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Arcade Rabbit posted:These games are fascinating and I wish to learn more. I'm thinking of them more like Saint's Row's activities. All of these sounds like stuff the Boss would do.
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# ? Feb 9, 2014 10:45 |
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# ? May 20, 2024 17:15 |
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Cathulhu posted:I'm thinking of them more like Saint's Row's activities. All of these sounds like stuff the Boss would do. If you ever manage to get the hidden 6-star alert the Technocracy orbital lasers you. Game over.
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# ? Feb 9, 2014 11:59 |
The animations are really, really stiff in this scene. It's almost hilarious. I often see the point where the sabbat goes 'you too, Rodriguez' his model spazzes out trying to put it into the new position and he ends up really close to the camera then sliding back. I've yet to see the thing play out normally. Oh Brian Mitsoda. Your dialogue fights the animation team every step of the way. At least in his current project Dead State the animation isn't under such scrutiny.
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# ? Feb 9, 2014 13:29 |
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MJ12 posted:If you ever manage to get the hidden 6-star alert the Technocracy orbital lasers you. Game over. Holy poo poo, I would really play a GTA-like game where you are a vampire/werewolf/mage doing supernatural stuff and, instead of FBI and the army, faces NWO Men in Black, HIT-Marks and Void Engineer Border Corps.
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# ? Feb 9, 2014 13:48 |
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Tehan posted:If you play a Malk the fourth wall is in tatters by this point. I always just figured that Sabbat was a Malkavian antitribu. I think the reason I personally dislike this particular instance of fourth wall breaking is that he looks straight into the camera. All other ones, as far as I can remember, are just things you could dismiss as just regular Malk talk/the web, and some of them I didn't even notice or think about on my first play through. The Sabbat guy looking straight into the camera though, is jarring to me, since it is so in the face. Literally.
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# ? Feb 9, 2014 15:48 |
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Bobbin Threadbare posted:The thing about Nines is that he is actively trying to recruit you into the Anarchs. He may be more relatable, but he's as embroiled in LA's politics as every other major leader. Yeah. He's written to be a sort of everyman, but he's every bit a political leader. Contrast to Beckett, who is the "Lone Wolf" because he just sort of drifts into the vampire politics when there's something he wants to study and then back out when he's done.
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# ? Feb 9, 2014 16:30 |
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citybeatnik posted:What puzzled me and continues to puzzle me is that the Oracle doesn't identify him as someone that you can trust - unless the lone wolf comment was directed at him as opposed to Beckett. Can't get into this without getting into massive spoilers, and I'm not comfortable with these even in spoiler tags. My advice is pay close attention to Nines and don't take him at face value.
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# ? Feb 9, 2014 16:46 |
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For a vampire leader, he's not a complete bell-end, I guess.
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# ? Feb 9, 2014 16:52 |
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Thesaya posted:I think the reason I personally dislike this particular instance of fourth wall breaking is that he looks straight into the camera. All other ones, as far as I can remember, are just things you could dismiss as just regular Malk talk/the web, and some of them I didn't even notice or think about on my first play through. The Sabbat guy looking straight into the camera though, is jarring to me, since it is so in the face. Literally.
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# ? Feb 9, 2014 16:56 |
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Think you could blow up our warehouse and get away with it? Huh, Lick? Actually, he's saying "Lich" (which is what Kindred call any vampire who's completely consumed by the Beast)
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# ? Feb 9, 2014 18:31 |
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Dariusknight posted:Actually, he's saying "Lich" (which is what Kindred call any vampire who's completely consumed by the Beast) No, Lick is an insult used for recently embraced vampires.
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# ? Feb 9, 2014 18:49 |
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Dariusknight posted:Think you could blow up our warehouse and get away with it? Huh, Lick? Yep. The term for a vampire who's fallen into Wassail is "wight".
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# ? Feb 9, 2014 19:06 |
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Captain Oblivious posted:Can't get into this without getting into massive spoilers, and I'm not comfortable with these even in spoiler tags. I've played through the game a few times and I -still- don't get that. Aside from him trying to recruit you and all that, it just seems like he's a pretty decent dude. Any way that you might remember to come back and touch on this when it's no longer spoilers?
