and would love to see more. Better cut a corner or two than burn out, or being too daunted to start the sequels at all.
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Sep 9, 2017 08:59
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Groetgaffel posted:As for the potential of a Dragonfall/Hong Kong lp in the future, I for one would not mind if you skipped exploring literally every single dialogue option.
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Sep 9, 2017 09:07
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Thirded. Even just a single run-through, playing to the personality of whatever character we choose, is good enough for those games. Wanna see more? Play it yourself, it's worth it.
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Sep 9, 2017 09:32
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Hey, I'm thorough, not crazy.  Don't get me wrong though, I enjoy going through and seeing all the various dialogue stuff because I'm curious about them myself, I don't force myself to do it out of some neurotic sense of perfectionism or anything. I'm not including everything in the LP either because really, who cares about the boring backstory of a character as irrelevant as Jon Bartlett for example.Still, the fact is that DF and HK are in a whole different size category compared to this game so even with heavier trimming to avoid entire updates being dedicated to listening to the latest woes of the Ka Fai family, LPs of those will inevitably end up much bigger than this. Even ignoring dialogue, roughly 100% of the images in this LP are cropped/resized pretty much out of necessity and while much of that can be automated (shoutout to IrfanView), it's still a fairly big timesink on its own in the long run. Anyway, I guess my point is that if I'm going to do one of the later games then I want to be sure I can also see it all the way to the end. The last thing I want is to get two-thirds through DF or whatever and then end up dropping it due to running out of steam, that feels bad for everyone involved. I'd also want to make it the best drat LP that I can, so if people do feel like I'm including too much story-irrelevant dialogue for example, I'll definitely take it (and all other feedback) into consideration for the future.
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Sep 9, 2017 10:53
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Kanfy posted:I've discovered a fair amount of dialogue stuff I didn't know about in the course of this LP as well. Going through each individual dialogue choice, screenshotting them all and then choosing what to include in the LP itself is actually one of the more time-consuming parts of this whole thing but it's neat to find new stuff. Of course I can always look at the convo files themselves but that's also a bit of a pain due to the way they're arranged and structured. ... Also, what everyone else said.
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Sep 9, 2017 20:16
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Kanfy posted:I'd also want to make it the best drat LP that I can, so if people do feel like I'm including too much story-irrelevant dialogue for example, I'll definitely take it (and all other feedback) into consideration for the future. For what it's worth, I'm enjoying the extra dialog. Just so long as it's not too much a burden on you.
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Sep 11, 2017 17:05
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Yeah, I think you're hitting the right balance. Manually editing screenshots for muzzle flashes is a step above and beyond what I would've thought to do but it does make for a better end product! e: DFDC would be reasonable to do but I'm replaying HK and I don't know how it'd be LPed without burning someone out. They felt confident in their game and their tools and took a lot of time exploring a lot of ideas and concepts with their characters, and holy poo poo does that mean a lot of words. It's still great to play, but LPing would be a thing. Not to mention the reactivity to past events is bumped up so doing those optional alternate-option posts would spiral into madness. I suppose if you played the worst possible leader ever so everything turned into combat you could skip some real big chunks of dialogue? maybe ask an HBS employee when they're not heads-down in Battletech if they've got something to help out Psion fucked around with this message at 19:04 on Sep 11, 2017 |
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Sep 11, 2017 19:00
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There has to be some kind extracted script somewhere out there, or at least a bulk text from picture extractor. Something that can keep you from having to type all the dialogue in the later games out.
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Sep 11, 2017 19:19
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Someone posted this in the Rune Factory 2 thread. The OP might want to give it a shot.
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Sep 11, 2017 19:37
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Psion posted:Yeah, I think you're hitting the right balance. Manually editing screenshots for muzzle flashes is a step above and beyond what I would've thought to do but it does make for a better end product! I think I've said it before but with Hong Kong my primary concern would be reader burnout rather than my own. I enjoy the character writing in HK a whole lot, but even trimmed there'd undoubtedly have to be regular dialogue-only updates which I imagine might get tiring to read through for some. And I wouldn't want to cut so much of it as to fully avoid that from happening either, because dialogue is ultimately the aspect where HK shines the most. And yeah, it's a given that exploring all the alternate options isn't realistic. That said if I were to cover HK (and I guess the same'd work in DF) I would probably have a second playthrough on the side where I'd just cheat my way through combat and pick the opposite choices from the LP playthrough so that I could at least make note of the most interesting and notable differences. Of course none of this is going to be relevant in practice for a long time to come if ever. But it's interesting to think about. wiegieman posted:There has to be some kind extracted script somewhere out there, or at least a bulk text from picture extractor. Something that can keep you from having to type all the dialogue in the later games out. HardDiskD posted:Someone posted this in the Rune Factory 2 thread. The OP might want to give it a shot. I actually kind of enjoy the transcribing, it makes for a nice change of pace from all the image editing and whatnot. I tend to include the biggest dialogue chunks as screenshots anyway, makes them a bit more readable too. Now if someone can point me to a program which can write good commentary in my behalf I'm all ears, because that's easily the most time-consuming part.
