VtM: Bloodlines, with spoilers

[Serrano]

You guys are starting to spoil and drop obvious hints to some of the most important parts of the game. Maybe tone it down a bit and at least give him a chance to get past the tutorial

[sorophx]

actually, I read a Let's Play of Bloodlines 10 years ago. so I used to know every secret and plot twist there was. I just forgot it all, but I don't care about teh spoilers, it's not about the story for me. it's about the adventure

[Humanoid]

I've always felt the difference in a Malkavian playthrough to be overstated. Rare is the actual encounter which actually plays out differently, usually either you get one extra line of dialogue from the NPC basically saying "hey you must be a Malk" then have the rest of the dialogue proceed as per any other clan; or it's ignored altogether.

[Zoraptor]

Ah, but your dialogue is also different, and that is where most of the hints and in jokes come in.

[AwesomeOcelot]

I've always felt the difference in a Malkavian playthrough to be overstated. Rare is the actual encounter which actually plays out differently, usually either you get one extra line of dialogue from the NPC basically saying "hey you must be a Malk" then have the rest of the dialogue proceed as per any other clan; or it's ignored altogether.

 

Apart from the incoherent ramblings that are your dialogue choices. You're like the thin blood Malk at the beach, speaking in riddles about the future.

[Humanoid]

Yeah, but those always felt like simple line-for-line replacements for the normal dialogue in most cases, the NPCs generally don't react to them. That said, I played Malk first up, and only did 1.5 chapters on my subsequent non-Malk playthrough, so it's not a comprehensive analysis.

 

I'm not using it as a criticism as such, it's probably as far as they could go without creating a wholly separate campaign for each clan - but I've always considered it more jokey than insightful, and am fine with that.

[sorophx]

so far the game has been very combat heavy and kind of confusing at times. I already see I made a bunch of bad calls during my char creation, I definitely should've grabbed hacking instead of flippin' research, because laptops are just everywhere and passwords are nowhere to be found.

 

with firearms at 3/5 I can't hit a barn door at 50 feet, which is pretty disappointing, hopefully it'll get better. 

 

it's all very similar to Deus Ex: HR in terms of gameplay. only stealth kills don't work for me for some reason. maybe I shouldn't have gone with Toreador 

[Humanoid]

Toreador has Celerity I believe, which makes gunplay trivial. I remember gunning down a sidequest boss within the duration of one usage of the skill - which was long enough to empty my fully loaded pistol and then some.

 

For what it's worth, I think I played just about the whole game as a stealther (the pistol thing was my second, aborted playthrough), and it was mostly viable.

 

P.S. Yeah, standard combat-heavy tutorial, I always skipped it after the first time, though I can't remember if that was a mod feature.

Edited May 6, 2014 by Humanoid

[Orogun01]

I've always felt the difference in a Malkavian playthrough to be overstated. Rare is the actual encounter which actually plays out differently, usually either you get one extra line of dialogue from the NPC basically saying "hey you must be a Malk" then have the rest of the dialogue proceed as per any other clan; or it's ignored altogether.

I agree but mostly because I went in hyped about the Malkavian playthrough and expected something more, but considering how different the dialog options are I would still recommend a regular playthrough first...and then wait a while... and do another...with another character....and do one more.....**** it i'm playing it again.

[Agiel]

so far the game has been very combat heavy and kind of confusing at times. I already see I made a bunch of bad calls during my char creation, I definitely should've grabbed hacking instead of flippin' research, because laptops are just everywhere and passwords are nowhere to be found.

 

Ooofff... well you've ran into one of Bloodline's many foibles. Evidence #1 that Troika in the rush to get the game out and did not put enough thought into the mechanics: The Research stat would never ever pay for itself.

 

Never was an enormous fan of the gunplay of the game and universally opted for a melee-oriented character. About the only place guns were "nice to have" was the aforementioned sewer level. Otherwise there wasn't any encounter that couldn't be solved by Celerity and a Katana.

 

Stats to pay attention to:

Hacking

Lockpicking

Brawl (makes it easier to get back health by feeding when you get into a tight spot)

Melee

Persuasion

Seduction (if you're big on role-playing)

Bargaining (or whatever it was called)

Defense

[sorophx]

Well back to the drawing board

[aluminiumtrioxid]

The Malkavian clan's greatest strength is their incredible flexibility. Dementation is good for both instakilling mooks and persuasion, while Obfuscate makes stealth ridiculously easy. As far as I'm aware, no other clan has this mix of stealth, raw killing power and social utility.

 

Re: Cab driver,

the devs implemented him from a VtM supplement somewhere (probably LA by night), he's just a Malkavian with a delusion of being Caine.

