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Latest update (April 21st): Part 39 - Backroom Conflicts NEW MUSIC:  (It's the main theme, give it a listen! The in-game version starts at about 1:30.) What do we have here? Shadowrun: Hong Kong which is the third (and as of this writing, final) entry in Harebrained Schemes' series of tactical RPGs set in the cyberpunk tabletop setting Shadowrun. Released in August 2015, Hong Kong was partially funded by a successful crowdfunding campaign much like the original Shadowrun Returns (although this time the goal was simply to increase the game's scope), and unlike its predecessor Shadowrun: Dragonfall, it was developed as a standalone game from the beginning. I have also done LP's of the previous two entries, Shadowrun Returns and Shadowrun: Dragonfall and while this game's plot has practically nothing to do with either of them and we'll go over the basics again, this LP will broadly assume you know what we're dealing with here and spoilers for the two earlier titles are open. I recommend at least checking the setting summary from the beginning of the first LP if you're completely new to Shadowrun. The story itself takes place in 2056, two years after the events of the previous games, and as you just may have surmised from the game's title, there's once again been a change of continents as the shadows that are about to get a good running from a crew of misfits this time are those of the Hong Kong Free Enterprise Zone which in the Sixth World declared independence in 2015 and is now ruled by corporations through the Board of Governors and the Executive Council. And of course, Triads and their ilk in the shadows. There's a lot more to cover about the sprawl and its nature than is feasible to include here, but the game and LP will shed more light to the setting as it goes.  Alright, so is the game any good? How does it compare to the other two? Of the three games in the series, Hong Kong maybe never quite got the same amount of time in the spotlight as its predecessors, though this has evened out as time has passed. While Returns garnered a lot of attention due to being the big Shadowrun RPG revival, and later Dragonfall was lauded for just how much it improved upon the original game, Hong Kong doesn't really have any such singular and obvious claim to fame. While there certainly have been a variety of visual and mechanical changes and improvements, they are ultimately fairly modest and overall the game maybe feels closer to a new story campaign rather than what you might expect from a full-blown sequel, something that was also noted in many reviews of the game. Perhaps the most common point of contention regarding this game, though, is that it's very wordy. Indeed, Hong Kong cranks the dialogue-to-action ratio even further towards the former than Dragonfall did, with a large (if largely optional) chunk of it concentrated on this game's version of the main hub. That being said, one reason for this perceived imbalance does also stem from the fact that there are now fewer mandatory fights as a result of increased freedom of approach during missions. Other things opinions vary on include the quality of the main plot compared to Dragonfall, changes to the Matrix system, and the protagonist having a more established background. You might detect something of a pattern here — a lot of subjective issues all viewed through a Dragonfall lens which really shows just how similar the two games are overall. One 100% objective problem this game does have is that it ended up quite unpolished, even at the end of its patch cycle. While we're not by any means talking about a broken game here or anything, there is still a noticeable amount of bugs and spelling errors, even extending to affecting the core functions of the main crew members. Fortunately fan patches have since come to the rescue and cleaned up most of the bug infestation, and we'll be using one in this LP as well. Now personally I would probably say that this is my own favorite game in the series, and it is in fact the entry which inspired me to LP this series in the first place. While it's undeniable that there is a lot of NPC chatter of which not nearly all might be considered especially relevant or necessary, I find that the actual character writing itself absolutely peaks in Hong Kong. While Dragonfall was a big improvement from the largely paper-thin characters of the first game, HK takes it yet another step further with even more depth and personality in the various characters and even the protagonist themselves. This aspect also shows in this game's main crew, incidentally one of my personal favorite parties in an RPG, who are now even more fleshed-out and who interact with the world and each other more often and more naturally than even the Berlin runners of the previous game. Also, it's cyberpunk Hong Kong so as you might expect, the atmosphere is second to none in the series. This is aided by an award-nominated soundtrack by Jon Everist, who also composed the soundtrack for Dragonfall - Director's Cut and later on for games like HBS' Battletech. I very much recommend listening to the linked music tracks as you read this LP because they really do add a great deal to the mood. Unless you're reading this in the archives and all the links are long broken, in which case, sorry.  Alright, so what HAS been changed or added in Hong Kong? Well for one thing, it runs a a lot smoother than the previous game did. If you're only familiar with the series via these LPs then you obviously have no way to tell, but Dragonfall really pushed the limits of the original engine which manifested as all kinds of hitching and chugging, especially towards the late game. Hong Kong uses an improved version of the engine that has a much easier time keeping it together, no doubt also due to the game having been developed exclusively for PC with tablet support dropped altogether. The UI has also gotten a new coat of paint and there's been a variety of nice QOL additions to it, such as the ability to trade items freely between party members at any time. In general the visuals have gotten all kinds of improvements, most combat effects such as spells for example have gotten visual overhauls. This kinda stuff will be shown off as they come up. The much-disliked Matrix system has been revamped with less emphasis on mandatory Matrix combat... and the inclusions of stealth and minigame aspects. Yeah, as you can probably guess from that set of words, the reception of these changes was a little mixed, and most would probably say it was largely just swapping one weak system with another. Personally I think it's still an overall improvement, but we'll get to that when we start doing cyberspace things. What's also been added is the ability to prepare and position characters before starting a fight, provided of course that the enemy is spotted first. The combat system is more or less the same as it was in Dragonfall - Director's Cut and this is a cool if not massively impactful addition to that.  As a final note, similarly to Dragonfall, this game also got an extended re-release given out for free to previous owners of the game, simply called Shadowrun: Hong Kong - Extended Edition. While not nearly as extensive as Director's Cut was to the expansion version of Dragonfall, Extended Edition most notably includes a whole new (and rather combat-heavy) mini-campaign which takes place after the events of the main story. It also added developer commentary one can listen to throughout the game, intended for a second playthrough. Anyway, whatever I forgot or missed here will come up later and this OP is truly worthy of the game in its word count at this point, so let's stop yammering and move on to the  Thread rules! (yeah it does)- No spoilers, preferably not even in tags unless it's something particularly inconsequential. If we haven't seen it, don't talk about it, simple as anything. And try to avoid being there "here comes the good part  " -guy too, nobody has started liking that guy since the last two LPs. Feel free to discuss the previous two games openly though.- Related to the above and to the rules we had in the previous threads, this game's story is fairly self-contained and there isn't much of an insect spirit equivalent that would make for a game spoiler despite being a well-known thing by setting veterans, so discussing the larger setting can be done pretty freely. - Keep it civil! I don't intend to regulate what people are allowed to talk about with an iron fist or anything, but this thread is ultimately for entertainment and having a good time and if things start heating up or a topic proves to be too heavy to handle in a friendly manner, I will have to ask you to knock it off and move on. That about does it. Let's roll. Updates: Part 01 - Create-a-Criminal Extended Edition Part 02 - A New Beginning Part 03 - Escalation Part 04 - Between Nothing and Nowhere Part 05 - Kindness of Strangers Part 06 - A Close-Knit Community Part 07 - Unrelenting Grip Part 08 - A Change of Career (Part 1) Part 09 - A Change of Career (Part 2) Part 10 - New Crew Who's Who Part 11 - Hello to Heoi (Part 1) Part 12 - Hello to Heoi (Part 2) Part 13 - CSI: Hong Kong Part 14 - Talk of the Town Part 15 - A Trail of Red Part 16 - The Monster of Whampoa Garden Part 17 - Paths Through the Garden Part 18 - The Old and New Ways Part 19 - Bygone Days Part 20 - Talkie-Walkie (Part 1) Part 21 - Talkie-Walkie (Part 2) Part 22 - Night at the Museum Part 23 - Tomb Raiders Part 24 - The Cost of Literature Part 25 - Sink or Swim Part 26 - What Makes a Man Part 27 - A Ghoulish Past Part 28 - Waterside Chats (Part 1) Part 29 - Waterside Chats (Part 2) Part 30 - Party Night Part 31 - Give and Take Part 32 - Eavesdropping Part 33 - Beyond Natural Boundaries Part 34 - The Long Hunt Part 35 - Means of Escape Part 36 - Conventional Software Part 37 - In the Sacred Halls of Deckery Part 38 - A Tense Way Down Part 39 - Backroom Conflicts Kanfy fucked around with this message at 20:15 on Apr 21, 2024 |
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Dec 8, 2020 18:19
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MUSIC LINK COMPILATION (in order of appearance)  .jpg) .jpg)       .jpg) .jpg)      .jpg) 
Kanfy fucked around with this message at 21:35 on Jan 28, 2024 |
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Dec 8, 2020 18:20
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Part 01 - Create-a-Criminal Extended Edition NEW MUSIC: Alright, here we go once again, good ol' character creation.  The issue of inflated ally stats on higher difficulties from the previous games still seems to exists, but in a form that's temporary and mostly inconsequential, so we'll be playing on Hard this time. Very Hard was retired for some reason. But you know... we had like zero game overs in the previous LP and I know people love seeing blood, so why not spice things up a bit more this time? In case you didn't read the novel-sized OP, and you certainly should, this LP will be played using the fan patch Hong Kong Bugfix Compilation by noqn (the fix log contains spoilers but it's easy to search for if you want) and beyond its numerous bugfixes it also happens to contain an optional component that removes the AI's inherent restriction to one action per turn, giving all enemies as many actions as their AP allows. This obviously ramps up combat difficulty considerably and past what it was ever balanced around which should be fun and/or terrible, we'll find out together because I sure as hell haven't done anything responsible such as a test run beforehand. Now, off to the races. These are the same as always, but it won't hurt to give a reminder about what's what. Didn't even copy-paste them from the first game this time either!           Next, the archetypes. As usual we'll be making a custom character but it will fall under one of these either way. This time featuring the more detailed in-game overviews, this is the Extended Edition after all.             Alright, let's move on to the skills. First, the usual explanation of how spending Karma points works.  Something not mentioned here is that skills are limited by their governing attributes and in some cases by other skills, meaning you can't raise a skill past its governing attribute or skill.  The skill menu itself has gotten a new look with each main attribute now having its own tab, but it's functionally the same as before. The skills themselves have remained mostly the same too except for the addition of Cyberware Affinity for the use of some fancy new cybernetic weapons. They probably figured the Body tab would look really sad without something to put in there. Since they're all neat and organized, let's actually go over them properly this time. You can come back and consult this section if you ever need a refresher.  BODY - Determines your hit points at +10 HP per Body. CYBERWARE AFFINITY - Enables and enhances the power and critical hit chance of new cyber-weapons - Hand Razors, Cyber Spurs and the Monofilament Whip. Also increases maximum Essence.  