Vampire: Bloodlines

We're still talking about Bloodlines 2 even happening? I haven't heard anything in months and every fan I know has given up.

I don't like to be a Debbie Downer, I'd love Bloodline 2 to come out and be good, but I haven't seen any reason to be optimistic.

If it is happening, give me my Baali DLC. Won't happen, they wouldn't even let Baali be in a recent book, but a man can hope.

Edited by Nikkolas on Sep 16th 2021 at 3:08:09 AM

Given that they fired the devs... no you're entirely correct that it's not happening.

Paradox might be set on making use of the license but so far Bloodlines 2 as we know it is dead in the water.

Given how much Paradox have gone into the license we will definitely see a game called Bloodlines 2, how much of it comes from the original version will be anyone's guess. That said Paradox was rather upfront that we would hear nothing until 2022.

Yeah, whatever the devs planned might be dead, but they'll end up using the license for a Bloodlines 2.

Question is how much of a mess was it and how much do they have to work with, I guess.

Well they had to throw out all that Chris Avelline wrote when it turned out he has a sexual predator, not sure how things were from a programming perspective. They’ll probably use the art assets and salvage as much of the recorded dialogue as they can.

As long as they let the Malkavians keep Dementation I'm good. The fact that 5E of the TTRPG of Vampire just rolled it into Domination is a goddamn travesty.

> suddenly Fish Malks everywhere

The Final Nights mod, being a mod, has to make use of the original resources like voiced dialogue and it does this in a pretty neat way here. Everybody thinks you're a Tremere if you want them to. I just got to Downtown and you can make Strauss think you're a Tremere. But the main point is it's all lore friendly so far as I know, Baali often posing as Tremere and even their blood "tastes like Tremere blood" apparently. All sorts of intriguing speculation over that, one reason I like them.

Also all the hub/club music is replaced in the mod which is kinda disappointing but eh. I did not expect to know a single song in the clubs but the very first one I heard I knew right away

Not a bad choice for Asylum and Tourette. Original music was better but, again, it's whatever.

It's also entirely possible that there were a lot worse problems under the hood we'll never know until way later.

Like, it's not a fun thing to consider and we all hate the silence and how little info there is and how devastating it is for development to be entirely rebooted, but... it might have been for good reason.

Sometimes, if rarely, executive meddling has good reasons to occur. The outcome might be "salvage" but the original might have been worse.

They might reuse all the previous assets.

Chris Avelone actually said the game was close to finished when suddenly the head of the game wanted to throw out everything he and Brian Mitsoda had written, which was about all of the side quests.

https://chrisavellone.medium.com/what-the-fuck-happened-to-bloodlines-2-1ad557bf2284

(And whatever you think of him - obviously he was a witness to what happened behind the scenes)

Edited by CharlesPhipps on Sep 17th 2021 at 5:22:38 AM

So continuing my run of The Final Nights mod...

So I'm in Downtown now. I would say I'm having an okay time. A very noticeable difference between the base game and this mod is how it handles Humanity. This bugs me more than the limits on XP and money because this isn't just a difficulty enhancer or fun reducer, it doesn't make any sense.

I usually play low Humanity. It just makes sense for me. Higher Humanity is easier to lose. 1 innocent killed will affect you deeply. I understand that. BUT in this mod, any innocent killed ever will make you lose 1 Humanity. I have a Humanity of 4 right now and just to test things out, I killed the Thin-bloods on the beach. Every single death made me lose 1 Humanity until game over.

Furthermore, according to the explanation at the start, a Humanity of 1-3 leaves you so precariously balanced on a knife edge that even being around an innocent dying (you explicitly don't have to kill them yourself) will cost you Humanity.

This is especially totally backwards. The Humanity metric is such that the lower it is for you, the less troubled you are by others suffering or dying. High Humanity might dip because of death caused by others - empathy and all that - but all ranks of Humanity losing points at the same speed is against the whole basis and spirit of the system

It could be worse. Like, say, rolling the entirety of Thaumaturgy into fricking Quietus.

Malkavians had Dominate in 1e before it canonically mutated into Dementation for 2e, so at least there's precedent for Malks with Dominate.

Quietus was rolled into Thaumaturgy.

And Dementation was always something that Dominate could have done before.

What is it about Jack that makes me like him in each and every run despite my knowledge of the truth? Jack has the best act ever - that of the straight shooter who won't bullshit you unlike everyone else.

But he IS bullshiting you! That's the key and big twist. He's using you just like La Croix or Ming Xiao. Now Jack will frame it in a sort of Joker way - I'm just introducing a little chaos and if you get burned or make bad decisions, oh well. But at the end of the day he is concealing a lot of pivotal info from you. You are a pawn in his game.

The only vampire who really has no agenda that involves exploiting you is Beckett(who I also love),

But as I chat up Jack in the Last Round again knowing all I know, I still am like 'this dude is totally righteous and correct about everything."

Jack is a lot like that isn't he?

It's interesting, I think the game tells you the only major players you can trust are Beckett and... is it Strauss?

Yes, the Tremere Cammie. I sided with him on my first run because not only does what he says make sense, he is pretty fair with you.

Everybody online told me "oh he's just using you." And maybe he kinda is but only in the sense that your advancement also helps him. He never makes any moves to hurt you, he is happy to reward you well, he tells you most everything he knows... Can't really ask for more in a patron in this world.

Jack tells you not to trust anyone, including him. He gives you what you need to survive and the fact you got swallowed up by his plot is actually something of an accident.

She says you can only trust Beckett and Mercurio.

Oddly, Mercurio won't turn on you despite his Blood Bond to La Croix. He must be really grateful for saving his life.

Edited by CharlesPhipps on Sep 19th 2021 at 7:31:15 AM

I think it makes sense, La Croix only really directly tries to kill you at the end of the game by which point you're a hyper-lethal killing machine. For most of the plot, he's busy sending you on suicide missions.

So having Mercurio try to harm you either would be useless because you'd effortlessly smash him or it would get in the way of the suicide missions. It makes sense that La Croix never bothers to order him to do so.

And of course, you're right that Mercurio himself likely has ample reason to avoid betraying the PC.

Edited by Fourthspartan56 on Sep 19th 2021 at 10:34:38 AM

I need to reinstall and play Bloodlines again, tbh. I would 100% be a blood doll for Jeanette Voerman, or really any number of the vampire babes in it haha. (It's in my Statblock under Vulnerability: Will Simp for Goth Babe Vampires)

They know, that's why Jeanette's the cover.

I really wish there was a trope name for Jeanette's "type." You see it also with Harley Quinn (in certain incarnations) or Toga from My Hero Academia. You got the pigtails and cute demeanor that doesn't so much mask their psychopathy as it emphasizes it through the contrast. Obviously there's Psychopathic Womanchild but this is a very specific thing, I think.

Innocent and Violent as one and it works really well. I mean, if you're into that kinda thing, which apparently a lot of guys are. I am.

Good call, I forgot about that one.

Edited by Nikkolas on Sep 19th 2021 at 11:55:20 AM

Cute and Psycho is usually the descriptor for those scenarios.

Sexy Jester?

Not too surprisingly, Bloodlines 2 was nearly canceled until the current developer's pitch convinced the publisher to keep it on.

I shouldn't be, but I am still surprised at how much of a mess it seemed to be.