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Stroth posted:Legally KWC was Chinese territory and Hong Kong law enforcement had no jurisdiction there. And of course Chinese law enforcement was not allowed in Hong Kong. When people say that it was lawless they are being entirely literal. Which also impacted other areas besides law enforcement. Municipal trash collection ? Nope. You gonna pick it up ? Neither am I. I guess it just stays there. Sewage and sanitation ? Nope - although the city mercifully built a few potable water outlets around the perimeter. Where the daily bodily waste of some 80,000 people packed in an area 1/100th the size of Central Park went is best left to the imagination (or better yet, not). Firefighters ? Lemme axe you dis : you got a bucket ? Tag, you're it.
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Jan 12, 2021 08:41
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EDIT: Never mind.
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Jan 12, 2021 09:28
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Psion posted:If you want to see some real aeronautical insanity look for videos of planes landing at Kai Tak. You basically flew directly at a mountaintop and then hauled over in a hard right turn; if you had the runway in sight better hope you line up fast so you can put it down, otherwise go around and do it again. Not turning was not an option. And just to make it fun, no overshoots allowed, because then you're in the harbor. And it's a busy airport (peak was ~36 planes taking off or landing per hour) and because it was for a busy city, we're talking big jets, too. I always just assumed pilots did a shot of whiskey/vodka then went "welp, time to die" before starting that approach. Also I think that SFO alternate approach explains that one time I landed there and it felt... wilder than usual.
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Jan 12, 2021 14:09
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I'd heard that a lot of the "oh it's a crime riddled slum" thing was overblown? Like they didn't let police in and it wasn't exactly a great place to live, but it was not that much worse than many other places. It's just that it was considered "ugly and makes us look bad" that it was torn down, not out of any humanitarian concern for the people living inside it.
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Jan 12, 2021 14:30
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Josef bugman posted:It's just that it was considered "ugly and makes us look bad" that it was torn down, not out of any humanitarian concern for the people living inside it.
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Jan 12, 2021 15:36
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Josef bugman posted:not out of any humanitarian concern for the people living inside it. It's Hong Kong. "Humanitarian concern" never made it to the feature list.
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Jan 12, 2021 15:55
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Josef bugman posted:I'd heard that a lot of the "oh it's a crime riddled slum" thing was overblown? Like they didn't let police in and it wasn't exactly a great place to live, but it was not that much worse than many other places. It's just that it was considered "ugly and makes us look bad" that it was torn down, not out of any humanitarian concern for the people living inside it. I think it was like some favelas in Rio where they are/were.. relatively safe because the gang that controls the favela wont steal from their own neighbors, and rival gangs wouldn't just randomly mug people in there without setting off a huge turf war. All bets are off if you are a stranger to the favela, though.
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Jan 12, 2021 15:55
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One incredible thing I found on the Internet: Apparently, at one point, the postal service assigned mailmen by "land area" rather than "number of residents", resulting in one overworked guy being responsible for all mail delivery in the entire city.
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Jan 12, 2021 16:06
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Space Kablooey posted:I think it was like some favelas in Rio where they are/were.. relatively safe because the gang that controls the favela wont steal from their own neighbors, and rival gangs wouldn't just randomly mug people in there without setting off a huge turf war. I don't imagine mugging random strangers was tolerated. Organized crime was the law, and a wealth illicit goods and services were for sale. If someone comes in looking to spend money on drugs, prostitution, gambling, or unlicensed surgery, money you steal from them is money that rightfully belongs to your local triad boss.
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Jan 12, 2021 16:11
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Josef bugman posted:I'd heard that a lot of the "oh it's a crime riddled slum" thing was overblown? Like they didn't let police in and it wasn't exactly a great place to live, but it was not that much worse than many other places. It's just that it was considered "ugly and makes us look bad" that it was torn down, not out of any humanitarian concern for the people living inside it. Like a lot of things, it's problematic to generalise too far in one direction or another. There were periods in time where the Walled City was more firmly under the control of the triads, and times when it was more in control of the residents, and crime naturally correlated with that. "Crime riddled slum" is probably an accurate descriptor overall, insofar as any slum is plagued by issues of criminal exploitation and corruption. "not that much worse than many other places" is also probably true, as long as the other places we're talking about are other slums, and arguably the fact that city residents had access to utilities made it better than many other slums elsewhere in the world. Compared to a normal low-income neighbourhood in a developed country, though, I'd still think the quality of life in the Walled City was significantly worse, redardless of whether it was demolished for that reason or not. It's a strange thing, the Walled City. I'd never want to live there, and nobody deserved to have to live there, but in many ways I think it's possibly the most interesting physical thing humans have ever built. How many tombs to old kings are there, how many castles and palaces, how many skyscrapers? But just one of these.
