VtM-Bloodlines - Unofficial v3.4 Patch

[Dhruin]

The work on Vampire: Bloodlines continues with a v3.4 unofficial patch released (http://www.worthplaying.com/article.php?sid=40911&mode=thread&order=0). This particular release has a surprisingly large number of changes/fixes, so hit Worthplaying for the full notes and the file (180Mb).
More information. (http://www.rpgwatch.com/show/newsbit?newsbit=4011)

[r3dshift]

I can't believe the game's unofficially at v3.4 by now. I mean, I had no major bugs in the vanilla game so I can't help but suspect that - no offense meant! - these bugfixes are actually the fixes of bugs that the patchmakers have been creating themselves.

[Ionstormsucks]

I can't believe the game's unofficially at v3.4 by now. I mean, I had no major bugs in the vanilla game so I can't help but suspect that - no offense meant! - these bugfixes are actually the fixes of bugs that the patchmakers have been creating themselves.

Guess if you want to you can find something bad in everything, eh? Personally I wish that companies would support their games like these fans do...

[Avantenor]

I can't believe the game's unofficially at v3.4 by now. I mean, I had no major bugs in the vanilla game so I can't help but suspect that - no offense meant! - these bugfixes are actually the fixes of bugs that the patchmakers have been creating themselves.
Our german forums tell you a different story.

And when you take a look at the patchlog you can see, that most of these fixes are nearly invisible. You wouldn't see the bug because you wouldn't know that it is a bug.

Great work, but sadly there is no german version of this file. There are quite some Bloodlines fans in Germany, too, and now you can get it for 10€. But they still have to play Bloodlines v1.2. And if a german version of the patch comes out, it's to late, because the game isn't sold anymore. :(

[r3dshift]

Okay, I ain't saying here that what the fans are doing is useless and they have all my admiration and awe for their perseverance. Far from it! And they have my utmost respect for supporting the title, even if Troika does not (hence: cannot) do so.
It's just that I felt that the game was playable out-of-the-box as well, and somehow got the feeling that the patches have been bringing up more and more issues that mayhaps should've been left alone. :)
Anyhow, the game was a wonderful experience (hey, I lost my girl on that one, lol), wish there were more games set in the World of Darkness universe... the planned MMO in 2011 is just bloody far away, methinks.

[Fenris]

The german Version of Bloodlines is even with the 1.2. still a bug fest... have you ever tried to make the quest for the posters or have you tried to buy a new armor for a Malkavian female ? IIRC the Armor for malkavian males is also bugged in the german version.

The Game is huge, you may finish it even without encountering a bug - if you are very, very lucky - but believe me, they are there, and they are many :)

I have installed the english version because of the extra german bugs and because so I can use the Fan-Patch.

My Thanks goes to the folks who still try to give this rough-diamond its perfect form ;)

[Dr. A]

Yeah, the people who do this deserve much respect. Same goes for the Circle Of Eight folks

[xSamhainx]

wow, theyre still pluggin along on this one!
My vanilla US version didnt have any problems that I remember, but then again Ive only played it thru one time. Awesome game, I agree that there needs to be some more WOD stuff. There was that news blip about a WOD MMO that got my blood pumping, havent seen anything more on that one.

Now that's one MMO that I would have to check out!

[Guhndahb]

Perhaps they've gone afield of simply bugfixing, perhaps not, but at this point it must be a labor of love. Anyone who cares about the game as much as these folks do (and the aforementioned Co8) have more than earned the right to modify as they see fit in my eyes. Not just because they are doing the work, but because they obviously care about the game so much that the value of their opinion on what the game should be approaches that of the original developers.

I greedily snatch up each new unofficial patch in case it's the last. I'm so looking forward to playing through Bloodlines again with whatever patch the game ends upon.

And I also would love to see more games in the World of Darkness universe. Indeed, I always felt that vampires and werewolves were pretty boring fare until I got interested in White Wolf's works. Somehow their universe feels so much more sophisticated and multi-dimensional than nearly any other use of these classics.

[Elwro]

I think they should offer two files: a patch and a mod. Calling this a "patch" is, I think, free and a bit undeserved publicity since more people will download a patch than a mod. They themselves say "This patch fixes many bugs, restores unused content and mods some of the game to improve the consistency of the presented world." They e.g. change the way humanity points are given, which may be drastic for game balance and a few months ago I thought was done inappropriately at least once (don't ask me, can't remember now.)

