Missing Mailbox in New Haven

I've been playing the game for quite some time with everything going well when suddenly I'm asked to put a passkey in my mailbox for one of Gary's missions so I go to the Skyelines Apartment building and there is an empty hole where the mailbox should be. After looking around a bit it seems this is a recurring problem for some people.

Details:
Playing on Windows 7 64-bit.
Currently I've just finished meeting Gary (although I think I remember seeing an empty mailbox slot before and thinking nothing of it).
Redownloaded the game from direct2drive after deleting absolutely everything and immediately after installed Camarilla Edition 1.51. Mailbox was still gone.
I changed a line in vamputil.py very early in the game to effectively remove the blood timer, BLOOD_MAX_COUNT = 200000*(7+pc.stamina)
Console is activated but I've never used noclip.

Does anyone know of any fix for this problem? Is there a way to force the game to reload the Skyelines Apartment or a way to use the old mailbox in Santa Monica? I saw a few things relating to mailboxes in downtown.py, could I use that to revert it to the Santa Monica mailbox?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

No can do. YOU HAVE TO START A NEW GAME AFTER INSTALLING A NEW VERSION OF ANY PATCH/MOD!

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Oh yes, sorry I forgot to mention that. I had previously installed CE 1.5 to a fresh installed bloodlines (before I started the game) and I just recently noticed the mailbox was missing, so I reinstalled the game and CE 1.5 and just imported my copied save files to see if that would fix it. It did not. So no new version was ever installed.

Save files should never be copied and loaded.
Ever.

That's curious. What reasons have you for saying so?

Save files are not just that. Save files modify map files, dialogue files, python files, and lots of other random VPK (wtf ?) files of an alpha Engine... Is bad.
Using non "local created" save files while you replaced map files again, it just doesn't work.

42 is your answer...

Damn, I feared it might be so. Even with the save being from a CE 1.5 game it might result in errors if imported into another CE 1.5 game? I suppose it doesn't even seem improbable considering this games wacky engine of fun. Starting from scratch again for a 4th time was a bit daunting though, as I really do want to see what goes down in Chinatown, but I suppose I can give it another go. Patience can be tasteful at times.

Are there any perhaps obscure tips to help ensure less error in the game? Would it be wise to run the unpatched unmodded game for a moment and then install Camarilla Edition before actually starting a new game? And is there any particularly safe way to turn off the bloodtimer?

Regardless, thank you thus far for all your help, it is rare to see such excellence in any forum community.

Mailbox problems with 1.5? Hm, I have double and triple checked all the maps and scripts involved. Which haven was it?
And in any case, with 1.5 you should be able to do all mailbox related quests from your old Santa Monica haven as well. Both the mailbox and the computer there stay active.

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Even if it's bloodlines + CE, the files will change during your plays. Each installation will change, and when you transfer the save files, you're not transferring the other modified files.. You know, temporary files and whatnot.

Blood timer : you can have the check be longer. Search function (or google with the name camarillaedition on it).

You can play vanilla for a while, then install CE and start a new game. Just never load th precedent game...

It's better to have several installations (one vanilla and one for each mod). Just copy paste install folder and rename carefully your shortcuts ;-)

Quote :

...Any others I'm forgetting?

Clan Quest, for vanilla: basic and plus patch.
And then of course all the minor stuff like Arsenal, music mod, weapons sound mod. Though usually you can add them to any mod you like.
I won't mention the p&p mod here (oops, now I did it anyway)

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