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Hello yes since it's so close by I would like to place an order for two (2) forum posts so as to allow the next update to take place at the top of the next page instead of the bottom of this one. Thank you in advance~
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Nov 1, 2017 19:45
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Part 29 - Friends in High Places .jpg)  Well, if this is to be the end of the road, at least we have a decent shot at going surrounded by some pretty decorations. That's better than what most people can hope for around these parts.  Just, too bad about the company.  I suggest you keep your smart-rear end remarks to yourself this time, elf. Mr. Telestrian isn't some streetmeat you can impress or intimidate. He's the brains behind the throne of Tir Tairngire and one of the richest men in Seattle. And he holds your leash, right McKlusky? You his lapdog?[His eyes say, "I'd love to kill you now" but his mouth continues to smirk.] I got one of the richest an' most powerful men in the Pacific Northwest takin' care of me, dumbass. Wadda YOU got? Indigestion. You're dumber than I thought. Enjoy your chat. I'll dispose of your body later.We really need to talk our way out of this somehow, there's no way in hell we can let this guy get the satisfaction. Not in a million years.  Wouldn't be an ultra-rich guy's mansion without a dapper-looking butler to go with it.   I am Mr. Quoth, Mr. Telestrian's Head of Household. Mr. Telestrian is expecting you. You will find him in his office.Quoth in the streets, the Raven in the sheets am I right buddy This is an extraordinary estate. May I look around before I see him? Great, maybe we can find a secret passage which leads to the outside or something. All millionaire's mansions have at least one or two, right?  Man, but this place really is big. Feels like you'd get your daily exercise in by just walking to the bathroom and back. Somebody else is here too from the looks of it.  Now wait a moment. I'd recognize that smug mug anywhere!  You run in some pretty different circles, don't you, Aljernon? I do not "run" at all, Amazon. I go where I am needed. I am needed here. Okay, my magical friend, explain yourself. No. I do not explain. I provide a service. Seek me out after you have spoken to James Telestrian. Then perhaps I can be of service again.Yep, that's Aljernon alright. As clear and forthcoming as ever.  There's nothing else to look at and we have no luck finding any secret passages either, so walking directly into the lion's den looks to be our only available option.  Now what kind of a monster has two statues set perfectly symmetrically on both sides of their desk, only to have one of them face a different direction from the other?!  This guy's who. James Telestrian III, CEO of Telestrian Industries and owner of the tallest drat collar in the city of Seattle. Probably employs a private hit squad for the specific purpose of making sure it stays that way.  I have been reviewing the results of your... visit to my Seattle office last night. I admit, they are impressive. Haha, we got Silverstar fired. We might end up dead or imprisoned because of it but at least something good came out of that mess of a run. We did James here a favor, honestly. How do you intend to settle your debt? Would you take a check? Oof, tough crowd. There was also a Corporate etiquette choice here where we could've offered to work off our debt to him. You have one piece of information which you might use as a bargaining chip in the little time you have left to live - why you took what you took. I am interested to know why you and your team of criminals fought your way through my security teams up to my private office to access the Matrix and uncover the location of a simple research project.We could lie to him and say we're just an ordinary thief, but I get the feeling that trying to deceive this guy would be an exercise in futility and not entirely unlikely to get us killed. Besides, if he had Aegis created to kill the bug spirits and we tried to steal it in order to do the exact same thing, lying about our motivation seems like it'd only serve to make things worse for us whether he believed us or not. So you know what, screw it, if he wants to know the truth then let's just lay it all on the table and see where it goes. Not like we have much to lose at this point. It goes like this: Your half-brother, Sam Watts, hired me to find his own killer. He had a Dead Man's Switch. When I find the killer, I get paid. You impress me, ma'am. My father's bastards are intentionally not well known, even to themselves. Nevertheless, I fail to see the connection between this "Sam Watts"'s death and a raid on one of my office buildings. There is no connection between the research project and the dead man that I am aware of. Sam was killed by your half-sister Jessica. Jessica is protected by giant bugs. Aegis kills giant bugs. Kill the bugs. Kill Jessica. Get paid.Did we mention the part about getting paid? As a sidenote, one of the available dialogue choices if you try to lie seems to have an incorrect flag assigned to it, and picking it immediately skips this entire scene and moves on to the next one with no explanation.   Well well, things might be looking up for us after all.   It's you! You're the woman who helped me escape from the Universal Brotherhood! How did you get here?[Telestrian cuts in quickly.] Thank you, Marie-Louise. You have confirmed the identity of your rescuer and given me a reason to forgive her for her trespasses against me. [She looks hungry for your help.] I'm glad you're here. This guy's your father?Apparently there's a bit of a discrepancy in the canon here, and other Shadowrun sources have Marie-Louise as James' younger sister rather than his daughter.  You can relax, Marie-Louise. You are safe. It is over. And that sure worked out great for everyone involved. Hell, I'm half-convinced we would've been better off contacting Telestrian ourselves instead of getting tangled up in the Baron's questionable schemes.  In any case, it's looking like we might've finally gotten our lucky break. Having this guy and his buddies on our side sure as hell beats having them against us, we have enough problems as it is without being actively hunted by another major corporation. I would be delighted. I don't know if that is sarcasm or not. Just... behave.Fade to black!  It may not look like it at first glance, but this small library we're standing in just might be the most dangerous room in the world right now. Lady and gentlemen, this is... Amazon. She is the elf who saved my daughter and the only one who has faced our common enemy in combat. Herr Brackhaus, what does the representative of the Great Dragon Lofwyr have to tell us about the magical insect this... shadowrunner uncovered?Lofwyr is, as mentioned, a golden Great Dragon and both the CEO and sole shareholder of the largest corporation in the world, Saeder-Krupp. Saeder-Krupp (which was originally BMW until Lofwyr somewhat dramatically took over and restructured it) is based in Germany and is involved in a huge variety of fields, either directly or through their many subsidiaries, ranging from heavy industry to telecommunications to banking and much more besides. They're the biggest and baddest fish in the corporate pond and their power and influence are practically unparalleled.  Of course this also makes Lofwyr, who has absolute control over S-K, the single richest and one of the most powerful beings on the planet. Lofwyr's best known for his calculating nature and the fact that he's rumoured to personally eat people who fail him. It's precisely because of him and his ability to always come out on top in the end regardless of the situation that "Never, ever cut a deal with a dragon" became a core rule of shadowrunners worldwide. Lofwyr can't really be considered an out-and-out villain though, and being in his employ can be quite lucrative provided you don't screw up, but he's definitely just about the last guy whose personal shitlist you want to find your name on.  My lord Lofwyr has witnessed the insect spirits' physical manifestation before - roughly 9,000 years ago. As you are aware, magic ebbs und flows from the Earth, cycling from peak to peak over the course of 5,200 years. As the level of magic grows...Mr. Brackhaus' intimidating presence is somewhat undermined by the fact that the writers felt the need to include his German accent in his dialogue. Actually, since it's not really relevant to the main plot and tiptoeing around it is a little annoying for everyone involved I'm just going to tell you right now that Brackhaus here is, in fact, Lofwyr himself. It's not really a secret and you're pretty much told as much if you ask about it later on anyway, but I think the dialogue here is more interesting if you're aware of the fact from the start. Him being here personally is a good indication that we're dealing with some Serious poo poo with these bugs.  