Shadowrun Shadowrun: Hong Kong - Extended Edition

[Gozma]

I think it's a good idea mechanically. Trying to figure out the one little cyberthing you want on a mage instead of it just being flat verboten is kinda cool. The second point of extra essence is like at cyberaffinity 7 or 8 and the skill will be completely useless for you otherwise iirc so you can't afford any big signature cybershit without spending a shitload of karma.

 

[omega21]

True, but doesn't it conflict with the PnP rules? I never done it though.

edit - what Excidium II said

 

[SwiftCrack]

the fuck

How does essence go up, let alone from cyberware? Are those people unfamiliar with their own setting?

Some points the body-subskill give +1 extra essence.

 

[Gozma]

the fuck

How does essence go up, let alone from cyberware? Are those people unfamiliar with their own setting?

It's not from a piece of cyberware, it's a skill fluffed as your personal ability to handle cyberware. You also don't get extra base magic from the extra essence, it can only be used as a buffer before cybershit starts to cost you magic points.

 

[Excidium II]

It's still p. dumb. Essence is your wholeness, even losing a finger or receiving someone else's kidney in a transplant hurts it. Any chromed bits should be destructive for magical dudes.

 

[Roguey]

System Shock 2

That was trial and error garbage.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Am I the only one who really can't stand IsZerobel's constant stupid whining about the same old thing?

That was trial and error garbage.

How about I apply some trial and error to your face with my fists

 

[Korgan 2.0]

tell me i'm missing something on the sinking ship

Spoiler

i'm on the second below deck level having pulled the lever to alert cadmus shit is happening, however I cannot see a way forward. i can see a room with magic hotspots behind a door, but none of the doors can be opened, nor can I climb back up to the previous level. interacting with the scuttling charges does nothing.

I have this bullshit too, arghhhhhh. No idea what to do. I'll try reloading and picking different dialogue upon entering the pit room.

(Also, grenade launcher + autoloader arm = super cheap and powerful, through early game at least.)

(Also, I am again annoyed that the game forces you to be a shaman to get the most of the fun etiquette options. Shouldn't there be a way to buy etiquettes directly without raising Charisma.)

 

[Duellist_D]

Hello all, lurker surfacing to post that laser weapon someone asked a few pages ago.

It's actually a laser sniper rifle with damage comparable to the top tier sniper rifle, except it doesn't have a smartlink, and has armor piercing effect of 2 (higher than normal sniper rifles).
It also appears to have a chance to set targets on fire (i.e, a weak damage over time effect),
and its easy to get around the limitations of the 3 round mag by using the auto-loader cyber arm.
Probably a little OP at the time you can get it.
It also sounds fun (pew-pew!)

Thats a neat device.
Seems i'll have to do a second go when its more patched, this time keeping the lazer-weapon.

 

[Tick Tock Crocodile]

Oh man the dialogue for the Irish girl in the serial killer mission is some 1950s Hollywood Police Commissioner levels of bad Irish-ness. "Begorrah and bejaysus, shore were'nt the Troubles a wee shame? Bullshite!" I really can't stand it when I come across a 'flavourful' Irish/Scottish character, every single line is like a tiny rake being drawn across my brain.

YES. As a Dubliner, her dialogue was extremely painful to read. I always wonder why characters like that are ever added in in the first place. It feels kind of stupid to mention about something as minor as this, but I don't have many other complaints so far. Apart from Is0bel, maybe - I find her quite whiny.

 

[Gozma]

That chick has a 50 foot flashing neon sign that says "BACKER INSERT CHARACTER" over her, like the awful shadowrunner team you run into on the laser mission. After I found her by poking around I was like maybe I should stop poking around, these dark corners are where they hide the backer inserts

 

[Tick Tock Crocodile]

That chick has a 50 foot flashing neon sign that says "BACKER INSERT CHARACTER" over her, like the awful shadowrunner team you run into on the laser mission

Oh, I didn't even think of that! That makes sense, then. Crap, I'm just about to do the laser mission...

 

[Excidium II]

That chick has a 50 foot flashing neon sign that says "BACKER INSERT CHARACTER" over her, like the awful shadowrunner team you run into on the laser mission. After I found her by poking around I was like maybe I should stop poking around, these dark corners are where they hide the backer inserts

But are they worse than PoE backer chars?

 

[Gozma]

Haven't played it yet, rtwp

 

[Jaedar]

That chick has a 50 foot flashing neon sign that says "BACKER INSERT CHARACTER" over her, like the awful shadowrunner team you run into on the laser mission. After I found her by poking around I was like maybe I should stop poking around, these dark corners are where they hide the backer inserts

And yet there was no such tier on the kickstarter. Only putting your face onto a character.

