Hey John, any idea about the performance issues I'm experiencing on my desktop (see my posts further up in the thread)? I'm playing on my laptop for now, but a machine that's 5+ times faster really shouldn't be running the game 6 times worse
If you need me to provide any additional information (or run a debug build for that matter) let me know.
Such a shame, I'm playing this game on a Surface Pro, but apparently you can't scroll over the map with touch commands. The only way to change the camera's position is by resetting the camera on the character.
It's working (well!) with touch here, including scrolling and even 2 finger zooming. Are you on Windows 8.1?
Anyway, just played for 5 hours or so straight, really enjoying the game. Between this, Might & Magic X and Consortium its been an excellent start into the year.
Just got the game up and running on my ancient Core 2 Duo laptop. Runs smoothly at 1080p60, no drops so far in the first stage.
Which is pretty neat, considering that the same system had trouble keeping that framerate in the first campaign (dead man's switch) when I played it sometime ago. Good work on the performance improvement folks. Also noticed that the sound stuttering bug which plagued the previous campaign whenever you opened up the inventory screen and your character was loaded up each time was also fixed.
Really liking the added character interactions between the PC and the others so far.
I saw an opportunity that i did not take. Upon leaving the building to hitch a ride home the
smuggler in the gunfight was beside a the targetable rage gas shipment. It would have been a good chance to ice the lose ends and see what the junk does. In tree huggy elf nature though i thought that releasing that chemical may have been bad and only killed the humanis.
I decided to pick up the first game given the reviews for this seem pretty great so far. Except for the excessive linearity I've had a decent time with the first one, but Full Auto + Mark Target has basically just been an insta-win for every fight on very hard. Is the difficulty upped, or at least more balanced, in this one?
The hack terminal is ontop of a mission critical button, so I can't hit the button becuase it keeps trying to jack me in instead, and I cleared the entire cyberspace, so nothing is there to make it happen.
I finished the campaign in just under 22 hours. It was great. Gameplay-wise, Dragonfall has more "meat" than Dead Man's Switch, offering some touches of non-linearity, bigger areas to explore, and a better party. Story-wise, it follows the old Shadowrun formula where a seemingly inconsequential run turns wrong, and then the whole thing slowly escalates into apocalyptic zaniness - much like DMS, really, but the execution felt less rushed here. The characters are also much better developed and the whole plot has more room to breathe. The ending was perfect, too. They hit all the right notes.
I think I'll let the experience sack for a while and then start a second playthrough.
I really hope they'll make another campaign, too. Some of the UGC out there is quite good, but never quite on the same level as Harebrained's original campaigns, especially in the writing department.
I finished the campaign in just under 22 hours. It was great. Gameplay-wise, Dragonfall has more "meat" than Dead Man's Switch, offering some touches of non-linearity, bigger areas to explore, and a better party. Story-wise, it follows the old Shadowrun formula where a seemingly inconsequential run turns wrong, and then the whole thing slowly escalates into apocalyptic zaniness - much like DMS, really, but the execution felt less rushed here. The characters are also much better developed and the whole plot has more room to breathe. The ending was perfect, too. They hit all the right notes.
I think I'll let the experience sack for a while and then start a second playthrough.
I really hope they'll make another campaign, too. Some of the UGC out there is quite good, but never quite on the same level as Harebrained's original campaigns, especially in the writing department.
Yeah, the writing is totally on point (as you would expect) compared to the UGC content. I honestly feel that the UGC community would be better if it were easier to find collaborators that could compensate for others weaknesses. What I mean is that there are people who know the SR universe in and out, and would probably have compelling stories to tell but lack the technical know-how to implement them in the editor.
Then you have people like me who have whipped up some basic UGC and know how to flip the right switches, but can't come up with anything interesting story-wise. In my defense, i don't know the SR world very well outside of the videogames, but I have a feeling that even after I read through the 3rd Edition rulebook I still am not going to be able to come up with convincing dialogue.
I had a great idea for an NPC in my campaign, who was a classic magician (like David Copperfield/David Blaine magician) who is struggling with being completely obsolete in a world where real magic exists. I tried and tried, but without a deeper understanding of the source material I just could not write anything I was satisfied with.
Have the Dragonfall improvements to the save system and such been patched into Returns yet? I bought it over the Christmas sale and was planning to start it soon but I don't see a news item or patch notes on steam for Returns.
