Odds and Ends, mostly Trinkets

1.
in the quest thin blood, a car is mentioned as colateral on the bail bond, and indeed that car plays a role in the quest, its trunk namely.
but in the quest jumpin' the bail, a car is also mentioned as colateral, but that car has no role whatsoever in the quest, you are directed imediately to the apartment.
that always struck me as a missed oportunity, somehow.
maybe you could extend that quest by also making the mentioned car usable, so that perhaps only in the car did you learn that you had to go to the apartment.
but that is just me.
i have looked the car park over searching for that car, even though i suepect they didn't bother to include it.

2. tattoo parlor and gimble's prostethics.
it alwasy struck me that the tattoo parlor is utterly bare, absolutely the only thing you do there is answer the phone.
i have always explored thoroughly every corner of the tattoo parlor, even though i know that there is nothing there. rings or pills wouldn't be misplaced.
the same goes for gimble's prostethics, whith such a big location and specially being medically oriented a few stray pill bottles wouldn't be amiss.

3.
new weapons
gimble's prosthetics seems the perfect place to find a new melee weapon, a cleaver. namely a surgical cleaver.
and on the subject of cleavers, empire arms hotel kitchen has also always seemed the perfect place to find a cleaver, this time a culinary cleaver.
a cleaver should be in damage that it inflicts somewhere between the knife and the axe.
i have a vague idea that there is indeed a cleaver in the kitchen, that you can move around, but of course cannot take into your inventory and use.
a cleaver would be a great addition to this game's armament. imagine what it would say in the description.

1. No comment

2. I agree that Gimbles and the Tattoo parlor could be used for so much more. You already have my wheels turning with ideas for these locations. Oh ya, throw Foxy Boxes in there too.

3. A cleaver eh? Well if the model is already made, we could stick the knife animation on it and see if that works. That may be a plan.

1. yeah, i know, we already have a car in use, maybe it's stupid to want another. but muddy is mentioned in kilpatricks krimeputer, but the quest as it is doesn't require it's consultation, you get all the information out of the dialogue. well, while the thin blood quest you get all the info out of the krimeputer, there is nothing you gain out of talking with Kilpatrick in that quest, except you get a new side quest. but, yeah, it makes sense, different quests different ways to tackle.

2. Tattoo Parlor is begging for something. Gimble's Prostethics as so many rooms, so many doors opening to so many cells, i always check everyone of them even though i don't need to, i mean either people should have an incentive to do so or be rewarded for doing so regardless. Foxy Gloves... i mean that warehouse is gynormous, and even with parts only accessible through big leaps. i also always throughly explore it just because, but i alsways felt that the loot you collect out of the kuen-ji, such powerful weapons, was loot enough for that warehouse, plus you could gather info out of the computer and now in CE 1.3 and upwards you even get to return to the computer to delete that info, i always felt that it was good enough as is. but if you feel you can do more, then by all means do, who am i!!!

3. i KNOW there is something in the Empire Arms Hotel Kitchen that you can move around, grab and then move and then drop. and i know that both in the Grimble's Prosthetics AND that kitchen there are Cleavers on display. but quite frankly right now i cannot remember if the thing you can grab and move in EAH kitchen is indeed a cleaver, though i am pretty sure it is. i think i remember, the first time i went there, i saw it, i thought "hey! new weapon!" and then i was sorely disapointed i could only move it around, not incorporate it on my inventory. but what it was i no longer remember for sure.

I always wondered about telling Kilpatrick that Muddy is dead. Glad someone else brought it up.

What also annoyed me is that you find information in the Empire Arms Hotel computer about other occupants at the hotel; but they are never mentioned in the game, and you can only go to floors 5 and 6. Maybe if that VampireSDK tool really can make new maps, we could add some floors to the hotel.

Um, 'we' as in Zer0Morph and Malkav, since "I don' know nuthin' 'bout makin' no mods!"