QUICKNESS - Increases ranged accuracy (includes the Monofilament Whip but not thrown weapons) and chance to avoid enemy attacks. DODGE - Further increases the chance to avoid physical attacks. The description claims high levels of Dodge reduce the chance to get targeted by enemies, though this might simply be because they prioritize easy targets. RANGED COMBAT - Primary stat for increasing ranged accuracy and allows the use of higher-level ranged weapons. Also unlocks an additional weapon slot and the Overwatch ability. Governs all ranged weapon skills. PISTOL / SMG / SHOTGUN / RIFLE - Increases the critical hit chance and available abilities with the given weapon. Displays the critical hit chance of your shots.  STRENGTH - Increases both the accuracy and damage of melee attacks and thrown weapons. At 5 and 12 points, provides +1 AP damage to most melee weapon attacks. Also determines the maximum throw distance of grenades and allows the use of certain heavy weapons. THROWING WEAPONS - Primary stat for increasing throwing weapon and grenade accuracy and also unlocks throwing weapon abilities. At 5 points, reduces the AP cost of throwing grenades from 2 to 1. CLOSE COMBAT - Primary stat for increasing melee accuracy and allows the use of higher-level melee and fist weapons. Like Ranged Combat, unlocks an additional weapon slot (if not already unlocked) and the Overwatch ability. At 6 points, grants (some kind of) passive defense bonus against physical ranged attacks made from close range. Governs the Melee Weapons and Unarmed skills. MELEE WEAPONS - Increases the critical hit chance of melee weapons and unlocks new melee weapon abilities. Displays the critical hit chance of your attacks. UNARMED - Increases the critical hit chance of unarmed attacks and unlocks new unarmed abilities. Displays the critical hit chance of your attacks.  INTELLIGENCE - Increases accuracy and chance to avoid attacks in Matrix combat. BIOTECH - Increases the HP recovery from Medkits and displays enemy HP in combat. Comes up often in dialogue and interaction. DECKING - Primary stat for increasing accuracy in Matrix combat. Allows the use of higher-level cyberdecks, and grants and improves the Mark Target skill. Governs the ESP Control skill. ESP CONTROL - Improves the effectiveness of Expert Systems Program combat allies in the Matrix. DRONE CONTROL - Allows the use of higher-level combat drones. At 4 points, allows the use of two drones simultaneously. Governs the Drone Combat skill. DRONE COMBAT - Improves the effectiveness of combat drones. Notably provides a nice +1 AP bonus to drones at 6 and 9 points.  WILLPOWER - Increases accuracy of Mage and Physical Adept spells, and resistance against certain spells. No mention of it increasing spell avoidance itself this time so I'm not 100% sure on that. SPELLCASTING - Primary stat for increasing hermetic spell accuracy. Makes Dragon Lines (the replacement for Leylines) visible. Unlocks more spell slots. Allows the use of higher-level Mage spells. Enables the use of Astral Perception in interactions. QI CASTING - Primary stat for increasing the accuracy of Qi abilities. Allows the use of higher-level Qi abilities. Like Spellcasting, makes Dragon Lines visible and unlocks more spell slots if they're not already unlocked.  CHARISMA - Increases accuracy of Shaman spells and improves the ability to control spirits. Every two points unlocks a new Etiquette for conversations. CONJURING - Primary stat for increasing the accuracy of Shaman spells. Allows the use of higher-level Shaman spells. Like Spellcasting and Qi Casting, makes Dragon Lines visible and unlocks more spell slots if they're not already unlocked. Likewise allows the use of Astral Perception in interactions. SPIRIT SUMMONING - Improves the effectiveness of conjured spirits. Makes environmental summoning spots visible. Lets you select a personal totem. Allows use of higher-level Summoning Fetishes. Unlocks more spell slots (if not yet unlocked). Governs the Spirit Control skill. SPIRIT CONTROL - Reduces the odds of losing control of a conjured spirit.  Finally, you gotta have a name. And not just a street name this time either but also an actual full name on top of that! So thread, it's once again up to you to decide what kind of poor bastard will have to deal with whatever kind of mess awaits them this time around. If more than one favorite emerges then we'll give it another go with the most popular choices. Choose: 2. Our race: Human, Elf, Dwarf, Ork or Troll 3. Our archetype: Street Samurai, Mage, Decker, Shaman, Rigger or Physical Adept. You can specify a weapon preference if you like. 4. Our first name, last name AND street name: 2-14 characters. Not mandatory for voting on the character if you can't bother coming up with anything. As always feel free to be creative, though do also remember that we will have to look at these names for the length of an entire RPG. Oh, and for what it's worth, the protagonist is from Seattle. Voting has concluded. Kanfy fucked around with this message at 15:41 on Apr 20, 2021 |
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Dec 8, 2020 18:20
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bob dobbs is dead posted:you should be an adept and then cheat in enough karma to do matrix bits. can even keep the 6 magic w the cyberware affinity thing One thing at a time, we'll figure out the details when we get there.
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Dec 8, 2020 18:35
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I've added in a note that the protagonist is from Seattle (of course), if that makes any difference on your character choices.
Kanfy fucked around with this message at 20:11 on Dec 8, 2020 |
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Dec 8, 2020 19:57
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Lechtansi posted:"At least Kanfy is going to take a break.... wait gently caress" Oh I definitely intend to take it easier again, it was nice being able to put out updates as rapidly as I did at the end of the last one but it was also such a major time commitment that I'm under no illusion of it being sustainable in the long term. I'll do my best to keep a reasonably steady pace this time though.
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Dec 8, 2020 20:54
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Holding in your is part of the thread rules so try to hang in there.
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Dec 8, 2020 21:16
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If it matters, the Hong Kong crew includes the following combinations: Ork Male Ork Female Dwarf Female Human Male And the following archetypes: Street Samurai Shaman Decker Rigger
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Dec 8, 2020 23:11
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Alright, let's see where we're at here... Physical Adept seems locked in barring a real surge out of nowhere, which is not an unexpected result. Taz seems like the popular street name of choice as well. Not a ton of suggestions for real names yet by the looks of it, but I guess that also depends on where we ultimately end up. We will need one though! Our primary killing method is still up in the air, but I will likely default to melee weapons if people don't have strong opinions on the matter. For what it's worth, this is still a primarily story-focused LP so you shouldn't expect anything perfectly min-maxed either way. Other than that we seem to have narrowed down the choices to Female Troll, Male Troll, or Female Dwarf (currently in the lead) and I can't imagine anything else can realistically catch up. Here are the portraits for each to help you choose, you can still adjust your vote if you see one that makes you change your mind or your initial choice isn't in these top 3. Just quote your previous post or mention what you're changing from so it's easier to keep track. E: To clarify, stick to choosing between these three options (and preferably a full name for them), though you can certainly specify which portrait you'd like for your choice. If a clear favorite emerges then we'll just go with that one, otherwise we'll probably do a quick poll for the portrait or something after we have a character. As you might notice, the last two on the first row are always a pair of new Asian portraits specifically added for Hong Kong which match the rest of the game's art style, if that kinda consistency is something you're looking for. Female Troll Portraits:       Male Troll Portraits:         Female Dwarf Portraits:     
Kanfy fucked around with this message at 11:51 on Dec 9, 2020 |
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Dec 9, 2020 10:35
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Gun Jam posted:Well, the bug's still here - dunno if it still does the "inflate every save", but if an ally joins you mid - mission, you'll see that their stats are better than normal, only for that mission. Oh? Doesn't sound like it's a big issue this time, but I'll keep an eye out. sincx posted:Please please please don't burn out, Kanfy. Your LPs have been awesome, but don't tire yourself out for our sake! I love you dearly thread, and I appreciate your concern, but rest assured that I'm not planning on pushing myself to the brink of burnout for you or this game. Like I said earlier I'll try to keep a relatively steady pace with updates, but it's not going to be as fast as it was at the end of the last thread. And if I feel like I need a break then I'll tell you that I'll be taking a break. It's a long RPG and it's going to be an even longer LP. We've got time. All the time in the world...
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Dec 9, 2020 11:05
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Oh yeah, there are a lot of backer portraits as usual, mostly in the human and elf departments. I can show off the other portraits at some point. Also for clarity's sake, stick to either voting for a Female Troll, Male Troll or Female Dwarf. You can specify which portrait you'd like for your choice of course, and if there's a clear consensus then we'll just go with that one. If not, we'll pick a portrait once we know what we're playing. Again you can still change your vote from earlier if you want, just please mention what you're changing it from. Kanfy fucked around with this message at 12:09 on Dec 9, 2020 |
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Dec 9, 2020 11:36
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Jernaugh posted:That smirk just fits so nicely with Kanfy's snark. There's going to be quite a lot of snark either way, Rosa was no slouch in that department but there's definitely going to be some extra spice in the protagonist's lines this time around. I don't think there are any portraits that don't match it though, it just depends on how dry a voice you imagine them being said in. PMush Perfect posted:Edit: Let's go with Ling Black , because the idea of a troll adept with a name that means "dainty" is loving hilarious. Also I believe this officially puts "Black" in the lead in last names, having now collected 2 whole votes. 
Kanfy fucked around with this message at 13:29 on Dec 9, 2020 |
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Dec 9, 2020 12:07
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PMush Perfect posted:Honestly, every female troll portrait in this game is great. Different kinds of great, but great. These aren't included in the vote but this reminded me that there's also a set of backer-exclusive portraits for people who had a high enough pledge in the kickstarter, primarily for uncommon metavariants like gnomes or oni. Can really get your super special protagonist game on!     
Kanfy fucked around with this message at 14:15 on Dec 9, 2020 |
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Dec 9, 2020 14:12
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Alright, I'm not going to call it yet and probably not even today since people are still showing up, but by my count Female Troll and Female Dwarf are real close to each other with the former slightly ahead while Male Troll's handsome portrait has kept it in the race too, so if you want the crew's dwarf lady to have a buddy or get some troll representation in, you can definitely make a difference still. For the time being I've converted votes for other combinations that haven't been changed into their closest equivalents of these three, e.g. a vote for a Male Dwarf as either Male Troll or a Female Dwarf being fine. Feel free to change your vote if you'd rather see something specific. Portrait-wise, like I said there hasn't really been an "official" vote for them but everyone's wanted the same for the Male Troll so he'd probably end up as this guy:  Female Troll has these two completely neck-and-neck, so if we end up there and neither of them (or any of the others) manages to get ahead before that I might just poll it because there's a limit to how many voting posts is reasonable to ask of people before the LP's even started. But like I said, all the options are still on the table, these are just the ones currently ahead.  Hasn't been a lot of opinions on the dwarf portraits so they're still completely up in the air, I think it's about 2-1-1 right now between these three, so likewise we'll probably do a quick and dirty poll on the ones that have come up if that's where we end up and nothing happens until then.   
