'The Runners' by Cthulhu

[Christian Knudsen]

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Description: This quest was inspired by a Sci-Fi movie (look at the title, and no, it's not "The Running Man"), and it has a good deal of references to other science fiction books, movies, and computer games. It will take you across the galaxy in a deadly hunt for the Runners. I've made it so it won't necessarily add anything to your criminal record, if you are careful.

Difficulty: Average

(The difficulty is based on completing the quest in a well-equipped Centurion.)

[Quaker2k9]

It's the movie I hoped it would be! Sweet!

But I think I got stuck somewhere... I've retired numbers three and four from my list and went back to the mining base to meet my client, but I can't find him! What am I doing wrong?

[Christian Knudsen]

I know that Cthulhu experienced this a few times when programming the quest, but I wasn't getting it and he didn't get it the last couple of times he tested. Can you send me a save game, so I can take a look at what's going on?

[Cthulhu]

Damn!
I thought that problem was gone. That scene loads when you kill Zhora, so save a game just before you talk to J.F. (or before Zhora jumps you) and try again (sorry about this). I haven't been able to recreate this strange behavior the last few times I played the quest, but I know what your talking about.

Don't know if Christian wants a saved game before or after that scene has loaded though?

EDIT: grammar.

[Quaker2k9]

I've already sent Christian a Save, unfortunately I only have one where the scene in question is already loaded (Zhora and Rachael retired). I'll later re-start the whole quest and make sure to save at the right time, then see if I can avoid the problem

Don't worry, I'm sure the problem will be identified and retired, too  

Something I spontaneously searched for one minute after reading your quest's description, to put me into the right mood:

YouTube Video

[Christian Knudsen]

Thanks. I'll check out the status of the quest variables to see if the correct scene has been loaded at all.

[Christian Knudsen]

Hmmm... Commander Jameson's character's template value is 2. That's why he isn't loaded when landing at the base. I'm trying to figure out why this is. His character's template value must not be reset correctly somewhere...

Anyway, a temporary fix will probably be to set his template value to 0 in the scene where he isn't loaded.

[Christian Knudsen]

I've found the bug. It causes a quest character's template value to not always be set to zero. It's fixed for the next release, but in the meantime it's probably a good idea to always set your quest character's template values to 0 to make sure.

[Cthulhu]

You still have my source code right? Could you set Cmdr. J:s value to 0 in the scene "Briefing", that would make my quest playable on this version as well, right?

[Christian Knudsen]

Yes, that should work. I'll do it for all characters that haven't got a template value different from 0 just to make sure. Quaker will still have to continue the game from a scene before this scene is loaded, though.

[Christian Knudsen]

I've updated the quest file available for download. It now resets all quest character's values to 0 (except for Rachael and Zhora). As Zhora has a template value of 2, I'm pretty sure the bug was transferring her template value over to Jameson's - that's why it didn't happen until after Zhora's scene.

[Quaker2k9]

Cool, I'll check it out as soon as I'm done fixing that monster scene I'm currently working on.

[Quaker2k9]

Oh-oh!

"Unable to load quest! You need at least v0.6 to load this quest....."

[Christian Knudsen]

D'oh! I compiled with my dev version, which is 0.6. Try it again now.

[Quaker2k9]

Alright, I've finished it! My review:

You've done a man's job there, Cthulhu! This definitely sets the benchmark for sheer awesomeness very high.

I'm not going to comment on the story too much, the implications are well known to anyone familiar with the SF genre... It doesn't get much better than Blade Runner. There is one thing that intrigues me, though:

In the beginning, the Commander says there are six (6) runaways. Let's make a quick count: Leon (1); Nomad/Clovis (2); Rachael (3), Zhora (4); Pris (5), "Mad Man" Hauer (6), Roy (7)..... Something to think about. Is this an error or have I just retired someone who was actually a real human being? I love this. Wasn't there a similar kind of "error" in the movie, with one replicant more declared than counted?