Is there any intrest in this run?
I love this game. I think this game can be beaten in under an hour (maybe much less). I haven't played it in 2 or so years so my memory is a little fuzzy. I will begin an initial play through this weekend to figure out what is required. The main things I need to figure out:
-which keywords are required and how to get them quickest
- should I waste my money on shadowrunners (useless mostly except for soaking up bullets while running through areas) / which shadowrunners to waste money on and when
-which spells to get and which to concentrate on (invisibility seems VERY useful for sneaking through the Aneki building and Volcano)
-what stats to level up (this will probably be a low level run), is negotiation worth it? - Is computer required with manipulation? - Should I bother with body/firearms much?
-how much money to make/how to make it?
-which guns/armor/implants to buy, if any?
-how manipulatable are the battles?
Some ideas:
-Abuse the karma loop with the naga by not picking up the scale...
-Beat the king to get out of the caryards (shouldn't be too hard with manipulation
-Use grenades heavily - hard to use but very powerful, again, should be easy with manipulation.
-Use invisibility to get through tough areas
-Use freeze to beat drake (the only place I know that Its useful)
Does anyone know which quests are required and which can be skipped?
Does anyone know of any shortcuts or glitches in this game? (ie: like the karma loop)
Any input/tips/ideas?
I will put together a plan this weekend.
YES!
I would LOVE to see a timeattack of this one, but I'm to lazy to do one myself =]
Once a while back I did a speedrun of this and got a bit under 4 hours I think, on the real console. But I think I wasn't that good and there's MUCH to rip out using luck manipulation in battles ^^
DO THIS, PLEASE! ;_;
What do you mean by keywords?
If you're up for luck manipulation, I think the dwarf was able to do the most damage but take the least. If you're looking for a meatshield, the female ogre would be best. Those are both in the club however, and it takes awhile to walk all the way down and up the stairs. The two male ogres suck I believe. Later on, you may want to get the furry.
Can't help much with spells, don't remember
I'd say investing points in firearms is a necessity. Body may not be necessary with luck manipulation. Charisma if you're going for mercs. Negotiation, tough to say. If you're going to be leveling a lot in one spot for awhile to get levels for stat points(the ogres at the docks give a whole lot, you can get 2 on the screen at one time, as well as 2 magicians who give hardly anything- I played the game a bit ago and used this spot), you might not need negotiation because you'll be getting money at the same time.
I think you'll have to make a test run of this game to test things such as leveling spots, and how much money will be available for equipment(caryards will be ESSENTIAL). I don't think grenades will be necessary, if they are it will probably only be because you're at such a low level in the caryards. You'll probably need to buy something to hold you off until the shotgun, and that should last you until the assault rifle found in the volcano. Need for armor will have to be determined in the test run. I'm not very familiar with the implants.
Good luck, I think this should look good.
Keywords, for example you can learn from the patron in the bar that you give iced tea "Tickets" then ask about "Tickets" to learn "Grinder" and "Maria", ask "Grinder" to learn "Lone Star"... you use "Lone Star" with the business man to get the badge. Ask "Grinder" to the mortician to get the credstick/tickets... etc... there are some that are essential, some are not, many you can learn from different people.
The graveyard seems awesome for earning nuyen (from the crypts) very early.
I've also learned you can get a zip gun if you dont have the baretta when you get to the caryards (when you wake up?). I'm not sure if you have to not pick it up or if you can sell it to the business man (mm extra nuyen). I need to experiment. the zip gun is more powerful but less accurate than the baretta. I will go Baretta/Zipgun->shotgun->assault rifle (or cannon) (?) if i bother with weapons.. I think the assualt rifle and partial body suit are available before the volcano, the full body suit and assault cannon (both the best in game) you have to go to the volcano first then backtrack to the dark blades shop.... I'm not sure if thats worth it. if my firearms skill is low.. that is.. I might be able to invis all the way through... we'll see...
