Shadowrun Returns - Shadowrun Identity Mod

[Couchpotato]

Shadowrun Identity is one of the latest and so far best mod announced for Shadowrun Returns.

The Campaign

Shadowrun Identity is looking for Shadowrun Returns (SRR) players like you who want to use the built-in editor to contribute to a full-length (100+ hours) community-made campaign. Our goal is to recreate the world of Shadowrun using the original pen-and-paper sourcebooks, published adventures and novels.

Each adventure in the Shadowrun Identity campaign takes place principally during a one-month time period in-game over the course of 2050s.

We have three volunteer positions available for each adventure (once you fill a role, your name/tag will appear on the Shadowrun Identity website and in the credits):

1. Project Lead: responsible for the initial release of the beta (est. 6 months) and the finished product (est. 12 months).

2. Map Designer: using the Editor to rebuild the world of Shadowrun, assembling the maps piece by piece "Lego-style."

3. Scripter: creating characters, writing dialog and scripting triggers.

You will have the freedom to build your adventure as you see fit while enjoying ongoing guidance, technical support and constructive feedback from Opifer, a longtime Shadowrun GM and SRR Kickstarter Backer. Hope to hear from you soon!

The makers of the mod are looking for help. You can visit this forum post for more information. Credit and apologies go to Lucky Day for this late post.

More information.

 

[rune_74]

I checked out the first mod in this by these guys, they had some neat ideas but I found the map they did just a little too cluttered. I'm sure this will change with time. Just with my brief time with the editor I found it quite easy to get object heavy in tiles when a few would do a better job of not over cluttering.

 

[mogwins]

Call Prof. Pessimistic, but aren't they going to run into all sorts of licencing/copyright issues with using published material?

 

[greywolf00]

Possible but I don't think it's common. Tons of games, especially in sports, have user made content that restores teams & players but don't get shut down. Probably not worth the hassle and bad PR in most cases.

 

[mogwins]

Let's hope you're right. Depends who holds the assets and how successful the mod is, I guess.

 

[Ihaterpg]

Let's hope you're right. Depends who holds the assets and how successful the mod is, I guess.

Huu checking the wiki, it's Topps current owners for using the license, they are specialists for chewing gum, candy and collectibles. Hahem.

 

[SonOfCapiz]

Let's hope the modders don't get Warner Brothered like Skyrim's Middle Earth mod

 

[Ihaterpg]

Let's hope the modders don't get Warner Brothered like Skyrim's Middle Earth mod

That's different in case of identity, it's in the same context than the game and the game is supposed to deliver a mods tool to make mods in that context ie Shadowrun.

 

[SonOfCapiz]

That's different in case of identity, it's in the same context than the game and the game is supposed to deliver a mods tool to make mods in that context ie Shadowrun.

Never underestimate suits and their lawyers

 

[Ihaterpg]

Never underestimate suits and their lawyers

Well ok that seems wise, but have you a single example in a similar context?

All cases I can remember was mods for subjects without any relationship with the game.

EDIT: Looking the wiki the state of the license seems far to be healthy and it could be a bet to make it re born and use the opportunity to sell tonload of collectible cards. In that case any mods making noises will be welcome.

 

[guenthar]

Everyone involved with the LOTR license are sue crazy bastards. They go after practically anyone that tries to make a Middle Earth based content mod and have had many shut down over the years. With most other IP's unless you are directly using assets they don't do anything about mods. It is best to stay away from LOTR with mods and if you want to make a mod based on something you can pretty much pick anything else.

 

[Ihaterpg]

Everyone involved with the LOTR license are sue crazy bastards. They go after practically anyone that tries to make a Middle Earth based mods and have had many shut down over the years. With most other IP's unless you are directly using assets they don't do anything about mods. It is best to stay away from LOTR with mods and if you want to make a mod based on something you can pretty much pick anything else.

Well that's also their rights, they pay for, their choice then, not your. If you disagree you need work on changing the rules, not believe it's not right to apply them.

