Game News Vampire Bloodlines True Patch ver.4.02AT

[Diogo Ribeiro]

 

[RGE]

We are very aware that, up until now, the VTMB community has been forced to use Wesp's mods... simply because there was no viable alternative. We figured that most players would, therefore, already have one of Wesp's mods installed. We decided to set up our patch in such a way that it allows those players to simply install it directly on top of Wesp's mods, without having to re-install the entire game.

That's what I figured when I first wondered why you'd build a patch on top of an unwanted base. That is, you wouldn't, so that left only the above as a reason for why your patch would fit on top of the other one.

I really didn't like the change in the ghouling process I saw in the latest patch. Granted, I missed out completely on the whole ghoul thing the first time I played it, because I didn't realise that I was supposed to keep clicking on her to talk to her, like the doctor told me to. But the change just felt stupid. Made me wonder what other stupid things I'd played through that might've been better before a patch. Though I suppose that getting the magical katana from Yukie was better than finding it on a floor, despite the fact that she'd have precious little reason to give it away to a 'demon' who randomly showed up to help her. Still seems as if an earlier patch version had the most natural way of getting the blade though - from an actual vampire hunter, who'd have a reason to use such a weapon and also to 'give it away' to a vampire. :twisted:

Unfortunately, Wesp and his ilk would seem to prefer playing the game in much the same way as you would play Half-Life 2, so he has increased the power of firearms enormously and has also made it far, far too easy to obtain high-powered guns and ammo in VTMB.

Aha. That explains why I never noticed how 'useless' guns were. Most of them seemed plenty useful to me. Only the weak little revolver was truly worthless, even though I could score one shot kills during sneak attacks.

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.

Dammit, where was the nudity I was promised?

SPOILER ALERT
Seriously though, the first time I fought Ming-Xiao I had to go to a forum and read that the way to beat her was to get up in her face and shoot her with the Steyer. Because at a very close distance Ming-Xiao can't use her devastating long tentacle very well, and with bullets she won't get any tentacles cut off and thus have them spawn as extra blobs. And where my talkative Malkavian had previously failed, with that tactic she survived. No need to hide behind corners, though perhaps that was with a more powerful gun.

The next time I fought Ming-Xiao I played a Toreador with maxed Celerity, and I used a refined tactic. During my first attempts I'd found out that the long tentacle is the problem when using guns against her, and the extra blobs from the chopped off tentacles are the problems when fighting her in melee. So what to do? I got in quickly and chopped the long tentacle off, and when it resulted in extra blobs, I got out of melee and ran around and shot at Ming-Xiao until she died. Worked wonderfully thanks to Celerity, but I'm sure that anyone could do it.

Really hate difficult battles though. Hate the cops too, who just turn up and start shooting. No "freeze, police" or anything. That's how I could get a certain ghoul killed with no loss of humanity, though that was patched in the last unofficial patch.

What, wait? You've left the thread because of people arguing against you? Tenderfoot!

 

[Lurkar]

Ahhh yes, THAT Tesera. The one that tried to get people in WoW to "revolt" against the developers, made a thousand alts to agree with him, and posted shock pictures on his relm forums and then complained when he got banned not once, but twice.

Good times, good times.

 

[sabishii]

Ahhh yes, THAT Tesera. The one that tried to get people in WoW to "revolt" against the developers, made a thousand alts to agree with him, and posted shock pictures on his relm forums and then complained when he got banned not once, but twice.

Good times, good times.

So mature!

 

[Inziladun]

Look, he's famous!

 

[psycojester]

Though I suppose that getting the magical katana from Yukie was better than finding it on a floor, despite the fact that she'd have precious little reason to give it away to a 'demon' who randomly showed up to help her

She's an Asian daemon hunting teenager in a plaid skirt designed to fly up around her armpits whenever she gets knocked down and she was fighting an Asian shape-shifty daemon monster thingy. If you hadn't been there she'd have been tentacle raped until her orifice were at least a foot wide.

While some many consider that a good career move most people would consider that something worthy of a little gratitude

 

[Daedalos]

patch changes ! and more

Hello...

While I'm new to this forum... I played the bloodlines 3 years ago.. and was quite upset with all the bugs and stuff that was wrong with the game...

My question regarding this new "true" patch...

Will it fix the framerate and source engine problems i was experiencing ? I found the game to be extremely laggy in the city areas.. and sometimes very sluggish and chobby... has any steps been taken by the team so adress these issues seeing as it is the source engine...??

2ndly it is mentioned that the true patch only fixes bugs and other things intended... but does it also fix gameplay balances.. and other things that may or may not have been intended by the Troika Team but never was made ??

thank you..