Have the Dragonfall improvements to the save system and such been patched into Returns yet? I bought it over the Christmas sale and was planning to start it soon but I don't see a news item or patch notes on steam for Returns.
Yes, the engine now supports a proper save system for both campaigns although they are still working out some bugs with certain trigger results not being saved properly in some cases.
I'm absolutely loving this -- maybe a few hours in, and so far Dragonfall is the best parts of what I loved about Deadman's Switch (the pulpy writing and the shadow-soaked ambience) along with actually feeling like you run with an actual crew. I decided to make a street mage this time; I had a decker in DMS, and ironically I feel like decking would have helped me out more here, but so far it's a nice change of pace.
I still can't help but feel like the combat in Shadowrun Returns could stand to be more elegant; a lot of times it feels like I'm just cheesing the same handful of techniques over and over again. But I just adore the writing and tone of the whole game, so I'm willing to put up with some clunkiness in the combat mechanics. While it feels a little contrived at times, I like the sense of feeling like the crew you stumble into has a real solid history with each other. This has been my favorite Kickstarter project to date, and I desperately hope for more improvements and campaigns in the future.
You guys will NEVER guess the password to the administrator account on the second floor
It is the default password to every router in the world.
I got it on a wild guess, and I got a big smile on my face when my guess worked. They have really put in some work with the new systems. I had no idea that you could actually input numbers now (in DMS you could only select from a drop-down)
Lol my sister just called me and said if I knew what the default password to every router in the world is. I was like wtf kind of question is that? She then explained that she's stuck on this part and used google to find the answer but the only lead was your post. She knew I was a
Lol my sister just called me and said if I knew what the default password to every router in the world is. I was like wtf kind of question is that? She then explained that she's stuck on this part and used google to find the answer but the only lead was your post. She knew I was a
...I still can't help but feel like the combat in Shadowrun Returns could stand to be more elegant; a lot of times it feels like I'm just cheesing the same handful of techniques over and over again. But I just adore the writing and tone of the whole game, so I'm willing to put up with some clunkiness in the combat mechanics. While it feels a little contrived at times, I like the sense of feeling like the crew you stumble into has a real solid history with each other. This has been my favorite Kickstarter project to date, and I desperately hope for more improvements and campaigns in the future....
This is exactly what I'm on about and it's the one thing that's making me give XCom another whirl instead of picking up Dragonfall immediately. I just played through the original campaign and absolutely loved the atmosphere. The music was top notch. The story was terrible, but the writing made up for it. But I mean if I really just wanted writing and atmosphere I'd read through the Neuromancer series again - a series which I'd highly recommend for anybody who enjoyed the game. What I'm looking for in a game is challenging gameplay. I beat the first one using a decker who did nothing but mark target + full auto and basically face stomped every single enemy in the game on very hard. At the end I had 70+ unused karma because there was no point for it. I was crushing every matrix and my full auto was already accurate enough to mow down 95% of enemies in one blast, 4% in 2 and well - you know the other 1%. I can't even imagine how broken it would have been if I didn't cyber myself down to 1 essence, or if I put more than 2 points into body.
I plan on picking this one up soon but that's mostly to support a smaller scale project. I'll be purchasing Dragonfall solely to support a better version in the future. I know some of the guys from HB are reading this - please work on the combat. I shouldn't be mowing through very hard of any turn based strat game on my first playthrough, let alone with a single character in a party of 4.
The hack terminal is ontop of a mission critical button, so I can't hit the button becuase it keeps trying to jack me in instead, and I cleared the entire cyberspace, so nothing is there to make it happen.
Yeah, the writing is totally on point (as you would expect) compared to the UGC content. I honestly feel that the UGC community would be better if it were easier to find collaborators that could compensate for others weaknesses. What I mean is that there are people who know the SR universe in and out, and would probably have compelling stories to tell but lack the technical know-how to implement them in the editor.
Then you have people like me who have whipped up some basic UGC and know how to flip the right switches, but can't come up with anything interesting story-wise. In my defense, i don't know the SR world very well outside of the videogames, but I have a feeling that even after I read through the 3rd Edition rulebook I still am not going to be able to come up with convincing dialogue.