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Jan 12, 2021 16:21
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I dont know posted:I don't imagine mugging random strangers was tolerated. Organized crime was the law, and a wealth illicit goods and services were for sale. If someone comes in looking to spend money on drugs, prostitution, gambling, or unlicensed surgery, money you steal from them is money that rightfully belongs to your local triad boss. Basically, just imagine someone starting poo poo on our new friend Kindly Cheng's turf and how that would go.
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Jan 12, 2021 16:36
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Space Kablooey posted:I think it was like some favelas in Rio where they are/were.. relatively safe because the gang that controls the favela wont steal from their own neighbors, and rival gangs wouldn't just randomly mug people in there without setting off a huge turf war.
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Jan 12, 2021 16:37
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Reveilled posted:"Crime riddled slum" is probably an accurate descriptor overall, insofar as any slum is plagued by issues of criminal exploitation and corruption. I guess the vagueness of "crime" is the issue here. It's not like there was a friendly neighbourhood cannibal assigned to each floor, or aggressive organ harvesting operations, or Fansadox-style sex slave markets slash torture dungeons and whatnot. Nothing as spectacularly depraved as that. But more mundane things like drugs ? "Which and how much" was the only question asked. Prostitution, gambling, home brewed hooch, sure. Knock-off manufacturing of just about anything. All of that side by side with an unsurprisingly tight-knit community because adversity builds support networks ; and it's not like you can live almost inside the living room of thirteen other families without getting to know them quite a bit.
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Jan 12, 2021 16:44
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Kobal2 posted:I guess the vagueness of "crime" is the issue here. It's not like there was a friendly neighbourhood cannibal assigned to each floor, or aggressive organ harvesting operations, or Fansadox-style sex slave markets slash torture dungeons and whatnot. Nothing as spectacularly depraved as that. But more mundane things like drugs ? "Which and how much" was the only question asked. Prostitution, gambling, home brewed hooch, sure. Knock-off manufacturing of just about anything. True. That said, I do think that sometimes people fall into the trap of forgetting that those mundane things really do have victims. A triad-run den where you can buy opium or heroin isn't the same thing as a marijuana dispensary or a healthcare-provided safe injection site. An organised crime-controlled brothel in a slum is still almost certainly full of women being sexually exploited, and in many cases actual sex slaves, even if there's no, uh, "Fansadox-style" market. Where those things are more pronounced, there are still more victims.
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Jan 12, 2021 17:00
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Undisputably, yeah. EDIT : but they're not hot white cheerleader victims. So we're mostly all conditioned not to care about those. Kobal2 fucked around with this message at 19:35 on Jan 12, 2021 |
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Jan 12, 2021 17:18
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Deep Dish Fuckfest posted:Basically, just imagine someone starting poo poo on our new friend Kindly Cheng's turf and how that would go. Either a spectacularly public... disposal... Or an equally private disappearance, the kind where absolutely no one saw them leave, just one morning their bunk was empty...
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Jan 12, 2021 19:37
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And here I thought the LP thread about the idealized anarchist state would be the more political one. That's not a complaint about the idea of the discussion but holy hell is this thread going to be walking the razor's edge of falling into 'yikes' territory.
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Jan 12, 2021 20:08
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PMush Perfect posted:And here I thought the LP thread about the idealized anarchist state would be the more political one. To be fair Shadowrun has a LOT of areas that are terrible dystopias for all sorts of reasons so KWC isn't necessarily the worst place on Earth in-setting; if anything, the main thing it has going on places like the Redmond Barrens is more people and more time to go to hell, and arguably some of the gangs out there are probably better at keeping the peace than Lone Star and Knight Errant (who also only really do it for the profit motive themselves). Really it's kind of an open question of whether a disorganized hellhole is worse than an organized one in SR. Though man, wish I could remember if the Insect Spirits had any canonical impact there, because it seems like practically a hive already. Also I wonder how it survived VITAS historically in-setting, you'd think a super-plague would clear that overcrowding REAL fast, especially with no dedicated body disposal.