I was wondering about going shaman with my character and not so street samurai. Some of the spells can be powerful. I probably won't be engaging many enemies except for bosses or ones for leveling.
I am considering clearing out the caryard's post-king battles... LOTS of money/karma to be had.
As soon as I get out of the car yards I can go to the street doc then to area 3, to the other street doc then from there i can go see the dog and get spells. I am planning on heavily using invisibility in the Drake Bldg/Volcano/Aneki so I will probably have a large-ish mana pool and high-level invis.
At a low level grenades are pretty much required to clean out the car yards. After that they're not so hot. I'm thinking of using spirit summon spell.. massive cost/massive damage spell. I never really used it much but it might take down the bosses faster.
http://db.gamefaqs.com/console/snes/file/shadowrun_tech.txt
here is a good faq.. you may have to go to gamefaqs for it.. its a "technical walkthrough" with all kinds of stats..
lets look at attributes and discuss:
might be able to skimp on this, i think i might need 6 or so (start with 3) (12 karma cost) so i can take a few hits.
I plan on maxing this through the karma loop. .. then figuring out how much i dont need.
This is determined by my equipment path...
I need 4 for the shotgun. I will upgrade after beating the king. Top 2 weapons only need 5 strength... and they arent available for a while.
For armor the mesh jacket (getting along with the shotgun) only needs 2 str. I probably wont buy anything until the partial body suit (before drake bldg) which needs 5 str, and the full body suit 6 str (after volcano). dont know if the full is worth it but i guess with the karma loop it may be worth the time to head over there. (probably not necessary to get up the aneki bldg)
might upgrade ONCE to level 4 for the 2 runners. might need for some tough spots (rust stilletos?)
not sure how much is "required" and how chances can be manipulated...
only affects the accuracy... so is it worth it? i fear manipulating luck in values due to the "flowing" nature of them. i might need to upgrade a little... not sure
high cost, for shadowrunners (which i will probably use sparingly), i dont think i'll get this....
useless since i have to boost it so much and pay to get it. it only helps with shadowrunners which will be used sparingly.
ok now for the damage equation
---
on another note:
now i need to find those high experience enemies..
I've done a few games of shadowrun. Here are a few things I found out:
- Get only the keywords you need. Pretty obvious.
- Navigating the menus is painfully slow. Maybe you can make it go faster. Use the L+R keys to scroll through pages. Maybe by collecting a specific set of keywords, navigation could be made faster?
- Every single penny you need can be gathered from:
jacking computers
bosses
the arena fights
or simply selling your old junk.
The problem is the backtracking you may have to do, and by then you'll already have gone through the area that could use it. But it's still faster than farming for cash.
- Go for firearms skill. Definately. A 5 or 6 is good enough for most areas, and will be necessary for the arena. You can tell when a shot misses, it splatters in a random spot. Direct hits that do nothing splatter on the target. This will save you much frustration in the long run.
- Computer skill is never needed. If you notice, the computer sections are a minesweeper type of game. There is a guaranteed safe path through all of them. (or 99% at least.) I'd like to see you safely navigate all of them, but you can manipulate luck where you want speed.
- Boosted reflexes are a must-have. You should be able to get them, the mesh armor, and the shotgun by killing all the arena bosses and the king.
- Almost every enemy gives 1/4 karma. Your karma boosts are displayed at the end of a fight. Enemies that give more tend to be one time only. Because of this, bulk is better.
- The first graveyard is a great area for early game karma. Fast spawns, no danger, and one-hit kills make for fast XP.
- Don't give up at the troll decker arena boss. That gun may hurt alot, but he can be beaten with really low stats and the baretta pistol. Slap patches can be gathered from the young boy in the caryards, but the process is slow and gives 60HP at the most. It may be all you need though.
- You can do drake tower for some quick cash. I think you can jack into a computer even during a fight, so the invis spell will be awesome there. You might be able to jack into the aneki tower. If you can, you'll get awesome money fast.
- Only target the specific computer objectives. Don't waste time getting junk or nonessential data files. Go for the money, the objective, and jack out.