I had a great idea for an NPC in my campaign, who was a classic magician (like David Copperfield/David Blaine magician) who is struggling with being completely obsolete in a world where real magic exists. I tried and tried, but without a deeper understanding of the source material I just could not write anything I was satisfied with.
That is an interesting story idea. If you stay too close to the source material and the game specifically it may not gel because of the time periods. The game takes place around 2050 and magic came back in 2012. Although there is a story in the book that game with the deluxe version on steam around that time where one of the first troll children is immersing himself in a online game and eventually finds others like himself.
Yeah, the writing is totally on point (as you would expect) compared to the UGC content. I honestly feel that the UGC community would be better if it were easier to find collaborators that could compensate for others weaknesses. What I mean is that there are people who know the SR universe in and out, and would probably have compelling stories to tell but lack the technical know-how to implement them in the editor.
Then you have people like me who have whipped up some basic UGC and know how to flip the right switches, but can't come up with anything interesting story-wise. In my defense, i don't know the SR world very well outside of the videogames, but I have a feeling that even after I read through the 3rd Edition rulebook I still am not going to be able to come up with convincing dialogue.
I had a great idea for an NPC in my campaign, who was a classic magician (like David Copperfield/David Blaine magician) who is struggling with being completely obsolete in a world where real magic exists. I tried and tried, but without a deeper understanding of the source material I just could not write anything I was satisfied with.
If you want to get a feel for the world and the dialogue, you're perhaps better off reading some of the novels rather than the sourcebooks. The anthology that came with DMS for Kickstarter backers is a good starting point. Failing that, anything by Nigel Findley or Carl Sargent works fine. They're predictably cheesy/campy but fun reads IMO.
Your idea for a story sounds really nice, although, as has been pointed out, your NPC would have to be a bit on the older side by 2053.
Have the Dragonfall improvements to the save system and such been patched into Returns yet? I bought it over the Christmas sale and was planning to start it soon but I don't see a news item or patch notes on steam for Returns.
Hmm, having an issue with a mission item called "Malost's PDA" which is given by Thorwald Enstad. I guess I'm supposed to be able to cash the money in somehow (15 000 nyuen according to the item description) but I don't know how. I've been at my computer but I'm getting no option to use the credstick in any way, so it justs sits among my mission items :I Feels like I'm missing something very obvious...
Finished this. I think it was a substantial, but not staggering improvement over the original DMS campaign. That said, I really liked DMS, so that wasn't a problem for me.
* I think Dragonfall's greater degree of openness is mostly illusory. There were a few places with alternate solutions and some choice & consequence, and that went a long way, but much of it was cosmetic.
* The combat really wore thin for me about halfway through. I'm not sure if the problem is the core system or a dearth of sufficient content to flesh out those core systems, but I found myself successfully using the same tactics over and over. The difficulty level was fine, though.
* The anarchist German setting felt incredibly fresh--much more than DMS's. And I'm still impressed by how atmospheric and evocative Shadowrun's 2D maps can be.
In all, I'm quite happy with the game. And that's in a year with some great RPGs already out. I think Harebrained has their quality at a great level: I have no real complaints about the dialogue, story, environment design, and so on. They just need to make their next expansion more densely-packed with content. More dialogue options that have an impact, more use for etiquettes, more diverse weaponry and character development options (although they might be constrained by the Shadowrun rules here), more choice & consequence, more everything. The length doesn't have to be crazy--8-15 hours is fine.
I do like Dragonfall's character interaction, but the "character backstory that's gradually revealed in-between plot missions" formula feels contrived to me. I understand why devs do it, but I feel like there must be some sort of more organic-feeling alternative.
I might as well do a recap too. I'm probably about 9/10ths of the way through the game, pretty much know where I'm headed now.
The atmosphere in game is incredible. DMS nailed the cyber-punk but noir well, but Dragonfall really takes up a notch. Really appeciate Mission Spoiler
The tons of corporate espionage type scenarios in Dragonfall
. That aspect alone elevates it far above DMS, and really honestly most RPG's nowadays.
The unique mix of magic and tech that Shadow-run is really known for is also represented better in Dragonfall than in DMS. It felt a little less homage-y too than the last one. Don't get me wrong, I really appreciated the homages but I think Dragonfall stands better on it's own.
