Shadowrun: Returns is live, 20 years since the SNES, 19 years since Genesis Options

[X-Kalibur]

Pretty sure the folks at HBS said something about how decking was actually the last thing they added to the game, and as such there wouldn't be much of it in default campaign.

But hey, there's the map editor if you wanted to make more Matrix-heavy runs.

It feels more well thought out than the Spirit summoning.

[ShadowDragon8685]

So, I just finished SR:R...

I think it's a good game, but it has its flaws. I like the text-based adventure bit, but I think it's sadly, largely too linear. There is a bit of a branch where you can take a proper side-job working for a Mr. J, though it's outright heinous that my high-Charisma elf simply didn't get the option to negotiate for more pay.

Among the flaws, though... Some are engine-related, some are mission-building related in the main missions. For instance...

You shouldn't invest too heavily in decking. I mean, you can make a Decker and survive and all, but you only get one shot at getting that Fairlight Excalibur, and even if you get it, you only get two chances to use it in the course of one Run. Even if you do so, though, it won't matter after that bit, so you're paying 5K for a great advantage in two hacky-bits and then nothing else. This is mainly a matter of story-building: more opportunities for decking could have been put in the game; for instance, a quick decking here or there in the climactic finale to get some auto-turrets installed by one of the slightly less insane members of the cult online and working for you.

Charisma and Etiquette. Some Etiquettes are more useful than others, and I think a few are only called up like, once in the game, and it doesn't get you anything to be able to do so beyond being considered a clever girl by some big-name NPCs. It's also frustrating that there's no "so you have really high Charisma, you can talk the bad guy out of it" option at the end, like a really masterful negotiator in Fallout or Arcanum could talk the BBEG to death.

Some things were more disappointing in the way they were implemented. Wired Reflexes - that should be a no-brainer, they should give you +1 AP. Instead, for some reason, they make you auto-dodge the first "effect" that happens to you after you trigger them. Even if that "effect" is a buff, healing spell, or reloading your own freaking gun. Drones were a massive disappointment, often the only reason to have them along is to have them passively offering another target for bad guys to randomly choose to shoot at, and Spirits, I found, were often literally worse than useless, and they would turn on me when I most desperately needed them to be on my side.

Also, honestly, they just plain-out missed an opportunity to have a 'world hub' and the ability to have your preexisting character go on different storylines and such.

Still, it wasn't all that bad. I was hooked from start to finish. But I agree that it was more of a Shadowrun novel (or novella) with a heavy combat tactics game attached to it, light on the other game aspects.

[Moirdryd]

I'm sure as time progresses there will be more and wider options available.

[Falconer]

*snip essence*

It is, actually. I'm not certain what effect it has on magic, as I haven't tried mixing the two yet, but you do have an essence score, and it limits how much 'ware you can get.

Making a custom character... putting 1 rank in the decking skill. It started with a datajack. But a full 1 point loss in essence (and the 1 point drop in magic).

Later on when I got to the place where I could get cyber for the first time... I noticed it did track essence in fractions and not only in full points. So this makes me think the starting essence bit is a bug.


I'd have to make another character without essence loss and get there and install the jack and see if the bug continues.



Another big failing of the game is the lack of documentation.

How many people not familiar with the game would know cyber causes magic loss? How does magic loss change things... if it changes the TN to resist spells from 6 -> 5 with a point of magic loss... I really wish they'd taken some time to document this with a simple manual.

[FuelDrop]

Magic loss increases cooldown, as far as I can tell. Still considering whether or not it's worth it to use a smartlink...

[Falconer]

I've noticed no difference in cooldown between a pure mage and one with 1 essence loss. The same spells have the same cooldowns.

[CanRay]

Is there a point to hiring a decker? Two times Ive done that, and there has been nothing to hack.

They do give an aiming bonus buff in the meat.

[FuelDrop]

Gotta say, and this comes back to the save system in a way...
This game should have had an 'Export runner' option. the ability to keep with the same runner over this game + DLC + custom content would have been awesome. Sure, some people would then have made a map where the only mission is 'pick up the credstick with 1000000000000000ny' that nets you 100 karma, but if they wanted to play that way just enable god mode and be done with it.
Lost opportunity. If one of the devs sees this and decides 'We'll just patch that in', then thank you in advance.

