Shadowrun Returns: Gameological Mod

[Hobbes]

As discussed in the first part of this week's KGs, some of us really quite like Shadowrun Returns and would like to add some original content into it.

As I mentioned, my idea is to throw in some Cthulhu Mythos. How, might you ask?

The setting is Providence, RI. Brown University has a number of prominent mages in its Lovecraft School for the Study of Thuamaturgy. The School owns a number of Lovecraft's personal possessions, including a mysterious book (the Necronomicon). One determined grad student, while examining the book, falls under its spell and decides to conduct an archane rite in order to summon Cthulhu himself!

The player arrives in Providence, having been hired by the Patriarch Mafia (a play on the actual Patriarca mob family) to kill a rival gang boss. During the mission, it is revealed that Hounds of Tindalos are preying on the citizenry, which launches the main quest.

The player always stays one step behind, encountering various Lovecraftian dieties and monsters, until finally it's revealed that the grad student did succeed, sort of. Rather than bring back Cthulhu as described, he instead brought back H. P. Lovecraft himself, but imbued with immense Cthonic powers. The back half of the quest is to destroy the Necronomicon, then kill Lovecrafthulhu himself.

[Aurora_Boreanaz]

I like it! I've actually been there several times, when I lived in Danielson, Connecticut for six months around 1991, and it was the closest place with a decent shopping mall.

I'm most of the way through the single player campaign, and it's a lot of fun.

[Hobbes]

One thing I was talking to DJ Sub/Braff Zacklin about recently was how linear the Seattle single-player campaign is. I'd like the world of Shadowrun Providence to be freer and have more side quests. My thought is to have a few central hub locations: Kennedy Plaza (which smack dab in the center of downtown and has the Federal Courthouse, City Hall, the local RI NPR affiliate, and the major corporate offices adjacent to it, the Brown University Green, Garibaldi Square in the area of town famous for its Italian population, and the Providence Place Mall, which will be merchant central. Then there will be buildings that connect off of each of these. I'll take a look at the wiki, but it's probably doable (if more complicated) to have each area return you to the area you just came from, rather than shunting you off to the next area on the quest.

[stakkalee]

I'm definitely willing to pitch in in any way I can. I just finished the main campaign and I've been playing around a bit with the editor. I'm planning on digging in to it over the next week and see what I can learn. A Rhode Island/Cthulhu setting works for me, but how closely do you want to tie the story to Shadowrun lore? I feel like there needs to be a megacorp involved somehow.

[Hobbes]

I definitely want a megacorp involved, but I'm just not sure which one. Ares I guess would be the one with main control.

[Hobbes]

Okay, here's a thought. When Lovecrafthulhu begins running amok, Ares moves in to secure the creatures for research and possible weapons (they've "generously" endowed the Lovecraft School, so they feel they're owed any product of the School's studies--Lovecrafthulhu counts). In side quests, you can "help" other megacorps attempt to muscle in on Ares and do the same.

As one possible ending (if it's possible to set up branching storylines), Lovecrafthulhu "wins" and establishes himself as the head of the local Rhode Island subsidiary of Ares (in real life, Providence is the headquarters of GTECH, a gambling technology corporation, so it can be called something witty like "Ares Wealthinspiration").

[Ruiner of Explanations]

Ares and Aztechnology are always good "villain corps." You might also want to check out http://shadowrun.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Corporations - particularly any of the Biotechnology corporations. possibly Seretech, "a medical corporation."

We can always make up a small corp, too. Dunwich Bioengineering or something.

As far as hubs go, seeing as all we have right now is the Seattle tileset, things might look a little more generic than what you're envisioning, Hobbes. :) The persistent hubs with multiple side-quests is something that people are already working on, along with stuff like lootable corpses (not necessary, in my opinion) and runners that stick around for more than one job.

For the persistent hub, it would be something like the Union in Dead Man's Switch, I think, only outdoors. 'Interior' doors (acting like the piano in the Union) would lead to stores/bars/whatever. I want to finish Dead Man's Switch before I start poking around in the editor, but that bug-hunt with Harlequin is killing me. I only had 2 of the low-level medkits in my stash before I started, and the butler who can arrange for me to get new arms, legs, and subdermal armor can't get a first aid kit.

[stakkalee]

How about this - you're a shadowrunner sent in to Providence by a smaller AA corp as the shit is hitting the fan to work with a local mob-backed fixer to build a team and grab what you can from the university. The Providence area is relatively stable since Lonestar is already onsite securing the location, but the university area is a free-for-all, with possessed students, monsters, and other shadowrunner groups. There'll be a variety of corp-type sidequests where you hit a corp base and steal some of the tech or magic that they've already found, maybe some mafia sidequests as well, extortion and elimination and whatnot, and main story quests as you uncover more details about what's actually going on. At some point the Patriarch mob, who've seen their influence decrease since the Awakening, sees an opportunity to increase their power by siding with Lovecrafthulhu and turning on you. At that point you're stuck in the university and the (potential) branching storyline plays out where you beat 'em or join 'em.

On the editor front I'm a bit concerned that it seems to be artificially limited in the ability to create new weapons, spells, and cyberware. Supposedly some features will be available when the Berlin DLC drops, but for now I think we're pretty limited on the equipment front. It's a shame, because I'd really like to get some variety in with the various types of cybernetic improvements. We'll see what happens.

