I'm thrilled that Shadowrun Online (SRO) is being made, and that such care is being given to the IP and game quality. However the game turns out, at this stage I feel safe saying I will support it.
But I wanted to make a suggestion about gameplay. I recently got a beta key and tried out Jagged Alliance Online (JAO). While I was impressed by the quality, I was less enthusiastic about the turn-based combat. It gave me flashbacks of XCOM, which in the 90's was ground-breaking, but by today's standards is painfully slow-paced, even when only controlling one soldier--I shudder to think how painful it would be to direct the actions of an entire squad.
So far I have the impression that JAO is being used as a sort of model for SRO, and I remember reading a comment from Primetide saying that turn-based combat might be the only way to realize the speed and variety of actions a character can be capable of in SR. When I read that statement I saw the logic in it, but after playing JAO I defintely would prefer SRO to have a faster pace.
The question is how to go about it. I'm not going to try to describe a fully-explored and developed solution, because 1) I'm not a game designer, and 2) SRO development might have already progressed past the point of no return. But I am going to throw out a way I think it could work, if it's not too late.
In a SR game done correctly, things simply cannot happen in real time because characters can move too fast. So some turn-mechanism is needed to emulate all the passes, etc. However, I think the game will be more fun to play if that mechanism exists beneath the hood and is not someting players can control or see in the interface. A good example, I think, was the first Neverwinter Nights (NWN). Turns and speeds were obviously being used, but they were never shown. You clicked where you wanted to run or what you wanted to attack, and your character went about it. There might be a slight delay before the character carried out the command (ie waiting for his turn according to the game clock), but the game was never on "pause" waiting for NPCs or players to input their actions. Things continued to happen, seemingly if not factually, in real time, to the ticking of an invisible game clock.
I think a similar method could work for SRO. Granted, the clock would still have to be slowed down to allow for all the passes in each turn, and characters might seem frozen as they wait for the clock to allow them to perform their action. But using a clock would keep things moving and make combat more interesting because 1) the game would never be paused, and 2) the clock would allow for simultaneity (ie within a pass characters would exchange fire at the same time, not take turns shooting at each other).
There's a lot more to explore in such a method, but since I'm not a dev I'm not going to pretend I know how to go about it. I just wanted to throw the idea out there for consideration. If it's possible, I think it would be more fun than a turn-based game. Of course, this path is more for those who prefer playing a single character rather than playing a squad, a category into which I admittedly fall. In a game like SRO, I would much rather devote my attention to a single character (like I would in PnP, and in NWN) than direct a squad. But I know there are those who would disagree.
Thoughts?