Much respect for the hard work! But 1) fix the bugs and prepare the patch and 2) let us, the players decide whether we want to see the "improvements" you've envisioned.

[Dhruin]

There was that news blip about a WOD MMO that got my blood pumping, havent seen anything more on that one.

Now that's one MMO that I would have to check out!

White Wolf and CCP (Eve Online) merged, so there is definitely an MMO in development, no question. However, they are only starting out...you won't see anything until 2009 at the earliest.

[JDR13]

This is a nice coincidence. I just got Vampire:Bloodlines yesterday:)

Does anyone suggest that I play it with just the official patches first? What was the last official version anyways?

I don't mind unofficial patches for bugfixes, but when they start changing stats then I tend to shy away from those types of patches.

[Dhruin]

v1.2 is the official Troika patch. Personally, I think nearly all the changes made by this mod team are good choices and a couple of questionable ones are comfortably outweighed against a game that is perfectly playable but has many, many minor errors.

In other words, is it really worse to receive additional Humanity points (beyond the original intent) because of this mod than to have not received them because of a Troika bug?

Having said that, I've played it quite happily both with and without - most changes are quite minor either way.

[Avantenor]

I agree with Dhruin

[Acleacius]

Rock on Wesp! :)

First to the German fans, Wesp is German (afaik) so if you guys want it in German ask him. :)

I couldn't even concieve of playing the vanilla version without the Unoffical patch, just look at the list of fixes and what you will miss out on.

The reason there are adding, fixing and restoring content which makes it seem like they are modding is at least in 90%+ of all the fixes Trokia didn't have time to do them.

As an example the Histories you could use them but they were totally unfinished and bugged.
In reguards to the Humanity situation up to 3.0 at least (while I was helping) all that has been done is to make it consitant with the WOD and what Trokia had started but were unable to finish, so if you can think of a specific example of a Humanity which is Not correct please list this info to help.

Basicly, please list any undeserved Hunamities (hell any other problem too) or list any that should get a hit and don't.

Why complain when you can help or better yet if you have to complain let it actually help the game. :biggrin:

[txa1265]

I really think that it is amazing how these guys have hung in there, taking a wonderful game that showed some lack of refinement and keep trying to make it more and more polished. Thing of wonder, really.

[Elwro]

Some of the changes I didn't like were e.g. rebranding of weapons (why?) and adding / removing them from certain areas. I guess these changes were in one of the first updates.
I'd like to play the game the way Troika envisioned it. The work of those guys is certainly fantastic, hats off etc, but at the same time they're telling me this: "OK, so you want to have the bugs fixed, right? Sure, but you'll have to deal with the fact that we decided to change a few things. So, some weapons are named differently, just because we wanted; we also put this here, that there..." It's not really a big deal but I think they should keep their own ideas separate from the bugfixes. Come on, if someone found a torn manuscript of the fourth Gormenghast book by Mervyn Peake, would you prefer to read what's left of it after a great deal of reconstructionary work, or would you prefer a version in which the editor decided that erasing some parts and inventing some new ones was the way to go? You should have this choice.

When you look at the recent changelists, they're certainly looking better (bugfix-wise) than the older ones. I stopped being interested after the first few but maybe I'll try the new one.

[Elwro]

I just remembered one thing.

You can be merciful and tell a certain ghoul to leave town. In the main game you lose a Masquerade point by doing so, and it's how it's supposed to be. I'm pretty sure one of the first patch removed the Masquerade decrease, and that was also why I became highly sceptical of the whole project.

Of course, if I just fabricated this memory, I'm very sorry :-)

[curious]

i agree with what you are saying Elwro. i like to play games the way the developers made/intended them to be especially in the case of troika. i had no problems with running the game with the official 1.2 patch. i only added the unofficial one when the 'histories' were restored. that was a cool feature that i can't believe got left out of the original. normally i don't use fan made anything on any game though. when i tried the texture for deus ex: invisible war i was horrified by what it did to the charcter models. it basically comes down to i trust a devloper regardless of talent because it is a mixture of many people over a single or maybe a few people who the odds of me sharing in what they envision the game to mean is considerably less.