 

[rjshae]

Everyone involved with the LOTR license are sue crazy bastards. They go after practically anyone that tries to make a Middle Earth based content mod and have had many shut down over the years. With most other IP's unless you are directly using assets they don't do anything about mods. It is best to stay away from LOTR with mods and if you want to make a mod based on something you can pretty much pick anything else.

It is incumbent upon license holders to protect their property rights. I have no sympathy for those who try to usurp them. If you want to create a mod, then use your own imagination to design it--don't try to steal somebody else's work.

 

[Falchor]

I'm actually coming from it from a different angle. It's one thing to use the sourcebooks as reference material when designing your mod (an approach I'm taking), but to just recreate whole pieces of pre-published content and slap your name on it seems—beyond any possible legal problems—just plain boring. I want to see some crazy, whacky adventure ideas that make the most of the setting but that have a singular vision and take on the Shadowrun mythos.

When I think back on some of the more successful mod adventures in NWN1, some of the best were those that tried to use the toolset to do new and interesting things that were too different or risky to be tried as a commercial endeavor. That's what I'm hoping to see from other user-generated content.

 

[Lucky Day]

Shadowrun Identity is one of the latest and so far best mod announced for Shadowrun Returns.

The makers of the mod are looking for help. You can visit this forum post for more information. Credit and apologies go to Lucky Day for this late post.

np - I didn't think it was a big deal.

Call Prof. Pessimistic, but aren't they going to run into all sorts of licencing/copyright issues with using published material?

I don't think this will be too much of an issue. It wasn't for NWN. The three items that were publcially mentioned were the porting of Dungeon Siege assets, and Jedi Knight assets at the same time KotOR was released. Maximus also complained about and rejected obvious MP3 hak paks.

Other than that there was lots of content and few complaints about content themes including Harry Potter, Wheel of Time, and Firefly. Any problems would be addressed almost immediately. LotR and Lucas are well known to be sue happy.

But still, its their intellectual property. The real problem is they can't afford to police every website so they have to pick their battles. In some cases I think they owners allow it as a tribute to creations. I would note:

I'm actually coming from it from a different angle. It's one thing to use the sourcebooks as reference material when designing your mod (an approach I'm taking), but to just recreate whole pieces of pre-published content and slap your name on it seems—beyond any possible legal problems—just plain boring. I want to see some crazy, whacky adventure ideas that make the most of the setting but that have a singular vision and take on the Shadowrun mythos.

When I think back on some of the more successful mod adventures in NWN1, some of the best were those that tried to use the toolset to do new and interesting things that were too different or risky to be tried as a commercial endeavor. That's what I'm hoping to see from other user-generated content.

I'm hearing some complaints that its hard to get at a lot of the code, that its "hardcoded" meaning its locked beyond use. One interesting aspect is that modules can launch other modules and this allows the second module to use assets from the launcher. Kind of like a hak pak.

A lot of these quality content from NWN was from the online community trying to solve problems like persistence. If the Berlin DLC comes with MP, as well as unlocking a lot of internal content such as spell scripts, it could be quite something.

 

[CDAGeek]

I'm one of the GM's working on Identity - Mob War!, specifically - and I just wanted to put the copyright concerns to rest.

Opifer, the creator of Life on a Limb and the person who started the Identity project, cleared all the copyright issues before hand. We have the support of Hare Brained Schemes and the copyright holder's permission to use as much of the official published material in our UGC's as we'd like. As HBS has said, this is pretty much the point of SRR.

As far as hard coded assets, the community has already made a lot of strides in this area - most assets have been unlocked, it just takes a bit more work than using the editor.

Many things are in the works. The modding community has exploded since the game went live, and there are some amazing projects already in the works both within Identity and in the modding community on a whole.

 

[mogwins]

Ah, great news. Good luck, CDAgeek, I'm very much looking forward to playing your mod!