Friday, June 21, 2019

I will be writing a new mega campaign for Shadowrun Hong Kong







Its gonna be big, massive, kinda like realms for D&D. But for shadowrun.

I also intend to finish in in a year While still writing campaigns for ROE2 and BREACH 2-3.

Its a mega campaign with several story arcs following at least two people.

It will be based on the storylines of the SNES, SEGA GENESIS AND SEGA CD VERSIONS OF SHADOWRUN. (THE ONES INVOLVING JAKE ARTIMAGE, JOSHUA, MAO AND D-HEAD ETC.) A little bit of Dead man's switch and As well as a bit of other cyberpunk sci-fi fantasy stories. IE: Johnny Mneumonic, Neuromancer, AD&D Treasure of Cloudy Mountain, As well as I think one or two Bernard Cornwell books.

Anyway, It'll be long and probably span multiple campaigns.

It will also be based in several areas of Japan and Most of the United States. SEATTLE OF COURSE IS ONE

Then there's a fictitious city state off the coast of Japan that has trolls and Orcs (Japan expelled its orc and Troll population after the magic returned I think) and I think Oakland California

In addition I am looking for several other cities in the US. Not sure which ones. If you know of a small town or city that no one knows about that you'd like included PLEASE LET ME KNOW.

All I know is one of the major centers for the storyline will be BERLIN NEW HAMPSHIRE In the United States. Oh! And Duluth Minnesota and Harpers Ferry West Virginia!!

Leave a comment if you want your town mentioned. I'm only taking small towns no one has heard of.

31 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think that Its been done already for Dragonfall. SHADOWRUN UNLMITED

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=317704781

Its basically a sandbox campaign based I think mostly on the sega mastersystem version of the game. Replayable missions, the taxi, fixers, ETC.

Good luck. I'd like to see your campaign

Anonymous said...

You should write it for Dragonfall instead. You can port the oriental props and stuff there. The problem with HK is the matrix battles. They're not as good as Dragon fall or Returns.

Anonymous said...

WHAT'S WRONG WITH HONG KONG? SOMEONE TELL ME?

I've played all three and I think HK is the best of all three? WHATS THE MATTER EXACTLY? CAN SOMEONE TELL ME?

Anonymous said...

Write it for Dragonfall! Trust me! Its better!

Anonymous said...

Hong Kong is best of them!!

Played all three shadow run games!! I like Dragonfall but Hong Kong is the BEST!!

Pros
+More Shadowrun
+Well written story and characters that you care about.
+More endings.
+New cyber!!!
+Upgraded UI
+YOU CAN MANAGE YOUR PARTY ITEMS!
+Even MORE text heavy.
+You get to meet secondary runners you can hire as well.
+More decisions and different approaches to different missions.
+You don't get to cut a deal with a dragon. (Or do we?)
+User Generated Content (UGC).
+Gobbet is cute. The ugly cute way.
+You get an achivement!

Cons:
-Some bugs are still in the game.
-Some stats can be useless in this particular game. (Rip biotech)
-Needs a "Very hard" difficulty option.
-Gobbet promised me soup and i didn't get to eat soup.

I would give this game a fair 9/10
If you like Shadowrun series make it a 10.

For those who want even more hours into this masterpiece, theres a custom user campaign called "The Caldecott Caper" which is AMAZING. Check it out.

With the new Extended Edition theres a bonus campaign in which you get to continue the story its very fun. Its shorter than the original campaign but very packed with content and theres mechanics that were never used before that make it feel unique.

You can't go wrong!!

I WISH YOU LUCK BUDDY! I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE YOUR CAMPAIGN!!

Anonymous said...

Not saying HK is bad but...

I got issues... I mean Hong Kong is exaggerated.

- The biggest issue with the game is what they've done with the Matrix. It's now a real-time activity and the "hacking" inside it depends on your ability instead of your character's ability. Intellectually, I can understand why Harebrained changed the Matrix. But, practically, I detest it. This is a turn-based game. Regardless of how much they want to differentiate the Matrix from the game's normal world, there's no place in a turn-based game for real-time play. I just don't want to play that way at all. Ditto for the hacking portion of it. I spend time upgrading my character, yet the hacking depends on ME, the player (and I'm no good at it :) ).