[Bull]

Gotta say, and this comes back to the save system in a way...
This game should have had an 'Export runner' option. the ability to keep with the same runner over this game + DLC + custom content would have been awesome. Sure, some people would then have made a map where the only mission is 'pick up the credstick with 1000000000000000ny' that nets you 100 karma, but if they wanted to play that way just enable god mode and be done with it.
Lost opportunity. If one of the devs sees this and decides 'We'll just patch that in', then thank you in advance.

When you start up a UGC adventure (User generated Content), you get the option to create a new character, or import a character.

I imagine (and hope) the berlin campaign will be a continuation of your character in the main story.

[Bull]

And hell, I did that a few times in NWN. Created a custom start zone with some really high level mobs with no AC, attacks, or HP so they died in a single hit to give me a big XP boost, and a chest full of awesome custom loot and gold.

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Later I figured out how to do most of that with an NPC dialogue.

[Critias]

D'oh!

Carving my way through a secure corporate facility (well, almost secure), trusty combat decker leading the way, with a utility mage, a street samurai, and a combat mage hired for extra help. We outflank and outfight security forces, skirmish our way to the penthouse, hacking open doors and elevators along the way. Twice now my team provides overwatch and fire support to protect Hotspur as he's jacked in, fighting his way through Matrix opponents no one can help him battle directly.

The enemy security force gets funneled through narrow doorways filled with flaming walls, filled with lead by combat shotgunners on overwatch, blasted to pieces by a ley-line-squatting mage tossing balls of lightning. Everything's going perfectly according to plan. Hotspur's down to the last node, three little White IC just begging to get blasted to pieces by the Fairlight-wielding decker.

Blast, blast, blast, last action point -- misclick. Instead of one last blast-kapowie, I click on the square NEXT to the enemy IC. Hotspur's icon dutifully goes trotting over to stand there, exposed to all of them, using his last action point to jog across the screen and die.

D'oh.

[Ricochet]

And hell, I did that a few times in NWN. Created a custom start zone with some really high level mobs with no AC, attacks, or HP so they died in a single hit to give me a big XP boost, and a chest full of awesome custom loot and gold.

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Later I figured out how to do most of that with an NPC dialogue.

NPC dialogue? On my server I had a chat command system where I could summon up items, monster groups, and even things like stone towers just by voice command. I kind of miss those days... although I think EFU is still running even today.

[Ricochet]

D'oh!

Carving my way through a secure corporate facility (well, almost secure), trusty combat decker leading the way, with a utility mage, a street samurai, and a combat mage hired for extra help. We outflank and outfight security forces, skirmish our way to the penthouse, hacking open doors and elevators along the way. Twice now my team provides overwatch and fire support to protect Hotspur as he's jacked in, fighting his way through Matrix opponents no one can help him battle directly.

The enemy security force gets funneled through narrow doorways filled with flaming walls, filled with lead by combat shotgunners on overwatch, blasted to pieces by a ley-line-squatting mage tossing balls of lightning. Everything's going perfectly according to plan. Hotspur's down to the last node, three little White IC just begging to get blasted to pieces by the Fairlight-wielding decker.

Blast, blast, blast, last action point -- misclick. Instead of one last blast-kapowie, I click on the square NEXT to the enemy IC. Hotspur's icon dutifully goes trotting over to stand there, exposed to all of them, using his last action point to jog across the screen and die.

D'oh.

It's a sign! Less blasting, more writing cool stuff!

[Seerow]

D'oh!

Carving my way through a secure corporate facility (well, almost secure), trusty combat decker leading the way, with a utility mage, a street samurai, and a combat mage hired for extra help. We outflank and outfight security forces, skirmish our way to the penthouse, hacking open doors and elevators along the way. Twice now my team provides overwatch and fire support to protect Hotspur as he's jacked in, fighting his way through Matrix opponents no one can help him battle directly.

The enemy security force gets funneled through narrow doorways filled with flaming walls, filled with lead by combat shotgunners on overwatch, blasted to pieces by a ley-line-squatting mage tossing balls of lightning. Everything's going perfectly according to plan. Hotspur's down to the last node, three little White IC just begging to get blasted to pieces by the Fairlight-wielding decker.

