Published by rapture September 13th, 2007
in FASA and technical.
Yesterday FASA announced that they’ve officially closed the doors. But some weird stuff also started happening to Shadowrun yesterday.
Gamers in Shadowrun were seen as playing “Shadowrun EPD Service” on their gamercards. Their gamer status was no longer displaying the maps in which they were playing. “EPD Service” was now appearing in their profiles. You can surf Google and find remnants of the EPD Service.
Additionally, there are reports that cross-platform play (Shadowrun is the only Games for Windows title to do this) is not working. A response from a FASA dev says:
We are aware of this problem and are looking into the cause.
FASA also states that these errors are not related to FASA closing:
The game runs on the the Xbox Live / Games for Windows Live service. These services aren’t reliant on anything FASA does day to day. Once we give them a build / update, it simply runs on the service. The last update we posted was TU3, which was a while back.
Fall (who is a member of the Shadowrun team, btw) is looking into why this is happening, but it’s not related to the FASA closure.
It’s certainly odd that now of all times these errors are happening. Is FASA throwing out a hint? Is EPD Service the “something big” that is supposed to come to Shadowrun? Is “EPD Service” the name of a newly formed game studio? Did a disgruntled employee cause cross-platform play to end?
Oh the drama. Hey. Where’s the rest of our gamerpics?
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Over on the official FASA forums, Kimona sends word that the second update to Shadowrun will likely be launched next week. The XBOX 360 version of the patch is cleared and good to go. The Vista version is still going through cert.
TITLE UPDATE #2 CONTENTS:
Vista Only:
01) Fixed various issues that could cause dedicated server crashes / hard locks.
02) You can now save your dedicated server settings.
03) You can now exit the game properly even if you don’t / can’t sign in.
04) If you’re not connected to Live, buttons that you can’t use unless connected are grayed out.
05) Fixed some user interface and messaging issues on the Live menus.
06) Added ability to cap bandwidth on a dedicated server.
07) Users playing on a DS will no longer show up as hosting it.
08) Clicking the PARTY button in a DS lobby as a silver player will no longer kick you.
09) Fixed a crash issue with certain graphics cards.
10) Fixed multiple small UI / presence issues.
11) Party options are no longer broken after party leader has been switched.
12) Added mirrored sessions to dedicated server. Silver players will now show up on the recently played list of Gold players.
Vista and 360:
- Big ticket items:
13) Implemented improvements to matchmaking. We expect a 200-300% improvement in wait times. We’ve also added clearer status messaging.
14) Improved sync times. When a new player joins a game, the synching wait will be reduced.
15) Made changes to improve party system. Parties should be split less now, and when splitting is absolutely necessary, we attempt to regroup the party later.
16) You may now use the artifact to clear bodies in Attrition.
17) Fixed some potential exploit issues. No, we’re not going to elaborate on this.
- General
18) Fixed various issues that could result in soft locks or crashes.
19) Fixed a problem that could cause game to be stuck at sync screen indefinitely.
20) Fixed a problem with the Unstoppable achievement. And there was much rejoicing.
21) Smartlink HUD will now show up with controllers #2, #3, and #4.
22) Players won’t get kicked for inactivity if they’re still in the lobby when the game starts.
23) You should be less likely to cycle to a small version of a map if you have a lot of players.
24) Fixed some errors in localized text for Japanese, Korean, and Chinese.
25) You should get clearer feedback when attempting to join a full game via the guide.
26) Changed some of the achievement descriptions to make goals clearer.
27) Dwarf hint text is now correct. (They CAN be unawared - just not headshotted.)
- Bots
28) Bots on Dig Site are not so determined to kill themselves in the Sacrifice Pit now.
29) Bots in Raid games will emphasize flag pickup towards the end of rounds.
30) Bots should no longer be so fascinated with walls.
31) Bots no longer look at a flag carrier that can’t be seen rather than threats that can be seen.
32) Public match fill bots should now support the team better.
It’s great to see that the Vista version is getting some love. It is slowing catch up to the 360 version in terms of quality control.
What? You can now clear bodies with the Artifact in Attrition? This changes that gametype quite a bit.
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Published by EnragedGnome July 11th, 2007
in technical, Vista and XBOX 360.
Kimona has updated an earlier announcement to include new information about the second title update.
TITLE UPDATE #2 CONTENTS:
Vista Only:
1) Fixed some user interface issues on the dedicated server administrator console.
