World of Darkness Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 - VTMB sequel from The Chinese Room - coming Fall 2024

[Roguey]

and as Tim Cain will tell you, almost one one wants to play as an ugly nosferatu.

This is exactly the kind of thought that proves who shouldn't be anywhere near gaming. Nosferatu is the embodiment of stealth gameplay. People who want to be stealthy will take it (and because hacking is cool). If you want pretty vampires, you take Toreadors. Unless you actually pick clans for their gameplay. Assuming your vampires have a distinct gameplay related to their clan origins in the first place.

Eh, any clan can be sneaky and put points into sneaking and hacking. Malkavians also get obfuscate.

 

[Harthwain]

Eh, any clan can be sneaky and put points into sneaking and hacking. Malkavians also get obfuscate.

That's a bad design. Clans should be specialized.

 

[Vincente]

they all look like wannabe Toreadors or Malkavs.

This makes no sense.

There's nothing about those designs that signals rigid hierarchies, monolithic clan structure, science magic, or really any other trait associated with Tremere.

Do you want the character to run around in a big, puffy robe instead? The outfit with the overcoat and gold chain around the waist looks like what a Tremere would wear.

 

[Roguey]

Eh, any clan can be sneaky and put points into sneaking and hacking. Malkavians also get obfuscate.

That's a bad design. Clans should be specialized.

You have your own idea of the way things "should" be that have never been supported by the rules.

Clans determine vampire-specific strengths, weaknesses, and disciplines, not what human-specific abilities you have access to.

 

[Harthwain]

You have your own idea of the way things "should" be that have never been supported by the rules.

I was talking about gameplay, not rules.

Arguing that Nosferatu won't be picked by people in a DLC because they are ugly is dumb argument when you can offer players something more than slightly different facial texture with each clan (and you can even justify this as DLC by arguing that much more work goes into this kind of content). It's even more ironic considering it was Troika who tried to do something interesting with the clans (and with Nosferatu in particular) by providing a bit more unique gameplay for them in Bloodlines. The real problem was they didn't go far enough.

 

[Vincente]

Arguing that Nosferatu won't be picked by people in a DLC because they are ugly is dumb argument

But it's real. No one at the Activision Q&A played Nosferatu when Troika gave them the game because everyone thought they were ugly.

 

[Harthwain]

But it's real. No one at the Activision Q&A played Nosferatu when Troika gave them the game because everyone thought they were ugly.

It's shitty Q&A then. They should've playtested everything. It's literally their job. By the way, I played Nosferatu as my first character. Even though it wasn't my job.

 

[Vincente]

By the way, I played Nosferatu as my first character. Even though it wasn't my job.

You're not the norm.

 

[Harthwain]

By the way, I played Nosferatu as my first character. Even though it wasn't my job.

You're not the norm.

Apparently Q&A that doesn't playtest its own games is.

 

[S.H.O.D.A.N.]

Do you want the character to run around in a big, puffy robe instead? The outfit with the overcoat and gold chain around the waist looks like what a Tremere would wear.

It looks like generic goth-with-a-fashion-sense tripe that permeates most of the visuals of modern Vampire, born from flanderisation, Tumblerosis and a general misunderstanding of what drives the visuals of the individual clans.

A Brujah can wear a suit and still project the image of a rebel warrior. A Nosferatu can rock a Hawaiian shirt and be a skulking shadow. Venture can look like a ganger and be a leader still. It's all in the attitude.

Manners Maketh Kindred, and that tastless, genderless blob conveys none, regardless of how much flavour they're trying to sprinkle on top.

 

[Vincente]

A Brujah can wear a suit and still project the image of a rebel warrior. A Nosferatu can rock a Hawaiian shirt and be a skulking shadow. Venture can look like a ganger and be a leader still. It's all in the attitude.

Just in your previous post you were saying that none of the outfits look "enough Tremere", now you're saying that outfits and how they look like don't matter at all and it's the attitude that matters?

 

[S.H.O.D.A.N.]

If you're going to visually code the clans through clothing, the clothing should actually try and reflect some clan trait.

 

[Vincente]

If you're going to visually code the clans through clothing, the clothing should actually try and reflect some clan trait.

Please do tell how you are supposed to show "rigid hierarchies and monolithic clan structure" through clothing and clothing alone. Do you want them to have a nametag that says "Regent" ?

 

[Caim]

But it's real. No one at the Activision Q&A played Nosferatu when Troika gave them the game because everyone thought they were ugly.

