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[898]

When the discussion around pre-set/defined character classes was brought up I sent a question about it to the team.

Our goal is make a game that plays best on the devices we are creating it for. We will use the system(s) that best match that. Since Shadowrun has no character classes, we would prefer to mimic the systems that worked best in the RPG.

Not the most direct answer but it does put me at ease.

 

[Dice]

Still at 40-50k a day. This is good.

 

[Unicorn]

When the discussion around pre-set/defined character classes was brought up I sent a question about it to the team.



Not the most direct answer but it does put me at ease.

I'm kind of confused. what does "no character classes" mean? Elder Scrolls style?

 

[HP_Wuvcraft]

I'm kind of confused. what does "no character classes" mean? Elder Scrolls style?

The pen and paper system.

Yes, there are character classes in Shadowrun and every PnP, but there are no set skills or experience levels.

(And I take it Skyrim is your first Elder Scrolls)

 

[StoppedInTracks]

How did I miss this kickstarter? It's one of the less known ones!

I really, really, really hope they reach $1M.

 

[Aselith]

How did I miss this kickstarter? It's one of the less known ones!

I really, really, really hope they reach $1M.

They'll reach 1 million by the end of this week with ease.

 

[Dr. Kitty Muffins]

I believe some of the books are already on Kindle with more coming in the future.

I may very well switch to a Kindle from a Nook Color then. I curently have some Shadowrun ebooks but I bought them from some no-name site. I just want them tied to a more stable service. I'm willing to repurchase them to do this.

 

[Son1x]

Chipped in 15$ as I said I would.

Now the wait beigns

 

[Lonewolf_92]

I'm kind of confused. what does "no character classes" mean? Elder Scrolls style?

Wuvcraft is only partly correct, there are no set skills or experience levels, but there is no classes (at least as you would find in many other RPGs) either. You improve your character by spending Karma between adventures (there are two types of Karma, "Good Karma" is used to increase skills and attributes and is sort of a fiat "experience", and "Karma Pool" which is used as temporary improvement to rolls such as skill checks).

Yeah, it's sort of like Elder Scrolls in style. The PnP game allows you to create any character you want (although there are limitations that help balance out characters, installing Cyberware lowers a characters Essence stat, which is required by magic users for their magic for example), and it also had Archetypes that you could choose from if you didn't want to take the time to fine tune a custom character (such as the Street Samurai, who is a heavily cybered up mercenary, "Street Samurai" being in-universe slang for that type of guy), again sort of like the "classes" you can chose from in the Elder Scrolls games.
You start out when creating a custom character with the Priority System, you apply A, B, C, D, and E to each of Race, Magic, Attributes, Skills, and Resources. Putting A or B in Magic gives you a Full Magician (for A) or an Adept (for B). Putting C, D, or E in Race gives you a Human (E), Orc or Dwarf (D), or Elf or Troll (C). What you assign to the last three determines how many points you have to apply to Attributes and Skills and how much Nuyen (money in Shadowrun) you have to spend on gear and such. It's not that hard to create a character in Shadowrun (the difficulty comes from the metric ton of dice you can end up rolling during the actual game). Hope that cleared things up a bit.

 

[painey]

In for $15. Why not? We need more X Com like games

 

[XTERC]

I don't really get the Linux thing. I've used Linux in the past, I like it sure, but all of the graphics card drivers etc. are primarily built for Windows, Linux seems more of an afterthought. Linux is more of a hobby / server OS I don't see the point in developing a game for Linux when the money could be better spent improving the game. Surely if you are into gaming you have a Windows machine.

Valve has mentioned that they are having problems developing for Linux, it seems like a distraction more than anything. Surely if you use Linux as your primary OS and you are into gaming, you at least have a dual boot option. Please let me know if I'm off base, I just don't get it.

 

[Mikey Jr.]

This Linux thing sounds like a massive waste of money that could instead have been put into the game.

No offense to Linux people.

 

[Ignis Fatuus]

This Linux thing sounds like a massive waste of money that could instead have been put into the game.

No offense to Linux people.

You know, I think this might be worth a topic. Just hashing it out and debating whether or not it's fair to dedicate a significant portion of crowdsourced funding to cater to a small niche of unknown quantity.

 

[Xater]

This Linux thing sounds like a massive waste of money that could instead have been put into the game.

No offense to Linux people.

I don't even use Linux and I am totally fine with it. Multiplatform for these games is why I am also supporting it.