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Jan 13, 2021 02:47
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PMush Perfect posted:And here I thought the LP thread about the idealized anarchist state would be the more political one. I'd argue that Dragonfall gave the developers confidence and experience in their writing. Hong Kong is them putting that experience and confidence to work.
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Jan 13, 2021 02:59
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MadDogMike posted:Also I wonder how it survived VITAS historically in-setting, you'd think a super-plague would clear that overcrowding REAL fast, especially with no dedicated body disposal. For what its worth, this game will have an explanation for that, later.
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Jan 13, 2021 03:10
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MadDogMike posted:Though man, wish I could remember if the Insect Spirits had any canonical impact there, because it seems like practically a hive already. hehehehe.
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Jan 13, 2021 03:45
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sincx posted:While Kai Tak closed in 1998, there is one other major airport where you can (occasionally) see planes making an approach that like: SFO. And here I thought that the airport in Nepal was bad https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MH0VjKl7tIk But back to KWC/this game- the devs really added more non-in-game-engine flair this time around, with added painted stills. I felt it really added detail to the story without resorting to 3/4 view of a generic body or a tiny thumbnail headshot. Mostly in showing off the environment.
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Jan 13, 2021 18:11
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Negative_Earth posted:And here I thought that the airport in Nepal was bad https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MH0VjKl7tIk Even Nepal pales in comparison to the nightmare that is Paro, Bhutan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbLHah4XUwk
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Jan 13, 2021 18:59
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Josef bugman posted:I'd heard that a lot of the "oh it's a crime riddled slum" thing was overblown? Like they didn't let police in and it wasn't exactly a great place to live, but it was not that much worse than many other places. It's just that it was considered "ugly and makes us look bad" that it was torn down, not out of any humanitarian concern for the people living inside it. On the other hand, things got a bit better over time. After the police in general were cleaned up in the 70s with the ICAC and things like that, they started paying more attention to what was going inside. And 30,000+ people managed to live there, albeit in crummy conditions, for decades. So it was not the Mad Max dystopia of nonstop violence and looting and kung-fu fighting that it's sometimes portrayed as. On the latter point specifically: none of the discussions are helped by the usual trend to exoticise it. It's a standard trope in pop-culture stuff set in Hong Kong to have the Triads running everything. There were definitely triads in the Walled City (and elsewhere!) but the idea that you couldn't walk down the street without stumbling across the 14k shooting up their rivals is dumb. Just as dumb as if, say, every piece of fiction about New York required that the Mafia be lurking behind every bush in Central Park. Especially if the Mafia were presented as orientalised mystics rather than, you know, nasty and brutal but kinda banal people. Are there Mafia in New York? Sure. Is there more to New York than the Mafia? Yes. Even in the poorest, most violent parts of town? Still yes. edit: I guess maybe it's like favelas in South America, both in terms of it being a big exercise in ultra-dense informal housing, informal social structures, crime and lack of state authority, but also a convenient location in which to set your piece of fiction when for stylistic reasons you really want to turn the crapsack-world factor up to 11, regardless of how accurate that portrayal actually is. But I know much less about favelas so maybe I am way off. Zephro fucked around with this message at 18:14 on Jan 18, 2021 |
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Jan 18, 2021 18:05
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Zephro posted:Just as dumb as if, say, every piece of fiction about New York required that the Mafia be lurking behind every bush in Central Park. Especially if the Mafia were presented as orientalised mystics rather than, you know, nasty and brutal but kinda banal people. I would play the poo poo out of this game.
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Jan 19, 2021 09:43
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Whybird posted:I would play the poo poo out of this game. That's just Yakuza 7.