 

[Wesp5]

We are very aware that, up until now, the VTMB community has been forced to use Wesp's mods... simply because there was no viable alternative. We figured that most players would, therefore, already have one of Wesp's mods installed. We decided to set up our patch in such a way that it allows those players to simply install it directly on top of Wesp's mods, without having to re-install the entire game.

That's what I figured when I first wondered why you'd build a patch on top of an unwanted base. That is, you wouldn't, so that left only the above as a reason for why your patch would fit on top of the other one.

I think it's time I say something about this .The above reason is only Tesseras excuse for basing the patch on my work, the actual creator Axanimander is well aware that otherwise it would have been much more work. While I dislike all the lies Tessera spreads around the issue, I allowed Axanimander to use my patch as a base under the condition that he includes the unchanged readme. He agreed but never did it (or maybe Tessera removed it before uploading) and I think this is not okay. Also he didn't want to call it a "true" patch, that was Tesseras idea alone.

I really didn't like the change in the ghouling process I saw in the latest patch. Granted, I missed out completely on the whole ghoul thing the first time I played it, because I didn't realise that I was supposed to keep clicking on her to talk to her, like the doctor told me to. But the change just felt stupid.

I was made aware of that and changed it to an intermediate solution that includes all the unused lines while reducing the times you have to talk to her. I use to listen to complains on the Planet Vampire forum but I do not accept just any request like Tessera says. Also just comparing the readme of my patches with the changes done by Axanimander show that I fixed up much much more than I ever modified and much of the latter, as already said here, is open to discussion as well. You'll find threads with explanations on the Planet Vampire forum and on Tesseras forum as well (if he didn't remove those he couldn't find an answer to, like he banned me from his forum). A good example is the loss of humanity when killing innocents which besidesremoving of respawning is probable the biggest gameplay change I made. I changed it to how it is described in the actual printed game manual so how can Tessera claim this is wrong?

Though I suppose that getting the magical katana from Yukie was better than finding it on a floor, despite the fact that she'd have precious little reason to give it away to a 'demon' who randomly showed up to help her. Still seems as if an earlier patch version had the most natural way of getting the blade though - from an actual vampire hunter, who'd have a reason to use such a weapon and also to 'give it away' to a vampire. :twisted:

The placement of the Ra blade was no easy one and I changed it several times with it now being available behind a locked door in the Fu Syndicate building where it fit's very well and rewards players with a high security feat. The hunter version worked well but provided the weapon too early in the game and despite of what Tesseras claims I have good reasons for every change I made and always try not to unbalance things.

Unfortunately, Wesp and his ilk would seem to prefer playing the game in much the same way as you would play Half-Life 2, so he has increased the power of firearms enormously and has also made it far, far too easy to obtain high-powered guns and ammo in VTMB.

Aha. That explains why I never noticed how 'useless' guns were. Most of them seemed plenty useful to me. Only the weak little revolver was truly worthless, even though I could score one shot kills during sneak attacks.

Again it is not really true what Tessera claims. I changed little regarding to the firearms and I myself solved the game with the official 1.2 patch with a Toreador using firearms and Celerity only. Also the most powerful weapon in the game is the flamethrower and I made that a little less powerful and hid it away a little more as well.

 

[Wesp5]

Re: patch changes ! and more

Hello...
Will it fix the framerate and source engine problems i was experiencing ? I found the game to be extremely laggy in the city areas.. and sometimes very sluggish and chobby... has any steps been taken by the team so adress these issues seeing as it is the source engine...??

No, both patches can't do anything about the executables.

2ndly it is mentioned that the true patch only fixes bugs and other things intended... but does it also fix gameplay balances.. and other things that may or may not have been intended by the Troika Team but never was made ??

As far as I know the bug-fixes-only patch only removes changes that it's creator Axanimander and Tessera didn't personally like and kept everything else. E.g. the histories are still in there and they were not in the released game and were changed quite a bit by myself to make them work. So both patches are still subjective works of how the game should have been...

 

[Daedalos]

....

Is there any of you who know anything about a possible Tweak guide to Bloodlines... getting it to run with the best possible quality while retaining good framerates?

seeing as it is running on a half-life 2 engine..

 

[psycojester]

Wesp I don't think anybody is paying to much attention to Tessera, he's made a classic error and decided to act like a sanctimonious superior arseclown. Nobody on the codex responds well to the high handed appraoch.

Althought it was funny when he started calling other posters immature when he's playing bloodlines with a nude patch.

 

[Wesp5]

Re: ....

Is there any of you who know anything about a possible Tweak guide to Bloodlines... getting it to run with the best possible quality while retaining good framerates?

seeing as it is running on a half-life 2 engine..

