Damsel Dialogue Broken in CE 1.3 (i think)

i am playing a Malk

when i first arrive at last round, you know when, after blowing up the warehouse i first go to DownTown, i report to the Prince, he sends me to Last Round before going to the Elizabeth Dane, i talked with all the Anarchs...

i decided to ask a few questions from Damsel after getting the quest Fun with Pestilence...

for starters, there is no option: you ask her if you can ask any questions, you have no option to interrupt dialogue, not to ask any questions, after you ask her if you can ask her any questions, you are forced to ask her a question. in other characters you have the option to break dialogue without actually asking a question.

but more important... well, i am playing a Malk, half the time I don't understand what my character is saying, what he is asking, but i am pretty sure that when i ask Damsel about the Anarchs she answers about the Camarilla, and when i ask about the Camarilla she answers about the Anarchs.

Malkav, what did you break man?!?!? LOL

What do I want with some Brujah chick? I touched neither her nor her dialog. So, if something is broken there, then Troika or Wesp are the ones to blame.

But I know what Velvet is talking about. these malk lines are a bit confusing, but they are right.

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i am pretty sure when i ask about the children of the camarilla - which should be the camarilla, right??? she goes on about the anarchs.

wait... i just realized... does this mean...

oh fogedaboutit i got my answers, even if not in the order i expected them...

but lol yes when i am playing a malkav I have trouble understanding what my character is saying, sometimes it is extremely hard to select the dialogue option that i want, the one that will trigger the reaction i want

and i am pretty sure they created whole new dialogue trees for malkavians because of that.

that is one of the reasons i value malkavians above any other character.

to me what i call role playing, interacting through dialogue, is a major atractor to RPGs.
in most other RPGs they neglect that, most other RPGs devolve to combat or strategy games.
this computer RPG, trying to remain faithful to White Wolf with it's StoryTelling system
DIDN'T neglect the dialogue part of the game, made it a central core part of the game.

so, all other clans, what tells them apart is, on one hand, XP progression, and the abilities in which they grow weak and the others where they grow strong,
and basically what disciplines you have available for combat.

malkavians have unique dialogue trees.
that makes them unique to me, the most intresting clan to play just because of that.
and they have all three options to solve quests.
quests solved solely through dialogue, they have dementation
quests solved through stealth, they have obfuscate
quests solved through combat, they have demetation as well
bonuses to lockpick, blood buff is universal
bonuses to hacking, auspex and insight
bonuses for inspection, auspex and insight, to look for "hidden" items.
to me they are the perfect clan.

if only i can understand what my character is saying...

and if i am carefull with what i am saying, if i do not open my big mouth...
i will never forget that the first time i played, i played a malk, and interacting with VV, i had an insight to her life previous to her embrace, and she got cold on me, so i was not able to be seductive with her....

"malkavians have unique dialogue trees."

Actually that's not true.
Their responses lead to the same awnsers by NPC ; but some dialogues are unique, right, when jack goes "you're a malkavian you are totally fucked", but the rest is identical. Only the text differs ("I'm on it" becomes "I'll do this deed" or so).

Tremere have more "unique dialogue lines" with nossies than malkavians do. (Tremere dialogues are very different with Strauss and Andrei)

Every clan has separate dialogue with some NPCs.

Malkavians have alternative lines they say. Troika and Activision decided malkavian meant "talks bullshit" and mirrored every spoken like a Malk could have with pseudo-nonsense.

don't forget that they incorporate malkavian dialogue with malkavian insight: sometimes your lines of dialogue include priviliged information, like knowing skelter's name in advance, or VVs life previous to her embrace, or even plot events way before they happen.

i guess i haven't played other clans enough to know that they all have rather unique dialogues, though i had guessed that tremere must have. yes i did notice that because of the war between tzimitsce and tremere that andrei has a special dislike for tremere, same with the gargoyles, gargoyles have a particular hatred of tremere, it is almost impossible to solve the gargoyle quest peacefully if you are playing a tremere.

as for them speaking bullshit you are being harsh. they speak oracularly, or poetically. you know, oracles, they are always voiced in intricate language that needs decoding. either that or they speak with a poetic turn of phrase.
and to tell you the truth i have noticed the odd dialogue line when they don't, and i wish they really did in ALL dialogue lines.

