Shadowrun Shadowrun: Hong Kong Pre-Release Discussion [GO TO NEW THREAD]

[Silva]

Hmm, yeah thinking again Lone Star could be avoided anyway through that contact that erase your criminal records (or by hacking their matrix node directly), while there is no other way to get the yakuza armor.

 

[Sykar]

Hmm, yeah thinking again Lone Star could be avoided anyway through that contact that erase your criminal records (or by hacking their matrix node directly), while there is no other way to get the yakuza armor.

This is also a strength of SRR. Karma and money are/were limited, albeit it was too much available sadly. GenSR basically allowed you to grind everything to the max regardless how long it took.

 

[Silva]

I think its apple and oranges. On a sandbox environment like the Genesis its actually good that the player is allowed to accumulate all power in the world as long as he is ready for some serious grinding ( and the game is pretty grindy), while on a static and story-driven environment like Returns the limits are dictated by the story progression. I don't see a right or wrong here, just different approaches to fit different environments.

 

[Blackguard]

Main thing I pray for is AI casting buffs before attacking, using cover more often and attacking more than once. Just saying. Pretty confident their writing will be great, as long as it isn't rushed at the end.

Been playing Dragonfall again, and honestly even after all the AI improvements you still very regurarly see the AI just complete waste the turn. Start at cover, run somewhere out in the open, run back to cover.

Also it is annoying because the way AI is shackled it's almost complete guess how many APs the enemies you are facing actually have. Which makes using -ap items/abilities kinda frustrating.

 

[Infinitron]

Update: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/webeharebrained/shadowrun-hong-kong/posts/1151614

 

[Infinitron]

New interview: http://www.usgamer.net/articles/shadowrun-mitch-gitelman-interview

 

[Roguey]

"The customers weren't bad, but we had these USB dog tags which were a hit," he explains. "It turns out that 20 percent of them failed. So we had to replace those.

Not mine because I said fuck it and took the loss. You're welcome.

 

[almondblight]

Now Golem Arcana is self-sustaining. Gitelman says the studio won't be returning to Kickstarter for further additions to the game.

That's interesting, particularly since it implies that Shadowrun isn't self-sustaining (which I suppose isn't much of a surprise). It does seem like Dragonfall DC has decent legs, though - it didn't debut that high up, but it seems like it manages to stay at a decent number on the sales charts.

 

[mindx2]

Best part of that interview:

"Hong Kong's PC-only for a variety of reasons," he tells me. "Shadowrun Returns was pretty successful on tablets. When Dragonfall came out, we did okay on tablets, but the business really isn't there for a premium title. The audience really wasn't there. Building for tablets and PC also changes the design of your game. It changes the decisions you make. We're not doing tablets so we can focus on making the PC game look and play as best it can."

edit: It's amazing what not having a publisher does... you can actually tell the truth...

 

[tuluse]

Now Golem Arcana is self-sustaining. Gitelman says the studio won't be returning to Kickstarter for further additions to the game.

That's interesting, particularly since it implies that Shadowrun isn't self-sustaining (which I suppose isn't much of a surprise). It does seem like Dragonfall DC has decent legs, though - it didn't debut that high up, but it seems like it manages to stay at a decent number on the sales charts.

They said they could have released another expansion, they went to KS to make it bigger and better.

Depends on your definition of self-sustaining I suppose. Is funding ever smaller releases self sustaining? I mean you can go for quite a while like that.

 

[Wulfric Pinewood]

I hope that they will stay with this franchise for years as both previous games were great. Plus some fine mods and we have fun with some nice runs for a loong time.

 

[Infinitron]

Got my Backerkit survey!

Message from the Project Creator

Thank you so much for backing Shadowrun: Hong Kong! We are eager for you to sign up in BackerKit so we can send you your rewards. Here are a couple things to note as you begin the BackerKit process:

1. Don’t forget to create a BackerKit account at the end of the survey process so you can come back later to make changes or find your keys and digital reward files.
   
   
2. There is a small, green Upgrade? button on the first page of your account if you are interested in moving up to a different Reward Level.
   