Kanfy fucked around with this message at 17:29 on Dec 9, 2020 |
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Dec 9, 2020 17:16
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BrotherJayne posted:Can I antivote? Nope, that'd be a bloodbath and there's going to be more than enough of those in this LP as it is. We're all gonna play nice here. Just so that no one can claim they aren't able to make informed decisions, here are the three choices in-game (the personal features may vary of course). Side-by-side with a male ork and a female elf:    Holding the starting Machete in combat:   
Kanfy fucked around with this message at 19:30 on Dec 9, 2020 |
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Dec 9, 2020 19:04
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BrotherJayne posted:Female troll! First of all, if you've already made your choice then chill and let other people make theirs in peace, and second of all, there being a female dwarf in the crew isn't a spoiler since I've said as much myself.
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Dec 9, 2020 19:51
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BrotherJayne posted:apologies, I thought we were doing a runoff after the side-by-side post Nah, it's still the same vote, I just figured people might want to know what the choices look like in-game especially as there have been some model changes from the last one.
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Dec 9, 2020 20:13
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Alright, it's about nighttime here, we'll call this sometime tomorrow and maybe actually get started working on the actual LP or something, but just so everyone knows where we currently seem to stand (and I'll double-check everything tomorrow to make sure the counts are accurate): The leading name is Ling Black at 5 votes, followed by Shin Black at 4 votes and Anita Fang at 3 votes. Regardless they will be a Physical Adept using melee weapons and going by the street name Taz. The leading character is currently Female Troll at 33 votes, and as for the portrait, well, both of these portraits still appear to have the exact same amount of votes (11) somehow so we'll see where that ends up. Maybe I'll just flip a coin if you can't figure this thing out. Currently in second is Female Dwarf at 25 votes and this portrait, though the difference is still neglible (3 vs. 2 for the next) Male Troll is third at 20 votes. It would 100% be this guy. Literally. 
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Dec 9, 2020 21:35
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PMush Perfect posted:Sure, I'll swap to this one. I like the other one more, but not enough to help drag the vote out. As much as Kanfy deserves a break, I'd prefer this not be how we give it to them. Please choose whatever you personally want to choose, I already said many hours ago that we wouldn't call it today regardless and I see no real reason to do any further polls either. This isn't extending things in any way, we'll just pick whatever is #1 tomorrow and if there's a tie somewhere, we'll let fate decide between 'em.
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Dec 9, 2020 22:19
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Ooh it's still on, I like it. We'll call it later today when I have more time, 'til then here's an in-game comparison of the default looks for anyone still on the fence. As you can see there's unfortunately no way to perfectly match the hair, but I'll look through the other options too. 
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Dec 10, 2020 09:02
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KataraniSword posted:Unarmed adept is all about making sure that your buffs are up at ALL times. I mean, so is melee, but swords remove some of the stress of having to focus on things like Killing Hands staying active/relevant. They both do comparable amounts of murder, but the unarmed is much more focused on making sure all your chi skills are as high-grade as possible (like a mage with spells would be) whereas melee just far more cares about having the sharpest sword. Out of curiosity, do you (or someone else) happen to know what in concrete terms is the Close Combat Defense Bonus ("defense bonus to non-magical ranged attacks made at close range") you get from having enough Close Combat skill? Glory had it and everyone always seems to agree that it's good, but I never paid enough attention to figure out what form the "defense bonus" takes or if "close range" means right next to the shooter or just within x tiles of them. My assumption is that it's an evasion bonus against shots from enemies next to you, but I've never confirmed it. Also we'll call the vote some 2 hours from now or so. Kanfy fucked around with this message at 13:39 on Dec 10, 2020 |
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Dec 10, 2020 13:12
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KataraniSword posted:When SRR mentions "Defense", they always mean evasion (damage reduction comes in the form of Armor bonuses), but I'm not sure what "close range" entails in this case. I would assume it's two or three squares away, but likewise, I have no confirmation on the exact mechanics or numbers. Yeah, if it didn't appear to be a buff exclusive to friendlies it'd be easy enough to test against 6 CC enemies, or if it was an ability it'd be in the ability files, but as it is I haven't found an easy way to figure out the exact values. For all I know it doesn't do anything, like Adepts' Magic Resistance or Shamans' Mana Charge. Hard to know for sure with these games sometimes.
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Dec 10, 2020 14:32
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Who you vote for doesn't matter now, because our lucky winner receiving a fully paid-for trip to Hong Kong will be the female troll Physical Adept, Shin "Taz" Black from Seattle! Congratulations! She seems thrilled about the opportunity, as if already seeing in the distance a glimpse of all the exciting new sights and experiences waiting for her in the Free Enterprise Zone.
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Dec 10, 2020 15:36
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By popular demand posted:*Ticket is one way only, expenses are not included, enjoyable vacation not guaranteed, make your own accommodations, watch out for hostile groups including but not limited to: megacorps, gangsters, awakened beasts, non awakened beasts, tourists. I'm excited to see if she can actually survive through the opening without our first game over. I don't think we literally ever had one in Dragonfall, but a late-bloomer Adept with paper starting armor in a world of AP-unshackled enemies where even a guy with the crappiest shotgun in the game can pump out 20+ damage a turn her way is gonna have a fun time before she starts having much hope of living up to her street name.
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Dec 10, 2020 17:08
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MagusofStars posted:I never had a Game Over in Dragonfall or Shadowrun, but managed to get one in the very first fight of Hong Kong (IIRC, there's even an achievement for it). This game does not give you kid gloves. I don't consider it a spoiler that yeah, there is indeed an achievement for dying in the opening mission. Relatively common too, especially since a lot of people reload as soon as the first Trauma Kit pops.  I don't have it yet, but I've also only ever played with the normal AI that can't shoot twice per turn outside of major bosses so that could well change soon. AceOfFlames posted:I did wonder why I kept getting killed in the first few fights and always assumed I had somehow screwed up my build. As a lil' trick from ol' Kanfy for any other aspiring Adepts having trouble getting started, picking the custom archetype with at least 2 Conjuring gives you the Haste I spell which is very easy to put to good use while you're stuck cowering behind crates. In general this LP is definitely not going to be a guide to min-maxing Adepts using every trick in the book, but there's definitely some good replayability there if you're trying to find the most nonsense things different archetypes can achieve.
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Dec 10, 2020 18:10
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PMush Perfect posted:Okay, I’ll admit, the green hair model looks better, too. More than happy with this outcome. We've had enough voting already and you've always struck me as something of a horn connoisseur, so I'll give you a chance to decide which of these three horn styles that are closest to the portrait we're gonna go with.   
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Dec 10, 2020 18:35
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Third one it is, and any instances of overquoting are entirely coincidental and therefore neutral in nature.Stroth posted:Correct. Especially sad since this is the game that finally introduced proper cyberweapons. You also can't unequip the hand razors and they override your normal fists, so depending on what you're doing it might be actively undesirable to start with them.
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Dec 10, 2020 23:48
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KataraniSword posted:Adepts in general benefit a lot from splashing the first couple of points into shamanism; not only do Haste and Heal Wound 1 help a lot in being useful before the kit catches up with other archetypes (haste naturally continuing to be useful throughout the game, at that) but a couple of points into Spirit Summoning gives you an animal totem, of which a decent amount are always-on passive helpful stat bonuses. Heal Wound is a Mage spell that a custom archetype can't start with but yeah, there's a variety of helpful things you can pick up without a major Karma investment if you're not looking to be a purist for flavor reasons.
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Dec 11, 2020 23:15
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Forgot to include the music for character creation in the update, it's not the most memorable track in a game with some very good tunes but hey, it's there now.