I know about two tweaks only that are automatically applied when using the unofficial patches:
cl_obfuscate_daylight "0"
cl_smooth "0"

 

[Wesp5]

Wesp I don't think anybody is paying to much attention to Tessera, he's made a classic error and decided to act like a sanctimonious superior arseclown. Nobody on the codex responds well to the high handed appraoch.

I hope so, but I was just looking if they butchered another release of mine when I noticed this thread and I just can't stand people being so deceiving and insulting. I've nothing against people that don't like some changes I have done and want a pure bug-fix patch but Tessera talking about how he knows what Troika intended and that all my small changes were done only to turn Bloodlines into a FPS and that I did almost no bug-fixing on my own are just ridiculous and should stand corrected! As far as I know he didn't even play with my latest patches about which he is complaining...

 

[Data4]

Oh yeah, I remember this douchebag back when I played WoW the first time around. I'd already made my judgement after seeing the obsession with nude pixels all over its site, and seeing the thread go the way it has makes me feel better about that prejudgment.

-F22

 

[Daedalos]

....

actually I prefer the original game without any tampering with the game balance and so on at all.. xept very minor balance issues... and from what I understand.. this patch is exactly what it does... bug fixes and nothing else... if they actually did consult with Troika about some of the stories being possible written in and all.. i think it's great that they implement it.. seeing as it was probaly the way troika would have wanted it.. but its hard to tell what they wanted since they are not around anymore...

but.. making near-drastic changes to the balance system is certainly im convinced not something that the Troika development team had intended... I think the game was about ready.. minus a load of bug testing.. and some finishing on the stories... other than that.. I think the game should be played as it is...

I can understand people who want alot more "modification" to their game... and it's nice to have an alternative to that...

on the Teressa issue... I think the team credited yours(Wesp) and Dan Upright's work, instead of starting from scratch.. and just took it further in bug testing.. I don't see anything wrong with that

 

[Drakron]

Actually it says:

-----------------------------------
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:
-----------------------------------

This bugs-only patch was edited and compiled by Acrimonious.

The original mod template was created by:

Dan Upright, Werner Spahl

So yes, it DOES acknowledge Wesp5 ... but that is not the point is there? the point is some people think NOBODY can create another bug fix patch for Bloodlines besides Wesp5.

 

[psycojester]

Well if he did the majority of the grunt work......

 

[mister lamat]

anyone with a knowledge of the source engine could fashion a 'patch/mod' to some degree. takes a special brand of douchebag to use someone else's work, milk it for all it's worth and then bash the guy.

wonder what would happen if someone ran an ip check on the new accounts posting in this thread...

 

[Fez]

Oh yeah, I remember this douchebag back when I played WoW the first time around. I'd already made my judgement after seeing the obsession with nude pixels all over its site, and seeing the thread go the way it has makes me feel better about that prejudgment.

-F22

I don't think you're the only one who's thinking along those lines.

Also: Well played

 

[Drakron]

Oh? you mean like Dan work since he was the one that started the unofficial patch and vanished around the time the 1.2 patch was released.

You know ... its because of replies like the ones I see here that I stop modding.

 

[RGE]

She's an Asian daemon hunting teenager in a plaid skirt designed to fly up around her armpits whenever she gets knocked down and she was fighting an Asian shape-shifty daemon monster thingy. If you hadn't been there she'd have been tentacle raped until her orifice were at least a foot wide.

While some many consider that a good career move most people would consider that something worthy of a little gratitude

Oh, come on! Those little asian girls loves the tentacle.

Still, there's a rather large difference between "a little gratitude" and giving away a very powerful and rare weapon to one who is merely an enemy of a now dead enemy. I think Yukie made it pretty clear that she didn't have any illusions about the nature of vampires, so I don't think that she would trust one enough after such a brief encounter.

I think it's time I say something about this .The above reason is only Tesseras excuse for basing the patch on my work, the actual creator Axanimander is well aware that otherwise it would have been much more work. While I dislike all the lies Tessera spreads around the issue, I allowed Axanimander to use my patch as a base under the condition that he includes the unchanged readme. He agreed but never did it (or maybe Tessera removed it before uploading) and I think this is not okay. Also he didn't want to call it a "true" patch, that was Tesseras idea alone.

Aha. Well, I guess I can believe that in the light of that mage union thing.

I was made aware of that and changed it to an intermediate solution that includes all the unused lines while reducing the times you have to talk to her.

Ah, that was what I would've suggested if I had found a forum for doing so. I would also have asked what the deal is with Bertram and Knox, and 'uncovering the conspiracy'. Thing is, my non-Malkavians can only get those XP by not talking to Knox about it until Bertram has already told them everything about it. And then they need to have Perception 3 to... what, remember what Bertram had already told them? Seems buggy to me.

