World of Darkness Vtmb malk run overrated

[luj1]

I heard the same thing about Ventrue, being a highborn and all, that you get all these free passes everywhere, but I never saw proof of different gameplay

Ventrue don't get much iirc, just the domination magicz which can be used in conversation instead of skills occasionally. Can't remember if tremere also gets that though.
...
Brujah, Gangrel and Toreador get nothing afaik.

Tremere don't get Dominate in dialogue in the original game which is illogical, so I gave them low level options in the plus patch. Brujah and Toreador don't get anything either, but Presence should work in dialogue too, so I made this happen in the plus patch. Also the stop sign encounter is not connected to Humanity at all...

What would you say is the clan with most unique gameplay? Both vanilla and your patch

 

[Storyfag]

What do you think?

Very low quality bait. What of Janus, Ivory Goddess?

 

[jakkis]

No bait, honest feelings. But lesson learned, shouldn't play a game back2back, you get burnt out, and shouldn't read anything online about a game, expectations become too high. Like I said, will probably like it next time better, since it's been I think 6 years since I last played.

Usually folk recommend malk for 2nd run, I recommend it for 1st run, the crazy seems more crazy that way for an authentic crazy feel.

 

[RaggleFraggle]

Tremere don't get Dominate in dialogue in the original game which is illogical, so I gave them low level options in the plus patch. Brujah and Toreador don't get anything either, but Presence should work in dialogue too, so I made this happen in the plus patch.

Troika made changes for the sake of the video game medium. Ventrue get Dominate dialogue options as their class's unique advantage. There's already Persuade, Intimidate, and Seduce, so Presence options would be superfluous.

 

[whydoibother]

Think malk/nos actually offer a different experience?​

malk - no.
nos - yes.

Any clan as first playthrough.
Nosferatu as second playthrough, to see a different side of the city/quests.
Malkavian as third playthrough, once you know the quests, to catch all the predictions.

If you think otherwise, then you don't know SHIT about video games.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Vtmb is overrated.

 

[Lambach]

Tremere don't get Dominate in dialogue in the original game which is illogical, so I gave them low level options in the plus patch. Brujah and Toreador don't get anything either, but Presence should work in dialogue too, so I made this happen in the plus patch.

Troika made changes for the sake of the video game medium. Ventrue get Dominate dialogue options as their class's unique advantage. There's already Persuade, Intimidate, and Seduce, so Presence options would be superfluous.

IIRC, in the Plus Patch, Presence doesn't add new options in convos, it boosts your conversation Skills (Seduction and Intimidate, I think), which is a cool idea. Some NPCs are immune to it, tho.

 

[Norfleet]

The same is largely true for Malks as well, playing one doesn't drastically alter the game, IMO. The NPCs give the same responses to their fucked up dialog options as they do to the "regular" Clans 80-90% of the time, usually right after they make a comment about the Malk's weird way of speaking at the start of the conversation.

Well, what'd you expect? This is Commiefornia. Being a crazy terlet hobo is not an obstacle to getting within clobbering distance of even the spouses of Senators.

 

[Wesp5]

Tremere don't get Dominate in dialogue in the original game which is illogical, so I gave them low level options in the plus patch. Brujah and Toreador don't get anything either, but Presence should work in dialogue too, so I made this happen in the plus patch.

Troika made changes for the sake of the video game medium. Ventrue get Dominate dialogue options as their class's unique advantage.

I'm aware of that and it is one reason why Tremere did not get the full Dominate-in-dialogue-support. But as with Presence, this was asked for by PnP VtM players...

 

[Wesp5]

I heard the same thing about Ventrue, being a highborn and all, that you get all these free passes everywhere, but I never saw proof of different gameplay

Ventrue don't get much iirc, just the domination magicz which can be used in conversation instead of skills occasionally. Can't remember if tremere also gets that though.
...
Brujah, Gangrel and Toreador get nothing afaik.

Tremere don't get Dominate in dialogue in the original game which is illogical, so I gave them low level options in the plus patch. Brujah and Toreador don't get anything either, but Presence should work in dialogue too, so I made this happen in the plus patch. Also the stop sign encounter is not connected to Humanity at all...

What would you say is the clan with most unique gameplay? Both vanilla and your patch

I don't know. The great thing about Bloodlines is that you can play very different styles with any clan! I played it with a Toreador as a Matrix-kind-of-Shooter .

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Wesp5 did you ever consider having features togglable in plus version? Similar to say, Temple+

 

[Ibn Sina]

VTMB is highly overrated as a C&C rpg in all aspects. Sure there are good things about the game like the atmosphere and aesthetics. But C&C is pretty poor, and the entire game is pretty linear from beginning to finish.

I do not consider VTMB to be a good vampire game because the most important aspect of vampires as depicted in media and literature is auspiciously absent from the game, which is feeding matters. In the Vanilla unmodded game you can play through the entire game without feeding. Feeding is so trivial and has no consequence in the game, you could drain someone of 90% of the blood in their body and they would continue on their merry way no fucks given.