2) Fixed some user interface issues on the Live menus.
3) Silver players will now show up on the recently played player list of Gold players.
4) Fixed a hard lock that could occur under certain conditions when accepting a game invite.
Vista and 360:
1) Implemented improvements to matchmaking. We expect a 200-300% improvement in wait times. We’ve also added clearer status messaging.
2) Improved sync times. When a new player joins a game, the synching wait will be reduced.
3) Made changes to improve party system. Parties should be split less now, and when splitting is absolutely necessary, we attempt to regroup the party later.
4) Changed some of the achievement descriptions to make goals clearer.
5) Improved bot AI.
This is an overview of the changes. We’ll post a full list when the update is closer to release.
The update is currently undergoing the Microsoft certification process which typically takes 2-3 weeks to complete. Hopefully that means we’ll have a full list of improvements and changes in the very near future.
As promised, the second update is much meatier and should help alleviate many gamer’s frustrations. A 200-300% improvement in wait times? That’s pretty impressive. The party-splitting issue was a topic of hot debate just after release, but many players later agreed that the problem was not as bad as initially perceived. Hopefully this update will settle that issue as well.
If you don’t see everything you wanted on this list, don’t fret just yet. This is only an overview of changes for the second update. I expect to see at least one more patch coming down the line in the relatively near future. How else does FASA plan on giving the victors their spoils? Perhaps they will bundle the new bot names in with other fixes.
Tags: kimona, update
Published by rapture June 21st, 2007
in technical, Vista and XBOX 360.
Kimona sends word that the first title update for Shadowrun will go live in the following days:
As we’ve mentioned before, the team’s working on a number of title updates for Shadowrun. The first one should go live within the next day or two.
The first update will be very limited in scope. Here’s what’s on the menu:
Vista:
1) Addressed a problem with viewing Shadowrun in the Games Explorer on the Vista versions for Portugal and Finland.
2) Fixed an issue involving removing the controller while playing on Vista.
3) If you lose your connection to LIVE while playing on Vista, the UI behaves correctly now.
360:
1) Fixed a hard lock that can occur when a player signs out of a profile on 360.
2) Fixed a hard lock that can occur after starting a bot match in Chapter 4 of the training.
3) Fixed an issue that affected voice-over in the Italian 360 version.
Common:
- Fixed a small memory leak that could affect performance and stability in some situations.
This is good news as there are some issues that need addressing. Most gamers that are playing the game now accept these errors and can enjoy the game. But the fixes will be great in making good first impressions on new players. They also help increase replayability.
Here’s hoping for a standalone dedicated server that will run on Windows Server 2003 so that the PC community will grow. I mean, who hosts dedicated servers on Vista without breaking most all ISP’s Terms of Service? I know people have gone to jail over Shadowrun before. But I don’t want to. Even though the current servers are west coast servers (probably hosted on some corporate connection), they are a lot smoother than playing on Joe Schmoe’s XBOX 360. Oh, and achievements in dedicated servers, please! Dedicated server support for datacenter-host machines FTW!
Tags: kimona, update
Published by rapture June 11th, 2007
in technical.
I’ve written example macros for casting Tree of Life and Resurrection on a Logitech G15 keyboard. With a little grease you’ll be able to assign macros for just about any command in Shadowrun’s “quick cast” menu. I had “Gust” working the other day. Read my blog post to try the macros out for yourself.
Even with these macros, it is still faster to “quick cast” with a controller. That’s why I’m sticking to a controller for now.
Tags: g15, logitech, quick cast
Published by rapture June 7th, 2007
in technical, achievements and Shadowrun.
Shadowrun is full of achievements that are fun to get. Just play for a few hours and you will start racking them up. But some achievements are harder to unlock. Some require a lot of time. Some are awarded after a rare feat. There’s even a social networking achievement that isn’t obvious on how to catch it. Here’s a list and summary of the Shadowrun secret achievements according to players on XBOX.com.
Triple Rez! - Resurrect three allies at once. 10pts.
Winning Streak - Win ten consecutive rounds. 10pts.
Shadowrun Fever! - Catch it! 25pts.
Master Gardener - Kill 5 enemies with Strangle. 25pts.
Godlike - Kill all enemy players while taking no damage yourself. 25pts.
Master Ninja - Inflict one hundred mortal wounds with the Katana. 100pts.
