YamiRaziel's first TFN playthrough

Hello again, guys! Today I decided to invest some time into Bloodlines again! I'm ashamed to admit that although I've been following TFN from the very moment Zero decided to make it, I haven't yet tried it. I could never find the time to do so and this finally changed tonight.

In this thread I'm gonna share my thoughts, report bugs, ask questions and etc.
I hope it's not in violation with the forum's rules.

First, I'll begin with my Laptop's spec so it will be easier for both you and me to spot if there are actual bugs or some random glitches.
I do hope that this thread will turn out to be only with my thoughts and questions.

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Dell Inspiron N5010

Processor: Intel® Quad Core™ i7-740QM Processor 1.73 / 2.93 Turbo GHz Front Side Bus : 1333 MHz, 6MB cashe Memory: 6GB DDR3 1333 MHz SDRAM
Hard Drive: 640GB SATA 5400rpm
Screen Resolution: 1366 x 768
Video Card: 1GB-DDR3 ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 5650
System: Windows 7 64 bit

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So I'll begin with my impressions first.
Everything from the main menu to the character creation is really professionally done. The music is really fitting, the background image is awesome and the information about the clans is quite explicit and intriguing. I read every last bit of it and after a careful consideration I decided I wanna play a diabolical female Setite.
So far so good. The game ran very smooth, I encountered no errors with the intro cinematic and I began my tutorial play as I usually do.


Now's the time to report two things that maybe the rest of you've already noticed but still I'm gonna do it.

1. When I started the game I couldn't observe the loading logos - the one of Troika games, White Wolf and VV draining the NVidia logo (which I've always found fascinating). There was just a black screen.
2. I got to the part where I ought to kill the wounded sabbat fledgeling. So I clicked SHIFT and started walking towards him like a badass Setite chick that's gonna kick his ass. I expected him to jump on me right away but he just stood there as though there was no chick beside him. So I just went behind him and performed a stealth kill... but it felt like cheating.

Are those known/unknown bugs or just random gliches, although I'm pretty sure N1 is not random.

... and now for my questions!
As as Setite should I look for something special like new dialogues, choices or anything at all? Is there anything special for bad characters?

This was a nice review, I enjoyed reading it. Let's talk about some of the bugs you encountered.

1. The logos not playing, just black is a bug I've heard of several times in the past. It's never happened to me however so I really can't begin to troubleshoot it. The only thing I can think of is that I've always used the standard 4:3 resolutions (800x600, 1024x768, etc...) and never use the widescreen hack. I'm wondering if this has something to do with it.

2. I encountered that same bug last night when I was fixing the Obfuscate guard part. I will have to look at this again to see why he just stands there. It appears the guard can hear me, he just can't see me. When I attack him, he does swing back so I know he's aggressive towards me.

Setite's do have special dialogue w/ their Serpentis discipline, much like the Ventrue and Dominate. There are a few instances where using Serpentis will earn you extra XP by doing something especially evil, but will cost you humanity in return. I don't want to reveal those parts of the game however, you'll have to find them out by playing.

Zer0,
perhaps the black screen instead of the logos is a problem related to using the TCI logo instead of the Activision one?
Though I never had any problems myself, if I recall right, complaints about that started for CE with version 1.5 where I also use the TCI logo.
I don't think it's a widescreen issue. I play bloodlines on my laptop with 16/10 resolution, and don't have issues like that.

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It's hard to say on the logo thing because I've never once had a black screen. I can't replicate this issue what so ever yet I know there are quite a few who have this issue.

I have started a new topic for the missing logo issue. Further discussions on this matter in the new topic please.

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I encountered a strange bug in the warehouse! I jumped from the ceiling, 2 guards saw me and opened fire. I killed them but the 3 thugs at the entrance were not alerted at all.

I'll provide a screenshot if I find out why paint shows Loading... on a grey background when I paste it.

There is one more thing. When you use Serpentis on the guy in front of Mercurio's apartment and tell him to go back to the alley he will do that again and again and again. This makes it really easy to find blood whenever you are hungry. I have only 3 points humanity and I've gone into frenzy only once...

Edit: The entire warehouse level is messed up for me. Half the guards are stone deaf! One guy started shooting at me and ended blowing himself up, while the guy next to him doesn't care at all.
Are these bugs on my end or has somebody else encountered them as well?

The thing with the Santa Monika blueblood is just the same with Dominate or Dementation in the other versions of the game. Probably a routine set in motion on every map load, once he is dominated/dementated/serpentissed

Can't tell you anything about the warehouse tugs though. I haven't gone in there, using force in ages.

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I might replay the Warehouse level once more to see if the bug persists.

While I understand your comment about the blueblood I think the problem still needs to be taken care of. The entire idea of hunting in hubs is pointless if you can safely drain the blueblood whenever you like.

Also, I tried to pick a lock in Apep form. Nothing happened. Is this intended?
Tried to cancel the form with F8. Now all the effects are gone but i'm still using the Apep form model.

I read this post and looked at the issue myself and YamiRaziel is right, the Blue Blood once charmed by Serpentis begins and endless sequence loop that shouldn't happen. I spent all night trying to fix the issue without success so instead I did this.

Now when you use Serpentis on the Blue Blood you will tell him to stay put and you can feed from him right there, like a Seduction feed. He won't walk down the alley anymore therefore he can't begin the broken sequence. If I can find a way to fix the actual issue instead of reroute it I will, but I've spent enough time on it for now so this will have to do.

Zero, what about the warehouse issues? Are they only on my end?

I thought i had cornerd the problem, but that was not right. So no quick solution from my end.
But I have spotted two other things you should check:

-last line of the blueblood.dlg file, there is a wrong opening bracket in the starting conditions, at least in my version of the file. (2nd isclan statement)

-runtime error in the sm python script: def beginningTheGame():, remove the line G = __main__.G
but check in the console for the error message first. May also be in my version only.

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YamiRaziel wrote:

Zero, what about the warehouse issues? Are they only on my end?

Probably, I've run through the warehouse a bazillion times and have never had issues like that before. I can run another play through but if I were you, I'd start up an old save, restart the game, and try again. If this happened on a consistent basis we would've heard more about it.

I will try to replay the warehouse level and see if the bugs persist for me.

Edit: I did try to recreate the bug but this time fortunately (or not so much for my vamp) everybody started shooting at me as they should)