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Jan 19, 2021 20:54
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Part 06 - A Close-Knit Community (The name here seems like a reference to Ian Lambot and Gred Girard's book City of Darkness: Life in Kowloon Walled City)       [Wu nods in agreement.] Okay, you were right. This isn't the Barrens. It feels... I don't know... thicker.[He goggles the place.] Which way? They probably aren't expecting anyone to come in force. We can kick in the door, drop the guards, hand over the message, and get the hell out. Kindly doesn't want them dead, she wants them to remember where their loyalties lie. It's tough to remember much of anything when you've got a bullet in your head. I mean, we *could* kill them if you really wanted to. Technically, Bao is the only one that has to live. But I'd rather keep Auntie Cheng happy than piss her off again. This group's safety is my biggest concern. We don't need to risk our necks for a bunch of triad thugs. I like the way you think! drat right. Let's do this. Well, here we are. Somehow the very first place we get to visit is also the very last place anyone would actually want to. We are not here to add our own contribution to the slum's violence though, meaning that to do this job properly we're going to have try and either speak or sneak our way to Strangler Bao if possible. But before we get started, let's take a better look at what the rat devotee who people voted to bring with us is all about.  Note the cute little passenger on her shoulder!  As was touched upon during our frantic escape from the HKPF, Gobbet's skillset is very similar to that of Dietrich from Dragonfall, being that of a shaman with some additional skill in magery and the use of a physical weapon, in this case an SMG. Also exactly like Dietrich in the German crew she is the sole spellcaster we'll be seeing in this one, and now that we're not even one ourselves, all magical party support is solely on her shoulders. Or whichever part of them her rats are willing to give up, in any case. One thing to watch out for is that she's the only crew member who starts with a mere 3 points in Body, and as we've already seen 30 Hit Points is something modded enemies in particular can chew through in a single turn if they really put their minds to it. No frontline fighter, this one.  Her starting armor isn't of much help in bulking her up either. Submachine guns are pretty inaccurate, need frequent reloading (normal attacks take 6 bullets each), and have the lowest base damage of any weapon type but somewhat make up for it by always firing off two shots instead of one. But if you're familiar with the previous game, you probably remember that armor being flat damage reduction causes SMGs to have a pretty miserable time against high armor as the damage reduction is applied to both of the already low-damage shots. This hasn't really changed in Hong Kong and SMGs are exactly like they were - poor at long ranges and against anything with high armor, but if both shots land on a low-armor target they can definitely chew through HP like almost nothing else. The high amount of shots they put out for little AP also make them pretty good at finishing off near-death opponents. The Custom Sandler TMP itself is unique to Gobbet but in practice its base stats are completely identical to an Uzi III, the second-tier SMG. Like her armor, it'll periodically get stronger as she gains levels.  In her inventory Gobbet carries a basic Trauma Kit and a pair of Force 2 Summoning Fetishes. These Fetishes are by far her biggest advantage over a player shaman because as mentioned in the last update, in active player use they're a pretty unsustainable drain on funds while Gobbet simply replenishes hers for free between missions.  Her spell repertoire is mostly familiar stuff, with everything an aspiring support caster can really ask for. Poison Fog is new and in fact completely unique to Gobbet, and as a spell it's both pretty interesting and also pretty wonky in its function, which really describes a variety of things in this game like the Tokko drug from a couple of updates back. What Poison Fog does is act as an AoE-targeted spell that conjures up a 3x3 cloud of poison for 3 turns which deals 10 damage to those afflicted. It also applies the standard Fog effect which reduces the accuracy of all ranged attacks made to or through the fog. Simple enough on paper, but there's some amount of weirdness in the way things work in practice. Firstly, unlike what you might think, simply standing in Poison Fog after the turn its been cast is not harmful in any way; only moving to a tile with fog is. Secondly, Poison Fog deals 10 damage immediately and another 10 damage when Gobbet runs out of AP on the turn she cast Poison Fog which with 2 AP means "as soon as she casts Poison Fog". In effect this makes it at minimum a 20 damage area spell which ignores armor:  For anyone interested in some mechanics exploitation, the "when Gobbet runs out of AP" clause is not limited to one instance. If someone say, casts Haste on a 0 AP Gobbet after she's cast Poison Fog and brings her back to 1 AP, using up that AP triggers Poison Fog's damage yet again for a total of 30 damage to everyone inside Poison Fog. We won't be purposefully exploiting this, but it might sometimes happen on accident. Also while Poison Fog's initial damage penetrates armor as per the tooltip, that