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Sep 11, 2017 21:17
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HardDiskD posted:Someone posted this in the Rune Factory 2 thread. The OP might want to give it a shot.
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Sep 12, 2017 03:23
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Kanfy posted:I think I've said it before but with Hong Kong my primary concern would be reader burnout rather than my own. I enjoy the character writing in HK a whole lot, but even trimmed there'd undoubtedly have to be regular dialogue-only updates which I imagine might get tiring to read through for some. And I wouldn't want to cut so much of it as to fully avoid that from happening either, because dialogue is ultimately the aspect where HK shines the most. Great job on the LP, man! Trust me, reader burnout would not be an issue. I mean, you think about the NWN2, or KoTOR2 LPs, those were full of  . And they did do those bonus updates in the Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn LP for bonus conversations.Seems like a lot of work, that's all. Still, I'll be looking forward to you doing Dragonfall at least. I've played through Shadowrun Returns twice now already, inspired by this thread, wanting to try different characters. Game seems more friendly towards samurai or tech characters than magic, I will say that.
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Sep 12, 2017 04:14
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This LP hits all the right fuzzy parts as I never actually finished the game. Can we get an infodrop on Chicago now? I've always wondered about it.
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Sep 12, 2017 22:20
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Deadmeat5150 posted:This LP hits all the right fuzzy parts as I never actually finished the game. Noooot quite yet. We're missing a few more relevant pieces of the puzzle
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Sep 13, 2017 00:11
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I'm introducing some friends to tabletop gaming in a few weeks, and I was bouncing around between D&D4e or Shadowrun, and this LP was something that cemented Shadowrun for me. Shadowrun Anarchy is, in my opinion, a nice compromise between rules light and the minutiae of core Shadowrun. It's gonna be great. I don't recall seeing it said yet, but Mr Kluwe the bouncer is based on Chris Kluwe, former punter for the Minnesota Vikings. Chris is a huge nerd and plays tons of games. He's appeared on Wil Wheaton's YouTube show about games a few times. He played a troll rogue in World of Warcraft and threw money at the SR:R Kickstarter which is why the bouncer is a troll. Also don't think I didn't see the runner for hire lady with short blonde hair, a smug look, and the name "Searsee," Harebrained. 
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Sep 19, 2017 04:20
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Deadmeat5150 posted:Can we get an infodrop on Chicago now? I've always wondered about it. quote:Chicago (/ʃɪˈkɑːɡoʊ/ or /ʃɪˈkɔːɡoʊ/), officially the City of Chicago, is the third-most populous city in the United States. With over 2.7 million residents, it is also the most populous city in both the state of Illinois and the Midwestern United States. It is the county seat of Cook County. The Chicago metropolitan area, often referred to as Chicagoland, has nearly 10 million people and is the third-largest in the U.S. Chicago has also been called a global architecture capital.[6][7] In terms of wealth and economy, Chicago is considered one of the most important business centers in the world.[8]
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Sep 19, 2017 04:42
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Part 25 - A Tale of Drones .jpg)  The Amazon has landed, repeat, the Amazon has landed. As you can probably surmise from the music, or the track name if you're not the listening type, this isn't exactly a diplomatic mission. It's mostly just us, our drones, and a bunch of unfortunate targets who happened to come to work on the wrong day. Those in the know call missions like this "filler".  The guard at the front knows we're bad news right away and immediately runs off to hide behind some boxes.  Fitting enough, since he'll be going home in a box as well. Prime has gotten its first taste of blood, and it's gonna take a lot more bleeding to satisfy the mechanical menace.  A pair of Lone Star security (50 HP Enforcer and 30 HP Guard) run in upon hearing the commotion, not yet realizing what a tragic error they've just made.  1 AP, 2 AP, 3 AP...  4 AP! Prime allows them roughly five and a half seconds of regret before ensuring they'll never get into the habit of repeating their mistakes.  The next room to the southeast is quiet and contains little of interest, but there is an open air duct on the northeast wall. Ducts can only be used by drones, allowing them access to the room(s) on the other side, usually to some benefit. This provides riggers with a unique way to contribute in missions, and while there aren't many of them in this game, Hong Kong in particular has very well-ventilated buildings.  Of course such sneaky methods are for the weak, we can and will just walk (float) through the door. A Lone Star guard, enforcer and heavy gunner are watching the computer room on the other side.  