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Thanks, saving lives, it's a thing 😁

I'm glad if this helped. The only real trick here is maintaining the correct distance to Ming, can just as easily be done in normal ranged combat. ruclips.net/video/CufMaxdj9Dk/видео.html

It's a secret ... was a secret, i'm not sure😉

I wish I had made a video of my first playthrough! In retrospect wish I had made videos of all my first playthroughs. This character is Dell and you can see see his character sheet in the first few seconds of my Chang Brothers fight video for comparison. Although that is a bit further on so be warned watching the entire video would be a spoiler. In general I tend to not make very strong characters as I have been at this VTMB thing for a long time now 😀 ruclips.net/video/TxIK8DmT35g/видео.html

@@MikeRobertsGaming I'm not gonna lie b, I just went in with level 0 firearms just now and pretty much just went Quake 3 and strafe jumped and shotgunned everything to death in Warrens 4, but it'll totally be back to unarmed sneaky man after this

@@ULTRAOutdoorsman Yea I went through a phase where I cleared everything out using various tactics/rule sets. Now I'm at a point were I think the more interesting idea is completing the entire sequence from entering the cab to exiting in Hollywood cemetery without killing anything, including rats. In my Undisciplined Caitiff mod I added an optional quest to clear out the sewers with varying levels of rewards depending on how much the player decides to take on.

There supposed to be some kind of shortcut but I can’t find it either lol

@@DagothThorus Yea the shortcut is only in the Unofficial Plus patch so won't be there unless you are using that patch. My first time I saved the sisters without knowing it was a thing or how difficult it would be to repeat, good times!

Thank you, I appreciated that you took the time to reply!

@@MikeRobertsGaming I thank u for the peace and patiente u put into creating ur videos.

Thanks, yea I really enjoy it. Might be a bit niche for some players, but for players that enjoy such a thing it seems really well rated. Factorio 2.0 is scheduled for release Oct. 21st, probably should mention that in a video.

I'm okay with the design, But it did have some glaring bugs like missing faces/textures, malformed physics objects, computer in water puzzle bugged when viewing status, missing water, ... So maybe a bit more rushed/unpolished than some other spaces, IMO anyway.

In the UP Plus it was an option to kill the werewolf in one on one combat if that is something you might be interested in. I've done it a few times to see what it was like. I assume it still is an option in Plus but it has been a while since I have played Plus. Regardless, installing an older UP (mine was v10.8) is always an option if something has changed in newer versions.

Very good, I didn't really think about that. When I made this video it was to promote alternate solutions to some of the challenges as well as the idea that getting through doesn't have to be some horrible arduous effort. The "normal" solution is to run across to the ladder near the switch panel and simply climb back up.

Thanks for the comment. I think it kind of depends on the player. I've always been more of a total package kind of player. But it did take me watching some other players build incredible characters around melee for me to start appreciating melee centric characters. For example watching some of the any% speedruns they dispatch Ming in a matter of seconds by coordinating use of melee and magic: ruclips.net/video/dwUg4OXVid4/видео.html I think the most fun I had with melee character was a Ventrue, as they can be made virtually impervious to damage and just slice and dice everything. Beyond that I feel that it is my responsibility to make the most out of the character I have, even if it might not turn out exactly like I might have wanted. I've even made several videos on this topic. For example: I let the computer select the clan and spend all the XP and it choose Malkavian and built a very credible ranged centric character named Moris. The combined battles with Ming and Sherriff took about 3 minutes ranged. But what would happen if I took Moris and did the same battles melee only? Well it took me about twice as long, or 6 minutes, but for me that is still completely respectable and fun: ruclips.net/video/-MvJjQ-6LrI/видео.html As far as janky I don't really choose to see it that way. I see it more like racing a vintage car. Yes the car does have some very different control inputs and overall feel to it. As well as some limitations. However, I see it as my job to recognize those differences and limitations and adapt my racing style around those things. When I do that well the car is perfectly capable, fast, and enjoyable. I have played some games where I haven't been able to figure out a way around the quirks in the mechanics, so that wasn't enjoyable, but VTMB has never been like that for me.

I think that is the first I've heard that opinion, but I like it.

Morris was really fine and fun, wish I had recorded the entire playthrough. Best wishes for Malk Gibson run!