- The next biggest problem is the loading times. My system's a pretty good one with no mechanical hard drives (just SSDs). Yet, at the start of the game, my loading times were about 30 seconds. By the end of the game, initial loads were taking about a minute. But, loading saved games from within the game were taking a bit over 3 minutes. That's unacceptable. Especially for an RPG where you want to explore different ways of doing things and different conversation paths.

- Then there are the bugs. There are a lot of bugs in the game. I didn't run across any game-stopping ones. But, I ran across many irritations. Probably the biggest of those is where inventory items you give to your companions just disappear after a run. They're supposed to go back into the Stash. But, they don't.

- Along with the bugs, I've got issues with some of the design choices the developers made. From items needed for Achievements that are only available at one location which becomes inaccessible once you finish the mission, to characters who appear to have a story but then just disappear, to the overwhelming amount of conversation you have to go through (2-to-1 ratio of conversation time to mission time).

- And, finally, either I've become much better at this kind of game or this game is too easy. To me, it feels like none of the missions (including the ending one) approached the complexity, depth, and difficulty of any of the missions in "Shadowrun: Dragonfall." Heck, I'm pretty sure the very first mission in Dragonfall was harder than anything in this game.

Those last two problem areas on my list are pretty minor. I probably could have lived with the game even with the changes in the Matrix. But, the irritation of those loading times at the end of the game when I was going back to try different endings and paths for the Achievements just pushed me over the edge.

But you go ahead do what you want. Just don't make it as wonky as the built in campaign!

Anonymous said...

I disagree!! HK was awesome! Better than Dragonfall!! There are problems yes but they don't have any game killing bugs and crashes like Dragonfall, the beginning isn't hard like the beginning of the Dragonfall campaign, the Campagin is AWESOME!! But too much dialog yeah. BUT ITS COOL! ESPECIALLY THE EXTENDED VERSION IN THE BONUS EXTENDED EDITION!!

Basically! Its not as how do I say dumpy in some ways as the other versions, it might seem gritty but there are diverse scenes and locations, its very beautiful, they got all kinds of new perks not in DF and um...

Well I guess the only really big problem is the matrix part.

Yes you still need decking ability but now its in Real time and I think adding the mini game to it was really cool!

I mean I don't think its a real big problem! I don't know what the big deal is!

ITS SOLID AS A ROCK!!

This is awesome!

Anonymous said...

HEY ROLLAND!!

Listen man! Don't listen to these nay sayers who hate on Shadowrun Hong Kong! THIS IS A GREAT IDEA! YOU MIGHT ACTUALLY SAVE THE SERIES AND REVIVE INTEREST!!

DRAGON FALL IS NOTHING BUT DREK!!

It is nothing but game killing bugs!!

HK doesn't have that. ALL YOU GOTTA DO IS MAKE SURE IT'S UPDATED!!

As for the matrix, WHO CARES!! So WHAT IF ITS IN REAL TIME! SO WHAT IF THERE'S A MEMORY MINI GAME! BIG WHOOP!!

THE BIG PROBLEM EVERYONE IS HAVING IS THIS...

Its Not Shadowrun for the SNES OR SEGA GENESIS!! THATS THE PROBLEM EVERYONE HAS WITH THIS GAME!!

I miss the old days too but Time to move on!

One reason HK is better than Dragonfall is because unlike the others its designed exclusively for PC not for consoles.

That means bigger campaigns, more stuff better design and did I mention longer campaigns and more stuff?

So yeah! Go for it Rolland!

Anonymous said...

Yeah, too many problems in Dragonfall left over from Shadowrun Returns. AND the patches aren't up to par neither.

The only problem I have is that they changed the matrix and the way it works.

Its not bad but its not the same.

The real problem is that everyone misses Shadowrun for the SNES and Sega and THIS AINT IT!

Also some people prefer real time combat they had rather than Turn based like X-com.

So don't listen to them.

In fact if this goes alright, I think you'll make the naysayers rue the day! Hong Kong will be essential for Shadowrun fans!

Anonymous said...

Listen Rolland, you should use whatever makes you happy and comfortable. If you are not happy with HK instead of DF and try and make a campaign with it, you'll lose out big time and the campaign will suck.