They're actually better prepared than most enemies we've faced as the Enforcer takes a rarely-seen overwatch shot at Prime, though the drone's too dodgy for him even from up close. Unlike in XCOM, overwatch shots require the shooter to be facing towards the general direction of the moving enemy, which is why Jade Rabbit got behind him unmolested.  Prime gives the orc a practical lesson in aiming, free of charge.  Meanwhile the Guard has positioned herself strategically under a lamp so drat bright that it all but completely obscures both hit chances and damage.  Ah, that's better.  As the Heavy Gunner tries to feebly fight back but only manages to make a few holes in the wall, another Enforcer runs into the room. Had we used the air duct from before, we could've ambushed this guy and potentially flanked the rest of the guards here.  But again, such tactics are for those who need to tip the odds in their favor, not for red-hot robotic knives cutting through soft fleshy butter.  Roughly 5 minutes in we're halfway done with the mission with no damage taken so far. Dang robbits taking the jobs of honest hard-working runners.  There's actually some paydata worth 1,500 nuyen in this room, but because of our recent investment in drones we lack the 6 Decking required to get ahold of it. Ah well, that would've stung early on but by this point it's not really significant.  Someone must've ordered anchovies on their pizza.  We got a whole welcoming committee waiting for us here it seems. Note the locked hatch in the back.  We could hack this panel here to activate a turret behind that hatch, but that'd require going through a Matrix section while our drones stood idle and man, all that's just too much unnecessary trouble. As we move a drone in, the mage at the back starts shouting at it.  C'mon, why don't we play nice? We're both just employees here. You walk away and I won't make you dead. I have a fragging HERD of BASILISKS, idiot. You're going to need a lot more guys.Really now That is certainly an interesting assessment of the current situation, but please also consider this counterargument.  Yeah, I figured you'd come around after that one. Prime's pretty good at argumentation.  Hell let's kill you too while we're at it, we got AP. We got AP for days.  This guy seems brighter than most, correctly identifying the threat AND even landing the first hit on a drone today. Good job buddy, now you just need seven more of those. In a row, because our repair kits heal for like 50 or something.  The troll finds some success as well, but realistically the only way these two could actually threaten us is if we headed out for lunch and left our drones floating here for some 45 minutes.  Ah, but here's a wrinkle, because there always is one. The mage might've been an idiot but he wasn't a liar as a trio of basilisks named "Subject 1", "Subject 2" and "Subject 5" make their entrance. Basilisks have a decent amount of HP and the ability to petrify their targets, but as they lack any kind of ranged capabilities they're only dangerous if they can reach melee range.  Fortunately we're equipped with some handy tools to deal with such risks.  Even a Weak hit is enough to knock out the closest basilisk, not to mention the guard who was unfortunate enough to suffer a critical hit. -6 AP! Even if we weren't about to shoot him to death, his grandkids would be adults by the time the poor bastard regained consciousness.  From here on out it's pretty much just a mop-up operation. Which... isn't that different from how the rest of this mission has been going really. Jade Rabbit and Prime work together to take down the troll...  ...then one of the basilisks which was able to waddle next to Prime but didn't have the AP to attack...  ...then the stunned (and stunned-looking) basilisk which was still unable to act because AP damage is overpowered...  ...then the guard who probably had no idea what was even happening...  ...and then finally the third basilisk which managed to reach the exact same spot as the first one, and died the exact same way to the exact same amount of damage as the first one as well. Done and done. .jpg)  Amazon's cyberdeck addiction grows worse by the day, during the fight she invented some sort of levitation technology to make sure she never has to put hers down.  Knock knock.  Are you Saada? What if I say no? Then you'll probably end up like them. Then yes. YES! I'm Saada. Wait, you're from Aztechnology, aren't you? I told them I wasn't interested in working for them!Guess we now know who our mysterious employer is. They've come up briefly before but as a summary; Aztechnology, based in the Central American country of Aztlan, is a corporation that specializes in consumer goods and magic industry. If there ever is some nasty magic stuff happening, especially related to blood and/or human sacrifice, Aztechnology is likely to be involved somehow. Well, whoever sent me is definitely interested in you. This is pattern you see time and time again. You get a task from someone, go do the run, and then at some point during that run you end up having to decide whether to stay loyal to your employer or go for an alternate option. Often the alternate option is the one that's easier for your conscience, making it a choice between doing the job and doing the "right thing". Alternatively you might get lucky and your employer