VtM-Bloodlines - Companion Mod Released

An interesting mod has been released for Vampire: Bloodlines that allows you to recruit certain NPCs, embrace humans to birth Childe and form a party with your followers - you can evewn possess your followers, allowing you to check out different clans and disciplines. Check out this promo video and this one on embracing, outfits and poses.
Here's the feature list for CompMod from the official site:

• Ability to embrace some select NPCs later in the game.
• Ability to possess your traveling companions and use their special abilities from afar (if desired).
• Place party members around your haven in an assortment of animated poses
• Tell party members to change outfits.
• Supports installable outfit packs.
• Over 250 dialog responses were crafted from existing audio to support new transition conversations with companions.
• Access to secondary traveling inventory through companion dialog.

More information.

Wow, that's very impressive. The ability to control your companions and therefore try out other clans in combat is incredible.

Unfortunately, not being able to use Wesp's patch is a deal killer for me. If they would add support for that in the future, it'd make it perfect. But the ever moving target of Wesp's patching might make that impossible. Still, I can wish!

Edit: In retrospect, I feel like a jerk saying the above. While it's true, I'd hate the author(s) to read it and think their efforts aren't both appreciated and most impressive. This appears to be a praiseworthy project. I can't imagine the amount of time it took to develop this so complaining that it lacks something I'd like seems awfully selfish. And adding support for Wesp's patch may require as much work as for the original, even if it weren't ever-morphing.

I'm also sympathetic with the original reason for the mod. I played Ventrue on my first play through and found it somewhat unsatisfying as a clan choice. This mod would really allow a Ventrue to play as a Ventrue.

That sounds like it could be awesome... 4th playthrough might be in order.

I personally haven't tried it yet, it looks like they put a lot of work into this and very well done. I can only play/test once each UOP as I don't want to play one of my favorite games so much, I start hitting the space bar to skip scenes and I have already tested 6.0.

Guhndahb I am a little confused, doesn't it say it was built on UOP version 5.6 and updated binaries since? Doesn't this mean he/she does use Wesp's work?
I think your being a little too hard on yourself, your not being a jerk at all, just maybe you didn't read or watch the videos closely? Here is a quote from the home page and link.

Companion Mod is built upon the 5.6 Unofficial Patch and Includes the latest binary updates from the 6.0 Unofficial Patch.

Click to expand...

http://sites.google.com/site/vtmbcompmodhome/Home

Btw that logo looks pretty amazing, on the homepage link.

Actually

Yes, it is built on top of Wesps patch and includes the Binary upgrade of his latest 6.0 stuff.

Thanks for the logo compliment. Based on the novel cover:

http://www.amazon.com/Vampire-Masquerade-Revised-Justin-Achilli/dp/1565042492

That's it, I'm going for another play-through. As Ventrue. I started out as one once before, but it just felt so much at odds with the "outsider" role in which the game casts you that I quit shortly after getting out of Santa Monica. This just might make all the difference.

Wow, I guess I didn't do my due diligence. I read through the site fairly thoroughly and it said that other mods had to be uninstalled/cleaned, etc. I somehow overlooked any mention of this using Wesp's patch! I'm sorry about that!

And while I was so impressed with the idea of this mod that I didn't mention it, I also mentally noted that the logo was splendid. But that was superseded by the idea of this mod which is just so superb. Ugh. I so wish I had it for my first play-through (as Ventrue).

Dheu, do y'all have plans to roll in Wesp's future changes (who knows when they'll end...possibly not even Wesp ) at X-month intervals or anything like that? Seems like that might be a pretty daunting task - to keep, as I said before, aiming for a moving target. Either way, I'm "sold". I'm definitely using this on my next play through!

Again, congratulations for the fine work and release.

Yeap

CompMod 2.0 (Goal this summer) will include a merge with whatever Wesp's latest patch is and a whole lot more companion-centric stuff like new quests, companions, romance options, etc...

However, once 2.0 seems stable, I'm going to lock it down and stop changing it. That will include Unofficial Patch updates. I'm hoping Wesp finally "finishes" his patch before that happens, but who knows. Anyway, the idea is to change gears and allow compmod to become a baseline for other projects. But to do that, I have to stop changing it.

BTW: There was a bug discovered. Don't use custom histories when you play with CompMod or your keys will disappear when you possess. Next weekend I will release a patch that fixes the issue, but with nearly 500 downloads in 3 days, I figured I should start spreading the word.

Prime Junta said:

That's it, I'm going for another play-through. As Ventrue. I started out as one once before, but it just felt so much at odds with the "outsider" role in which the game casts you that I quit shortly after getting out of Santa Monica. This just might make all the difference.

Click to expand...

I'm having a great time as a Ventrue right now, playing as the intelligent, persuasive type. My only disappointment is that the Ventrue's unique ability to use Dominate during dialog doesn't come into play often enough.

This is probably the first time I ever felt that a mod might get me into replaying a game. My greatest beef with Bloodlines was that the game goes from a social dialogue-driven rpg into more of a dungeonbasher later on, which ruined social classes for me. Having companions for social classes would fix that in a way that would also feel consistent with the original rpg.

Walp, I installed it, but the game's not running well. Vista x64, nVidia 8800 GTS/320. It crashes on area transition every time (or just about). Clues?

Thanks for the bump on this Prime!

I am installing now and will report on stability here.

Totally stable here XP, HD4870.

Very well done mod that not only lends itself well to the roleplaying aspect of the game, but allows the protagonist to not be Mr. Jack of all Trades.