Do what you feel like.

That said I will say this... Shadowrun Hong Kong IS superior to all the other two Shadowruns.

AND ITS BETTER THAN THE SNES AND SEGA GENESIS VERSIONS AS WELL!!

The later two were okay, but its time to move on guys!!


The real problems with HK is not the game itself but the built in story its based on! The main campaign. INCLUDING THE EXTENDED BONUS!!

So hear this out and read ahead Rolland! It'll help you with the campaign you want to write!

First problem and foremost problem: The campaign has far too much dialogue! Its like an interactive novel than a strategy game! Too many words, too few actions! I think only one third of the campaign was actually about actions!

Two: The designers set the campaign up in a bad way that you can lose items to hired shadowrunners that don't get stashed first (HINT! HINT!! STASH YOUR ITEMS!!)

THREE: Getting achievements in Steam is hard because the item you need usually aren't there and the locations aren't always available. It usually takes too many playthroughs to get the achievments!

FOUR: Some people thought it wasn't difficult enough requiring a VERY HARD setting (HINT! HINT!) for combat and stuff

FIVE: WIth all the new changes in the matrix and how it works, the campaign designers didn't accomodate the changes well enough in the campaign! (HINT! HINT!)

Six: There was too little in one place and too much in the other places

SEVEN: And this is where people new to Shadowrun tend to EFF IT UP!! Some missions and segments in the storyline require you to have mastered a certain ettiquete and a certain class to be able to come out easily. Not that its neccesary to finish the game but not having the right stats, the right ability and right masters can be a big big big problem!!

Also, Don't think being a jack of all trades is gonna help you either! REMEMBER! A JACK OF ALL TRADES IS A MASTER OF NONE! You'd better have mastered at least a couple of things like magic or Combat with certain guns to get through easily!

Eight: Did I mention too much diaglogue and Too much Sh** that I have to remember to move through the game smoothly and get all the endings??

But yeah, That's the problem. Thats all. Its the campaign it comes with not the game! Hey! Remember that you'll do fine! You're campaign should be awesome!!

Anonymous said...

First of all, Shadowrun Unlimited isn't necessarily a mega-campaign like Realms for FRUA or what Rolland I hope is planning.

Second, Just make sure you have the right patches, the right mods and props put in.

Also, many people just miss the SNES and Sega Genesis version.

The only thing I woould say Rolland is be careful with using props in Steam workship and some areas. They might not be compatible with some other areas as others. SO be careful with that.

Also, there's a patched up patch that you should get on Steam workshop. If you don't have steam you can get it in a few other areas I think.

And... Also... You should Do what you think makes you happy. If you're happier doing this mega campaign on HK instead of DF by all means go HK!! But if early in the game you decide, THIS SUCKS! I WANNA DO THIS ON DF INSTEAD! DO IT!!

No one will hold it against you! We just want a campaign that everyone will remember to the end of time! An Epic! Better than Realms for FRUA, better than anything!

Anonymous said...

Hong kong? GREAT! Its better than DF! Some may not agree but people will play it if you make it! Trust me!

By the way, you wanted city names? Here's my suggestion. How about something like in Earthbound with cities and towns with number like names. Check this out!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_places_with_numeric_names#3

IE: Oneida NY, Towson MD (OR Tucson AZ Or Tucson OH) Three rivers Michigan Sichuoan China, Big Four WV Quad city(Davenport, Bettendorf IA Moline, Rock Island IL, ) Cinco Ranch TX, Five Forks WV, There's a town called Six West Virginia, Sixes Georgia, ETC.

You said that Harpers Ferry WV would be a setting, Maybe you could include a few Other places!?

Anonymous said...

Shadowrun Hong Kong is worse than DF and SR.


First of all, the editor is not compatible with a lot of props the way DF is, also, music is repetitive and crappy.

The Matrix is totally whacked out and so are a lot of things.

To get a good idea of how bad it is, play Vox Populi Deadman's switch for DF and HK. You'll see for yourself! Its better on DF than HK!

Also to top it off, the editor for HK sucks, a lot of prop sets aren't compatible with HK, you'll be floundering around. Stick with DF.

Anonymous said...

BTW, can you have your campaign set in these towns?

