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

Lambach

Arcane
Joined
Feb 11, 2016
Messages
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Location
Belgrade, Removekebabland
Although having to fight Grout's wife is ridiculous, I really think she was a vampire. Grout explains on his tapes that she got sick and this is probably what it was :)!

I don't think that's it. Also in Grout's tapes is that tidbit about his own Sire being captured by human authorities and dying of exposure to the Sun shortly after Embracing him. His Sire seemed to have been a total nutjob Malkavian and his Embrace was just a product of her insanity, not a planned action. Had his wife gone though something similar, he would've probably mentioned that as well in the tapes along with the fact that most of her "symptoms" match his own, but there was never any mention of anything like that.
 

Semiurge

Cipher
Joined
Apr 11, 2020
Messages
6,201
Location
Asp Hole
plus all the options you get as Ventrue (dominating bums and prostitutes, even small time NPC's to do your bidding)

In the vanilla version you can't use dominate on any of the lowlifes, unless they're part of quests. It doesn't make sense, but that's hardly unusual for Bloodlines. Not that you can just talk to random bums anyway.
 

Wunderbar

Arcane
Joined
Nov 15, 2015
Messages
8,818
https://www.rpgnuke.ru/2021/07/20/c...hemu-avtory-bloodlines-2-poterpeli-krakh.html

A Russian RPG site did an investigation on what Hardsuit have been doing since the time the studio was founded. It's in russian, so you'll have to use google translate.

tl;dr - it seems like the higher management are a bunch of conmen who scammed Paradox (similarly to how Randy scammed Sega with Colonial Marines), deliberately hindered the development of VTMB2, and then scapegoated Mitsoda and Cluney.
 
Joined
Jan 14, 2018
Messages
50,754
Codex Year of the Donut
https://www.rpgnuke.ru/2021/07/20/c...hemu-avtory-bloodlines-2-poterpeli-krakh.html

A Russian RPG site did an investigation on what Hardsuit have been doing since the time the studio was founded. It's in russian, so you'll have to use google translate.

tl;dr - it seems like the higher management are a bunch of conmen who scammed Paradox (similarly to how Randy scammed Sega with Colonial Marines), deliberately hindered the development of VTMB2, and then scapegoated Mitsoda and Cluney.
as a sidenote, machine translation is pretty fucking good now
reading the Yandex version(I assume it has some of the best Russian<->English translation around due to it being Yandex), and it reads just like an English article.
https://translate.yandex.com/transl...-bloodlines-2-poterpeli-krakh.html&lang=ru-en
 

Infinitron

I post news
Staff Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2011
Messages
97,475
Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Well, their main discovery here is that Hardsuit did a bunch of port jobs on the side. Everything else (ie, the assumption that it was the reason for their failure to complete Bloodlines 2) is conjecture.
 

Wesp5

Arcane
Joined
Apr 18, 2007
Messages
1,780
Well, their main discovery here is that Hardsuit did a bunch of port jobs on the side. Everything else (ie, the assumption that it was the reason for their failure to complete Bloodlines 2) is conjecture.

I agree. To do port jobs you would probably only need good programers because the game assets already exist. This is very different to developing a new game like Bloodlines 2 where they would need all the game assets in the first place before even starting to string them together to get an actual game! I still have the feeling that the change of the Paradox CEO had something to do with it, like Bloodlines 2 was started under the old one and then delayed and cancelled under the new one. As if they had a different vision for what it should be...
 

Roguey

Codex Staff
Staff Member
Sawyerite
Joined
May 29, 2010
Messages
35,813
Seems extremely unlikely to me that Hardsuit was spending Paradox money on the port jobs. Can't imagine any publisher saying "Hey, port this other studio's game for us, no we're not going to pay you."
 

Roguey

Codex Staff
Staff Member
Sawyerite
Joined
May 29, 2010
Messages
35,813
Paradox cancels a bunch of non-strategy/management games but confirms that Bloodlines 2 is not among them https://www.paradoxinteractive.com/...ame-development-pipeline-writes-down-135-msek

Paradox Interactive AB (publ) has today decided to discontinue the development of several unannounced games. In connection with the cancellation, the company has written down the value of the projects which will impact the Q3 2021 profit before tax with -135 MSEK. The cancellation is a consequence of the company’s strategy to focus resources and expertise on its proven game niches and projects that better meet the company’s requirements on returns and risk.

In the past year, Paradox Interactive has continued to focus its game development and business activities on the company’s core areas. Including these cancellations Paradox Interactive has since the third quarter of 2020 cancelled the development of unannounced projects that amounts to 265 MSEK in write-offs.

“Paradox Interactive was born and raised in strategy- and management games. It is where we have our heart and our mind and we are passionate about making games that our players can enjoy over a long period of time. Therefore we have sharpened our pipeline further to ensure that the projects with the highest potential have the resources necessary for the best possible development. We now have a promising game pipeline and I look forward to sharing these games with our players over the next few years.” says CEO Fredrik Wester.

Paradox Interactive now has fifteen new games in development, some are new titles and some are sequels on existing franchises. Four of these games have been announced; the much demanded grand strategy game Victoria 3, Crusader Kings 3 for consoles, the classic Shadowrun Trilogy for console and Vampire: the Masquerade - Bloodlines 2. Additionally, a number of DLCs are in development, such as Royal Court for Crusader King 3.

I hope Ziets's Digimancy project made the cut for his sake even if it turns out lousy. :M
 

Hellion

Arcane
Joined
Feb 5, 2013
Messages
1,603
Apparently Paradox's CEO considered shutting the game down completely when they dropped HardSuit Labs, but eventually "received an interesting pitch" by a "very reputable and talented developer who has made a number of different games before.".

 

Gargaune

Magister
Joined
Mar 12, 2020
Messages
3,190
developer who has made a number of different games before
If those were his actual words, that's corpospeak for "doesn't have AAA experience in the genre." The whole piece reads very pragmatically cautious, like a man who's already bracing for that eventual shareholders' meeting down the line.
 

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