Revisiting VtM: Bloodlines

[Bester]

All nine times sounding like the Malkavian is a broken record? Which of course he isn't in other dialogues...

All 9 times, it's almost like a Malkavian isn't a sane character, huh? "MUST BE A BUG."

Let me ask you a question in complete seriousness. Are you autistic?

 

[Wesp5]

All nine times sounding like the Malkavian is a broken record? Which of course he isn't in other dialogues...

All 9 times, it's almost like a Malkavian isn't a sane character, huh? "MUST BE A BUG."

Let me ask you a question in complete seriousness. Are you autistic?

Let me ask you a question, can you read? Then just read my answer again, will you.

 

[HansDampf]

If you don't like the newer changes like the tutorial map, you can always just install an old version of the UP like 9.5/9.6. All the major game-breaking bugs have been fixed a long time ago. But those versions still have the dialogue changes, including the infamous "Malkavian Inquisition" line, because the Basic patch is an offshoot of the Plus patch, and the lines between what's vanilla and what's UP are kinda blurry.
I think the GOG version has a Legacy option that launches the game with the official 1.2 patch.

 

[Bad Sector]

Another problem here is that I can't easily switch those lines between basic and plus...

Where are these lines stored? Perhaps there can be some sort of command line utility you can call during installation that makes those changes when the Plus patch is installed?

 

[Wesp5]

Where are these lines stored? Perhaps there can be some sort of command line utility you can call during installation that makes those changes when the Plus patch is installed?

All the dialogue is stored in the dlg files which are normal text. It's possible to switch between basic and plus there but only if there are still empty answers left which isn't always the case. I will rather search for other cases in which Mitsoda uses "deed" and hope that I can copy some variations over. Last not least what is the problem with the Malkavian Inquisition ? Do you think Mitsoda didn't know Monthy Pythons? And we get Inquisition over and over in VtM .

 

[Ol' Willy]

All patches are heresy, even the official ones. I play only leaked alpha builds for maximum authenticity

 

[Wesp5]

Okay, so I have replaced some of the weirder tutorial lines with Mitsoda lines from elsewhere now. And I made the Malkavian Inquisition plus patch only, because in basic there is actually no answer at all (...). Any other lines that are completely out of place?

 

[HansDampf]

Last not least what is the problem with the Malkavian Inquisition ? Do you think Mitsoda didn't know Monthy Pythons? And we get Inquisition over and over in VtM .

It's not that I hate it. I just find it funny that this often quoted line isn't even part of the vanilla game because virtually everyone is playing it with UP Basic.

 

[Monkey Baron]

Okay, so I have replaced some of the weirder tutorial lines with Mitsoda lines from elsewhere now. And I made the Malkavian Inquisition plus patch only, because in basic there is actually no answer at all (...). Any other lines that are completely out of place?

Thank you!

When talking to Copper and scamming him out of his money:

Vanilla line:

There's also the first encounter with Knox:

And also saving Heather:

 

[Wesp5]

When talking to Copper and scamming him out of his money:

Fixed. I wonder why the guy who looked over the Malkavian lines changed this in the first place. Is "They call him Rodriguez." a meme or something in the US?

There's also the first encounter with Knox:

This is a left over from unused lines restorations, I will remove it for basic.

And also saving Heather:

This should be exactly the same between 1.2 and basic, but for the plus differences remember that speaking with Knox works too which you probably did in 1.2!

 

[Monkey Baron]

I have completed my second playthrough of True Patch Gold and I have to say I'm still very unimpressed. I have no idea what they actually fixed because bugs like the masquerade violation you get when you persuade the serial killer to stop killing people remains. This is definitely unfixed considering that letting the murderer go free to continue killing doesn't give a violation but you get a +1 to humanity when you talk him down... I thought they copied the unofficial patch, this is one of the very first things that was fixed, even before wesp took over IIRC...

I found another incidence of a quest being permanently locked out to the player if they don't choose the correct dialogue option. I also found that when you try to blackmail the Prince about his alliance with the Kuei-Jin, the conversation just cuts off when he tells the Sheriff to claim he witnessed an attempted murder. If you talk to him he just spits out his line about needing you to go to the anarchs ASAP.

Maybe I got really lucky with my vanilla playthrough since I didn't pick the options that caused all of these bugs. Several times I told myself, (because I have TPG, UP Basic and Vanilla all installed) am I using the correct client? Surely they couldn't have left all of these bugs in the game, right? But then I remember, no of course it's the true patch. There's the watermark in the character editor, on the dumpsters, the extra animations for Jeanette and Therese, the blood doll in the Confession... and not to mention this...

NSFW

I feel like I'm being gaslit. This patch is really disappointing. The only things I can say with absolute certainty that have been fixed is Grout's invisible wife and the Hollywood theme plays...

Based off of my experiences, I recommend just giving this patch a miss and playing the vanilla game if you want the vanilla experience. It really isn't that bad.

 

[Wesp5]

I thought they copied the unofficial patch, this is one of the very first things that was fixed, even before wesp took over IIRC...