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# ? Feb 9, 2014 19:07 |
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I really loathe when video games play the "roll cutscene: you get your rear end kicked" card. Taking away your agency in interactive fiction always rubs me the wrong way.
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# ? Feb 9, 2014 19:10 |
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PFlats posted:I really loathe when video games play the "roll cutscene: you get your rear end kicked" card. Taking away your agency in interactive fiction always rubs me the wrong way. At least this wasn't one of the "stomp everyone in game, then get taken down by random lowpower cutscene mook" variety--these are full vamps that can take you out easily in game, and if one got the drop on you (like here) you could very well be taken down before you realized it. PC being sloppy in a cutscene I can deal with. Getting depowered in cutscenes is the thing that really grinds my gears.
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# ? Feb 9, 2014 19:19 |
citybeatnik posted:I've played through the game a few times and I -still- don't get that. Aside from him trying to recruit you and all that, it just seems like he's a pretty decent dude. If I'm thinking what he's thinking, then it's pretty easy to explain (and we should be able to post vaguely about this, as long as it's in tags): Remember the mansion (not the Ocean one) and think about what "taking somebody at face value" could mean.
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# ? Feb 9, 2014 19:41 |
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PFlats posted:I really loathe when video games play the "roll cutscene: you get your rear end kicked" card. Taking away your agency in interactive fiction always rubs me the wrong way. At least you get unexpectedly ambushed in this case instead of someone just strolling up and punching you or something ridiculous like that.
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# ? Feb 9, 2014 19:45 |
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Actually, it could still be based on "lich." It's based on the German word for "corpse" and the "ch" is supposed to be pronounced "k." Nobody does because it fell out of use for a long time and only got resurrected thanks to Dungeons and Dragons appropriating it for "undead wizard," and so now people pronounce it based on how the word looks.
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# ? Feb 9, 2014 20:22 |
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The Sabbat pronounces it with emphasis on the ck in Lick. I looked in the dialogue files, and it's Lick in there.
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# ? Feb 9, 2014 20:28 |
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OAquinas posted:At least this wasn't one of the "stomp everyone in game, then get taken down by random lowpower cutscene mook" variety--these are full vamps that can take you out easily in game, and if one got the drop on you (like here) you could very well be taken down before you realized it. Cooked Auto posted:At least you get unexpectedly ambushed in this case instead of someone just strolling up and punching you or something ridiculous like that. Oh I agree, this is far from the worst. But why not throw you into combat right out of the loading screen and let you get smacked right down in-engine, then play the cutscene? Bloodlines was rushed out the door, right? Because I guess limited programming resources is an acceptable answer.
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# ? Feb 9, 2014 20:29 |
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I've uploaded the Nines Dialogue to soundcloud: listen here. I hope tindeck starts working again soon. Maybe I should mention that I'm now (as of the next update) using wesp5's 8.9 plus patch that came out recently.
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# ? Feb 9, 2014 20:35 |
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gatz posted:The Sabbat pronounces it with emphasis on the ck in Lick. I looked in the dialogue files, and it's Lick in there. I realize that, and it's spelled with a "K" in the wiki, too. I figure that's White Wolf changing the spelling so that everyone gets the pronunciation right. After all, it makes a lot more sense to call a newbie a corpse than to call him a tongue verb, don't you think?
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# ? Feb 9, 2014 20:37 |
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Bobbin Threadbare posted:I realize that, and it's spelled with a "K" in the wiki, too. I figure that's White Wolf changing the spelling so that everyone gets the pronunciation right. After all, it makes a lot more sense to call a newbie a corpse than to call him a tongue verb, don't you think? He wasn't really bitten, just licked, was always my interpretation of it. You're calling the person unformed, less than vampiric, so there was no actual Embrace, just some half-assed no effort lick for this waste of corpse space.
