Game News Vampire Bloodlines True Patch ver.4.02AT

[Diogo Ribeiro]

And welcome to the forums, Tessera!

 

[Tessera]

And welcome to the forums, Tessera!

Thank you very much.

/bow

 

[Jack_Deth]

Appreciate your work on this patch Tessera. Always want more Bloodlines but always had trouble with the unofficial patches creating constant crashes. Hope yours takes care of that issue while making it fun to replay Bloodlines over again.

 

[Annonchinil]

Wasn't one of the problems in VtMB that the combat was too hard for either sneaky and social/intelligent characters? Wouldn't the mod fix this? I am just curious on how I should play the game.

 

[Tessera]

Appreciate your work on this patch Tessera. Always want more Bloodlines but always had trouble with the unofficial patches creating constant crashes. Hope yours takes care of that issue while making it fun to replay Bloodlines over again.

Thank you very much.

You shouldn't experience any crashes with our patch. We've been running it through tons of stress tests, ever since it was produced. So far, it works beautifully.

The one bug that nobody has been able to fix is the "container bug." You're probably familiar with that one -- sometimes, when you try to open a conatiner (your mailbox, or a drawer, or a refigerator, etc) and manipulate the items inside of it, the game won;t let you. You need to do a quick save and restore... after which the conatiner has been reset. This is obviously a coding problem within the Source engine that VTMB uses and thus far, no one has been able to fix it. Fortunately, it's just a minor nuisance.

However, you will probably need to create a new character after you install the True VTMB patch, due to the way the game stores map information within its game save files. This is especially true if you were using one of Wesp's mods prior to installing our patch and unfortunately, it can not be helped. That's not so bad, though... as you will probably wish to start all over again, anyway -- and see the game the way it was meant to be seen from the beginning.

 

[Tessera]

Wasn't one of the problems in VtMB that the combat was too hard for either sneaky and social/intelligent characters? Wouldn't the mod fix this? I am just curious on how I should play the game.

My Malkavian has had absolutely no trouble in playing the game all the way through and defeating Ming Xiao. Her skill with firearms is ZERO, because she uses the "Ninja" history (very powerful in melee, but can never raise guns above "0"). Yet, she still won the game. Other players have reported that they've had no problems in playing through as a Toreador, Nosferatu and Tremere. They simply had to re-adjust their thinking... and play as a vampire.

I'm assuming that those who claimed to have problems with certain clans simply did not build their characters properly. VTMB is not an easy game -- not in its original form. You need to think ahead and try to anticipate what strengths to focus upon. And of course... you need to use quite a bit of STRATEGY to win.

On my website, you can watch a demo video that shows exactly what I mean by "using strategy." It's a demo video of my Malk girl battling with Ming Xiao in the endgame. You will see that, despite my Malk's weakness with guns, she manages to use her brains instead... and win the battle.

Demo video is here:

http://www.tessmage.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=20

Just look for the video entitled "Battle With Ming Xiao" and also, keep in mind that I play a nude version of the game that I modified myself. If you are offended by nudity, then my adult website is definitely not for you.

 

[Roqua]

Teresa, As I said before, I'm thankful to anyone that puts work into fixing a game, especially one I like, but you are being pretty genrous with intent:

1) Did Troika intend the game to be released with bugs?

2) Did Troika not have a huge crunch at the end.

3) Your super sluething ability to deduct exactly where and why the katana was placed there is interesting, but we'll never know what Troika intended, since they didn't have enough time or money to finish the game or patch it right. If it was patched 5 more times, Troika's final game could've looked a lot more like wasp's patch than without it.

4) Troika was implimenting a world with source books. Just like D&D, I'll even link to prove it.
http://www.white-wolf.com/
Wasp seems like a WW fan, and anyone that has read WoD and VtM can factually state that BL got some things wrong. I disagree with some of his tweaks, but he made them with an intent to bring the games closer to their ORIGINAL INTENT, that being an implementation of the WW setting and rules into an action game.