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Dec 12, 2020 09:04
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raverrn posted:Will we be seeing any of the director's commentary stuff? I'm not sure if there's a good way of covering them, as was mentioned there are a lot of spoilers in there but beyond that they're also audio-only without subtitles with almost 2 hours total over the duration of the game. Maybe there'll be something in the Extras section from bits that don't constitute as spoilers but we'll see, I never really made any plans for it. Also the Dragonfall LP is now in the LP Archive! As always big thanks to Baldurk for maintaining that site and the image host LPix used in this LP as well. Kanfy fucked around with this message at 10:45 on Dec 14, 2020 |
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Dec 14, 2020 10:20
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Part 02 - A New Beginning Once again the people have spoken, and after a couple of days of heated voting action, we have our protagonist: Shin Black, street name Taz ("because things are about to get Looney Tunes in here"), the female troll melee weapon Physical Adept! If the last two adventures are anything to go by, it's gonna be a long ride and bumpy ride for our newest heroine. So let's buckle up and get started right away...  ...with an honest to god opening movie! Largely consisting of still images with some minor animation, but still, oh boy oh baby, welcome to 2056! VIDEO: Opening Movie  The sound of an answering machine chirps the arrival of 1 new message. An elderly male voice begins speaking...  "Uh, hi. It's Raymond. I hope I have the right number."  "Look. I know we haven't spoken in a while, but I need your help. Remember the day I took you and Duncan off the streets?"  "I told you that the past is just a story. That if you could just accept that, your past loses all power over you."  Rapid contextless flashes of a crowd and a tall shadow! "Yeah... hah. I was wrong."  "I'm on my way to Hong Kong now. To finish something I should have faced a long time ago."  "And... I need you with me."  The light outside sputters and fails. Brief darkness.  "I know we're not blood...  "...and we didn't leave things in a good place. But..."  "...you and Duncan are the only real family I have."  "Please..."  "If our past means anything to you, meet me in Hong Kong right away."  "I'll explain more when you get here."  "I'm begging you."  Gunfire and shouting, then darkness and silence. The camera pans up to the skyline.  "I'm almost out of time."  Aaand title!  NEW MUSIC: (Jon Everist handles the whole soundtrack this time, and it's a very good one too. I definitely recommend listening to the music as you go if possible.)     Mmm, nothing like the industrial musk of modern society to spice up a family reunion. Do deodorant bottles come harbor-sized by any chance?    [He grins.] Green's not really your color, Shin. Doesn't go with that nice new armor I got you.  Alright, this is the first update so let's review some basics here. Any skill checks, etiquette uses and whatnot we're able to select are marked green in-game and such things will be bolded in the LP when we make use of them. Also this LP will try to cover a variety of interesting/funny/noteworthy dialogue we might normally not see, either in separate quote blocks, in the Extras section at the end of an update, or simply by injecting it into conversations if it's possible to do so naturally. Basically the in-game text won't be adjusted in any significant manner, but we'll be a little more flexible with it than normal. Anyway, Duncan making fun of our complexion (which by coincidence makes him sound like he's dissing our hair) already brings us to our first skill check, and there's going to be more of these than ever. We'll get to our full stats in a moment, but this one feels like a subtle reminder that you probably want at least 3 points invested into Body as having 10-20 max HP just might not cut it in this town.  (Body 3) [Tough it out.] Don't know what you're talking about. Must be the harbor lights messing with you. Must be. Guess you've still got some of your old fortitude, at least.[He laughs.] Considering how much synthohol we used to put down... I'd be surprised if you couldn't handle a little chop. Anyway. We gotta go find Raymond. Find Raymond? I thought he'd be here. Never showed up.[He's still got that same baritone rasp. Had it since he was twelve - Wu developed early.] Did you try him on comm? Nah. Just been walking around the docks shouting his name.[He says it as a joke, but there's a note of concern in his voice.] I've been trying him for the last hour. No answer. No clue where he might be? No.[Wu rubs his head.] But I just checked in with the local PD and morgue. If he's dead, his body hasn't turned up yet. That's a good sign, I guess.Or maybe he did end up in the morgue but got back up and walked off to who knows where. There are some real strange people back in Seattle. When was the last time you saw him? A few weeks ago. Before I got his message telling us to meet him here. I'd been working a lot, so I hadn't been by the house in a while. House still the same? Is Mrs. Malony still cleaning up a trail of pipe tobacco in his wake? [He bows his head.] Mrs. Malony's dead, Shin. Three years ago. Bad ticker. He couldn't hire another housekeeper after that. He kinda creeped them out. Creeped them out? But he's just a little old man.There was once a time when it felt like everybody loved him. [His voice sounds far away.] Raymond hasn't been himself in a long time. How so? He's been restless. Staying in his study, inside his own head a lot. And he barely sleeps anymore. I've been worried about him, but I haven't figured out what to do about it.[He looks up at you and shrugs.] And I didn't have a sister to turn to. Hell - wasn't too sure you were even alive still, until Raymond managed to track down your number.Yeah, about that, we've been a little... preoccupied.   Gasp! Our honorary brother and the lady who was seemingly told that no, they will *not* be taking another photo and she'll just have to use the first one no matter how it came out... are cops! Sarge? You his partner? Unfortunately, yes - although partner's not the right word for it, exactly. I like "superior officer" better. [She grins.] I let him carry my coffee for me... write my parking tickets... that kinda thing.[The woman taps her chest with an armored finger.] Carter. Yeah... things didn't really go the way they were supposed to. We weren't really sure either to be honest, spend enough years detached from your old life and at some point it recedes so far back that you start wondering if it isn't better to just close that chapter for good, try and create something completely new instead. Plus the owners of the place we lived in until recently weren't real big on granting overseas vacations. Well, surprise. Here I am. Yeah, well, I wasn't so sure, y'know?[He shakes his head.] Hey, look, I'm glad you're here, Shin. Seriously. But I'm gonna need some time to get used to having you around again. Been a while since I heard from you, know what I mean? Definitely got a lot of catching up to do, but maybe we'll do that somewhere with a lower concentration of rainwater and diesel fumes. Yeah. We'll talk about it later, okay?[Wu stares at you, his goggles reflecting the harbor lights.] Yeah. Okay.[He scans the waterfront, frowning.] Let's just find Raymond. He was supposed to meet us in the plaza on the other side of this pier. The sooner we find him, the sooner you all can have a big happy family reunion over dinner. [She grins.] And the sooner I can find a place to get a drink around here. drat right.  And so it begins. Ah, that new RPG feeling. Climactic endgame events and mowing down the opposition like a superhero with your murder arsenal are all well and good, but there's always something special about the very beginning, where you're still just a small weak fish with a whole ocean and all its sights and dangers ahead of you. As for who's going to be part of our school this time, let's take a look at our crew.   Well, there's us, for starters! Let's do a deeper dive and see what's going with us in detail, shall we? While for examples Mages have pretty clear stat priorities and are very straightforward skill-wise, Adepts can be built in a variety of ways and are overall more Karma-hungry. You might note, for example... - We're not actually doing a whole lot actual Adepting yet. This is because most Qi abilities must be bought from stores, with the first innate ability of interest to a melee weapons user like us only unlocking at 5 Qi Casting which takes a good chunk of Karma. - So before worrying about any of the fancy stuff, we first need a solid base of Strength and Close Combat to make sure we can actually hit things in the first place. One key number here is 5 Strength, which causes our attacks with most melee weapons to deal 1 AP damage (called "stun" or "STN" in-game). As a Troll we could even bring that up to 2 AP damage a swing but that takes a whopping 12 Strength so that level of bashing the living daylights out of things is still pretty far out of reach. - The actual Melee Weapons skill is a little odd in that the weapon abilities and higher crit chance it provides are both pretty well covered by later Qi abilities, making it less important than you'd imagine. Melee Weapons 2 will give us the Thrust ability and displays our crit chances though. - Also, No Quickness or Dodge. We're the absolutely last kid anyone wanted in their dodgeball team, an 85-year-old could land a punch on us even if they first had to get up from their rocking chair to do it. We just plain don't have the spare starting Karma for investing in enough Dodge for it to start making a real difference, and Quickness doesn't help us hit things. - Also, 2 Biotech for displaying enemy HP, primarily for LP screenshot purposes. This is our biggest divergence point from powergaming builds as Intelligence and Biotech both come up in conversations fairly frequently while being of limited use in combat beyond making our Medkits a little better. - What one could consider a bit powergame-y though is our 2 Conjuring, there for the simple reason that it starts us with the AP-boosting Haste I spell. The thing is that while a ranged fighter can always stay behind cover and contribute to really any combat situation, as a squishy early game melee fighter we'll often face situations where charging in to attack is simply suicidal especially against AI modded to make use of all its AP. Haste I lets us make use of those turns when we're stuck hiding behind cover, either by giving a teammate a boost or basically taking a disadvantageous turn off in order to make our upcoming assault more effective. When we go in, we have to go in hard and make an impact to avoid getting ventilated on the enemy turn, and this spell helps us do exactly that. ...And honestly, it's ultimately less that we're trying to be a clever min-maxer and more that we're going to need all the help we can get, because early fights in this game are no joke even with the default AP-restricted enemies. On top of that you can't exactly call Adepts early game monsters unless you follow it up with "as in like goblins or slimes or something". We didn't do it here but dipping into Spirit Summoning for a guardian totem is also a solid option as several give useful bonuses for an Adept. As a final note, this grants us the ability to see into astral space and use Astral Perception in certain interactions.  Lastly 2 Charisma we needed for the Conjuring anyway gives us one starting Etiquette which provides extra options in interactions, for better or worse the same system as always but with Street now having been kicked to the curb where it quite literally belongs. Taz will be breaking troll stereotypes with Academic to start with, but we'll pick up more as we go to the degree our low Charisma cap allows. This is a dialogue-heavy game and Etiquettes come up quite a lot, but once again not all of them are made equal.  Moving on to our gear, Duncan's "stiff new body armor" might visually look like the real deal but in practice we might as well be wearing cardboard. Thanks a lot, bro. The armor system remains the same from before, armor value corresponding to simple flat damage reduction and ranging from 0 to 10. Again, ranged fighters can easily make use of cover to compensate for low armor, but this is not what we'd want to wear when charging into the enemy lines swinging a blade.  Especially not this blade, though at least they were nice enough not to start us with a bottom-tier Baseball Bat. Melee weapons add Strength to their base damage and sword-type weapons deal AP damage on critical hits, though this doesn't stack with the AP damage we already deal with all hits. The Machete also doesn't count as a "real" sword in that some weapon abilities can't be used with one. This happens to include Thrust, the only one we actually have. We technically also have the basic shaman weapon Acid Bolt we got on the side of our Conjuring investment, but we won't be throwing those around.  We have 6 inventory slots as usual, and in there we find some basic consumables. As in really basic, one bottom-tier Medkit and Trauma Kit are better than literally nothing but it's clear that for the time being we won't be able to place much faith in medical science to bail us out from real trouble. At least we can toss grenades a respectable distance away this time, though it's still costly and inaccurate without skill in Throwing Weapons.  Finally, ability-wise we start with the aforementioned Haste I and the Qi spell Killing Hands which helps an unarmed Adept compensate for their lack of a weapon. Unlike Mage and Shaman spells that only do something when cast, some Qi spells like this one come with passive effects that can be activated for a temporary boost to the effect.   Next up is our osananajimi (TL note: osananajimi means "childhood friend") and brother-in-law-enforcement Duncan Wu. Duncan's skillset is that of a classic Street Samurai specializing in Rifles with a side of melee and Throwing Weapons for grenadier purposes. His fairly low starting Ranged Combat leaves his shooting a bit on the inaccurate side though.   