Revisiting VtM: Bloodlines

[Average Manatee]

If its a combat area (signified by the gun icon above the health bar) as opposed to a civilian or elysium area you can always just kill everyone AFAIK. Some NPCs will get mad and you might miss out on a reward or something, but you won't derail the game or anything.

As for the VV mission, the 'correct' way to do it is to lockpick the nearby gizmo to make one patron go away, use the computer to shut the other peep hole, then lure the 2nd stripper away to another room before killing your main target. You can also accomplish it if you stun the relevant NPCs through feeding or perhaps disciplines, but I think its slightly buggy and may still count as a messy kill sometimes.

PrimeJunta I did have some intimidate, 5 I think, but how does that come up in the plaguebearer quest? it still ends in a boss fight no?

It doesn't, I think he was referring to the diner ambush.

Honestly Intimidate is a really bad dialog skill. Early on its mainly useful over persuasion for slightly more money in some situations but eventually either intimidate actually makes situations worse for you or NPCs just start laughing you off. For men always go persuasion, for women seduction is a 2nd option.

 

[Multidirectional]

Grouts mansion like the ocean house is a one way street and time hasn't been kind to exposition via breadcrumb audio logs or diaries.

Fuck that. Logs in Grouts mansion are pure awesomeness.

 

[Roguey]

As for the VV mission, the 'correct' way to do it is to lockpick the nearby gizmo to make one patron go away, use the computer to shut the other peep hole, then lure the 2nd stripper away to another room before killing your main target. You can also accomplish it if you stun the relevant NPCs through feeding or perhaps disciplines, but I think its slightly buggy and may still count as a messy kill sometimes.

I did that, and it doesn't matter because the dialogue specifically calls out the fact that she heard the gunshots.

I did it on purpose because I had already completed it the optimal way on a prior run.

 

[Ultra]

Guess I missed something at the diner as well because I tried talking to the thugs before picking up the phone and they just say 'get lost dickhead' or something like that.

Fuck that. Logs in Grouts mansion are pure awesomeness.

Yeah individually they're good but the device itself, which bloodlines uses a lot along with diaries is bad. In the sewers later you read a diary of a guy sent down to investigate and after a few entries the final one ends with something like "OH GOD WHAT'S THAT NOISE, SOMEBODY HELP ME.."

I mean, come on.

 

[Roguey]

Troika would perhaps sheepishly suggest they were making a subtle Holy Grail Castle of Aaargh reference. ^_^

 

[Ultra]

For which I would have even less tolerance, although I don't think so. I think they're above Monty Python references, although the written writing is noticeably worse than the spoken kind. Pr0n jokes and penis enlargement spam emails date the game somewhere in the 90s, or at least that's what it feels like.

 

[pippin]

Well, Bloodlines is supposed to represent the real world with a supernatural side to it, so it's ok. Besides, actual Vampire pnp sessions can be way more cringeworthy than that.

 

[gestalt11]

I don't play VtM:B for balanced gameplay, doing so is a fruitless endeavor because its base mechanics for both melee and ranged (but especially range gun play) are simply bad. The game itself is very rewarding overall, but its action combat mechanics are just terrible and awkward.

 

[Roguey]

I think they're above Monty Python references

Snrk!

 

[Raghar]

Hey that's that one. He's totally awesome. You can ruin his job, so he ends there. In comparison to other characters he's surprisingly honest.

 

[Tacgnol]

Hey that's that one. He's totally awesome. You can ruin his job, so he ends there. In comparison to other characters he's surprisingly honest.

The best is using demention on him and forcing him to abandon guarding the art gallery and go dance at Asylum.

 

[Prime Junta]

Been playing a bit of the way as a Malk. Probably won't finish as the gameplay and quests are same-same, but damn did they do a lot of work on the dialog. I had remembered that it was just your lines that were written wackily, but there's a ton of reactivity to it. They don't do shit like that anymore, more's the pity.

 

[pippin]

For maximum Malkavianness do stuff that reduces your Humanity.

 

[Ultra]

Snrk!

Brian Mitsoda said that he was completely exhausted by months of crunch and himself was going stir crazy himself when he wrote the Malkavian dialogue, so it's probably satire.
And did you just have a relevant screenshot of a small conversation to pull out on the off chance somebody got on to the subject? that's...something.