5) I played melee and blew through the game. I heard ranged was under powered, and if so, wouldn't making it more viable be a good thing? I only shot a gun in the tutorial, but if you are saying, before wasp's mod, that ranged was as powerful as melee, and he made it more powerful, then that is wierd. But I can say, he has access to the source books so probably had that narrative in mind.

6) My main problem is the word choice. "Troika intended" ""ment to be." "Etc"
Until troika tells us what the indended in regards to every issue, we don't know. I could say Troika intended to not have the whore house in nulb or children in the game because they removed them, and the only way to purposfully remove something from the game (again, on purpose) is to intend to so it. But they did it because they had to. Co* put it back in. OH MY GOD, A MOD!!!
Good, co8 patch is better with the mods.

7) We do know Troika's goal with the WoD/VtM setting was accuracy. We don't know oif the character profile things were intended to go in, because it didn't ship that way, and isn't a bug. So thats one mod that we like.

So if you move something, thats a mod and we hate it because that wasn't what our omnipotence told us, but if you add something (mod it in that was included with the game but not in the game that is a what? The manual, and game, explain the masquerade and how it becomes violated, so if that is fixed to be more in line with what the game says, is that a mod or bug fix?

8) There are different degrees of intent. Troika's intent to make an accurate dipiction and translation of the VtM/ WoD sourcebooks and setting into an action game could be seen as the highest level of intent, and the true intent when deciding what is a bug, You, and others, see Troika's intent as the highest degree. Until Troika says otherwise I will continue going off what they said.

And, thank you andone who helped you for taking the time to make a patch that fixes what you believe should be fixed and giving people a choice on how they would like to play through a great, super easy, action game with some great roleplaying elements.

 

[Annonchinil]

Since I have not played the game before I don't want to watch the video as It might contain spoilers. If it does, can you give me the jist of it?

 

[Tessera]

Teresa, As I said before, I'm thankful to anyone that puts work into fixing a game, especially one I like, but you are being pretty genrous with intent:

1) Did Troika intend the game to be released with bugs?

2) Did Troika not have a huge crunch at the end.

No, Troika did not intend for there to be bugs. Troika was unfairly rushed by ActiVision and that is precisely why the game was unfinished upon its release. In fact, ActiVision sent some staff members to the Troika studios towards the end and basically, those watchdogs pushed Troika into releasing an unfinished (and buggy as hell) version of the game.

Later, they were given an additional few weeks, mainly because Valve had pulled Half-Life 2 back into the shop, to put some finishing touches upon their game's Source AI. The contract between Valve and ActiVision prohibited the release of VTMB until after HL-2 had gone gold. It was during this reprieve that Troika produced the official version 1.2 patch... before VTMB had even been shipped. In fact, that was the very last piece of work that was ever produced by Troika.

As for the rest of your comments, I have already addressed them and I'm sorry that you find yourself in disagreement. We've based our decisions upon scripts, interviews and common sense. That is the best that anyone can possibly do and therefore, I stand by my previous statements. In every case, we have done our very best to preserve the originally intended content. That is simply a fact and believe me, we did quite a bit of agonizing over many, many small details as the True VTMB Patch was being put together.

I could go on and on, but as you can see, we're very familiar with the background of VTMB and its development. We did not do anything in an arbitrary or frivolous manner. We took a serious look at the game's history and also, we ourselves have been playing it at the expert level for over two years.

 

[Tessera]

Since I have not played the game before I don't want to watch the video as It might contain spoilers. If it does, can you give me the jist of it?

Yes, it is definitely a spoiler.

It shows a method for tricking Ming Xiao into screwing herself in the final battle and also, it shows how to reduce the amount of damage that your character takes to the bare minimum. In short: it shows you how to use brains over brawn.

 

[Inziladun]

I don't know. That looked much more like exploiting the AI's inability to reach you and less like actually using strategy.

 

[Roqua]

Teresa, As I said before, I'm thankful to anyone that puts work into fixing a game, especially one I like, but you are being pretty genrous with intent:

1) Did Troika intend the game to be released with bugs?

2) Did Troika not have a huge crunch at the end.