(the oracle on santa monica beach, despite being a thin blood, must have been embraced by a malkavian.)

Velvet wrote:

don't forget that they incorporate malkavian dialogue with malkavian insight: sometimes your lines of dialogue include priviliged information, like knowing skelter's name in advance, or VVs life previous to her embrace, or even plot events way before they happen.

It's right that they do seem to have confidential information. But usually it does not lead to new dialog options, except perhaps for an additional line on the lines of "How do you know? Oh, forget about it, you're a Malk."

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i guess i haven't played other clans enough to know that they all have rather unique dialogues, though i had guessed that tremere must have. yes i did notice that because of the war between tzimitsce and tremere that andrei has a special dislike for tremere, same with the gargoyles, gargoyles have a particular hatred of tremere, it is almost impossible to solve the gargoyle quest peacefully if you are playing a tremere.

Not more so than with any other clan, if you don't advertize being Tremere.
For different responses to different clans, try talking to Gary as a Toreador...

Quote :

as for them speaking bullshit you are being harsh. they speak oracularly, or poetically. you know, oracles, they are always voiced in intricate language that needs decoding. either that or they speak with a poetic turn of phrase.
and to tell you the truth i have noticed the odd dialogue line when they don't, and i wish they really did in ALL dialogue lines.

Mostly they speak "Monty Python's flying Circus." Or things that relate to traditional english children's books like Alice in Wonderland, or Peter Pan.

Quote :

(the oracle on santa monica beach, despite being a thin blood, must have been embraced by a malkavian.)

Maybe, or she just knows where the intersting mushrooms grow

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I'm not being harsh, I'm being accurate. Even writers for White Wolf have mentioned the malks just talk bullshit in Bloodlines.

I know about oracles, prophecy and poetic language, thank you very much There's a difference between spewing pure verbal crap and speaking in riddles, innuendos and insight.

Also, not all malkavians are prescient.

Most of them are just completly batshit crazy

You know, seriously insane, but not Einstein insane.

In the Larp I'm playing in Liège (Belgium)*, we got this sherif Malkavian that has some serious trouble. This guy was embraced just after killing and raping his cousin (we are talking 1700's or so), and is completly hateful of women. He's been chasing around beautiful females (kine and kindred alike) to stake them, play with them, and then throw them away. Then he fell in love with the Princess, and waited for a good occasion to get her (he finally got her and keeps her at his appartement, but everybody thinks she's dead as she was supposed to catch a dawn, the malkavian dominated the ghouls to make them beleive it did happen). This gal has been in his haven for about 200 years or so and has been treated like a doll Of course there are some blood bonds now, so when the thing will blow off..
Oh, did I mention this guy is the sherif of the city ?



*Hence my nickname Claudia, it's my character's name ; Claudia Vonigner, Tremere recently declared primogen of her clan ^^

Sounds nice

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well i like the way they talk, even when it's hard to decipher...

Velvet wrote:

well i like the way they talk, even when it's hard to decipher...

I like the way they talk because it's hard to decipher. Although I disagree with 8people about the complete bullshit bit, at least in terms of VtMB.

Edit: And I, too, think Maria (or whatever her name is) is a Thin-blood Malkavian.

Maria is, was one of the things confirmed post-development by the ex-employees of Troika.

There was also supposedly cut content about her life before being embraced, how she was embraced (and by who) and that as a result she'd be able to allow you to learn about seeing like she does.

Mostly cut because of (the age old...) engine limitation. Her backstory they felt was unimportant as they didn't want her to acknowledge the past at all (remember if you ask about your bike? Was supposed to run deeper than that.) Her embrace was supposed to be by your sire as well and she'd use that connection to teach you something. However - if she was a thinblood - you would be too. (Sure there's a random chance the curse mutates when being passed from sire to childe but it's very rare and as likely as finding a Nagaraja in an abandoned hospital... wait...)

thank you for sharing that, 8people.
and i am sorry that content was cut.

i am a big fan of director's cut and argh i forget the correct expression is it out takes? takes that didn't make it to the final cut?

Velvet wrote:

i am a big fan of director's cut and argh i forget the correct expression is it out takes? takes that didn't make it to the final cut?

