World of Darkness Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 from Hardsuit Labs

[Ol' Willy]

Is there an active playerbase and a bunch of online forums dedicated to Hitman: Contracts?

Contracts is the best game in the series, dude

 

[Ol' Willy]

Also, Doom 3 modding scene is still alive because old ID were bros and were releasing source code for all their engines

 

[Roguey]

Who the flying fuck plays VTMB on goddamn Steam, holy shit. In all the years I've been lurking/posting on VTMB-related forums, I honestly can't remember anyone saying they were ever playing it there. It was either a GOG copy, a physical CD they purchased way back or they braved the Seven Seas.

I still have the CDs I bought way back in 2005 and keep them around as a trophy, but I got the GOG copy a couple years ago because the CDs got too damaged .

GOG didn't get Bloodlines until 2016. The original copy was unable to purchase new after a few years since didn't meet expectations (no need to make a new print run). For about a decade, the only convenient legal way to acquire a new copy was through Steam, typically through its many $5 sales, though I've noticed that greedy Activision stopped doing that in 2019 and now only let it go as low as $10. Owner estimates:
500,000 .. 1,600,000 by PlayTracker
500,000 .. 1,000,000 by SteamSpy
189,740 .. 569,220 based on reviews

 

[Bad Sector]

GOG didn't get Bloodlines until 2016. The original copy was unable to purchase new after a few years since didn't meet expectations (no need to make a new print run). For about a decade, the only convenient legal way to acquire a new copy was through Steam, typically through its many $5 sales, though I've noticed that greedy Activision stopped doing that in 2019 and now only let it go as low as $10. Owner estimates:

For a very long time the lowest price was at $20 (that was long before ITAD started tracking prices). I know because i was tracking its price and bought it on Steam when i got paid from a Flash game i made several years ago - it took more than a year to make enough money for that payout and my explicit goal for it was to buy the game :-P

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Who the flying fuck plays VTMB on goddamn Steam, holy shit. In all the years I've been lurking/posting on VTMB-related forums, I honestly can't remember anyone saying they were ever playing it there. It was either a GOG copy, a physical CD they purchased way back or they braved the Seven Seas.

I still have the CDs I bought way back in 2005 and keep them around as a trophy, but I got the GOG copy a couple years ago because the CDs got too damaged .

GOG didn't get Bloodlines until 2016. The original copy was unable to purchase new after a few years since didn't meet expectations (no need to make a new print run). For about a decade, the only convenient legal way to acquire a new copy was through Steam, typically through its many $5 sales, though I've noticed that greedy Activision stopped doing that in 2019 and now only let it go as low as $10. Owner estimates:
500,000 .. 1,600,000 by PlayTracker
500,000 .. 1,000,000 by SteamSpy
189,740 .. 569,220 based on reviews

most people pirate vtmb

lmao at buying a game developed by a company that doesn't even exist anymore

 

[Roguey]

For a very long time the lowest price was at $20 (that was long before ITAD started tracking prices). I know because i was tracking its price and bought it on Steam when i got paid from a Flash game i made several years ago - it took more than a year to make enough money for that payout and my explicit goal for it was to buy the game :-P

The MSRP has always been $20, however Bloodlines has always been discounted during those deep discount holiday sales. It was as low as $5 at least as far back as 2011.

 

[Bad Sector]

The MSRP has always been $20, however Bloodlines has always been discounted during those deep discount holiday sales. It was as low as $5 at least as far back as 2011.

According to Steam i bought it in March 2011 for ~20 euros, so either i simply missed it or Activision didn't bother discounting it before the 2011 summer sale (they were always stingy) and couldn't find any price history in either ITAD or steamdb going back that far. I did a quick search on Google about Steam discount references to the game but all of them were for the 2011 summer sale (which apparently was also one of the best sales Steam had, though personally i didn't use my bank account for transactions anyway so whenever i wanted to buy something i had to go to the bank and deposit the exact amount - annoying, but did save me from impulse purchases :-P).

 

[DJOGamer PT]

- Demon would get something more in line with Bloodlines, except there's more of a focus on how you interact with your Thralls. Sure, you can make their wishes come true, but is it the right thing to do? Would you rather actually help someone for the easy way to power, or will you help them become a better person by giving them what they actually need to do so even though that gives you less of a direct increase in power?

What...

 

[Caim]

- Demon would get something more in line with Bloodlines, except there's more of a focus on how you interact with your Thralls. Sure, you can make their wishes come true, but is it the right thing to do? Would you rather actually help someone for the easy way to power, or will you help them become a better person by giving them what they actually need to do so even though that gives you less of a direct increase in power?