His starting weapon is the tier 2 assault rifle Semopal vz/88V, one step above the bottom-tier AK-97. It's actually less effective than its Dragonfall counterpart as assault rifles have gotten a damage reduction pretty much across the board, but they maintain their status as the reliable jack-of-all-trades weapon type with strong burst damage abilities. He's also kept the best armor to himself, the jerk. Crew members automatically upgrade their gear over time, which is good because we're not going to be swimming in a whole lot of spare nuyen in this town.  He's also putting all those pockets on his vest to good use as his inventory is stacked with the same stuff we have plus an extra Basic and Advanced Medkits and a bottom-tier concussion grenade. All concussion grenades deal AP damage and inflict the "Unbalanced" status effect which reduces avoidance by 5-7% depending on the grenade's level. All crew consumables are refreshed between missions, so even the consumable-allergic can make use of their buddies' stuff without worry.  As a side note, a new UI feature in this game allows for transferring items and spells to our crewmates outside of combat. This is handy for distributing loot but is limited to moving items we ourselves own, and while it's possible to "overwrite" a crew member's locked-in item by replacing it with ours, their original item will be gone for the rest of the mission just like how loaning gear in the mission prep menu has always worked. There also seems to be a minor exploit here where loaning an item to a crew member with full locked-in inventory like Duncan's here and back actually unlocks one of their items as if it were ours, but we'll abstain from that one. Finally, while Duncan Wu's no spellcaster, he does have a variety of physical abilities. Firstly, the standard rifle abilities from his Rifle skill:  Aimed Shot: Single shot with +15% accuracy. Cost: 1 AP. Cooldown: 3 RNDs. Burst Fire: Two shots with high critical hit chance using 5 bullets. Cost: 2 AP.Sniper rifles fall under this same skill but there are some differences in the actual abilities, for example the sniper version of Aimed Shot also pierces 2 armor and Burst Fire isn't available at all. Both of these are useful, Aimed Shot helps in finishing enemies off reliably and Burst Fire nearly auto-crits provided the enemy isn't behind cover. Taking 5 bullets isn't a big deal either, reloading consumes AP but otherwise ammo is unlimited in these games. Beyond these generic abilities though, Duncan does also come with some unique melee moves of his own:  Body Blow: Unarmed attack with -1 HP damage but +1 AP damage. Cost: 1 AP. Cooldown: 1 RND. Subdue: Subdues and zip ties a stunned enemy, removing them from combat. Cost: 1 AP. Cooldown: 3 RNDs.While Body Blow has the potential to be one-hit knockout punch if it both lands and crits, it's overall pretty unreliable due to Duncan just not being much of a fistfighter. Subdue on the other hand can be quite potent all throughout the game. It works on most enemies you'll encounter, cannot miss, and most notably ignores all armor and HP, making it especially useful against beefy threats. It also synergizes well with our own AP damage, something which one of Duncan's crew advancement paths focuses on as well. Despite subdued enemies not technically counted as having died, the writing (understandably) doesn't usually take survivors into account which can lead to some odd moments here and there. This isn't completely without exception though.   Finally, we have Duncan's partner Carter, a bona fide Mage! She has other things going on too, having some skill in Rifles and Throwing Weapons like Duncan, but these are just for cop training flavor as she has neither a rifle nor anything to throw.   Powerbolt is the Mage equivalent of a basic weapon which anyone who's read the Dragonfall LP should be very familiar with. Like Duncan, she gets to wear slightly thicker cardboard than us.  She got snubbed on the item front though, not getting so much as a single grenade despite her skill in them. Or a Trauma Kit for that matter, so it's a good thing she has a solid 50 HP instead of being the typical glass cannon mage.  What she does have is a whole bunch of spells, mainly support-oriented ones. Armor has jumped ship since the previous game and is now a Shaman spell despite having kept its Magey color scheme, Aim now has some variance to its effect, and Strip Armor no longer lasts indefinitely. Someone's been waging war on mage superiority in the last two years, it seems...  Phew, alright, that about does it for the party. We have measly 1,200 nuyen to our name, and our goal is to reach the plaza where Raymond was supposed to meet us without having to drag anyone's corpse there. Let's get to it.  As always there's going to be all kinds of things for us to look at, pick up, and fiddle with along the way. Rest assured that nothing will escape our attention.  The plaza is supposedly a straight trip to the north (top-right), though the Chekhov's Locked Gate we pass along the way holds promise for an inevitable detour.   Who could've seen this coming! Huh. Well, that was open earlier.[Duncan frowns.] Looks pretty solid. Maybe if you bang your head against it hard enough, it'll open.It is our sacred duty as an honorary sister not to pass up chances for some friendly ribbing between siblings. Hah. Maybe.[He squints into the guard shack.] Strange that there's no one here though, isn't it? [Carter shrugs.] Who knows. It's Hong Kong. Not exactly sure how things work around here. C'mon, Rookie. We can cut through the construction site. I hate it when you call me that. We make our way back to the locked gate earlier, as we all knew we eventually would.  [Carter examines the control panel for a moment, then throws Wu a backward glance.] Looks like there's another way off the docks on the other side of this gate. I think that I can bypass the lock.With Intelligence 3 we could offer to open it ourselves, but we'll just stand aside and let her work.  Got it. Let's go.We step in through the gate, and then... Movement! Oh boy. NEW MUSIC: (Since this is the  update, here's some more of that regarding the combat music in this game: Hong Kong is the first in the series to introduce dynamic music, which includes the presence of multiple versions of the same combat theme with more/different instrumentation depending on the situation. I can't say off-hand if they all follow the same pattern, but there are basically three different variations: The normal battle version for normal clashes, an "intense battle" version used in bigger or more climactic fights, and a third "wrap-up" version shared by the other two that kicks in when a battle is nearing its end. The third isn't present in the OST, but to show it off I've recorded the music in-game and timed the transition to happen between loops. So in the link above the first loop is the standard version while the second loop is the "wind-down" version and I do recommend listening to both for anyone in the habit of clicking music links.)     [He points at their weapons.] You're gonna need some better bait. All you're gonna catch with that is trouble. [Whisper.] Seriously? Did they teach you that in rent-a-cop school? [He turns to you with a smile starting on his face. Then he thinks better of it. Turns back to the smugglers.]We'll show him how it's done. Ahem. [Try out your Cantonese.] We're just passing through. Why don't you put the guns away?[Their spokesman laughs, looks at his crew.]  Hey, you talk good Cantonese, baby. Real authentic. What? No way, we definitely got it right! Bet you just have... too much illegal contraband in your ears! Yeah! Bam! [Wu flashes his badge.] Lone Star. Put the guns down.[The smuggler squints at Wu's badge, then smiles at his friends.] Never seen a badge like that before. Either it's fake, or you're some kind of security guard.[He grasps his rifle.] Either way, this ends the same. I think he's done talking. Alright, it's time for our first battle, the mechanics being the same as in the previous game: Both sides take turns, everyone has base 2 AP (later 3 AP) to use on movement and actions, and cover comes in Light, Medium and Heavy variants providing increasing amounts of protection, most notably immunity to critical hits at all levels. Hit Points are displayed as bars, and the white dots above them indicate Armor. Now while the first game started off with a literally unlosable battle, and even the second one threw some weak museum guards at you as warm-up, Hong Kong opts to say hello with brass knuckles rather than kid gloves. The smugglers have superior numbers and starting positions, with a mage, a melee fighter, and two ranged fighters carrying an assault rifle and a shotgun. They also have grenades. Between this and the scarce medical supplies we start with, it's no great surprise that the Steam achievement for dying in the opening mission isn't a terribly rare one. And be also reminded that the AI has been modded to use all of its AP instead of being limited to one action per turn, and that we're basically a soft bullet magnet who brought a (large) knife to a gunfight.  The main problem is the Enforcer here, he's tough, far in the back, starts behind cover, and can fire his Benelli Raffaello shotgun twice a turn for 10-12 damage a pop before critical hits. Shotguns can damage adjacent targets from medium range and longer, so grouping up can get especially ugly even before the grenades start flying.  Here's something else though, south of the smuggler positions are these glowy lines on the ground. Long-time readers (or players) no doubt remember Leylines which came in three power levels and boosted Mage spells cast while standing on them. The idea is the same here, but they're now called Dragon Lines and come up with a different set of bonuses:  The obvious standout here is the introduction of "Spell bounces", and it's pretty much what the name implies: Mage spells cast while standing on at least Medium-level Dragon Lines will also jump to 1-2 nearby targets. This includes beneficial spells and even area damage spells (which may or may not be desirable) but sadly not Shaman ones like our Haste I. Anyway, let's get the fighting started. Since we can't run in without getting shredded to hell, and Duncan's accuracy and damage are pretty unreliable, the plan is to park Carter on these Dragon Lines and have her do the heavy lifting.  To that end we immediately put our Haste to use to give Carter just enough distance to reach the Medium Dragon Line. Duncan then moves to the cover behind us followed by Carter buffing herself with Aim, the effect which then bounces to Duncan as well. How handy is that? There are some animation oddities here and there in this game, like Carter here flinching as if hit when buffing herself.  Duncan uses his remaining AP to take a shot at the Mage, her cover mitigating most of the damage. The rifle-wielding Tattooed Gunman is in the open, but the Mage is the softest target and more dangerous of the two.  The Gunman joins his buddies and takes a shot at us for 8 damage, followed by the Mage buffing the bat-wielding Thug before tossing the "Rosa classic" single-target damage spell Flamethrower at us. Why, old friend? Why do you scorch us so?  Not wanting to feel left out, the Enforcer also pumps another 11 damage our way with his shotgun while the Thug charges at us. Low avoidance really makes us everyone's favorite target. Despite already having lost more than half our HP in just one turn we actually got really lucky here though. Usually the Enforcer is content blasting away from behind his cover, but now he spent half his turn moving and most of the smugglers have grouped up in the open. Now we just need Carter and her 3 AP to deliver as she goes for a 68% hit Manaball...  And boy does she ever deliver, just look at that beautiful boy bounce! She almost even hits us because I did not really expect it to go for the Thug standing right next to us! Gotta get used to Hong Kong mechanics again...  The Mage is vaporized by the hermetic super ball, and to cap things off Carter even crits the Enforcer out of the picture with a Powerbolt (which doesn't bounce from his corpse). Man it's great to have a real mage in the team, hope Carter with her generic model and no character description will stay with us forever and never betray and/or die on us.  Even we get a chance to get in on the action and just straight-up hack the aggressive Thug's arm off with our machete. Guess somebody's mama never taught him to keep his hands to himself, eh?  Even Duncan is inspired to join the critfest and a perfect Burst Fire brings both the fight and the smuggler boss' criminal career to a shockingly fast end. This really couldn't have gone much better, the RNG was clearly feeling forgiving today. Of course this "optimal scenario" still involved us losing more than half our HP in one turn, but hey. Do you think those guys were Triad? Not sure. I don't recognize their tattoos. For the sake of actually delivering a proper update to the thread, we'll leave it here for today. Not a ton of concrete progress, but with most of the mechanics and party stuff now covered things will pick up from here. See you next time, where we'll no doubt reunite with our foster father without incident and our trio of two cops and a civilian will continue to have absolutely nothing to do with shadowrunning in Hong Kong in Shadowrun: Hong Kong!  Not really much in the way of extras yet but yeah, this is where I'll throw in any stuff of interest that didn't fit into the main update. For the sake of having some reason to include this section, here's the brief exchange for failing the Body 3 check in the beginning: At least I'm not --[Your stomach lurches again as another wave crashes against the pier. The taste of bile fills your mouth.] Listen, if you're gonna hurl, get it over with now. We gotta go find Raymond. Stand still. You make a great target. I'll pass. He never showed up, Shin. It's not like him.Kanfy fucked around with this message at 08:54 on Apr 27, 2021 |
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Dec 17, 2020 14:58
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There's a flashback coming up about our last meeting with Duncan eight years ago before whatever we did landed us in prison, and I figure if someone wants to give their input on what seems like an appropriate reason for our sudden departure in the middle of the night, go right ahead. Not an official vote or anything, I believe this gets referenced later but it's primarily just for flavor. 
