Shadowrun Shadowrun: Dragonfall - Director's Cut

[Gord]

"Du Heist"

 

[sbb]

"Du Heist"

*snip*

yup

 

[Decado]

You need to kill some waves of mooks (and eventually the boss) before time runs out; opening vents (either physically or via the matrix) just gives you some extra time.

Answered a bunch of times by now, but if you have a PC that is a solid damage dealer, preferably through ranged, you don't have to bother with the vents. Use haste, and you can waste the motherfucker before the time runs out. I did it with a handgunner.

 

[Gnidrologist]

Yap, same with me. Had a pistolero hombre, whit 5 ACs at best times. First time tried opening the vents and it didn't even give that much extra time. Like one turn? WTF? I spent 3/4 turns to do this with that merc in the first place. Better just shoot everything and wait for super mutant orc.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Great music.

 

[Zetor]

You need to kill some waves of mooks (and eventually the boss) before time runs out; opening vents (either physically or via the matrix) just gives you some extra time.

Answered a bunch of times by now, but if you have a PC that is a solid damage dealer, preferably through ranged, you don't have to bother with the vents. Use haste, and you can waste the motherfucker before the time runs out. I did it with a handgunner.

My PC was a pure rigger (3 drones), and I managed to win the fight on the first try even though I closed every possible vent -- mostly due to how OP drones are. I just had Blitz jack in and take care of the 2 nodes in the matrix, had my medic drone cover him with stun grenades and medkits (MVP right there) while Eiger worked with the gun drones to murder the mooks one by one. Dietrich kept healing / buffing Blitz with armor / buffing Eiger with haste+aim (I think), summoning spirits to draw attacks from another group of mooks, and running to close vents during his downtime.

 

[V_K]

Dev diary on combat is out https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1613260297/shadowrun-returns/posts/975556
New AI and everybody's favourite flanking are in. Though still no info on whether enemies will have more than one action.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Dude, if enemies eventually gained more than one action per turn that would be insane. Would definitely add a new layer of difficulty to the game.

 

[Roguey]

Less chaotic combat ftw, Shadowrun Returns slides more and more into Joshliness. Shame about the character system though.

 

[V_K]

I wonder - if they finally developed a normal scripting system fo AI, what would it take them to do the same for other parts of the game (dialogues, triggers etc)? Could liven up modding scene (if it's not too late for it anyway).

 

[Ulminati]

Crew Equipment

We received a lot of feedback that players wanted to customize their team even more, such as buy them new weapons or spells. In the Director’s Cut, you can now loan your teammates gear at the start of a run, if you’d like to override their normal loadouts. Any loaned items will be returned to you at the end of the mission. So if you’d like to give Glory a Shotgun, or Dietrich the “Blur” spell, you can! Of course, anything you’d like to dole out will need to be purchased with your own nuyen, so choose wisely. Your teammates “stock” gear will still upgrade as you go through the game, so this is entirely optional.

 

[Zetor]

I wonder - if they finally developed a normal scripting system fo AI, what would it take them to do the same for other parts of the game (dialogues, triggers etc)? Could liven up modding scene (if it's not too late for it anyway).

Yep. Though I think the biggest problem for the modding scene is the lack of persistence -- and I haven't seen any evidence they're addressing that. Still, baby steps...

 

[DeepOcean]

Dude, if enemies eventually gained more than one action per turn that would be insane. Would definitely add a new layer of difficulty to the game.

With DT, it could very well work. Instead of being destroyed by six enemies with 18 shots a round if they have 3 AP, DT could soak alot of this damage and make the AI having more than one AP being something survivable. The 1 AP system is one of the main reasons why the Ai had so many problems, I hope they remove the limit because with them making cover more important and the player always being better at flanking than the AI, the 1 AP system could cripple the enemies even more.

 

[Gord]

Dude, if enemies eventually gained more than one action per turn that would be insane. Would definitely add a new layer of difficulty to the game.

With DT, it could very well work. Instead of being destroyed by six enemies with 18 shots a round if they have 3 AP, DT could soak alot of this damage and make the AI having more than one AP being something survivable. The 1 AP system is one of the main reasons why the Ai had so many problems, I hope they remove the limit because with them making cover more important and the player always being better at flanking than the AI, the 1 AP system could cripple the enemies even more.

Technically they already have more than 1 AP, which becomes apparent in the later parts of Dragonfall, where it is pretty difficult to stun enemies with -AP attacks/spells.
However normal AI is hardwired only to use max one attack (they usually move and/or cast some support spells and always attack once).
I too would much prefer less but more dangerous enemies over more but stunted ones...

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1613260297/shadowrun-returns/posts/983136

New Visual Effects & Animations

Steven and Hollie (our Effects/Tech Artist and Animator, respectively) dedicated several weeks during Director’s Cut development towards further honing our many combat effects and animation. Our main goals here were to 1. make combat feedback more viscerally satisfying (death, damage, spells, etc.), 2. tighten up timing/polish in some places, and 3. create new effects and animations to support the new abilities that the design team added in the Director’s Cut. I think their efforts have made a big difference! Steven and our engineer Sheridan implemented completely new systems for blood splatter effects, directional deaths (characters used to only be able to fall in one direction when dying), dismemberment, and possibly-slightly-over-the-top-gibs upon critical-hit deaths. We’ve found that these really help make your actions in combat feel powerful and satisfying - check it out:

Hmm, is that his... brain?

