World of Darkness Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 - VTMB sequel from The Chinese Room - coming early 2025

[The President]

They managed to that with "Still wakes the Deep", the graphics and the atmosphere are fantastic, the characters are cool and the narrative is kind of convincing, although there isn't really much. Sadly there isn't really any gameplay ...

My playthrough of Still Wakes the Deep is where I’m basing my opinion on. I thought it looked great and the characters were believable working class people who got caught in a shitty situation. I don’t think this formula will translate to BL2 where people are expecting real rpg mechanics. I’m afraid it will be Still Wakes the Deep with a few fights here and there.

 

[Vincente]

Dev Diary #15 – Dialogue Choice Systems

" We initially toyed with representing our dialogue choices in summary, to make the intention of the branch abundantly clear and lean harder into our ‘strategic’ approach to roleplay (more on that shortly).

However, this quickly revealed itself as the wrong direction—and not just because you guys (rightly) said so. "

 

[whydoibother]

This NPC, Lou, keeps some log of how the player has spoken. If you act like a bully, and then like an empath, they think you are being sarcastic.
This seems to be realized as a generic "karma" meter, so you will be incentivised to act the same way towards an NPC in every conversation. Can't be polite now and an asshole later? Is this good or bad, I can't decide.

If you have always come across as weak, for better or worse, sudden strength could have its own, unique response. The same goes if you have a reputation for directness, or for keeping your cards close to your chest.

 

[MjKorz]

If you act like a bully, and then like an empath, they think you are being sarcastic.

I liked this feature in Broken Roads. NPCs would remember your previous alignment-related responses and would react differently based on whether you're sticking to your alignment or not.

Spoiler

 

[Semiurge]

View attachment 53710

This NPC, Lou, keeps some log of how the player has spoken. If you act like a bully, and then like an empath, they think you are being sarcastic.
This seems to be realized as a generic "karma" meter, so you will be incentivised to act the same way towards an NPC in every conversation. Can't be polite now and an asshole later? Is this good or bad, I can't decide.

If you have always come across as weak, for better or worse, sudden strength could have its own, unique response. The same goes if you have a reputation for directness, or for keeping your cards close to your chest.

Do those walking sim creators have any experience in this kind of reactivity?

 

[Hammer Of The Heretics]

Does knowledge of your prior behavior spread from NPC to NPC in a realistic way, or do people just magically 'know' how you treated others they don't even know? Realistic reactions to prior behavior only make sense if the reactor has a way of knowing about it.

 

[Fedora Master]

Lol you guys think they're gonna pull off complex NPC interactions instead of falling flat on their faces. Cute.

 

[Harthwain]

Does knowledge of your prior behavior spread from NPC to NPC in a realistic way, or do people just magically 'know' how you treated others they don't even know? Realistic reactions to prior behavior only make sense if the reactor has a way of knowing about it.

I wouldn't hold my breath for there being an actual system for managing this. This is most likely pre-scripted. If so, this will depend on how well scripted the game is.

 

[Tyranicon]

Do those walking sim creators have any experience in this kind of reactivity?

They haven't even discovered a scrolling feature for dialogue choices lol

This would also have caused problems for UI, since Phyre often has more to say that can be reasonably presented on screen—especially when we’re also catering to console.

Also, zoomer speak in a devlog about writing

Sometimes, the best way to deal with someone is to let them take the W… for now.

Reading these diaries is like pulling teeth because of all the pseudo-intellectual stuff they try to put in them. Jesus Christ, just tell us the systems and show a few screenshots instead of

Conversations are not an exception to gameplay, but an expression of it, and if gameplay is a test of skill, conversations are a test of emotional intelligence.

Are you serious?

Bruh, my game is gonna mog you.

 

[Vincente]

Does knowledge of your prior behavior spread from NPC to NPC in a realistic way, or do people just magically 'know' how you treated others they don't even know? Realistic reactions to prior behavior only make sense if the reactor has a way of knowing about it.

Asked it for you. Corpo speak or genuine answer, call it.

 

[The President]

On the one hand I like that NPCs will keep track of your relationships and interactions, but on the other I’ve not generally been worried about their narrative writing, it’s everything else I’m concerned about.

These devs are really the opposite of show don’t tell. Just showing us some brief gameplay vids of how these features look or work would answer so many of the questions we are left with. I’m much more worried now than I was before. This just isn’t going to be an RPG as most of us understand the term and they’re doing everything possible to hide this fact.

 

[Hammer Of The Heretics]

The claimed dialogue reactivity sounds nice in theory but I remain skeptical about their ability to execute in practice.

 

[Silvanus]

The reactivity idea is great conceptually. If executed well it would add depth to character interactions. If executed badly it would remove agency from the player, incentivizing you to pick an option from the same category whenever confronted with a choice - you picked a few "friendly" options because they seemed appropriate and now this NPC won't believe you if you pick something other than the "friendly" option. I'm almost certain the effect will either be global, with all NPCs magically knowing your personality, or entirely localised to individual characters. The latter feels less contrived and probably entirely doable for the developers.

