Sol Invictus
Erudite
Linearity is not an issue with Bloodlines. It's almost completely non-linear in terms of quests, choices and how you go about accomplishing those things.
For example, I found a ton of choices to be made when accessing the Medical Center down the street.
After entering the Medical Center, I would encounter a nurse who would stop me from going in the back. I could:
1) Persuade her to let you in the back, claiming I had to deliver something to a friend who works there.
2) Be really rude to her by calling her a bitch, but that doesn't get me in the back.
3) Since my Hacking skill was 3 or more (I did this with 2 different characters to verify), I can claim to have come to fix the computers on the 2nd floor. Further persuasion was necessary, unhighlighted by any of the "Moron Indicator" texts, so I had to use my own brains to figure out how to persuade her. Upon successfully persuading her, she allowed me in the back AND gave me a key to enter the 2nd floor.
4) As a Ventrue, I can mind control her into letting me into the back, but this does not gain me access to the keycard, because my character doesn't know about it.
5) Alternatively, I can also come in through the back entrance, sneaking past everyone.
Once inside,
1) There are vents that allow me to sneak around if I steal one of the keycards from the Security Office, if I don't have a high lockpicking skill to access those doors.
2) I can talk to the guard, just as the nurse instructed me to, and he will open all the doors for me, including the Controlled Substances room, which I have to use my Persuasion skill to get him to open, after which I have to do some furher convincing because he won't just open it for me just because I have a high persuasion skill. Having a high Persuasion, Intimidate or Seduction skill only allows you additional options - but you'll still have to make choices in the dialogue to proceed further. How cool is that? In addition to those skills, having regular skills, like Hacking, Finance or Investigation allows you even more dialogue skills which you can use together with those abilities in order to get what you want. If I didn't have a Hacking skill I wouldn't have been able to access the 2nd floor.
3) I can kill the guard, and lockpick all the doors to get what I want.
4) If I manage to access the computer room through the ventilation, or by getting the guard to open the door for me, or by lockpicking the door, I can additionally hack through the computer terminal and have it open a vault for me.
5) Sneak around unseen, lockpicking the doors and doing everything quietly, and cast a spell like Trance on the guard to get him to ignore me.
6) Nosferatu have high stealth and invisibility which would have allowed them to elude the guard fairly easily.
Damn, this game is awesome.
For example, I found a ton of choices to be made when accessing the Medical Center down the street.
After entering the Medical Center, I would encounter a nurse who would stop me from going in the back. I could:
1) Persuade her to let you in the back, claiming I had to deliver something to a friend who works there.
2) Be really rude to her by calling her a bitch, but that doesn't get me in the back.
3) Since my Hacking skill was 3 or more (I did this with 2 different characters to verify), I can claim to have come to fix the computers on the 2nd floor. Further persuasion was necessary, unhighlighted by any of the "Moron Indicator" texts, so I had to use my own brains to figure out how to persuade her. Upon successfully persuading her, she allowed me in the back AND gave me a key to enter the 2nd floor.
4) As a Ventrue, I can mind control her into letting me into the back, but this does not gain me access to the keycard, because my character doesn't know about it.
5) Alternatively, I can also come in through the back entrance, sneaking past everyone.
Once inside,
1) There are vents that allow me to sneak around if I steal one of the keycards from the Security Office, if I don't have a high lockpicking skill to access those doors.
2) I can talk to the guard, just as the nurse instructed me to, and he will open all the doors for me, including the Controlled Substances room, which I have to use my Persuasion skill to get him to open, after which I have to do some furher convincing because he won't just open it for me just because I have a high persuasion skill. Having a high Persuasion, Intimidate or Seduction skill only allows you additional options - but you'll still have to make choices in the dialogue to proceed further. How cool is that? In addition to those skills, having regular skills, like Hacking, Finance or Investigation allows you even more dialogue skills which you can use together with those abilities in order to get what you want. If I didn't have a Hacking skill I wouldn't have been able to access the 2nd floor.
3) I can kill the guard, and lockpick all the doors to get what I want.
4) If I manage to access the computer room through the ventilation, or by getting the guard to open the door for me, or by lockpicking the door, I can additionally hack through the computer terminal and have it open a vault for me.
5) Sneak around unseen, lockpicking the doors and doing everything quietly, and cast a spell like Trance on the guard to get him to ignore me.
6) Nosferatu have high stealth and invisibility which would have allowed them to elude the guard fairly easily.
Damn, this game is awesome.
