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Bacchante posted:Dunno if it's been mentioned or not, but someone ported all of Deadman's Switch into SR:HK, with a bunch of added content and updates. I've been playing it. Kinda interesting, though some of the additions thus far have been... odd. Plus, of course, brand new bugs to deal with. I mentioned it a few pages back. I haven't gotten around to playing it yet though. Too busy with DOS2. If you find anything particularly interesting with it, do share. mauman fucked around with this message at 10:46 on Oct 3, 2017 |
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Oct 3, 2017 10:43
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Bacchante posted:Dunno if it's been mentioned or not, but someone ported all of Deadman's Switch into SR:HK, with a bunch of added content and updates. I've been playing it. Kinda interesting, though some of the additions thus far have been... odd. Plus, of course, brand new bugs to deal with. That last bit a spoiler?
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Oct 3, 2017 14:29
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Badump-tish.
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Oct 3, 2017 15:38
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OAquinas posted:That last bit a spoiler? Probably a description. I've seen lots of tutorials for porting DMS into Dragonfall, and those also warn about problems.
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Oct 3, 2017 18:28
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So, stupid question, but how exactly are you renaming your drones? Save editing of some kind? I'm replaying Dragonfall as a Rigger and I would desperately like to give my mechanical monsters some personality.
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Oct 3, 2017 22:36
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Realbarrow posted:So, stupid question, but how exactly are you renaming your drones? Save editing of some kind? I'm replaying Dragonfall as a Rigger and I would desperately like to give my mechanical monsters some personality. I'm not actually renaming them, it's purely a narrative thing for a bit of extra flavor. (Also the update'll take a little more time still I'm afraid, things have gotten in the way a bit and I've been feeling kind of unwell recently to boot. The short story I was thinking about wasn't that interesting either. Assuming I don't die or something, we'll get things moving again in the near future though.)
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Oct 3, 2017 23:05
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I think we can all relate to having work/life/illness kick your rear end for a while, take your time.
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Oct 3, 2017 23:09
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Kanfy posted:I'm not actually renaming them, it's purely a narrative thing for a bit of extra flavor. Get better 
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Oct 4, 2017 02:24
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mauman posted:I mentioned it a few pages back. There seems to be some sort of connection to the short stories, thus far. I found a golden lighter with a spirit in it that belongs to Jake in the first area, near the Seamstresses, and was able to have a chat with it. Also, there seems to be the ghost of Shadowrun's creator inside the actual Guild. Not sure if that's the mod or something else, though.
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Oct 6, 2017 03:17
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Bacchante posted:Also, there seems to be the ghost of Shadowrun's creator inside the actual Guild. Not sure if that's the mod or something else, though. Backer bonus
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Oct 6, 2017 04:31
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Dragonfall has the most hilarious of graffiti.  SOYKAF IST MENSCHEN! or, for the germanistically impaired, "soykaf is people!" I got a chuckle out of that. It's really the little things that make this series better than just average.
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Oct 8, 2017 09:54
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Remember when we used to get updates, once upon a time? Why don't we try that thing again, for old times' sake. Only about half of one though, let's not get too crazy here now.
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Oct 15, 2017 20:48
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Part 26 - Corporate Raiders  And now, back to our irregularly scheduled programming. As a refresher, things got weird somewhere along the way so now we're here to grab a sample of some kinda substance called Aegis that's supposed to kill invincible bugs.  And this weirdo's supposedly going to help us do that.  Yeah, we're gonna shake the pillars of heaven, buddy. Sarcasm should have no place between partners, eh? Let us be professional! The way you professionally hacked my commlink? Point taken. S'il vous plaît, but we must be friends! We are allied, you and Samedi! So what now? Storming the front desk doesn't sound bold. It sounds insane. Do not be so negative! Samedi has rerouted the guards in this section of the complex. The coast should be clear for you to navigate to the Accounting offices. Bonne chance!Our last job was nothing but fighting so not having to murder every guard and security guy in the building should be a nice change of pace.  Today's guest star is Dodger, who's supposed to be a big deal decker and has even been in some Shadowrun books. In this game he's not really any better than any other decker at this stage, but he'll certainly get the job done. He comes with no less than three ESPs and 5 points in ESP Control, allowing him to bring a veritable cyberarmy into the Matrix.  They also gave him a unique character model, which mostly serves to make his complete silence and lack of personality even more jarring.  