My experience as an Assamite and TFN1.1 in general.

I didn't see a general forum for TFN, so I thought I would put this here as a bit of feedback.

In bullet-point form and kind of random, train-of-thought:

*Quietus is really, really good. I found it a real godsend as my Assamite had trouble having social skills thanks to the increased costs along the board for everything but my chosen field, and the super populated streets making hunting more difficult - not impossible, just actually requiring me to try to pick someone off to feed on. Without Quicken the Blood, I think I would have starved to death. I found myself using everything but Taste of Death with pretty equal usage, as ToD seemed to go completely counter to my playstyle.

*The dreadlocks need to go, heh. There's nothing wrong with the skin, but with Celerity they flare out and 'shake' that reminded me of a cornette. I was so happy when I got the hoodie. Speaking of which, the skins - they all rocked. Tier 4 is one of the coolest skins I've seen.

*The stat points had me worried at first, but worked out in the end. Picking the Path of Knowledge (I believe that's what it was called, cheap middle tree, left and right trees increase in cost) I was worried I was going to lose a lot of skill points over the course of the game. Perhaps I did, but it didn't feel so bad. My guy was able to fight as well as anyone without a problem, and after being forced into the sewers a couple of times in Santa Monica, I slowly was able to round out my character with books, spending, and free trainings.

*The shade in the gallery is the most frustrating fights I've ever had in this game. Not because he was hard, but because it stuttered my computer to such a slow speed that I just had to hover over him, machine-gun the attack key, and just hope it would end eventually. I think if the shadows were reduced so it was a cleaner fight, it would have been more enjoyable. It was a little disappointing that he only tried to punch me - I was hoping he had a new trick up his sleeve.

*The other mini-bosses were very fun. I completely forgot about the warehouse changes, so when the timer showed me having around five minutes I knew something bad was coming. When the Toreador broke through the door and I noticed he had a health bar, that fight was way more enjoyable than just outrunning the generic shovelhead. On re-reading, it looked like there were supposed to be two total anti's for me to fight, but I only ever encountered the one. Brother Kanker was also great fun as he was way more deadly in this version. The Hunter on floor 3 of Skyeline Apt's was also well done, as they really can mess you up if you are just expecting another brawl.

*I never really got to see the new Hunter spawning's. I suppose I could have intentionally broken the Masquerade, but I wanted to let it come naturally. It would be neat to see them worked into the game somehow for the fanatics like me that are so careful about not being seen.

*In Gimble's in Santa Monica, and this goes for TFN and CE, you guys have to let us into that chained in computer area on the top floor of his warehouse. Ever since vanilla, I've wanted in that bloody place. I don't care if you put some vendor trash inside just to sell, it taunts me. Maybe foreshadow the Death's Mask video tapes by putting a non-playable, alternate tape inside to sell to a vendor or give as a quick quest to someone like Berty.

*I'd like to see consequences for Cooper (I believe it is?). The one you send to kill the 'Head Vampire'. Is it possible to maybe just spawn some ashes on Last Rounds floor, or LaCroix's tower if you send him that way?

*As posted in the other thread, I'd really like to see you be able to let the Gangrel vigilante go. I'll save the discussion for the other thread, but I truly believe that quest has a bit more legs.

*I really liked a lot of the weapon changes. The different bonuses and stat buffs (and debuffs) were interesting to experiment with. The +2 sneak (ninja-to?) weapon, combined with rank one of quietus made me a silent assassin from Downtown on with very little investment. Fitting I guess for an Assamite. Even with the the massive defense reduction though, the sledge-hammer may be a bit too much. That thing...just damn. Damn.

*Speaking of weapons, please add in the Medieval Sword from the Arsenal Mod. This goes for CE as well. I don't know why, but I just loved that weapon. It would even be possible to add an in-joke or call-back to Christof Romuald in it's description.