Rutland VT
Bratleboro NH
Framingham Massachusetts.

Anonymous said...

Before you start making your campaign, I highly recommend you watch tutorials on youtube.


You should know a lot of things. For example, you need camera objects, you need to set up your editor to load the core files first, you also need to be careful which sets you upload from STEAM WORKSHOP or wherever else you get them from.

This is important. If you start editor without the core files loaded first, it'll crash.

Also, the tutorials have lots of hints.

Aside from that, do what you want. If you're comfortable with HK, do it. DF? DO it.

I'm looking forward to the mega campaign.

Anonymous said...

The only problem with HK is this... The music is too repetitive.

Plus, the game Does still have bugs. While it wont kill the game, it wont make it enjoyable.

Furthermore, Different Shadowrun campaigns are good on different versions. That's something else to consider.

Anonymous said...

MYTH ABOUT HK

Decker and Biotech stats no longer matter.

They do just not as much. Usually Biotech and Decker are for story dialogue and you need decker to successfully use programs in the matrix and attack IC.

Biotech is needed to regenerate hp from medikits. While not neccesary it CAN help.

In HK medikits are more effective so you don't neet to have Biomedic at high levels to heal. That being said however it still helps in higher levels. Plus Its necessary for certain story key points in a campaign IE: Examining bodies for cause of death, healing NPCs and Decking is still important for breaking into computers and hacking door locks.

Another MYTH, music. While its true you can't neccesarily change it there are work arounds. Just be careful because lots of them were normally meant for Dragon Fall than HK. This is what Shadowrun WIKI SEZ:

There is no built-in capability to use custom music in the Shadowrun editors, so if you really need to have custom tracks and are willing to put some extra effort in it, there are some workarounds, and you'll also have to instruct people subscribing to / downloading your UGC that they'll have to do something extra to make your custom soundtrack work as intended.

First, you should be aware that you can only replace tracks, not add or remove tracks. For instance, SRHK must have 47 tracks, while DFDC must have 61 tracks total. Your custom tracks must be in ogg (128kbps) format.

Second, the resources.assets.resS and resources.assets files in the Data folders will be modified, so everyone should backup these files before replacing them by the new, modified resources.assets.resS and resources.assets to be supplied by you. Cirion's "CalFree in Chains" SRHK Shadowrun Music Replacer executable does that in a reasonably foolproof manner by having a "Replace" and a "Restore" button. Here's the code for Windows and Mac

Third (but not so important for the end user of your UGC), the internal names of the tracks must remain the same, so your SRHK "Legwork-Museum" track name (as it is referred in the Editor) must stay the same even though you might have replaced it with some ogg track that has nothing to do with "legwork" or "museum" anymore. So, get a notebook and write down which track of yours is the "Legwork-Museum", i.e. "My Exciting Combat Music #2 -- Legwork-Museum".

Finally, be aware of copyright, fair use and legal stuff if you're releasing UGC with third-party music!!!

A Soundtrack Manager was built for Dragonfall DC by FilthyJack and is available at NexusMods, so it should save you the hardcoding work, but you'll still need to have a replace and backup solution for people subscribing to your UGC campaign.

The original research into soundtrack replacement was made by Zetor, and, if you're going to fiddle around the soundtrack of SR Returns or SRHK you should read it very attentively

So keep that in mind. But hey! What I do in all video games I play is just play tunes on Windows player or something else.

Anonymous said...

OH! CHECK THIS OUT!

There are a few potential issues to be aware of while working with music. All of the following have been observed with Shadowrun Hong Kong, some may apply to earlier versions as well.

If a camera region's music field is set to "None", the current music will continue playing. You can use this to maintain the same default music across multiple regions, or to continue playing default music even after combat starts.

Music may cut out entirely if you start playing inside a conversation and stop playing in a standard trigger. Try to balance your start and stop so they both take place in the same conversation or both happen outside of conversation.

If triggered music is currently playing, it will not transition to a new track even if you switch camera regions or enter combat.

If you start and stop music via a trigger, the default music will resume playing, but the engine will no longer automatically transition to combat music.

Again, I just play a seperate track that I downloaded from elsewhere! I don't play the built in music for any games anyway. modarchive.org is a good place to start.

Anonymous said...