I believe he's the first character we've brought who's carrying a Smartlink weapon. Smartlink weapons require a datajack and cost more than a regular gun in exchange for being more accurate at range. This'd be a whole lot cooler if the gun in question here wasn't yet another Ares Predator though. Jake was using one all the way back at the beginning of the game and there it was still quite good, but that was twenty drat updates ago! There isn't much anything new of interest regarding the other party members. Falk now has Aim III which improves accuracy by 18% for 6(!) turns, and he's upgraded his barrier to Fire Barrier 3. Coyote shoots things. Anyhow, this might all very well be irrelevant since Samedi said he'd rerouted the guards. At the very least we should be able to get some ways in before we have to resort to violence. So let's just go through the first door and  Oh come on. .jpg)  Sigh  Okay calm down we're opening fire  Sorry buddy, neither of us wanted things to go this way. Blame our incompetent help or God. We grab a security card from the man's body.    The doors ahead are locked so the only thing we can do is slide the card into this terminal, which causes the screen to come to life.  We're all about those unsecured terminals. This one's only good for unlocking the lobby doors in front of us though. Apparently the coast was not-so clear. Is this the way this whole run is gonna go? Great, things'd be downright boring if little details like this were mentioned sooner.  I'm not really convinced Samedi is "handling" anything whatsoever.  A couple of guards and an enforcer burst into the room in response to the mage's hollering.  Jade Rabbit stops most of them in their tracks with a concussion grenade though, and he quickly changes his tone.  Honestly there isn't much to say about most combat at this point, you should already know how it goes by now.  Between our concussion grenades and firepower most enemies are downed before they get to do anything, and those who do usually miss their shots.  Even those who do actually land a shot on us rarely deal any considerable damage due to their low-level weaponry.  So yeah, I'm not gonna bother wasting your time or mine with detailed combat descriptions here where it's pretty much always covered by "we immediately shot everyone to death".  There's a trio of terminals we can take a look at in this room. Let's start with this one.  We run a search on "Universal Brotherhood" but get nothing. "Lynne Telestrian" gets a hit though.  Guess she doesn't share a name with the corporation by coincidence. Maybe her new family took priority over her old one just like with Jessica.  Next terminal!  Only thing we can search for here is "Project Aegis".  "Schwerindustriegesellschaft" is an excellent word.  This is why bringing a decker was mandatory for this mission, and losing your last one leads to an immediate game over. Of course since Amazon's a decker and her death is also an immediate game over, that's not particularly relevant for us. Dodger meanwhile can die a terrible agonizing death and nobody will give even the smallest of damns.  The third terminal allows us to search for "Sam Watts" and "Jessica Watts", and while neither gives a primary hit, they both give a secondary hit on "Melinda Watts" and two payment records related to her. Can't get any further details here though. Upon logging out, a slip of yellow paper happens to slide out from under the keyboard.  Conveniently enough, this is what we need to unlock the next doors. We also get +8 karma for this discovery.  Before we move on however, there's an inviting-looking air vent on the wall here.  Go forth, our electric explorers!  Well hello, these guys probably aren't here to throw us a surprise birthday party. No less than four guards and even a pair of sentry guns are watching the door. "Do not doubt Samedi" he says. Right...  There are a couple of ways to give us an advantage in this fight, of which we'll choose this one: Another vent which just so happens to lead from the conference room right to the enemy's flank.  Surprise! Not even sentry guns are immune to the almighty concussion grenade. It did take two of them to actually do the job though, yet another feat only possible due to our 4 AP drones as throwing a grenade takes 2. You may also notice that the elevators to the top left are our destination, but as the Baron mentioned earlier they're locked down. We'll have to find that access point once we're done with these guys.  With four of the six foes out of the picture on the first turn, this potentially troublesome fight is reduced to nothing more than a small bump on our road to glory.  The rest of the group promptly storm in to partake in the cleaning operation.     Good fun. For us anyway.  The aforementioned access point is located in a computer room to the northeast. We have two deckers and either could do it, but we'll let Amazon handle this one.  While she's busy jacking in though, an uninvited guest shows up from the southern doors we entered through earlier. Well, I guess technically we're the uninvited guests here, but you know what I mean.  Coyote calmly asks her to leave. You can also spot a bit of Fire Barrier blocking the doorway, just in case we get any more intruders.  Meanwhile Amazon has entered cyberspace, and a decent amount of Intrusion Countermeasures are trying to block her way right off the bat.  They can't handle all the pretty lights she throws their way though.  Don't even need to pack any cyberheals when you have Shield III.  The next cyberroom features another way one could've made the earlier fight easier, hacking the pair of sentry guns. Obviously this has no effect now, aside from establishing dominance.  In the real world a pair of Heavy Guards make their entrance, this time from the elevator side. Sneaky bastards.   But there being only two of them, they're disposed of about as quickly as they arrived even without Amazon's drones. Points for effort I guess.  Ooh, juicy unguarded legal files.   