And speaking of powerful beings... where to even start with this guy. To put it very briefly, Harlequin is an eccentric and immortal elven mage born back in the Fourth World some five thousand years ago. Especially at the time this game takes place (2nd edition Shadowrun) he's more akin to a living plot device than a character to the point that he officially didn't have character stats assigned to him until later, and the limits of his power are pretty much whatever the plot happens to demand. Similarly to ol' Elminster in D&D, despite his considerable powers he rarely gets directly involved in things unless he considers it absolutely necessary, instead preferring indirect assistance served with a large heaping of cryptic hints. Incidentally, this isn't his first appearance in a Shadowrun video game as he also appeared to help out Joshua towards the end of the Sega Genesis game. He wasn't exactly a looker in that one though. __!__923.png) (Image courtesy of Turtilicious' LP) In any case, we'll have the opportunity to have a more in-depth chat with both Sephiroth and Kefka here after this meeting is done. I believe that would explain why I wasn't able to damage it. The spirit itself is extra-planar.Academic etiquette choice here, allowing us to sound all smart. [Aljernon eyes you keenly.] Bravo. That is precisely the idea, the insect spirit exists on both planes simultaneously. I have been impressed with you for some time, Amazon. It is good that you are here. Now an insect spirit can't simply thumb a ride through astral space and show up on Earth late for dinner - dinner in this case, being us. I think it's safe to assume Aljernon was feigning ignorance when we asked him about insect spirits back at the Union, though I suppose in hindsight he never directly denied having knowledge about them. Sneaky bastard. The best candidates are the disaffected and the disenfranchised. In short, the weak-willed. Their minds are the most susceptible to suggestion, which is helpful in making the transformation. As you may imagine, these are the sort of people easily attracted to a cult - such as the Universal Brotherhood. Finally, by performing what has to be a truly disgusting ritual, the shaman serving the insect totem implants the spirit into the host - willingly or not. Then it's feeding time. Har'lea'quinn iss correct. The insect spirit will then slowly consume its host, while transforming it into the spirit's own insectoid body, thus manifesting itself fully on this plane. I don't like the sound of this. You shouldn't. It's bad. Really, really bad. The initial bugs prepare a nest for the summoning of a Queen. Once a nest has its Queen, she literally explodes with newly-manifested insect spirits. They swarm out of the nest, feasting on all the flesh they can find and implanting more insect spirits into the fresh corpses. Again, and again, and again.Of all the potential ways for the apocalypse to come to pass, everyone being eaten by spooky bugs would be an especially lame and gross one.  This is not an infestation, Amazon. It is an invasion. My lord Lofwyr knew this day would come, but he did not know precisely when nor where. Your rescue of Mr. Telestrian's daughter has exposed the existence of an insect spirit for the first time in this cycle of the world. So you're early to the party this time. That gives you the upper hand, right? Herr Telestrian's biotechnology and agricultural divisions worked with my lord Lofwyr's thaumaturgical engineers and designed Project Aegis to destroy an insect spirit once it is released from its host. The formula, a fluorescing astral bacteria strain, exists in the physical and astral plane at once and can thus affect the insect spirit. Now that was a mouthful. Did you memorize it or are you reading it off of index cards?Harlequin is fully aware of Brackhaus' true identity, which makes his casual jabs at the guy pretty hilarious. My Director of R&D, Diane Ravenwood, will explain how Project Aegis will be used in the field. Dr. Ravenwood?  In order to destroy one of the bugs, it must first be damaged using conventional weapons or magic until the spirit is released from the host body. Then the insect spirit must be shot with the Project Aegis prototype launcher to destroy it."Shot with", huh? We kind of put all our focus on drones and decking so we're not very good at shooting things, but I'm sure they can accommodate instead of making this extremely critical tool completely reliant on one's skill in ranged weapons. So in order to stop an invasion of insects from another dimension, a dragon and an elf co-created a magical insecticide. This is maybe a bit of a flimsy justification for why it's us who have to do the job despite being surrounded by people with power and resources beyond our comprehension, but ending the game here would admittedly be a little anti-climactic. I'm flattered, but what makes you think this Project Aegis will actually work in practice?[Harlequin grins and his red lipstick catches the light.] Because it has to. If only we could've had this guy to talk with inbetween missions back at the Union instead of those boring merchants. Enough. Are you willing to undergo this mission, Amazon?Much like with the Baron before the Telestrian run, we could accept immediately. But maybe we can push our luck a little. I'm a professional, and professionals get paid for their work. I assume that serving all mankind involves compensation. Of course. Here is my proposal. If you prevent the Queen from being summoned and destroy the insects in the nest, one million nuyen will be divided by the surviving team members. Boy have we been working for the wrong people. With the Corporate etiquette we could negotiate ourselves an extra half-million on top of that, but I guess we'll have to make do. One million? Sign me up. Excellent.[Harlequin claps his hands as if seeing the circus for the first time.] I love the way that the short-lived are willing to die even faster - it's very inspirational. Odds of this being foreshadowing for the final boss fight are roughly 100%. Hey, don't scare the kid, Hansel. We still need her to go on the mission! By the by, I'm coming with you, Amazon. I wouldn't mind seeing these creatures for myself since I missed 'em last time. Telestrian will bankroll you so you can hire the rest of the team.And he does so immediately, to the tune of 10,000 nuyen. Find me when you're ready to go and we'll bug right out of here. And together with a reward of 8 Karma the meeting comes to a close, as does this update. Things have progressed pretty quickly and are definitely coming to a head now, but before we make our final assault on Antland we do still have some preparations to do and a couple of interesting people to talk to. Kanfy fucked around with this message at 12:09 on Dec 6, 2017 |
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Nov 1, 2017 19:54
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Yeah, I like Harlequin here which was probably noticeable in the update. Overall despite its blatantly fanservice-y nature, this whole part where you're just hanging out with some of the biggest names in Shadowrun is amongst my favorites across all three games. Not at the top by any means, but somewhere up there.
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Nov 1, 2017 21:21
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PMush Perfect posted:Aren't there a set of dialogue options for this part that are something like thinly-veiled disdain, tempered by the fact that you've absolutely been caught with your pant down? Been a long time since I played DMS. To a degree, sure. You can straight-up say that you were only hired to solve a murder and all this stuff really isn't your problem, but Telestrian is pretty quick to point out that you're in no position to refuse because the only real thing that makes you uniquely qualified, the fact that you've fought the insect spirits before, also holds true for the runners you brought with you for the Brotherhood run. If you won't do it then he'll get rid of you and hire one of them to lead the assault instead.
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Nov 4, 2017 09:09
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There's a couple more short stories relevant to the characters in the game left, the first of which is The Road to Hell by Phaedra Weldon. It sheds some light on the enigmatic Baron Samedi and what exactly went down with him before the events of the game.Shadowrun Anthology posted:
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Nov 6, 2017 21:45
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Shadowrun Anthology posted:
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Nov 6, 2017 21:46
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Shadowrun Anthology posted:
Kanfy fucked around with this message at 21:50 on Nov 6, 2017 |
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Nov 6, 2017 21:46
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Glad people are liking the stories, I figured they'd make for good bonus content and maybe give people who have already played through the game something new to see as well. They're easily skipped if you don't care anyway. There are 16 stories in total in the Anthology of which I'll post one more (a good one for fans of the Harlequin-Brackhaus duo such as myself), plus a bunch of concept art and other miscellaneous pictures such as this one of a dragon playing with a cat. 