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# ? Feb 9, 2014 21:43 |
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PFlats posted:Oh I agree, this is far from the worst. But why not throw you into combat right out of the loading screen and let you get smacked right down in-engine, then play the cutscene? Bloodlines had a seriously troubled development history. quote:It began development in 2001, beset with problems: it was the first third-party game to use Valve’s Source Engine – which was not yet completed – with Troika developing their own AI to run on it, White Wolf andActivision having to vet everything, and a development team smaller than most, and especially small for the scope they were planning. source: http://www.gaminglives.com/2013/10/01/a-lesson-in-patience-vampire-the-masquerade-bloodlines/ tl;dr: Unfinished Source engine + lack of proper management leading to feature creep + Activision deciding to release 6 months earlier than planned + released in same week as Half-life 2/MGS 3/Halo 2 == buggy mess, dead on arrival. double nine fucked around with this message at 22:34 on Feb 9, 2014 |
# ? Feb 9, 2014 22:28 |
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Actually, "Lick" is correct. In-world, when a vampire bites somebody to feed, they can lick the wounds to close them. Since exsanguinated people with two puncture marks would be a vampire giveaway, Camarilla vamps always lick the wounds to hide what happened. Ergo, "Lick" as an abusive term for a blood sucker. Technically, I think it's also a term werewolves use for vamps in the tabletop as well, although I think there Leech is more common.
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# ? Feb 9, 2014 22:58 |
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TheMcD posted:If I'm thinking what he's thinking, then it's pretty easy to explain (and we should be able to post vaguely about this, as long as it's in tags): Remember the mansion (not the Ocean one) and think about what "taking somebody at face value" could mean. Not what I'm referring to no. I'll definitely talk about Nines later though.
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# ? Feb 9, 2014 23:06 |
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PFlats posted:Oh I agree, this is far from the worst. But why not throw you into combat right out of the loading screen and let you get smacked right down in-engine, then play the cutscene? That would be far, far worse. Fights you're forced to play but scripted to lose are one of the things video games keep doing that should never, ever happen. At best it's frustrating, at worst you use up a bunch of supplies trying to win an unwinnable fight.
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# ? Feb 10, 2014 09:05 |
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Basically, the problem is that developers usually let you get stomped in cutscenes by characters that you know for a fact are chumps. I remember one JRPG on the PS1 that actually had you fight a big bad enemy about a third way through the game. You're supposed to lose the fight, but you can win it, too. When you do you get a special cutscene and a game over. I can't remember what the game was though.
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# ? Feb 10, 2014 10:23 |
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I played Kingdom Hearts when it came out, and I remember that there was one of those fights which you're supposed to lose. But I also had some sort of cheat-disk that gave you cheats like god mode. So I ended up winning the fight you're supposed to lose, but then the main character just collapses and the story continues as if you lost.
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# ? Feb 10, 2014 10:45 |
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So this is it for real. Downtown LA. Well maybe not for real, since downtown LA doesn't really look like this. The first thing that comes to mind is that we have to go visit LaCroix in his tower. Instead let's look at these weird posters. Being new in town, we don't really know our way around. But that's okay because there are maps around the city to help us guide our way. You can see that we're right next to the Well we're not going to go there yet. I'm interested in seeing what's in a back alley somewhere. That's a safe thing to do, right? Apparently so. These guys are pretty chilled out. Or not, since they started running off somewhere. What's going on? Oh poo poo, a gang war. The red jackets vs. the tanktops. Those are some powerful punches. Have mercy, man! This violence is senseless! Back in that alley, let's talk to this unique-looking fellow. [Listen] I am the proprietor and salesman of the month several years in a row; the ladies call me "Oh, god!", but you can call me Fat Larry with a F-A-T 'cause there's mo' of me to love. Larry has pretty good voice acting, in addition to writing. He speaks and sounds like someone would in his position. You sell counterfeit basketball jerseys or something? Counterfeit?!? Man, I look like one of those peanut-headed, rock-smokin' brothers sellin' S-H-A-C-K shirts they made at thei' momma's house? I'm the real deal, OG, man in the alley with what you need! Counterfeit! Wh-why you gotta be like that? Alright, alright. Why don't you show me what you're selling? Nahaa- now that's what I like to hear. But it's