Don't worry about the music. Just make the damn thing Rolland. Make it long, make it good! Make it challanging! (JUST DOn'T GO OVERBOARD) Well all be happy!

Anonymous said...

Say I got a question. How much can be loaded in a shadowrun Campaign? I mean... Is there a limit to how many rooms, props, NPCs what not? I think Rolland Needs to know this before he goes overboard and makes a campaing that's too big or something.

I'd like to get involved in writing campaigns myself!

Anonymous said...

It will be based on the storylines of the SNES, SEGA GENESIS AND SEGA CD VERSIONS OF SHADOWRUN. (THE ONES INVOLVING JAKE ARTIMAGE, JOSHUA, MAO AND D-HEAD ETC.) A little bit of Dead man's switch and As well as a bit of other cyberpunk sci-fi fantasy stories.

WHAT DO YOU MEAN???

You mean you're gonna have Jake Artimage and Joshua together and fight Drake and That big Anubis guy Or you mean its gonna be similar?

And what about Dead man's switch? I'm sick of that.

Anonymous said...

To answer the question how big they can be, Well... Big enough I'd say. There's an indicator on the right of the editor on how much memory is used.

As long as your computer wasn't as old as the beginning of the decade or before and as long as you use the tutorials and digest what they say, you can make them big.

My advice to this guy writing the big campaign, don't worry about big scenes, don't worry about big packs. If its a mega campaign, just put it down in proper amounts monitor memory usage on the green bar to the right of the editor and use ctr c to copy props and walls to save memory.

Scenes don't have to be that large, KEEP IN MIND HINT! HINT! the memory bar is for the scene not the pack!

If you need for space, have more scenes or another thing is to use the same map for different scenes like in Shadowrun Deadman's switch! The bar the seamstress union is the same map broken into different scenes! ITS A DIFFERENT SCENE AS THE GAME PROGRESSES!!

One last thing, Shadowrun returns editor is easier to learn than HK. So practice first with SR before going on to DF or HK!

Anonymous said...

Say I got a question. How much can be loaded in a shadowrun Campaign?

ANSWER: ALMOST MORE THAN THE HARD DRIVE!

Let me put it to you this way. The main campaign for Hong Kong.

THE CONTENT PACK ALONE IS 1.8 GIGABYTES! NOT MEGABYTES AS IN MB BUT GIGS! GB!!

Forget making it in Chunks! Go crazy! As big as you want it Rolland!

Anonymous said...

BE CAREFUL ROLLAND! NOT EVERYONE CAN HANDLE A CAMPAIGN THAT LARGE! I mean As large as 50 Gigs!

Anonymous said...

I mean I got an old computer. I can handle close to 10 gigs of content pack but anything bigger? Just sayin.

Anonymous said...

Relax! Just make it in chunks! You'll go far!

Anonymous said...

The edtor works fine in Dragonfall.

HK is a dud!

Also, I think you should know, Shadowrun for GOG and Steam is NOT NOT NOT COMPATIBLE!!

I tried. It got all my file content folders mixed up!!

Messed up cloud I think.

Be careful!

You should do it in DF. Its better. Trust me.

But do what makes you happy.

Anonymous said...

SOMEONE BEAT YOU TO THE PUNCH ROLLAND!!

https://www.reddit.com/r/Shadowrun/comments/8959up/the_longest_shadowrun_campaign_ever/

Its on Hongkong! STILL GOING ON! STILL BEING BUILT!!

WHEW!

Anonymous said...

The problems with the level editors

HK

Extremely limited selection of music.

Broken 3d models

Less info and data for making content

Dragon Fall Directors cut

Missing some of the latest features from Hong Kong.

Not much missing though. Top it off HK is buggy!

You should work with DF.

Anonymous said...

SR is fine. Its good for learning. It may not have EVERYTHING YOU WANT But its a good start. Try experiementing with it first.

Anonymous said...

I learned how to use the editor by just opening Deadman's switch and looking at how THAT worked.

Ditto for the Dragonfall Extended campaign and HK. I learned how to use HK and the differences as well.

Play through them using different classes too! Deckers, Mages, Shamans and Drone Riggers ETC have different ways of viewing the world like security cameras, automated cannons and so on. gives you a good way of learning