A thing that might be an issue, at least for new players, is the lack of a transition marker to the subway after the Caryards. Looks cool and all, but it's a bit too much don't you think? You've never traveled with the subway before... how are you supposed to know it's not simply scenery?

Calling this a faithful remake is an understatement. All the awsome and all the awful included. You thought "Play-the-ocarina-to-the-weathercook-statue-to-transform-it-into-a-duck-in-order-to-proceed" was sadistically far-fetched? Oooh, Man do I have the game for you!

That being said, I don't know what the end goal for the module is here... rage-quiting and looking up walktroughs IS a genuin part of the original gameplay experience, just not something I personally enjoy revisiting. Some might feel actually making the game somewhat reasonable is sacrilige, I really don't know. Maybe the very essences of the game is that, [Spoiler?] the cemetary you're sorta, not really, sent to find isn't the huge one which you've already seen (duuh!), but the super tiny one hidden away on a completly different map.

I had that fragging Vampire stunned and down to 1HP, with my stake in hand, and then I was reminded why I could never finish the game back in the day, before the advent of RPGClassics.com

So this is more of a Question than a Suggestion: Is sprinkling some genuinly helpful dialog around the NPCs a bad idea or not?

P.S. Loved the easter-egg in the Crypt. Talk about nostalgia chills.

Hi studio.temporar,

thanks a lot for your thoughts!

The Visibillity of the Subway Stations as usable elements is a good hint, i am sure we will incorporate that.

Our final goal is to have a module with a "classic mode" that really stays as close to the original as possible and an "reboot mode" (or whatever it will be called), that basically takes the story and game assets but with modernized gameplay, more dialog, better storytelling and all.

But to be honest that second mode is a really far goal. Everyone that has followed this project knows that we advance rather slowly, that is because we are a small team of people with busy lifes.

All feedback we get is very much apprechiated because it shows us that people care and often gives us additional ideas for improvements.



Concerning the easer egg: When Geeked mapped the crypt, he put that additional room there. When i started to put in NPCs, i saw a good opportunity to use a model from the DMS campaign that i really wanted to have at some place ^^

We definitely plan on making it more user friendly and have sprinkled a few additional dialogue options in so far but there is more work to do on that front.

We actually have a fairly long list of enhancements to add, but most of them need to wait until the entire module is complete so they don't interfere with making the mod. Especially since they will all be optional and toggle-able anywhere you can sleep.

A few examples are:

* Quest Mode: Help quests for the newbie who doesn't want to guess and explore
* Matrix Free Mode: Entirely conversation based matrix for those who hate the matrix interface
* Hitman Spawn Rate: Don't want to fight the annoying random spawns? You don't need to.

There are others, but I would need to check my notes on the wiki.

That being said, you brought to mind some "oops" moments! Thanks.
The oldtown subway really does need a transition marker.
I had also completely forgotten being confused which cemetary to go to. That can probably be easily clarified.

Any other particular pain points you think dialogue would fix? Its certainly not a bad idea.

First off, I just got to say it's very cool that you guys are so good at replying to feedback.

Sounds like you have everything pretty well planed out! I wish you luck with the quest mode: striking a balance between frustratingly obscure and dumbed down is very, very hard. No wonder so many games, old and new, fail at it. I personally hate it even more when NPCs mourn for a lost macguffin and BOOM there's an arrow or quest marker that points to exactly where it happens to be. No hints, no exploring, no nothing, just the game telling you where the macguffin is located — go fetch it gamer, it'll add 5min to promised play time.

Anyway, the only other obvious pain point so far is the first one — the blind luck required to stumble down the right alley before something kills you. Then again you can't cut that out. Maybe that first NPC could go "Quick chummer, they're coming! Hide in that alley!" or something? Maybe the bastard could back-stab you once you're there? I'd like that... dude helps you out a bit against the competition — then goes for the Nuyen pay-off once you're alone in a dark alley. Feels Shadowrun.

Later, some flashbacks might be a good idea? Buildings going "This looks vaguely familiar" if you search? Playing the original, I was a bit pissed at stumbeling into buildings that just *happend* to be where you used to find work.

More hints about where to go when the timer starts ticking is probably also a good idea.

If I was attempting some sort of enhanced mode... I'd try making some of the more random plot points optional whenever possible. Going back to the Vampire: maybe finding that all important, random convo would make the battle EASIER, but if you manage it with just the obvious paraphernalia that actually makes sense, maybe the game should give you a break.

So: Talk-to-magic-provider-about-supernatural-foe? That makes sense, it's a fairly reasonable action and you should be able to require the player to figure that one out.

Talk-to-random-barkeep-about-supernatural-foe? Yeah, that sounds pretty optional in my book.

P.S. Steams over-zealous censorship is making me come across as more foul mouthed then I actually am here.

The way I see it, if we are going to be super slow in updating the very least we can do is be responsive to comments!

The alley already has someone walking you there, but I can adjust the camera so it is more obvious. The person who talks to you immediately on exiting the street runs towards it. I don't think the camera follows him on the second map though, so I can fix that...

Perhaps we should disable traveling anywhere else until you get the gun? Although you can now fight unarmed...

