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Game News Shadowrun Returns Kickstarter Update #80: Dragonfall Director's Cut Dev Diary #4: New Visuals & UI

Infinitron

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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Tags: Harebrained Schemes; Mike McCain; Shadowrun Returns; Shadowrun: Dragonfall

In their latest Kickstarter update, Harebrained Schemes have published the fourth and final Shadowrun: Dragonfall Director's Cut dev diary. This one's all about the graphics and user interface, and as such it has plenty of screenshots. Here's an excerpt:

New Visual Effects & Animations

Steven and Hollie (our Effects/Tech Artist and Animator, respectively) dedicated several weeks during Director’s Cut development towards further honing our many combat effects and animation. Our main goals here were to 1. make combat feedback more viscerally satisfying (death, damage, spells, etc.), 2. tighten up timing/polish in some places, and 3. create new effects and animations to support the new abilities that the design team added in the Director’s Cut. I think their efforts have made a big difference! Steven and our engineer Sheridan implemented completely new systems for blood splatter effects, directional deaths (characters used to only be able to fall in one direction when dying), dismemberment, and possibly-slightly-over-the-top-gibs upon critical-hit deaths. We’ve found that these really help make your actions in combat feel powerful and satisfying - check it out:

79281b4998e4e2caf4846130165ee11b_large.gif


On the animation front, not only have we been able to tighten up some combat timing (for example, the time it takes to cast certain spells) but we’ve added totally new animations for several new abilities.

Interface Improvements

Last week, Trevor talked about all of the new combat mechanics we’ve implemented. To emphasize the new systems and new data, our combat UI has also seen a similar upgrade to more clearly show you each potential target’s status. You’ll see a different targeting disc beneath enemies depending on whether you have a “clear shot”, i.e. if you are flanking the enemy’s cover position or if they are standing out in the open, vs. if they are in cover. On mouse-over you’ll also be able to see exactly what type of cover the enemy is in, and we’ve made the shield icons representing cover state more obvious above enemy heads.

We’ve also updated our health bar display to show how much Armor each character in combat has, represented by white “pips” above the bar itself. Each attack that hits now includes quick animated feedback on how much armor was applied against the damage being dealt, how much armor (if any) was stripped by special attacks, and how much damage was done. This is complemented by some improvements to our above-head text “floaties” that appear when you attack. Lastly, this is a small thing, but world interaction icons now have a short text description attached to them, similar to characters, that appears when you mouse-over them (or when you hold down the ALT key to reveal them.) This is nice when you’ve got a lot of inspects or pickups in one place and you’d like to know what you’re dealing with before clicking.

Oh and we also mentioned the new Crew Advancement system a couple weeks ago - here is what that looks like in action:


Check out the full update for screenshots of the game's new areas, images of some of its new portraits and models, and more. There are even achievements now, for all you Steam whores.
 
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Hopefully they were smart enough to make violent deaths damage based, Wasteland 2's deaths are cool, but they happen too randomly and nonsensically.(More likely to explode from a punch than a grenade, etc.)
 
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PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015 Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire Serpent in the Staglands Bubbles In Memoria A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire
If you look at the shotgun's muzzle you'll notice the shells DON'T MOVE when the gun fires.

Game ruined forever.
 

Ivan

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DF is badass. Lite, but badass nonetheless. They better fix the c&c if you side with the infected.
 
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PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015 Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire Serpent in the Staglands Bubbles In Memoria A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire
DF is badass. Lite, but badass nonetheless. They better fix the c&c if you side with the infected.

Pretty much. It's a make or break point on whether or not Harebrained Schemes is worthy or not. It's one thing to reuse levels, but don't actively put me in situations that remind me how irrelevant my choices are.
 

Agesilaus

Antiquity Studio
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Grab the Codex by the pussy Codex USB, 2014 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
I would probably be excited if Shadowrun wasn't such a bland, on-rails experience.
 
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PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015 Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire Serpent in the Staglands Bubbles In Memoria A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire
I would probably be excited if Shadowrun wasn't such a bland, on-rails experience.

Railroading has its place in some games. They aren't all meant to be the same.

If every game was the Age of Decadence, what would be the point of Age of Decadence?
 

Agesilaus

Antiquity Studio
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Grab the Codex by the pussy Codex USB, 2014 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
You're right, some games are meant to be shit. If Shadowrun wasn't shit, then when would I have the opportunity to play a shit game? thank you for opening my eyes to the whole rainbow of game playing experiences
 
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PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015 Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire Serpent in the Staglands Bubbles In Memoria A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire
You're right, some games are meant to be shit. If Shadowrun wasn't shit, then when would I have the opportunity to play a shit game? thank you for opening my eyes to the whole rainbow of game playing experiences

It's a portable low-medium difficulty strategy game with some light RPG elements and atmospheric music and visuals plus a good story.

The weight of the world is not on its shoulders.
 

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