Wait, hold on now. James Telestrian III, the big man CEO of Telestrian Industries, shares a father with the children of Melinda Watts? That'd make him the half-brother of Sam and Jessica, which in turn makes them eligible for this Trust? So Sam and Jessica's father who died way back when and whose life insurance Sam apparently squandered afterwards was James Telestrian II, huh. Seems Sam did have some rich relatives after all, but it also seems like he was purposefully kept in the dark about that fact. Or maybe he found out at some point and that's the source of his own insurance money that came seemingly out of nowhere? Man, who would've guessed that enormous mess of a family could possibly turn out to be even messier.  Whatever the case, we can think about the full implications later. A little ways further in a spooky Black IC is watching a datastore, but it's no issue by its lonesome. Let's see what's in this thing.   Unlike with earlier paydata, we don't have to take this one anywhere and are immediately paid 2,000 nuyen. Handy!  We finally reach the elevator controls, but there's one last trick up these guys' cybersleeve as 5 IC pop up into the previously empty room the moment we get close to the node. This isn't as big of a problem as it looks though, since whoever programmed this clever trap made the mistake of dropping the square-shaped melee IC a cybermile away from us.  By the time they slowly manage to cyberfloat their way to Amazon it's all too late, and they're blasted into fine cyberdust.  One hacked elevator, coming up! Also +6 karma. There are a lot of karma rewards in this part of the game. Delicious karma rewards.  No more enemy reinforcements arrive and there's nothing else for us to do here, so it's back to meatspace and into the elevator. This job sure went awry in a record time. Maybe the Baron will get his poo poo together and it'll all be smooth sailing from here though? Ah, who am I kidding. Kanfy fucked around with this message at 12:09 on Dec 6, 2017 |
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Oct 15, 2017 20:48
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That fight with the turret guns and goonsquad is one of the dicier ones DMS has to offer if you don't hack the guns or know about the magical powers of -AP grenades. as opposed to the magical powers of real magic. A+ for the security card, though. Loved the detail work 
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Oct 15, 2017 22:46
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Psion posted:A+ for the security card, though. Loved the detail work That was probably the least amount of effort I've put into anything in my entire life, which is precisely the amount it deserved.
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Oct 15, 2017 23:30
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Man. I thought Dragonfall got a bit murdery (my Decker, a guy who was all about fast talk and the quiet approach, still killed over three hundred people), but compared to the first campaign, you're playing as Ghandi. It also feels like Dragonfall and Hong Kong did a better job at making it feel like (for the required stuff) you were shooting people who had it coming, one way or another. (Or making the "this is kind of shady and/or first degree murder-y" stuff obvious) It's especially weird here, since for the whole game prior to these last two missions, you were shooting people in a standard game context of "These are Really Bad People, so it's fine." And now you're just killing guys working a 9 to 5 because you want to steal the stuff they're guarding. Which, you know, isn't a break with the setting in any way, but it is odd with the context of being the big hero who's trying to stop the apocalypse.
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Oct 15, 2017 23:46
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In addition to the salarymen you're killing at a rate you'd think they're random encounters, the game also starts handing out Karma like candy. It adds to the feeling that the game is rushing to a conclusion and the development team was rushing to finish this section of the game.
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Oct 16, 2017 00:13
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chiasaur11 posted:
Remember, Shadowrun protagonists are "good guy adjacent"!
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Oct 16, 2017 00:23
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Honestly, the weirder part to me is that all the rent-a-cops are so willing to die at the hands of people who are very clearly better armed than them.
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Oct 16, 2017 00:39
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Shadowrun is usually bad vs. evil.
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Oct 16, 2017 00:40
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Keeshhound posted:Honestly, the weirder part to me is that all the rent-a-cops are so willing to die at the hands of people who are very clearly better armed than them. From what I understand about the setting and the whole "corporate sovereignty" thing, I imagine the rent-a-cops guarding corporate secrets would be just as dead if they let you pass. Though that's less a justification and more fuel for the "holy poo poo, this world is terrible to live in" fire.
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Oct 16, 2017 01:53
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I think I see where this is going now. Well, let's take care of the invincible bugs first.
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Oct 16, 2017 03:24
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I may have said this before (I have a tendency to repeat myself), but I really liked Dead Man's Switch. The campaign is pretty linear, but it does such a great job of introducing you to the gameworld. I mean, I know nothing of tabletop Shadowrun, but Shadowrun Returns just eases you in. And your player character has a definite personality thanks to the speech options. It seems like there are three distinct "voices", snarky, professional and murderous psychopath. No-one actually cares which one you are, which speaks volumes for the Shadowrun Universe...
