Sixth World Almanac electronic release!, It's out NOW! Options

[Doc Chase]

Ended up downloading it this morning - I'm about 35 pages in, and I'm somewhat disappointed when I read the exact same insert text on page 33 that I saw some 15 pages earlier. I know you guys need to get product out, but speaking as a journalist I would have been fired for overlooking this kind of error.

[Jaid]

Has that been done before? Would be great if it could be cleaned up until print (which is what I'm waiting for).

i don't think it was done before intentionally as such, but i can definitely say that there have been PDF releases where something was noticed, errata released, and corrections made before printing have been sent to the printers before the book was printed. specifically, in corp guide ancient history pointed out that one of the corporation section headings (i believe it was mitsuhama) was from the version that he had made, and had not been corrected to the new version as was supposed to happen. though i suppose it technically hasn't been printed yet, has it? well, whatever (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

also, Vice had an update before it reached the printers.

it is, however, rather dependant on people buying and reading it before they get it printed...

[Buio]

Ok, sounds like it could be possible. Will see how it goes, as no print date is given yet. Looks like it was about 1,5 month between PDF and print for Corporate Guide. SWA will be very handy for my upcoming game later in August. :)

[Pepsi Jedi]

I honestly hope it comes out in a month or two. I've been reading my PDF since yesterday and it's actually pretty good. It's very prettily done. My wife is goingto kick my ass up around my shoulders for 'buying it again' but this one, will likely be worth it.

AH. I know you're a lil bent man that your stuff got taken out. And I'm sorry for that. I truely am. I've just wanted this book or one like it for years. Can't pass this one up man. But, I do have sympathy for you.

[hermit]

So with

I wrote a paper about the Renraku Arcology shutdown for a computer theory class. My teacher showed me the original posts from Shadowland talking about Deus and his experiments. After the Crash, I am surprised that so many people are willing to accept the new AI community. It’s true that these new ones didn’t do what Deus did, but if I’d survived that, I’m not sure I could look at a computer again.

it is assumed that Deus is widely known? After all, /dev/grrl is a mainstream corp brat and she wrote this for her terms paper in corp school. Her corp sponsored teacher showed her the R:AC file, which means it is accepted teaching material.

FWIW, I wonder the same thing. If anything, this event should have jump-started a technophobic movement. But the 6th world reacts weirdly to tech going amok, by indulging with the problem tech even more. Crash 2is the same kind of weirdness.

[Mäx]

Ended up downloading it this morning - I'm about 35 pages in, and I'm somewhat disappointed when I read the exact same insert text on page 33 that I saw some 15 pages earlier. I know you guys need to get product out, but speaking as a journalist I would have been fired for overlooking this kind of error.

yeah the time line is pretty lobbily edited/proofread, that same timeline for a year also happens with 2040/2044 inserts and te one doc mentions is years 2006/2020.

[Demonseed Elite]

it is assumed that Deus is widely known? After all, /dev/grrl is a mainstream corp brat and she wrote this for her terms paper in corp school. Her corp sponsored teacher showed her the R:AC file, which means it is accepted teaching material.

/facepalm

Yeah, I don't know what to tell you, hermit. That section you quoted is pretty dumb, in my opinion.

[Rotbart van Dain...]

Or, maybe, the whole "technomancer are the new witches, but AIs are totally ok" line wasn't that cool to begin with.

[hermit]

Or, maybe, the whole "technomancer are the new witches, but AIs are totally ok" line wasn't that cool to begin with.

No way, RvD. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

Yeah, I don't know what to tell you, hermit. That section you quoted is pretty dumb, in my opinion.

I agree, but by now I would just really like an official position. We now have "LOL they made it Reality TV" (SOTA 2063), "Nobody knows what happened in the Arcology, and survivors were mind wiped and now suffer from AIPS" (Emergence), "Bad shit happened but people blamed Renraku's applicances" (Arsenal, also posted by a writer) and finally now "They teach it in corp school, where they also have shadowland accounts" (SRA).

Which of these possibilities will be considered canon?

[Ancient History]

There were a lot of arguments over that one, and it was a fairly large problem with conceptual grasp: that not only was everything in ever sourcebook true (or should be true), but not everybody knew everything either. I mean, the shadows got a first-hand inside-scoop on it; various corporate and government agencies have different levels of information on what went on - you can get all that from Renraku Arcology Shutdown and Brainscan - but the general public? Schoolkids? No. I mean, hell there would be conspiracy theories, media built up around the urban legends, but Emergence doesn't work if everybody is already blase about AIs.