like this: I save my best stuff for select clientele. Now that don't mean I don't appreciate your bu'ness, it's just, you know, bu'ness. Show me the merchandise. I'm not interested in any of this other stuff, I just want the new set of clothing. With one exception, there's one new set of clothing per hub. Each new set gives us a better resistance to damage. Some take away from your dexterity score. This set doesn't. But it does make us look... better? At least more decent. We should thank Larry, maybe take him up on his offer for some love. So? Whoa, whoa, whoa! That's your bu'ness, okay. I just figured somebody with a shoppin' list like yours might be up for a little action's all, a'ight...? Could anyone get anything done without us? I'm listening. Yo, I need a hardcore, pimp-killin', Cleopatra Jones for a super-sized score. Straight up foxy Pam Grier style. Still wi' me? Some of Larry's dialogue can be a little bit over the top. You've got my attention. ... but let's just say a certain client of mine is ready to drop some Uncle Sam-sized bucks to acquire what's in briefcase number one. You get it for me, I'm 'a not only gi' you a cut, but I'll roll out my special stock as well. Now how dat sound? Special stock? This should be good. I'll do it. If we had one more point in persuasion, we could convince Larry to also give us a discount at his store. Yeah, that's what I like to hear. Now, if you're the straight-out, hard-boiled terminator type, I'd suggest you buy some heavy firepower 'fore you roll up to the parking garage. You need anything? I'm ready right now. I'll be back with the briefcase. Not far away from Larry, something familiar comes into sight. The skyline apartments. Didn't we hear something about this building, earlier? That's right, "Muddy" Mike Durbin fled Santa Monica for Downtown. He said: Part 9 posted:Hey, Marian, it's Mike. Look, I gotta head downtown for a few days, maybe longer. If Reno calls, tell him to meet me down there - we've got something to discuss, apparently. I'll be at Milton's place in the Skyline lofts, 2A. Sorry baby, I'll explain everything later. This is the place. Odd that an apartment building has a cop parked inside of it. Maybe LA is turning fascist. "Let the state into your heart today!" Authoritarian idolatry and all that. Maybe this cop represents national unity. Or maybe this is just a video game and he's guarding something behind that employees-only door. Milton, that's who Muddy said he'd meet. He also said apartment 2A, but there's just one apartment on floor two. Let's just use the elevator up. This building sure looked a lot wider from the outside. Just a little blood buff and we're in. Muddy doesn't seem to be in at the moment, but did he leave a message? Yes. Mr. Milton, you know who this is, and I do hope you realize that we're still on for tonight. Meet me at the agreed-upon location across from the bar by the underpass. Bring your associate, Mr. Durbin, as it is a two-man job I am proposing. With any luck you two are already on your way and I shall see you soon. Goodbye. We'll head there soon, if not just to have another reason to talk to Arthur Kilpatrick. Who can resist that? There's not much of note in this apartment. Troika put a weird-amount of detail into this bass. It's supposed to resemble some old-style fender precision bass. That pickguard style hasn't been commonly used since 1957, when the Precision bass got restyled to resemble the stratocaster. What's odd is that there's a newer-split precision style pickup in the middle position, and a jazz single-coil in the bridge. I'm not sure if this is supposed to resemble any specific model or not. One semi-hidden (more like hard to miss) feature of the skyline apartment is that there's a ventilation system that can serve as an alternate method of travel between floors. A Nosferatu will use this to get around rather than the elevator. We can, too. Let's head down to the basement. That's the area the cop is guarding. A computer? Oh, he's been peeping in on the residents. Maybe the other monitor will shed light on this. How predictable. 1 posted:<Subject> hidden cameras online Ahh, that's why. Now we'll head into the contacts. apt 1 posted:Simon Milligan. He's on TV, so odds are footage of his place will be worth something eventually. I gotta keep an eye on him. apt 2 posted:Sean Milton. He's a slob, and he never really has chicks over. Some guy has been staying with him lately, so I haven't wanted to watch much. apt 3 posted:Georgia Welch. This rich broad is pretty hot. Oh, the password on her door is 9648, so maybe I'll sneak in there and steal some panties to auction off online. apt 4 posted:Vacant. No reason to keep an eye on this one. apt 5 posted:Paul Anderson. I thought there was no reason to watch him, but then I caught him upstairs. I'll keep the tape rolling. apt 6 posted:Hannah Glazer. The gold mine! Something hot is always going down in here, and that something is usually Hannah herself. Uh, let's just leave. This is an unused alternate to the regular downtown theme. I like it a little better than the regular one. Let's go ahead and do that job for Larry. We can either go in guns blazing, or try to sneak down to the spot where the deal is going down. Successfully sneaking down gives more experience, so let's try that. Predictably, there's a ventilation system to climb through. We're like a vampiric