Vampire: Bloodlines

Welp, looks like I missed out on "Heather." I was quite stumped by the Elizabethan mission given I am no good at stealth. I looked up a guide and it mentioned her. I've heard the name before but looks like she a goner since I only now knew to ask about vampire blood. Not really in character for my PC to save some random chick anyway....

In the Clan Quest Mod which has Companion Mod Lite, you can only get Heather and some other chick as a follower. I think it started with a Z or Y? I'm not e ven sure who that might be.

Speaking of being in character, is your dialogue modified by things other than Clan? For example, my character said good riddance to the plague victims expiring. It would not seem very appropriate for all characters to say such a thing, though but it depends more on personality than your bloodline I would think.

And getting back to that stealth mission, let's also go back to how Lacroix is a bad leader. Being a good leader means being good at delegation. No one person excels at everything. So when you ask the young woman whose reputation is staked on blowing up a warehouse after slaughtering a bunch of goons , who delights in her savage beastial form and nature, and you tell her NOT to kill a dozen or so guys who will kep geting in her way, is that her fault? If you hire a carpenter to fix your PC, is it their fault they can't do it or your fault for be ing so clueless? B esides, I killed one dude on my way to the sarcophagus and I only laid down a massacre when there were like four guys standing in front of the only exit. What the fuck was I supposed to do?!

I'm pleased to report that the mod did indeed work! Sort of. I tried it on Damsel but when I a sked her to take it outside she just...vanished. Disappointed but undaunted I went to The Asylum and Jeanette was more than happy to join up. No need for fights or brainwashing here. My v ague theory is that be cause I said Nines was at Grout's mansion that this put me in the outs with the Anarchs and that fucked up the Damsel stuff.

Speaking of which, the Plot is really taking off in a hurry. This Sarcophagus thing, this important vampire killed and then suddenly a vampire hunter appears, too! I can't say for certain but a few posts elsewhere and the vagueness with which the endings are treated on here makes me suspect this game might fall off a cliff? If that's too strong, perhaps better to say the beginning is far more beloved than the end?

How many areas are there in this game? Do I get one more hub like Santa Monica or Downtown? I'm asking be cause I'm curious how far along in the game I am and also because I'm wondering when the next shop appears. I have tons and tons of money now and just wondering if I should start investing in the Downtown merchant. He says he only sells his best stuff to his best clients which I took to mean I have to buy a lot from him in order to gain access to beter stuff. I haven't done that yet though because I haven't needed anything.

Wish me luck in the Museum. I'll try to be stealthy...again. But if it fails, I blame Lacroix.

Humanity will also determine possible responses, low humanity Vampires treat humans as cattle or toys while high humanity Vampires treat them as people.

The other major hub is Chinatown, there are vendors and some quests but content-wise it's much scantier than the others.

"Sandwiches are probably easier to fix than the actual problems" -Hylarn

You still have two more hub areas left. Both are somewhat shorter than the first two, but after that there's a bunch of one-off "dungeon" areas you'll pretty much go through one after the other until the ending.

enjoy Tzimmy's Fun Tunnel

And then there was silence

Thanks for the info everyone. Glad I still got lots of game left. Also glad the writers put so much effort into writing. Really helps RP'ers like me. I still have 2 Humanity left. I guess I need to hold onto that or it's game over?

Fuck Lacroix for constantly doing this to me. Beckett asked my opinion on what vampires were and I said "We're demons and the blood of this world is ours to take freely." To segue into a larger topic on how my character sees herself and her new life, I've heard the Camarilla are the "Flat Earth Atheist" types just like Beckett which explains why Lacroix is so adamant the Sarcophagus doesn't contain this uber vampire that broke out or whatever. I find this lack of faith disturbing. While Beckett's counter is well-taken (I also agree that the sort of human exceptionalism you see in real life and philosophy is BS), my character is not as skeptical as me. She looks at her new-found life and powers and the world she's been inducted into and it is a source of endless wonder. Everything is so...magical (not like actual magic, but not strictly metaphorical if you get my meaning) and nothing could seem more plausible than Caine or the Antediluvians or this Gehenna. Vampires who think they are just cursed, like Vick or Skelter, or who think there's "nothing more" to vampirism than some super mundane material explanation like Beckett are just lacking in imagination. My PC deeply believes she and the Kindred are special.

