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Harebrained Schemes General Discussion Thread

Will HBS stay on the path of the incline?

  • Yes, it will always stay on the right side

    Votes: 26 9.7%
  • For some time yes, then it will inevitably fall

    Votes: 45 16.8%
  • It already started becoming a decline

    Votes: 33 12.3%
  • It is alrady a decline

    Votes: 30 11.2%
  • It was never an incline to begin with.

    Votes: 69 25.7%
  • How the fuck could I know?

    Votes: 47 17.5%
  • kingcomrade in order to make well thought answers meaningles

    Votes: 18 6.7%

  • Total voters
    268

Rean

Head Codexian Weeb
Patron
Joined
Nov 14, 2020
Messages
1,913
Strap Yourselves In
It's a Jewish-run company, what do you expect? Buy their games to legally listen to the soundtrack, goy.

Good answer. You're right, I don't know what I expected. To enjoy some music, perhaps.
 

razvedchiki

Erudite
Joined
May 25, 2015
Messages
4,265
Location
on the back of a T34.
its a good idea to do a quick run of the campaign in BEX, you are quaranteed to get a SLDF Highlander/Atlas plus + versions or equipment which otherwise are super rare.
 

wishbonetail

Learned
Joined
Oct 18, 2021
Messages
671
Shadowrun seems good on paper, but these games need more mechanical depth. I found combat to be dull. They need more abilities and interactions. I enjoyed a whole of 2 battles in SR:R--the graveyard and the executive suite fight. I had hoped for better with Dragonfall because of the reviews, but ended up uninstalling after about 5 hours because nothing about it hooked me. I want to like Shadowrun. The potential is obvious. Not trying to be an edgelord, but I liked Satellite Reign far more.
These are the shortcomings of tablet platform, theres no way around it unless they forgo that mobile crap altogether. Overall it felt like comic book with tb battles.
 

Jason Liang

Arcane
Joined
Oct 26, 2014
Messages
8,337
Location
Crait
its a good idea to do a quick run of the campaign in BEX, you are quaranteed to get a SLDF Highlander/Atlas plus + versions or equipment which otherwise are super rare.
I tried to get down there but the Helm/ Grey Death Legion flashpoint popped up so I had to turn around and head to Marikspace before it expired.
Not sure if I care for a SLDF Highlander when I'm already 2/5 of the way to a NIGHTSTAR. Anyway I'm just still having a good time terrorizing Steiner and Liao with my Orion/ Crusader lance.
 

Darth Canoli

Arcane
Joined
Jun 8, 2018
Messages
5,687
Location
Perched on a tree
A few years back I played Hong Kong and made a human Physical Adept/Monk or whatever it was thinking it'd fit the setting, but I didn't like the combat with that character so I dropped the game and never went back. I did finish the original game and Dragonfall (Assault Rifle Street Samurai in both if I remember correctly) and enjoyed them for what they were. What's the general opinion, is Hong Kong on par with Dragonfall? Better? Worse?

Why go for a human adept when you can go with an orc or a Troll?

I don't like what harebrained did with the IP at all.
Still, I find Honk Kong way better than the first two, DF being the most boring of the 3 but Returns (critters) being the most autistic.
HK spiced up companions character dev, it's still way below Shadowrun 3E P&P but it's better than DF and Returns.
Combat is better but the cyberspace is worse, not that I ever liked it.
 

wishbonetail

Learned
Joined
Oct 18, 2021
Messages
671
Hong Kong has terrible pacing issues. Once, in the evening, i decided to play a game for a couple of hours. When i came to my senses, i was surprised by the fact that i was reading NPCs monologues for 2 hours. Some gaming that was.
 

Nano

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Mar 6, 2016
Messages
4,648
Grab the Codex by the pussy Strap Yourselves In
When i came to my senses, i was surprised by the fact that i was reading NPCs monologues for 2 hours. Some gaming that was.
Isn't that a good thing. You found the writing engrossing enough that you didn't notice how much time had passed.
 

Harthwain

Magister
Joined
Dec 13, 2019
Messages
4,690
I think he means that instead of playing a game, he spent 2 hours reading.
The problem wasn't that he spent 2 hours reading. He spent 2 hours reading NPCs' monologues. I have to agree that monologues are incredibly boring - if you make someone read then at least ensure text to be snappy and turn monologues into dialogues or make it interactable.
 

wishbonetail

Learned
Joined
Oct 18, 2021
Messages
671
"help I keep picking optional dialogue tree paths that give me text to read"
I kept pickin optional dialogue, because it was good in Dragonfall. No pacing issues there, just normal dialogues. HonkKong reminded me of comic books on Shadowrun i used to draw, when i was around 14 .When I managed to squeeze entire lore in the couple of dialogue bubbles on first few pages.
 