[stakkalee]

Alright, here's some more info on the editor. Between the 2 content packs, Seattle and Dead Man's Switch, there are ~8 different building styles, none of which match any of the architecture I've seen of the Kennedy Plaza (either City Hall, the Biltmore Hotel, or that odd little building in the center of the plaza.) If you want to see the building style options navigate to \Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Shadowrun Returns\Shadowrun_Data\StreamingAssets\ContentPacks\seattle\art\ and check the PikePlace and Barrens folders to get an idea. It is possible to create your own art assets but it'll need someone with Photoshop experience to do it. Do we want to see about creating new art assets for the project? The tutorial Hobbes linked on Friday includes instructions on how to do it (http://shadowrun-returns.wikispaces.com/Create+Prop+Guide).
Finally, I've confirmed that we won't have the ability to add new items, spells, etc. HB apparently left out that ability for reasons of 'Shadowrun lore'. Not sure how much I buy that excuse, but there you go.

[Hobbes]

The odd little building is a police precinct/bus ticket booth. It's definitely far from necessary. Kennedy Plaza is undergoing a lot of plans to change, so I don't think it needs to be preserved in full.

I'll also note that I don't particularly have high hopes for the state of historical preservation four to five decades into the future, so I'd say we have more than enough license to "demolish" buildings and replace them with the existing assets. If the Berlin content adds more old-timey buildings that work, we can always rebuild the art, so long as we preserve the existing trigger infrastructure. We can always have NPCs providing comments about how it was such a shame they demolished all the old buildings and put up these generic monstrosities.

We can reduce the number of Hubs down, possibly just to the Plaza--the corps can hang outside the Bank of America building and the chamber of commerce, the mob can be at the Federal Courthouse, the merchants can be in the Plaza central, etc. The character can enter the buildings as needed for missions, or take a bus to other parts of town. I think persistent hubs will be relatively easy. The Renraku milkrun in Dead Man's Switch suggests that it can be done, provided you don't move the main quest along.

[thedeadparrot]

I don't have any particular strong love of the Cthulu mythos, but A+ to anything that takes place in Providence. It sounds like you guys are already pretty familiar with it, or else I'd offer to wander around and take pictures of things for inspiration purposes.

[stakkalee]

Well, I was hoping to have a walkable version of Kennedy Plaza ready for today but that's not going to happen. I'll try and post some screenshots later, and I hope to have it completed by the end of the weekend, Monday at the latest. I'm still finding the editor weirdly limited - I hope you like your streets at 90 degree angles, because that's all you get. Does anyone know of a good site to use for shared storage? I'll upload the map once I have it stable.

Some basic notes on the map - I placed City Hall in the upper right corner of the map, and the central ticket seller location will be turned into an open air market. I'll also put a few ticket machines there for appearances. The limited building pieces are making it difficult to build a believable city hall and courthouse, and there's a surprising lack of greenspace in the assets library, so Burnside park is now overshadowed by development on the other side and the grass is all brittle and dying, which is why it'll be surrounded by security fence.

[Ruiner of Explanations]

I made a cheap hotel. Well, one floor at least. There aren't any coffin-style beds (hopefully Berlin will add those), a gross oversight on HBS' part. What's a cyberpunk game without cheap coffin hotels? It's still a work in progress - I haven't added any lights other than the 'camera region' light, which is a pale green. Thinking about some brighter lights coming from the wall fixtures and the overhead bulb near the stairwell. I've also only added some basic props beyond the beds - a couple of vending machines and the storage closet, laundry room, and bathroom.

http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/901003824333282448/E03EF003B4291F442781B8F063B95F9E87003E1F/

The editor isn't really difficult to use, but it's not very user-friendly. The tutorials at http://shadowrun-returns.wikispaces.com/Editor+Overview have helped, but there's not a lot of information there yet.

[Aurora_Boreanaz]

Nice work, Braff! I read someone else's comments on the Shadowrun Returns forums about having trouble setting up lighting, so it's not the easiest to do, but once you figure it out it should be okay.

[Ruiner of Explanations]

Thanks! Lighting has dropped a few steps on the priorities list right now - a bunch of the light-source items give off some light, and setting up a camera region (so you can't scroll forever into blackness or, more likely, a matrix map off to one side somewhere) also allows me to set up ambient lighting. The hotel is named the Hotel Coral Essex, continuing my tradition of stupid references. :)

I'm working on conversations, triggers, and variables right now - the editor is described on the wiki as "ugly but powerful," and that's really evident with this stuff. The front desk clerk is a rude disgusting ork lady who's annoyed by your very presence. There are a couple of conversation options (challenging and/or being rude to her) that increase the "josieRep" variable. When it hits a certain level ("equal to or greater than 3"), it unlocks a "bonus" conversation option as well as opening up the stairs to the top floor. There are only 3 options right now that boost josieRep, and one that subtracts a point, so it's possible to lock yourself out if you just click every dialogue option that's available (*evil grin*). Since it's just a test-project right now, I'm going to put a dwarf up there with a computer and some loot (this will be how I figure out loot, vendors, and possibly the Matrix).

[stakkalee]

You can download the barebones Kennedy Plaza from this link - http://www.saysomethingloudly.net/ShadowrunGS/ShadowrunProvidenceGS.zip (username: anongs, password: jonnyboy123). Next I'll work on filling in the map with more clutter and accessories and on the inside rooms for the various buildings. And I may have spoken too soon - it looks like we will be able to add custom items. I bet by the time we need them there'll be a tutorial and maybe even a tool to help the process on the wikispaces site.