Thoughts on Difficulty

I have to still test it all out but I was thinking it would be a great feature to include would be a difficulty setting. Such as blood ticks faster in more amounts with each setting. I was thinking there is a couple ways to go about it.

1. I will start with the tougher but best feature I think is to set it so it can be changed on the fly.

2. You could also pick it from the start and then its set in stone and cannot be changed till new game.

3. The easiest having threes separate download files. Labeled Easy Normal and Hard. You download the patch according to what difficulty you would like and each file is already set to that amount of blood loss per so much time.

Let me know what you think. This is a Post Beta idea that can be worked on after release, as a new version update.

I think that's a great idea. Personally I like the actual blood loss setting. I could imagine that it could get really difficult playing a Ventrue going through the canalisation finding the Nosferatu if the blood loss is set on a higher rate. But my next "project" is playing the CE as a Ventrue anyway to test exactly such things.

Thanks, I am not sure if it is really needed but I am just saying as another good feature to include to the game. This can be worked on way later down the road. We still have a lot of ground to cover before thinking of this.

PLEASE INSERT VAMPIRE HERE:

Downtown Quests: Traffik - Cathayan type waiting near the briefcase.

Hollywood Quests: Snuff is Enough - Light haired Sabbat with claws in the room containing Horror Tape Part 2. On the way out, Hollowbrook Hotel Sabbat with shotgun pops out from behind the bathroom movie set (where once the PC picked up a morphine bottle) and moves into the corridor to blaze on your sorry ass.

Chinatown Quests: Dragon’s Tail - After killing Johnny, a once dancing (or maybe just standing in the corner) model that looked notoriously like a Cathayan type is now an NPC pouncing on you from the shadows of the dance floor.

But Traffik doesn't have an element of undead politics to it. Having a random Cathayan doesn't make sense, especially if you are trying to do it the stealthy way, could make it impossible.

More Szlachta could be placed in the places you mention, generally if a hoard of szlachta are sent to a place - kindred generally aren't - they will pretty much savage anyone who isn't their master - which would be Andrei.

Remember most models have limited animations, so a generic dancer wouldn't have the abilities or animations of a cathayan without replacing her and making it obvious. Also the masquerade still exists. The Cathayans also WANT you ALIVE for now.

----But Traffik doesn't have an element of undead politics to it. Having a random Cathayan doesn't make sense, especially if you are trying to do it the stealthy way, could make it impossible.

I'm playing the vanilla version and the Traffik quest is extremely easy for me now. I thought adding the Cathayan model would be a simple way to up the difficulty considerably. The Cathayan would also serving as an allusory device when I take into account that later in the game during the, "I Spy Barabus" quest while speaking to Wong Ho he voices his apprehension with regard to the Tong's strengthening and Ming Xiao's appearance in China Town coinciding with one another. After having completed the Traffik quest, the feeling of impossibility would only serve to strengthen the player character's (PC) disdain for Larry's offer to eat steak, thereby elevating the motivation for the PC's refusal from a mere faux pas and into a terse indignation. "Did Larry know I was gonna cath that kinda heat? Probably not, the jack ass. I'll take your five hundred and damn' right you better give me a discount. I shoulda f**kin' better known better."

----More Szlachta could be placed in the places you mention, generally if a hoard of szlachta are sent to a place - kindred generally aren't - they will pretty much savage anyone who isn't their master - which would be Andrei.

I thought the PC's involvement in the, "Snuff is Enough" quest would warrant the appearance of the Szlachta seeing as how later in the game during the, "Going the Way of Kings" quest Andrei alludes to the fact that he purposefully allowed his work to be leaked into the outside world primarly to inflate his own ego, but ultimately to seek a sense of validation in his own much vaunted title of, "The Sword of Caine." "Right, right, I get it. I found The Creeper's honeypot and now he's pissed that I got between him and his constant output of nihilism. You curb stomp me? Ha. You're 'bout to find out that you're afraid of the wrong muthaf**ka. Get some. BOOYAKASHA, BOO, BOO, BOOYAKASHA!"

----...Also the masquerade still exists. The Cathayans also WANT you ALIVE for now.

The Glaze Club is a combat zone. The first Cathayan the PC finds in Foxy Boxes fought to the death. The Mandarin during the, "Come into My Parlor" quest said it was his appointed task to find the most efficient way to kill the PC's kind and that he wasn't afraid to die by the PC's hand because his employer's punishment for not completing his appointed task would be a fate far worse than anything the PC could exact upon him. "Oh yeah, if you don't fear me, then it aint no kine that you answer to. Damn' Ming Xiao you got this one whipped!"

Hi,

I really can't see any reason for a Cathayan turning up in one of the places you mentioned. The Tong get paid by the Fu syndicate and certainly don't know, who ultimately finances them. If they knew the stakes, Jonny wouldn't be so surprised what happened when he shoots the character. Ming Xiao is way too intelligent to let a group of thugs know about her involvement in the affairs of Chinatown. And she doesn't want the character to know of her involvement until he is secure in the Mandarin's testchambers.