 

[Rygar 8 Bit]

just depends on how much of the resources theyll use to port it over

 

[Duke Togo]

My understanding is that they will contract another developer to port it to linux.

I just pledged $15...it's all I can manage atm, but I'm pretty pumped to see how this plays out.

 

[DiscoJer]

I actually dropped my pledge from $60 to $15 because of them using money to hire a company to do the Linux port. That money could have been used to make the game I play better.

Though to be fair, some of it was also because I have some qualms about the finished product. It's probably going to end up looking more like a Mobile title than a PC game, since they are using the Moai development thing (which as near as I can tell, only runs on the PC as a plugin for Chrone?).

At least Wasteland is being designed as a PC game first and foremost. The nature of this is that it's going to be a mobile product first, then PC game after.

Moai SDK is a minimalist, open-source game framework optimized for smooth performance in native apps on Android, iOS and Chrome (via NaCl). It provides 2D and isometric rendering and animation, physics, text handling, particle systems, and more from Lua script or C++. Scripting Moai in Lua is a fast way to build and tune games, and gives you a single code base across multiple device platforms and app stores.

 

[Victrix]

I don't even use Linux and I am totally fine with it. Multiplatform for these games is why I am also supporting it.

Would you rather they spend time and money on porting the game to a platform that 0.1% of the audience will use? 1%? 5%? 10%?

How many Linux only users are there that don't also have access to a windows or mac box?

 

[Ignis Fatuus]

The debate seems to be getting spicy. I'm going to make a thread.

 

[Almighty]

You know, I think this might be worth a topic. Just hashing it out and debating whether or not it's fair to dedicate a significant portion of crowdsourced funding to cater to a small niche of unknown quantity.

Will it be a significant portion though?

I am thinking the costs might be overestimated here. It not like they are porting say from the Xbox 360 to the PlayStation 3 here. Where they will have to rewrite the code for completely different architecture. What little I know on this subject (based mostly on some indies talking about it in their forums years ago) is that the biggest hurdle porting from Windows to Linux is usually having to switch from DirectX to OpenGL. With a Mac version already planned the heavy lifting in that area is already being done and that's if they use DirectX at all.

Though as I said my knowledge on this is limited and my info is years old. So things might of changed. So if anyone has any recent hard info on the cost and work porting to Linux please share.

 

[NullPointer]

To be fair, a lot of current Linux-heads probably got interested in tech by way of Cyberpunk/Shadowrun.

I know I did, and I'll be ready on the day of the Great Ghost Dance.

 

[Ignis Fatuus]

And now we've got a thread for this, let's hash it out folks!

 

[golem]

Though to be fair, some of it was also because I have some qualms about the finished product. It's probably going to end up looking more like a Mobile title than a PC game, since they are using the Moai development thing (which as near as I can tell, only runs on the PC as a plugin for Chrone?).

At least Wasteland is being designed as a PC game first and foremost. The nature of this is that it's going to be a mobile product first, then PC game after.

Moai has native PC support. No need for a Chrome wrapper

 

[ZoddGutts]

Not sure what's the problem. A different team will be doing the programming for the Linux version. Also the kickstarter will far surpass the 1 million mark easily.

 

[charlequin]

A Linux port is practically free once you're targeting OSX. That's the full reason all these projects (and all the Humble Bundle stuff before them) put out Linux versions. Getting all bent out of shape about it is wicked goofy.

 

[Ignis Fatuus]

A Linux port is practically free once you're targeting OSX. That's the full reason all these projects (and all the Humble Bundle stuff before them) put out Linux versions.

If it costs them that little to outsource the work then I see no problem with it. I'm kinda assuming that they wouldn't add it if they didn't think it made financial sense. How much are we talking anyway? $5000? $10000?

 

[Minsc]

I actually dropped my pledge from $60 to $15 because of them using money to hire a company to do the Linux port. That money could have been used to make the game I play better.

What do you do when it inevitably passes the Linux total and they make a new goal that interests you? Do you keep your pledge at $15 to spite them, even though it's irrelevant since the Linux port is happening anyway, or do you raise it back to $60 in hopes to get the new thing you want in the game?

 

[Dr. Kitty Muffins]

Almost 900,000 ...

 

[Lonewolf_92]

20,982 Backers
$901,376 pledged of $400,000 goal
15 days to go

 

[Figboy79]

I finally donated to this one. I could only do $30, but it's the first Kickstarter I've ever supported.

I'm really excited about it, as I frigging loved the Sega Genesis Shadowrun, despite it being hard as shit. Looking forward to more updates from the team.