*I'm not sure how much of the Inspection system I was able to see, as I started off very strong, but by the time I was in Hollywood and beyond I think my skill might have been too low, but I liked what I was able to experience. One thing I did notice was when you found weapons outside their tier, you couldn't get ammo for them. I found a shotgun in the SM sewers, but there wasn't anyone who would sell me any shells. Kind of a waste. I found other various things on benches and floors, and overall it was nice to actually be keeping an eye on my surroundings for any new loot.

*I love the new book covers/descriptions. Every mod that uses the books should have them, they look incredibly slick. In my stupidity, I almost missed out on SM's books because I totally ignored Trip and just used Vandal as my 'store' since I could feed and restock all in one place. I'm not sure which I like better, a pure e-mail college with no books, or all book based. They both work really well separated from each other.

*I liked the meeting with Akeem as it gave my Assamite a little more depth into the game that I'm sure other clans were lacking. Eventually you will have to add some more dialogue, emails, or whatever, just to make the clans feel like they belong.

*Computers. I loved the changes to Santa Monica, I was sad that all the others were vanilla passwords. Other than quest computers, it would be nice to actually force people to invest in hacking if they want to hack.

That's all for now, I'm sure I will think of more later as this focused mainly on SM-Downtown-Hollywood and then general tid-bits.

He he. But no, seriously, I haven't played Assamites yet in TFN, but your post now makes me want to.

Voraxith wrote:

He he. But no, seriously, I haven't played Assamites yet in TFN, but your post now makes me want to.

It's an interesting clan. I really miss the OG clans so I figure I will end up with CE again, but I played around with the Baali and Assamite and liked them quite a bit.

The Assassin's are unusual in that you can play them incredibly finesse, and then just drop the hammer on someone. With my background, equipment, and Disciplines I was a phantom, but I could just as easily blood-poison a melee weapon, pop Celerity, and basically pulse an AOE blood leech when it was time to rock people. Just churn and burn.

I've played two characters in The Final Nights: the first was a Baali, which was a lot of fun, and I cannot wait to play one again in 1.1 to try the Pyramid's Deception quest; the second was a Setite, who was basically my god-mode uber-smash fun-time character to release some steam. Better than alcoholism. But I miss my Gangrel.

Rather than make a new thread on this thought I might post this here. Quicken the Blood doesn't alert onlookers like it should. It should be like Hysteria where onlookers become alerted and go to see what's up with the person under the effect. Doesn't make much sense for person to just stand there when a guy they're talking to suddenly starts sweating blood like crazy.

jquinn914 wrote:

Rather than make a new thread on this thought I might post this here. Quicken the Blood doesn't alert onlookers like it should. It should be like Hysteria where onlookers become alerted and go to see what's up with the person under the effect. Doesn't make much sense for person to just stand there when a guy they're talking to suddenly starts sweating blood like crazy.

That should go to Bug Reporting I think...

Or Post your Ideas, I don't think it was intended for people to come running at the target.

First off I want to thank Jambat for writing this review of his experience with TFN. Input like this REALLY helps me know what direction TFN needs to move in. With that, I answered some of his questions.

Jambat wrote:

*The dreadlocks need to go, heh. There's nothing wrong with the skin, but with Celerity they flare out and 'shake' that reminded me of a cornette. I was so happy when I got the hoodie. Speaking of which, the skins - they all rocked. Tier 4 is one of the coolest skins I've seen.

I was actually thinking about removing the dreadlocks and making the Assamite model bald but then I'd have 2 bald male PCs (ie: Salubri). I guess I could always still do that. What does everyone think?

Jambat wrote:

*The shade in the gallery is the most frustrating fights I've ever had in this game. Not because he was hard, but because it stuttered my computer to such a slow speed that I just had to hover over him, machine-gun the attack key, and just hope it would end eventually. I think if the shadows were reduced so it was a cleaner fight, it would have been more enjoyable. It was a little disappointing that he only tried to punch me - I was hoping he had a new trick up his sleeve.

I've heard enough complaints on the particles lagging people's machines that I think I will be forced to turn it down in TFN 1.2.

