Training Room and Testing Arena


Author: Josiah (Firesnakearies)


Latest Version: 1.9 (8/18/13)



How to install:

If you have the Steam version of Shadowrun Returns, you can either find this mod on Steam Workshop* and click Subscribe to have it and all of its updates automatically downloaded for you, or you can take the .zip file and put it into My Documents\Shadowrun Returns\Content Packs. Alternately, you can put it into C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Shadowrun Returns\Shadowrun_Data\StreamingAssets\ContentPacks.

If you have the non-Steam, DRM-free version of Shadowrun Returns, you can put the file into C:\Users\*current user*\AppData\Local\Harebrained Schemes\Shadowrun Returns\ContentPacks. You can probably also put it into the My Documents path above, and you can also probably put the file into the path listed here even if you have the Steam version.

In either case, unzip the file in the ContentPacks folder of choice and it should be ready to play when you launch the game.

* http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=164782118



Change Log:


VERSION 1.1 - Added music.


VERSION 1.2 - Added some lighting in the Training Room, made the Karma eater also able to eat Nuyen. Made some large updates to the Arena, both cosmetic and functional. Talking to the Arena Master can now launch a few different events, including the crazy GHOUL FRENZY MODE. The Arena now has some walls and cover inside, and three additional encounters can be found within, including one fairly hard "boss" whom players of the main campaign will recognize and be eager to put down. Added a few miscellaneous triggers for fun here and there.


VERSION 1.3 - No actual update, just changed version number and re-published in the hopes that it helps some people download the pack successfully.


VERSION 1.4 - This update is HUGE. I've incorporated into this pack a fully working proof-of-concept of a SAVE ANYWHERE system for Shadowrun Returns that I've engineered using nothing but the variables and triggers available in the editor. Any content pack could use these ideas and have the ability for the players to save their game, and their progress, anywhere.

This means in the middle of a scene, they could save, exit the game, and come back and load into where they last were, with all of their actions and achievements in the scene saved. And they said it couldn't be done!

It's fully integrated into this pack, so you can try it out and see that it really works. I'll be writing up a big guide about how exactly to do it, but for now you can see it firsthand and, if you like, open up my pack in the editor yourself and just take a look at my variables and triggers.

Also in this update, I added a few Goals to the arena, just little quest-like objectives with a bit of cute text in your quest items window. I didn't think the pack needed Goals, just being a trainer and test arena, but I wanted to include them as part of the proof-of-concept for the save system, showing that progress can really be retained even after leaving the scene and exiting the game.

Also added a tiny bit more dialogue to the Arena Master, and gave him the ability to turn on and off the hostility of the whole Arena at your request.


VERSION 1.5 - In a big improvement to the save anywhere system, now you no longer have to port to another separate map in order to save. When you use the click-to-save feature, it just reloads the scene you're already in, with your progress preserved. This makes the process quite a bit quicker.

You can now ask the Arena Master to summon cloned ninjas to fight, in whatever numbers you desire. They can be summoned in a big group in the center of the Arena, or randomly spread out all over the map. While the ninjas are up in the Arena, if Harlequin is still alive, he temporarily fights on your side and cannot be harmed.

Also enlarged the Arena a fair amount, giving more room for fights to take place without always aggroing other groups of enemies nearby. Added some more walls around inside. The Ghoul Frenzy Mode is now somewhat less ridiculous.


VERSION 1.51 - Small update, just improved the save system so that when you save, and load back into the scene, you're standing on the exact spot you were at before, rather than merely near it.

Also removed a trigger that I had in for testing purposes which was showing the number of ninjas alive on the map over your head when you clicked your character.


VERSION 1.52 - Just a couple of very small bug fixes.


VERSION 1.6 - A new merchant has joined the Training Room! Look for Tracker, who has brought the firepower of the Street Samurai Catalog for you to purchase, test out in the Arena, or take with you into other content.


VERSION 1.61 - Had to temporarily remove the Street Samurai Catalog weapons. Will work on returning them soon.


VERSION 1.62 - The Street Samurai Catalog has been restored to the Training Room, including its brand new version, which adds a large variety of new cyberware designed by Tracker. This time the SSC gear does not require a dependency on the SSC content pack, so it should work fine for everyone.