What...

As one of the Fallen you have the choice to either wallow in your torment and drag others down to indulge in your desires and further your cause, or try to redeem yourself through them. Sure, dragging them down might be easier and more fun, but saving them will save yourself.

 

[Fedora Master]

Demon is waaaay too steeped in KKKristianity for any of those modern soydevs to touch.

 

[Razor]

Sorry, but it did for me. If the AI was so great, why not drop the Alien into a vent with only it's sensors and let the game play out? I understand that the game is more interesting now, but still it's not really a fair game AI vs player.

Thats perfectly okay. I am not looking to persuade you and neither will I change my mind.

As for your question about dropping the Alien without guidance into the level then there are actually some mods that emulate that. True, they dont completely remove the director AI- thats impossible unless you gain access to the source code. They do however tweak their values in a way that makes the Alien in a much more wider area so it spends more time wandering around the other parts of the level. How exactly I dont know, perhaps increasing the director AI search grid area radius so large that it encompasses the entire map?

As to why they went with the dual AI approach then one would need to find the answer from the devs themselves. If I had to make a stab at it in the dark it probably has something to do with getting a more consistent baseline in ramping up tension and then unwinding it across multiple playthroughs. It would be pretty anticlimatic if lets say, in the build up leading to the Gemini labs purge in one playthrough the player would be constantly hounded by a aggressive Alien from start to finish and in the second the Alien spends most of its time in the pool room on the other end of the map on passive profile while the player casually goes through the purge sequence. Instead the map starts out with a passive Alien in the vents and if the player does not agitate it before it turns aggressive the moment you begin the Gemini purge sequence which again involve tripping off a lot of loud ass analogue machinery with screeching alarms going off everywhere. I mean Jesus, with headphones I can almost feel the ground vibrating as what must be building sized transformers starting to humm. Excellent audio design.

BTW returning to all things Vtmb there was something I wanted to ask you about Vtmb 1. Is there a line somewhere I can add that lets me regulate how much you zoom in to the characters faces in dialogue mode? Kind of like fDlgFocus= <value> for the Gamebyro ini files or some console command? I am rigging Vtmb 1 for full VR and that is pretty much the only problem I have left with the profile- it always feels like I want to give a sloppy second to the characters when I begin talking to them.

 

[Delterius]

fresh Bloodlines 2 leaks

 

[Fedora Master]

WE LIVE IN A MASQUERADE

 

[DJOGamer PT]

- Demon would get something more in line with Bloodlines, except there's more of a focus on how you interact with your Thralls. Sure, you can make their wishes come true, but is it the right thing to do? Would you rather actually help someone for the easy way to power, or will you help them become a better person by giving them what they actually need to do so even though that gives you less of a direct increase in power?

What...

As one of the Fallen you have the choice to either wallow in your torment and drag others down to indulge in your desires and further your cause, or try to redeem yourself through them. Sure, dragging them down might be easier and more fun, but saving them will save yourself.

How exactly can a Demon help Mortals?

 

[Caim]

- Demon would get something more in line with Bloodlines, except there's more of a focus on how you interact with your Thralls. Sure, you can make their wishes come true, but is it the right thing to do? Would you rather actually help someone for the easy way to power, or will you help them become a better person by giving them what they actually need to do so even though that gives you less of a direct increase in power?

What...

As one of the Fallen you have the choice to either wallow in your torment and drag others down to indulge in your desires and further your cause, or try to redeem yourself through them. Sure, dragging them down might be easier and more fun, but saving them will save yourself.

How exactly can a Demon help Mortals?

Help them find solutions to their problems that do not involve making a pact with a demon to make the problem go away, or at least come to terms with reality when a direct solution is not possible.

 

[Wesp5]

If I had to make a stab at it in the dark it probably has something to do with getting a more consistent baseline in ramping up tension and then unwinding it across multiple playthroughs.

As I wrote I can completely understand that. With a real AI you might have ended up seeing the Alien so rarely that the game is a cake walk! But then they shouldn't have hyped the Alien-AI so high, if the Director-AI is what makes the game cool .

Is there a line somewhere I can add that lets me regulate how much you zoom in to the characters faces in dialogue mode?

I guess you can adjust this in the camerashot files, which you will find in vdata/camerashots. The UP didn't edit any of them so you'll have to extract them from pak101.vpk with VPKTools. There is even an example file called camera shots how-to.txt!