Jambat wrote:

*The other mini-bosses were very fun. I completely forgot about the warehouse changes, so when the timer showed me having around five minutes I knew something bad was coming. When the Toreador broke through the door and I noticed he had a health bar, that fight was way more enjoyable than just outrunning the generic shovelhead. On re-reading, it looked like there were supposed to be two total anti's for me to fight, but I only ever encountered the one. Brother Kanker was also great fun as he was way more deadly in this version. The Hunter on floor 3 of Skyeline Apt's was also well done, as they really can mess you up if you are just expecting another brawl.

I'm glad you enjoyed the Antitribu fights in the warehouse. You should've come across an Antitribu Toreador and Gangrel. I'm surprised you were never prompted to fight the Gangrel as the door is generally locked until you fight him. It's great to hear the other fights were fun too!

Jambat wrote:

*In Gimble's in Santa Monica, and this goes for TFN and CE, you guys have to let us into that chained in computer area on the top floor of his warehouse. Ever since vanilla, I've wanted in that bloody place. I don't care if you put some vendor trash inside just to sell, it taunts me. Maybe foreshadow the Death's Mask video tapes by putting a non-playable, alternate tape inside to sell to a vendor or give as a quick quest to someone like Berty.

I'm not sure if the door is interactive or just another baked in graphic. If the door does swing open, I could see us using it for something.

Jambat wrote:

*I'd like to see consequences for Cooper (I believe it is?). The one you send to kill the 'Head Vampire'. Is it possible to maybe just spawn some ashes on Last Rounds floor, or LaCroix's tower if you send him that way?

This is a silly but wonderful idea. I'll see what I can do.

Jambat wrote:

*I'm not sure how much of the Inspection system I was able to see, as I started off very strong, but by the time I was in Hollywood and beyond I think my skill might have been too low, but I liked what I was able to experience. One thing I did notice was when you found weapons outside their tier, you couldn't get ammo for them. I found a shotgun in the SM sewers, but there wasn't anyone who would sell me any shells. Kind of a waste. I found other various things on benches and floors, and overall it was nice to actually be keeping an eye on my surroundings for any new loot.

You must've been playing TFN 1.0 b/c Trip sells every ammo type in TFN 1.1. Sorry about that, try firing up 1.1 as it fixes alot of these problems.

Jambat wrote:

*Computers. I loved the changes to Santa Monica, I was sad that all the others were vanilla passwords. Other than quest computers, it would be nice to actually force people to invest in hacking if they want to hack.

I would love to change every changeable password in the game to "something else", it's a project reserved for TFN 1.2. Though I heard Childe created a random password generator for CE so I'd like to see if that could be something we could use for TFN.

Dredlocks need to stay! Dredlocks FTW

Feral wrote:

Dredlocks need to stay! Dredlocks FTW

Opposition... I like the struggle... anyone else want to play?

Zer0Morph wrote:

Feral wrote:

Dredlocks need to stay! Dredlocks FTW

Opposition... I like the struggle... anyone else want to play?

Tug of War? *wags*

Seriously, I like the look. I look quite similarily

Fuck dreads.

Feral wrote:

Seriously, I like the look. I look quite similarily

Wolf dreads? LOL

Feral wrote:

Zer0Morph wrote:

Feral wrote:

Dredlocks need to stay! Dredlocks FTW

Opposition... I like the struggle... anyone else want to play?

Tug of War? *wags*

Seriously, I like the look. I look quite similarily

*wags a couple dreadlocks at Feral*

Did someone say tug of war? :0)

I don't care about hair.. Make them pink.

You know my opinion on the dreadlocks: in black or brown, they look as if a tarantula was sitting on his head, in blond they look like an ALIEN facehugger who has missed his target...

-

aneumann01 wrote:

*wags a couple dreadlocks at Feral*

Did someone say tug of war? :0)

*tugs*

Too bad I can't get dreads myself. My hair is like Teutonick hay: long and unsticky.

I'm not a fan of dreadlocks, but they're better than making the Assamite bald.