But tell me, Lore Buffs: - are Vampires from outer space or are they like the X-Men? ( love this game's writing) Alas, my PC doesn't have much in the way of a sense of humor....

As for the justification for the Masquerade, if half of the stuff I remember from vampire vs. debates are true, a single Wo D Vamp of the first few generations could solo the human race easily.

Even beyond that, the "technology" argument doesn't hold up. My PC aside, vampires are not all cavepeople or animals. They're humans but with superhuman capabilities, both physical and mental. If 1 vampire is worth 10 people in raw combat, they could be positively unequaled in terms of, I dunno, subterfuge or manipulation. If wars were still decided between infantry and tanks, maybe vamps would lose. But that same technology that is supposedly humanity's strength would benefit a far smarter, mor epowerful elite of vampires.

It's been a while since I played the original Bloodlines game.

I remember playing a "Missions" mod (don't remember what it's called) that added some more missions to the game, including some clan-specific missions. There was this new NPC that came with that mod, and starting her questline involved both of you training two humans to death, with her chewing you out for whining if you say you didn't mean to drain the human to death. Felt a little too soapbox-y for my liking, so I got rid of the mod.

Then again, I was the type of player who never really got dinged on Humanity since I never too many asshole-ish things.

Edited by dragonfire5000 on Apr 17th 2019 at 4:29:19 AM

For the first bit that's technically true but it's worth pointing out that the vast majority of Kindred aren't Antideluvians, and those that aren't either 1) deny their existence or 2) want to eat them. So while the Antideluvians may not need the Masquerade that isn't true for the majority of Kindred.

Furthermore, while your point about manipulation is correct it's worth keeping in mind that secrecy makes manipulation much more effective. Once that secrecy is gone then the Kine could start aggressively rooting out Vampire influence. We actually see this in action in V5 (what Bloodlines 2 is based on) where the various intelligence services of the World discover the existence of Vampires and start wrecking them, to the point that the Tremere and Giovanni elders are more or less extinct.

So, while it's true that Kindred have advantages over humans it's rather heavily reliant on most humans not knowing anything about them. A world without the Masquerade is one where such guarantees no-longer exist, Vampires may not go extinct but they'd most likely become an endangered species quickly.

Edited by Fourthspartan56 on Apr 17th 2019 at 4:37:58 AM

"Sandwiches are probably easier to fix than the actual problems" -Hylarn

Oh, yeah, the clan quest mod. My last playthrough was with that installed.

It was interesting, but mainly because it somehow managed to make a Malkavian PC even more ridiculously OP late game... which was a pretty amazing achievement.

Yes. The Camarilla are the vampires who, as a matter of dogma, deny that Ancients still exist. Because that's their response to a sheer existential Cosmic Horror Story - head in the sand and hope it goes away.

As for the Masquerade, that's complicated. First, the low-generation vampires you speak of aren't at the forefront of vampire politics anymore, and firebombing a regular elder's haven in the daytime does work. More than that, however, the Masquerade is one of the most important drivers of vampire politics. Masquerade breaches are an excuse for vampires to mess with each other in the name of security, so "what counts as a Masquerade breach" depends on how powerful the vampires involved are.

Edited by Ramidel on Apr 18th 2019 at 11:09:45 AM

I despise hypocrisy, unless of course it is my own.

You can easily define what a violation is, but if the the vampire that committed it is more powerful or influential than his/her would-be punishers, there's not much they can do about it.

Health sure is versatile. It's possible to be both light-headed and dim-witted. At the same time, no less.

The V5 timeline is interesting. A lot of potential for good story, even from the little I've read.

