Shadowrun Returns launched on Steam last week but it’s not marked any slowdown in development by Harebrained Schemes. They’re already developing the first major expansion for the game. They’ve also begun porting the the game over to Linux. On top of that, Harebrained have launched a modding wiki with lessons in how to get started expanding the game yourself and then sharing those releases through Steam.
Phew. It’s all go in some parts of the internet.
First, that expansion. Beyond being set in Berlin Harebrained are keeping schtum about what exactly will be featuring in the content drop. We only know that they’re planning on having it in our hands by October. They did release one screenshot, though:
As well as the new content, Harebrain revealed that they “have started working on the Linux version of Shadowrun Returns this week. We have our build machine up and running and have started making test builds.” They’re not able to give an estimate on when it will be ready for release yet, they’re still hitting strange bugs: “we can create characters, but there are errors when loading into the first apartment scene”.
To help grow a vibrant modding scene, Harebrained also launched a wiki this week that aims to teach how to build new content for Shadowrun; everything from new items to whole new stories and locations.
You can check the wiki out here. Harebrained recently added tutorials that cover everything from how to string scenes together to creating custom NPCs.
The game also saw its first patch. Here’s the full list of changes:
New Features, Improvements
– SMG: Aimed Shot now uses 4 bullets, down from 6.
– SMG: Spray and Pray now uses 6 bullets, down from 8.
– SMG: the Beretta, Uzi, Colt, and HK are slightly more accurate.
– Shotgun: Kneecap now has a HP DMG penalty of -6, up from -3. It now has a -5% accuracy penalty, and a cooldown of 3.
– Shotgun: All shotguns have had their accuracy falloff increased slightly, lowering hit chance at long ranges.
– Rifle: Full Auto’s accuracy penalty was not being applied properly at high skill levels. It should now always be 15% lower than a single shot’s percentage to hit.
– Rifle: Smartlinked rifles were less accurate at very long ranges instead of more accurate. This has been resolved.
– Rifle: The FN HAR and HK G12 were very similar in every aspect except price. The FN HAR is now more accurate and holds more ammunition than the HK G12.
– Rifle: Ammo capacity of the HK G12, Colt M23, and Ares Alpha have been reduced to 32, 34, and 38 respectively.
– Rifle: The Colt M23’s damage is now 15, down from 16. The Ares Alpha’s damage is now 16, down from 18.
– Grenades: Reduced store prices of all grenades.
– Grenades: HE Phosphorus grenades were not showing up in the store. They should now be purchasable along with the other Tier 3 weapons.
– Cyberware purchase screen is now more user friendly.
– Vendors will now sell more things in various places throughout DMS campaign (such as more med-kits).
– Visual improvements to the summoning grid.
– General UI Improvements.
– Added additional debugging for finding walkable tiles in debug mode.
– Added messaging to alert user when last auto-save occurred.
– Black IC is now less lethal.
– Added an explanation of how Leylines work in the world of SR:R.
– Added a definition of SIN in glossary.
Bug Fixes
– Player can no longer sell a currently equipped outfit.
– Swapping outfits will now correctly give the correct enhancements.
– Player can now equip an outfit if they do not currently have one equipped.
– Drones will now retain their Rigging bonus between levels.
– Wired reflexes no longer dodge friendly effects.
– Spirit death from overwatch no longer causes occasional hardlock
– Reduced load times when loading new assets after version update.
– First time OSX play will start in windowed mode to work around a crash issue for some users.
– Move marker will now be visible over walls.
– Fixed a crash that could occur when transitioning characters one-by-one out of the scene and into the next.
– Fixed issue with equip screen item filtering.
– Fixed issue with installing upgraded cyberware on individual locations of a pair.
– Fixed issue with hiring screen adding incorrect selected runner.
– Fixed a slew of typos.
– Fixed cases in conversation where attribute or skill checks were applied incorrectly.
– Fixed character preview not showing 3D Character in some cases.
– Fixed bug where user could enter missions that require a decker without having any runners with a Cyberdeck.
– Fixed various issues with hiring Coyote.
– Work around some Steam Workshop upload timeout issues
– Editor: Changes to scene or story variables will refresh that variable in the scratchpad.
Known Issues
– We are investigating reports that some users are encountering problems downloading subscribed stories from Steam Workshop.