 

[Roguey]

nd did you just have a relevant screenshot of a small conversation to pull out on the off chance somebody got on to the subject? that's...something.

I make a lot of screenshots for trolling purposes.

Ah yes, Star Wars reference.

 

[Average Manatee]

For maximum Malkavianness do stuff that reduces your Humanity.

How much does Humanity effect dialog in general? I've always kept it high since it seemed the right thing, and assumed that low humanity would just lock out quests or dialog.

 

[pippin]

For maximum Malkavianness do stuff that reduces your Humanity.

How much does Humanity effect dialog in general? I've always kept it high since it seemed the right thing, and assumed that low humanity would just lock out quests or dialog.

The general tone changes iirc. I can't remember if some options get locked out, but when playing Malkavian, some of the weirdest choices (like talking to the Stop sign) are only available for characters with mid-low humanity.

 

[Vibalist]

She's the only Toreador in the game who exhibits Toreador qualities. Isaac is too Ventrue-ish, while Ash is just... there. Where are the great artists and charmers? Maybe that's the point, that there are no great artists and charmers in the final days of the world, only decadence and murder. That's what I would've done anyway.

One thing VTMB was really good at was to make its characters fit within the stereotypes of their respective clans without making them come across as stereotypes themselves. It's telling that you think Isaac and Ash don't behave like typical Toreador, because they do, just in unexpected ways.

When you think of clan Toreador you think of the exact type of person VV is. Vain, seductive, manipulative, 'artistic' in only the most superficial sense of the word, so obviously every player with even a passing familiarity with oWoD will guess what clan she belongs to right away. With Isaac and Ash it's more difficult, but they exhibit just as many of the Toreador traits as she does: Isaac is a film producer who chooses Hollywood as his habitat because he's so enamored with the art of film making he can't go anywhere else and Ash is a former actor who's completely stuck in the past because it signifies artistic achievement and greatness to him. The vanity and the preoccupation with all things beautiful and aesthetically pleasing is there, just not where you'd think. It's good writing, plain and simple, and we see this with many of the different characters throughout the game: Grout is a deranged Malkavian, yes, but not in the typical fish-malky way (that the PC incidentally is). His insanity is slowly revealed to the player the further he progresses into the mansion, but he's also rational and sane in many ways. Therese is someone whom you'd initially assume is a Ventrue based on how she presents herself (Jeanette is a different matter, granted), but then you learn she suffers from a split personality. Again, she's not a fishmalk, but someone who behaves like a real person with a real derangement.

VTMB is very good at tackling the different clans in great, believable and sometimes subversive ways. Some characters fall into the standard mold (Sebastian LaCroix is your standard, power hungry scheming Ventrue, most of the Nosferatu behave the way you'd expect), but then you have characters that defy expectations. It's just another reason why this game is so well written. Troika got the setting.

 

[pippin]

As I said before, VV is supposed to be a poseur Toreador, and that's why she's so mellodramatic. The difference between the true artists and the poseurs is the same than the beats and the beatniks, one is a "leader" and the other's a follower. That's why Isaac is a perfect example of a true Toreador, actually, while VV thinks pole dancing is supposed to be something like ballet or some shit like that, and treats the guy making a b film like he was doing some arthouse film. Being elegant isn't a necessity; they do like that artistic air, but I remember the Toreador book suggesting people like thrash metal guitarists as examples of Toreador.

 

[Prime Junta]

^
What they said.

Isaac is especially good IMO. His voice actor was also brilliant, the way he switched from stern businessman to projecting (entirely calculated) warmth.

 

[pippin]

He was voiced by Jim Ward, who also did Max Strauss and Bach in the game.

 

[Prime Junta]

He was voiced by Jim Ward, who also did Max Strauss and Bach in the game.

Strauss was also very well voiced. Bach was too OTT for my blood.

 

[Hegel]

The nosferatu guys were well done as well, though they could have been merged into a single character. The OST was top notch.

 

[Vibalist]

Hah, I was just listening to that.

 

[Gondolin]

Strauss was also very well voiced. Bach was too OTT for my blood.

I find it annoying that Bach, who is supposedly German, pronounces LaCroix's name in the retarded USian manner.