@MikeRobertsGaming lmao finished it few days ago. Think my next one would be Malk Brooks

Thanks, I think I'm doing ok. Hope you are also finding yourself well. Ever put off calling someone for so long it became an embarrassment? Then it became a double jeopardy circle, more embarrassing feeds into procrastination... which feeds back into more embarrassment... That's sort of how I feel about my procrastination in starting a video series I've been planning for a few months now. I'm sure I'll break the cycle and start any day now! 😉

@@MikeRobertsGaming Breaks are good, we never expect content. Just good to know you're out there still grinding

Thanks for the comment. I believe you mean the Two Brothers Salvage quest. I always liked that quest but it can be quite buggy! I did make a video about some of the bugs: ruclips.net/video/_Dq3dTaqAgA/видео.html I also made a video showing one of my favorite solutions: ruclips.net/video/FWtwvnwk1zk/видео.html I probably also recorded that quest in some of my playthroughs but offhand I'm not sure which playthroughs or episodes. For example, in the Boris the Toreador playthrough it was Part 9 meeting VV and Flynn: ruclips.net/video/ABijr1487o8/видео.html

@@MikeRobertsGaming Oh the game was buggy as much as I loved it. Back in the day bug fixes were released by coders who played the game and so you had to know where to get them. Sadly the company wasn't as good in this area to the point they just gave up and so all we had to rely on was the fan zone for fixes. Not the one I was thinking of it was on the beach scene that I was thinking of. The skinhead vamp with a rather submissive attitude,

​@@Dermacrosis Ah, thanks for pointing this out. I probably would not have thought of that quest with Julius the thin-blood. In retrospect, I suppose that you were commenting on a SM beach scene video should have been a big clue. I have fallen into a rather lazy groove of killing Julius without ever talking to him as I know I'll always kill Julius anyway. ruclips.net/video/ABijr1487o8/видео.html When asked: "You know a David Hatter?" Julius responds: "[Nervous, guilty]Nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-no. . ." so I know that he is a liar and consequently I can't have any faith in anything more he says. We also should know that he is lying if the voice actor has done a good job as the parts in brackets are the acing directing notes for the VA. Meaning the player is meant to know that Julius is lying and not just confused by the delivery the VA gives for Julius lines. Which is also a reason to play without subtitles (if possible) as they tend to distract the player from those types of nuanced VA deliveries that can be critical to understanding the game direction Troika intended. Sometimes subtitles are necessary, such as when I watch a movie that is not in English. Not trying to say "play without subtitles" trying to convey reasons I think Troika intended and wished for the player to play without subtitles as much as possible when they originally made the game.

@@MikeRobertsGaming Thank you for the name as I could never remember it, that may be rather telling about how important in the story line I considered him. When I ended up in the beach and had to choose to let him live or end him at that point I tended to allow him to escape. I had to deal with him later and it was "I let you live now run away". The biggest glitch to me in this wonderful game, was that even when you made it to the rub to escape the underground cave it glitched and then crashed. For some weird reason I always preferred to play the house of nosferatu character. If only the game hadn't been so rushed it could have gone further.

I've never thought to try that, guess I'm more of a vegan vampire, kill as few things as possible, even the rats are off limits 😀

Beats me, my first time I ran around terrified. I actually remember my mouse hand started to shake after a while of running away.

Here's hoping the rest of your playthrough goes smoothly!

Thanks... I think 😀

To me this section of the game is a reflection of the heart and soul of the game. Which is in the "special routes" and figuring out their meaning. In this case these sections represent two things, the "special route puzzles" get progressively more abstract and difficult to understand with each section, and it "should" be a wakeup call to players about what is to come. Meaning when given the opportunity to restock it is going to be advisable to restock. It even follows the same timing as the final section of the game where the player has two opportunities to exit/restock. In the final section these two opportunities are during the taxi rides, and in these sewer sections it is the two opportunities to exit through the offices into Hollywood. The idea of the special routes/puzzles getting progressively more abstract and difficult to understand is consistent throughout the game and is not only mirrored as a microcosm in these sewer sections, but also in Mitnick's missions where he even mentions in emails the difficulty changing from "This one should be easy." to "Work the problem.". However, I also understand that this idea of complexity and re-playability is something from the past because it was something valued by players from then. Where for a lot of players today it isn't valued, or even noticed. Same with the expectation that things are not worth doing unless there is some reward for doing it. Like most things in life I think it just hinges on how a person want's to approach things and what attitudes they harbor. There is a TON of complexity in VTMB for players who want to embrace it and for players not interested, these complexities don't exist. I've probably played the original game/my SMP over 150 times and two days ago I discovered something new in the first sewer section I never noticed before! that made my jaw drop and my face smile like silly. So cool, the reason I still love this game.