- Grenades suck so hard. They take a long time to get. (a few seconds a piece in the first town) But you may be able to manipulate luck to get some use from them.
- Eat the grenade outside the rust stilletos. It's fun.
- By the time you get the partial body suit and the full body suit, you will have the invis spell. That could make the armor less useful than it would seem.
- Dermal plating is great. It gives a permanent +2 armor, reducing all damage by 2. It's a little out of the way, but it's dirt cheap, and thus quick to get money for. By then you'll have the invis spell, so I dunno.
- You can give your shadowrunners equipment. Improved armor is the key here.
- Depending on your luck, you may want the upgraded heal spell. 90 HP for 10 MP is a great tradeoff, and may save unneeded uses of other spells.
- Improved invis is the best. You get half a minute of freedom and no one can slow you down with bullets. A must-have for the towers.
- The upgraded freeze spell (or armor) is essential for quickly beating drake. Invis will not work.
- Powerball and summon spirit do the same damage. Powerball hits an area, and summon spirit hits everyone. Manipulate luck for best results. I would not recommend spending the time or karma to get these spells to be useful, though.
- The guide is wrong. There's about $20K more on the second to last floor in the aneki tower. Not really needed then, being at the end of the game and all.
- I've had a problem getting the [dog] keyword before. I know you can get it at the end of the first alleyway, with your first gun and armor.
The game in a nutshell, IIRC:
- Get the slappatch and scalpel, Exit morgue.
- Get apartment key and glasses.
- Get [lonestar] badge.
- Get the performance [tickets] and credstick.
- Rescue the shaman with the slappatch. Learn about [shaman]s and get the [magic fetish].
- Go to second city (caryards), defeat the [king].
- Defeat the arena bosses for mad $$$.
- Go to the [street doc], get an [examination], pay 500N. Activate the [cortex buh-buh-buh]... get your refund.
- Go to third city.
- Go to the doc, pay 2000N, and disable the [cortex bomb].
- Kill the [rust stilletos] to gain access to Kitsune's club.
- Learn the magic shop's number.
- (dunno if it's required) Learn of the dog god's arch nemesis, the [rat shaman].
- Kill the [rat shaman] in the graveyard sewers.
- Hit on Kitsune, that sexy fox. You'll need the enchanted leaves for magic.
- Learn about [vampires]. Get the [strobes] and the stake.
- Call the magic shop. Learn the number for the [dark blade].
- Call up the dark blade. Get invited to the mansion with your [magic fetish].
- Jack some $$. Chase the vampire through the graveyards. (Good XP here too, but more dangerous than the first graveyard.)Learn [laughlyn]. Kill the vampire for $.
- Learn about [ice]. Ask the new guy at the nightclub for a shipment of [ice] at the docks. (unsure of exact phrase) Costs 100N.
- Hire a boat. I think it costs 1000N.
- Kill the [jester spirit]. I don't know his exact HP, but at some time in the fight you'll be able to talk to him, and use his name to defeat him.
- Climb the [drake tower]. Get some $$. Jack drake's phone number, learn about the [volcano].
- Go to Drake's hideout, get some $$. Unleash the jester spirit, and kill drake. Save the old man.
- Climb the Aneki tower. Get mad $$$$. Destroy the [aneki] superAI.
This list is by no means complete, and the order may not be optimal. I dunno when you can get all the magic spells, and I don't know the best time to get new equipment, so feel free to add to it...
I almost forgot, you can skip the transit screens by hitting a button. It'll save some time.
I've easily spent a few hours on this game, but I'm sure it can be done much faster. Anywho, I hope to see this game sliced through like it's warm butter. Mmm... butter...
Have anyone started working on a run for this game yet? It is one of my favourites, so i'd really like to see someone getting it done. It deserves a speedrun.