 

[Razor]

K thanks brah and also nah, the alien AI is impressive in itself in its search behavior and the way it unlocks it skill tree based upon your actions which creates the illusion like its actually learning new tricks. That on top of the sheer unpredictability it has in its search patterns which makes any stealth maneuver near it increasingly tense. Basic smoke and mirrors sure but at the end of the day all gaming programs boil down to various trickery. FEAR 1 is still highly praised for its deservedly impressive AI presentation despite it coming out nearly 15 years ago just like Alien: Isolation will be still remembered a decade from now.

 

[Delterius]

- Demon would get something more in line with Bloodlines, except there's more of a focus on how you interact with your Thralls. Sure, you can make their wishes come true, but is it the right thing to do? Would you rather actually help someone for the easy way to power, or will you help them become a better person by giving them what they actually need to do so even though that gives you less of a direct increase in power?

What...

As one of the Fallen you have the choice to either wallow in your torment and drag others down to indulge in your desires and further your cause, or try to redeem yourself through them. Sure, dragging them down might be easier and more fun, but saving them will save yourself.

How exactly can a Demon help Mortals?

sage advice such as 'floss your teeth' and 'do not try to overthrow heaven lucy is full of it yo'

 

[Harthwain]

As one of the Fallen you have the choice to either wallow in your torment and drag others down to indulge in your desires and further your cause, or try to redeem yourself through them. Sure, dragging them down might be easier and more fun, but saving them will save yourself.

It shouldn't be easy though. I am constantly dismayed how games fail to model things like addiction or emotions. Vampire: The Masquerade - as a setting - tries to alleviate that by having the Beast, the bloodlust and the humanity.

But if you are an addict in a game I'd really love to see your objectives and interactions to be severly overwritten by the game the moment you need to score. Something like "Objective: Get Booze" and your every single interaction would be related to that, by the game temporary removing any other choices unless you get that sweet liquor. If you don't want to be an addict then you should go for a quest that's going to cure you (and make it costly - too, so it isn't a no brainer. And either ban the player from using drugs ever again or make him go through the same process). On the flipside, give the player a ton of bonuses for using drugs, so there are obvious reasons to having an addiction vs being clean.

Something similar could to be done for emotions. Maybe have various meters to raise and fall, and if you go to the point where you are full of fear your character is taken over and runs away in panic. Angry character could turn to violence, even when it's a stupid thing to do. And then you can add items or substances that help you control that a bit. It's a rough idea, but I would love this angle to be explored in games, because it adds character a personality that's different from player's personality, impacting the character's behavior.

 

[Vormulak]

How many 2004 games that sold way better than VTMB can claim the same? A handful at best, if even that.

Lets go 2004 games that are still talked about, played by many people and SUPRISE HAVE ANOTHER INSTALLMENT

-GTA SAN ANDREAS
-WORLD OF WARCRAFT
-DOOM 3
-HALO 2
-MGS 3
-FAR CRY
-COUNTER STRIKE SOURCE
-ROME TOTAL WAR
-HITMAN CONTRACTS
-CALL OF DUTY UNITED OFFENSIVE
-Warhammer 40k : DAWN OF WAR
-STAR WARS BATTLEFRONT

and suprise each game from this list is better than vtmb you filthy storyfags. My point is developers dont give a fuck if they lost their job thanks to the game poor sales. I dont get the wankery over Vtmb it's a popamole with ok writing and atmosphere gameplay wise its trash.



Talk about legacy 4,3 m views for a 17 year old game, Vtmb cant touch this its a niche product and it always remain niche for storytards.

Everything on this list except star wars battlefront is mediocre or trash, idk what you thought this was going to prove.

 

[Twiglard]

Everything on this list except star wars battlefront is mediocre or trash, idk what you thought this was going to prove.

Battlefront is an EA game, anyone buying an EA game is a retard and faggot.

Rome: Total War is good but it also depends on whether they fix the AI. Legend has some streams though.

 

[Vormulak]

Everything on this list except star wars battlefront is mediocre or trash, idk what you thought this was going to prove.

Battlefront is an EA game, anyone buying an EA game is a retard and faggot.

Rome: Total War is good but it also depends on whether they fix the AI. Legend has some streams though.

>battlefront is an EA game
Must suck to be a retarded slavic zoomer.

 

[Twiglard]

Must suck to be a retarded slavic zoomer.

I'm not a zoomer, butthurt anglo faggot.

 

[Vincente]

Battlefront is an EA game

Battlefront was made by Pandemic Studios in 2004, and EA didnt acquire Pandemic until 2007.

 

[Nutria]

Battlefront is an EA game, anyone buying an EA game is a retard and faggot.

Sounds like you weren't any good at BF4. Just use an AEK bro. Just get that sight to cross over him long enough for about 7 rounds. And it's even socially acceptable to use the 40mm now on certain servers.