Yea planned but no ETA, I've been procrastinating on it for a few weeks now!

Thanks, wow video was from two years ago, seems like lifetimes ago. I had to re-watch the episode to refresh on what was going on in it. Watching the Romero zombie gate quest was really enjoyable as there were some parts that I thought were done quite well. It is funny how that happens. For example rereading books or re-watching movies, how I key in on different points, I suppose depending on what is most important to me at that particular time. I was aware that crouching had some impact on the head runners attack. However, I didn't investigate what was involved since it wasn't something I was ever interested in using in my own playing. As far as left arm and attack range being shorter, if you mean head claw guy I do suppose that makes sense. Regardless, it is another thing I never thought about or looked into so thanks for sharing.

Fast and pretty, just like a sports car, I approve 😀

Easy to answer. To investigate this I went around selling and buying back several items not on the vendor list from all the vendors under different conditions. For example, changing a map, doing a quest, just spending time in the game, etc. What I found is that there is no consistency between vendors, items, or conditions. However, the even more serious result was that doing this kind of selling and buying eventually crashed the game. I would expect it to be obvious but I'll state it anyway, for items on the vendor list the results are rock solid. Conclusion, items on the vendor list are, rather obviously, intended. For items not on the vendor list, those are not intended and even worse will eventually crash the game, so a serious bug. Which is why my Standard Mod Patch has a fix for that serious bug... which also incidentally prevents the skill book exploit. Originally the fix for skill books was the same as for all other non-vendor items. If you sell it it is gone, which I think is fair and reasonable result, especially in a WoD setting. However, there was a lot of push back based on the idea that "Oh I sold it by mistake so I should be able to get it back!". I relented and made that a feature for books and other non-vendor items that are needed for quests that a player might accidentally sell. Which technically reintroduces the chance for the player to crash the game selling and buying back those items. But I was never able to crash the game with just one or two cycles of selling, buying back... and I do think there is some merit to the "accidentally sold an item" story so I'm okay with that risk. Where my change in the SMP is a bug fix, for the version I made for the UP they made me remove all the bug fix code. The only part they wanted was the code to remove the skill book exploit. I was also required to change my implementation from a robust single point of failure design to a rather clunky design that relies on Python scripts and introduces over a 100 points of failure. I'm not sure if people can grasp the difference that those are wildly different designs, implementations, and purpose between the SMP fix and the UP exploit plug. For the person playing the game, none of this matters. The reason I'm covering it is because the topic has come up several times and I feel like the only change players have experience with is the one in the UP, which they think is a "bad" change... and I fully agree with that, on way more levels than even they might consider/know. But the customer is always right and I delivered what the UP wanted even though it is something that would never be acceptable in any of my development.

@@MikeRobertsGaming hm. I think i get where u are coming from. I recently tried the bloodlines xtreme mod and found out that some vendors will not be able to sell ur stuff back to you. Trip on the other hand can. Exactly as u pointed out. I personly feel rebuying the books in Santa Monica enhances the playing expierience while rebuying the higher books diminish it. 12 points in the first hub is a lot to put in our social skills :). Thank you for all ur videos and your SMP. All of this helped to understand more of vtmb.

@@grimdawn9843 Thanks for the encouraging words, I appreciate it.

Thanks for the comment. However, I don't quite understand. Getting Vision of Death doesn't, change the affects of, or alter the ability of the player to use Mass Hallucination. It should work in the exactly the same way as before getting Vision of Death, meaning just as in the video. If it doesn't, then it is an issue with the patch you are using. In any case this video is recorded using my Standard Mod Patch, as noted in the description. Mass Hallucination is working as it should, and the hiding in the corner strategy is not working as that has been patched in my SMP as well.

@@MikeRobertsGaming wait I thought Vision of death over writes the Mass Hallucination. Lemme check that first thanks for the insight. Also the hiding in corner did work in my version meaning what have I installed? And I really don't like that method

@@850Tech I could only guess what patch you have but probably some version of the Unofficial Patch since GOG comes pre-installed with that. It is also pretty much universally recommended. There is also a large cult following surrounding the Unofficial Patch so it can be tricky to get unbiased and truthful info on patch options. EDIT: from main menu if you open Options and look under Gameplay it will show patch/mod name being used. If there is no Gameplay tab or it says Game Mod Loader then you are not using any patch/mod. In my SMP README file I do try and outline the strengths and weakness for all the different options. And for a lot of people I will recommend the Unofficial Patch. The UP and my SMP are about as far apart in philosophy, design and execution as possible so I do want players to get the patch I think will give them the most enjoyment.

