Shadowrun Shadowrun: Hong Kong - Extended Edition

[ERYFKRAD]

But Caldecott Caper and the updated DMS are pretty much the only UGCs available on HK and DF-DFDC don't have much more.

The updated DMS you're talking about refers to the Vox Populi mod, right? Is it good?

The description makes it sounds like it could make the base DMS campaign much more more interesting...

This adaptation contains a persistant crew, reworked Matrix, loyalty-based side runs for your crew, and some story tweaks to the orignal campaign.

The persistent crew is kinda very meh though.

 

[zool]

But Caldecott Caper and the updated DMS are pretty much the only UGCs available on HK and DF-DFDC don't have much more.

The updated DMS you're talking about refers to the Vox Populi mod, right? Is it good?

The description makes it sounds like it could make the base DMS campaign much more more interesting...

This adaptation contains a persistant crew, reworked Matrix, loyalty-based side runs for your crew, and some story tweaks to the orignal campaign.

The persistent crew is kinda very meh though.

Can you update their abilities like in Dragonfall?

Also, I did read some complaints about the mod because it supposedly uses NPC portraits from DF and HK and gives them to NPCs in DMS. For example, it seems a homeless guy NPC has Vauclair's portait now...

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Can you update their abilities like in Dragonfall?

Yeah, 2 types per member. Same as df and hk.
With regards to writing they're kinda all over the place. I also don't remember Paco using Spanish every now and then in the original.

 

[GarfunkeL]

It's basically just means that you have similar control over their upgrades as you had in DF and HK. They are only slightly expanded, dialogue-wise and their dialogue is based on the companion novella(s) that HBS put out. They aren't bad but not really anything amazing. Serviceable. The HK mechanics though make DMS even easier than it was - keep that in mind.

 

[zool]

It's basically just means that you have similar control over their upgrades as you had in DF and HK. They are only slightly expanded, dialogue-wise and their dialogue is based on the companion novella(s) that HBS put out. They aren't bad but not really anything amazing. Serviceable. The HK mechanics though make DMS even easier than it was - keep that in mind.

I guess I won't be replaying DMS soon though but if I do, installing Vox Populi and playing on the hardest difficulty level with agris'mod may make it somewhat more interesting than on the first run.

 

[Saduj]

The same guy who did the Antumbra Saga (DF:DC) and the Caldecott Caper (HK) just released his new UGC: CalFree in Chains - https://www.nexusmods.com/shadowrunhongkong/mods/23

At least the beginning is very promising. It helps if you've played the two other campaigns already but that's mainly for in-game lore reasons, as there are references to events and characters from them. But it's a new campaign for a new character.

I'm sure you've finished this by now. My only gripe would be that the increased difficulty of this mod dies off after mid game and the side runs before the last mission felt a bit rushed. Author did a nice job of working in C&C to the extent the game allows. I'd rank it below The Caldecott Caper and miles above anything else.

 

[Freddie]

Just finished normal campaign again and about to start the extended part, but I decided to post about things I noticed now.

I did something obvious this time, created charismatic Elven mage, because everything else is pretty much covered by NPC's. I paid a lot more attention to text than in my previous playthrough.

This was and still is my favourite game in the series, but I think people complaining about the amount of text in this game may have point, but for me, I think user interface can definitely cause some issues too.

Text is on your right, I felt some neck strain when I really tried to focus to text. What makes this worse, is that very little of the conversation, what most the text in game is, can be read without user input, be that clicking next or choosing dialogue option. What makes it even worse is colour palette. User interface colour palette looks nice, harmonic but in practice yellow is pretty hard to cone cells of an eye. I can't know how everyone has calibrated their displays, nor size and resolution people use but I think combined factor is an issue. I noticed that after few hours of play I had moved my chair bit, about an inch, to the right.

That said, it looked like perhaps Harebrained didn't had time to edit. There are some descriptions like 'Gaichu finally turns towards you, his expression unreadable' and they work but there are really lot of them 'Gaichu wraps his arms around his torso looking away'. And it's like when I write these now in Codex, they don't look like there are much of text at all, but with GUI where there's less room for text available at one for player at once, than any modern cellphone, it can get tedious. Then there are few conversations where there are a lot of these and I think those may have used some editing, Kindly Cheng comes to mind, though I also liked some of that stuff and it added to character which add to the atmosphere of game. So I really liked the approach though implementation might have been a bit better. I found news reports posted in Shadowlands outright jarring.

Funny thing is that HK GUI actually allows text scrolling and I could swear there were places where there wasn't that much reserved space for player input buttons and that space was used for text output.

Another problem is actually sort of positive. Last time I played this I paid lot of attention to Rachter and Is0bel and Duncan conversations, though I got impression that Gaichu is well written character too, but I really didn't paid that much attention to every character. For other NPC's perhaps Ambrose. But tease is there or for me it is at least, because I found Gaichu very well written character. I still liked how Is0bel was written and could also appreciate work put to Gobbet a bit more too.