[JDR13]

What are these "histories" that you speak of? I haven't played Bloodlines yet and I'm still trying to decide between that last official patch and the fan made patch.

Would I be missing out on a lot if I decide to just go with the official patch?

[curious]

their like backgrounds in other games. they give a short little history and some are clan, gender specific. there are approx 2 dozen if i recall and they alter your starting stats slightly. theres some really hilariously named ones too. found a list after some searching.
http://www.neoseeker.com/resourcelink.html?rlid=95231
personally though i would recommend waiting 'til after the first playthrough before installing the unofficial patches. there is a way to add the histories in without the patches but it is apparently buggy. if any game warrants multiple playthroughs though it is this game.

an easier to read/navigate link that i just realized i had opened
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/vtmb/download.html?sid=6152425

[JDR13]

Thanks curious, I'm looking forward to playing Bloodlines in the future. You've helped me decide to just go with the official patch.

[Acleacius]

Elwro
"Some of the changes I didn't like were e.g. rebranding of weapons (why?) and adding / removing them from certain areas."

As I said list specifics and I wll be glad to tell you whati know. :)

Ok so let me get this strait, your upset becasue some weapons got moved or the name was changed and this somehow makes the game, not as Trokia intended?

You realised Trokia didn't have time to finsih the game, right?
They were in a crunch from hell, trying to rush the game out of the door for activison's bullshit schedule.

"I just remembered one thing."

Removed any spoilers in case JDR13 looks, hehe. ;)

Ok first place you don't tell the ***** to leave town and to the best of my memory there was not a Masqurade hit for tricking *** to leave town and why would there be?
I would really like to know which VtM rule says tricking a bad ***** to leave town to Stop a possible threat to the Masqurade is casue for a hit?

Second, your more than welcome to kill the ***** if you wish.

Third, do you think Trokia had time to implement the Masqurade and Humanity hits and bonuses in the crunch?

Fourth, list a Masqurade or Humanity hit or bonus which is not backed up by the VtM rules or a clearly intended Trokia design.

Hehe and like you if I am mistaken about this I appoligies too. :)
If you are absolutly sure I will try to find a copy of *att*ies orginal dialogue but at his point I am not even sure which rule you are appling which would make Not getting a Masqurade hit , incorrect. :)

Btw I am not saying the Unofficial patch is perfect. :)

[curious]

Acleacius- upholding the masquerade is oftentimes strict so forcing someone out of town and them agreeing isn't a finite conclusion to that story. he could have the urge to return home and then have another problem on your hand. so why someone agreeing to skip town is the more noble route, which i followed, it is embracing your remaining humanity rather than upholding and protecting the masquerade at all costs. thats part of what i love about the game; all the different ways you can meander along that line. also even if you don't kill him you can still get the same reward from the quest giver if i recall. so i really don't see why a change was made.

quest rewards and penalties probably didn't take the developers more than a few minutes to implement so any agruement about a lack of time seems foolish to me. it is possible though in the case of the catiff that if they had more time they 'might' have had him show up later in the story had you decide to let him go, possibly in a way analagous to heather. good choices sometimes result in bad consequences. i applaud trokia for throwing out this realistic depiction that is not to common in games.

[Elwro]

Acleacius-

from the 1.6 changelog: "Re-branded Uzi, Mac 10, Glock 17c, Ithaca and both Remingtons guns." And this is aside from good changes I have no qualms with. It's just that when I see something like this I start to wonder if you guys don't e.g. rename some NPCs just for fun :-) I can't think of any reason to rebrand the weapons, especially since fictional names give the developers the possibility of giving the weapons fictional parameters.

And as for the ****, I'm not quoting any rule for Masquerade, I'm just trying to use common sense here :-) Letting him live is an obvious threat to the Masquerade.
When I saw this change, I thought you guys didn't want the player to face proper (and intended by the developers) consequences of his actions.

I hope such stuff was limited to the first few patch versions and from then on you focused on bugs. Good work and keep doing it instead of wasting your time on forums :-)

[Elwro]

OK, sorry for forum necromancy here, but I've installed the game today, played a bit, installed the 3.5 patch on top of the 1.2 patch and... I can't feed on anyone. I always fail, and often get the "Criminal Violation" message. Am I doing something wrong? I Ctrl-Fed "feed" in patch notes for all patch versions and found nothing, so I think nothing has officially changed regarding this option...