No, Troika did not intend for there to be bugs. Troika was unfairly rushed by ActiVision and that is precisely why the game was unfinished upon its release. In fact, ActiVision sent some staff members to the Troika studios towards the end and basically, those watchdogs pushed Troika into releasing an unfinished (and buggy as hell) version of the game.

Later, they were given an additional few weeks, mainly because Valve had pulled Half-Life 2 back into the shop, to put some finishing touches upon their game's Source AI. The contract between Valve and ActiVision prohibited the release of VTMB until after HL-2 had gone gold. It was during this reprieve that Troika produced the official version 1.2 patch... before VTMB had even been shipped. In fact, that was the very last piece of work that was ever produced by Troika.

As for the rest of your comments, I have already addressed them and I'm sorry that you find yourself in disagreement. We've based our decisions upon scripts, interviews and common sense. That is the best that anyone can possibly do and therefore, I stand by my previous statements. In every case, we have done our very best to preserve the originally intended content. That is simply a fact and believe me, we did quite a bit of agonizing over many, many small details as the True VTMB Patch was being put together.

I could go on and on, but as you can see, we're very familiar with the background of VTMB and its development. We did not do anything in an arbitrary or frivolous manner. We took a serious look at the game's history and also, we ourselves have been playing it at the expert level for over two years.

okay, but only if you change "originaly intended content" to "originally intended content as we interpreted it." Its such a minor change and is the actual fact.

You see the originally shipped game as the truest intent, some don't. No ones right, everyones wrong. Thats life.

You think the game was challenging, I think it was retardedly easy, but everything else was great so made up for it. I can't grasp how anyone could use difficult or strategy when talking about BL, or how anyone could gimp a character. But I also could never figure out how to patch anything, so iit evens out. Lets all be freinds and get along!!!!!

Now that you are done with BL patching, maybe you could throw your might behind the guys making the keep on the borderland mod for another troika great, along with wasp, and then we can all hold hands and sing songs as we bring joy and peace to the world.

 

[Tessera]

I don't know. That looked much more like exploiting the AI's inability to reach you and less like actually using strategy.

Do snipers run into the middle of a crowd, shouting "Here I am, trying to shoot you..!!!"

???

No, they hide against the wall and shoot at their victims around corners. They maintain a very low profile.

Do pro football quarterbacks stand right next to the offensive linemen and let them run right over them like a steamroller..? No -- they have their own teammates run blocker and stay out of harm's way, just as I did by getting Xiao to get in the way of her double.

Those are strategies -- not an exploit. It's using your head, instead of your crotch. Give it a try... it's a lot more fun than just charging in like some half-assed, ez-mode Rambo and using a grenade launcher.

 

[Tessera]

Now that you are done with BL patching, maybe you could throw your might behind the guys making the keep on the borderland mod for another troika great, along with wasp, and then we can all hold hands and sing songs as we bring joy and peace to the world.

That's a very amusing notion -- but I'll pass. I do what I do as a labor of love. I don't make any money from it and in fact, it costs me money to host my work. My website is totally non-profit and contains no ads -- I pay for it out of my own pocket. With that being the case, I only work on those projects that interest me personally.

Again, as for your other comments, I feel that you are speaking emotionally and that you are in error. We'll agree to disagree and I'm going to leave it at that. Thank you for your input.

 

[Drakron]

The subject of Ranged weapons vs Melee weapons been done before.

In Bloodlines I think (bare with me that its been YEARS and I am doing this from memory) people complained about guns was more because of how they simply had to be used in FPV as melee weapons were better used on 3rd person viewed and how guns damage output was usually lesser.

Now the damage is pretty much a balance thing, melee weapons have little range (they have reach) as guns have far better range so in the end the damage/range will balance out.

Adding MORE damage to ranged weapons is ... stupid, it makes melee weapons irrelevant since their only advantage is removed, arguments over how it worked in Bloodlines tend to forget that the engine was not the best choice for the game and how some things were not done for some reason (autolocking for example would helped a lot people that are not FPS players).