 

Edited May 6, 2014 by aluminiumtrioxid

[marelooke]

Yeah, but those always felt like simple line-for-line replacements for the normal dialogue in most cases, the NPCs generally don't react to them. That said, I played Malk first up, and only did 1.5 chapters on my subsequent non-Malk playthrough, so it's not a comprehensive analysis.

 

I'm not using it as a criticism as such, it's probably as far as they could go without creating a wholly separate campaign for each clan - but I've always considered it more jokey than insightful, and am fine with that.

Guess that depends. Sure generally the response is "Oh poor dear, you're so messed up!", but often you hear your character say stuff that (s)he couldn't possibly know yet. I mean, a Malkavian basically "spoils" bits of the ending when you're talk to the Seeress on the beach very early in chapter 1...

 

Also the (first) Malkavian conversation with Jeanette is a pretty big spoiler. I'm not sure if it keeps up this pace thoughout the game since I never made it very far past chapter one as Malkavian (I'm a wizard guy, so I tend to gravitate towards the Tremere and seriously, a katana wielding, stealthy, blood magic using vampire wizard, what's not to like?) but the spoilers early on made me very wary of ever recommending a Malkavian for a first playthrough. (though I'm pretty sure the "Omfg my character already knew that!" when figuring out the Jeanette thing afer totally having missed the references in earlier dialogue might be worth it), though I guess it'd only work for someone not aware that Malkavians can have insight into the future through their insanity (and as such might ignore/miss all the clues strewn through their conversations)

Edited May 6, 2014 by marelooke

[aluminiumtrioxid]

seriously, a katana wielding, stealthy, blood magic using vampire wizard, what's not to like?

 

 

The fact that such a character concept would probably cause an aneurysm in any purist tabletop Vampire DM is also a considerable bonus  

[HoonDing]

I tried playing a Tremere but with the crappy UI and limited hot keys it was too annoying to play.

[Agiel]

Well back to the drawing board

 

Well think of it like Torment; The combat isn't great (or even good for that matter), so why not just invest in the stuff that unlocks the most content to you?

 

I should also add that stealth is also quite important in the early game, as many of the early quests favour that approach (and reward you with more experience points to boot).

Edited May 6, 2014 by Agiel

[sorophx]

I can't grasp the whole stealth thing in this game yet. Which is mostly due to me not seeing enemies when crouching. One of my abilities Was supposed to highlight their aura but it doesn't.

 

I think I will go with a malkavian today and see how it plays out.

[marelooke]

I can't grasp the whole stealth thing in this game yet. Which is mostly due to me not seeing enemies when crouching. One of my abilities Was supposed to highlight their aura but it doesn't.

 

I think I will go with a malkavian today and see how it plays out.

Malkavians are also fairly Stealth oriented (they also have Obfuscate, for example)

[Humanoid]

The thing is, I don't even remember using the Obfuscate abilities in my Malk playthrough. I don't know if it's my faulty recollection, but I'm reasonably confident that in the first chapter alone you can get your mundane stealth abilities easily high enough to get away with ridiculous things already - y'know, the crouching dead in front of someone in a vaguely darkish play and having them totally oblivious. I do remember the stealth tutorial being pretty tricky though, so I guess the skill ramps up pretty quickly, but it shouldn't take much to reach Bethesda-stealth levels of absurdity.

 

It's been a decade sure, but I'd probably say Deus Ex Human Revolution is the closest comparison to the game mechanically - down to the cheesy and improbable sneak takedowns and silly boss battles - with the magic invisibility cloak being strictly optional.

[TheChris92]

Need to finish the game -- Love me some Jeanette Voerman. One of my favorite Grey DeLisle voiced characters.

 

[AwesomeOcelot]

Stealth without obfuscate is impossible in many areas, shadows aren't everywhere and the AI is far less forgiving when it comes to stance than more recent games, they have a wide range of view and the light metre has to be pretty low. The game is designed that way because of obfuscate and trance would be a lot less useful if stealth was easier, also I think all vampires are meant to have a element of stealth. If you put points in stealth and dexterity it doesn't take much for you to be invisible in the dark when crouched. A lot of the gameplay is based on the original Deus Ex, that game also had unforgiving stealth. The lighting system is a little bugged, like Deus Ex, sometimes areas that look dark are light and vice versa.

Edited May 6, 2014 by AwesomeOcelot

[Hassat Hunter]

Good old times... *sigh*

[sorophx]

btw, I know that Jeanette and her sister are actually the same person. it's pretty obvious the first time you meet both of them in the Asylum

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

I've just installed this, which mod(s) should I use and are there any builds I should avoid?

[Oner]

I've just installed this, which mod(s) should I use and are there any builds I should avoid?

Don't make non-combat builds. And personally I don't think seduction is that useful.