Blast, blast, blast, last action point -- misclick. Instead of one last blast-kapowie, I click on the square NEXT to the enemy IC. Hotspur's icon dutifully goes trotting over to stand there, exposed to all of them, using his last action point to jog across the screen and die.

D'oh.

Hah.

I've done that a couple times too.

[Critias]

It's a sign! Less blasting, more writing cool stuff!

Shush, I can do both! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[Werewindlefr]

Aside from the combat reflexes dodge bug (which is horrible), there are certain conditions in which overwatch will do something completely wonky and shoot all your teammates (and possibly enemies, I don't know, I was paying attention to my team). This happened to me several times, and made me stop in the middle of what I believe to be the last mission.

[ShadowDragon8685]

Aside from the combat reflexes dodge bug (which is horrible), there are certain conditions in which overwatch will do something completely wonky and shoot all your teammates (and possibly enemies, I don't know, I was paying attention to my team). This happened to me several times, and made me stop in the middle of what I believe to be the last mission.

That may or may not be a bug, Werewindlefr.

If you have someone overwatch with an SMG on "Spray and Pray" mode, there's a good chance anyone in the general vicinity of the bad guy that triggers the Overwatch is getting shot, friend or foe alike. If you have someone overwatch with a shotgun and the thing that triggers it is (a) at least six squares away and (b) in the vicinity of an ally, the ally can get shot as well.

These instances are not a bug. If you've got people overwatching with an AoE weapon, it's just as if they were overwatching with a grenade launcher. SMGs on Spray and Pray are area-of-effect weapons, shotguns at range are also AoE.

[FuelDrop]

Found a bug where I activated a drone, deactivated it and then activated another drone. At the end of the turn the first drone acted and had 6-8 action points, allowing me to wipe most of the hostiles out in a single round.

Haven't tried it again to see if it's repeatable.

[Werewindlefr]

That may or may not be a bug, Werewindlefr.

If you have someone overwatch with an SMG on "Spray and Pray" mode, there's a good chance anyone in the general vicinity of the bad guy that triggers the Overwatch is getting shot, friend or foe alike. If you have someone overwatch with a shotgun and the thing that triggers it is (a) at least six squares away and (b) in the vicinity of an ally, the ally can get shot as well.

Spray and pray with a 1-round shotgun mode overwatch, that hits characters behind or at 90 degrees on the side? It's called a bug.

[Critias]

Spray and pray with a 1-round shotgun mode overwatch, that hits characters behind or at 90 degrees on the side? It's called a bug.

Easy, man. He said "may or may not have been," partially due to a lack of detail in the original post.

[ShadowDragon8685]

There is a certain lack of sanity checking in the spray and pray targets, I admit. I once sprayed and prayed at a target very near to my shooter and I saw "Missed" over the shooter - indicating the game was checking for hits against the person firing the weapon.

Spray and pray is hinky. It's useful largely in the same scenarios a grenade is - there's a clusterfuck of bad guys and no friendlies anywhere in the vicinity. But sometimes you've gotta rock 'n roll and there's just no alternatives.

[Voran]

Soooooo...I haven't posted in possibly a couple years, almost forgot I had this account (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

Enjoying shadowrun returns so far, kind of a basic game, but what I like is the framework of the ruleset/editor/tiles/etc that they've set up and expect the community to be churning out some good storypacks in the coming days.

Shotguns are kinda OP though (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

[Stahlseele]

are you even at the point of progression where you can get people with burst fire shotguns? O.o

[Tanegar]

Bought it late last night, been playing it off and on this morning. Playing a troll combat decker named Redeye. Just saved Coyote. Kind of annoyed at the unavailability of Ares Predators, and at the so-far lack of opportunities for decking. Very pleased with the overall feel of the game. Extremely pleased with the artwork.

[binarywraith]

Bought it late last night, been playing it off and on this morning. Playing a troll combat decker named Redeye. Just saved Coyote. Kind of annoyed at the unavailability of Ares Predators, and at the so-far lack of opportunities for decking. Very pleased with the overall feel of the game. Extremely pleased with the artwork.

Give it a little. They don't just hand out Preds to any scum off the street, ya gotta make a little name for yerself first.