betrays you first, which isn't at all uncommon, saving you the trouble. And what do you want me to do about it? Let me go. Just walk away.Like many things in this game, it's easy to see this mission as a simple prototype to the ones found in Dragonfall and Hong Kong, which are both structured almost entirely around doing runs for various employers which then have some twist which forces you to make the aforementioned kind of decision. That said "have to fight 3 basilisks" is just about the weakest possible twist and this decision is pretty weightless as well. Of course the guy's going to protest against being kidnapped, why would we have ever taken this job in the first place if we had a problem with that? It's gonna cost you. How much are they paying you? ¥9,000. In any case, finishing the job properly would net us 9,000 nuyen and 6 Karma, whereas taking Saada's bribe would net us 5,000 nuyen and 8 Karma. Letting him go for free is also an option, if you're an idiot. Narratively we have just about zero reason to screw over our employer, but from a gameplay perspective 2 Karma is actually more tempting than 4,000 nuyen in our current situation. We didn't hire a team so all money earned is pure profit, and we already have the best possible equipment aside from the Fairlight Excalibur which we don't have the skill to use anyway. And so... Fine. Get out of here.And with that, the mission is over. A little surprisingly there isn't an escort portion to get him safely back to the exit or anything. Once the conversation ends we're automatically returned to the Union.  There's no new loading screen or anything either, so we'll hop straight to reporting back to "Mr. Johnson".  Saada wasn't there. You had faulty intel.[He looks at you for a minute, then shakes his head.] I don't think so. But hey, no skin off my nose. My people will find him eventually. And you've wrecked up a Renraku lab for us, free of charge. Hope it was worth it.Well, it was a good test run for our machines if nothing else. And speaking of machines...  With all this money we have, we can finally take one step closer towards becoming one ourselves!   Who needs a soul when you get to have things like a customized eye and this fancy mechanical arm?  Since there's otherwise nothing new to see here it's time to put together a team for the main mission, finding this bug-killing "Aegis" from the Telestrian office complex. As mentioned in the last update Coyote now comes at half price rather than for free, but she's obviously in regardless. Dodger isn't exactly great but I figure we should bring unique characters when we can, plus he comes cheap and having a second decker isn't going to hurt in the upcoming mission. And while it's a bit boring, Falk will join us a second time both for reasons relating to team balance (we've no magic) and budget (we've no money).  The stakes are high, the risks are high, and hell, we're probably high, but if we're gonna have to kick down some corp doors for the sake of mankind's future then we might as well put on our boots and get to it. Kanfy fucked around with this message at 12:08 on Dec 6, 2017 |
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Sep 19, 2017 12:13
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Kanfy posted:Ah, but here's a wrinkle, because there always is one. The mage might've been an idiot but he wasn't a liar as a trio of basilisks named "Subject 1", "Subject 2" and "Subject 5" make their entrance. I like this touch. Also, I din't remember cyberware actually showing.
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Sep 19, 2017 12:45
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That guy was pretty chill considering we ditched his job.
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Sep 19, 2017 14:32
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I mean, the guy isnt protected by a Corp anymore . He's a goner the second the next team comes for him, at significantly less pay than our team would get because its so much easier to grab him. Sure our employer has to wait longer, but we made it so his costs go down the tubes and like he said, they will find and kidnap the guy soon enough anyways.
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Sep 19, 2017 14:40
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Plus he presumably lacks proof that we're lying. If you're dumb enough to straight up admit that you let Saada go, he's less cool about it.
Kanfy fucked around with this message at 17:56 on Sep 19, 2017 |
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Sep 19, 2017 15:03
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Kanfy posted:Plus he presumably lacks proof that that we're lying. If you're dumb enough to straight up admit that you let Saada go, he's less cool about it. As long as you're smart enough to have plausible deniability, keep your mouth shut, and it wasn't anything particularly important (And at 9000 nuyen for the job being paid to an unknown scratch team of low level runners, it definitely wasn't important) you can get away with deliberately botching a job. Actually telling them "Nah, screw you I decided I got a better offer", on the other hand, is the kind of stupidity and rudeness that no one can afford to leave unpunished.
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Sep 19, 2017 17:47
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