PGM,

It's funny you mention extra rooms in Empire Arms, I wonder if it is possible to add more rooms. Though I'm pretty sure I can't add more buttons to the elevator, I believe only rooms 5 and 6 are used, not 2-4 which gives us 3 more rooms to play with.

thanks, PGM, for bringing that up!!!
i always wondered about that myself, and it also always frutrated me.

maybe fire stair access?

btw, Johansen, who will become important later on, is mentioned as one of the guests there.

Funny how the Empire Arms Hotel building exterior has at least 26 floors, plus maybe a penthouse (I counted earlier), and only six floors on the elevator panel; but the Skyeline Apts. building has only 5 floors on the outside, and inside it has 7 floors (6 + a ground floor). That's not even counting the basement. Did the Troika guys who worked on the outside maps not exchange notes with the guys who worked on the interiors?

I also wish they could have made interiors for the library (the one with the gargoyles, across the street from the Venture Tower building). I would love to explore that. It is loosely based on the L.A. Library, across the street from the city's tallest building. Officially, the tower is called "U.S. Bank Tower", formerly "First Interstate Bank World Center". But Angelenos still call it "Library Tower", after the Library next door.

Never mind. You guys didn't need a history-slant-geography lesson. I'm just saying they changed things in the game, because they were afraid of being sued by the city of L.A. for brand infringement, or whatever. I just wish they hadn't worried so much about that crap, and had made a better game.

PGM1961 wrote:

I also wish they could have made interiors for the library (the one with the gargoyles, across the street from the Venture Tower building). I would love to explore that. It is loosely based on the L.A. Library, across the street from the city's tallest building. Officially, the tower is called "U.S. Bank Tower", formerly "First Interstate Bank World Center". But Angelenos still call it "Library Tower", after the Library next door.

Never mind. You guys didn't need a history-slant-geography lesson. I'm just saying they changed things in the game, because they were afraid of being sued by the city of L.A. for brand infringement, or whatever. I just wish they hadn't worried so much about that crap, and had made a better game.

I don't know if a City would go that far against a game designer - after all, how many games include certain famous buildings in New York city? Such as the (former) WTC buildings(which are present in Redemption), the Statue of Liberty, among others. Naming things like that was only to keep it in the WOD, though nothing said they had to design the Downtown hub to directly match the real Downtown L.A. I do wish the library was present in the game though, as it might've made an interesting place to visit for various reasons. Namely since I've seen that line from the skill books that mentions feeding on a librarian, and I keep thinking "Tell that to the unusable gate".

I'd say the only way they were worried about infringement was the various products in the game, such as the Soda Machines, candy bars, etc. All of them are labeled similar to a real-life product, but different.

No, just before Bloodlines came out, I saw interviews with one of the game developers, and the reason they didn't make stuff more identifiable (such as the Santa Monica pier, etc.) was because supposedly these landmarks are trademarked, or whatever the legal term is, and they didn't want to mess with it. Whether his argument had any merit, I have no idea.

'Max Payne' was set in New York, though; so I don't know. Maybe New York is willing to give permission, and L.A. wasn't for some reason. I've never played them, butI know the 'Grand theft Auto' series is set in several fictional cities ('Liberty City' instead of New York, and 'San Andreas' instead of Los Angeles). Maybe if a game looks controversial, the city is reluctant to give permission.

Changing the soda machines is common, though. In movies they just have the word 'DRINKS' plastered across the machine. Unless Coke or Pepsi are paying for product placement, and then you'll see everyone drinking their products.

trademarked landmarks, copyrighted landmarks, seems... odd!

PGM1961 wrote:

Changing the soda machines is common, though. In movies they just have the word 'DRINKS' plastered across the machine. Unless Coke or Pepsi are paying for product placement, and then you'll see everyone drinking their products.

Yeah, its likely that anyone who actually looks at everything in the game at some point, might just be a little board with some of the scenery pieces by now. A change like this, probably stands out a lot more than what you see in the game originally:

Two games were sued for improper representation before Bloodlines was released which is proabably what made them finicky. Several more were sued afterwards as well for this, that or the other when using real based landmarks or property.