For the Cathayan in Santa Monica, he is on a completely different mission, and only fights in self defense when the character has found his hideout.

I really don't think, Andrei would trust some Sabbat cronies more than his own creatures. And they most likely would have to travel the steets, because the sewers are clogged with headrunners who attack kindred and kine alike on sight. So there would be a high probability, that they are seen by Isaaks people. And Sabbat turning up in the streets might lessen the tension between Camarilla and Anarchs, something that sure as hell contradicts any of the Sabbat's goals.

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Howdy,

Mmmmmmmm....speculation tastes real good.

----I really can't see any reason for a Cathayan turning up in one of the places you mentioned. The Tong get paid by the Fu syndicate and certainly don't know, who ultimately finances them. If they knew the stakes, Jonny wouldn't be so surprised what happened when he shoots the character. Ming Xiao is way too intelligent to let a group of thugs know about her involvement in the affairs of Chinatown. And she doesn't want the character to know of her involvement until he is secure in the Mandarin's testchambers.

Jonny is surprised because like every other small-time, greedy, criminal he is in the, "making money business" not in the, "question and answer business." The Cathayan could be positioned at the Glaze Club under the supposed, and albeit ulterior auspices of the Mandarin simply being dismissed as a new "regualr/quality assurance rep" by Jonny and his cohorts in the club. The Cathayan could, should, and would be able to facilitate the descruction of the player character (PC) without violating The Masquerade himself in the same manner as the PC was warned to be careful while using disciplines around the hunter during the, "Hot Stripper Assassin Action" quest. Too much of this world is relegated to reticent propriety by virtue of polity and all its assumed consequence. Ming Xiao is nothing if not the very embodiment of duplicity as revealed by Gary with his, "...But they aint kin, boss...they're just someone else that, if you aint being careful, might give you the Final Death." comment and later reinforced by the, "Beware the Black Queen." e-mail.

----As for the Cathayan in Santa Monica, he is on a completely different mission, and only fights in self defense when the character has found his hideout.

He is tailing a Nosferatu and his intentions are absolutely hostile as noted in his last report on the laptop computer in Foxy Boxes:

"The agent of whom I spoke before has discovered the corpse of Virgil Crumb. An altercation is imminent. If I do not survive, let my last report state that Santa Monica is ripe for the taking. You will find little resistance if we come here in force."

When taking into consideration that the, “I Spy Barabas” quest consists of the capture of a Nosferatu by way of “Asian” involvement, “The Hunted Hunter” quest then becomes a first attempt at gaining access to the information with which the Nosferatu community is entrusted.

----I really don't think, Andrei would trust some Sabbat cronies more than his own creatures. And they most likely would have to travel the steets, because the sewers are clogged with headrunners who attack kindred and kine alike on sight. So there would be a high probability, that they are seen by Isaaks people. And Sabbat turning up in the streets might lessen the tension between Camarilla and Anarchs, something that sure as hell contradicts any of the Sabbat's goals.

Trust is not the reason why Andrei and the shovelheads cohabitate in the Hallowbrook Hotel based on the overt theme of, “quid pro quo” being relentlessly reinforced throughout the entirety of the PC’s experience, even to a degree which begs the explicit objection of the PC in the dialogue options. If Andrei’s control of the Szlachta isn’t absolute, then he could use his mastery of Vicissitude to corrupt a certain number of shovelheads and command them to be in close proximity to Szlachta.

Zer0Morph, Childe of Malkav,

Being a sexually frustrated, 28-year-old virgin myself I completely understand the seemingly incessant need to "Free the Beast Within" and as a consequence of that need, repeatedly indulge in a, "controlled frenzy" of some sort.

And with that, I would ask that you please consider adding a few more vampires to the aforementioned areas, so as to increase the difficulty and sense of investment while I play the game.

You can use the console to 'summon' models. Perhaps you should look into doing that rather than harrassing the modmakers to change unneccessary aspects for yourself.

You also said you're playing the vanilla version. Considering CE increases difficulty of combat anyway and there are tutorials online on how to alter weapon damage easily anyway perhaps you would be better looking at those instead of forcing encounters that make no sense.

As 8people said, the console can do many things, try search in here http://www.gamewinners.com/DOSWIN/blvampiremasqueradebloodlines.htm

These are not the full list, I think that "cmdlist" command may show it, haven't tested yet.. just remember before using the console when you start playing to press "Esc" so open the Menu then use the console key, if you do that during gameplay it will freeze and you need to find the command to open your inventory, only way I found to escape that freeze mode.




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If you use the x to close the console window it freezes the game, just use the same keyboard key to open up the console to close it again and there should be no problem. I've not had trouble with freezing during gameplay unless clicking the x.