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Nov 7, 2017 15:58
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Part 30 - Final Preparations This is going to be a pretty brief and straightforward update, mostly consisting of us asking everyone present a whole bunch of questions. We'll start our grand tour of inquiry from the mysterious magic vendor nearby.  This is the last opportunity to shop in the game, so there's no sense in saving up if you're still in need of something. I have some questions first. Speak them. Were you spying on me at the Seamstresses Union? [His eyes widen at the question.] You mistake your importance, Amazon. No, I was not spying on you. Until Mr. Telestrian's summons, you were beneath my notice. I saw only a customer.What happened to "I've been impressed with you for some time"? Why do you have to be such a jerk, Aljernon? Are you really here?[Aljernon's face takes on a dreamy expression.] Are any of us? Yes, Amazon, I am here. And at the Seamstresses Union. And a myriad of other places. Who exactly are you? I am a peddler of magical spells, spirits, and foci. Nothing more. Truly? Aw to hell with you. We need to find someone more reasonable and less arrogant to talk with.  Like Lofwyr here.  How did the insect spirits get here? Unpleasant. Guess Jessica isn't just your run-of-the-mill crazy, the bugs have been literally taking over her mind. Eventually, the shaman completely succumbs, choosing the contentment and sense of clear purpose that being part of a hive provides. Perform your role. Serve your queen. That is all. And where do they come from? As the level of magic in the Sixth World grows the - for the lack of a better word - the *distance* between the various planes of reality decreases. When the membrane between the planes is thin enough, ritual magic may be used to draw beings from one to another. If Lofwyr had seen this before and knew another was coming, why didn't he move faster? Based upon previous cycles of magic, the first insects are not due to appear for another 700 years. My lord Lofwyr believed he was well ahead of schedule. But something is different this time. It iss... concerning. Why do you think it's different this time? Perhaps it is due to the population of humans and meta-humans on Earth being so much higher than in previous ages. As a result, the volume of magic created by sentient beings is correspondingly higher. Or perhaps it is the density of the population coupled with the advances of society and technology that has altered things. I kind of love this hilariously dreary idea that people have become so aware of the misery and meaninglessness of their garbage lives that it actually manifests as a supernatural force affecting the world. So what's it like to serve a Great Dragon? [The German man's eyes narrow.] Do not misconstrue my relationship with Lord Lofwyr. I do not serve.They drop a few hints about Brackhaus' true identity here and there, if you know to keep an eye out for them. Alright, I should go. Yes. Good luck. Telestrian has returned to his office and can be found at his desk.  Tell me more about Project Aegis. Telestrian Industries Corporation has been working on Project Aegis for two years without fully understanding its use. Lofwyr did not trust me with the information. My engineers finally met the Dragon's specifications 3 months ago and had just begun the production process when my cousin Lynne hired shadowrunners to destroy the lab and the factory - leaving us only the sample you stole.Pretty impressive that Lynne knew to blow the place up when even the people making the stuff apparently didn't know what it was for. Why was Marie-Louise taken by the Universal Brotherhood? How exactly do I use Aegis? My people have weaponized the Project Aegis formula by creating shells which, when fired, propel a high-velocity cloud of the material which should be effective at killing exposed insect spirits. There are more effective ways to deliver Aegis - obviously - but time was of the essence and I needed to improvise. Right. I should go. Indeed. The good detective is still around too.  We're all gonna die, McKlusky. Yeah, but you're gonna die screaming.I think he secretly likes us.  Marie-Louise is hanging out in the main hall.  Yep. Thank you. For everything. Could be worse. Could be raining. [She smiles.] It's Seattle. But you look like you have questions. Why were you locked up at the Universal Brotherhood? This particular incident is covered in a short story from the Shadowrun Returns Anthology which I posted in the thread but which probably won't be included in the archived version. My aunt Lynne told me the truth about Harkeem and how my father lied. She preyed upon my anger. I was so disgusted with him, it was easy for her to get me to leave and join her new family at the Universal Brotherhood. And what did she and the UB want with you? I know that feeling, I've played through multiple Bethesda games. Was it Harkeem who helped you in the Matrix? I wonder if the sample we stole was already in launcher form or if Samedi was planning on having us gently spray it on the spirits' faces or something. Though let's be honest, he probably never planned that far. So, what did Harkeem tell you about us breaking into your father's office? Nothing. I haven't spoken to him since last night. Why? What happened? It went as planned until your father's people found me and brought me in.Not exactly true, but she doesn't need to know the grisly details.  We could've also told her the truth for a very different reaction: quote:
But a more interesting option is being an rear end in a top hat and lying to her: quote:
Of course we never heard such a thing. I find this interesting because it's just about the only time in the game you can be a cruel jerkass for no good reason to someone who doesn't deserve it. It's not uncommon in many other RPGs but here it kinda stands out.  Quoth the butler can be found near the fireplace in the same hall.  Unfortunately we don't get to know the red-eyed elf better as he only serves as a vendor. His selection covers pretty much everything but magical stuff which is available from Aljernon instead. He even does cyberware installations which is quite impressive.  One thing of note is that Quoth is the only vendor in the game to sell Smartlink weapons, otherwise only available to hireable runners. We obviously don't need one, but we do resupply and upgrade our healing items while we're here.  Having come full circle, we finish our tour with Harley here.  I have a few questions first. Of course you do. So, who are you? I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together.With an intelligence check of 5 we'd be able to catch these hot Beatles references ("You're the walrus?"), but we don't need to play the clown's games. Sounds like a load of drek. This way I can point out the nice little touch that Harlequin actually swears like normal - after all, why would he use the local slang? Also I believe the "fights duels with assholes" part is referring to this guy:  Ehran the Scribe, another immortal elf against whom Harlequin lost both a duel and his left ear back in Renaissance-era France (the ear visible on Harlequin's portrait is actually a prosthetic). He got back at Ehran a few centuries later in 2050 and they started getting along a bit better after that, but even so the term "long-time rivalry" is definitely taken to a whole different level with these two. How do we kill an insect spirit again? Rinse, repeat. And what's the connection between the bugs and the Universal Brotherhood? They're thinking big! They set up shop in every major city, created a major marketing campaign, and then began aggressively recruiting the drop-outs, the disaffected, and the deranged - just like any good cult! If Aegis fails... if we fail, the world will be absolutely overrun by bugs. It's brilliant!One of these major cities is Chicago which later down the line ends up with a serious bug problem. Because of that particular incident, many people with prior familiarity with Shadowrun knew what was coming the moment Shane namedropped the Universal Brotherhood for the first time way back when. Does Brackhaus really work for a Great Dragon? This is the biggest hint given in the game about the man's true nature, though many probably dismiss it as Harlequin's usual nonsense. Alright, I'm ready. Let's go stomp some bugs. [His eyes light up.] I thought you'd never ask!  So here's the bad news: the Aegis launcher is indeed a shotgun which we're bad at using. But wait - here's the good news: it doesn't actually count as a shotgun in the game despite being classified as one, meaning the Shotgun skill doesn't affect it. In fact, I don't believe the Aegis launcher takes any of your skills or stats into account in any way. In other words, whether you're the greatest shotgun-wielder the world has ever seen (not us) or someone who'd have better luck using one as a bludgeon (totally us*), your effectiveness at swatting spirit bugs with this thing is on the exact same level. It doesn't really make any sense, but from a gameplay perspective it's a very good thing as it avoids screwing over non-gunners like pure mages. As there won't be any Matrix runs in the game from this point on, we can safely swap out our cyberdeck here. (*Not actually true as our Melee Weapons skill is even lower than our Ranged Weapons skill)  This isn't exactly the most well-rounded lineup but we're stuck with Harlequin, the Ghost of Tir Tairngire provided by Telestrian is unique and provides us with an extra Aegis launcher and not bringing Coyote after everything we've been through with her would just feel wrong.  This is it, the final job. It's been a, well, not that long a journey to be honest, but this is where it ends one way or another. Let's get it done and hopefully finally get our big payday. Kanfy fucked around with this message at 12:10 on Dec 6, 2017 |
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Nov 9, 2017 18:01
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painedforever posted:God, so many nyuyen left over! And the final team is so cheap. And there's really nothing left to buy. It's... bothersome. In the original version of the game Quoth didn't actually sell healing items, which means the last opportunity in the game to buy those was back at the Union before the Telestrian run. Combined with the fact that you couldn't save manually meant that the final mission could potentially get real bad if you ended up running out of supplies. How good or bad the mission is now is obviously subjective, but it's at least better than it used to be.