Out-takes (whether you spell it "outtakes," "out-takes" or "out takes") is the correct expression, yes.

thanks, munster.

you know, people have praised my english. a friend from northern ireland that sometimes taeches english at british council said that my english, my vocabulary, was almost better than her.
but i do get blanks, i do get frequent doubts in which i know i have stumbled upon a concept, both its definition and its phrasing, but i am really not sure that i know it, and no matter how hard i try still my idea continues vague,
and indeed there are things that still confuse me.
in another context someone critiqued my use of a and an and ideed i still find myself confused by it. it is not linear, and frankly i admit i do not know all its intricacies.

Better than "hers" not than her

Velvet, what is your first language ? Is it a germanic basec language ?
Yes you do have a good English (probably better than mine since you seem to have more vocabulary and words come more easely), but what I think is the problem is your syntax, your way of formulating and putting down your thoughts. You have to learn how to write with punctuation, capital letters, and avoid writting like you were talking. I'll take any bet saying that you do not read what you have wrote before posting (it also shows because you create new posts one after the other when you notice you forgot something, instead of editing the previous message to ass a "edit : I forgot...").

I think you have not learned English in a school cursus, but "because you had to" (like living in an English speaking country or so), this may explain why you have trouble with basic grammar that has to be learned "scholarly' (a/an, their/there/they're, use of any punctuation, spacing rules, some irregular verbs, it's/its and other conjugation verbs like past perfect and present perfect.. and stuff).


Once you'll think about reading your posts and correct them, taking your time, and use basic "mise en page" (capital letters, spacing, the size of the sentences, placing complements before or after the verb..), it'll be way more easy to understand you, at least for me. Oraly there is probably no problem, but your written English kind of chocks me because it looks like too much of a draft (you're not on a phone and you do not have a bomb on your computer if you take more than 10secs to post your message.. this is a forum with multiple time zones ^^).

Velvet wrote:

in another context someone critiqued my use of a and an and ideed i still find myself confused by it. it is not linear, and frankly i admit i do not know all its intricacies.

Well, not to hijack this thread into a writing lesson, but "a" is used when the following word starts with a consonant, and "an" when the following word starts with a vowel. Examples: A man. An ugly man. An apple. A big apple. The only exceptions I can think of are words which start with an "h." If the "h" is strongly aspirated, it's a consonant: a house. If it's not strongly aspirated, it's treated as a vowel: an honest man.

Of course, I speak American English of the Southern California variety, so other dialects might (and probably do) differ from mine.

The more we know, right ?

This is a usefull little link for words that are often misspelled by natives and non natives alike

Claudia wrote:

The more we know, right ?

The more dangerous we are?

Childe of Munster wrote:

Claudia wrote:

The more we know, right ?

The more dangerous we are?

Naw, the more powerful. What I've learned from VtMB was how true 'Knowledge = Power' can be.

I'm Portuguese.
I started learning english with an english tutor when I was 10, I subscribed and read National Geographic Magazine when I was 13.
I learned English at British Council until PB2, P for professional, the last level being PC3.
But that was a long time ago.

I also suffer from a mental illness.
Think of me as a Malkavian in real life, i empathize with their convoluted speech patterns because I naturally write the same way.
But what is more I suffer also from Sleep Apnea, and the mental illness...

I have trouble focusing on a task... I do feel I have a bomb on countdown, and what powers the timer is my own ability to stay focused on any given task... It's not just focus, it's energy as well. Any single task is a drain of energy, and I seem to have very low Vital Energy. I for example don't have energy, it's too much bother, to Cap words.

So yes I do feel constanly that I am rushing, and when rushing I grow careless. Careless in both senses, prone to mistakes and not caring about them. If I have trouble, if it is not instantaneous and effortless, to access a grammar rule that I learned a long time ago and is now almost forgotten, I go on.

On the other hand... I have grown used to Social Networks like FaceBook, or text messaging in cellphones, and in such media I have been praised for being able to write like I speak, that my written english mirrors my oral english, I mean if we are conversing, even if through a written medium, is it not good to do it orally?

Can you understand what it's like, that just writing a comment is so draining of energy that I can't wait for it to be over and move on, so you asking me to review my writing is... oh so much more than I can bear too?