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Oct 16, 2017 03:35
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funktopus posted:From what I understand about the setting and the whole "corporate sovereignty" thing, I imagine the rent-a-cops guarding corporate secrets would be just as dead if they let you pass. Not really, that would be a waste of corporate resources. I mean, if a place gets invaded by gangers or college protest groups or something, then yeah It's your job to shoot the idiots. But when a place gets invaded by a team of Shadowrunners packing military grade equipment then your job is to hit the HTR team button, lock down the building, and stay the gently caress out of the way until the people with the training and firepower to deal with this show up.
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Oct 16, 2017 16:20
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painedforever posted:I may have said this before (I have a tendency to repeat myself), but I really liked Dead Man's Switch. The campaign is pretty linear, but it does such a great job of introducing you to the gameworld. I mean, I know nothing of tabletop Shadowrun, but Shadowrun Returns just eases you in. And your player character has a definite personality thanks to the speech options. Kinda like in Alpha Protocol with the Suave, Professional and Agressive responses... although here its only for fluff instead of being a core game mechanic.
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Oct 16, 2017 20:12
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painedforever posted:I may have said this before (I have a tendency to repeat myself), but I really liked Dead Man's Switch. The campaign is pretty linear, but it does such a great job of introducing you to the gameworld. I mean, I know nothing of tabletop Shadowrun, but Shadowrun Returns just eases you in. And your player character has a definite personality thanks to the speech options. DMS is short enough that its shortcomings have never really bothered me that much. I think it could easily wear out its welcome if it was as long as Dragonfall or Hong Kong since it for the most part lacks the strengths of those games, but it manages to wrap up before that becomes a real issue. I think it's actually the shortest Shadowrun game of them all, even including the old ones. But yeah, for better or worse it was clearly designed to be a very safe and easily approachable Shadowrun experience for people not previously familiar with the setting. Of course it got so overshadowed by its follow-ups that nowadays everyone's told to just skip it and start from Dragonfall anyway.
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Oct 17, 2017 11:52
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Manic_Misanthrope posted:Kinda like in Alpha Protocol with the Suave, Professional and Agressive responses... although here its only for fluff instead of being a core game mechanic. It's a shame pretty much everything else in AP was mediocre at best. 
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Oct 17, 2017 12:00
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Randaconda posted:It's a shame pretty much everything else in AP was mediocre at best.
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Oct 17, 2017 12:08
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I suppose one could be disappointed in AP if they came in for the gunplay or found the hacking difficult, but everything else was quite good at the very least.
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Oct 17, 2017 12:10
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CommissarMega posted:I suppose one could be disappointed in AP if they came in for the gunplay or found the hacking difficult, but everything else was quite good at the very least. What kind of person plays a long complex (obsidian!) rpg for the satisfying GUNPLAY? Has there even ever been a arpg with something like that?
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Oct 17, 2017 12:15
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Xander77 posted:"Except for the writing, dialog, characters, your actions influencing the gameworld and character actions, relatively nuanced settings and worldbuilding, and roleplaying opportunities, Alpha Protocol was really mediocre". I'm mixed on the writing, myself. It responded well to the player, which is impressive, and it set up a number of twists without feeling like it was pulling them out of its rear end, but the characters are seldom particularly engaging, the overall plot's fairly boilerplate, it's a bit over-fond of Morton's Forks, and the structure means that the safehouse plots kind of feel awkward. (Let's not even get into the way the dialog flows sometimes.) And Alpha Protocol's combat is poo poo even by ARPG standard. Mass Effect 1 and the first Deus Ex play smoother, and that is a pretty loving low bar. Level design is garbage, combat feels as bad as it looks, and on and on. What Alpha Protocol did right, it did very right, but what it did right is hard and expensive and time consuming, while what it did wrong was enough to ensure nobody else wanted to take those same risks. Shame, but such is life.
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Oct 17, 2017 12:40
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Alpha Protocol is one of my favorite games that I will never play 'legitimately' again. Not when I can just cruise through all the levels using a combination of overpowered stealth tricks and overpowered pistol tricks.
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Oct 17, 2017 13:52
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Xander77 posted:"Except for the writing, dialog, characters, your actions influencing the gameworld and character actions, relatively nuanced settings and worldbuilding, and roleplaying opportunities, Alpha Protocol was really mediocre".
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Oct 17, 2017 13:56
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That's a little unfair, Tiggum; it all depends on where and what you find enjoyable. I can't care less for gunplay of any sort- for me, the only truly satisfying FPS gunplay of recent times was from Wolfenstein and even that was more because I was shooting Nazis, even before it apparently became uncool. For me, what made AP one of my all-time faves was the decision-making and the consequences (even small ones, like perks for everything)- if anything, the simplistic gunplay made things better for me, since I didn't really have to think about it while plotting my way through the game.