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Nov 9, 2017 19:38
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Randaconda posted:Are you going to do the other two games? Maybe? I started this one pretty much on a whim after I noticed nobody had done one yet, but those two are a bit more of a commitment and if I start one I want to be sure I can also see it all the way through. I do kind of like the idea though, and I definitely feel like they deserve to be shown off by at least someone. For now I'm just going to focus on finishing up here, see how things look like after that. If you or someone else feels like giving the other two a shot then by all means, I'm definitely not going to try and stop you from freeing up all those hours for me. 
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Nov 10, 2017 00:49
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Randaconda posted:I'm not good or entertaining enough to do a LP. That's absolutely not an issue, the trick is to pick a game with a cool enough setting to let you coast on its merits instead of needing to rely on your own. Also no ending chat yet. 
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Nov 10, 2017 01:22
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David Corbett posted:Now that we’re drawing toward the end, I just wanted to say that this has been a phenomenal thread for its wonderful combination of gameplay and lore. Truly enjoyable to read whether there has been an update or not. I can’t say that about many LPs, so well done! I really appreciate the kind words. And yeah, I originally figured this thing would have about five active followers so it's been super cool seeing so many people come in and talk about the game and the setting. Lots of really interesting discussion and good people here, it's been great. 7c Nickel posted:Am I wrong or could you berate Baron Samedi enough to make him drop his gimmick persona? I seem to remember getting him to swap over to Harkeem and a skinny blerd portrait. I'm afraid you've dreamt that part up. There's something kind of like that in Dragonfall (which by the way is real deep in spoiler territory and thus best not talked about at all at this stage) so maybe you're getting things mixed up.
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Nov 10, 2017 12:49
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Reminds me that while he's not directly featured in any of the games, you can spot his election poster at the Union entrance and probably other places too. E: 
Kanfy fucked around with this message at 10:21 on Nov 11, 2017 |
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Nov 11, 2017 10:10
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OutofSight posted:I had the urge to play to SR:R on the weekend and encountered some things not covered in the LP. You're right about that first one, I must've missed that since I didn't think to run all the way back to the entrance to check with her afterwards. Good catch. I did cover the second one though, we just never used it since we didn't need to. Kanfy posted:
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Nov 13, 2017 19:05
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Part 31 - The Spirits Within   We start our final mission from the same dimly-lit basement room we once used to escape the Brotherhood. This time our goal is in the opposite direction.  And our company is decidedly weirder. [Harlequin grins a wide, predatory grin. Both sets of his pearly-white teeth, offset by the livid red lipstick around his mouth.] Now the fun begins. Wait, I have some questions.There's always time for more questions in this game. Of course you do. If you won't tell me who you are, will you at least tell me what you can do? See this sword?Just pretend that he's holding one. It's kind of hard to miss. I can stick people with it. Pretty good, too. I also have one of those Telestrofwyr Magical Bug-Eradicating launchers like the rest of you. That it? Is that not enough?! Beyond the tattoos that adorn my face, I have another - a recent addition - in a place that only those closest to me will ever see.TMI  Oh, and I am a powerful mage as well. I forgot that.Canonically one of the most powerful there is. In this game... eh, I'd rather have Alexander Falk or even Verbena Vie to be honest. Right. And what can we expect to find down here? Sounds like a final dungeon alright. Great. Well, I'm ready.But first, how about one last traditional look at our party? We haven't done one of those in a while, and definitely won't after this.  Amazon worked hard training her previously feeble Body in preparation for this day. Real hard. As in, she could now probably do side work as a live crash test dummy. Amazing how far a little motivation and a stack of spare Karma can take you.   It comes as no surprise to anybody that Harlequin is nowhere near as powerful as he "should" be, though this being Harlequin that's fairly easy to write off as him not taking things entirely seriously. Statistically he's by no means weak, having downright herculean strength with very respectable caster stats on top. Unfortunately, his primary specialization is Physical Adept and not even the great clown man himself has the strength to pull it up from the bottom of the archetype barrel. He's also decently skilled in ranged weapons, especially shotguns... except again, the Aegis launcher ignores stats and he has no other ranged weapons, rendering those stats useless. This makes me think the bug sprayer was originally affected by skills, especially since the Ghost likewise has points in Shotguns despite not carrying a traditional one.  His primary weapon of choice is the sword he mentioned earlier, which is also the best melee weapon in the game. Three times as powerful as the 2 damage baseball bat!   Lazy bastard hasn't even bothered upgrading all his spells, bringing an okay-but-not-great mix of damage and support. I want to draw some special attention to Quick Strike at the end there. It's the highest-level offensive Adept spell and on paper, sounds quite nice. A free attack with +6 damage every couple of turns, right? Well no. See, probably owing to its status as a spell rather than an innate Adept or weapon skill which is where most offensive melee abilities are found, Quick Strike here actually ignores your base damage entirely and deals its damage independently. In other words, instead of adding +6 to your normal attack damage, it simply deals 6 damage. That's it. I have to imagine this is a bug, and a real unfortunate one at that considering Physical Adepts already struggle in this game.   The Tir Tairngire Ghost is a pretty basic grunt who'd be nothing special if not for the fact that he carries our third Aegis launcher, a fact that elevates him from "kinda meh" to "thank god this guy's here". As I mentioned earlier, he's quite skilled at using shotguns despite a Colt M23 rifle being his only "real" weapon.  Coyote is, well, Coyote. Statistically similar to the Ghost but lacking his Aegis launcher, by now she's starting to have some issues hittings things reliably except at very close range. Still, it's not like we were going to leave her behind on this one and she can definitely still bring the pain with her Enfield AS-7 provided her shots actually land. Now, let's get this show on the road.  We end up in a fight immediately upon entering the ritual chamber or whatever this place is, firmly setting the tone for this entire mission. We won't be leaving combat mode even for a single moment until we reach the final boss, so you'd best buckle up. .jpg)  For enemies found in the final dungeon, the brotherhood jackasses are really nothing special.  Some of them have swords, some of them have guns and some of them cast spells, but they're all weak enough that they only manage to be a credible threat if multiple of them happen to gang up on the same character. And if they all hit. And if all the hits are crits.  None of that'll happen when you kill them all in a single turn before they get to act, like we just did.  The way upstairs is locked and we have no business there anyway, so we head deeper in, utilizing the tunnel the bugs dug up the last time we were here.  It's unfamiliar territory from here on out. It looks like the facility extends even further than it originally seemed, these hallways obviously aren't insect handiwork.  More weirdos wait for us around the corner. It's not hard to guess what they're referring to with this "elevated one" business.  Here's how we distribute our own special brand of spiritual elevation.  Rude! It's hard to completely avoid damage here since every Brotherhood bozo starts each fight on Overwatch. Everything also needs to be healed manually due to the lack of end-of-combat heals.  Top 10 anime battles of the season. Unlike this sucker, the cowardly ambusher manages to get away and runs off through the door at the end of the hallway.  We take this time to heal up a bit. Another lovely consequence of the constant combat mode is that after single every battle, Amazon has to manually deactivate her drones and wait a turn so that she can catch up with the rest of the team.  The first thing of note in the next area is this network of air vents which provide our drones with easy flanking positions.  While they're looking around, the escapee from the last room grows tired of waiting and makes the fascinating strategic decision of rushing our team all by his lonesome.  Harlequin teaches him the error of his ways with Chi Onslaught, an Adept ability which hits three times in a single action with reduced accuracy but increased crit chance. Unfortunately it also costs 3 AP to use, so it's not actually that different from just using three normal attacks.  The "elevated one" is waiting for us around the next corner. These are the exact same creatures we fought during our last visit, with the Worker being a melee variant. All the bugs have high health and defenses, but are also pretty easy to hit.  Let's see if our fancy weapon works. First we bring down the physical form the traditional way...  ...then the spirit emerges the next turn (and gets its free 1 damage/-1 AP attack). Last time this is where we hit a wall and had to retreat, but this time we've come prepared.  Aw yeah, back to the bug dimension with you. A couple of notes about the Aegis launcher: It can only damage bugs in their spirit form and it can't crit or land Weak shots, meaning it always deals 15 damage if it hits. It only has an ammo capacity of 2, so without AP boosts it can only ever be fired twice per turn for a total of 30 damage per character. The joke here is that all bug spirits have 40 HP and must be killed in a single turn or else they revive the physical form, so it requires three successful shots in one turn to take one down. Now without disabling her drones the previous turn, Amazon can only fire one shot with her one AP (assuming she doesn't move) which leaves us with five shots per turn at best. As a result our team is only really capable of killing one spirit per turn which can be a real pain when facing two or three at once. It's not particularly dangerous since we have the firepower to keep the physical forms down reliably and the spirits only ever do 1 damage at a time, but it does cause every fight to take two or three times longer than normal. This is why the Tir Tairngire Ghost and his extra launcher are such an invaluable addition, especially if you don't bring anyone with Haste.  The next room features a mix of normal dudes and highly abnormal dudes, one of which is hiding behind some bars in the middle of the room. Harlequin having 99% hit chance on everything with his Manabolt 3 implies none of them have particularly high Willpower, which seems fitting enough. Also some flesh seems to be growing on the wall. High-quality wallflesh is a must-have accessory for any good final dungeon designer.   The humans remain little more than fodder, but going after them does mean their ugly buddies get to live a little longer.  One of them, a Venom, spits nasty venom at the Ghost through the bars. It's hard to see (blame video capture) but in addition to traditional damage the venomous Venom venom temporarily reduces Body by 2, making it one of the rare stat-reducing debuffs in these games.   Regardless, we dispose of them the same way as before. You get to skip the whole song and dance of killing and re-killing them though, so be thankful.  While the rest of the team is having their fun, Coyote who can't harm the spirits is looking at the computer screens. I'm not entirely sure whether or not this counts as foreshadowing in this case.  Nothing else here, so onwards we go. It can't be much further, right?  The first thing we come across in the next room are some unfortunate souls who seemingly had some trouble adapting to their new spiritual lifestyle.  Beyond that, it's more fighting and also more wallflesh, a clear sign of us getting closer and closer to our goal.  Good ol' Prime remains both accurate and incredibly deadly.  This guy actually manages to fight back a little, leaving Harlequin who soaks most of the damage in these fights in pretty bad shape.  But he didn't manage to finish the job, and is thus finished himself instead.  Alright so... now what? There are no visible doors in this room, and there haven't been any other paths we could've taken. Could this be a bug?  Ah nope, that is a bug.  Three of them in fact, with one of them busting through a wall in the previous room.   We do our usual extermination routine on the two nearby abominations while the third shuffles off somewhere.  Backtracking to the previous room, we find and promptly put down the sneak, in the process discovering that its tunnel has conveniently opened up a path forward. The other two tunnels are just dead ends, in case you were wondering.  An area transition! This seems like a good place to take a break, catch our breath a bit. Hell, if we were playing the original unpatched version of the game this'd be the first spot we even could take a break since manual saves weren't a thing back then. Anyway, see you next time. Kanfy fucked around with this message at 12:10 on Dec 6, 2017 |
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Nov 17, 2017 19:38
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One thing I had forgotten about this game was that it really likes keeping you in combat mode even when no combat is happening, at least in the later missions. It gets surprisingly annoying after a while, and being a drone user makes it that much worse.Psion posted:A quick check says that the Ghost, Harlequin, and Dodger were all rebalanced for their respective missions in 1.2.7; I don't have specifics, but I'm pretty sure it was improvement on all three. That feels vaguely familiar, so I probably also initially played through the game before those changes. Weird that everyone kept their useless shotgun proficiencies though. OutofSight posted:Hey Kanfy. Remember that weird out of place conversation with Mrs. Kubota at the inn, i found? This information will show up again in the very endgame state conversation with Telestrian. Do you want a text dump of that dialogue for completion's sake? If you feel up to it then go for it. I'm not gonna go back and edit the old updates or anything, but I can at least make mention of it at the end if needed.
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Nov 17, 2017 22:21
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Tiggum posted:Is leaving her back at the entrance and just sending the drones ahead an option? Sure, but she's still carrying an Aegis launcher and between the uncertain hit chances and the AP drain from the spirit attacks, you really want to maximize the amount of shots you get to take with those things. Zeniel posted:Yeah I have absolutely no idea what the developers were thinking with this last mission. I'm pretty sure I finished it before the patch that made Harlequin tolerable and he was utterly useless. It was made worse by the fact that you needed him alive if you weren't charismatic enough to get the agent with extra AEGIS launcher. So if Harlequin died, which he almost certainly would, then you were stuck in a perpetual combat situation you had no hope of ever winning. I wasn't aware that there was any requirement for being able to hire the Ghost. Was that also a later change?
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Nov 18, 2017 10:17
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Halser posted:tell that to CDProjekt, that gated literally 1/3rd of The Witcher 2 behind a choice at the end of act 1. That was cool though, in a perfect world every game which touted that your choices really matter would do something like that. Obviously they won't because it's not at all feasible and insanely inefficient from a design standpoint, but I kind of love that they were crazy enough to go ahead with it there. Kanfy fucked around with this message at 19:25 on Nov 20, 2017 |
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Nov 20, 2017 19:20
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Part 32 - The Finale  Harlequin speaks up as soon as we arrive.  This ain't a game. Oh, but it is. On more than one level. Onward!Oh, I get it.  The only noteworthy thing about this first room is that it houses the most useless air vent in existence.  It also has bugs coming out of the walls, but that's a regular feature 'round these parts. These two guys are a little sneaky in that they only come out after you're some ways into the room, potentially leaving people lagging behind in a bad spot.  A third one joins in a little after the initial two, further prolonging the delightful experience of having to fight and kill these things over and over again.    It's heartbreaking to see this kind of Ghost-on-ghost violence, but nature can sometimes be cruel like that.  The way forward is in the southeast corner. There are even more vents here, but none of them are especially useful.  People! Honest to goodness dies-to-ordinary-bullets-like-god-intended people!    Refreshing, like a cool spring breeze.  But our joy is short-lived, as another ugly jerk crawls out of the wall behind us. True Form Bombardiers are pretty much the artillery unit of Bug Nation, easy to kill but capable of dealing nasty area-wide damage if they do get to attack.  We make sure that doesn't happen.  And sadly it's back to wallbugs in the next room as well.  And again with the same "late third enemy" trick. At least they don't get to attack the same turn they appear, we're not in Thracia here.  please  go  away  A bridge this prominent can only mean we're about to reach the end. Surprisingly there's no ambush from both sides when we get to the middle or anything like that.  After crossing the bridge, we find a locked door in front of us and a small storeroom to the side, watched over by a couple of Brotherhood goons.  Amazon   Despite being the last ordinary human enemies in the game, they aren't in any way different from all the other chumps we've mowed down on our way here.  Just in case it wasn't yet obvious that we're about to fight the final boss, the room contains no less than five items: A Phosphorous Grenade, two Premium Medkits, a Gold Trauma Kit and a Platinum Trauma kit which is inside a safe and requires 5 Decking (but no cyberdeck) to get.  The panel in the corner opens up the locked door outside, allowing us to progress.  At last, we've reached the heart of the hive. I was originally planning on ending the update here, until I realized how short and boring this'd end up if I did that. So screw it, let's go all the way and finish this thing for good.  .jpg)  A branching path? Nah, only the door ahead is openable. Also we're finally free from combat mode, though that's not going to last for very long.  Geez finally, we've been looking all over for you guys!  I don't know, you seem plenty disturbed already to me. Your vessel is gone! This is over, Jessica! But you'll be the mother of a dead world! [Harlequin still sports a wry smile.] On the plus side, a billion creepy crawly children makes for one hell of a Mother's Day. No! I will become a perfect being. Through me and through my sacrifice, a new age will begin!You've played too many video games, lady.  