Thanks for the question, the player gets nothing. The little ones you are meant to fight as they are fast and will not give up on chasing the player. The player is not meant to fight the big ones directly. They are slow and will give up following the player after a time. So, the player can safely just run past them. The big spider chick is also nearly blind, and completely blind in less well lit areas, which is why the corridors alternate between well lit and dark. It is a game mechanic for the player to discover and exploit. There are also other environmental tricks and exploits throughout the map... but I leave that as an exercise for the player.

@@MikeRobertsGaming ahhhh I see thank you for the response. Yeah those spider ladies gave up after 5 seconds of chasing me it's funny. Totally skipped over the boss battle and just ran into the wall to get to the next stage. Remember spending hours in the sewers when I first played this as a kid lol.

As someone who cleaned the whole place out, I can answer that the only thing you get is sadistic satisfaction

I'm not aware of any mods that do that but I think some of the follower frameworks like AFT can do something like this. I don't use any follower framework mods myself, or hardly any mods... not even an unofficial patch. However, from the description: "AFT includes 3 configurable outfits ... a standard list, an in-city list and an in-home list."

Thanks.

My pleasure, thanks for the support.

Thanks for the support!

Thanks, welcome to my journey of ignorance. So many things I didn't understand/misinterpreted way back when this video was made. But I suppose any journey worth taking starts with a single step from ignorance.

I thank you and Moris thanks you: ruclips.net/video/CufMaxdj9Dk/видео.html

Yea I think every character except Nos can talk to him.

I like fashion, fashion seems good :)

@@MikeRobertsGaming Lol. English phrase meaning not exactly but sort of/good enough

Thank you, sometimes the most simple direct solution is useful :)

Thanks, I've done that jump successfully quite a few times, even put it on video at least once, ruclips.net/video/TZzI1PWkHbE/видео.html So it does feel like a little bit of a failure to me but I actually like to have such "failures" in videos just to show no console funny business is going on. For example, in the video I linked above I purposely ran past those two thugs at the end to take some damage just to show that there wasn't any console funny business. Normally I would go around the other side of the train and jump up on the platform to avoid taking damage from those last two thugs.

​@@MikeRobertsGaming I mean that even though there were no real consequences (they didn't lower the shutters, etc.) the guy also shouted out in the video you linked, which means he saw you. I was mostly playing UP, so that would have failed the undetected criterion for me. I know in the end I gave myself 10 sneaking just to see if it was possible at all, but he always saw. I guess it's the jumping that breaks the sneaking, at least it breaks Obfuscate 2 as well, so that's my best guess. With the soda can, I threw it in the corner, dropped down behind the guy from the locomotive sneaking and went up the ladder. Then again, most of the time I just hit him with Trance, or the equivalent, this is for Brujah and Toreador only. I appreciate you keep "mistakes" in your videos, and also the approach you take with your level of attention to detail and focusing on exploration and subtleties.

@@_Toro_Toro Pretty funny, the video I linked was the same character but I linked the wrong video... so much for attention to detail! :) ruclips.net/video/oHCVbXTd36Q/видео.html

@@MikeRobertsGaming Ah, ok! :) Nice jump, I myself never managed to pull it off!

Thank you. That is an interesting idea as I've never thought about it in those terms. One thing I love about the original game is how consistently the design is executed... in my opinion anyway. What I mean is the special routes are based on the player being observant and solving increasingly complex puzzles to understand where they are and how to effectively benefit from them. And several bosses are designed in this same way, with increasingly complex puzzles to solve that provide some "benefit" in the fight with them. Going back to Brother Kanker, which is one of the "simplest" special routes and the "trick" to fighting him is also very simple, as well as being tied to the special route itself. Or jumping forward to Bach, the "trick" to fighting him is understanding his teleport-immunity cycles and exploiting that to your advantage. So a lot of the bosses do have "tricks or exploits" that can be discovered by the observant and puzzle solving inclined players. The difficulty is that for players who can not, or do not want to try to, discover the special routes and how they work... special routes do not exist and all they get is endless combat... Which is almost all players going by how prevalent the sentiment is that as the game progresses it devolves into combat only. Because the boss exploits are designed and executed in the same way as the special routes, all these same players will probably also be unable or unwilling to discover, understand, benefit from the boss exploits.