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Dec 20, 2020 11:54
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Part 03 - Escalation We have successfully avoided dying in our first brawl like a chump and can now continue on towards the plaza where we were supposed to meet our foster father, Raymond Black. But our first meeting is with this container.  Within we find some It's also supposed to make us progressively angrier at the world trying to put us down, but there was some weirdness with that effect even after the unofficial bugfix patch. Long story short, after a bit of digging through the files it now works as advertised, providing +1 Strength for a turn for every hit taken on the prior enemy turn. And as we for better or worse get hit a lot, it's quite the potent concoction especially this early.  Much like the way in, the way out of this construction site is blocked by a locked gate. They sure don't make things easy in this town.  Looks edged with monofilament. The corporations here don’t screw around. Duncan and I have hopped plenty of fences before. It'll be fine.As long as there isn't an actual Quickness check involved, of course. [She smirks.] No, it won’t. They use this kind of concertina on prison walls back in the UCAS. Goes through bone like a propeller through sea foam. Can we just cut ourselves an opening? Even if you could, it'd snap back on you. Ever seen a high-tension wire whip through a human body? You don't want to.Maybe it'd inspire us to learn some new blade techniques or something. But alright, no pushing our way through this thing. Hmm... then I guess we'd better find another way through.[Duncan nods in agreement.] Think you can get the gate open, Carter? [She winks.] What do you think?[She eyeballs the job.] It'll take me a few minutes, though. I thought she was a mage. What's with the lecture, Wu? [His face is impassive.] I could tell you couldn't follow everything those smugglers were shouting. You're rusty and that's dangerous. He's completely right of course, no point in us acting difficult about this one. Good thing we never dropped it completely despite our lengthy time-out from society. Old habits and all that. [In Cantonese.] I thought she was a mage. She is. Carter likes to know how things work. She used to be on the bomb squad.[He continues in Cantonese.] We speak only Cantonese from now on. Just like we did when we lived at Raymond's. Those endless drills are about to pay off. [In Cantonese.] It's coming back. Won't be a problem.[He nods once, satisfied, then turns his back and scans the horizon.] At least you can still handle yourself in a fight. Did you doubt it?[His back's still to you.] Nope. So, you're Lone Star now, huh? That's right.When you think about it, being busy fighting for your life does have its upsides too. Works pretty well for avoiding any awkward downtime, for one. [Say nothing.] [Wu says nothing back. He stands with his back to you, thumbs hooked into his belt.] Got it.Thank goodness for that.  As we leave the construction site and step into the neon-lit alleyway with an adorable dumpling stand...    [Carter keeps her voice low.] Looks like we're on a stroll through Smuggler Central. These gangers don't know we're here. We could probably just slip past. Or we could clip them. They're already looking for us - might be better to take them out now, while we've got the element of surprise on our side.Er, are they actually looking for us or are you just looking to do some "clipping"? Kind of scary, this Carter woman...  Here we are introduced to one of the new gameplay features of Hong Kong: Ambushing. This is simple enough a concept, if we spot hostiles before they spot us, we have the chance to enter combat mode pre-emptively and prepare our attack by taking good positions, casting some spells in preparation, what have you.  Ambush opportunities are very advantageous as we get a free turn to bring down the pain on exposed enemies. It also allows for shenanigans like skipping turns casting Armor on everyone, though it can't be stacked on a single target to start everyone off with full 10 or anything.  At any rate, this fight is completely optional and these three are much closer to what you'd expect from tutorial punching bags than the first smugglers we encountered, but unfortunately for them there's an item back there and we don't have the luxury to pass up anything of use right now. Still, since Duncan's the one who wasn't interested in assaulting people just standing around in an alleyway, we'll give him a chance to spare one by showing off his unique Subdue ability.  It's quite hard to stun enemies on ambush turns since they seem to count their AP twice or something like that, but a flashbang and a Body Blow crit do the job.  His two buddies refuse to wait for their turn on the zip tie ride, so we have no choice but to deal with them the traditional way.  This intentionally soft approach does gives the Mage a turn, but he kindly uses it to just demonstrate Strip Armor's new visual effect.  There's no special animation for subdued enemies which leads to some odd animation transitions, but the end result is the target being left wriggling on the ground and out of the fight for good, presumably until some kind passer-by comes along to help them free after we're long gone.  As stated the other two have no such luck, for them it's the machete treatment all the way (through).  We grab a Basic Medkit from one of the fancy motorbikes and leave the survivor to enjoy the rain and beautiful dark hues of the Hong Kong sky.  The actual way onwards is to the north, past a crate we easily move out of the way. Our progress nets us our first point of Karma, not by itself enough for anything worthwhile as we spent all 65 we had at character creation, but every little bit adds up.  We're getting close to the plaza now, but a quick detour to the east nets us a discarded credstick worth 60 nuyen. As with Karma, every single contribution to our meager stockpiles is welcomed.  The meeting point is right around the corner, and it seems we're not the first ones here either. But is that good news or bad news?    Evening, folks. You got permits for those bazookas?You can just tell how much he enjoys getting to bust out lines like this.   Nope. Guess not. I must've dropped mine in a dumpster - along with the last idiot who stepped to us.[Wu coolly surveys the scene, nods in a friendly fashion.] Is that right? Well then...  Whoa now, Duncan, brother, these are not especially great odds or positions we're looking at here. A lot more gun on that side, and these people are obviously not just smugglers.  [The thick troll's voice is casual. Amused. He shakes his gun in Wu's face.] Little late for that, isn't it? [Hold up your hands, palms out.] How about no one does anything stupid? We just want to talk.If these guys were here to take us out, they'd have already started shooting. We could draw our own weapon too, but it'd feel kind of silly brandishing a busted up machete when everyone else is pointing guns and magic at each other, so let's just take it easy and try to figure out who's here for what first. [The thick troll smile big.] Oh, I can see that! Your buddies are totally chill. Something we can do for you, officer?[Wu's jaw tightens, but his tone stays cool and controlled.] I'm looking for an old man. Raymond Black. We were supposed to meet him here. You know him? [The troll nods his enormous head.] Mmm-hmm.[Wu's voice gets an edge. You can see a vein in his temple start to pulse.] Where is he?Doesn't seem like the years have managed to cool down Duncan Wu's temperament much. [Carter sees it too. Keeps her voice neutral.] Easy, Duncan.[The troll maintains amused eye contact, but his weapon stays trained on Wu.] That's right. Easy, Duncan. Your friend Raymond never showed. We've been waiting for the better part of an hour.Yeah? If there's any chance these are Raymond's own people, someone pulling the trigger now sure would make us all look like real idiots. Think everyone can put their guns down now?[Duncan's voice is steady, but it's clear he's coiled.] I don't think so. Not till I get some answers. Like? [He mutters through gritted teeth.] Like why a group of heavily armed assholes are meeting a little old man in a construction site at midnight.  [She gets a wry look in her eye. Her answer is flippant.]  *Odd* jobs. This and that. What did he want with you?[The troll's yellow-brown tusks shift into a smile again.] He needed friends - the heavily armed kind. The old man hired us to take you all on a little excursion. [Wu's brow furrows.] Hired you?[He takes a moment. Looks them over.]  [Understanding spreads across Wu's face. His jaw tightens.] You're shadowrunners.Kinda figured as soon as we saw 'em really, shadowrunners always seem to move in groups of four for some reason. Must be part of some kinda code or something. [He nods.] Mmm-hmm.[Wu's shoulders creep up. His stance tightens.] This is bullshit. Raymond would *never* hire shadowrunners. They're criminals.  So, yeah... you were right. Your buddy Raymond *was* associating with a bunch of hardened criminals.[The troll tosses Wu a sideways smile while staring down the barrel of his gun.] Sorry to burst your bubble, Lone Star. Guess you didn't know the old man as well as you thought, huh? Just take it easy, man. Both the years and the overseas trip have been way too long for you to get shot to hell barely an hour into our reunion.  [She speaks quietly to Wu, who listens without turning, his focus squarely on the troll.] We need to find Raymond. These are the people who can help us do that.It's easy to tell that she's been the stabilizing force keeping Duncan's flames under control. It's a role we're pretty familiar with, after all. She's right. Let's focus on Raymond. [She waves a hand at the three of you.] You, too. You know the Walled City?Sure, by name at least. Not the best choice for a family vacation by the sound of it, pretty packed this time of year. Also every other time of year. Slum, right? I've heard of it.  We get it. It's a real bad place. Now why would a little old man pay you to take him there?[The dwarf standing next to her nods and jumps in.]  Wouldn't say. He mumbled a lot, too. Just kept rambling on and on about how he *had* to get in. Under ordinary circumstances, I never would've accepted the gig. The Walled City's the last place I wanna go. But the old man rolled up a truckload of nuyen, and ya gotta eat, right? [Wu risks a glance at you. His weapon remains trained on the shadowrunners, but a flicker of uncertainty plays across his face.]If this is all a ruse, it sure is a weirdly specific and elaborate one. Even if we won't be jumping right to exchanging warm hugs and friendly kisses with these guys, at the very least we can probably leave bullets out of this for the time being. Interesting story. Seems like a good time to ramp down the threat of violence, don't you think?[The troll flashes you a smile that's all tusks and no warmth.] Okay, gang. I tell you what.   Wha- NEW(-ish) MUSIC:   Holy poo poo okay cover goddamn   And get popped like balloons in some carnival game? gently caress that, cover for life! These are cops, Duncan, aren't they supposed to be on your side or something?!   [The dwarf shakes her head at him. Her voice is flat.] Save your breath. They won't listen. Use your eyes! These bastards aren't here to make arrests.[A sniper shot hits the wall next to her head, showering her in an explosion of plaster.] Stay down! Duncan, are you hurt? Everyone pipe down! Just gimme a minute! [She snaps out of her trance.] Okay, I've got a way out! It's at the end of the street. Everyone come with me! Everyone?! We don't need the rent-a-cops, Gobbet! We're the only ones--[The little ork whips her head towards her friend.] They're extra firepower, Izz! I got us an exit, but we've gotta get past the heat, and we can't shoot our way out of this on our own. If nothing else, they can soak up a few rounds for us.  From a bit of turbulence right to an all-out nose dive in a real hurry, and once we again we find ourselves starting off by having to flee for our lives. The Hong Kong Police Force aren't here to play around either as not only are they going to make our flight towards the alley exit an uphill climb with an attack from both sides, but anyone ending their turn out of cover at any point will also take a nasty hit from a sniper bullet.  