VERSION 1.63 - No content update, just a small possible fix.


VERSION 1.7 - Added the ability to hire a team of Shadowrunners to fight with your character in the Arena. Added practice targets of four different difficulties that players can test their damage and accuracy against without the targets dying or attacking them back. Significantly improved the Ghoul Frenzy mode, making it much more playable. You no longer have to wait for 40 ghouls to take their turns at once! Added some larger denominations of Nuyen available from the Nuyen giver NPC, so that people can buy some of the expensive Street Samurai Catalog stuff without having to add up 20,000 at a time.


VERSION 1.8 - Big update with some important changes to the functionality of the mod. The Training Room and Testing Arena are no longer two separate scenes, but both reside within one scene now, allowing the player to very quickly teleport back and forth between them with no loading screen. Saving is still possible at any time by left-clicking on the character (out of combat only).

Updated the Street Samurai Catalog vendor in the Training Room to the brand new, latest version of Tracker's data files (v3g). This means that alpha, beta, and delta grade cyberware is available, plus all of his recent fixes, as well as the large assortment of tiered armor in all of the available player outfit styles.

The Arena now has four selectable difficulty levels. It defaults to Easy now, with all of the encounters within being quite a bit weaker than they were previously, suitable for low-Karma characters. By talking to the Arena Master, the difficulty can be set to Moderate, Hard, or Insane, with a very large difference in challenge level between Easy and Insane. The encounters within the Arena can also now be reset at any time, at whatever difficulty level is desired.

In addition, the summoned ninja clones can be called in four different difficulty level versions as well. The option exists to clear out the normal encounters from the Arena when summoning whatever amount of ninjas the player wants to fight, or they can be left in. The ninjas do not have to be the same difficulty level as the rest of the Arena. Harlequin, if still alive, will still fight against the ninjas while they exist within the Arena. (For a hilarious show, set the Arena difficulty to Insane, then summon a ton of Easy ninjas into the center with Harlequin.)

If asked, the Arena Master can run an analysis of the player character and rate their readiness for combat with a numeric value from 0 to 5, and then recommend what difficulty level their score most likely suits them for. This does not merely check the character's total Karma spent, but looks at their combat-oriented skills and specializations, Body, Dodge, and base AP. Points in Decking, for example, contribute nothing in this context.

Of course, various character builds may end up to be stronger, or weaker, in actual practice than the Arena Master's recommendation would suggest. Also, all testing and assumptions of challenge level are based on the game difficulty setting of Very Hard. If playing on a lower setting, the recommended Arena difficulty level may seem easier than expected.

The save-anywhere system built into this mod will keep track of what difficulty level is current, as well as which enemies are still alive and which are dead, and what difficulty of ninjas and how many there are in the Arena at the time of saving.


VERSION 1.82 - Added Tir Tairngire Ghosts, in four different difficulty levels, as an additional option for enemies to summon in whatever numbers you choose. These can be summoned alongside the ninjas previously available. However, a hard cap of 40 summoned enemies has been implemented, as the game performs poorly when trying to spawn or respawn more than that.


VERSION 1.9 - Added two harder difficulty levels to the Ghoul Frenzy Mode event, and added a Goal to complete the event as well. Also cleaned up a few small problem bits of scripting that could cause issues with Ghoul Frenzy if running it more than once.

Improved the Tracker Street Samurai Catalog vendor by allowing the player to see store screens for only a specific category of his goods, including each grade of cyberware by itself, each type of weapon, and each tier of armored outfits.

Added giant bugs as another type of enemy that can be summoned in player-chosen numbers. All four types of insects are included, though they have been modified to no longer spawn an invincible pure spirit when they die. The four types of bugs are generated randomly in mixed groups of the size selected by the player. All four bug varieties have the same four difficulty level versions as the rest of the enemies in the Arena.

Also added the ability to summon random groups of enemies including all of the summoned foes thus far. So now the player can fight 10, 20, or 40 randomly-selected opponents including ninjas, Tir Ghosts, and all four types of bugs, again in any one of the four difficulty levels.