 

[Mr. Magniloquent]

I heard the same thing about Ventrue, being a highborn and all, that you get all these free passes everywhere, but I never saw proof of different gameplay

You get token acknowledgement by LaCroix when you meet him, but that's about all I can remember. I did try Malkavian and Nosferateu due to the hype, but they weren't that different. Like Lambach writes, Malkavian gives you madlib conversation lines, and Nosferatu forces you to go through the sewers constantly. I found neither enjoyable.

I think Ventrue is still the best "stealth" character. Rather than go through all the effort of avoidance, you can just jedi mind-trick everyone and walk past freely. It was pretty awesome. That may be because I used to Camarilla mod though. I know it made some changes to the Dominate discipline.

 

[HereticGuy]

Malk is one of the best sneak chars of all time though?

Obfuscate discipline makes stealth mechanics to be like Skyrim's, which means really cheap & abusable. I like having Obfuscate at "Traffik" quest (Fat Larry wants you to steal a briefcase at Downtown parking garage), otherwise it feels like a drag if you use vents for stealth.

And yes, celerity is useless at low levels,

I agree, but I love clans have celerity just because of "You only die once a night" quest (Romero wants you to take care zombies in the cemetery, before they break the gates). Really, fuck that quest.

And by the way, welcome to the Codex.

 

[NecroLord]

Celerity is one of the strongest disciplines in the game.
What the fuck are you all talking about?
Celerity is widely known as one of the strongest disciplines in Vampire: The Masquerade. Period.
Fortitude is another great one in the game. Thaumaturgy also is pretty good. But fuck those Tremere.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

the best discipline is the one that adds sparkles to shit you can pick up

 

[Lambach]

the best discipline is the one that adds sparkles to shit you can pick up

OK, fine, here's your (you) already, now go away.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

the best discipline is the one that adds sparkles to shit you can pick up

OK, fine, here's your (you) already, now go away.

It's by far the most useful discipline for someone who hasn't played the game before.
And if you played it already, none of them matter anyways.

value goes down if you're a cheater who reads guides

 

[Lambach]

And if you played it already, none of them matter anyways.

value goes down if you're a cheater who reads guides

Being able to pick up 50 sparkling bucks off the floor won't feel all that usefull while you're getting Hentai'd by Ming Xiao.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Apparently it's a skill or something anyways, been forever since I played.
People who already played it greatly undervalue it, same with metagamers who are just going to read a guide.

 

[Häyhä]

What do you think?

Well yes and no, but for the most part I'd have to say "no".

I certainly appreciate that they included all the main Camarilla clans as playable choices and even did the entire "crazy" dialogue for Malkavians etc., but there was just too much work involved and the game was rushed out as everyone knows so there was no way for them to make Malkavian/Nosferatu playthroughs feel different and unique enough.

 

[Lambach]

It literally doesn't matter one tiny bit in vanilla, lulz. Just take a couple extra minutes to explore, then do every sidequest you come across and you'll be swimming in so much cash and XP you won't know what to spend it all on.

Now, with overhaul mods that drastically reduce XP gain and income, scavenging becomes a lot more important, but you don't need it at all in vanilla. Becoming crazy overpowered is easy enough as-is, even for a first-time player.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

It literally doesn't matter one tiny bit in vanilla, lulz. Just take a couple extra minutes to explore, then do every sidequest you come across and you'll be swimming in so much cash and XP you won't know what to spend it all on.

Now, with overhaul mods that drastically reduce XP gain and income, scavenging becomes a lot more important, but you don't need it at all in vanilla. Becoming crazy overpowered is easy enough as-is, even for a first-time player.

I think you underestimate the amount of things it points out

 

[Lambach]

I think you underestimate the amount of things it points out

No, not really. All the items you need to advance quests are very clearly laid out if you take just a couple of seconds to look around. Stuff that isn't so conveniently placed is irrelevant - some extra cash, an odd Blood Bag here and there, a fancy ring you can sell for extra cash (that you will already be swimming in) etc. There are also some Artifacts that boost certain stats, but again, you'll be swimming in so much XP you'll be a master swordsman/marksman/computer whiz/Sigma Male seducer/expert burglar/financial guru with superhuman strength, speed and mastery over Blood Magic before you're done with the final "free roam" hub in the game.

Anyone who ever played a couple of RPGs before should find vanilla Bloodlines piss-easy.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

I think you underestimate the amount of things it points out

No, not really. All the items you need to advance quests are very clearly laid out if you take just a couple of seconds to look around. Stuff that isn't so conveniently placed is irrelevant - some extra cash, an odd Blood Bag here and there, a fancy ring you can sell for extra cash (that you will already be swimming in) etc. There are also some Artifacts that boost certain stats, but again, you'll be swimming in so much XP you'll be a master swordsman/marksman/computer whiz/Sigma Male seducer/expert burglar/financial guru with superhuman strength, speed and mastery over Blood Magic before you're done with the final "free roam" hub in the game.

Anyone who ever played a couple of RPGs before should find vanilla Bloodlines piss-easy.

So you haven't actually played with it and are just guessing?