I found, by contrast to Chairman Yang, combat, to be well executed. I played as kind of a disruptor mage/kenetic combatant, used spells like confuse and glue, armor, and then chopped people to bits with my sweet sword. But I was far from invincible, and needed to plan my attacks well, especially since I didn't have quite the HP that I would have liked (really spread my points across a lot of different disciplines). I usually bore of combat in RPG's after a while -- one of the biggest challenges in playing game like this to me is the sometimes sluggish slog that combat can be. But I didn't find that to be a problem at all.
I do agree, however, that the skill checks (particularly etiquette) might need to be adjusted for future moves. I made it a point to spread my character thin in order to get 2 speech checks that I thought made sense given my character back story (4 charisma). One of them was useful once, while the other wasn't useful at all as far as I could tell. Meanwhile there are a few that are very useful (and I plan on getting when I do another run through).
The fact that I can't put this down though while South Park, Hearthstone, and the PoE expansion are all available to me now is a testament to the game though. I'm already thinking about a second character for another run on very hard.
Any chance of a second expansion set in minor story spoiler
* The anarchist German setting felt incredibly fresh--much more than DMS's. And I'm still impressed by how atmospheric and evocative Shadowrun's 2D maps can be.
In all, I'm quite happy with the game. And that's in a year with some great RPGs already out. I think Harebrained has their quality at a great level: I have no real complaints about the dialogue, story, environment design, and so on. They just need to make their next expansion more densely-packed with content. More dialogue options that have an impact, more use for etiquettes, more diverse weaponry and character development options (although they might be constrained by the Shadowrun rules here), more choice & consequence, more everything. The length doesn't have to be crazy--8-15 hours is fine.
I agree with the length, I think the Shadowrun setting by definition lends itself to rather short campaigns. For example, you don't need some long character/quest introduction. You are runners, and you are on a run, and generally something goes wrong
As for the bolded, I played Shadowrun P&P for a few years and once you get into the additional class source books the amount of customization is pretty insane. There's an entire book just full of cyber-/bio-augmentations, for example. They've only scratched the surface in the game so far.
I do like Dragonfall's character interaction, but the "character backstory that's gradually revealed in-between plot missions" formula feels contrived to me. I understand why devs do it, but I feel like there must be some sort of more organic-feeling alternative.
I absolutely agree that it's contrived, but I still greatly prefer contrived/formulaic party character interaction to none at all. Let's see how Obsidian handles it in Eternity.
I just had a great mission raiding a corp HQ for some "merch" while the mission was fair and accomplished on the first try i felt stretched for resources using 2 doc wagons and all my medics kits.
As far as party interaction it does feel gamey with the strict adherence to the mission, chat in safehouse, and repeat structure. A big part of that is a limitation of the returns engine and how the campaign was set up. The party only follows the character during a mission and does not have free chat available.
In other game structures like Pillars of Eternity the party is always following the player around to chat and certain areas to visit can trigger a conversation. It opens up a lot more writing options like a post battle patch up conversation or a drinking/religious/theatre buddy whos arc advances in pubs/churches/theatres. SRR could do some of those things in a clever user campaign but will always be a bit more inhibited than a free roam RPG(infinity, bethseda, even bioware)
I think Hong Kong came in second to Berlin in their Kickstarter poll on the second campaign, and I would love an expansion that takes place there. But I'd have no complaints about your choice, either.
I think that by hitching the wagon to iOS/Android, it inhibited the developers ability to go much bigger. In the editor, you can see how computationally taxing your scenes are with a bar that fills up, and if you open up any of the berlin campaign scenes, they are at the max.
I don't think that there is anything that prohibits UGC from going bigger (because UGC cannot be used with the mobile ports), but I think it is a limiting factor for anything that Harebrained Schemes wants to sell on mobile.
I finally picked this one up. All I have to say is it is just a huge improvement over the first. The combat is more interesting, the world more dynamic and you actually have choices! It's sad for the company and the players that I wouldn't be terribly surprised if most people skipped out on this after playing the first one. The only reason I went for it is that Sega's Shadowrun is in my top 3 games of all time so I'm a sucker for the series... so long as it's not an online-only multiplayer-only play-vs-player-only first-person-shooter.......