Sam Fisher/Solid Snake/Insert stealth game character here. The vent eventually drops us down to the regular floor, but there's another vent system close by. We just have to sneak over there undetected. I put two dots into stealth for this, and it better pay off. . . . There are these guys everywhere, but on some floors there are Asian guys patrolling instead of the white guys in the hoodies. Let me spare you most of this vent crawling and sneaking nonsense. . . . We're moving slowly downward. It's been pretty uneventful so far-- Oh poo poo! Well they didn't notice us. These guys, like every enemy in a stealth video game, are very nearsighted. Let's just sneak across-- Well there goes the experience bonus. There's a poo poo-load of these guys, and some of them are using uzis, which are pretty damaging. Well whatever. We eventually take care of them. We could just go charing forward, since we've lost the opportunity for getting to the briefcase undetected, but that's not a good idea. There were a ton of guys we had to fight on this level. I don't like the idea of having to do that again. We'll stick to the vents. . . . This is the bottom floor. Now just to-- Not again! But he didn't see us. Maybe just sneak to the right... Oh, forget it. Those guys must be exchanging whatever's in those two briefcases. So why are they using them as melee weapons? Ugh, whatever. The two sides eventually turn against one another. We still have to find this briefcase Larry wants - it wasn't either of those two. There we go. Now let's just head back to Larry. Strangely, the entire ramp has now been evacuated. We exit without trouble. . . . I got the briefcase. Outstandin'! Pass it here, girl. Yeah, that's beautiful! Everything looks in order. Somebody somewhere got to be pissed off about losin' this! Too bad I sent my main girl here after 'em. Alright! Let me peel off a few bills for ya. As enticing as that sounds, we've got things to do. Sorry, Larry. I already have plans for tomorrow. This could be worth checking out. Somebody with a name as stupid as 'Venus Dare' must have something worth our time. But for now, we should have acess to some new items to buy. Yeah, I'll check it out. But first I need to buy some merchandise. Man, what you do with all this stuff, I don't want to know. Just keep that cash flowing. I will, Larry. Oh, nothing. That's what the secret selection was. It was nothing. We'll just buy that fire axe and leave. Well, no use putting it off any longer. Let's give LaCroix a visit. That warehouse - I'm still unconvinced that he wasn't trying to send us to our death. Is that...? It is! The guard from outside of Gallery Noir, the one that we seduced. Mind doing me a favor, moon pie, and buzzing me up? Oh, I'd love to buzz you up, but according to building security protocol 916, I'm going to have to verify you're supposed to be here before I can open the elevator. I hate to be a Louis Law, but I'm new here and uh, you don't get a second chance like this everyday. Here, we have the option to dominate him to let us up. But why bother? I'm sure LaCroix was expecting us. I'm here to see LaCroix. Would that be Sebastian LaCroix of the LaCroix Foundation, or Dwayne LaCroix of Insurrection Baby Formula Company? What do you think, genius? Uh, okay then. Mr. LaCroix he told me to expect someone fitting your description sometime tonight. You go right on up. Thanks. Uh... Did you say "Chunk"? [Listen] Ah, yeah, I get that all the time. The name goes back to my football days. Uh, actually my fantasy football days... at the station... Stationarium - that was this office supply outlet mall I used to watch. Hey, you kids, no skating in the parking lot! That was me. Yeah... bye. Chunk, the most pathetic character in the game, everybody. LaCroix here we come... There they are. LaCroix and his giant gorilla thing, the sheriff. We haven't seen either of them since the courtroom, where our sire got dusted. LaCroix would have executed us too, if it wasn't for Nines. LaCroix has this dagger-thing on the table. It's probably supposed to be the most posh letter opener imaginable. Also these paintings on the wall. I'm not bourgeois enough to know what the names of these paintings are. Some of them are obviously related to Cain and Abel. Barf Wight posted:Top pair are: This sure is the room of a Ventrue. Ugh, let's get this over with. Yes, but - We haven't had a vote for a while. Let's spice it up this time and have two choices. The first vote is obvious: Do we tell LaCroix about Mercurio's failure? Remember, Mercurio told us that he'd be able to hook us up if we kept our mouths shut. And then there's the fact that he might be one of the only people we can trust... We've seen enough of LaCroix to know what he's like. Power-hungry, willing to step on anyone to accomplish his goals, etc. The second vote, then, is about how we will treat LaCroix. Doubtlessly this comes with political consequences. Do we act defiantly to LaCroix, act neutral towards him, or suck up to him? gatz fucked around with this message at 21:09 on Feb 21, 2014 |
# ? Feb 10, 2014 12:15 |
Keep Mercurio's failure a secret - no reason to go pissing him off for what would probably end up being little to no reward. As for LaCroix, we're Ventrue, and as a Ventrue, we're destined to run this town, and we can't run this town with this clown in the way. Let's give him some defiance.