We have three dialogue choices here which all amount to "Well guess we gotta shoot you now", but also a fourth which continues the conversation a little longer. Sam had a hunger too, didn't he, Jessica? [This seems to throw her off.] What? You said it yourself, Sam had appetites. All that mattered to him was his next fix. Vile appetites! Appetites he couldn't control. And he died for them. Because *I* willed it. Yes, but why? There was more to it than just your mother.[The hum of magical energy permeating the room seems to quiet. She's listening.] You came under the thrall of these creatures long before you knew of your mother's death. The Brotherhood... They... they were a family to me. Yes, and they had already freed you from your old life. So why come back? Why kill Sam? [She falters.] I... I had to. For what he did... what he had become. You said Sam represented a sickness in the world. But I think he represented the sickness in you. You're... trying to... confuse me. You saw a wrongness in yourself, and you projected it onto Sam. No, I... He... He was your brother, Jessica. Your twin! Don't you see? [She falls quiet and bows her head.] I... I'm sorry. But there's no turning back. I cannot undo what's been done. And I can't stop what's to come.I don't like this bit much since it feels a little forced, like they had to include a part where you can try and talk down the final boss because that's just a thing you do in western RPGs. It doesn't even make any practical difference since you still have to do the fight, and you don't even get to pick what you say because there's only one choice each time! Like so many other things, they do this better in the later games.  Had we picked one of the other three choices earlier, we would've jumped here directly. Commence the final showdown!   (It's the final boss theme, so if you're only gonna click one music link in this LP you should probably make it this one, especially if you've nostalgia for SNES Shadowrun music. This is the soundtrack version by the way, the in-game one is a shorter loop.)  Here we go. Right away Lynne jogs it to the center of this fairly large chamber, striking some kind of yoga pose on the altar there. She's going to be standing there for this entire fight and isn't actually even targetable.  Our actual target is Jessica who has taken some serious bug steroids, giving her several large trolls' worth of HP. There will also be a constant stream of bug monsters entering the fight, all of which need to be eliminted the usual annoying way. Now there are two ways to go about this fight, the long and difficult way and the short and easy way. Let's start with the former.  You may have noticed this glowy spiky thing near Jessica. There are four of these Insect Pillars scattered around the room, with one being active and vulnerable to damage at any given time.  Jessica spends most of the fight running for these pillars, gaining the mysterious "Favor of the Queen" buff when she reaches an active one.  What this does is allow her to use the Insect Totem power, a room-wide buff which gives a major power-up to all living bugs in the area. Not only does this increase their movement speed but also allows them to attack twice per turn, something enemies aren't normally capable of doing. Needless to say, this is something you want to avoid.  Luckily that's only slightly easier said than done as the pillars aren't that tough. Once a pillar's HP is depleted it deals 15 damage to Jessica and all living bugs and removes Favor of the Queen. After that it shuts down and becomes invulnerable, causing one of the other three pillars to activate instead. There's no way to permanently destroy them, so dealing with these pillars is something you have to do throughout the entire fight. On a side note, drones can go through the small holes on the walls here which is what that icon in the middle there is indicating, but it only seems to work about half the time.  The main difficulty of this fight comes from the fact that you have to spread your damage pretty thin. In addition to dealing with the pillars you have to kill the constantly spawning bugs...  ...eradicate their spirits with Aegis...  ...and also find the time to deal damage to Jessica who is running all around the room chasing after the pillars.  As if that wasn't enough, after a while these very tanky bastards make their first and only appearance, requiring quite a bit of time and effort to bring down as well.  All in all a prolonged fight where you try to fight everything can be quite the pain in the rear end to deal with. So, here's the easier way:  You just shoot Jessica in her dumb face repeatedly from the start, completely ignoring all the nonsense I've told you about. Yeah, 325 is a lot of HP, but with the whole group focusing on the same target we can easily deal over half that in a single turn.  As a result Jessica is defeated on turn 2, causing her to shout a bit and then run off. From here all we need to do is eliminate the remaining enemies in the room.  In this case "all remaining enemies" means "the only one that had time to spawn". And with one last gloopy splurt of Aegis, it's all over. "But hold on now" I can hear you say. "I bet that's not it, and now Lynne's going to transform into the Queen which ends up being the real final boss, right?" Hey good thinking ace, that is how it looks like isn't it? But no, that's it. We're done. Those two turns were the final boss fight in its entirety, no second forms or additional phases or any of that. Lynne? Never gonna see her again.  Instead we chase after and corner Jessica in some small room somewhere.  It's gone... My link to the... the Queen. She has... abandoned me... expelled me. Unworthy... Unworthy. It had to be done. This nest would have overrun the city if we hadn't stopped you. Eh, I'm sure it's all under control. [Tears run down her face.] Oh God. What have I done? And Sam... I'm so sorry, Sam...She only speaks that last line because we brought up Sam before the fight. Otherwise she doesn't give a drat about the guy.  But what's this? A pair of True Form Soldiers suddenly burst through the walls. Is there another fight after all?  Nah, they're more interested in making dinner out of Jessica. And it's us who get to choose her fate here: Either we let her get eaten as karmic justice for Sam, shoot her ourselves, or take her with us to be arrested. It's a little tempting, but we were never really in this just for Sam himself and shooting someone who's surrendered and pleading for their life doesn't really feel right, so let's be magnanimous. It makes little real difference one way or another anyway. Death would be too quick a punishment. You're going to pay for what you've done. [She lowers her head in shame.] I understand.And with one last completely useless reward of 5 karma, Amazon's and this LP's final mission has come to a close. All that's left now is to report back to James and to make a call to the law firm for our money. Payday at last, and well-deserved! Kanfy fucked around with this message at 12:10 on Dec 6, 2017 |
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Nov 26, 2017 17:36
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Fighting Trousers posted:The final boss fight is DEFINITELY something the other two games did better. You certainly can't say that HBS didn't learn as they went. If I were someone completely unfamiliar with these games I'd probably think "They did this better in the later games" is some kind of a running gag with how many times it's been said, but they really did improve on nearly every aspect. It's actually quite impressive. But yeah, the final dungeon overall is not great and practically reeks of a rush job. It's almost certainly my least favorite part in the entire series, though I do still like Returns as a game. At least it can only get better from here!
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Nov 26, 2017 23:18
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Xander77 posted:You don't even have to fight the two bug warriors to escort Jessica out, they just politely move out of the way? Correct, it's a fade to black regardless of which choice you make. You don't actually get to kill her or watch her get eaten either, she just goes "oh nooo" instead of "okay". E: Also I just want to mention that one update away from the end of this whole thing, I've now come to realize I could've used the official editor to easily look through conversations and their variables instead of relying on saving and reloading. Professional LPing to the end, folks. Kanfy fucked around with this message at 12:24 on Nov 27, 2017 |
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Nov 27, 2017 09:58
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This revelation has also allowed me to find a bunch of cut content, including what seems to be an alternate tutorial mission where you and your crew (which consists of a Street Samurai called Switchblade and the mage New Sally) meet Sam for the first time during a run at the docks. I've put it together the best I could figure, in case people are interested:quote:
There's presumably a fade to black here where Sam walks to the makeshift bar that was visible in the tutorial mission. quote:
There are also some mid-combat conversations, where you can again choose whether or not to give him the pistol. quote:
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The next one also seems to be an in-battle conversation. quote:
That's all there is in the files, though there probably would've been some different end conversation too. Kanfy fucked around with this message at 13:24 on Nov 27, 2017 |
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Nov 27, 2017 13:17
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Hey there! You having an after-work drink? I could use one. I could always use one.