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Oct 17, 2017 14:57
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The most fun I had in AP was playing Agent Fuckup Thorton who was deliberately as annoying as possible (and wow does this have results) and I approached combat like a stereotypical Call of Duty player, so AR guns blazing all the time The problem was that this approach was too effective. So, I had to keep putting further restrictions like never taking cover and not using special ammo and these still weren't enough to slow me down. I just kept going. I forget what my total end result of limits were but it was really fun and a nice change from chainshot pistols. And the reactions were pretty great. AP has many big flaws but it's a real fun game if you don't get stopped cold by one of them. There's so much good stuff in there, but a game where the real sales pitch is "play it twice to see all the cool reactivity" isn't an easy pitch to make. Then again I think I played it three times in a row and had to stop. I'm probably up to five runs now? Let's just say it is good and I like it. Kanfy posted:But yeah, for better or worse it was clearly designed to be a very safe and easily approachable Shadowrun experience for people not previously familiar with the setting. Of course it got so overshadowed by its follow-ups that nowadays everyone's told to just skip it and start from Dragonfall anyway. I think it depends on who you're talking to, but I've suggested starting with DMS to several people. It's short, like you say, and it's also not something that's really good to go back to after DF and HK, whereas those two have a high enough polish level it's no big deal to switch between them. So for anyone who's got even a moderate interest in DMS, power through it first and then move on because otherwise you're not coming back. Psion fucked around with this message at 16:57 on Oct 17, 2017 |
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Oct 17, 2017 15:52
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Kanfy posted:Of course it got so overshadowed by its follow-ups that nowadays everyone's told to just skip it and start from Dragonfall anyway. Admittedly, Dragonfall is far superior to DMS, and not just for the story. They really polished up the GUI. But I can't say that "everyone" is told to skip it. I'm pretty sure I've told everyone to start with DMS (because it's easy, natch), and then move on to the complexities of Dragonfall and Hong Kong, what with parties, and factions, and jobs, and flanking...
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Oct 17, 2017 18:05
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Kanfy posted:Of course it got so overshadowed by its follow-ups that nowadays everyone's told to just skip it and start from Dragonfall anyway. It is kind of a nice easy way in, if you don't know how the gameplay system works or you want to experiment with a build/archetype. First half of the game feels like a tutorial and all the stuff before the NTSB warehouse run pretty much is. Btw on the subject of builds: Is this an okay place to ask for creation/optimization advice? I want to fianlly push through SR:HK as a mage, but don't know how you make them work efficiently. Played with rifle/decker and the "Amazon build" (decker/rigger) and wanted something new (or less expensive than decker/rigger).
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Oct 17, 2017 18:39
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It's also easy enough to go through dms without paying a single merc until you're almost done. I think this was last mission I bothered being a cheap rear end though, there's a ton of combat in the end game for some reason and I got lazy.
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Oct 17, 2017 18:44
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OutofSight posted:Btw on the subject of builds: Is this an okay place to ask for creation/optimization advice? It depends on what kind of mage you want to build - support or offensive. And since HK gives you a shaman, the offensive type is one that slots in fairly nicely to the other characters the game already provides you with.  This character build was what I beat DMS with on Very Hard, and it was wrecking poo poo pretty hard while also getting a lot of the talky bits. In the early game, focus on Willpower and Spellcasting only, paying some slight lip service to Body and Charisma. You'll be squishy as all hell, but that's what having other people around is for. Once you get Willpower and Spellcasting up and have an outfit that boosts it too, start boosting Body and Charisma more. Finally, if you're really flush with Karma, you can get into Quickness and Dodge, or maybe Intelligence and BioTech depending on what you want your mage to also be able to do - either run in and not die while flinging fireballs, or also keeping other party members alive in different ways.
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Oct 17, 2017 18:56
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TheMcD posted:It depends on what kind of mage you want to build - support or offensive. And since HK gives you a shaman, the offensive type is one that slots in fairly nicely to the other characters the game already provides you with. "N" is a reference to your Visual Novel lets play (can't remember the exact name)? My greatest problem is really to find a good spell synergy/selection, which worth upgrading. Lightning spells with -AP debuffs sounds nice as a go-to spell and CHA is needed for being the talky chummer in the group (and for some spell requirements). Don't want to be the guy, that stands in a corner half the time doing nothing or shooting lame "powerbolts" (Though that might just be an issue with the npc mages).
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Oct 17, 2017 19:32
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