only applies on the first turn and armor will mitigate its damage on the subsequent turns. Also, without the community bugfix we're using, Fog spells seem to deal no damage to anyone standing in their center, only to their sides. As a final bit of oddness, certain (but not all) ambush situations have enemies ignore the damage of the spell presumably as it's not directly targeted, meaning repeated castings can be used to kill everyone without them responding in any way. Aaaaaaaanyway, all of that aside, Poison Fog is a pretty strong spell that can potentially deal much more damage than Gobbet's SMG but is limited by its 2 AP requirement and does require pretty careful positioning as neither the damage nor the accuracy-reducing "half-visibility" effect discriminates between friend and foe. A wrinkle in this is that it can miss (and the accuracy is subject to cover penalties) just like any AoE effect, and if it lands in the wrong spot it can be a real annoyance for a melee fighter like ourselves. The AI for their part will not try to avoid it. On the simpler end, Gobbet's SMG skill gives her access to one special ability beyond the normal double shot:  Spray and Pray: Two shots with reduced critical chance that may hit adjacent targets. Cost: 1 AP.The SMG classic that lets you pretend that you're holding a  As a relevant side note, one welcome UI addition in Hong Kong is the display of spread attacks and who they can potentially hit ahead of time. This image also gives you a picture of Gobbet's rather unreliable hit chances even against close-range targets without cover, and "close-range" is not where Gobbet prefers to be in the first place.  But that's enough mechanics talk, we have a triad enforcer to find from this nightmare labyrinth of towering buildings and rooftops connected with makeshift bridges. One can only imagine how many poor bastards too drunk or high to walk straight have fallen into these cracks just trying to make their way home, never to be seen again.  Academic etiquette or no, sometimes you need to acknowledge that ignorance is indeed bliss.  The local aromas haven't deterred the woman who's set up a store here though. She's peddling clothes by the looks of it, though nothing sturdy enough for us to be interested in.  What's the news here? Anything interesting? Interesting? Here? No. Nothing changes here. Nothing changes.[She settles her weight with an audible harrumph.] Strangler Bao is the big man now. He is verrrry important. Verrrry impatient. You know Bao? We'd love to meet him. Well, he requested a suit, and it took only one day longer than expected. The bastard refused to accept it![She spits.] You see your friend Bao, you tell him that he still owes me for my time. I don't sew for nothing! You can't eat air! We'll get right on that. [She nods sagely.] You see that you do. Now. What else do you want? Ever heard anyone say, "Prosperity is in the Walled City"? That more or less seems to sum up the entirety of the Walled City, huh? You'd think that would make whatever Raymond's looking for easier to find if anything, after all anything even prosperity-adjacent should stand out like a lighthouse in this mire of misfortune. No such light anywhere in sight from where we're standing though. I see. Well, later, lady. As we're making our way deeper into the slum, the weak voice of a sidequest calls to us from nearby.  You alright there lady, did you get mugged or something? Piece of a crumbling building bop you in the head?   That's right. We're out-of-towners. Cool... that's cool. What happened to you?[She looks like she can barely keep her eyes open.] Predators. I'm okay, though... the blood's theirs. Thought I'd rest here for a minute before I got back to work. I think you'd better get yourself checked out at a hospital. Work can wait. [She shakes her head violently.] No. I'm not hurt, just tired. And the only hospital I'm covered to use is the HKU campus clinic. I'm a student there.[She glances around watchfully - over your shoulder, at the buildings looming above her, into windows nearby.] Doing some research. Gotta finish before I can leave.That's some dedication, having to hide for your life in one of the most dangerous corners of the world isn't the kind of adversity you'd normally associate with student life. You look like you haven't slept in days. That's because I haven't. I'd been living with a family in one of the inner blocks for the past few months, working on my thesis. It was bad, but I could handle it. For the past five days, though... I've been living on the streets, hiding from the predators. What happened to this family?[A pained expression washes over her face.] I'm not a hundred percent sure.  I squatted in their place a while but then some... people started coming around. Eying the place. I figured I should get out - finish my research as fast as I could and head back to campus. Then I got sick. [Wu grunts.] What kind of research would you do in a place like this? My thesis is about feng shui in the Sixth World. This was the right place to do it... the only place to do it. Otherwise I wouldn't be here.The pursuit of knowledge is a cause we can admire, especially as most would give up the chase the moment it slipped into a place like this. (Academic) Still in the data-gathering phase? Or are you attempting to verify a hypothesis? [Her tired face brightens.] Verification. You know much about feng shui? Specifically, how it applies here in Hong Kong? A little. Why don't you educate me? [She nods.] As you may know, feng shui is one of the Five Arts of Chinese Metaphysics. Before the Awakening, it was thought of as a philosophical system for harmonizing people with the surrounding environment. Rich people hire geomancers to design the interiors of their homes - to attune them just right to achieve balance and harmony. The poor have nothing like that. Leave a slum to fester long enough, and you get *this.