On the animation front, not only have we been able to tighten up some combat timing (for example, the time it takes to cast certain spells) but we’ve added totally new animations for several new abilities. Here’s Glory’s new claw-kick ability, which is one of the new Crew Advancement upgrades you can decide to give her.

Interface Improvements

Last week, Trevor talked about all of the new combat mechanics we’ve implemented. To emphasize the new systems and new data, our combat UI has also seen a similar upgrade to more clearly show you each potential target’s status. You’ll see a different targeting disc beneath enemies depending on whether you have a “clear shot”, i.e. if you are flanking the enemy’s cover position or if they are standing out in the open, vs. if they are in cover. On mouse-over you’ll also be able to see exactly what type of cover the enemy is in, and we’ve made the shield icons representing cover state more obvious above enemy heads.

An example of a flanking attack on an enemy in cover. Also note the addition of white armor pips above each character's health bar.

We’ve also updated our health bar display to show how much Armor each character in combat has, represented by white “pips” above the bar itself. Each attack that hits now includes quick animated feedback on how much armor was applied against the damage being dealt, how much armor (if any) was stripped by special attacks, and how much damage was done. This is complemented by some improvements to our above-head text “floaties” that appear when you attack. Lastly, this is a small thing, but world interaction icons now have a short text description attached to them, similar to characters, that appears when you mouse-over them (or when you hold down the ALT key to reveal them.) This is nice when you’ve got a lot of inspects or pickups in one place and you’d like to know what you’re dealing with before clicking.

Anyone want to play some Galaga?

Oh and we also mentioned the new Crew Advancement system a couple weeks ago - here is what that looks like in action:

Choices, choices...

Combat HUD Redesign

Another thing we were itching to update is the combat HUD itself! So for the Director’s Cut, our engineer AJ* and I took a good chunk of time to almost completely rip out the old system and build a brand new HUD. Our goals here were to better take advantage of common widescreen displays and to improve discoverability of abilities - making it both easier to learn what things do, and fewer clicks to access those things. We also wanted to streamline it so that it does its job and gets out of the way, direction more of your attention towards the world. Here is a shot of the new HUD:

Now all of your weapon abilities and one "bucket" of your items, spells or special abilities are available with one click from the new central ability bar.

*You may know him as ‘Aljernon the Talismonger’ in the campaign.

New Environments

As Andrew mentioned in our first dev diary a few weeks ago, there’s several new environments in the Director’s Cut that correspond to the new missions we’ve added. These environments each have their own unique new music and art. Here’s a couple more screenshots of new places you’ll get to visit in the Director’s Cut.

In the original Dragonfall we never really got to show what life "on the other side" looks like in Shadowrun - the cushy corporate enclaves of the future. One of the new missions will take you into a much more upscale residential area of Berlin.

I probably shouldn't give anything away about this place. : )

Did somebody call for maintenance in here? Hello?

Helping Eiger on an important errand will take you into dangerous territory.

Hair!

Our character artist Fiona added a ton of new hairstyle options to the game to customize your character with! (As well as some new skin color shades to choose from.) Here are a few of the new selections I thought it’d be fun to share:

A couple of these are modeled after HBS team members.

Post-Processing

Post-processing effects are something I’d always wanted to fiddle with way back when we were working on Shadowrun Returns, but we never quite got the chance. There are a lot of fun effects that you can play with - and I certainly spent a few hours messing around and making the game look all kinds of bizarre - but at the end of the day, less is more, and subtlety is key with this kind of thing. We’ve added some light bloom effects, a small amount of color correction, a better vignette effect, and a (VERY) slight film grain effect to help liven up the scene a bit. I’m happy with the extra visual depth these post-processing settings add to the game environment but we know this can be a really tricky thing to get *just right* for everyone’s tastes - so if it’s not for you (or if you need a small performance boost) Post-Processing can be easily disabled from the options menu.

Steam Achievements and Steam Cards

Lastly - I suppose this doesn’t quite fall under the category of visual improvements but it DOES involve some art - we’ve included full Steam Achievement and Steam Card support in the Director’s Cut! Here’s a sneak peek:

Anyway, thanks for reading! I can’t wait until next week - taking the existing campaign and getting the chance to add to it and make it better has been a rewarding experience, and it’s not something that developers always get the opportunity to do. We’re excited to put the final product in your hands and in the hands of many new players as well.

 

[Cyberarmy]

Some blood and gore at last!!!!
I wonder if there'll be "dance of death", probably not but I can hope.

 

[Darth Roxor]

I'd say a gib where the character model remains unchanged looks a bit silly.

 

[dryan]

Fuck yes, I'll play it again!

 

[Cyberarmy]

At first .gif suits arm got destroyed not his brains. But yeah, we need dismembered for full effect.

 

[Grunker]

My playthrough of Dragonfall bugged out near the end, so I'm restarting to finally finish this when this comes out.

 

[Roguey]

Wonder how many grogs are going to get mad now that companions have "levels" in a level-less system.

 

[Ulminati]

 

[Zetor]

The achievements and new trading cards are going to be the most important part of the entire re-release, obviously.

 

[Cyberarmy]

The achievements and new trading cards are going to be the most important part of the entire re-release, obviously.

They are the future!

 

[Tytus]

The achievements and new trading cards are going to be the most important part of the entire re-release, obviously.

They are the future!

Well, duh. Obviously.