Carther has left the party early citing a splitting headache, but we do have control over Gobbet and "Shy Dwarf" (Is0bel). Not going to go deeper into what they can do right now, but Gobbet carries an SMG and is a Shaman with a side of Mage similar to Dietrich from the previous game, while Is0bel is a Decker armed with a customized pistol and a grenade launcher.  We start with casting Haste on ourselves and hell, let's use that Tokko too, no reason to take any chances here.  Gobbet likewise Hastes herself while Duncan and Is0bel take the front. This leaves us exposed to the Enforcer behind us, but he's pretty far away and armed with a shotgun so he isn't likely to land too many hits on us.   The cops between us and our exit have no such aim issues as our slow rear end can't avoid the Captain's rifle fire at all and even the Guard sinks a three-pointer with her grenade.  Taz wounded... but angry! Must go chop!   And chop we do, right after Gobbet clears us of shrapnel with her Heal Wound spell. By the time we're done the Captain is stunned and the Guard knocked out of cover.  This actually leaves the former to the perfect spot for Duncan to zip tie her up while still remaining behind cover. How's that for a role reversal?  Moving up the street reveals that there's more in store for us up ahead, another 20 HP Guard teamed up with a tough Conjurer and even a pair of drones. Not exactly great for us.  As it happens though, Is0bel spots an access point in the police bike next to the napping Captain.   While not a full-on Matrix run, this allows her to remotely deactivate the two drones ahead! A Rigger could even turn them hostile to their fleshy masters and make things considerably easier, but this will already help a great deal.  She even has a spare AP to gun down the Guard we exposed earlier with her Customized Slivergun which comes with a burst fire option much like Duncan's rifle but for just 1 AP (and also a 3-turn cooldown). A very successful turn all in all, with our melee prowess getting its first chance to really shine. As a side note there is also a summoning spot nearby where Gobbet could conjure up a spirit, but this is almost a trap as controlling a spirit also reduces the conjurer's AP by 1 which is not very conductive to trying to escape in a hurry.  The Enforcer is still behind us, but video game shotguns just aren't long-range weapons and we can simply continue ignoring his valiant but ultimately futile efforts.  On the other side the Conjurer chills for this turn, but the Guard happily keeps our streak of never avoiding a shot going, once again bringing a red tinge to our field of vision and HP bar both.  The snipers are still watching so we have to order things a bit carefully here with Is0bel first patching us up with her Advanced Medkit, followed up with us advancing for 1 AP's worth where Duncan then moves in to heal us with his own Advanced Medkit in a spot where he doesn't risk getting a long-distance piercing.  Back to full strength, we rush the Conjurer out of cover in the hopes of having Gobbet and Duncan finish the job, but our combined efforts end up falling just a bit short in the end.  As a result we suffer a minor acid attack and a movement-reducing Slow, one of the more annoying debuffs for an Adept to be afflicted by. The Guard also pumps another couple of pistol rounds in us, but her Fichetti Security 500 is a complete peashooter and mostly just serves to inject us with more Tokko-fueled anger.  Our Haste fades this turn, so we spend our 2 AP landing a crit on the pesky Guard and then moving out of the way of Is0bel's grenade launcher which finishes off both cops even with the shot going a little wide. Whoever was irresponsible enough to arm nerds with grenade launchers will probably come to regret it eventually, but for now it has worked out for us.  The way out is now visible ahead and our pursuers are pretty far behind, so we take this chance to bring everyone close to the exit.  There is one more blockade up ahead, but we're not going that way and it's too far to really be a danger to us on its own.  One by one everyone dashes for the exit with Duncan leaving last, and while we live to see another day, it seems remarkably clear that this temporary shelter is not going to be enough to deter whatever prompted the sudden and violent storm we leave behind us. And in the end we never did find Raymond either. Just what kind of a godforsaken mess has the old man's invitation landed us in this time? Kanfy fucked around with this message at 12:52 on Dec 28, 2020 |
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Dec 28, 2020 12:39
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Gutshot is a male elf, called "Smirking Elf" in-game though I don't think you ever get a chance to see it.
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Dec 28, 2020 16:06
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KataraniSword posted:Weirdly enough, I don't think anyone had that take on Eiger in the Dragonfall LP, which is weird since she's "troll with rifle". If anything, Dietrich and Glory got more of the "ehn" vote, with Blitz being the combat dead-weight that you'd expect a Mandatory Decker to be. If I count then I kinda have that take, especially on my original non-LP playthrough I always found Eiger to be the least memorable Dragonfall crew member by a considerable margin. Even now I can barely remember the names of the people from her backstory, her strict military personality was by its nature very straightforward, and her personal mission ended up being very flat compared to the others. I think if Duncan was just a runner you meet in Hong Kong he'd feel largely the same, but him being our childhood friend and also our fellow "outsider" to the shadow world of Hong Kong goes a long way to making him and his role more interesting. I can still remember a number of good scenes with Duncan (including in the next update) but nothing immediately jumps out with Eiger even this soon after the previous LP. Of course a lot of that is owed to the character writing which I overall find greatly improved in this game. At any rate, I hope to see what people not familiar with the game will think about the various characters as we meet and learn more about them, so far it seems we mostly have Hong Kong veterans here.
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Dec 29, 2020 14:48
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"If it hasn't happened don't talk about it" is a simple enough rule, I figure. But this isn't big enough a deal to have an argument about, so let's just move on.bob dobbs is dead posted:hey the link to the dragonfall lp is broke in the op So it was, must've messed it up when swapping the link from the thread to the archived version. Thanks for pointing it out.
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Dec 30, 2020 20:14
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Part 04 - Between Nothing and Nowhere  So, what the hell is going on exactly? We only just arrived in town, and unless the police chief's favorite nephew happened to be moonlighting as a smuggler, there is no reason we can think of for the drat Hong Kong Police Force to be after us at all, let alone in enough force to repel a foreign invasion. And poo poo, we were probably the luckiest one here too. We managed to get away with everything important to us still intact, namely our braincase and our brother, but they just straight-up terminated Duncan's partner and two of those shadowrunners. All three complete strangers to us, but... What were their names? [She inhales a cleansing breath.] Nightjar was a good guy. Always had our backs - Is0bel's and mine.[Is0bel nods in agreement. Her voice is flat.] Rare to find a runner that you can actually trust. [She looks to her friend.] Are we clear?[Gobbet looks back the way you came.] I think we've shaken them. [She sniffs the air.] Yeah. We're clear.  We noticed. There's a Lone Star sergeant dead back there, drat it. She was--  I don't know what the hell's going on with the Hong Kong cops, but I'm calling in some Lone Star backup from home. I'm gonna get some of my *own* people down here. Then we’re gonna find Raymond and figure out what the *hell's* going on.This is all especially rotten for Duncan. The ex-street rat with no future finally manages to build himself something that could last, but now someone's taking a sledgehammer to the support beams seemingly for no reason and it's all on the verge of collapse again. [The little ork shrugs.] Whatever you say, big guy. You have fun with that. [She looks over at her friend. They both nod.] Izz and I are out of here. Best of luck finding your friend. Best of luck? That's it? [Her brow furrows.] That's right. What did you expect? We form some sort of posse like in your old cowboy vids? Ride out to find the killers and see justice done? We got you to safety, and now we are *done* with this poo poo. We don't intend to die for you.  [He looks up at you.] My law enforcement status has been revoked.[He goes back to the screen.] I don't believe it. This is saying there's an APB out on us, Shin. You and me both. I figured as much. You heard them on the loudspeaker. They knew our names.     Why is it always those who have almost nothing that have to give up what little they do have? Alright fine, but at the very least we're not going to give up the satisfaction from getting to break something tech-y. [Smash it yourself.] We bury our own.[You crush the PDA to shards under your foot while Is0bel looks on blankly.] Good.[She looks over at Gobbet, sighs, then reaches into her jacket pocket, pulling out two new PDAs. She hands them to you and Duncan.] Burners. I suppose it's the least we could do. After your help back there. Thanks. You people always keep a supply of burners in your pocket?We could also ask if she has any snacks in there, though that doesn't get an answer. Runners need to be prepared for contingencies. Isn't that right, Izz? Oh now what? They firing cop missiles at us? Alligator cops converging on our position through the sewer pipes as we speak? What is it this time? Gobbet, we gotta go. Right now.[Is0bel's voice is monotone but emphatic. She holds up her PDA to show her friend.] They're after us, too.   Members of a what? You've gotta be kidding, if this is all a bad dream then we're gonna have some scathing feedback for the nonsense our brain has conjured up for tonight.   Our sources report that Seattle natives Duncan Wu and Shin Black, along with their Hong Kong-based accomplices, are still at large. They are well armed and should be considered extremely dangerous. [The color drains out of Gobbet's face.] Oh, poo poo.   [She looks directly into the camera.]  If you should see one or more of these individuals, do *not* attempt to engage them. Instead, tap in the HKPF flash code at the bottom of the screen. If you are on an authorized network and take a picture, our system will automatically identify them in your datastream... I thought we were hosed before. [Wu's voice is eerily calm.] But now we are well and truly hosed.Times of crisis really bring out Duncan Wu's inner philosopher. Doesn't look good, does it?[His mouth tightens.] Not. At. All. [Is0bel nudges the remains of Wu's PDA with her booted toe.] And the two of us will be hunted down right alongside you.[Gobbet wide-eyes the exits, tight as a spring. You can hear shallow panting as she leans towards one, then the other.] We gotta go deep. Hit the mainland for a while until we can figure this out. Find a hole to crawl into.[Gobbet looks at Is0bel, wipes her mouth, and points at you and Duncan.] We've gotta get *them* off the grid, too. Way off.[The dwarf looks up at Duncan, and her large eyes narrow.] Hey. Lone Star. You've got a security license, right? That means that you've got a SIN, too. [His brow furrows.] Of course I have a SIN. I wouldn't be able to get paid otherwise. Only criminals and lowlifes go SINless.[She runs her hands along her cyberdeck, thinking.] That means that you can be traced. Both of you. You get spotted by a drone or a security camera, get ID'd by a retinal scanner, or try to use your credstick or passport, and the HKPF will know *just* where to find you.[Wu crosses his arms across his chest.] I know how a System Identification Number works, runner.With the Shadowrunner etiquette we could jump right to the conclusion Is0bel is clearly heading towards, but all that'd do is skip dialogue anyway. So we're stuck in this country. No money, no passport, nothing. [Gobbet pulls at her dreadlocks.] We're just as screwed as you are. Me and Izz, we were listed as your accomplices. And we can't afford for you to get caught. You'll lead 'em to us, one way or another. DNA samples, things we've told you, astral residue, I don't know... cop stuff.  All of them? Whoa, wait a minute. You want us to just erase *our identities?* [Wu rubs a hand across his scalp.] Beyond the fact that it's insane, will that even *work?* If we burn our SINs, go off the grid like that, won't they just redouble their efforts to find us?[Condescension seeps its way into Is0bel's dry tone.] Imagine playing a game of hide-and-seek with a siren strapped to your head. Would you rather try and hide with the siren, or with the siren conspicuously absent? This is bullshit. I'm gonna find a way to smuggle myself back to Seattle.[Wu gives you his "don't be an idiot" voice.] With what resources? We don't know anybody in this country, Shin. We have no network here.[His baritone growl gets low and intense.] You saw what they did to those runners. To Carter. You'll be dead before you can take two steps.Yeah, yeah. Just let us have our moment of pretending like we still have some control over something, alright? So what's the alternative? Deleting our identities across the entire Matrix sounds hard. [The little decker nods knowingly.] It's very difficult. I can't do it. Some people can… organizations… expert systems. Now there's a moniker so obviously ironic that we don't need to know a single thing about this person to already draw some conclusions about them. Let me guess. This Kindly Cheng is some sort of underworld hard-rear end. Like a walnut.Alternatively: quote:
