a thread for questions (I have a lot of questions)

[number5toad]

I hope other people will jump in and ask a bunch of questions too! apologies if you've answered any of this elsewhere, feel free to respond to any questions you've already answered with a link if that's easier. I'll do my best to keep this roughly organized by topic. so let's see here...

SETTING

which edition are you basing the game on - I'm assuming 4th, but 3rd doesn't seem impossible. you wouldn't go all the way back to 2....would you?

is the game set in Seattle? if so, any chance for missions that take you out of Seattle? Denver, Chicago and NYC could all make for fun games. is it crazy to hope for different servers hosting different in-game cities?

CHARACTERS

are you planning to have a class based system, or a more free-form character generator? will I have to pick either a mage or a sam, or can I make a mage with wired reflexes and cybereyes if I really want to? (hint: I really want to)

if it's class based, how deep will you go with the classes you include? will we see adepts? if so, adepts of all colors or just physads? will we see riggers? vehicle combat? vehicle combat and drones could be so, so much fun, but I imagine they might also be tricky.

MISSIONS

how long do you expect standard missions to be? how long do you think legwork missions will be? will there be "difficulty" ratings for missions? if so, are we talking about differences in how complicated the missions are to complete, or just combat difficulty (more enemies with more health, etc)

will any team be allowed to tackle any mission, or will there be some missions you can't take depending on your group (too few or too many people, wrong skillset, wrong classes, whatever) will missions have specific solutions, or will there be a few different paths through them?

will there be a persistent storyline?

any chance we'll be able to write our own missions and play them with friends?

THIS FORUM

hey, uh...any chance you guys can install a Tapatalk plugin?     foruming from my phone makes me feel more like I'm living in the future.

that's probably enough for now! thanks for listening, I can't wait to read your responses.

[primetide]

Hey- always happy to answer what we can...all this is still not final, just what we intend to do, we can say more definitely after pre-production is finished.

Setting
The game does not feature a complete consistent gameworld, as with a Client MMO. So in fact we do have at least 5 locations planned for launch, but haven't decided on where exactly. Seattle plus another American City, Berlin or Hamburg plus another European one and one more.
The setting will be 4th edition to remain consistent with storyline (and allow crossovers from and into printed products), but we will try and conserve the more punky and rougher feeling of previous editions.

Characters- I did answer some question some time ago here on that, but will have to remain vague. We will feature a free system (like SR4, so there are no restrictive classes per se), but obviously chroming up will wreak havoc with your Essence. We will feature drone riggers, but no vehicles initially (no fun being mowed down by a Lone Star ATV during a mission) and as adepts go- we aren't sure yet.

Missions
We expect standard missions to take from 15 to 60 minutes roughly, depending on complexity and level. Difficulty will increase both by enemy strength (and intelligence, we have a scaled AI system) and complexity of levels.
Some missions have conditions (bring a certain item (example: Access Pass to Lab) and all of them have a max party size for balancing reasons - min size is always one, if you have the balls for it

We try to offer alternate routes to success (like sneaking by guards, distracting them or making big holes in them) where we can as well as sub-goals for missions, whch may result from previous legwork ("Bring me the relic and I can get you into Saeder-Krupps HQ") or be a sort of bonus goals.

We will have a persistent storyline (in fact several) which also will evolve further after launch and may cross over into printed material.

We will offer our players the chance to submit missions in contests which are then made into in-game missions, but we do not offer an editor (as all our stuff runs from a server, there are a lot of problems with user created content...).

Forum -tapatalk...we will see how hard this is to get in, seems like a cool idea...

[Beelzebubba]

We will offer our players the chance to submit missions in contests which are then made into in-game missions, but we do not offer an editor (as all our stuff runs from a server, there are a lot of problems with user created content...).