Wow, that run-in with Samantha was...unexpected and also powerful. I had all but forgotten my vampire used to be human. In fact, I had originally wondered what had motivated my doomed sire to change me and if it was going to be relevant to the plot at all. I still have no answer to that. But Samantha is dead in spite of my warnings. Can't say I feel terribly sad or anything but there is certainly a ...poignancy to her death t hat is lacking in the dozens or hundreds of others I've killed so far. It's hard to put into words, though.

Could they have dragged out the thing with Julius any longer? There wasn't even the option to spare him, just like five different prompts with 3 responses eac h, all amounting to "you have to die now." Some said it nicely, some didn't, but he was super dead.

VV is...intriguing. Inevitably an RP character and you always come into conflict. I myself would totally love her. However, listening to her beating around the bush of who and what she is, whining about not wanting to kill but sending you to kill, and all delivered in a melodramatic fashion, made my PC gnash her teeth and roll her eyes so much it's a wonder she didn't chew her own face off while her eyes fell out of her head.

You can enslave her in this mod too and that actually works. I just tested it out, dunno if I'll actually do it. Pretentious she might be but my character isn't one for dominating the wills of others. Just kill them and be done with it.

Isaac is interesting, certainly a very different type of "Anarch" to the ones in Downtown. He didn't say a word about his politics at all, really. I guess his views begin and end with "we don't need the Camarilla's BS here"?

But I AM grateful to Caine and I also strive to be in touch with the Beast within. See, this is why, based on my little reading before starting the game, I thought the Sabbat sounded pretty rad and agreeable to my vision for my PC. They respect and honor their vampirific existence. But here I am just brushed off as a Camarilla dog and then I kill the Sabbat guy. I detest this idea of vampires as businessman, as just another feature of the world. Perhaps that's another reason I like Strauss more than Lacroix. Strauss has a respectable mystical air about him. Lacroix could be an Ivy League twit with granddad's money.

I mentioned earlier that I felt only Intimidate fit my character and Seduction and Persuasion were both too OOC. Have you seen the Protean form, specifically how it moves? The only description I can think of is lumbering. There is power and savagery in that lumbering gait but no finesse or cunning. This is basically my character's preferred state as she sees it as more...genuine, representing who she is now, a glimpse of the Beast within. Is The Beast not the true heart of being a vampire? Whether it's Protean or when you Frenzy, being a vampire is clearly...primal, beastial.

Enough of my babble though. It just crossed my mind as I watched her move while in Protean form. Which I have mastered by the way. Love it so much. Yet somehow I killed the Gargoyle before he killed me in normal form while transforming got me killed every time. It seemed like Protean form did less damage somehow. This was before I got War Form, though.

And then... the Warrens. Oh god, the Warrens. They are longer than every other dungeon or combat area in the game combined. I'm still not sure what it means wen my healthbar changes colors instead of depleting. I'm infected or something?

I feel kinda bad. Those big monsters in the Warrens were all glitching out. You fight one in a big room as it throws corpses at you and then you drop down forever and there are like three more of them. But after the first one killed me because I wasn't prepared for it at all and tried to win without any Disciplines, after every reload (and I tried multiple reloads of the original spot entering the level just to give them a chance to go back to working like it initially did) they all just stood still and let me kill them. The next couple at least were working right.

"Hacking? I can barely type." You said it, other me.

That whole abduction bit was most intriguing, even if it was bugged all to hell. Funny,I've been hearing about this game's greatness forever and no mention at all of how it's a buggy mess. But people won't shut up about Bethesda games which I have never had half the problems with that I've seen in this.

Finished Carnival of Death. Huh, it was another Gangrel and most of the dialogue seemed to be reprimanding him for indulging in his Beast. Don't really get it. I'm not sure what the correct choice is even supposed to be there, correct for my PC that is. If you let him go, you fail the quest and the log shits on you for letting a killer go free. But all he did was kill some thugs who murdered his family, big whoop. But if you kill him, is that supposed to be you defending humanity or some shit? "How dare you indulge your vampiric self!" What tosh.