She's what's known as a Straw Sandal - kind of a middle manager for the Yellow Lotus syndicate. They're triad. Kindly Cheng controls all the illegal activity in our neighborhood - smuggling, bootlegging, counterfeiting. Middle manager? Is the Yellow Lotus a syndicate or a retail outlet?[Gobbet leans in, serious as death.] Do not get the wrong impression. Kindly Cheng is no bureaucrat. She controls a good-sized portion of Kowloon's underworld. She has soldiers. Resources. She's smart. And she is *not* to be underestimated. [Is0bel's voice is hollow and flat.] Taking favors from a woman like Kindly Cheng is a good way to get yourself into indentured servitude. You don't want to owe favors to a woman like that.[Her eyes get big. Round.] Ideally, you don't want to deal with her at all. That was Nightjar's job. Nightjar's job? You mean you work with her? What did we just tell you? She's got her fingers in everything, including brokering shadowruns for the corps. Kindly Cheng is our Fixer.  Well, guess we have a plan, the kind you come up with when stuck in a runaway train about to crash and you try to figure out how to jump off in a way that only gets your legs smashed. But you gotta choose from the options you have available, and our selection isn't much to look at right now. So much for a taste of freedom...   As we arrive in the Heoi underground, we find an extra 5 Karma in our pocket.    Heoi is well known as a protected area. Kindly Cheng sees to that. It's a shadow community - smugglers, hijackers, black marketeers - you get the idea. Cops tend to give the place a wide berth.[Is0bel gives a shallow nod. Her gaze remains planted on the floor.] Police cameras don't last long here. Between the smog and the cloud cover, we shouldn't have to worry about drone surveillance, either. The HKPF won't find you. Not if you follow our lead. An invitation? How do we get that?[The rat shaman smirks.] We'll kiss her rear end until it shines. [Is0bel sighs.] That's about the size of it.[Gobbet holds up a hand.] One more thing. Kindly Cheng is a dangerous woman. She may seem friendly, but don't let your guard drop. And whatever you do, do *not* disrespect her. I've dealt with dangerous people all my life. I know how to behave myself. You'd better. If you don't, it's all of our asses.Alternatively: quote:
Okay. We'll go on ahead and smooth the way. Just give us a few minutes' head start. If this place is protected, why shouldn't we talk to anybody?[She rolls her eyes and lets out a little grunt.] I said the *place* was protected. Not *you're* protected. No one knows you here. And outsiders aren't welcome in Heoi.[Gobbet eyes Wu up and down.] Plus, your friend here radiates cop. Cops are even less welcome than outsiders.[Then she looks your way.] And you - you're not exactly ordinary either, are you? I like to think I have a certain flair.Ordinary people tend to be the products of ordinary lives, something the world has never seemed too keen on giving us a chance to experience. And if today's events are anything to go by, that particular policy remains firmly in place. [She smiles for the first time.] Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. If people see us strolling through town together with no prior explanation, we might not make it to the mahjong parlor at all. I get it. See you at the mahjong parlor.Sure thing, just watch out for sudden bursts of wind and dragons over there, heh.     What the hell are we *doing* here? How did we get *into* this?[He drops his hands and turns to you, shaking his head in disbelief.] I think I'm gonna lose it. Go ahead. We're alone.  [He puts a hand to his forehead.] I don't know what I'm gonna do now. Sounds like she was more than just your partner.[He turns to you with a blank face.] More than just a partner? Of course she was - [Then he gets it and his hackles raise.] She was my training officer, you idiot. My mentor. I didn't mean anything by it, it just looked like you two were close. When you're out there on the streets facing down a food riot, you need to *know* someone's looking out for you. That you're standing next to someone you can depend on. That was Carter.[His shoulders slump and he exhales heavily.] And she was like my compass. Or my anchor. Or some such poo poo. She kept me... I don't know. Sane. You're sane, Duncan. This is shock and grief. Yeah... yeah, I suppose so.[He steps back, sucking in a deep breath.] Screw it. Whatever she was, I'm throwing her down the memory hole. You know why?[He snarls. Spits.] Because it doesn't matter now. [He counts it off on his fingers.] Raymond, the house we grew up in, my career... Carter. All gone. No home. No money. No identity. Nothing. [He waves his hand, brushes it all away.] We will be nobody. We were street kids, Duncan. We're used to being nobody. Just chill.  NEW MUSIC: (Very slow and moody, a good example of a different style of soundtrack from the previous two games. Good rainymood material, makes me think of Max Payne.)   Aw, it's baby Duncan. Cute as a button. Yeah, I know how he is. Inflexible. Exactly. We're breaking one of his rules just being *outside the house* after curfew. I got something to attend to, Duncan. And it can't wait. That's what you keep saying - but you still won't tell me what's going on! There's a variety of reasons we can give here, all of them true, basically establishing the rough circumstances of our disappearance. As was decided by the thread... [Truth.] I've got a friend in a bind, Duncan. That's all I can say about it. I *have* to go help. [His eyes widen.] I thought I knew all your friends.[He shakes his head.] I don't like this, Shin. It sounds like... it sounds like the kind of poo poo we said we'd leave behind. Look. Whatever's going on, I can tell you one thing - Raymond will *not* approve. I'll deal with that when I get back. I won't be gone long. Two, three days tops.Our buddy Sam is a bit of an oddball, sure, but he's never seemed the type to get his friends into trouble or anything. We'll just quickly go give him a hand and be back by the weekend.     Oh, sorry about that. You know how flashbacks are, can never know when they choose to come and go. Now let's hear it. Where the hell have you been all this time? Why didn't you contact me? At least to tell me you were alive. You're pissed that I didn't contact you? I was locked up, Duncan. For years! You're a cop, why didn't you go looking for me? You think I *didn't?* I tried everything. You were completely off the grid![The information finally sinks in, and he dials back the attitude.] ...And now I understand why. Locked up, huh? poo poo. I... I had no idea. Wow. I really don't know how to process that one right now. I...[He shakes his head.] I don't know. If we're still alive tomorrow, we can talk more. This poo poo is too much. Listen, Shin. Back in the Barrens. Whenever I was out of control, you just *handled* the situation. Remember? With Carter gone... I'm just a raw nerve. I'm afraid I'm gonna slip back... and people are gonna start getting hurt again.Get the feeling there's going to be a lot of that happening soon either way. But yeah, we'll work our way through this thing together. Like in the old times. I got your back, Duncan.[He stares at you hard, like he's trying to see something inside your head. His voice comes out flat.] We'll see. Just don't press it. I need time to get used to... you.  Yeah, nothing to it now but to find the mahjong parlor and hope this triad walnut has had a better day than we have seeing as our lives are now quite literally in her hands. If we ever do find Raymond, he'd better at least appreciate the irony of his invitation leading us right back into the same kind of ditch he once fished us out from. Alternate conversation with Duncan preceding the flashback: I don't know what I'm gonna do now. What are you talking about? You crawled out of worse places before you met her.[He allows his head to loll to the side. Whispers.] Maybe. But that was a long time ago.[He sighs.] And I had Raymond then. I get it. [That triggers him.] The hell you do. You only saw the beginning - the old man taking us in, handing me my rear end until I straightened out. You saw me straighten out, but I only started to fly right after you left. Raymond's the one who helped me get into the academy. Sat on me until I did my homework, checked on every assignment. Every. Single. Assignment.[His breathing becomes ragged. He mumbles.] And he didn't care that I was a goddamn ork.[Both hands on his face now. He's completely covered.] Raymond. The house. The academy. Carter. I'm throwing it all down the memory hole and burying it deep. You know why? Because it doesn't matter now.Kanfy fucked around with this message at 16:29 on Jan 4, 2021 |
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Jan 4, 2021 14:07
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I dont know posted:Additionally, since characters don't comment on runs that you don't bring them on, if you don't use him there is that much less development. As anyone who's been around for these LPs in the past can probably figure, here everyone'll be given the chance to provide their takes on all missions whether they were present or not.
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Jan 4, 2021 19:31
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Speaking of Hong Kong, Mel Odom wrote a 452-page novel version of this game with the dialogue taken directly from it and everything.  As an LPer I can kind of relate to this endeavor in a strange way, I wonder how similar his methods were to mine. I assume he was provided with a script or something.
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Jan 9, 2021 10:00
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Comrade Koba posted:How do the fight scenes read? Not quite that far, but it does kind of read like someone was actually playing through the game rather than going by a script. A lot of mentions of cover and details like Is0bel disabling the drones, the police barricade that was past the exit point and the sniper hits you take during the escape. They even pick up the Basic Medkit (though as just "first aid kit") from the bike behind the trio of smugglers. Here's the initial fight:  I'm not much of a book critic but it doesn't seem great or anything, just kind of interesting to see how this or that part from the game looks like in it if you've played it. It's available on Google Books and maybe elsewhere for a few euros for anyone curious, though obviously it spoils the whole game so let's not bring too much of it here. Kanfy fucked around with this message at 13:25 on Jan 9, 2021 |
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Jan 9, 2021 12:58
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