Ol' Willy
Arcane
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World of Darkness Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 from Hardsuit Labs
- Thread starter vortex
- Start date
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- May 29, 2010
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- 36,662
When he was fired, he finally revealed that it's his security blanket to handle the anxiety when he's dealing with people.
Sex fantasies, or childhood traumas of abuse. Modern vampire lore is a distillation of humanity's darkest side - sadism, masochism, nightmares, paranoia and power fantasies. Modern WoD writers don't explore redemption anymore, but will dive straight to the deep end of excess, the agonies and ecstasies of the vampiric condition.
Nephilim
Educated
- Joined
- Feb 23, 2021
- Messages
- 34
Modern WoD writers want acceptance and tolerance. They don't give a fuck about exploring vampirism and monsters, it's all about sensitive human point of view.
No. What you're describing are the late 90s and up to 10s tops WoD writers. Modern WoD don't dive into power fantasies, paranoia, masochism, nightmares and sadism. They dive into clownworld.
jungl
Augur
- Joined
- Mar 30, 2016
- Messages
- 1,467
you know what would be cool a xcom vampire game. You play as thinbloods in a city and similiar to xcom you build satellites and have a global map but replace satellites with scouts with high auspex discipline. The game would open up easy with you facing thugs and ghouls then ramp up in threats you face similar to xcom. Basically mostly everyone hates you. The protagonist has a unique version of thinblood alchemy that lets you cheat high level disciplines for your troops that can even the odds. Instead of alien bases you invade covens of vamps.
A simulation/builder game where you play an elder vampire, managing your family of childer and playing the power game from behind the curtains. You're the one who pulls the strings of fate and sends younger vampires to wage wars against other vampires and vampire hunters. Your goal: ensuring your survival and gaining even more power.
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- 2,334
As an idea sounds probably interesting, though personally i can't imagine it playing much different than Football Manager :-P
Even if it played exactly like Dungeon Keeper it would be incline. Or possibly both that and Age of Empires, with different time periods with their own challenges and features.
deuxhero
Arcane
Vampire: The Masquerade: Prince is what I expected when Paradox announced they were doing Vampire. Given how this shit has turned out, I think Paradox wishes they did that too.
"VtM: Prince" is a lot less problematic title than "VtM: Jyhad". If you asked them why "Jyhad" sounds unmarketable, they couldn't give you a coherrent answer however. It's something that they say doesn't officially exist, but it still sounds bad to them. Bad mojo.
Who cares, vampires are edgy teenager-like creatures for teenage retarded girls who like Twilight anyway.
Bloodlines just also had good writing and decent gameplay, hence it was fun *despite* being about vampires.
But I certainly don't look forward to more vampire games. They are just as shit as zombies.
If it was horror-like story akin to Dracula, then fine, but footbal managers with vampires? City builders? Crusader Vampires? What the fuck is wrong with you, people?
Bloodlines just also had good writing and decent gameplay, hence it was fun *despite* being about vampires.
But I certainly don't look forward to more vampire games. They are just as shit as zombies.
If it was horror-like story akin to Dracula, then fine, but footbal managers with vampires? City builders? Crusader Vampires? What the fuck is wrong with you, people?
Harthwain
Magister
- Joined
- Dec 13, 2019
- Messages
- 5,376
Maybe if you read Twilight. Read Vampire: The Masquerade 1st Edition manual instead.
There is nothing wrong with having a political game about immortal vampires hiding behind a facade of mortal governments. If anything, it fits perfectly with the lore and you don't have to fiddle why spiritus movens (the player) remains the same throughout the ages.
Good games are good, regardless of the theme.
Razor
Arcane
- Joined
- Sep 22, 2014
- Messages
- 942
Recently finished another playthrough of Alien Isolation.
It had a mechanic with the vents where the Alien used it actually as a ways to quickly travel around the levels and could also crawl into the sections what the player could use. Not to mention as a access point to drop into different parts of the level, usually from the closest opening to the players position.
I also played it in VR and it was quite a experience when I heard something drop in a off branch of the vent section only to see a fully life sized Alien emerging and crawling towards me like the air vent scene with Dallas in Alien 1.
Needless to say I started to prefer to use the vents only as a last ditch option when cornered even though they contained the usual stuff like hidden goodies etc. Even that was a desperate move as the alien was more likely to investigate vents if it heard sounds coming from it. Like the opening and closing metallic shreek of the air vent access point.
A nice twist on the stock formula.
Savecummer
Latest Doxxer Account
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- Mar 6, 2021
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Porting WOD vampires into a game format would be a pain. The rules on the disciplines are too wacky, you'd have to rewrite it completely.
Wesp5
Arcane
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- Apr 18, 2007
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Wasn't the whole coming out of the vents system more or less scripted with the Alien teleporting near the player position? At least I had the feeling that it was...
Razor
Arcane
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- 942
No, the alien actually physically moves around. There are only really two instances in the entire game where the Alien is ported for cutscene purposes. AI theory had a vid explaining the fundamentals behind the Alien behavior and why it felt so organic in game.
vota DC
Augur
- Joined
- Aug 23, 2016
- Messages
- 2,317
Why not? You play football manager with football players that are undead since they die when barely touched to obtain penalty kicks, why not vampires that are undead too?