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Also someone on reddit summarized the cut content pretty well:Alarantalara posted:I've been looking through the data for Dead Man's Switch and it looks like a lot of the content that was originally planned got left in and orphaned. This is my current reconstruction of the original story based on what I could find. The Baron being killed off explains the way he just vanishes from the game after the Telestrian run, and the dialogue choice to tell Marie-Louise that Telestrian got to him even though no such thing happened.
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Nov 27, 2017 13:53
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painedforever posted:There was, according to Steam, also a pre-order/supporter bonus. You could have your pick of custom-built avatars / characters, and some guy in the Seamstress Guild who would tell you stories. Yeah, it's the ghost of Jordan Weisman you can talk with about what inspired him to create Shadowrun and other such fourth wall breaking stuff. He also gives you some grenades and maybe other miscellaneous items. Groetgaffel posted:That will be a great help when you do the next one. I poked around DF's editor a bit out of y'know, idle curiosity, and you're not wrong. "A great help" is an understatement about how incredibly useful this'd be in that hypothetical scenario.  I'm also noticing that even the conversation editor is clearer and easier to parse compared to Returns. They really did improve on everything.
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Nov 27, 2017 17:57
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Part 33 - The Aftermath .jpg)  Welcome to the final update! The insect menace has been stopped, at least for the time being, so the only thing left now is to wrap up Dead Man's Switch for good. There are several familiar faces around the scene, but the first thing that catches our attention is Harlequin who's in the middle of recounting our underground adventures to Telestrian. Mr. Quoth seems to be by his master's side as well.  And? And Amazon says something like "I won't let them eat you, Jessica. You're coming with me. You're going to pay for what you've done." It was very dramatic. Then, we splattered the bugs and handed her over to the UCAS FBI. They're going to want to have a long talk with her about the Universal Brotherhood. So, this nest is cleaned out and your cousin Lynne is being transported to a mental hospital for observation.This part would obviously be a little different if Jessica had ended up as insect food, but James (who incidentally is a canonical sociopath) doesn't care much either way.  Yes yes, a grave threat to the whole world and all that, but first things first. What about my million nuyen? Ah yes. Do not be concerned, I will keep my end of the bargain. Mr. Quoth! Sir? See that our hero gets her reward. After deductions, of course.Uh oh. Deductions? Yes, of course. You still owe me for your raid on my offices.Aw come on, that was like ages ago. Does ancient history really matter between business partners?  Pff. Although, he seems to have forgotten about the "divided between living team members" clause, so perhaps we should consider ourselves lucky. Yeah, alright. Here.Had we negotiated ourselves an extra million with the Corporate etiquette before the mission, the damages would've instead been twice as bad and we'd have ultimately ended up with the same 15k. How's that for an unjust universe? Very good. That transaction is complete. Now then, you have turned in a yeoman's effort, and - regardless of your obvious flaws - you are deserving of a reward. What would you ask of me?This is the second "big" final decision of the game, our very own free wish! Our choices are as follows: 1. We can ask for the position of Telestrian's Vice President of Security, previously held by Erik Silverstar 2. We can ask for (more) money 3. Had I not missed an earlier conversation, we could ask him to cancel the city's plan to shut down the power grid in Touristville where the Union is located (I'll explain this in a bit) 4. We can ask for McKlusky to get fired Now this is a pretty big decision and careful consideration should be Not much. Just McKlusky's badge. [Telestrian's ice breaks - for a moment.] You short-circuit an invasion of extra-dimensional insects and for your reward, you wish to have an insignificant police detective dismissed from his position? I don't like his aftershave. Very well, Detective McKlusky is now Citizen McKlusky - the man grates on my nerves anyway. And since this action requires little more than a nod to the proper peon, you may ask *another* boon of me. I am feeling generous today.It was all worth it in the end after all. Regarding the other choices, the position of Telestrian's VP of Security is only available to elves. Any other race (including humans) who asks for it will be given a position as the future VP of Security's Executive Consultant instead. We are in fact an elf so this hilariously blatant racial discrimination wouldn't apply to us, but I think we've seen enough about Telestrian corporate life to say with some confidence that it's not our scene. Now, the power grid choice isn't available to us because it turns out I missed a conversation with Mrs. Kubota at the Seamstresses Union before the Telestrian run. See, that particular conversation only becomes available after the meeting with Baron Samedi where he tells you about the Aegis, but because Kubota was upstairs at the Union's front door where we no longer had any reason to go to, I completely forgot such a conversation even existed. All credit to forums user OutofSight for pointing out my mistake. In any case, what she would've told us had we spoken to her is that the city authorities are planning to shut down the power grid in Touristville because they don't want to continue devoting police manpower to protect the citizens who go there for seedier entertainment. Had we had that discussion, we could now ask Telestrian to pull the required strings to revoke that plan. This is how that particular conversation would have gone: quote:
Alas, since this choice isn't available to us it looks like Touristville and the Union are both doomed. My bad! So ultimately we're just going to have to go for the "immediate personal gain" -option. Real shame, pains my heart really, but what can you do. I want to get paid. Real money, this time. [Another icy smile.] I would expect no less from you. Mr. Quoth, please place a suitable bonus on our friend's credstick. A bonus of such size that additional negotiations are unnecessary. I have no interest in furthering our relationship.That's the one thing we have in common, buddy. Well that and our shared dislike of McKlusky.    Looks like you two are best buddies now.We're now free to have one last chat with everyone who bothered to show up.  We'll go through the area in a counterclockwise manner, starting from Coyote here.  Guess so. Tough week, huh? Gangers, hellhounds, amok mental patients, serial killers, ghouls, corporate deckers, extra-dimensional bugs, and an army of corp security. Yeah, I could use a nap. I bet.Coyote was with us almost the whole time of course, but she's too tough to complain about it unlike our whiny rear end.  Back to destroying the BTL trade? Nah. Like I said, that’s over. I’m gonna take care of Gino - get him back to health. But no more storming BTL labs.If we hadn't saved Gino, she'd instead be planning on "taking a flamethrower to that whole slagging business". Good to hear. That last place was run by the Yakuza and they’re not going to forget you. Today, I run the shadows. Get paid. Get dirty. See you around, Amazon. You're quite a lady. I can honestly say, I've never met an elf quite like you.You're one hell of a lady yourself, and almost made it feel like we had one proper crew member in this game populated by boring non-personalities. Thanks for everything.  Ol' clownshoes is up next.  Here's a cool little touch: If Harlequin dies during the final mission, there's some extra dialogue available here where you can ask how he's still around. Not only that, but there's also a slightly different variation if he went down more than once. In both cases he jokes about it and then pretty much shrugs it off as something you shouldn't question too much since the Sixth World is full of much weirder things. Where's Herr Brackhaus? I thought he'd be here too. He flew back to Berlin. All sorts of things brewing there. He was very impressed with you, though. It could probably turn into work someday. But I’d forget about him, if I were you. Never make a deal with a dragon, kid. They’re playing a different game entirely.Something brewing in Berlin, huh? Bet you could make a game about that. I'll keep that in mind. You said you were getting out of here - is there a problem? Think they can control the press? One way or another, they will. If they can’t be manipulated, coerced or bribed, they’ll probably disappear. Quietly. There’s more though.Although we were here to see its beginning, the whole Brotherhood/insect spirit mess is something that will continue to be relevant in the setting for a long time after the events of this game.  