I think what actually happened is they had some interns or hiring skill tests that produced some of this stuff, and then they went "good enough" and threw it in.

In fact, the whole game has a "b-team" feel to it. I might compare the credits at some point.

 

[Gozma]

There is no way on God's earth that shadowrunner team is not some kind of backer insert. Same for the oirish monster hoonter

Plus there's the Codex insert, explain that one kind sir

 

[Zetor]

I remember the names Bull and Opti from the Dumpshock forums... iirc Bull is an ork decker, even. If the team is not a straight-up backer insert, it's a "let's insert well-known people from the SR community" thing, which is um... yeah.

I also had the impression that a lot of new/inexperienced people were involved this time around (at least in the design and writing teams). There's a huge difference in tone and writing quality between some of the runs... it reminded me of Wasteland 2, and that's *not* a good thing.

edit: words are hard

 

[Korgan 2.0]

Update: on the Sinking Ship, it looks like you need to ask Cadmus about fighting the Rat King, and receive a couple objectives, in order not to get stuck on the lower level.

Also yeah, liked Dragonfall much better in terms of writing. It had an amazing sense of place. I don't like how Hong Kong/triad setting is handled; there's a lot of faux-folklore tl;dr, and I liked the whole triad thing a lot better in Sleeping Dogs.

In Dragonfall, there was also a much better feeling of actually having a reason to be a do-gooder/community organizer and to look after your hub/the NPCs there. Here, your character's backstory and motivations just hang in mid-air; the annoying multiple-choice flashbacks feel pointless and don't add much.

 

[Stompa]

Finally done with it. The game definitely lacks a Very Hard difficulty, I've managed to die only one time by my own dumbfuckery, everything else was a breeze. The runs themselves are varied enough and offer plenty of options, but feel quite short aside from a select few. And while the plot starts strong and ends on a high note, the middle part is muddled, in part due to exposition overload by every other NPC. Good thing the writing is above average in most cases.

New Matrix is kinda eh, on one hand it's a welcome change from a shit version of regular combat, on the other hand it's too easy to exploit and generally not that fun to do after a certain point. It definitely would've been more interesting in TB format.

As far as companions go, I'd rate them Racter > Gaichu = Gobbet > Wu > Is0bel. Racter is definitely the right kind of crazy and I like that. Gobbet is just fun to talk to. Duncan has his moments, but most of the time prefers to either "process" or bitch at his father figure.The dwarf girl is absolutely boring, and her quest goes nowhere.

And Gaichu is Gaichu

Overall it's decent, but somewhat worse than Dragonfall. I'm neutral-postive towards it.

the fuck

How does essence go up, let alone from cyberware? Are those people unfamiliar with their own setting?

What makes it worse is that cyberdoc specifically mentions there's only 6 essence points in the dialogue (which is it's own kind of derp, but nevermind). I'm not against as a game mechanic, however, it's not like PnP doesn't have qualities and shit that lessen the impact of essense loss.

 

[Agesilaus]

But are they worse than PoE backer chars?

Nothing is worse than poe backer inserts

 

[Excidium II]

Overall it's decent, but somewhat worse than Dragonfall. I'm neutral-postive towards it.

I haven't got far yet but I can say I like the initial setup WAY more. Just hope it doesn't end up EPIC METAPLOT again.

 

[Duellist_D]

This Essence-Bollocks isn't that bad.
You can buy positive qualities during gameplay in the P&P edition and there are qualities among these (like biocompatibilty) that reduce the cost of essence.

 

[V_K]

Funny how after DF release people here were bitching about how they're supposed to care about filling the shoes an NPC they've seen for like 5 minutes before she got nuked, and now it's suddenly an epitome of character motivation.

But are they worse than PoE backer chars?

Unfortunately, yes, because in PoE they were color-coded while here you have no way of telling beforehand if it's backer NPC or someone relevant to the plot.

 

[Zetor]

I wrote some spoilered stuff about the end boss a few pages ago.. I'd say that while there are ways I think the DF end boss was better, I think the HK end boss is a lot less related to world-shattering metaplot forces doing world-shattering metaplot things.

 

[Excidium II]

Funny how after DF release people here were bitching about how they're supposed to care about filling the shoes an NPC they've seen for like 5 minutes before she got nuked, and now it's suddenly an epitome of character motivation.

Well it's only your motivation for going to hong kong, which is understandable since it's your family not a random chick. And then the police being hunting you is good enough motivation.