Wesp5
Arcane
- Joined
- Apr 18, 2007
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- 1,934
Interesting video, but while it might be true about only teleporting twice, the way the director AI knows exactly where the player is and makes the Alien move there and even move away after a time is exactly what I felt as cheating. Granted, the game would have been boring if the Alien would have kept to a section you left behind and were never to return, but with a real random AI this should had happened! In fact the cheating made the game more challenging that using a normal AI though...
Razor
Arcane
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The AI director also leads it away from you in random intervals for random amounts of time to give you breathing room, so it is not like the alien is 100% all the time in your area. Also when in VR mode you are specially keen and aware of surroundings so I did notice that its not like the AI director just leads it away in the vents and then leaded it back to where you were and thats when the Alien started to actually patrol a part of the level. No, on more then one occasion I head through the walls that the alien dropped out of the vents and did extended searches in different parts of the levels where I was long gone. In the more extreme cases even in the far ends of the map as I heard distant gun shots and screams where some human NPC-s were.
So no, its does not feel like cheating at the least and if you are not aware of the existence of the separate alien AI and the director AI guiding its search grids. It does feel like a Alien that is stalking around the level on the hunt that is very attracted to loud noises and signs of activity that in turn makes it investigate the area more thoroughly. Things that usually happen during the lore sequences when you activate machinery or pipes burst near you or play loud audio files or open locker/air vent access points or purge reactor nests etc.
The other thing with the alien AI is that it has also passive and aggressive profiles. In passive mode it sticks a lot more to the vents and moves around the level a lot more. In aggressive profile it comes out of the vents way more and is very aggressive in its search patterns in areas of disturbance which usually contains the player. You can witness this in action as in the story segments the alien is most of the time in aggressive profile BUT during the later segments of the campaign you gain partial freeroam mode via the monorail to look for hidden lore and goodies with your upgraded tools in previously visited parts of Sevastopol. Thing is a Alien is always spawned in the levels but in passive mode and its in these I heard it specially doing just random drop and searches in random parts of the level and only becoming aggressive in stalking when I did stupid shit like run or shoot a weapon.
If you know what to look for there are actually passive/aggressive profile changes during the story sequences. One of the first is during the SciMed encounter from the morgue to the doctors office section. Thats when the alien is passive. By the doctors office is a gas pipe that is very easy to burst and if you do that the alien turns aggressive and starts stalking the general area where you are. Or play the audio file on the docs computer which is a loudass CRT monitor with nails-on-chalkboard screaching loudspeakers and is required to advance the plot.
Again, lore wise this differential behavior makes sense but yet again as this is a VTMB2 thread, you can really cram anything into lore if your REALLY want to. Gameplay wise though it has a good blend of unpredictability while avoiding things like fixed spawn points or fixed patrol routes.
So no, its does not feel like cheating at the least and if you are not aware of the existence of the separate alien AI and the director AI guiding its search grids. It does feel like a Alien that is stalking around the level on the hunt that is very attracted to loud noises and signs of activity that in turn makes it investigate the area more thoroughly. Things that usually happen during the lore sequences when you activate machinery or pipes burst near you or play loud audio files or open locker/air vent access points or purge reactor nests etc.
The other thing with the alien AI is that it has also passive and aggressive profiles. In passive mode it sticks a lot more to the vents and moves around the level a lot more. In aggressive profile it comes out of the vents way more and is very aggressive in its search patterns in areas of disturbance which usually contains the player. You can witness this in action as in the story segments the alien is most of the time in aggressive profile BUT during the later segments of the campaign you gain partial freeroam mode via the monorail to look for hidden lore and goodies with your upgraded tools in previously visited parts of Sevastopol. Thing is a Alien is always spawned in the levels but in passive mode and its in these I heard it specially doing just random drop and searches in random parts of the level and only becoming aggressive in stalking when I did stupid shit like run or shoot a weapon.
If you know what to look for there are actually passive/aggressive profile changes during the story sequences. One of the first is during the SciMed encounter from the morgue to the doctors office section. Thats when the alien is passive. By the doctors office is a gas pipe that is very easy to burst and if you do that the alien turns aggressive and starts stalking the general area where you are. Or play the audio file on the docs computer which is a loudass CRT monitor with nails-on-chalkboard screaching loudspeakers and is required to advance the plot.
Again, lore wise this differential behavior makes sense but yet again as this is a VTMB2 thread, you can really cram anything into lore if your REALLY want to. Gameplay wise though it has a good blend of unpredictability while avoiding things like fixed spawn points or fixed patrol routes.
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Wesp5
Arcane
- Joined
- Apr 18, 2007
- Messages
- 1,934
Sorry, but it did for me. If the AI was so great, why not drop the Alien into a vent with only it's sensors and let the game play out? I understand that the game is more interesting now, but still it's not really a fair game AI vs player.
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deuxhero
Arcane
Wasn't the card game that was such a clusterfuck it had a card, intended for information gathering, that could force your opponent to surrender if you used it twice with the right question?
I agree "Prince" on its own would be a weird title for people totally outside of VtM, though I just meant it hypothetically. Still, it wouldn't need much modification to appeal to a general audience "Vampire the Masquerade: Prince of *insert well known city here*" would work, as even the totally clueless would guess it's about a vampire leader of that city or at least a powerful vampire based in that city.
Vampire the Masquerade: War of the Princes
Justicar
Dead game
Nigger the Masquerade: War of the Imams
Tranny the Masquerade: Hormonelines
Tranny the Masquerade: Hormonelines
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