I’m well on my way to becoming a Master Ninja. However, I’ve got some work to do before I become a Master Gardener. I don’t have a green thumb. Shadowrun Fever? I’m ashamed that I’ve caught it.
Tag: achievements
Published by rapture June 1st, 2007
in technical.
Will FASA release a new technology in future downloadable content? Perhaps. The technology “quick cast” menu has an empty spot just waiting for something cool to go in there. See the image below:
By leaving a blank spot, gamers won’t have to “relearn” quick cast locations as the tech will stay in their current spots. So, there’s room for a new tech.
It should be pointed out that FASA had other magic and tech in the game at one time. The Hologram magic (or was it a tech?) would cast a Hologram of your character. This would confuse the enemy as they might fight the Hologram instead of you. I believe they had a wall-climbing ability in the game at one time also. Will we see those abilities in a future DLC? Or, is the blank technology slot just a remnant of removing a tech that will never make it into the game?
We know FASA is working on updates for the game. In fact, they’ve said they are doing it right now. They are listening to feedback from the users and incorporating stuff that didn’t make it into the retail version of the game.
But what about future downloadable content? Kimona at FASA said this in a forum post:
We haven’t talked about DLC yet.
I don’t buy it. I’m bet they’ve got an idea on what they want to release. Will we see at least a new technology in future downloadable content?
What about a new race? A new race is something that will change the entire economy. That is, unless the current economy system is factoring in the alleged new race (perhaps an Ork?).
What about new maps? A new map is something that wouldn’t impact the economy. However, the Shadowrun maps and big and complex. Some maps have been in the making for over three years (according to an un-named FASA employee who owned us at Dig Site). The maps are that complex and deep. Did FASA have time to make one or more extra maps for Shadowrun? Maybe. Game studios often make extra maps that don’t get finished in time for retail launch.
Heh. All this over a blank spot in the technology quick cast menu.
Tag: dlc
If you are having trouble signing into Games for Windows - Live, then you might find some help at the Games for Windows support page located at:
http://www.gamesforwindows.com/en-us/support/live/Pages/default.aspx
On that page are some troubleshooting tips along with the first update to GfW-Live. You can manually download the update and apply it.
I was experiencing problems autopatching GfW-Live. So, I had to go to that link and manually install the update.
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Published by rapture May 31st, 2007
in technical and Vista.
We’ve known for a while that Shadowrun for Vista would have steep requirements. It looks like a 5.0 rating is recommended. Ouch…but it sure looks good.
Tag: system requirements
Below is information extracted from the README.rtf file in the Windows Vista version of Shadowrun. nVidia’s new DX10 cards are not listed as supported or unsupported. However, I’m running a 8800 GTX and the game runs fine.
Also note that the README states that the popular 1440 x 900 widescreen resolution is not supported. Neither is multiple monitors or the less popular 1152 x 648 resolution.
Supported Graphics Cards
Most graphics features are only disabled based on compatibility, though character self-shadows are not rendered for Shader 2.x targets.
Supported Video Card requirements:
256 MB Video RAM or higher
Vertex Shader Model 2.a, 3.0, or higher
Pixel Shader Model 2.b, 3.0, or higher
DirectX 9.0c Compatible
Supported Cards (High Detail Defaults):
ATI Radeon X1650
ATI Radeon X1800
ATI Radeon X1900
ATI Radeon X1950
nVidia GeForce 7600
nVidia GeForce 7800
nVidia GeForce 7900
nVidia GeForce 7950
Supported Cards (Low Detail Defaults):
ATI Radeon X1600
ATI Radeon X1300
ATI Radeon X850 (no character self-shadows)
ATI Radeon X800 (no character self-shadows)
nVidia GeForce 7300
nVidia GeForce 6800
nVidia GeForce 6600
Intel 965G
Unsupported Graphics Cards
ATI Rage Series
ATI Radeon 7000 Series
ATI Radeon 8000 Series
ATI Radeon 9000 Series
ATI Radeon X300
ATI Radeon X550
ATI Radeon X600
ATI Radeon X700
ATI Radeon X1050
nVidia GeForce 3 Series
nVidia GeForce 4 Series
nVidia GeForce FX Series
nVidia GeForce 6100
nVidia GeForce 6150
nVidia GeForce 6200
nVidia GeForce 6500
Tags: ati, gpu, nvidia
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