I'd happily buy into a full size sequel that further ups the combat and open world nature of the game. Something I'd like to see is making weapon/spell upgrades something special. I haven't completed this one yet but so far it seems really similar to the first in that you complete a mission and then you instantly get a slew of upgraded weapons to choose from with the only challenge being accumulating money. Modifying weapons/spells would also add some interesting possibilities. Eg - add laser sights, smart link, high velocity chamber, etc with each weapon having a specific cap using a system similar to essence for implants. Weapon upgrade parts would be primarily scattered throughout missions and not for bulk sale. This could also make weapon choice a more interesting and defining decision.
One little annoyance. I hate that it's impossible to backtrack. In one mission I was told to contact a certain NPC to solve a problem. So I left the area and walked over to that NPC. Turns out I was supposed to use a com-link in the original area so the entire quest was impossible to complete without rewinding and redoing the entire area again. Also, the decking portions are also still pretty meh. I actually think that was done significantly better on the Sega version 20 years ago!
One thing I loved - the game kind of pushes you into making a balanced character with actually meaningful rewards for various skill checks. My guy is a caster, but I don't care. I WILL pass that strength skill check! Perhaps allowing more of your team to pass certain checks (other than decker) would be an interesting mix. It'd certainly encourage variety and it'd also allow for the reasonable introduction of far higher skill checks than what are currently present.
I finally picked this one up. All I have to say is it is just a huge improvement over the first. The combat is more interesting, the world more dynamic and you actually have choices! It's sad for the company and the players that I wouldn't be terribly surprised if most people skipped out on this after playing the first one.
One little annoyance. I hate that it's impossible to backtrack. In one mission I was told to contact a certain NPC to solve a problem. So I left the area and walked over to that NPC. Turns out I was supposed to use a com-link in the original area so the entire quest was impossible to complete without rewinding and redoing the entire area again.
As Grayman says above, this is larrgely a result of the limitations of their engine. I do wonder what they could have created with a more solid technical basis (and perhaps if they disregarded mobile).
Finished the game last night, really enjoyed it but for the last third the challenge pretty much went away and combat starting become a little rote. I think the main issue is the lack of enemy variety, or at least variety as to how to approach different enemy types. No matter the mix of enemies, mages, physical attackers, standard security, etc. the same tactics worked so I found myself doing the same things over and over again.
I want to go up against super powerful glass cannons who decimate your party unless you take them out first, high defense tanks who need to be damaged by certain weapons or by being attacked from behind, mages who can inflict interesting status effects outside of DOT, etc.
Nevertheless I really liked it and I hope the come out with another one. The writing and atmosphere is fantastic. I actually found myself struggling with two major decisions near the end of the game which is always a good sign imo. I'm curious as to what everyone else choose.
End game spoilers
I killed both APEX and Firewing when all was said and done. I felt like they both would have been too dangerous to let free, APEX with her capability to kill and eat minds and Firewing due to her insanity. I always go the paragon route in RPGs but in this case I don't know if I did the "right" thing, which I appreciate.
I actually found myself struggling with two major decisions near the end of the game which is always a good sign imo. I'm curious as to what everyone else choose.
End game spoilers
I killed both APEX and Firewing when all was said and done. I felt like they both would have been too dangerous to let free, APEX with her capability to kill and eat minds and Firewing due to her insanity. I always go the paragon route in RPGs but in this case I don't know if I did the "right" thing, which I appreciate.
I played a bleeding-heart liberal ecologist "Ghouls are people, too" elven shaman for my first play-through, so
I let them both live and roam freely, the consequences be damned.
You're right that the game doesn't make the choice easy. I will go the other route next time. I'm curious how that will affect the final epilogue scene.
I'd like to see if they can clean up some of the nagging issues with their systems and see if it's portable to other concepts. I wouldn't mind a non-magical cyberpunk or even a fantasy/steampunk game. Hell, even along the lines of Arcanum 2.
I played a bleeding-heart liberal ecologist "Ghouls are people, too" elven shaman for my first play-through, so
I let them both live and roam freely, the consequences be damned.
You're right that the game doesn't make the choice easy. I will go the other route next time. I'm curious how that will affect the final epilogue scene.
I enjoy the (often ridiculous, occasionally grammatically incorrect) German sprinkled throughout, from the place names to people to random German outbursts and expressions in the dialogue. It reminds me of 90s Japanese RPGs, which had a serious infatuation with German names and expressions - though to be fair to Harebrained Schemes, the German mentions in this game are not quite that random and clearly better researched.
Just seeing real things I know and places I've been to referenced in a videogame is something that tickles my fancy.