   
3. Additional Out of Print Sourcebooks are available in the Add-On section of your account.
   
   
4. If you upgrade your reward level or add-on more sourcebooks, BackerKit will collect payment information but you won’t be charged until we “lock down” the pledge management tool in mid-April.
   
   
5. A few days after you fill out your account information, an email will be sent to you with a download link or game keys for the appropriate rewards. The link and keys will also "live" in your BackerKit account, just in case. Please note that distribution is a manual process which is why it may take a couple of days to receive the email after you fill out your account information.
   

Cheers! HBS

Which out-of-print Shadowrun sourcebook should I choose?

Corporate Shadowfiles by Nigel D. Findley
Fields of Fire by Tom Dowd
Neo-Anarchists: The Guide to North America edited by Tom Dowd
Neo-Anarchists : Guide to Real Life by Nigel D. Findley
Native American Nations Volume 1 by Nigel D. Findley
Native American Nations Volume 2 by Nigel D. Findley
Seattle Sourcebook by Boy F. Petersen Jr.
Shadowbeat by Paul R. Hume
Shadowrun 2050 by Catalyst Game Labs
Tir Nanog by Carl Sargent and Mark Gascione
Tir Tairngire by Nigel D. Findley
The Universal Brotherhood by Nigel D. Findley

 

[Karwelas]

Got my Backerkit survey!


Which out-of-print Shadowrun sourcebook should I choose?

Corporate Shadowfiles by Nigel D. Findley
Fields of Fire by Tom Dowd
Neo-Anarchists: The Guide to North America edited by Tom Dowd
Neo-Anarchists : Guide to Real Life by Nigel D. Findley
Native American Nations Volume 1 by Nigel D. Findley
Native American Nations Volume 2 by Nigel D. Findley
Seattle Sourcebook by Boy F. Petersen Jr.
Shadowbeat by Paul R. Hume
Shadowrun 2050 by Catalyst Game Labs
Tir Nanog by Carl Sargent and Mark Gascione
Tir Tairngire by Nigel D. Findley
The Universal Brotherhood by Nigel D. Findley

Take Neo-Anarchists : Guide to Real Life. I don't know Shadowrun too good, but I think that matches Codex nature very well.

 

[Zorba the Hutt]

Which out-of-print Shadowrun sourcebook should I choose?

Corporate Shadowfiles by Nigel D. Findley
Fields of Fire by Tom Dowd
Neo-Anarchists: The Guide to North America edited by Tom Dowd
Neo-Anarchists : Guide to Real Life by Nigel D. Findley
Native American Nations Volume 1 by Nigel D. Findley
Native American Nations Volume 2 by Nigel D. Findley
Seattle Sourcebook by Boy F. Petersen Jr.
Shadowbeat by Paul R. Hume
Shadowrun 2050 by Catalyst Game Labs
Tir Nanog by Carl Sargent and Mark Gascione
Tir Tairngire by Nigel D. Findley
The Universal Brotherhood by Nigel D. Findley

http://www.amazon.com/The-Universal-Brotherhood-Abilities-Shadowrun/dp/1555600247

User reviews are never wrong are they ...

I have played for 14 years now, and I have played nearly evry type of RPG there is from Battletech to Bar Wars to Call of Cthulu to my personal fav SR. UB is perhaps one of the best executed modules I have had the pleasure of reading. I wish FASA would reprint it.

As someone who has gamed extensively over the years, I can safely say that this is the absolute best module for any game ever written. Bone chilling and frightening, and eerie on every level. I remember running this and seeing goosebumps on all my players when I read choice bits from the "netbook" that was included.

But for those more interested in other aspects...

It's been a few years since this book came out, and in its time has become the most sought-after Shadowrun sourcebooks.
...
I have seen this book sell in auctions as high as $50 or more. My guess is you can probably get it for a good deal less with a little patience

 

[Abu Antar]

For us that put in money in the Codex fundraiser, we don't have to do anything, right?

 

[agris]

Which out-of-print Shadowrun sourcebook should I choose?