Those Double Dragon rejects killed me several times before in my successful attempt I killed one of them in like no time at all. No idea how that happened but who cares. I knew I couldn't trust Ming Xiao, though. She was clearly patronizing about how her kind are so much better, even if she played nice.

It's kind of strange though. Aren't the Giovanni another clan? Why were Kuei-jin the bosses of the area? Why were most of the enemies humans? Didn't actually meet a single Giovanni, at least none of note. just some boring enemies.

My PC: Assyrians...didn't we go to war with them a few years back?

I kept trying to report to Lacroix or even Strauss about the pretty important shit going down. Like being abducted by an organization that clearly knows all about us. However I couldn't bring it up to either of them so....Apparently with the Sarcophagus found, that doesn't matter. Oh well, I tried.

And now I can turn one human into a vampire. That's a pretty heavy choice...if I knew any humans worth anything. I already tried to talk to Venus, about the only human character I like, and nothing happened. Assuming you can only change a very limited, select number of humans Like that Heather girl. Oops.

Who is Yukie, by the way? Should I have met her? Is she like another potential LI like the ill-fated Heather? (that is what Heather kinda was, right?)

Yukie is a character in chinatown, she gives you a quest to hunt down a 'demon'.

It is possible to spare him. I'm guessing your humanity is so low you didn't get the option.

When it turns yellow? That means you've suffered aggravated damage. That's damage from things vampires are especially weak to, such as fire, sunlight, and supernatural attacks like vampire claws. Along with doing a lot of damage, it takes longer for that section of your health bar lost to aggravated damage to heal.

The game was so rushed, unfinished, and buggy in its base state that some say without patches it's literally impossible to finish the game. It's almost necessary that you install the fan patch to get the game working properly. I'm a bit surprised you never heard anything about that.

Are you talking about the Giovanni mansion? The Giovanni are basically both a mafia family and a vampire clan. Every family member there was a Giovanni family member, but only the inner circle are vampires. Family members who advance in the family's ranks are eventually embraced. So almost everyone at the mansion was a human, except the guy who owns the place, he's a Giovanni clan vampire. The Kuei-Jin guys down in the catacombs aren't affiliated, they snuck in to guard the sarcophagus from you.

Edited by KuroBaraHime on Apr 18th 2019 at 10:33:47 AM

The only thing I've ever heard about Bloodlines is how great it is and how everyone should play it, not that you can barely play it.

On a related note...

"Some things are best forgotten."

Not this game, it was great.

But holy shit, that ending doesn't just creep up on you, it ambushes you in a dark alley. It will take time to collect my overall thoughts, I honestly did not expect this. I could feel things heading to the climax but then the climax was just there and I was left very perplexed.

I will say I justify siding with Strauss because he's the only person who hasn't lied to me or tried to have me killed. Well, I guess the Anarchs haven't either but, well, fuck them. And why would anyone side with the Kuei-jin? You literally learn nothing about their real perspective or agenda. Ming gives you some info sure but that is not the same thing as agreeing with her ideology, whatever that might be. And I had no idea what "go my own way" even meant here.

Felt a bit bad for Lacroix at the end. He apparently did feel he and he alone could protect the city and its Kindred. If he had an ounce of charisma, I might have sided with him in spite of what he tried to do to me. Alas, he did not so his power mad messianic delusions hold no allure. Still, if I ever replay the game, I'd side with him first to see what happens.

What about the Redemption game? Nobody ever talks about that one.

Edited by Nikkolas on Apr 19th 2019 at 6:59:24 AM

Yeah, the Redemption one really doesn't get mentioned much compared to Bloodlines. Thus I'd probably assume it really isn't great even in comparison to Bloodlines and only worth consideration if you're a really huge VtM fan.

I think big mods still exist for even that one though, so perhaps it could be worth a go...but I could not tell you if so, I've not heard of them.

Vampire the Masquerade Redemption isn't particularly good. It's a very mixed bag. The story is so-so. The voice acting is atrocious. It was also buggy as fuck on launch. I assume that's since been fixed in the intervening nearly 2 decades. The combat is dull and repetitive and the AI is dumb as a sack of bricks.