Another issue if that if player actually runs after every conversation, there's very little indication if there is new dialogue available or not. Say if NPC bubbles were white blue, when they have new dialogue, white after you have exhausted their (current) dialogue tree that were still left yellow quest marker dialogue bubbles consistent with other yellow quest markers. I just noticed during this playthrough that it actually has a consequence how many times main character converses with Crafty (Mage shop owner). She sends second email if after some runs or sleep, mc goes through exactly the same dialogue options with her, as previous time. During my first PL I just thought character dialogue was bugged, as well some of Is0bels dialogue.

One thing that comes to mind is that I liked a lot a way Harebrained used cutscenes in HK. Perhaps it could have been used a bit more. I think much of issues come from that even though HK was designed for PC, engine was still something that started with mobile / tablets in mind and designing GUI's with that much of scalability can be one really tough bitch.

Overall, HK remains my favourite mostly because Dragonfall, while very good game, still had sort of something quite familiar in it. HK was more like really about world that goes on and doesn't really give a fuck, world that doesn't need you and I really appreciate that Harebrained decided to something different and I really hope I get to see more of Shadowrun from them after they are done with their Battletech game.

 

[zool]

Good Intentions, a new UGC for HK, has been uploaded on nexus mods. It takes place in Cairo, Egypt.

https://www.nexusmods.com/shadowrunhongkong/mods/27?

Anyone care to test it?

GarfunkeL

 

[Delterius]

I'll check it out later, when I'm home.

 

[pOcHa]

hey, are there any really good mods (on par or better than the base game)?

also, got so annoyed by bonus campaign ending that i removed the game together with saves in a rush - but forgot to first tryout the cyber whip... strangely there are no images or videos of it on the net - someone has any?

 

[Saduj]

The Caldecott Caper and CalFree in Chains are the best user campaigns available in Steam workshop, both by same author.

 

[Lhynn]

also, got so annoyed by bonus campaign ending

Why

 

[pOcHa]

duncan is such an ungrateful whiny little bitch (yet still clingy in the "good" ending) - he sorely needed a good smacking throughout the whole campaign

like someone made a mod for dragonfall with the options to fire blitz (90% did it immediately)

 

[InD_ImaginE]

Eh honestly while Duncan is annoying in Bonus campaign I find his characterization enjoyable in the sense that it gives the player alternatives view to the whole Shadowrunning thing.

Regardless how hilariously evil Mega Corps are in SR, in the end of the day living as criminal is not for everybody. The whole main campaign I echoed that view as well whenever the choices were available. In the end of Bonus Campaign, sad as it was, I also chose to come back being normal citizen with Duncan and the old man because I RP'ed a guy who is basically were just forced by circumstances to be a runner.

 

[Ovplain]

I just recently played through the bonus campaign and I hated it, really. It was a pointless little slog.

 

[Jason Liang]

Hong Kong is unreplayable because of the trash combat

 

[Akratus]

I played through the first and dragonfall both twice already. And I've restarted Hong Kong like 6 times and never really made any headway. It's just so boring. Really seems like they phoned it in.

 

[pOcHa]

can't be sure, played others too long ago, but i think that in this one much more combat is skipable/optional and the rest smaller in scale - and that also goes for decking as well (maybe that is why you are so starved for cash)

but racter and gaichu stories are really worth it, just for them alone - their writing is top notch

 

[Lacrymas]

I don't actually remember many of Hong Kong's missions. I remember one at a business skyscraper, one at a boat-restaurant, Gaichu's mission aaaaaand... that's it. I fairly enjoyed it when I played it, though, which was before Dragonfall. That's what I actually recommend doing, Dead Man's Switch -> Hong Kong -> Dragonfall.

 

[FreshCorpse]

Does anyone know when I get the 6th level for my companions? I'm well into the epilogue now, did every optional mission in the main game. I'm fairly sure it's bugged but just wondering if it has yet to trigger?

If it is bugged, is there a console command or something I can use to trigger it?

 

[Delterius]

I'll check it out later, when I'm home.

i forgot to mention i didn't care much for it

 

[FreshCorpse]

Companions get Lv6 upgrades early in the bonus campaign. If that's what you are refering to by "epilogue" it's probably bugged, but if you are just talking about the epilogue of the main campaign there's no worry.

I'm in the bonus campaign, haven't been to Tiger Den yet. Sounds like it's coming.

 

[FreshCorpse]

Level 6 never triggered. I have subsequently read that it's supposed to happen during Act 2 of the main campaign. Oh well, typical HBS.

Finished the bonus campaign though. Have to say, killing Krait with one of her own spider tanks was pretty fucking cool.

 

[razvedchiki]

agris your mod can be used for all shadowrun games?

 

[agris]

agris your mod can be used for all shadowrun games?

Except DMS. It may work if you port DMS into DF, I don’t remember.