 

[Maximilian E.]

Pledged 30 bucks... most likely the only Kickstarter project I will support..

(unless other Cyberpunk-games are kickstarted

 

[Reluctant-Hero]

Threw down $15. Beside the subpar FPS, my only knowledge of Shadowrun is the amazing SNES version. Loved that game. Looking forward to this proper RPG.

 

[Vyse The Legend]

They added a physical version of the game, finally.

Today, we’re announcing a new reward level for our Kickstarter. At the brand new $125 level, you’ll get a Shadowrun Returns Deluxe Box Edition including the game disc, soundtrack disc, a mini-poster, and—check this—a Shadowrun Returns USB Dog Tag set, containing DRM-free versions of the game (PC/Mac/Linux) and soundtrack (and maybe one or two other surprises, too).

They also posted a never-before-released Shadowrun premier to serve as a guide to the universe for newcomers.

 

[Dog Problems]

They added a physical version of the game, finally.



They also posted a Shadowrun premier to serve as a guide to the universe for newcomers.

And I finally put in my pledge, awesome. I was going to pledge, anyway, but this made me do it right away.

 

[scy]

Damn it, $125?

Ugh...will I or won't I...

 

[MightyHedgehog]

Well, that got me to bump my pledge up to $125 from $100...just for the USB thing.

 

[Lonewolf_92]

They added a physical version of the game, finally.



They also posted a never-before-released Shadowrun premier to serve as a guide to the universe for newcomers.

That almost makes me want to bump up my pledge (I've pledged $100 already, so it would be an increase of $25). Only thing stopping me is I've already overspent. :/

 

[Vyse The Legend]

Well, that got me to bump my pledge up to $125 from $100...just for the USB thing.

I bumped from $30 to $125. Yeah... I'm hyped.

 

[mclem]

That's tempting, that's *awfully* tempting.

I need a little time to think.

 

[Dice]

I need a little time to think.

You have 15 days.

Spoiler

You'll do it.

 

[Vyse The Legend]

There's definitely been a major boost to the funding rate, thanks to the new reward tier. It'll hit a million very soon.

Don't tell Brian Fargo, but...

Spoiler

I lowered my Wasteland 2 pledge from $50 to $15. While I'd love the boxed version of Wasteland, I just love the Shadowrun universe more.

 

[xxjuicesxx]

Bumping 100 to 125 then.! Jeez. I'm worried how high they will get me.

 

[Kusagari]

Kickstarters are going to make me bankrupt. I just upgraded my Banner Saga to $50. Ughh, I'll have to think about the $125.

 

[Dr. Kitty Muffins]

Something I never got to explore in the games: The rise of the south. The South has its own nation (CAS, I think) and I think it would be fun to at least see a CAS faction running about Seattle trying to protect their interests in some way.

 

[Kabuki Quantum Lover]

There's definitely been a major boost to the funding rate, thanks to the new reward tier. It'll hit a million very soon.

Don't tell Brian Fargo, but...

Spoiler

I lowered my Wasteland 2 pledge from $50 to $15. While I'd love the boxed version of Wasteland, I just love the Shadowrun universe more.

Billy will find you and kill you.

 

[Iadien]

They also posted a never-before-released Shadowrun premier to serve as a guide to the universe for newcomers.

Wow, the primer is very well done. Love it.

 

[ZoddGutts]

50k left for it to reach 1mil. It's still going at a good steady pace.

 

[Dice]

Now I'm wondering what they'll have in mind for going past 1 million. I mean, even adding new staff, it has to be supervised and remain cohesive, which takes work. There is only so much you can add before you start extending the release date too far. I think this is why they suddenly announced a nice physical copy being possible.

 

[B_Rik_Schitthaus]

Now I'm wondering what they'll have in mind for going past 1 million. I mean, even adding new staff, it has to be supervised and remain cohesive, which takes work. There is only so much you can add before you start extending the release date too far. I think this is why they suddenly announced a nice physical copy being possible.

I know no one will agree, but I wouldn't mind if they planed to use some of the extra money on FREE DLC for a couple of months after release.

 

[Unicorn]

The pen and paper system.

Yes, there are character classes in Shadowrun and every PnP, but there are no set skills or experience levels.

(And I take it Skyrim is your first Elder Scrolls)

Nah, Morrowind was my first, but I always did "custom class"


Thanks LoneWolf, that clears it up. Sounds like a really cool system.