I like the flashback idea. I think it would be a lot of fun including things like that. Perhaps with the new scripting options I will be able to make some nice flashback scenes. (the pseudo scripted optional opening scene was a huge pain!)

Thanks again for the comments!

In the snes version, you used to be able to get a "zip gun" by skipping this scene and doing some grave-robbing to get the nuyen for the badge. IIRC, you could even come back to it and get the "baretta" as well once you cleared the caryards. While this can probably be done here without skipping ths scene (just punch the guy's lights out and leave the ganger's corpse alone until you have the zip gun), I don't think requiring the scene is a great idea.

@arek75 - That is a good point. I can't think of a good reason not to add the zip gun it shouldn't require too much in the way of logic changes.

Now, having played through Bremerton, some notes. First, it's obvious that Bremerton still needs a balance pass - some of the fights were too easy (the entrance to the ship in particular), while the Abomination fight in the Jester's Realm seems a bit on the tough side (even if it's beatable). The jester fight itself seems decent, tho (maybe a touch too easy, if the Abomination fight is any indication). Also, you should probably fix the boat conversation, since it looks like Bremerton is almost ready to go. :)

One thing I did notice is that you still have to go to "The Cage" and get thrown out before the guy at the first club will talk to you about Maria (requires the Tickets keyword, which he's supposed to give you iirc). Even if that's the way it was (I don't remember having to do that in the SNES version), it doesn't make sense, since until you talk to him you have no way of knowing you need to go to The Cage, since you have to talk to him to get the "Lone Star" and "Grinder" keywords, which get you the credstick and tickets, and you have to have the Credstick to call Sassie, which gets you the Glutman keyword and Phone #, which allows you to ask Glutman's Secretary about him so that she'll tell you he's at The Cage.

Also, I ran into a bug with Kitsune not wanting to follow me after a transition a few times, and noticed once when this happened that she was replaced with "New Actor" (first time entering the dark blade courtyard).

Finally, I haven't actually tried the other weapons, but it looks like the Ruger is about the best you can get through Bremerton. There might be an argument for using an SMG or the HK rifle, but it's not much. This just seems wrong. Also...prices for gear are WAY out of whack with the amount of nuyen you can earn in this UGC.

--Arek75

Howdy. A quick reply! (I would write more if I could)

Balance - As of Directors Cut NOTHING is balanced right. :( Even fights which were correct aren't anymore. On the plus side, now damage is handled the same was as the original so that makes it easier in some ways! Once it is fully playable end to end we will go through and fix balance.

The Cage / Tenth Street - The first level is certainly confusing / convoluted. I agree it can be clarified.

New Actor Issue - That is a pesky issue which keeps coming back... :(

Prices / Gear - Those will all be reworked. Nuyen earned for various things (arena for instance) will be drastically reduced.

Thanks for the comments!

I've not done much in the editor, but I'd think that going back to conversation-based stores (where you can dictate prices properly) might be better than reducing the amount of Nuyen the Arena fights (and bosses in general) give, since reducing those may also require a reduction in the costs of Hiring, Paying off the King, Negotiation, and getting your head fixed. In any case, if a balance pass is coming to weapons, perhaps you could make custom weapons with custom prices for your store, rather than using the stock weapons (this would also allow you to make the zip gun and baretta available by name, along with other throwback weapons).

While I'm on the subject of Negotiation, would it be possible to have options to redeem Karma in smaller amounts (1, 5, 10, all) rather than just "redeem all karma"? This would make raising Negotiation (which requires Charisma, which has to be purchased with redeemed karma), easier (along with raising Leadership and/or the various Magic values in the future if you implement that).

I had trouble replying to this one!

The short answer is we would prefer to bring our prices in line with SRR rather than preserve the original price. This way we can provide more gear options without re-balancing SRR and we can utilize the trade interface.

Perhaps when the entire game is playable we will create an "original price mode", but until then it is more effort than it is worth to use the conversation approach when we don't have to. (the interface for making them is slow, and the way the files are saved makes it difficult to manually edit them)

Regarding using custom weapons, its certainly doable. I would need to check how other people have done that, but I think its fairly straight forward. I don't think you even need to have access to the mod's source to do it, I believe any person can go it, create the files, and then copy them over...

Karma / Negotiation - I need to remind myself how I implemented this. If I'm forcing you to use unredeemed karma for it I should fix it.

Thanks again!

Yes, Negotiation requires you to use unredeemed karma. This makes raising it a bit awkward.

I'll look into the situation with Weapons when I get a chance. :)

--Arek75

Originally posted by arek75:

Yes, Negotiation requires you to use unredeemed karma. This makes raising it a bit awkward.

I'll look into the situation with Weapons when I get a chance. :)

--Arek75

That was silly of me! I'll get a fix in for that ASAP.

Originally posted by arek75:

Yes, Negotiation requires you to use unredeemed karma. This makes raising it a bit awkward.

I'll look into the situation with Weapons when I get a chance. :)

--Arek75

Fixed in tonight's version.

I quickly tested it and it seemed to work fine, but then I made more changes after without testing...

Originally posted by ledeir:

That was silly of me! I'll get a fix in for that ASAP.

It might not have been so silly when DMS was all there was....you forgetting how long you've been working on this? :)

What would really be nice is if HBS added in a way for us to implement our custom skills in their interface. :)

--Arek75