Don't know if this has been posted before but Nerd Slayer did a nice video on the collapse of Troika Games, the company that made Bloodlines. Speaks a bit about why the game is a brilliant, if buggy mess.

> The combat is dull and repetitive and the AI is dumb as a sack of bricks.

And characters walk around like they've got a stick up their arses

Despite these issues people do enjoy the game

New theme music also a box

I don't get Beckett. He mocks the Camarilla for not believing but isn't that precisely what he is all about?

I'm also soured on the Sabbat after hearing of this Diabolism business. My PC would not stand for such a thing. Killing other vampires is one thing but feeding on them and stealing their powers? It feels...wrong, heretical.

I let the good professor live since Beckett basically asked me to and there didn't seem real cause to kill him.

The Sabbat hotel was the hardest thing all game bar none. I'd be fucked if they didn't have random meals lying around for you to drain.

And then the game is fucking over. What the hell. First off, I was expecting the dialogue with Nines to be far far more extensive where I had to pick the right options. But then...WEREWOLVES! In lore, are werewolves 10 foot tall juggernauts who can easily tear vampires apart? I barely survived that by crouching out behind this shed thing and against the "edge" of the map. I had to use up all my bought healing items just to barely get into the tram. I figured "okay, I used them all up now but I'll be safe once I get away and buy more."

WRONG! With half my health yellow, about 70% blood and no healing items other than 2 Elder Vitae I found somewhere and did not want to use, I'm told I have to gauntlet my way through vampires to get to the taxi. I used one of the EV's.

And STILL I can't go back to Chinatown to buy more Blue Bloodpacks or to get my money from the retired hitman. I had also sent Jeanette away because she made the tram glitch out. I couldn't fucking do anything. Luckily the Taxi Driver is probably Caine or the smartest vampire on Earth or somethings o I could talk things over with him. As I said, Strauss was the only option that made sense to me.

Nobody answered a couple of my previous questions like which humans you can sire? Also what happens if you pick the "I'll handle things myself" option? Also does Lacroix open the Sarcophagus if you side with him?

Ming Xiao was fucking impossible until I randomly got her stuck in some sort of glitchy loop where I depleted most of her health and she didn't spawn the second one. The second one spawning is whatever but why does it INSTANTLY reform after you kill it? That's bullshit. I would have won without that.

The Sheriff was hard because you can only use the spotlights once and then you have to shoot him. I'm lucky I had enough points to get to Level 2 Firearms or I never would have beaten the game.

So yeah....that being abducted and experimented upon by a group out to eradicate us not only couldn't be reported, it went nowhere. That head of the Society of Leopold guy got a grand total of two scenes, and we killed him after the second one. Anything else that really doesn't amount to anything in this game?

Edited by Nikkolas on Apr 20th 2019 at 8:47:24 AM

Ming Xiao is impossible without the flamethrower

New theme music also a box

The independent option is what it sounds like, you go off to fight Ming and Lacroix without getting help from either the Anarchs or Strauss. The endgame is always storming Ming's place then Lacroix's place whether you choose independent, Anarchs, or Strauss/Camarilla. Choosing to side with Ming or Lacroix has you skip fighting one of them (but you get a bad end).

Lacroix does open the Sarcophagus if you side with him. You can even open it yourself in the Anarch and independent paths. Don't open it.

The option to sire someone sounds like something added by your companion mod, so I have no idea on that.

Ah, it was pretty well-integrated so I didn't suspect it was part of the mod at all. My bad.

Wait...I just watched Lacroix's endingand I have no idea what happened.

Lacroix believed the sarcophagus had an ancient vampire in it, and planned to diablorize them for power. In actuality, the sarcophagus just had a normal mummy in it. Jack was the one who snuck on board that cargo ship and killed everyone. He took the mummy out of the sarcophagus and replaced it with a load of explosives, set to kill whoever opens it.

But why did Jack do all that? Is that ever explained?

Edited by Nikkolas on Apr 20th 2019 at 12:44:58 PM