A good example is the loss of humanity when killing innocents which besidesremoving of respawning is probable the biggest gameplay change I made. I changed it to how it is described in the actual printed game manual so how can Tessera claim this is wrong?

You mean that originally there was no penalty for killing innocents, or that doing so could bring your humanity down below 3? It seems a bit strange that only humanity loss from dialogue can bring humanity down below 3, especially since killings should be worse than mere lack of compassion.

The placement of the Ra blade was no easy one and I changed it several times with it now being available behind a locked door in the Fu Syndicate building where it fit's very well and rewards players with a high security feat. The hunter version worked well but provided the weapon too early in the game and despite of what Tesseras claims I have good reasons for every change I made and always try not to unbalance things.

Sounds good to me, and I could see the point of the blade being too easy to get if it was wielded by the hunter. Or too early.

Again it is not really true what Tessera claims. I changed little regarding to the firearms and I myself solved the game with the official 1.2 patch with a Toreador using firearms and Celerity only. Also the most powerful weapon in the game is the flamethrower and I made that a little less powerful and hid it away a little more as well.

Ah, ok. So guns aren't made significantly more powerful? Perhaps just a little bit, based on the PnP rules? Or something like that?

 

[Zomg]

I'd probably have a purist idealogical stance about patchmods if you asked me uncontextualized, but in the actual case of Bloodlines I liked having the content "remixed" a bit to spruce up the replay. I guess the question has more interest if you're recommending either a purist or mod-ist patch to someone that hasn't played the game before.

 

[Wesp5]

Re: ....

actually I prefer the original game without any tampering with the game balance and so on at all.. xept very minor balance issues...

This is exactly what my unofficial patch is doing.

if they actually did consult with Troika about some of the stories being possible written in and all.. i think it's great that they implement it.. seeing as it was probaly the way troika would have wanted it.. but its hard to tell what they wanted since they are not around anymore...

As far as I know Tessera never consulted with ex-Troika people ever and they never made contact with me as well. All the unused stuff I included in my patch were still in the game files so I took that as a hint that they had wanted to implement it had they had the time .

but.. making near-drastic changes to the balance system is certainly im convinced not something that the Troika development team had intended...

But my patches never did that in the first place, that's only Tesseras exaggeration!

on the Teressa issue... I think the team credited yours(Wesp) and Dan Upright's work, instead of starting from scratch.. and just took it further in bug testing.. I don't see anything wrong with that

Yeah, as seen in this thread he mentions two years of hard work in one sentence while stating Dans part of being the same size as mine which it clearly is not. Also other helpers who did stuff on their own like fixing models are not credited accordingly like in my readme. All I requested was to include that unchanged readme with all proper credits included so why didn't they do it? Because people would notice that the unofficial patches doesn't alter as much as Tessera claims? Because people would notice how much restored stuff they would miss out on? And regarding further bug testing, I don't think they did something like that. They only removed the stuff they personally didn't like from my patch and never looked for more on their own.

 

[Wesp5]

I would also have asked what the deal is with Bertram and Knox, and 'uncovering the conspiracy'. Thing is, my non-Malkavians can only get those XP by not talking to Knox about it until Bertram has already told them everything about it. And then they need to have Perception 3 to... what, remember what Bertram had already told them? Seems buggy to me.

You are right. I removed that option in case you already talked with Bertram about it. But I lowered the Perception requirement to give non-Malkavians a better chance...

You mean that originally there was no penalty for killing innocents, or that doing so could bring your humanity down below 3?

No. I meant that in the printed manual and the tutorial it is said that killing innocents will have you loose humanity even in combat zones, but the loading tips and the levels itself showed otherwise. I changed this to reflect the manual and Jack's speech which just can't be changed .

Ah, ok. So guns aren't made significantly more powerful? Perhaps just a little bit, based on the PnP rules? Or something like that?

I don't know the PnP rules. I adjusted the stats of a few guns to reflect their caliber, e.g. made both shotguns do the same damage and the Desert Eagle more that the Anaconda, and I lowered the overpowered flamethrower damage by 10%. I did remove the zoom mode from the rifle without scope and upped it's damage to compensate but then I also made both rifles be one shot only like their reload animations shows. So alltogether I don't think that the guns were changed as much as anyone claims.

 

[psycojester]

Still, there's a rather large difference between "a little gratitude" and giving away a very powerful and rare weapon to one who is merely an enemy of a now dead enemy. I think Yukie made it pretty clear that she didn't have any illusions about the nature of vampires, so I don't think that she would trust one enough after such a brief encounter.

Fair point but without the vamps help she wouldn't have been able to avenge her mentor/grandfather/whoever the hell it was. I thought she was in the most hunting game purely for the vengance aspect. After the hengyokai went down she didn't exactly have much use for it.