​@@MikeRobertsGaming Makes sense, thank you! I also gave it some thought and realized that most bosses respond well to Dementation (level 3) and Animalism (level 5) in particular, so there is some sneaky clan bonus too. Good point about Brother Kanker, I just recently discovered those valves (after I already beat him and was just looking around). But you are right, I played this game for an eternity (on and off) and I was amazed watching your videos, I never knew the cafeteria statue could be scaled, or never even seriously considered sneaking through the Golden Temple, for example. Or jumping on the box and over the fence and circling back out of the warehouse. I think part of it is that especially in the late game my character is always so powerful that even if the game throws a dozen enemies at it, (any of which could have been a proper bossfight in Santa Monica), I can hadle them pretty easily, so I was never forced to sneak around. Like with 10-11 defense I can pretty much stand there while 5 guys with sword give the air a good slashing around me. Then after the 10th - 20th run one just doesn't really keep looking for new ways/routes. Anyway, I wanted to say thanks again, it brought back good memories when I realized that I had also discovered in my first few games all those years ago that if I drop down the vent in the clinic I end up in the room with Malcom's key behind the morgue doors. Only I forgot it since, because I kept doing a "more optimal" route. But your video gave back that feeling of discovery and wonder I felt then. Also I forgot about the half ladder in the warehouse, never figured that one out. I'm really happy you made these videos, thank you!

Yea I think it's a tricky thing to try and understand what the game culture and expectations were in a previous era and put it into perspective relative to the current standards and expectations. And as you say, regardless of all that it is still a fun game!

It does seem like a game that keeps drawing players back.

You know you want to play one more time :)

Time to do your high intimidation tremere build

@@SerfsUp1848 High intimidate low humanity always good for some fun.

Yea I think it kind of depends on what patch you are using, some of the UP seem to have tried to increase NPC stealth detection. But getting past that first container drop down can be tough either way depending on your character build. One thing to notice is that there is a monkey wrench on that container that player is meant to throw to distract that first NPC. And again, how well this works depends on the patch you are using. In the original game, and my Standard Mod Patch, works well enough but the timing is kind of funky, have to wait a good bit for NPC to respond.

I do like your style!

The formatter I used was from SDK v1.93 which should be included in some UP if you install the Patch Extras. The question is which UP has SDK v1.93? I doubt it is that important, you probably just need one from before the changes were made. You can download the old UP versions from The Patches Scrolls website. My best guess is to try UP 10.8 or 10.9 as I don't think Wesp documented anywhere which SDK is in which UP. I know in the release notes for UP 11.0 it says "Updated the SDK and Game Mod Launcher" but again doesn't document what was updated... unfortunate.

Thank you very, very much! Luckily the SDK has a readme that includes a much more specific (And dated!) changelog, so I was able to track down the original formatter in 10.9 and it works! (After a bit of shuffling and re-naming of course) I'm still not sure why the newer one doesn't work for me, but at least I have something that does now. Thank you again for the info, I've been struggling with this for about a week and was about to just give up and wait until a fix might come out

Yea that's a thought. I think Chunk is such a great foil for LaCroix though. They seem like a perfect match. Chunk's incompetence to LaCroix's arrogance.

I didn't really have that experience with either this fight or the rest of the game. First time I played the game I felt the game did a fairly good job of informing me of what "the plan" was and I just followed "the plan". When I got to this fight I had ranged maxed out and the "best" gun for this fight. Up to Society of Leopold I thought guns were useless, but SOL reversed all that for me! When I got to Ming the fight took less than one minute to finish. But I did die 4 or 5 times perfecting my execution. Still, even including my deaths the entire process may have taken less than 10 minutes. I'm willing to accept, even enthusiastically embrace, the game design philosophy where following "the plan" is rewarded and going off plan usually means complications. I do understand some players reject this idea and think an RPG "should, or must," be designed in a different way or it is "wrong, or "broken". My personal preference is to try and understand things as they are, or wish to be, and try not to judge them by some preconceived idea of what I think they should be. Everyone to their own though.

Ha, ha, did you suck up to him and stroke his ego at every opportunity :) Kidding aside, Max can give unique apt for Tremere and Gary unique apt for Nos. So if playing those clans, Tremere or Nos., LaCroix won't give the Skyline apt... at least not without a mod for that.

@@MikeRobertsGaming oh i see i got the tremere apartment but i didnt trust the guy so i never use it make sense

@@MikeRobertsGaming kidding also aside, one of the major ways is not to massacre the humans on the Dane or in the museum, so I don't really get why people think LaCroix is the worst just bc he's super femme. Smiling Jack is a dickhead manipulator of the highest order, it's so weird to me.