Corporate Shadowfiles by Nigel D. Findley
Fields of Fire by Tom Dowd
Neo-Anarchists: The Guide to North America edited by Tom Dowd
Neo-Anarchists : Guide to Real Life by Nigel D. Findley
Native American Nations Volume 1 by Nigel D. Findley
Native American Nations Volume 2 by Nigel D. Findley
Seattle Sourcebook by Boy F. Petersen Jr.
Shadowbeat by Paul R. Hume
Shadowrun 2050 by Catalyst Game Labs
Tir Nanog by Carl Sargent and Mark Gascione
Tir Tairngire by Nigel D. Findley
The Universal Brotherhood by Nigel D. Findley

This might help: http://gurth.home.xs4all.nl/shadowrun/fasa.html

I picked the Seattle Sourcebook, because the torrent-able copy is shit. The NA: Guide to Real life and Universal Brotherhood are also good, but Brotherhood is really just a well fleshed-out adventure.

 

[DeepOcean]

Which out-of-print Shadowrun sourcebook should I choose?

Corporate Shadowfiles by Nigel D. Findley
Fields of Fire by Tom Dowd
Neo-Anarchists: The Guide to North America edited by Tom Dowd
Neo-Anarchists : Guide to Real Life by Nigel D. Findley
Native American Nations Volume 1 by Nigel D. Findley
Native American Nations Volume 2 by Nigel D. Findley
Seattle Sourcebook by Boy F. Petersen Jr.
Shadowbeat by Paul R. Hume
Shadowrun 2050 by Catalyst Game Labs
Tir Nanog by Carl Sargent and Mark Gascione
Tir Tairngire by Nigel D. Findley
The Universal Brotherhood by Nigel D. Findley

Depends what you want.

Corporate Shadowfiles - Lots of details on the megacorporations and how they work. If you are curious about the megacorporations, choose this one.
Fields of Fire - Lots of information on mercenary groups and how to roleplay them. If you plan to play P&P and want to go on a mercenary campaign, maybe this is useful otherwise, avoid.
Neo-Anarchists: The Guide to North America - Good introduction to the setting, it goes on details about the daily lives of people on shadowrun, actually, sometimes, it waste too much pages on the ordinary lives of people on shadowrun but has a ton of detail on the setting. There is a good quality PDF version of this you can find on any torrent site.
Neo-Anarchists : Guide to Real Life - Same as above. Choose those neo-anarchist books if you aren't familiar with shadowrun and want a nice introduction.
Native American Nations Volume - Lots of native stuff you only find on this book, want to go on a native P&P campaign? You will like this book, otherwise, no.
Native American Nations Volume 2 -Lots of native stuff you only find on this book, want to go on a native P&P campaign? You will like this book, otherwise, no.
Seattle Sourcebook - Can work as an introduction to the setting too as Seattle is the capital of the shadowrun, as the name says, it goes on a ton of detail about Seattle but the tone, atmosphere, humour and conspiracy stuff is quite similar to any other shadowrun city.
Shadowbeat - It explain how entertaiment, sports and the media works on shadowrun. I for some strange reason you wanna roleplay an elf singer or media person on some P&P campaign, this is good, otherwise it has alot of detail on the setting but you can kinda live without it.
Shadowrun 2050 - Didn't read it.
Tir Nanog - Lots of elves and Ireland, that make you curious? If for some absolutely weird reason , yes, pick this one otherwise avoid like a plague.
Tir Tairngire - Same as above, honestly, who cares about elves? If you want to be bored to tears...
The Universal Brotherhood - nice horror theme on it but by now it was mostly wasted as anyone who played Shadowrun Returns knows what the Universal Brotherhood is about but if you wanna more detail on those creepy motherfuckers, good choice.

I recomend Corporate shadowfiles, the Seattle sourcebook or The Universal Brotherhood because the torrent versions of the three are really awful and barely readable.

 

[veevoir]

Also available in BackerKit:

That's a pretty fair deal, I'd say.

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/webeharebrained/shadowrun-hong-kong/posts/1162656

Dev Update #2 - A peek behind the curtain at where we are in the process

Hey All!

Mitch here again in our new office space. Thanks to your funding, we grew out of our old space and had to move into a larger room in the studio. As you can imagine, it's been a period of intense work since the Kickstarter ended. The entire team is in full production on a spectrum of cool stuff across the game so I thought it was time to pull my head out of production for a minute to give you another “peek behind the curtain” at the development process of Shadowrun: Hong Kong.