I stumbled across this in my meanderings. I know nothing about coding, nor do I know the limitations of browser games, so this is just FYI.

http://toodamnepic.com/shadowrun-mmo-more-namaste-please/
http://www.namaste.vg/storybricks/

If it were feasible for players to create missions, that would add to the longevity of the game. It might also offer opportunities for revenue:

Make the mission-making tool/process free. Players publish their missions in something like an auction house where they could be purchased via microtransaction. Better yet, allow the player-creators to get a small % of the sale. The auction house would need to incorporate a player rating system, like a 5-star system, so the better missions rise to the top and the junk sinks to the bottom. This would be a huge incentive to both play and create good content for the game.

But like I said, I have no idea if this is possible or practical for a browser game. Just brainstorming here...

[primetide]

The problem is more with associated Ai scripts and the way we can technically check for "valid" level maps. That isn't easy to automate and make accessible for a client.
Not saying we don't like the idea, but we would probably wait with such an endeavor until we have a solid game and a good stream of income to warrant the amounts fo work it would take us.

[number5toad]

thanks primetide - that's all great stuff to hear.

Seattle plus another American City, Berlin or Hamburg plus another European one and one more.

I think Chicago and London would be good for your other cities - cool settings with a lot of game materials you could use for crossovers. as for the fifth location, maybe Tir Tairngire? or Aztland?

since we'll be in Seattle, will we see the Arcology?

We will feature a free system (like SR4, so there are no restrictive classes per se), but obviously chroming up will wreak havoc with your Essence.

I like the sound of that! will there be a chance to get Initiated as a magic user?

We will feature drone riggers, but no vehicles initially (no fun being mowed down by a Lone Star ATV during a mission) and as adepts go- we aren't sure yet.

sad     but, understandable. I was a huge fan of vehicle combat and physads in pen and paper games. good news about the drones though!

We expect standard missions to take from 15 to 60 minutes roughly, depending on complexity and level. Difficulty will increase both by enemy strength (and intelligence, we have a scaled AI system) and complexity of levels.
Some missions have conditions (bring a certain item (example: Access Pass to Lab) and all of them have a max party size for balancing reasons - min size is always one, if you have the balls for it

awesome!

We try to offer alternate routes to success (like sneaking by guards, distracting them or making big holes in them) where we can as well as sub-goals for missions, whch may result from previous legwork ("Bring me the relic and I can get you into Saeder-Krupps HQ") or be a sort of bonus goals.

can you tell us a little more about how legwork will work? will it be available for every mission, or just specific missions? how far in advance of the run will you be able to do legwork? will the legwork missions be specifically tied to individual runs, or will it be more free form? will you be able to do more than one bit of legwork for runs?

We will have a persistent storyline (in fact several) which also will evolve further after launch and may cross over into printed material.

that's....fantastic. will the runs you take be related to the persistent storylines? will they affect it?

We will offer our players the chance to submit missions in contests which are then made into in-game missions, but we do not offer an editor (as all our stuff runs from a server, there are a lot of problems with user created content...).

understood.

Forum -tapatalk...we will see how hard this is to get in, seems like a cool idea...

maybe I'm the only one who would use it! but I'm a big fan.

[primetide]

seattle and the arcology- we really haven't got detailed plans as of yet. Be aware though, that we do not feature the full city in 3D - this would be too much for the browser. The city will be a 2D map with locations to travel to-and missions will be in 3D.

magic users and initiation - don't know yet. we may have people play through their initial career choices or we may allow them to set off as one...again, too soon to tell.

legwork: you will basically have the city map with locations, some of them always available (your fixer, contacts you have gained) some of them tied to missions (your informant for that specific mission). You can visit them and apply a mixc of skills, items (blackmail photo you gained in a previous side-mission) and other resources (influence, street cred) to achieve a defined goal there. You have a limited number of action points to do that in a 24h period and missions have a clock until when you need to do them. You can apply action point to increase your chances (at the cost of not being able to do as much legwork).
At least that is what we currently think would work well...but we will have to try and see if it's fun

[McDougle]

You should definitely take Berlin over Hamburg!

The setting is newer, more innovative and many SR-Players(including myself) could help with building a differentiated Berlin right between "Alternative people"/Anarchos and KonZombies.

[Sangius]

Thumbs up for Berlin from my side as well