V:TM - Bloodlines

SuAside said:
you can wander above ground as much as you like as long as your stealth skills are up to par.
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Yeah, but with Obfuscate you can run around as much as you like whether you have good stealth skills or not. I've also discovered that level 5 Obfuscate allows stealth kills without breaking invisibility at all. You can murder entire groups of enemies unnoticed. Oh, and the flamethrower doesn't break invisibility either. :wink:

The only things that break level 5 Obfuscate are bumping into NPCs (including feeding but not killing), firing missile weapons except the flamethrower, and cutscenes. Certain vampires can see through it too, but they're rare.

Since the timers for Obfuscate and Potence stack each time you activate the disciplines, you can pump them up a few times every time you eat a human. They're almost permanent. Annoying that the game clears your timers and weapons whenever you get to a boss-type fight though.

One of my criticisms of the game is that it's too easy to play a Nosferatu. You actually have to try pretty hard to break the Masquerade. You can scare humans so they run away, but that's not enough to get a violation. Some of the plot-critical NPCs barely even notice your deformity, and those that do only require a lame explanation. I'd make the rules for being seen as a Nosferatu much more stringent, but allow you to wear a trenchcoat and a big hat to hide your appearance, and make stealthy alternatives to talking to human NPCs in order to advance the story.

I think this is getting a bit OT, so I'll switch to a specific VtMB thread. Fun game though. :clap:
 
You can do stealth kills at level 3 without breaking Obfuscate, I think.
You just have to use Mouse1 instead of E, which can lead to some troubles if you going for a moving target.
 
I played as a Nosferatu in my first playthrough and towards the end my character had become really Powerful. Almost impossible to detect, and there was this power(can't remember the name right now) that allowed me to suck the life from a distance from the nemies via a bat or something like that.
 
Astiaks said:
I played as a Nosferatu in my first playthrough and towards the end my character had become really Powerful. Almost impossible to detect, and there was this power(can't remember the name right now) that allowed me to suck the life from a distance from the nemies via a bat or something like that.
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Animalism (you get bat at level 4). One of the most powerful disciplines in the entire game.
 
UniversalWolf said:
Yeah, but with Obfuscate you can run around as much as you like whether you have good stealth skills or not. I've also discovered that level 5 Obfuscate allows stealth kills without breaking invisibility at all. You can murder entire groups of enemies unnoticed. Oh, and the flamethrower doesn't break invisibility either. :wink:
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but that's an active discipline, so you have to go around sucking blood all the time to keep it up. :)
 
Brother None said:
Can't. Still haven't even started replaying #5, and I really don't want to write on it dry.

And right now I'm playing Sanitarium for the Codex Let's Play. Like any adventure games, love the story, hate the gameplay. Like Secret of Monkey Island, it'd probably slot in somewhere in the huge clusterfuck of "basically equal" games that go from 30 to somewhere like 11 and that you could shuffle at any time, though I haven't hit the parts yet that purportedly suck.

So, uh, don't expect an update...this year?
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BN, Sanitarium was made by the same people who made Chronomaster. The gameplay is similar to Sanitarium(not so good). The story and the game world is quite unique. Have you played it? If you haven't then you should definitly give it a try. It's one of my all time favorites.
 
SuAside said:
but that's an active discipline, so you have to go around sucking blood all the time to keep it up. :)
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True! But on the other hand, Nosferatu get three blood points for each rat, which means you can activate it three times every time you eat one and have a net loss of zero blood. Rats are everywhere.

If the discipline timers didn't clear when you enter Elysium areas or certain conversations, the effects would be effectively permanent. Toward the end of my Nosferatu game, I was able to keep up both Obfuscate and Potence continuously without any difficulty at all.

I'm playing a Toreador now.
 
Obsuficate makes you pretty much invincible against normal enemies but if you pump it up at the expense of combat abilities some of the bosses are really hard. I had to cheat and reassign points on my nosferatu when fighting Brother Canker because he was really beating the hell out of me and I could barely damage him. It seemed shameful since my melee focussed toreador beat him so easily.
 
I've almost finished the game as a Tremere; I'd say it's pretty awesome to blow all enemies up for just 3 BP. Hell, even one of the mini-bosses died from one of those. That said, I can see how the nosferatu would have a really easy time in the game, since some of the toughest missions have been those where you have to stay unnoticed, and can't kill.
 
Traumathurgy is great indeed. Foolishly I maxed it out only near the very endgame when I played Tremere. Although I gotta say that nothing beats Dementation for me, it's just so much fun driving everyone around you nuts. Plus you get to use it in dialogues.
 
Oh yeah, he indeed means Dominate, since Tremere and Ventrue both have it and you also get to use it in dialogues. Yeah Ventrue are supposed to be better at it, as I recall they get more Dominate dialog choices. Dementation is way funnier though.
 
I finished my Toreador game (it's amazing how fast you can go when you know what to expect) and I found a huge amount of content I missed as a Nosferatu, which is great. I don't regret playing a Nosferatu the first time at all.

Now I've started a game as a female Malkavian, and again the game has new content. Cool. So far the best thing about her is that not one of her disciplines is a Masquerade violation. You can use Dementation on people all you like in public and nothing happens. Fun. My favorite part so far was using Dementaion on Vandal in dialogue, but I won't spoil it for anyone who hasn't tried that yet. :)

It's too bad the game turns into a shooter at the end though. After the first time the last third is pretty ho-hum. The story's still pretty good, but I used the Buddha cheat to zip through the "action" bits because it was boring.

[spoiler:7cfeaa6b5b]I think the first time through the Oceanside Hotel is one of the best moments in gaming. I love the fact that it's suspense-horror in the traditional ghost story sense with no combat and no dialogue, and it's almost shit-your-pants scary.

In contrast, some of those action slogs at the end are...I would go so far as to say shameful in their design. You get railroaded along a predefined path filled with scripted enemies. I'm thinking of the Sabbat building, and even worse, Ming Xaio's temple. The latter is full of locked doors. What, you have ten points in lockpicking? Too bad, they won't open until you complete your slog, then when you get to the other side, they open effortlessly. Wow, thanks. For wasting my time, I guess.[/spoiler:7cfeaa6b5b]
 
^ Yeah, the mandatory dungeon crawls at the end are boring as hell. I was really hoping for some sort of diplomatic resolution.

[spoiler:06869f503c]I also went for the Strauss ending. Pretty disappointing, I'd say, since you don't get to open the thing. Although, I checked Youtube for other endings, and I have to say that it was sort of predictable. Didn't quite expect the BOOM, I just thought it was empty.[/spoiler:06869f503c]
 
I always use noclip console command to fly through the sewer part in Hollywood when I replay now. That has got to be the worst part of the game. Aside from that, I go through end fights quite quickly now, especially with the right disciplines (like level 5 Dementation). Once you know how exactly to spend your exp to get most out of the game even combat heavy parts can become enjoyable.
 
The first instance of my game experience lacked the fun, for the extensive use of boomsticks spirited my personalities away to Strike-Response... Shoot and Run!

Indeed, Malkavian run has begun... running? Picking night flowers with obscure lines brings me joy and pleasure. I ally with shadows to dispose of my enemies, a master of death from the East. Pick an arm you want to shake, for I have three.

Malkavian male looks not unlike Till Lindemann, hence the name.
 
there's nothing wrong with the use of boomsticks to make your life easier. use the Glock to clear the zombied plaguebearers, use the UZI for zombies at the mansion, use the SPAS for the snuff house & hollywood sewers...
 
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