*[She glances at her surroundings, a look of profound disgust on her face.] I think that the negative feng shui of places like this affects the people who live here. That it changes them in a fundamental way, makes them less capable of breaking the cycle and getting out. That's what I'm trying to prove. This definitely doesn't look like a place where people are harmonized with anything. No, it isn't. Not at all. The feng shui in the Walled City is completely screwed... I mean, just *look* at the place.[She gestures at the squalor surrounding you.] The qi is all wrong here. You can feel it, right? I felt that something was wrong the minute I walked in. Bad qi, huh? Yeah. Bad feng shui. Qi needs to flow, or it goes sour. Positive feng shui allows that to happen.Nothing like our own qi which flows like a raging river, never sour as if freshly squeezed straight outta a qi-cow's teat.  There are only a few things left to do... If you could finish them for me, I could get out of here. [She holds out a crumpled piece of paper.] Please... follow the notes on this sheet. [Duncan takes the paper from her outstretched hand and examines it, frowning.] Just say what you need us to do. I need you to make adjustments to the area's feng shui, my notes will tell you how. The goal is to remove sources of friction, and to record the results. My hypothesis is that even small adjustments can have a measurable impact on qi flow. If I'm right, it should improve, and life here should get just a little bit better. Whatever we expected to end up doing in the Walled City, adjusting its feng shui definitely wasn't on the list. But these seem simple enough, and if it's for science... You rest. We'll take care of it. We're literally just passing through, man. Maybe you should use your precious generator to generate yourself some manners.  The rooftop path continues on to the west, but the sight of a merchant compels us to take a quick detour eastward.   Show me what you're selling. The man's "trinkets" are actually elemental fetishes and as you can see, just one Force 3 Poké Ball already costs about as much as our katana did. Indulging in your kinks is not for the poor.  Anything else? What's been going on around here? I heard Strangler Bao's making a move.[The vendor's eyes narrow, and he glances over your shoulder before he speaks.] The Strangler's men are getting reckless. Too dangerous to do business in the old market now. I had to move shop. The old market is deeper inside the Walled City, right? So isn't being out here on the edge kind of a step up? Depends on how good a spot you had. Mine was good - people living deeper inside want pretty things, too, and no one else was selling 'em there.[He looks from left to right, then shrugs.] Maybe this will be a good spot. Have to wait and see.Hard to imagine there's much demand for 600-nuyen shamanistic toys around here, but then we can't claim to be an expert on the local economy or anything. Ever heard anyone say, "Prosperity is in the Walled City"? No.[He shakes his head.] That's not something that someone would say around here.Do people say anything positive here? At all? How can you stand this place? But this place is getting worse, no question about it. Last twenty, thirty years it's been nothing but downhill. Nothing goes right here. Maybe you can change that, though. By buying something, eh? Sorry, not this time. See you around. Before we move on, one of the items on that student's list was labeled "Sparking wires (trinket man)" which would be this right here.  We could just rip these off the wall and be done with it, but maybe someone still has need for these and we'd rather not make any local's life even more difficult if we don't need to. It's a simple repair job anyway.   That's one down. Whether this really is improving the feng shui of the place any is a different matter.  Guess the business of whoever used to be here really stalled out.  And judging by the guns on these guys, they just might have something to do with that. This seems to be the place we're looking for, so if these fine folk are feeling cooperative then reaching this Strangler Bao might be easier than expected.  You're in the wrong neighborhood, tourist-girl. You and all your little tourist friends. I'm a local, jackass. I work for Kindly Cheng - we all do. Show some respect. Maybe he's just happy to see us? Best get moving, little girl. Best move before we hurt you all *real* bad. I'm not gonna tell you twice.Maybe not. Why aren't they ever feeling cooperative? We're here to deliver a message to Strangler Bao.