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# ? Feb 10, 2014 12:23 |
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Mercurio is a liability, rat him out. As for Lacroix, defiance won't get us far, but we don't need to lick his boots. Be neutral
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# ? Feb 10, 2014 12:39 |
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Information is the most potent weapon of a ruler. Keep as much of it to yourself as possible. As such, conceal Mercurio's failure and act neutral to LaCroix.
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# ? Feb 10, 2014 13:00 |
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gatz posted:I am the proprietor and salesman of the month several years in a row; the ladies call me "Oh, god!", but you can call me Fat Larry with a F-A-T 'cause there's mo' of me to love. If the PC is a dude he says it's F-A-T because he knows he has a weight problem and he just don't give a gently caress. Fat Larry is the best gatz posted:
The ones in the first and last screenshot are of Cain and Able, because what else would they be? Don't rat out Mercurio and suck up to Lacroix. Leave speaking truth to power to the Malkavians and the defiance for the sake of defiance to the Brujah. If you're going to be on his side, why antagonize him? If you're not, why let him know when you don't have to?
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# ? Feb 10, 2014 13:06 |
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Gah, that floor is bright. You could probably see your reflection in it if you weren't a vampire. Most of thoses paintings look like they've got a Cain and Abel theme going. Keep your lip buttoned about Mercutio. It's always nice to do favors for people. Suck up. You're a Ventrue, and that means sucking up to the big guy until it's time for you to be the big guy.
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# ? Feb 10, 2014 13:09 |
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Don't rat out Mercurio Having him indebted to you it's probably a good idea. Also, LaCroix is your typical chessmaster and won't break a sweat to sacrifice his pawn, but suck up, it's better to have smooth relations with the higher-up bastard. Angry Lobster fucked around with this message at 13:20 on Feb 10, 2014 |
# ? Feb 10, 2014 13:17 |
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Tehan posted:Don't rat out Mercurio and suck up to Lacroix. e: Also, gatz, I think you mean “fascist”, there, not “facist”. GrimRevenant fucked around with this message at 13:25 on Feb 10, 2014 |
# ? Feb 10, 2014 13:23 |
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Rockopolis posted:Gah, that floor is bright. You could probably see your reflection in it if you weren't a vampire. VtM vampires do have reflections, outside of the Sabbat-aligned Lasombra clan and a few individuals with the appropriate Flaw.
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# ? Feb 10, 2014 13:51 |
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This is an rpg isn't it? Players are always nice to npcs until they outlive their usefulness (also we want to keep our options open until the end?) So nice to Lacoix. That said, there's no way Mercurio is any use to us, so throw Mercurio under the Ventrue-bus edit: that security guard in the apartments is something that the unofficial patch added. Does he ever do anything? He seems like a pointless addition that I really have no clue what his added benefit is. double nine fucked around with this message at 14:05 on Feb 10, 2014 |
# ? Feb 10, 2014 13:58 |
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# ? May 20, 2024 17:15 |
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Tehan posted:The ones in the first and last screenshot are of Cain and Able, because what else would they be? Top pair are: On the left is "Cain slaying Abel" by Peter Paul Rubens, mirrored for some reason. On the right is "Cain and Abel" by José Vergara, also mirrored. Bottom pair: Pietro Novellis "Cain and Abel" on the left and Titians "Cain and Abel" on the right. Pretty unimaginative titles! I vote: Don't rat on Mercurio and be neutral
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# ? Feb 10, 2014 14:18 |