Do you trust him? No. Just like I don’t trust you. Don’t take it personally, kid. You shouldn’t trust me, either. I’ve been manipulating runners like you for years. I’m manipulating you right now. You just don’t know *my* game yet. Let’s continue the dance. I have one more to show you. As it happens, Ares are the ones who end up being the most involved in dealing with bug spirit activity elsewhere. Government. Media. Business. All working to ensure the truth stays hidden. So it's a massive conspiracy. I wish it was. In a way, it’s worse. It’s a series of conspiracies, conflicting agendas, and petty jealousies, all building upon, feeding upon, and excreting into an unending web of drek that people wade through every day and call Life. If there was one Dark Lord controlling everything and we could drive a magic sword through his heart to free the world, that would be grand. Such clarity! Such focus! Alas! So what’s the lesson in all of this? That I did all of it for nothing? And that's why we don't *play* their fragging game. We don't swallow their drek sandwich and politely ask for another. It's why we run the shadows. That's where real life is, kiddo. Reality's living in the places no one wants you to see.Turns out I was wrong about Harlequin swearing normally being a nice touch. Also this whole lesson would've missed its mark pretty spectacularly had we retired from running in order to work for Telestrian. Okay, seriously - who are you? A friend. Until I need you for something. Then, I'm a bastard. Right. See you around, Harlequin.Your presence here might've been pure fanservice, but at least you brought some much-needed lightheartedness to this otherwise dry endgame.  Ah, this should be good.  We got a whole bunch of different skill checks here, all aimed at humiliating our detective friend - Charisma 4 (to make him think that he got his lieutenant's badge and he's getting a surprise party), Intelligence 4 (to claim his shoelaces are untied in order to cold-cock him while he's distracted), Strength 5 & Close Combat 5 (to knock him out with a haymaker or a flurry of punches). Of course we don't need to resort to any of those. Hey McKlusky - I got good news for you. Izzat right? You won! Won what? The "I-lost-my-job-and-I-don't-even-know-it" contest. See you around, rear end in a top hat. What the? Mr. Telestrian! Hey, Mr. Telestrian!He runs to James, presumably to plead pathetically. Unfortunately we don't get to listen in.  Even Armitage has showed up for the denouement, despite presumably still having a bounty on his head and there being police everywhere. Or maybe the devs just forgot about that detail.  Did you doubt I would? Not for a minute. He's not wrong, it's surprising Seattle is still intact with how much crap is constantly happening in this city. I heard Mitsuhama's looking for a team and they specifically want a woman. No idea what that's about. Something's bound to come up. Whaddaya say?I think we deserve a break after all this, but it's always nice to have something to fall back on. I'll think about it, Jake. You do that. If you want to find me, I'll be at McKraken's later - got a taste for some seafood. Take it easy, chummer.Thanks for the help Jake, time will tell if this ends up being your final video game appearance of if you'll pop up again in Shadowrun Re-Returns or something.  It's only fitting for our last stop to be manned by this guy.  Just making more work for you. Thanks, but I prefer natural causes. Remember when all that happened and was relevant? Feels like it was a different story altogether. Some might say a better story, but that's neither here nor there. [He leans in, whispers conspiratorially.] You wouldn't know anything about that, would you? A vigilante attack, huh? Wow. I know! It's fascinating, isn't it? Good thing Dresden never met Erik Silverstar, that guy's habit of butchering language would've probably had the poor dwarf end up a customer in his own establishment. So! The big question! What about that dead man's switch? Now that the ripper's dead, are you going to collect? drat right I'm gonna collect.Hey, just because we got one 100k doesn't mean we don't have space for seconds. Excellent! I'm sure you deserve it. How do you collect, anyway? I was told I need a secure line to call the number Sam gave me. Can’t use my commlink. [He brightens.] Lone Star’s Emergency Response Team set up a secure phone line right here to coordinate their efforts. I can authorize you to use it! Then I guess it’s time to end this thing. I guess so! Take care, Amazon!You were always one of the few legitimately good people around, Dresden. At least as far as we know.  This is the point of no return. We've done everything we can and talked to everyone we can, so let's just go ahead and make this final call.  Man, has it really been just a few days?  Oh hey it's... Chet, was it? Wait, did Chet have a facial tattoo? Hold on. Are you even a lawyer? Yeah... of course. Well... technically I'm not a lawyer anymore but... uh... I'll just slot Sam's video for you. Hang on.  .jpg) If you're calling this number, that means the job is done, right?Technically the job was done a while ago, but we got a little sidetracked somewhere along the way. [He closes his eyes. Shakes his head.] Congratulations, amigo! I knew you'd do it. You were always the dependable one. More than me, anyway. [He looks back at you, trying to speak soberly.] I - I just want to say thank you. For *whatever* you did. It means a lot - not even knowing what you did - it *still* means a lot. ‘Cuz I know you did something. You know what I mean? I KNOW you made it right, somehow.From the looks of it I doubt you knew what time of day it was, much less what we have or haven't made right since then.   Just tell her I love her.Boy howdy. If only Sam and this whole family had managed to figure out their numerous issues when they still had the chance... [He straightens himself. Shakes it off. That grin is back.] Anyway, you need to get paid! Which would be great except for one thing - I got nothin’. Never did! You know how it is, right? Sorry. But hey - thanks again for giving a crap! Seriously. I appreciate it.Excuse me?   ... ... ...This is exactly how it was going to go from the start, wasn't it. You really were a real fucker of a guy all the way to the end, Sam. It's honestly kind of impressive. But it also can't be denied that at the end of the day we did dig ourselves up from the hole we had fallen in thanks to you, even if it was in a roundabout way. But still, gently caress you man. For everything, and in behalf of everyone involved. So? What did he say? He told me to never trust a dead man.And with those wise words, our story has reached its end.   The ending is entirely in text form, something that'll remain true for the entire series. Hong Kong does feature simple ending cutscenes in addition to the text though. And unlike this game, both Dragonfall and Hong Kong feature multiple endings. So, this has been Shadowrun Returns. I hadn't actually played it in a long time before doing this LP, so it was interesting to go back to it after having played the later games. I stand by my opinion that it's overall a game worth playing, and I especially came to appreciate what a good job it does at easing you in to the Shadowrun universe. That said it's plain to see why it's so overshadowed by it's follow-ups, and revisiting the original has also made me appreciate just how much Harebrained Schemes learned and improved going into Dragonfall (and especially its Director's Cut version). One thing that I grew more negative on was the endgame which was even weaker than I remembered, and the game doing such a bad job at sticking its landing undoubtedly contributed to the unfavorable aftertaste a lot of players ended up with. Still, Shadowrun is one of my favorite fictional settings and I'm glad this game got made despite its rough edges. And hey, without it we wouldn't have Dragonfall and Hong Kong either.  Thanks for reading, and special thanks to everyone who posted in the thread. You've all been great. Kanfy fucked around with this message at 12:11 on Dec 6, 2017 |
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Dec 5, 2017 15:40
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Thanks for all the kind words, I hope you had at least half as much fun reading the LP as I did making it.radintorov posted:Congratulations on finishing this LP! Yeah, I don't know, it is a lot of work. What do you think, Soviet captain Georgi Kukov from the 1996 video game Command & Conquer: Red Alert? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGLjSMpzS-Q&t=50s
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Dec 5, 2017 21:34
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Poil posted:Thank you so much for running through this. I think it should be alright since all the stuff I've gradually learned and improved on when making this LP should transfer directly to Dragonfall without requiring any major adjustments. For example I have like six different image crop presets (one for loading screens, another for dialogue boxes that don't have a portrait, etc.) that should work the exact same there, and having things like that figured out from the start makes things a lot smoother on my end. Plus everything related to dialogue, and that's kind of a big part of Dragonfall, should be about a hundred times easier thanks to the editor. I'm not gonna claim it won't take a while at my slow-rear end pace, but it's definitely doable. Kanfy fucked around with this message at 13:47 on Dec 6, 2017 |
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Dec 6, 2017 13:40
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| # ¿ May 17, 2024 09:33 |
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Dec 6, 2017 21:21
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