Rahdulan

Omnibus
Patron
Joined
Oct 26, 2012
Messages
5,105
"help I keep picking optional dialogue tree paths that give me text to read"

From what I remember the problem is you really need to chat up the magic store shopkeeper to find out some info you need for the good ending. Or something like that, I forget.
 

Roguey

Codex Staff
Staff Member
Sawyerite
Joined
May 29, 2010
Messages
35,660
From what I remember the problem is you really need to chat up the magic store shopkeeper to find out some info you need for the good ending. Or something like that, I forget.
It's perfectly fine to get an ending that doesn't give you 100% of what you want.
 

almondblight

Arcane
Joined
Aug 10, 2004
Messages
2,549
"help I keep picking optional dialogue tree paths that give me text to read"

Bad content is bad content. Having to curate someone's game to be able to get something out of it is annoying.

Personally I skipped all the hub dialog playing Hong Kong (never skipped any in Dragonfall, it was enjoyable), and the amount of poorly written text dumps in the game was still too much.
 

agris

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Apr 16, 2004
Messages
6,764
"help I keep picking optional dialogue tree paths that give me text to read"

Bad content is bad content. Having to curate someone's game to be able to get something out of it is annoying.

Personally I skipped all the hub dialog playing Hong Kong (never skipped any in Dragonfall, it was enjoyable), and the amount of poorly written text dumps in the game was still too much.
The issue is the nature of the complaint, ie miserable hours spent reading dialogue. If you begin to play a game and dislike the dialogue writing, why would you engage with it in an entirely optional manner that necessitates many more hours of laborious exposure to the offending writing? It’s like complaining about the writing of Pillars but being determined to get the “Umberto Eco” achievement for extracting every last optional dialogue node morsel out of NPCs.

I’m not excusing HBS, but rather pointing out player pathology and it’s ridiculous role in this line of criticism.
 

wishbonetail

Learned
Joined
Oct 18, 2021
Messages
671
The issue is the nature of the complaint, ie miserable hours spent reading dialogue. If you begin to play a game and dislike the dialogue writing, why would you engage with it in an entirely optional manner that necessitates many more hours of laborious exposure to the offending writing? It’s like complaining about the writing of Pillars but being determined to get the “Umberto Eco” achievement for extracting every last optional dialogue node morsel out of NPCs.

I’m not excusing HBS, but rather pointing out player pathology and it’s ridiculous role in this line of criticism.
These games dont offer much in terms of gameplay, so textual information is essential to worldbuilding and immersion.
Also, You cannot know if it is optional or not until you read it.
Also, Dragonfall's descriptions and dialogue were spot on, so i expected the same quality here.
Also, you may ask yourself, if you start skipping parts of the book, or a movie, or a game, is it really worth it to carry on? Especially, if the game is linear and story-driven?
 

Roguey

Codex Staff
Staff Member
Sawyerite
Joined
May 29, 2010
Messages
35,660
You know about sidequests, right. There used to be such things in this kind of games.
Sidequests are optional, hence the name. Also, since you've played Dragonfall, one would think you'd know that these games don't use the "picking up sidequests from random npcs" structure.
 
Joined
Jul 28, 2020
Messages
1,284
From what I remember the problem is you really need to chat up the magic store shopkeeper to find out some info you need for the good ending. Or something like that, I forget.
Do not worry anon it is okay anon because she is cute based MATING PRESS happy ending meow wife anon! She is! You are a good anon!
 

Sykar

Arcane
Joined
Dec 2, 2014
Messages
11,297
Location
Turn right after Alpha Centauri
From what I remember the problem is you really need to chat up the magic store shopkeeper to find out some info you need for the good ending. Or something like that, I forget.
Do not worry anon it is okay anon because she is cute based MATING PRESS happy ending meow wife anon! She is! You are a good anon!


Waifus do cute tongue twisters!


And then make a remix out of it!
 
Joined
Jul 28, 2020
Messages
1,284
Waifus do cute tongue twisters!
And then make a remix out of it!
Thank you Sykar anon! Good strong friend anon! Here anon I do give you this cute princess professor younger sister not wife tongue twister kino anon! I do! She is cute younger sister anon! She is! She is not wife! Is not!
 

wishbonetail

Learned
Joined
Oct 18, 2021
Messages
671
Sidequests are optional, hence the name. Also, since you've played Dragonfall, one would think you'd know that these games don't use the "picking up sidequests from random npcs" structure.
If you've played Dragonfall you should know that there are quests. They just dont reward you with anything aside from learning a little bit more about character and, perhaps, changing his life in some way. And you got sidequests from companions. I always liked these interactions, so ive been combing the hub after each main quest for something new. It felt good in DF, but in HK they just overdid it with infodumps. Interactions with Richter were the most painful, as someone squeezed tightly half of Shadowrun wiki into his monologue.
Rushing the main quest is not my kind of gaming and i dont remember what the fuck it was about in HK. But i still remember Reliable Mathew with his pills or Troll family or Law, who gets killed or not depending if you sell info to him.
 

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