[hermit]

There were a lot of arguments over that one, and it was a fairly large problem with conceptual grasp: that not only was everything in ever sourcebook true (or should be true), but not everybody knew everything either. I mean, the shadows got a first-hand inside-scoop on it; various corporate and government agencies have different levels of information on what went on - you can get all that from Renraku Arcology Shutdown and Brainscan - but the general public? Schoolkids? No. I mean, hell there would be conspiracy theories, media built up around the urban legends, but Emergence doesn't work if everybody is already blase about AIs.

Yeah. Though Emergence went a bit too far with nobody knowing of the Arc being a den of Killbots, which had been established as known in SOTA already. The compromise that everyone blamed faulty drones works well enough, I think.

[Synner]

The official position while I was develop was that the actual events of the Renraku Arcology Shutdown are only partially known to the general public. Yes, the Arcology went into shutdown, the SCIRE control system went nuts. Thousands of people died inside. The Arcology's automated security systems went haywire and turned against those trapped inside. Apparently some systems even conducted experimentation on metahumans. The Banded Otaku were involved with the shutdown from early on and may have had a hand in subverting the SCIRE systems. The military were required to liberate the Arcology. The few survivors came out mentally, emotionally, and physically scared. A handful mention something called Deus, though no-one could actually put a face to this individual/otaku/entity/whatever and nobody is certain what exactly it was - or even if "it" even existed. In fact most survivors have no contact with this entity at all. The fact that a number of survivors later showed signs of extreme post-traumatic stress, fugue states, psychotic episodes and more (as a result of Deus' Network), made the testimonies even less reliable. There is no remaining evidence of Deus' existence anywhere. Renraku quashed any mention of AI research and Deus, it handed over the Arcology to the city by way of reperations, closed down most of its Seattle presence and spun the hell out of a miserable situation.

The shadows, the megacorps and certainly parts of the government are very aware that this isn't the whole story. All have an interests in keeping the information contained following the Crash. Emergence takes place when that status quo shatters with the knowledge of (second gen) AIs becoming widespread.

I take full responsability for those lines in SR4A. They are a mistake and should have been changed to reflect what I've said above. It was a slip. Mea culpa.

[Rotbart van Dain...]

Why exactly do "the shadows" have an interest in keeping this information contained? Shadowrun is still a world with earnest muckrakers, trideo pirates and neo-anarchists. More importantly, it is a heavily divided and balkanized world that rarely agrees on one thing completely.

Of course, all such information and said shadowland file most likely isn't canonical teaching material - which doesn't keep the individual from having it. That's pretty different from "widely known", though. And people do have reservations about AI, as per Unwired Game Information p. 165. So after people bought the anti-technomancer add-on snake oil for their firewall, the anti-AI extension will be marketed.

[Stahlseele]

*shrugs*
Propaganda on the other end telling people that these sources don't know shit and are crazy maybe?
I'm kinda surprised that today the chaos computer club and wikileaks are regarded as good sources.
Some years back, they would have been derided as paranoid computer freaks and criminal spies. . .

[Rotbart van Dain...]

Uh - that's SOP. Today and in Shadowrun.

[Rotbart van Dain...]

Meh.

[Wandering One]

I'm curious as to when a random corp teacher got her gritty little fingers into Shadowland...

[Martin_DeVries_I...]

Shadowland, for all it's vaunted secrecy, seemed pretty easy to get into sometimes. Everyone had a login of some kind. Some of the supplements even had what appeared to be random Joe Corpers logging in, typically clueless. A semi-street-smart teacher would have no idea.

[Brazilian_Shinob...]

Maybe I'm confusing myself with Shadownland and ShadowSEA but as far as I can recall, Shadowland/ShadowSEA was pretty much like 4chan. Anyone could log into it and post see whatever they wanted, but there was a part of it that only l33t people could go.

[Caduceus]

I've seen proofs that were freshly designed and pre-proofreading that had fewer errors than this pdf so far. I really, really hope they haven't sent it to the printer yet, because if they have, the general, non-dumpshock reading customers are going to start to lose the general perception of Catalyst books being high quality.

Also, to put it in delicate terms, the Amazonia section reads like it was written very quickly. I'm particularly bothered by the first half of the paragraph about Manaus.