It's shitty Q&A then. They should've playtested everything. It's literally their job. By the way, I played Nosferatu as my first character. Even though it wasn't my job.

No, these Q&A firms are external firms hired to find bugs and report them. They get paid by the bug, so they have to find a lot of them. They don't 1000% complete a game to find all the bugs.

 

[S.H.O.D.A.N.]

Please do tell how you are supposed to show "rigid hierarchies and monolithic clan structure" through clothing and clothing alone.

That's a question the people responsible for this "concept art" should have been asking, yes?

Here's some notes off the top of my head.

Avoid diagonals and curves, keep the lines neatly vertical and horizontal. Minimal jewellery. Tremere are pragmatic and practical. Militaristic and militarized styling, but not too much - form fitting miliary jackets are okay, but lose the golden epaulettes. A clan that's a fortress under siege, a chest to chest wall against outsiders. Use some synthetic materials, for a bit of a modern scientific mind touch, avoid ostentation. Tremere uphold the Masquerade more than anyone else, even in small things. They blend in, not make an effort to stand out.

It's not as easy as Brujah = Punk and Ventrue = two row suit and diamond cufflinks, and in my opinion shouldn't be done at all, but it's not impossible either.

 

[Vincente]

That's a question the people responsible for this "concept art" should have been asking, yes?

But they did give their reasons and the aesthetic reason why they went with such style.

Avoid diagonals and curves, keep the lines neatly vertical and horizontal. Minimal jewellery. Tremere are pragmatic and practical. Militaristic and militarized styling, but not too much - form fitting miliary jackets are okay, but lose the golden epaulettes.

So literally this? Form-fitting jacket, straight, vertical, horizontal. Minimal jewellery. Has a military aesthetic about it.

 

[Semiurge]

A Brujah can wear a suit and still project the image of a rebel warrior. A Nosferatu can rock a Hawaiian shirt and be a skulking shadow. Venture can look like a ganger and be a leader still. It's all in the attitude.

They can, but considering how a clan influences the criteria with which each vampire chooses to sire a specific human, it's more likely that each neonate represents the average aesthetical tendencies of its clan. So it's very unlikely that a newborn Ventrue would look like a derelict, for example. They select their stock from a different pool entirely, but to look like a bum would be entirely normal for a Malkavian.

 

[Wesp5]

As far as I know all clans can use all outfits anyway...

 

[Bulo]

Can't wait for this to be somehow worse than Vampyr

 

[Baron Tahn]

All this arguing is sort of missing the forest for the trees. Toreador? Pointless, its locked to fps. Ugly Nosfer? Who cares, locked to fps (and locked protag). Character sheet? Pointless, we arent getting an RPG.

What we are most likely getting is an A to B action adventure fps that at its very best might play something like Dark Messiah. Without weapon variety apparently. Or a succubus romance option.

We would be better served just burning TCR to the ground and giving Wesp a million bucks to do it himself as a hobby.

 

[Tyranicon]

My favorite part of this whole debacle is the marketing team having no idea what they're doing and just fanning the flames.

I can only imagine what's happening in their meetings.

"Why don't they like it?"

"Toxic gamer chuds!"

"Quick, throw up some MORE concept art!"

 

[Fargus]

My favorite part of this whole debacle is the marketing team having no idea what they're doing and just fanning the flames.

I can only imagine what's happening in their meetings.

"Why don't they like it?"

"Toxic gamer chuds!"

"Quick, throw up some MORE concept art!"

View attachment 47943

They probably cum in their pants from all this. Chinkoid Room strikes me as the kind of studio that would love to ruin someone elses work or shit on a beloved franchise and it's fans. The kind of studio that this God forsaken industry is filled with atm.

 

[Storyfag]

DLC clans have to be different enough to justify being sold separately

You don't have much experience with Paradox, do you?

 

[Storyfag]

My favorite part of this whole debacle is the marketing team having no idea what they're doing and just fanning the flames.

I can only imagine what's happening in their meetings.

"Why don't they like it?"

"Toxic gamer chuds!"

"Quick, throw up some MORE concept art!"

View attachment 47943

"Don't you guys have phones?"

 

[Wesp5]

What we are most likely getting is an A to B action adventure fps that at its very best might play something like Dark Messiah. Without weapon variety apparently. Or a succubus romance option.

Dark Messiah was a great game, I haven't had such fun kicking enemies since !

We would be better served just burning TCR to the ground and giving Wesp a million bucks to do it himself as a hobby.

No chance at all, it took me 20 years to fix a game that was almost finished ...