Depends on who programs the AI. If its creativity is restricted with key words such as "inclusivity" and algorithms enforcing that, then nothing will change except that the new products will be even less creative than before.

Many game writers at this point could be replaced with AI and I doubt I'd notice the difference. That's not to say LLMs are good, just that the two are more or less comparable in their ability to write something coherent and engaging.

Conversations are not an exception to gameplay, but an expression of it, and if gameplay is a test of skill, conversations are a test of emotional intelligence.

I don't think that dialogue, or any kind of branching decision-making, needs to be thought of as some kind of test or skill expression. Attempts to gamify this kind of thing in a way more complex than adding a few skill-checks end up being meh more often than not. As an aside, calling conversations a test of "emotional intelligence" makes one worry that they'll be full of heavy-handed moralizing from the writers, and reward or punish you based on whether or not you picked the "right" choice. Seeing the developers using the word "empath" does not fill me confidence.

 

[Laz Sundays]

@7:35

 

[Harthwain]

The reactivity idea is great conceptually. If executed well it would add depth to character interactions. If executed badly it would remove agency from the player, incentivizing you to pick an option from the same category whenever confronted with a choice - you picked a few "friendly" options because they seemed appropriate and now this NPC won't believe you if you pick something other than the "friendly" option. I'm almost certain the effect will either be global, with all NPCs magically knowing your personality, or entirely localised to individual characters. The latter feels less contrived and probably entirely doable for the developers.

I think Alpha Protocol handled that well enough: you could get positive or negative impression depending on what you did in the past (this includes meeting other characters first) and your attitude at certain points of a conversation would determine the reaction. All in all, it was pretty good and I have yet to see a game that could do it better.

 

[Krivol]

The Nosferatu! Elder one!

 

[ShiningSoldier]

I don't like their ideas about dialogues.
Such systems could only work with really careful approach. And I don't believe that modern RPG developers are capable of something like this.
In the end we'll receive an overcomplicated, bloated mess.

 

[whydoibother]

I don't like their ideas about dialogues.
Such systems could only work with really careful approach. And I don't believe that modern RPG developers are capable of something like this.
In the end we'll receive an overcomplicated, bloated mess.

This game could've very easily been the most safe, generic third person action game with a few character stats. I won't blame them for ambition, ever. Lets see how it works out.

 

[ShiningSoldier]

I don't like their ideas about dialogues.
Such systems could only work with really careful approach. And I don't believe that modern RPG developers are capable of something like this.
In the end we'll receive an overcomplicated, bloated mess.

This game could've very easily been the most safe, generic third person action game with a few character stats. I won't blame them for ambition, ever. Lets see how it works out.

Dunno, I think the simplest solutions are the best. It's like a comparison between NPC schedules in Gothic and Oblivion. In Gothic the NPCs are controlled with some really simple scripts, but they feel alive. In Oblivion the entire Radiant AI thing makes all NPCs look like a bunch of degenerates.

 

[processdaemon]

This game could've very easily been the most safe, generic third person action game with a few character stats. I won't blame them for ambition, ever. Lets see how it works out.

Yeah, I still don't have particularly high hopes for various reasons but it's nice to see that they're at least putting a bit of thought into the reactivity and dialogue. It might not pay off but I'm interested to see where they go with it.

 

[La vie sexuelle]

Big titty lady is still with us.

If a studio like Chinese Room chooses such an image for promotion, it means that a quiet revolution is taking place in the industry. Just as in the years 2012-2017 the foundations of our industry were created in the form it is now (with all these gay sensitivities), it is gradually moving away from it. I don't know where we're going yet, but the world is changing.

Thank you, Big Titty Lady.

 

[Elttharion]

Big titty lady is still with us.

If a studio like Chinese Room chooses such an image for promotion, it means that a quiet revolution is taking place in the industry. Just as in the years 2012-2017 the foundations of our industry were created in the form it is now (with all these gay sensitivities), it is gradually moving away from it. I don't know where we're going yet, but the world is changing.

Thank you, Big Titty Lady.

Lady

 

[Laz Sundays]

..SO, tits and fabulous optimism aside, all I'm seeing is a modern dumbass developer posting two images with identical bland lifeless expression on a character face and unironically trying to showcase variety with it. Not even her lips moved. Even the eyebrows are locked in the same angle, not a single sign of facial change is shown with these pictures.

It's really fucking wonderful to see a text floater telling us what Lou is feeling towards us, innit.

 

[Laz Sundays]

And people exclaim hopes towards this project. Jesus fucking Christ.

"Let's see how it turns out, guys. Let's give them a chance!"

Might aswell add "my wife told me this Open relationship is a good thing for us".
You'll be playing as androgynous "elder vampire" named Phyre, dumbass. Playing a game made by /THEM, and your woman is fucking other dudes. What further info do you need to finally see what's infront of you?

Set alarm for "I'm killing myself".

 

[jackofshadows]

does she has a dick tho