Development Info Bloodlines - multiplayer mode debunked!

[Whipporowill]

Tags: Troika Games; Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines

As rumour goes, the latest PC Gamer (US) has a newsbit on Troika's Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines having canned the Vampire vs Hunter multiplayer mode that was planned for release. Activision's Shane Defreest spoke up at the <a href="http://vnboards.ign.com/Bloodlines_Inn/b22439/" target=_blank>Bloodlines Inn</a> to <a href="http://vnboards.ign.com/Bloodlines_Inn/b22439/76834458/?7" target=_blank>acknowledge</a> this:<blockquote>I can now confirm this to be true. Bloodlines is a single player only game. </blockquote>He also went on to <a href="http://vnboards.ign.com/Bloodlines_Inn/b22439/76863332/?0" target=_blank>post</a> the minimum specs for the game:<blockquote>As promised here at long last are the system Specs for Bloodlines.
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MINIMUM SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
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3D hardware accelerator card required - 100% DirectX® 9.0c-compatible 64MB video card and drivers
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1.2 GHz Athlon(tm) or 1.2 GHz Pentium® III processor or higher
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384MB of RAM (512MB of RAM recommended)
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Microsoft® Windows® 98/ME/2000/XP
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Quad-Speed CD-ROM drive (600 K/sec sustained transfer rate) and drivers
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3.3 GB of uncompressed hard disk space for game files and saved games (plus 1.4 GB for Windows® swap file)
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100% DirectX® 9.0-compatible 16-bit sound card and drivers
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100% Windows® 98/ME/2000/XP-compatible mouse, keyboard, and drivers
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DirectX® 9.0c (Included)
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Supported Chipsets for 98/ME/2000/XP
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All ATI® Radeon® Chipsets
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All NVIDIA® GeForce(tm) Chipsets
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Matrox® Parhelia(tm) Chipset </blockquote>
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Anyone bothered by multiplayer being cut? I'm rather pleased that publishers are brave enough to realise that <b>any</b> multiplayer isn't necessarily better than really bad multiplayer. For those that <b>do</b> care however, I think it's pretty safe to say there wil be plenty of modders up to taking on the job.

 

[Volourn]

Eh.. I didn't even know there was one. LOL

 

[Whipporowill]

I don't know if it ever really existed, but one was planned at least. I'm glad they didn't bother to implement it as it wasn't much more than a deathmatch with objectives thingie - far from what the game was aiming at in it's sp part.

 

[Volourn]

To answer your question thoguh you can tell by my above post, no, I'm not bothered by it being cut.

I always figured it for being a SP only game anyways..

 

[Eclecticist]

I am glad. Ahoyka.

 

[Diogo Ribeiro]

FAAAAAAJITAAAS!!!

 

[Diogo Ribeiro]

O'course, will this have a noticeable impact on sales? It would seem many firstperson shooter players appreciate it mostly for multiplayer purposes.

 

[Whipporowill]

Considering it hasn't been marketed as a mp-centric game, I'm not sure sales will actually be that much affected. Morrowind, Arx Fatalis and Ultima Underworld didn't feature an mp component (did Deus Ex?) and however much rpg they are, they're the closest to what I believe Bloodlines will be.

 

[Transcendent One]

I just hope they don't go with any of that "we're cutting multiplayer to focus on making a great single player" bullshit like they did with ToEE (which ultimately had a mediocre at best single player). Other than that, I couldn't care less for multiplayer.

 

[Whipporowill]

Considering MP wasn't even an issue whatsoever for ToEE, I'd say the risk of that is rather hm... slim?

 

[Barghest]

They probably had trouble getting the jiggletech (TM) working in multiplayer.

 

[Diogo Ribeiro]

Well, Morrowind wasn't an FPS, and Deus Ex did get a multiplayer component (post-release, though). Then again, Invisible War got none.

I don't think it would need to be marketed as an MP-centered game. I think most fans of the genre expect there to be a bare minimum of multiplayer, wheter its the main aspect of the game or not.

 

[symposium]

I agree that post-release MP might work.

Coorperative mode might be interesting, it was almost managable in the Baldurs Gate series.

 

[Whipporowill]

Actually, I think most WoD fans might be somewhat dissapointed, but also value an interesting sp campaign more than they value an actionpacked mp mode. If they'd been promised (and subsequently been tricked out of) a storyteller tool as for Redemption, I'm sure they'd be raving mad about now though...

... as is, the bloodlines.dilapidation forum seems rather pleased.

 

[Diogo Ribeiro]

True, a strong singleplayer campaign might make up for a lack of multiplayer modes, but will it be the case for Bloodlines? Not sure if Troika will provide a goos SP story. Hell. I'm not even sure it'll be a game I'll like, much less if the story is any good. Playing online was, for a while, a good aspect of Redemption. Without giving that possibility to players Troika will have to provide a damn good SP game.

 

[Sol Invictus]

Well, I wouldn't be so quick to buy into the belief that the only reason a multiplayer component isn't being developed is to 'focus on the single player campaign'. It's just a clever way of saying that they don't have the talent or ability to design a multiplayer component. When was the last time Troika designed a multiplayer component that worked?

 

[Volourn]

"When was the last time Troika designed a multiplayer component that worked?"

Trick question?

 

[Jinxed]

Oh sure it was planned. I remember reading something about human hunters vs various vampires with set powers. It would have been your standard deathmatch type of MP. Quite frankly, it would probably be half assed like the Arcanum MP. You either make an engine that's good to play in multiplayer or you don't and I'm glad Troika decided not to. I shudder thinking that Troika would actually change something about the sp game to make mp more playable.

 

[Sol Invictus]

They could always make two separate executables with different core rules, like CounterStrike : Source and Half Life 2, or Call of Duty SP and MP versions.

 

[POOPERSCOOPER]

or not, you faggot

 

[Whipporowill]

I don't see how implementing an awful mp component could make the sp game better? Not having to code the mp, at least means the sp campaign won't be worse that it would've been with it?

As for how good a game Bloodlines is, it remains to be seen. I like Troika and I like Vampires (liked Redemption as well as used to pnp in the setting years ago), so it sort of feels like a given semi-enjoyable game at worst. And unless Bloodlines recieves crap reviews - I'm pretty certain that this (for good or bad) will be Troika's #1 seller to date. I'm actually a bit worried about what that might implicate for the future...

 

[Jinxed]

It's not that simple exit. A lot of effort is put into the various type of weapons, the balance in the way they work, movement, etc... I mean, it's a whole can of worms and I don't think a totally unexperience fps dev team like Troika could do what you posted about.

Hell, even ID software didn't do that with doom3 and the MP sucks. They didn't lack anything in order to make it but they just chose not to.

Edit:

I'm actually a bit worried about what that might implicate for the future...

Aye, I remember posting about it months ago. Bloodlines is taking a more eye candish "effects" route... Or at least that's what I am worried about. If it's a total success, we would see more games of the same style in the future.

 

[Sol Invictus]

On the other hand they could always hire Grey Matter Studios to design the MP component, haha.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

Yes, there was originally talk about there being a team based multiplayer component in Bloodlines. It sounded like a pointless waste of time to me when they mentioned it, so I'm glad it was cut. I'd rather have the developers focused on the single player elements than add in something silly like a multiplayer component that doesn't really fit with the game anyway.

 

[Sol Invictus]

Just so you guys know, I don't care for an MP component. It sounded stupid when they originally mentioned it. I don't see the point in anyone wanting to play a half-assed multiplayer Bloodlines with games like CS:S already available.