Also for comments over how Troika intended the game to be ... well we have the shipped game and that IS what SOULD be patched, the only things we KNOW Troika intended are in the game.

I am really not surprised some given Tessera crap just by looking at Oblivion were god forbids if we do not want to use OOO or MMM to have a static world ...

 

[Inziladun]

I don't know. That looked much more like exploiting the AI's inability to reach you and less like actually using strategy.

Do snipers run into the middle of a crowd, shouting "Here I am, trying to shoot you..!!!"

???

No, they hide against the wall and shoot at their victims around corners. They maintain a very low profile.

Oh please, it doesn't even make any sense. If the AI wasn't caught up on the corner it would of been able to reach you. Your examples are also mediocre at best, considering a Sniper's life depends on his ability to remain unseen, whereas you were very obviously noticed in the video, and Xiao's double could of just as easily gone around the original to get a better shot at you(afterall it's not like the Original Xiao was trying to impede it's progress like a Football blocker would do), but the AI obviously wasn't smart enough to navigate that room properly.

When I played it a while ago, I beat Xiao with my Tremere using my Katana. Never used a gun throughout the entire game, save for some spots in that ridiculous grind that is the Sabbath HQ. I don't remember Xiao being neccesarily hard, although I admit I did reload a couple times.

 

[Roqua]

The subject of Ranged weapons vs Melee weapons been done before.

In Bloodlines I think (bare with me that its been YEARS and I am doing this from memory) people complained about guns was more because of how they simply had to be used in FPV as melee weapons were better used on 3rd person viewed and how guns damage output was usually lesser.

Now the damage is pretty much a balance thing, melee weapons have little range (they have reach) as guns have far better range so in the end the damage/range will balance out.

Adding MORE damage to ranged weapons is ... stupid, it makes melee weapons irrelevant since their only advantage is removed, arguments over how it worked in Bloodlines tend to forget that the engine was not the best choice for the game and how some things were not done for some reason (autolocking for example would helped a lot people that are not FPS players).

Also for comments over how Troika intended the game to be ... well we have the shipped game and that IS what SOULD be patched, the only things we KNOW Troika intended are in the game.

I am really not surprised some given Tessera crap just by looking at Oblivion were god forbids if we do not want to use OOO or MMM to have a static world ...

You, sir, are sharp as a tack. I don't know what OOO or MMM is, so I can't comment. But I can say that yes, we have a shipped games, that wased based off of other shipped games. And I guess the bugs were intended since they shipped with the game. And I guess we don't know Troika intended to make an accurate interpretation of the WoD VtM sourcebooks into an action game, even though they said it? And again, if you look at degrees of intend, and probably the liscense Troika was working with, I'm sure you can see that if the game (minus the action combat) is subject to WW's intend on how the WoD and VtM work.

So, any changes to masquerade points is up for debate, since Troika isn't the god of WW's intent. So we are left with if you want the game Troika produced (regradless of intent, since the game did not ship as intended) minus some bugs and with the mods the True patch provides, or a patch with some more mods that very well could be closer or the the True game Troika would've provided if they had enough time and money to finish it or patch it until their true intent was realized (or, could have taken the game in the exact opposite direction than Troika would've) but we'll never know for sure so any sort of speculation or claims to know the truth is stupid.

The bottom line is now we have a choice, true patch or fake patch. Choice is good. Both Teresa and Wasp are good for making both patches, and both deserve our thanks. Even if one of the patch creators is the naked pixel equivalent of a furry. I can't spell very well, VD is mongolian, Roleplayer is a hate monger, Drakron is a pedaphile, we all have our idiosyncracies. And that diversity makes the world a much more interesting place.

 

[Tessera]

Oh please, it doesn't even make any sense. If the AI wasn't caught up on the corner it would of been able to reach you.

You may wish to either improve your eyesight, or pay better attention to my video... instead of just searching childishly for reasons to flame me. Xiao is quite obviously able to reach my character and she damned near kills my Malk on a couple of occasions. Watch it again and pay attention this time.