[He pauses in mock consideration.] Hmmm... no. I don't think so. We haven't been told to expect anyone.There's a Charisma 3 option here we could try... if we had that much, but we're still working on brushing up our personal charm at the moment. Long prison stays can leave you a bit socially rusty, you know? Let us through. Get lost, tourist. [He turns away.] You don't talk to us again, understand? Try to pass by my boys, and we'll punch holes in you until daylight shines through. All right. We're leavingHe's not exaggerating either, if we as much as try to initiate dialogue with him again (or try to approach the compound) the guards will immediately turn hostile. It's a legitimate approach of course, avoiding Yellow Lotus casualties is completely optional, but let's try and explore our other options first.  Taking another look around, a small nook behind the nearby cargo container reveals something that looks like a talisman shop, or maybe a makeshift altar or something. Whatever this setup is for, it's clear that even in the most ill-fated neighborhoods the oversized candle business does always find its customer base.  Hey, hold up. This cloth has a lot of negative energy coming off of it. I think that there's a spirit bound to it. Interesting. What can you tell me about this spirit? Well, it's a ghost... either that, or a Spirit of Man that *thinks* it's a ghost. It's hard to be sure.[She stares at the cloth, frowning.] Whatever it is, it's upset. I can feel its anger and sorrow from here. But that's all I can get from it while it's hiding like this. Eh, our soul hasn't done us a lot of good lately anyway. If we had Spirit Summoning 2 we could also try this ourselves, but as it is we'll leave it to the expert(?) Go ahead and do it, Gobbet. I'm up for a spirit chat. Sure thing. [Her eyes go beady, and her nose crinkles.] Just let me try to establish a connection...   That's a pretty multi-layered question when coming from a dead person. But if we're talking like, physically... Kowloon. The Walled City.[His expression changes. Moves from lost to found.]  <...Still...?>[It raises its hands to examine them, blank eyes sweeping over dead flesh.] <...How...?> What's the last thing you remember? <...The... last thing...>[The spirit searches the sky for an answer.]  <...Proud...I was too proud...>[A cold light flares from somewhere deep its throat.] <...They tore me apart... butchered me like a duck... they...> Aaaalright then, let's make a mental note *not* to ask the next dead person we call up for a chat about their recent violent death. Well, *that* was nasty. <Bao... Bao and his men...> Yes, we want to find them. [It looks confused. Lost.] <I... can... I don't...>We have a choice whether to ask the spirit for help getting into the compound, or urge it to take revenge on the guards we met earlier. Which is tempting, but Kindly probably wouldn't buy it as an acceptable loophole for the "no kills" clause. You can get us past Bao's guards and into the Walled City. So we can find him.[The spirit's eyes roll in its head and it shudders, struggling to let the passion dissipate.] <...I... I had a... friend...>[It squeezes its eyes shut as it struggles to remember.] <A smuggler... of... animals... He had a space... hidden... secret...> Yes, spirit. Tell me about the secret space. Thank you, spirit.[The entity squeezes its eyes shut and turns away.] <...5-4-6-5... 5-4-6-5... 5-4-6-5...> Having imparted his buddy's secret that he had literally taken to his grave if not a step past it, the spirit fades away and our soul remains no worse for wear. Who knew conjuring up the presumably tormented spirits of the dead could be both safe and informative? Maybe we should do this more often.  We're hardly done enjoying the sights and smells of Kowloon Walled City and our new goal is to find a way into these sublevels, but this seems like a good cut-off point for today. Until next time~  Passing through the Triad guards and into the compound through the front peacefully is possible but requires not only 3 Charisma, but also the Gang etiquette: (Charisma 3) Look. This is a message directly from Kindly Cheng to Strangler Bao. They're both above your station. You wanna stand in the way of that? I sure as hell wouldn't.[The Yellow Lotus soldier's mouth tightens.] This is a trick. You're just trying to get close to Bao so that you can put a bullet in him. (Gang) If Kindly Cheng wanted Bao dead, you wouldn't be talking to me. You'd be dead, and an army of Kindly's soldiers would be kicking in his door. I'd listen to her if I were you. You turn us away, you might piss Cheng off enough for those soldiers to come knocking.[The leer drops off of his face. He seems to deflate.] You say you have a message for Bao, okay. You go through. Just keep your hands where we can see 'em.--- Convincing the forlorn spirit to get payback on the other hand takes very little effort: If I were in your shoes, I'd want revenge. <...YES!... REVENGE!...>[Gobbet gives you a sidelong glance.] Careful, Black. Cheng didn't want any Yellow Lotus killed. <RE... VENGE...>[The spirit's spidery fingers twitch. They begin to curl, then taper, then blacken until they're a set of wicked-sharp hooks. The spirit looks at you expectantly.] See those guards? They're Bao's men. Bao - the one who had you cut to pieces.  The spirit then runs to the middle of the guards and straight-up blows them all up with a ghost magic explosion suicide bomber style, except in this case it already being dead means it'll have no trouble coming back to make another appearance inside the compound later on. Kanfy fucked around with this message at 10:31 on Jan 21, 2021 |
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Jan 21, 2021 10:27
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Ah. The nice part of town.