I'm not a "suit". Katherine decided that today was "Fancy Friday".

But before I do that, Robin says I need to give a quick reminder that EVERYONE needs to fill out their BackerKit survey in order to receive their rewards! If you haven’t yet, go to this link:HONG KONG BACKERKIT, click on “Didn’t get your invite?” and follow the instructions. It’s a quick and painless process and it helps us out tremendously. Please do it now.

Design

Tyler and Connor have completed their first and second passes on most of the side runs in the game, except for the crew’s personal missions. We want Andrew to get more time writing and exploring the crew before we start making those. Kevin has been busting on new Matrix gameplay for quite awhile now and all is going according to his cunning plans. Exciting stuff there. Trevor has taken a fresh look at all the spirits and drones in the game and is completing work on all our new crew abilities. He’s also driving the new interface features and updates we’re implementing.

Writing

Andrew and I have had the toughest time on the project so far. While I was managing the Kickstarter campaign, Andrew completed a detailed story outline. Once we had focused time together, we realized that our story was too complicated to tell within our time budget. We decided to step back and reassess our basic assumptions so that we didn’t end up with some sort of “Frankensteined” version of our story. When this proved to be a more time-consuming than I was comfortable with, I called in Mike McCain, the Game Director of Shadowrun: Dragonfall, to lend us his editorial perspective. I’m pleased to report that the process worked and we have a story we’re happy with. Andrew is now hard at work, happily writing dialogue and consulting with the designers on their runs. Huzzah!

Production

Klimecky continues to manage the scope of the game and keep me in line. We love him for it.

Audio

Jon has been working on music for our new additive combat system and getting us samples to test with. Klimecky and Kevin report positive results. Can’t wait to hear them!

Programming

Speaking of additive music, Brenton coded up the system and tested it with Jeff to make sure it works in a variety of gameplay situations. He’s working on Dragon Lines now - they’re the HK equivalent of the leylines that mages and shaman use to augment their abilities. Garret’s pounding away on new Matrix features and we’re optimistic that our revamp is going to come together well. More to say about those in a future update!

Art

The art team is really plugging along! Cassidy, Spencer, Tristan, and Zach are working closely with the design team to develop environments for the runs that have been developed so far. Tristan is moving forward in turning the Matrix concept piece into isometric game art.

Maury has finished working on all of the crew members’ in-game character art and is finishing up on Koschei’s (Racter’s drone’s) special attachments. Eleanor has started concept and execution work on our main characters and our new animator, Jakob, started by upgrading some old anims in order to get his feet wet before busting out new stuff. We’ll show some of those in a future update. Will has been investigating new visual effects software packages to give us more authoring control on the pretty things.

Finally, in addition to everything else he's doing, Rogers has been interviewing additional character artists. We found just the person we’re looking for and are making her an offer today!

Full speed ahead!

Like I said in my last status update, the development of SR:HK isn’t going to be smooth as silk. The story iteration was frustrating for Andrew and concerning for the team but we’re happy that it’s behind us so we can move forward confident that we have the right story to tell. There are more challenges ahead, of course, but we prefer to live in the moment, trying not to worry about those. We’ve put together a great group and have fun working together. It’s a real pleasure making this game.

That's it for now. Before I go, I thought you’d like a look at how our favorite Somali dwarf decker, Is0bel, is looking.

Take care, Mitch

 

[tuluse]

our story was too complicated to tell within our time budget.

 

[agris]

our story was too complicated to tell within our time budget.

From adversity, they grow strong.

 

[Zed]

Somali dwarf.

 

[Ivan]

our story was too complicated to tell within our time budget.

 

[SausageInYourFace]

Having a good editor who knows how to cut out unnecessary shit and who can figure out what works and what does not is a good thing.

 

[Jackalope]

They are learning from their mistakes it seems. I'm fine with that. The dwarf's face is a bit derpy, but it would work well ingame. They exaggerate the features to make sure it's all recognizable when you have the isometric camera.