the blog
Downloads. Notice that link in the above screenshot of the menu?
So Shadowrun will support downloadable content. Just what will that content be? New maps? Or dare I say, a new race? Many people are left wondering by the Ork race was omitted from Shadowrun. Perhaps this race will appear later down the road as downloadable content?
What do you guess the content will be? Just gamerpics and themes?
Tags: content, downloads, ork, xbox live marketplaceKimona chimed in on the official Shadowrun forums to explain why non-US residents won’t be able to play in the Shadowrun beta. Along the way she stated that there won’t be a second patch to the Shadowrun beta. She also revealed that Shadowrun will have a demo localized for each player. Sorry non-US testers. I guess you’ll have to wait for the demo. But that isn’t too far way is it?
Tags: beta, localization, patchSome folks have been asking if the beta is open to non-US users. I can now give you the short answer: no. Here’s the long answer. Please scan it before pulling out the flamethrower.
Why didn’t we just say so? We had planned to let international players into the beta when we opened the application process. We ended up not being able to do it at launch, but hoped to do it with a patch. Then we weren’t able to do it with a patch, but held off on announcing it till we were certain we couldn’t do it with a second patch. Well, we know now that we won’t be doing a second patch, so we can give you a definite no.
Why can’t we just send out invite codes to people in other countries? Because it won’t work. The beta has to be “signed” for each territory in which we offer it, and it has to be propped up on each territory’s Live Marketplace. This means legal review for each territory, some extra dev work, and extra time in Certification. We weren’t able to do this work. As some of you have seen, if you try to download the beta using a non-US Live Gold membership, you just get an error code.
So if I have a US Live Gold membership, I can get in, no matter where I live? No. We choose folks at random. We assume if you don’t live in the US, you don’t have a US Live Gold membership, and the code won’t work for you. So when we generate a new batch of invitees, we filter out non-US applicants. If you’re one of the few non-US folks we’ve mistakenly sent an invite to, my apologies; hopefully this has explained why your code doesn’t work. And again apologies, but we do not have time to do anything but completely random selection. Fall’s our community manager AND our chief gameplay analysis tester. Respect the Fall.
Why didn’t we put the extra work in to get this done? Time. As most of you know, we had a mad rush to get our beta out because we got knocked into the Stone Age for a week by a windstorm in December, and we were pretty late with our patch because of unexpected voice issues that appeared in Cert (three times). Our Dev and Test teams have been working seven day weeks for about six months now, with mostly 12-16 hour days. Much as we wanted to include everyone, this was just not time we could afford. The beta is for finding and addressing bugs, and the US-only beta has been exceptionally useful in achieving these goals.
Aren’t we interested in testing our networking across large geographic distances? Yes and no. The US-only test has pretty much achieved our network testing goals. While it would have been interesting to see more international connections, it’s not particularly useful in the beta. That’s because the beta’s relatively small. Small # of players + time differences = decent number of games up at 5pm in Seattle, but hardly anybody to play with at 5pm in London. When the game’s released, matchmaking will favor good connectivity, so there shouldn’t be a whole lot of transcontinental matches happening at random.
So does this mean you don’t care about non-US players? If that were true, there wouldn’t be an small army of people in Europe and Asia now rushing to make umpteen different Shadowrun localizations. Mitch, Todd, Stephen and I wouldn’t have taken a week out of our schedules to do the Shadowrun European tour earlier this month. And we wouldn’t be doing localized versions of the demo.
Oh. Did I just say we were doing localized versions of the demo?
I guess I did.
We’re on the final lap, folks. Stay tuned. Come the demo, everyone gets a shot at grenading Fall and making me flee screaming. And you don’t have to do it in English.
-Kimona
Lead Program Manager, FASA Studio
A few beta write-ups trickled in this morning.
Of note:
So, a few terms, dates, and numbers are a little off tilt. However, you should still be able to get an honest review of Shadowrun in its beta state for better or worse.
Tags: bbps, beta, preview, siliconera, vgbloggerBill Fulton, Game Designer at FASA Studio, has posted an excellent description of Shadowrun’s best feature — teamwork.
The aspect of “Shadowrun” that keeps me wanting to play it is how well it delivers the feeling of teamwork, that compelling experience of being a part of a team that has to coordinate and work together to defeat a dangerous and determined enemy. While “teamwork” is hardly a revolutionary new idea, “Shadowrun” was designed from the ground up to maximize teamwork, whereas other games feel like it was “tacked on” without much thought.
Go read the whole thing over at the FASA Dev Blog at IGN.com.
