was curious

[asmos]

I know the game may be a long way off from a release but I simply had to ask.

Are there plans to introduce all the classes/races at the start? Will they be true to the pen and paper game in terms of benefits and downsides?

Also I was curious are there currently plans to have shamans with a selection of their totems? Or will it be a toned down selection with only a few available?

[primetide]

it is a long way away, so I can only tell you what our current line of thinking is- not what how it will finally end up in the game.
Races - yes, though some of the downsides (like size or lifespan) won't be as relevant for parts of the action the game focuses on, so we may have to find some other way to balance races.
Shamans - Totems variety isn't much of an issue, both only take time to create effects for, but some Totems have advantages that feature strong in our game and disadvantages which are weaker, so again- we need to look at the balance in context of the game.

[Peal]

Sry, i wanted to ask real quick: Is this a turn based game? Screenshot in the newsletter looks familiar

[primetide]

not sure yet- we may want to mix it JA2 style-so real time until combat starts...

[number5toad]

not sure yet- we may want to mix it JA2 style-so real time until combat starts...

that's definitely what I want to see! seems like you'd be able to have more flexibility and authenticity with things like wired reflexes / VCRs (if those are included) with a turn based approach to combat.

[asmos]

Yeah, I could see wired reflexes working in a real time combat scenario, however it would probably be more note worthy and pronounced in turn based combat. May also be easier to implement the game in general.

For some reason when I saw the images I was heavily reminded on the sega Genesis Shadowrun game, does anybody else feel the same way?

[Peal]

real time until combat starts sounds very good and flexible, nice to hear!

[McDougle]

real time until combat starts sounds very good and flexible, nice to hear!

Heck, that sounds like a normal SR-table-round to me! 

*which means i also approve *

Turnbased is way better than harsh buttonpushing...

[number5toad]

the only potential problem I see with turn based combat is that it could take forever to finish a combat scenario if enough runners and baddies are involved (just like tabletop in fact)...maybe consider a planning phase, in which everyone submits the turn they'd like to take, followed by a resolution phase, in which everyone's actions actually happen?

[primetide]

that would not save time- the problem is mostly in people thinking about their turns- if everyone executes his turn quickly, this helps much more- we tested that actually.
We will use a "timer" to make sure people don't dawdle too long. And palyers can use the other guys turn for planning their own.
works well in Jagged Alliance, so we are confident we can work that out. That being said, we don't expect more than four players max in one mission

[Beelzebubba]

... we don't expect more than four players max in one mission

Does that mean you don't plan to allow teams greater than four, or you just don't think people will choose teams greater than four? Because my SR PnP group has exactly 5 people in it, and we all assumed we would be able to run together ...

[number5toad]

that makes sense - but why the scare quotes around "timer"? are you thinking of something other than a stopwatch?

and I second the question about group size. I'm also curious about how many hostiles you plan to put into the conflicts!

[primetide]

hostiles we don't have clear numbers yet - does 'a lot' help?
Team sizes - we have no technical limit, just maps size and waiting time sort of limit the reasonable number of people. We think total team size will probably be 6 (less on smaller maps) and thought of allowing 3 player with 2 chars each. but technically we may also have 6 players with one char each

[McDougle]

Playing two chars at once?

I was once allowed to do that in p&p SR4... it was awesome.

[number5toad]

hostiles we don't have clear numbers yet - does 'a lot' help?

I'll take it! Obviously I'm not expecting to go to war with all the Red Samurai in the Arcology, but I had a minute there where I was afraid you were looking at a 4v4 squad style game.

Team sizes - we have no technical limit, just maps size and waiting time sort of limit the reasonable number of people. We think total team size will probably be 6 (less on smaller maps) and thought of allowing 3 player with 2 chars each. but technically we may also have 6 players with one char each

I like the idea of letting people run multiple characters. One friend in particular and I always had several characters and switched them up between jobs, rather than sticking with one character the whole time, so I imagine he and I would get a lot of mileage out of a system like that.

Are you going to limit how many characters each player can have in total?