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Jan 21, 2021 10:42
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Stroth posted:Ah. The nice part of town. The Exploding Ghost district has really gotten popular. e: VV the real estate agents are already advertising SoExGho Akratic Method fucked around with this message at 20:36 on Jan 21, 2021 |
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Jan 21, 2021 19:34
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Akratic Method posted:The Exploding Ghost district has really gotten popular. loving gentifiers.
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Jan 21, 2021 19:43
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sincx fucked around with this message at 05:47 on Mar 23, 2021 |
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Jan 21, 2021 22:11
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The pet shop door is this game's introduction to "you don't need a decker". And I mean sure, Izzie could have fritzed the lock if we'd brought her along, but that's just your garden variety cyberpunking. Getting the code from the tortured soul of the friendly neighbourhood traumatized 'orrible murder victim ? Now that's proper *shadowrunning*, that is.
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Jan 22, 2021 02:32
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Kobal2 posted:The pet shop door is this game's introduction to "you don't need a decker". That is true, you can do well at missions and plot without a decker, but, there is plenty of missable money in the game locked behind decking. And since, in this game, our protag is working for, and massively in debt to, a triad, reward money is quite limited, and every additional income source is precious.
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Jan 22, 2021 03:01
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Alex0080 posted:That is true, you can do well at missions and plot without a decker, but, there is plenty of missable money in the game locked behind decking. And since, in this game, our protag is working for, and massively in debt to, a triad, reward money is quite limited, and every additional income source is precious. Really depends on the build (the companions are mostly self-sufficient although some benefit from the occasional handmedown or freebie) but melee weapon phys adepts are a lot more XP hungry than they are money hungry.
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Jan 22, 2021 05:18
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Kobal2 posted:Really depends on the build (the companions are mostly self-sufficient although some benefit from the occasional handmedown or freebie) but melee weapon phys adepts are a lot more XP hungry than they are money hungry. Riggers and Deckers seem to be the most money-hungry since you're spending nuyen on your main gadget (be it a drone or two or a cyberdeck and all its additional goodies), cyberware, guns, and armor. Guns may take a backseat priority-wise but there's still quite a bit to grab. Is0bel has always been a good fit for a Decker in my opinion in large part due to her grenade launcher making her portion of combat fun to play out. You could make a better, more focused Decker yourself, but to me it just seems too redundant for the ability to deck harder.
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Jan 22, 2021 06:52
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Kobal2 posted:Really depends on the build (the companions are mostly self-sufficient although some benefit from the occasional handmedown or freebie) but melee weapon phys adepts are a lot more XP hungry than they are money hungry. There's plenty for each archetype to spend money on.
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Jan 22, 2021 06:58
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The big problem with not bringing Izzie along and bringing someone else... is the lack of point to bring someone else. That other person isn't going to get you more money with their inclusion, and unlike Blitz, Izzie actually has good weapons and good combat ability.
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Jan 22, 2021 07:59
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Keldulas posted:The big problem with not bringing Izzie along and bringing someone else... is the lack of point to bring someone else. That other person isn't going to get you more money with their inclusion, and unlike Blitz, Izzie actually has good weapons and good combat ability. Edit: Or "I'm a decker", but that hardly counts. girl dick energy fucked around with this message at 08:05 on Jan 22, 2021 |
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Jan 22, 2021 08:01
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wiegieman posted:There's plenty for each archetype to spend money on. In Dragonfall, it was viable to buy stuff specifically to 'loan' to crew members, it was viable to buy drugs and consumables and use them regularly, if you were playing a caster it was viable to spend money on some situation-specific spells. But in HK, I always felt like I was money starved enough that I couldn't afford to waste money on these sorts of "nice to have but not strictly required" purchases while still keeping up to date on the truly critical stuff.
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Jan 22, 2021 13:26
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It should be noted given the earlier conversation that SRHK does try from the jump to explain why Kowloon Walled City is so bad, which at least heads off a few problems with exoticizing a poor area. btw, if Manhattan had the same population density of peak Kowloon Walled City, it'd have 74m residents. Really gives you an indication of how off sci-fi writers are when talking about world-spanning cities. Asimov biffed this hardest, he had Trantor's peak population at 40 billion. Star Wars apparently has Coruscant at 1 trillion, which is much closer but even at just Manhattan density Earth would have 13 trillion (covering oceans) or 4 trillion (just land area). habeasdorkus fucked around with this message at 15:34 on Jan 22, 2021 |
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Jan 22, 2021 15:28
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