Joined: 4/20/2005
Posts: 2161
Location: Norrköping, Sweden
This is my absolute favourite SNES game! A long time ago I considered making this run, but I gave the idea up. I found out that it's indeed possible to manipulate luck to get maximum damage with your gun just by waiting a different amount of frames between each shot.
And I know the game is quite complex, so I would be interested in what route will be used. From personal experience, I believe the fighting arena is a good place to visit more than once, since you get both a lot of karma as well as money from the fights there.
Can someone please, please, please start working on this run? :)
I gave up on this run very quickly. I ran through the game to refresh my memory (fun!) but then when it came time to actually test out luck manipulation it all fell apart (not fun... for me at least). I do not have the patience (or free time) for manipulating the luck in firefights. I do wish someone would take up this run. I got excited when I saw this thread again. I will help in any way I can if someone decides to undertake this.
Howdy all.
I'm taking a crack at a tas of this game. Though it's one of my favourites, there's a good chance that it may not be all that entertaining to watch.
The game is rather long if played properly, and there are a lot of areas where hunting enemies is necessary for gaining karma (which in turn is swapped for stats).
I'm still in the planning phase here, so this initial test of the first level will likely have to be redone if the objectives i skip prove to be detrimental, or require un-necessary backtracking later.
http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/1750/maximus-shadowrun-v0-1.smv
Here's what I've got so far:
- all necessary steps to meet Glutman at The Cage (results in advancement to the Caryards)
- got the cyberdeck
- got the credstick
Bypassed objectives:
- killing the orc in the alley for the mesh jacket
- meeting dog in the alley
- getting the magic fetish
- getting the ghoul bone
- getting the collar
My reasoning is as follows: I'll likely have to return to stage 1 in order to get the water for the invisibility spell. This run would be retardedly long and boring if i had to engage each enemy in the towers (drake/aneki) and the volcano, so invisibility seems to be the way to go.
I want to avoid fighting as much as possible since it's not very exciting to watch. The main character stands still while you control the crosshairs and shoot. There's about a 30-40 frame delay between shots (this likely only affects the early guns, but it still slows the run down tremendously).
I sell the gun to get the cash for the lone star badge, thereby eliminating the need for either hunting enemies, or manipulating the crypts for cash (plus, you only get a max of 20 nuyen from baddies and you need 150 for the badge ... though the crypts give you 40, it still takes time).
The fetish is required to get into Dark Blade later, but i think i'll need the bone to get the powerball spell, so backtracking may be required anyway.
I'm looking for comments on both the quality of the current effort as well as any suggestions that can help with route planning.
General Info:
Emulator: Snes9X v1.43+ v9
Rom: Shadowrun (U) [!].smc
CRC: 3F34DFF0
Looks really good so far. I'm glad somebody picked this up... I'm sure there's already a topic on this version, as well as the Genesis Shadowrun. Have you seen it?
So glad you're doing this Maximus, good luck. And yes, the old thread definitely has some noteworthy ideas in it!
It often is a shame to see how a lot of effort is not transferred into a realized run. Not whining though, as I could've just as well ran it myself.. but.. uh.. [insert valid excuse here].
Erklärung der Relativität: "Wenn du deine Nase in meinen Po steckst, haben wir beide eine Nase im Po. Nur ich bin relativ besser dran."
As a quick update, from what I can see, the Caryards are going to prove bothersome with a weak character. The fights are going to be dull and long (since my max damage with the zip gun is 3), and there's an enormous gap between shots (about 40 frames).
I want to get the shotgun after leaving the yards, but the cost is 15000 (cheaper at the Dark Blade, but that's not an option this early in the game), so I'd have to do 7 rounds of battle and the king just to afford it (would slow the game down).
Playing the game normally back in the day, i remember being able to freeze the king at the side of the screen and fire away, killing him without him attacking once, so i may do this. This gives me 3000 nuyen, which is enough to get the datajack repaired (500, then 2000).