Tags: bill fulton, FASA, features, teamworkNot related to Shadowrun but big gaming news nonetheless – an upgraded version of the XBOX 360 platform, called the XBOX 360 Elite, has been announced. It will arrive in stores on April 29 and cost $479. On10.net has video of the Elite in action. It comes with the following accessories and upgrade components:
On the official Shadowrun forums, Bill Fulton has answered our questions yet again. This time he explains how parties affect matchmaking and the auto-balancing system.
Parties will only be split as an absolute last resort to keep the match balanced.
If a party gets split, it will be reunited at the first opportunity where it won’t unbalance the match.
He goes into much greater detail on the matter in his original post.
Tags: auto balancing, bill fulton, matchmaking, partiesBill Fulton, the game designer in charge of Shadowrun’s economy system and user interface, posted a note on the official Shadowrun forums about the steps being taken to combat griefing in Shadowrun.
My central goal around griefing is to make it so that players who are playing the game ‘honestly’ don’t have to quit or leave when the griefers show up. Running from bullies just makes them feel powerful, which is what they want, so it doesn’t address the problem.
He goes on to say:
1. There will be a vote system to kick players. It has some wrinkles to it that are different than other games vote kick systems. It will have a little more teeth in it than most systems, and be more resistant to being used as a weapon by the griefers as well.
2. It will be fairly apparent who is team killing/shooting. The money a player loses for team killing & shooting is on the top page of the stats screen. It will be obvious to anyone paying attention if a teammate is actively being a team killer/shooter.
3. There are $ penalties for shooting teammates. So players who ‘negligently’ shoot teammates (as opposed to intentionally) will have their bottom line hurt.
Note: there will be no punishment system. While they have their uses, it is hard to prevent them from being used by griefers as well (they can intentionally step in front of you while you’re shooting, etc.).
Fortunately, there have been very few cases of griefing in the beta, but it only takes a few to ruin the experience for many.
Tags: bill fulton, griefers, user interface, vote systemDaniel Regnitz over at Xbox Raw has posted a well-written editorial detailing the different techs, magics, and races of Shadowrun. He also gives some details on how certain aspects of the game, like its Karma system, work.
In most circumstances a person can only be resurrected once. However, due to the “Karma” feature that is in place, the losing team gets certain advantages. Bodies will take longer to clear, they’ll be able to get resurrected multiple times, get a defense boost, and more.
In addition, he had a few good things to say about his Shadowrun experience.
Tags: beta, Daniel Regnitz, preview, Xbox RawThe question that is probably burning in most of your minds, as it is the most important one; Is it good!? I can safely assure you that, yes. Yes, it is.
I’ve had [the Shadowrun Beta] since December, it only has two maps, and I still play it almost every night. ShadowRun has its fangs deep, deep in me.
A tidbit that I meant to post several weeks ago. Com_Raven is a Shadowrun tester that got to play the PC version of Shadowrun at a media event in Germany. Not only that, but he got to see things at the press event that other testers haven’t seen yet. He even got some info from the devs. From his report he said:
“There are however smaller versions of some of the maps for smaller player numbers.”
I take this to mean that for small games of, say, 4-vs-4 some of the maps will have sections closed. I welcome this feature. Who likes walking around a map for a minute or two before you see an enemy?
The nine maps shipping with the game:
Lobby
Nerve Center
Pinnacle
Temple
Maelstrom
ZigDig
Poco
Favella
Power Station
Based on Shadowrun’s gameplay and looking at how detailed and complex maps like Lobby and Power Station are, there are not too few maps shipping with this game. Want more maps? There is a downloadable content link in the Shadowrun main menu. Perhaps more maps are coming later.
Tags: com raven, favella, lobby, maelstrom, maps, nerve center, pinnacle, poco, power station, temple, zigdigGameInformer got a chance to play a beta build of Shadowrun. They had great things to say about the game. Some thoughts from the article:
Graphically, Shadowrun is quite pretty, and filled with next-gen effects. Metal shines, light blooms and shadows are cast. One of the levels we played was set during the next-gen friendly time of the sun setting, allowing a nice amber tone to wash over everything. Player models look a bit glossy, but it’s nothing anyone will really notice during the chaos. The sound also works out quite well and playing on a 5.1 system will give you an edge, because you will easily hear the chatter of an enemy’s gun behind you.
and
Tags: gameinformer, previewWhen it all boils down to it, Shadowrun’s core game play is very fun. This is one of those games that you and a bunch of your buddies will have a blast just shooting each other in the face with. Fans of the genre will enjoy the game but fans of the series may be a bit disappointed because there are no single-player elements. A big part of the Shadowrun world is the dirty, grimy feel that was created by the giant corporations. And where the hell is the hacking? We need some time in the Matrix. While it’s fun to grab artifacts for the sake of the corporation, it’s hard not to question the games overall longevity at this point. One thing is for sure—shooting SMGs and launching rockets will never get old, but it’s just not the way of a Shadowrunner.
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