Right in the dead center of the jungle is Manaus, Amazonia’s
capital. It’s the only true city in the midst of the Amazon itself. It’s
dramatically diverse, boasting representation from every major type
of metahuman, as well as many types most people aren’t aware even
exist. Humans are truly in minority in Manaus—visitors might not
even recognize it as a city.

If they're not grouping non-metahuman sapients in with the term metahuman there (particularly the "types most people aren't aware even exist"), I'm certainly curious as to what the hell is being talked about. But I think they are.

[hermit]

The official position while I was develop was that the actual events of the Renraku Arcology Shutdown are only partially known to the general public. Yes, the Arcology went into shutdown, the SCIRE control system went nuts. Thousands of people died inside. The Arcology's automated security systems went haywire and turned against those trapped inside. Apparently some systems even conducted experimentation on metahumans. The Banded Otaku were involved with the shutdown from early on and may have had a hand in subverting the SCIRE systems. The military were required to liberate the Arcology. The few survivors came out mentally, emotionally, and physically scared. A handful mention something called Deus, though no-one could actually put a face to this individual/otaku/entity/whatever and nobody is certain what exactly it was - or even if "it" even existed. In fact most survivors have no contact with this entity at all. The fact that a number of survivors later showed signs of extreme post-traumatic stress, fugue states, psychotic episodes and more (as a result of Deus' Network), made the testimonies even less reliable. There is no remaining evidence of Deus' existence anywhere. Renraku quashed any mention of AI research and Deus, it handed over the Arcology to the city by way of reperations, closed down most of its Seattle presence and spun the hell out of a miserable situation.

The shadows, the megacorps and certainly parts of the government are very aware that this isn't the whole story. All have an interests in keeping the information contained following the Crash. Emergence takes place when that status quo shatters with the knowledge of (second gen) AIs becoming widespread.

That's what I wanted to know. So the essence of the average Joe's knowledge about the Arc is "System went haywire because creepky Otaku took over". I take it most of the weird behavior for being Network nodes was attibuted to PTSD and such.

I assume, also, Colloton is among the people in the government aware of what really happened in the Arc and what the SCIRE actually was. So the New Revolution are in on this?

Still makes peoples' acceptance of AI and 'mancers a bit too fast for my taste, but maybe that was one of these "let's publish a cut down variant instead of burying this entirely" incidents. Anyway, that's something I can live with and use to connect the various statements in early 4th Edition books into something relatively coherent (as much as all SR canon is). Thanks.

[hermit]

If they're not grouping non-metahuman sapients in with the term metahuman there (particularly the "types most people aren't aware even exist"), I'm certainly curious as to what the hell is being talked about.

I assume that is the photosynthesis elf metavariant they introduced, which is an Amazonian native.

[Endroren]

I think some folks might be reading more into the /dev/grrl post than is there. Try looking at it another way. Here is the original post:

I wrote a paper about the Renraku Arcology shutdown for a computer theory class. My teacher showed me the original posts from Shadowland talking about Deus and his experiments. After the Crash, I am surprised that so many people are willing to accept the new AI community. It’s true that these new ones didn’t do what Deus did, but if I’d survived that, I’m not sure I could look at a computer again.

Now try this one on for size:

I wrote a paper about 9/11 for a political science class. My teacher showed me the original posts from 911truth.com talking about the fuel burning temperatures and the missile that hit the pentagon. After the debacle of the war in Iraq, I am surprised that so many people are willing to accept the government's lies. It's true that the current leaders didn't do what Bush did, but if I'd survived that, I'm not sure I could trust a politician again.

I'm not defending the other problems in the Almanac. I'm just saying that in the case of this one quote, nothing in it suggests widespread public knowledge - or at least nothing akin to "everyone knows the truth." At best it reflects an activist teacher overstepping his/her corporate bounds to spread something that the teacher believes is true and that he/she things the kids, or at least this one gifted student, should know.

[Sengir]

For twenty- five years, the corporations that “liberated” the western part of Berlin from the anarchist Status F and subsequently set up a joint corporate enclave in the former German capital were mired in a constant battle against anarchists from the eastern districts.

Looks like the ingame clock just advanced by seven or eight years and nobody told us...and obviously in the meantime something happened which restored Europe's coastline to how it looked before the Black flood (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[Pepsi Jedi]

Does anyone elses PDF have really weird maps? On mine you can see the cities and stuff but large sections are just black. You can't really differentiate between land and sea in most places unless the land is mountainous. I'm wondering if I got a bad DL or if there's been some update or something