Will test further.
what version of the rom and which emulator did you use for this?
i am getting a "file is wrong format error".
edit: sorry, i got it to work. looks great ..i loved this game as a kid. keep it up !
http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/1776/maximus-shadowrun-v0-2.smv
This is the first 3 arena fights in the caryards. It's looking more promising now that I know how to manipulate the damage I do as well as the damage I take. I'm going to try a few more tests of just killing the king withought killing anyone else, since that would be the ideal (fastest) route, but would only give me about 4 karma.
I'm posting the updated smv for feedback on the fighting methods, but I've decided to restart from the beginning.
I want to do as little backtracking as possible later in the game, mainly due to the delay between screens being rather long (fadeout -> fade in is a few seconds).
The updated level 1 run will include me getting the paperweight when i get the cyberdeck as well as getting the ghoul bone and fetish. This way I only have to go back one screen from the subway once i've got the bottles in oldtown for the water (possibly the collar, though i doubt i'll use the summon spell at all).
Doing the above will allow me to get the powerball spell when i meet dog for the first time at the wharf.
Joined: 4/20/2005
Posts: 2161
Location: Norrköping, Sweden
Why didn't I check out this thread earlir? Shadowrun is my favourite game for SNES, and I've played through it several times. Your run looks really good so far, I don't have anything to complain about. :) It will be interesting to see the rest of the battles in the arena. Good luck! I hope for a new WIP soon. :)
Hrm, I've gone through about 10,000 re-records in the king fight alone now. I've decided to skip the arena fights entirely and just go right for the big boy. Once he's killed, I'm going straight to the doc to get the cortex bomb->datajack segment underway, since there's no way to quickly get enough money to upgrade the gun and get the stuff from the shaman. Money will be grabbed from matrix runs, but I've gotta get out of the caryards first.
I need help from the community here. I'm not as good as I thought I was at watching snes memory :( I need a hand finding the address' that handle either the damage done by the king, or the one(s) that handle the odds of a hit connecting (for both him and me). The max damage I can do is 2, regardless of whether or not I up my firearms skills (this is why I decided to skip the other fights for karma). This fight will likely take about 15 seconds to complete (1 shot per 40 frames, he's got 45 hp and I can do 2 damage per shot, so [(45/2)*40]/60 ... i think :P)
Any help finding these places in memory or any ideas for improvement are more than welcome.
The King's done, but i'm not overly impressed with the fight.
http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/2018/maximus-shadowrun-v0-3.smv
There are some definite disadvantages to having weak weapons and stats at this point in the game. The 2 ferocious orcs in Daley station both have 15 hp each, and picking them off at 2 dmg/turn is starting to get annoying.
Though the King fight will likely be revisited later (dear god I hope copy-pasting works here), I'm going to continue route planning.
The King fight has a minor glitch that allows you to trap him in the bottom-right corner of the arena where he can't return fire. I used it in this wip, but seeing as I can pretty much manipulate him to do (nearly) no damage, it may be un-necessary.
Useful addresses for the king fight were:
$7E33DE -> Jake's Health
$7E2FA6 -> King's Health
Nice to read you overcame the king and are continuing the run.
As much as I would like to help you, I'm not much of a RAM reader or HEX-editor.. sry about that.
But keep in mind: ANY quality speedrun (without major mistakes like wasted/ missed shots, faulty routes, wasted frames etc.) should do fine, as it stands for itself as a first TAS and can be improved later.
EDIT: Previous edit deleted. I was dumb.
Erklärung der Relativität: "Wenn du deine Nase in meinen Po steckst, haben wir beide eine Nase im Po. Nur ich bin relativ besser dran."
I'm not sure if that's possible... I'm way rusty at this.
Nevertheless, I would surmise that one could do a memory search of an enemy's (any enemy's) HP, and in that area of the RAM, one would find three or four (or however many enemies this game can handle simultaneously) sets of enemy stats which would hopefully include their damage, attack rating etc.
In other words, since you found King's health at 7e2fa6, you'd likely find something else about king at a5 and a7...
Damnation. Now I'll be walking around all day thinking about hex.
The King fight looked good, by the way.