Yes, at first Acrimonious (who actually did the work on the patch with Tessera only doing the marketing at the time) had just copied the patch and removed parts that they didn't like. This of course led to a huge uproar in the community as they were basically stealing and gutting my work! Acrimonious then started over from scratch, but I found proof that he still used my patch as a blue print. So it would be easy to overlook things while comparing the orginal with the patch and soon afterwards he stopped completely because he realized how much work it would be to redo everything (which also is a reason why there are still plus lines left in basic, it would take so much time to compare everything). Tessera kept working on, but as far as I know he didn't really care about bugs, but rather started to add stuff...

 

[Twiglard]

Isn't Tessera a tranny or a tranny-like perv? How anyone could use a mod made by such a depraved individual is beyond me.

 

[jackofshadows]

Anyone who is sane? Who cares about depravity levels of a mod author as long as he keeps unnecessary stuff out of his work?

That said, I don't think highly about "true patch" and agree with Monkey Baron here: better to play 1.2 instead and keep UP as an alternative. If Tessera and co were true to their idea of fixes only - then perhaps it would have been much more solid alternative to vanilla. If only.

 

[Twiglard]

Complaining about UP Plus is some hipster nonsense and it's strange that the Codex hasn't clamped down on this hard.

 

[Bester]

had just copied the patch and removed parts that they didn't like. This of course led to a huge uproar in the community as they were basically stealing and gutting my work! Acrimonious then started over from scratch, but I found proof that he still used my patch as a blue print.

So you're really modding not for the people, but to be the center of attention. God forbid someone improves your work and the game benefits from it. Being an asshole who introduces bugs is one thing. To be a copyright-oriented homosexual in the context of MODS is a new low, even for you.

 

[Wesp5]

So you're really modding not for the people, but to be the center of attention. God forbid someone improves your work and the game benefits from it.

Yep, this is why I split the patch into basic and plus when I was being made aware of the problem. Acrimonious probably stopped working because he got what he wanted, Tessera is the one who needs to be the center of attention here!

 

[Bester]

Yep, this is why I split the patch into basic and plus

First of all, I don't care what you split into what. If you don't allow people to use your mod as a basis for other mods, you're a self-absorbed cunt to the highest of levels.

And the second item on the agenda, completely unrelated to the first, is that you modify the base game in the "basic" patch, which you then lie about claiming that it only fixes bugs. Conversations that you don't find "interesting enough" are not bugs and don't need to be "spiced up" by your broken english. (yeah yeah, it was done by a "native"... never mind that the native in question had an iq deficiency)

 

[Gargaune]

modding [...] for the people

RPG Codex, birthplace of the ludobolshevik.

Props are the fuel of the modding scene almost exclusively, cut 'em some slack. I also prefer the free love approach to modding, but I don't fault authors when they wish to retain exclusivity over their work.

 

[Wesp5]

Yep, this is why I split the patch into basic and plus

If you don't allow people to use your mod as a basis for other mods, you're a self-absorbed cunt to the highest of levels.

Oh, I allow my patch to be the basis of other mods. In fact all big mods like Clan Quest Mod, The Final Nights, Antitribu Mod, War Games and Prelude are build on my patch! But it is another thing to do this without asking while insulting me at the same time.

 

[Heroic Liberator]

Your work is appreciated, Wesp5. Don't let Bester's overcritical behavior bring you down.

 

[Ol' Willy]

Speaking of another Troika game, Multiverse Arcanum already went in with "balance" fixes that change some really essential things - and this is in the basic version so you can't skip it

No such thing in Wesp's patch

 

[Rean]

Hey! Stop talking shit to Wesp or make your own patch and fuck off. Does it matter if there's some dialogue that's altered from the main game at this point? We've all played the base game 200 times by now. You informed him and he fixed it anyway, quit being autistic.

 

[Roguey]

Speaking of another Troika game, Multiverse Arcanum already went in with "balance" fixes that change some really essential things - and this is in the basic version so you can't skip it

No such thing in Wesp's patch

All you need for Arcanum is Drog's, a true mensch who vowed to never touch anything that wasn't clearly a bug or oversight.

Hey! Stop talking shit to Wesp or make your own patch and fuck off. Does it matter if there's some dialogue that's altered from the main game at this point? We've all played the base game 200 times by now. You informed him and he fixed it anyway, quit being autistic.

Reasonably certain that most people who have played Bloodlines since the late 00s have only ever used Wesp's patch.

 

[wwsd]

Definitely true for me. First time I played Bloodlines must have been around 2011 and already then the consensus was to use Wesp's patch. I tried different playthroughs, but only finished the game around 2015-16 or something. I was able to complete it with Wesp's patch installed, so unless anything has changed since then, I can't imagine it causing problems finishing the game.

In the future I would like to play once with just the official patches, since apparently it's also not as bad or unplayable as it's cracked up to be. But never had any problems with the UP. I can see the argument about adding dialogue that might be controversial. It's a dilemma: you can leave text that looks like placeholders, or you can write your own. Neither are optimal. It doesn't ruin the game for me, but it is funny that a whole generation has probably played this thinking that the "Malkavian Inquisition" line is original. But for the moment I have no desire to play this game again. The whole fucking game relies so much on atmosphere, which is amazing, but there are also many slogs. Urgh, urgh, urgh. Maybe for the 20-year anniversary.