Incidentally, your attitude and posting style tells me that you are definitely not an adult. I'm sorry, but VTMB is a mature game and therefore, I will not enter into debates about it with kids. Consider this to be my final reply to you, regardless of whatever snappy comebacks you might post. I refuse to be baited by teenagers and that's final.

I made an appearance here as a courtesy to the moderator, after he posted some very nice things on my own board. I'll save my debates for my own forums.

Later.

 

[Fez]

Has Role-Player been indulging in the nude patches then?

 

[Inziladun]

Incidentally, your attitude and posting style tells me that you are definitely not an adult. I'm sorry, but VTMB is a mature game and therefore, I will not enter into debates about it with kids. Consider this to be my final reply to you, regardless of whatever snappy comebacks you might post. I refuse to be baited by teenagers and that's final.
Later.

Wow, unbelievable.

Oh and yes, I did see how she hit you once for every 10 times she tried, excuse me.

 

[Zomg]

Teenagers aren't sophisticated enough to grasp the subtle narrative of hitbox collision, little one. Maybe when you're older and your forebrain has developed, you might understand.

I beat Xiao with a protean gangrel by using the brilliant strategy of strafing right, it was pretty crazy.

 

[Fez]

You are not mature enough to understand or appreciate such fine work as digital boobs being inserted into every game possible. That's the quality role playing options I dreamed of. The developer's true dreams have come true. Only a mature adult would understand this.

 

[Joe Krow]

Interesting argument. I played Bloodlines through with Troika's patches and had no problem with it. Did the original mod/patch maker base his changes on anything? Game canon, designers blogs, etc.? Basiccly, does he explain his changes anywhere or was he pulling them out of his ass?

 

[Tessera]

You are not mature enough to understand or appreciate such fine work as digital boobs being inserted into every game possible.

...which has nothing whatsoever to do with this thread. Please try to grow up and stay on-topic. My re-skin mods are in no way associated with the True VTMB Patch. They are quite separate issues, as you are well-aware.

That's the quality role playing options I dreamed of. The developer's true dreams have come true.

Well yes, in the case of my own nude mods, actually they have come true -- since VTMB is a game for adults that already features nudity and strong sexual content, right out of the box. Strippers, hookers, implied sex scenes and racy dialogue are all featured in this fine "RPG noir" game. Also, the actual skin textures involved were originally intended to show far more nudity (on some characters) than the game actually ended up displaying. I know this, because I've worked extensively on the textures of this game and I have found many areas that were later covered up -- probably on the orders of the publisher. Have you ever actually played VTMB..? It's definitely not a game that was intended for kids... nor was it intended for repressed, immature individuals. It's a game that was strictly intended for uninhibited adults, my friend.

Only a mature adult would understand this.

That is quite correct. Unfortunately, I've only spotted a couple of actual, mature adults posting in this thread.... so rather than indulge any further childishness, I'll simply thank the moderator for his welcome... and then leave, as it would seem that the rest of this board does not welcome my participation. Frankly, I would rather not read any more unjustified rudeness at our expense. We've already been through that ridiculous and childish scene over at Planet Vampire, so I'm not going to waste any more time here. I'm amazed to see that people would "welcome" a newcomer to their forum board by lashing out at that person with a bunch of unwarranted innuendo and abuse, but such is the way of fools. You have my sympathies... truly.

For the record, thousands of players are using our True VTMB Patch and they are very, very happy with it. That's good enough for us and although it was a lot of work, we're glad to have created it. If anyone happens to be a player who does NOT wish to play the actual Troika game, then our patch is simply not for you and that's fine. The True VTMB Patch is definitely a patch for purists only.

Stay well and be good to each other. Over and out...

- Tessera -
www.tessmage.com

 

[Drakron]

Meh, do not worry about that ...

We are kinda of a gibbering mouth that just yells, there is no much need to be civil around here (after all, its common to sneak link tubegirl images) and you do not need to be afraid to push others around if they get too vocal ... this is hardly a place were there is much of common ground or having to work on a common ground.

I really need to find out were the fuck did I leave my Bloodlines DVD hanging around so I can try this out ...