Vampire: Bloodlines Impressions?

[Kevin Grey]

How do you initiate the Lily thin-blood quest? I talked to the guy down at the beach and listened to his sob story but nothing has come up in my queest log.

If I recall, after having a conversation with him, he recommends you go to the diner to find out more about thin-bloods. I think the quest trigger was to either ask him about thin-bloods or about Lily. I can't actually remember which. Hope that helps ya

Yeah, I checked out the diner but didn't turn up any clues.

[mr.white]

I can relate. I almost quit the game in the sewers myself. There's a few more areas that evoke the same feeling(combat that just goes on and on and on) but I think they are slightly shorter. Not 100% sure though, I got bored easier when my character was a good enough fighter to breeze through everything.

All in all it's a typical troika game. Interesting in many ways but you have to be willing to overlook a lot of serious problems.

BTW Linoleum - thanks for pointing that out! Worked like a charm :)

[Mark Asher]

I've wandered the goddamn maze, I've killed more than my fair share of infinitely spawning monsters, I killed the three torso thing and I am fucking finished thinking about this. It's a sewer maze! A SEWER MAZE that I have been in FOR HOURS! Worst shit ever.

I think every game that has any kind of puzzle should also have the puzzle solution available to players at any time. I don't mind puzzles, but if I can't figure one out after several tries, give me solution! Don't waste my time anymore.

[Contrai]

How do you initiate the Lily thin-blood quest? I talked to the guy down at the beach and listened to his sob story but nothing has come up in my queest log.

If I recall, after having a conversation with him, he recommends you go to the diner to find out more about thin-bloods. I think the quest trigger was to either ask him about thin-bloods or about Lily. I can't actually remember which. Hope that helps ya

Yeah, I checked out the diner but didn't turn up any clues.

Did you speak to the old lady at the diner? She should be the one who gives you your next clue. If she doesn't say anything, I think its cause the game hasn't flagged that as a quest for you or because of maybe a bug or whatever.

[Contrai]

double post...edited out

[NuclearWinter]

Sneaking through those sewers was pretty easy even with my rather low 4 stealth. Those tzimisce flesh creatures are pretty blind and retarded, don't think I had to fight any of them. Only time I couldn't sneak past one of them I just ran past and they gave up pretty fast.

[Kalle]

Hmm, I fought all the flesh creatures except for the very last one. Wasn't that hard, except that as a Ventrue the only source of blood I had was my blood bags since I couldn't feed on the rats. Still, Suicide worked pretty well on even the biggest monsters.

[Kevin Grey]

How do you initiate the Lily thin-blood quest? I talked to the guy down at the beach and listened to his sob story but nothing has come up in my queest log.

If I recall, after having a conversation with him, he recommends you go to the diner to find out more about thin-bloods. I think the quest trigger was to either ask him about thin-bloods or about Lily. I can't actually remember which. Hope that helps ya

Yeah, I checked out the diner but didn't turn up any clues.

Did you speak to the old lady at the diner? She should be the one who gives you your next clue. If she doesn't say anything, I think its cause the game hasn't flagged that as a quest for you or because of maybe a bug or whatever.

Shit, I'm guessing its a bug. I talked to her but don't remember anything significant in her comments and now when I try to talk to her the only option I get is "I guess you don't serve my kind here." What was the clue she provided?

[Quaro]

It looks like you didn't trigger the Lily quest while talking to the guy on the beach. 'look into thin bloods' should show up on the quest log, with a tip that 'it might be a good place to start at the diner'. The quest doesn't specifically mention Lily at that point, except in his story.

[Contrai]

How do you initiate the Lily thin-blood quest? I talked to the guy down at the beach and listened to his sob story but nothing has come up in my queest log.

If I recall, after having a conversation with him, he recommends you go to the diner to find out more about thin-bloods. I think the quest trigger was to either ask him about thin-bloods or about Lily. I can't actually remember which. Hope that helps ya

Yeah, I checked out the diner but didn't turn up any clues.

Did you speak to the old lady at the diner? She should be the one who gives you your next clue. If she doesn't say anything, I think its cause the game hasn't flagged that as a quest for you or because of maybe a bug or whatever.

Shit, I'm guessing its a bug. I talked to her but don't remember anything significant in her comments and now when I try to talk to her the only option I get is "I guess you don't serve my kind here." What was the clue she provided?

She'll give you three items, a picture of Lily, a bail bond and keys to a car. Try going back and speaking to the guy again and see if you can maybe get the quest triggered.

[Sharpe]

Angie -- if you are at the room where you fight the 3 torso monster and there's a ladder and catwalk and stuff I can tell you how to proceed. It got me stuck too for a while. On the back wall are some barrels - move them and you will see a ledge. You have to walk along the ledge, go past the waterfall and you end up going down a big chute.

Then you have to jump past a spinning fan blade (yay! a maze PLUS jumping puzzle) and THEN you have another frigging maze with torso creatures - finally after that you find the Nosferatu lair.

In the context of a good, intriguing game, this is one of the worst maze/jumping BS levels evar :(.

Dan

[noun]

Heh, I can answer that one, I tried hard to fix that one when I was working on the code, but Valve just didn't have it working in the Source engine yet. I suspect by the time they did, it was far too late to try to merge in the relevant changes.

Ouch, really? Does that mean the majority of the engine bugs are Valve's fault, and you can't make a patch to address it until they do? I installed Catalyst 4.11 drivers last night and it didn't make any difference in performance, so I hope whatever the problem is gets fixed soon.

I finished Santa Monica last night and just reached downtown. I'm still enjoying the game very much, but I haven't reached the section that's frustrating Angie. I'll report back when I do. :)

[Angie Gallant]

Oh, Vision of Death works A-OK on stuff down there, there's just precious few places to get back my blood. Feeding on rats is slow AND tedious. There's really just no excuse for this section being as long as it is. I already killed the damn Tzimisce, there should not be places where new monsters spawn. If I decide to clear a section of sewer it should stay clear.

[Kevin Grey]

She'll give you three items, a picture of Lily, a bail bond and keys to a car. Try going back and speaking to the guy again and see if you can maybe get the quest triggered.

Shit, defiinitely looks like a bug. I tried to talking to the guy multiple times but I'll try again.

[Linoleum]

Ouch, really? Does that mean the majority of the engine bugs are Valve's fault, and you can't make a patch to address it until they do? I installed Catalyst 4.11 drivers last night and it didn't make any difference in performance, so I hope whatever the problem is gets fixed soon.

I would describe the resolution thing as a very annoying limitation rather than a bug. I doubt there are any engine bugs that I'd blame Valve for personally. Due to the nature of its development, Vampire might be a bit more prone to compatibility problems than HL2, but that's a general problem with PC games and a different classification of bugs than game or scripting bugs. I really couldn't speculate as to possible causes of performance problems without knowing more about your system. Thankfully, I'd expect some type of performance tuning and tips guide to spring up from the internet in short order. As for patches, I wrapped up my involvement with Vampire and Troika several months ago, so I'm hardly in tune with the current situation. I'd be surprised if there wasn't a patch, although I'd only expect it to deal with CTD issues and serious scripting bugs, but that's only my opinion.

[Doug Jones]

Ok doesn't look like they have anything up on gamefaqs so tell me, How do you get past that damn electrical level in sewers?

[Lunch of Kong]

I would hazard a guess that all the spelling mistakes in the dialogue are the work of one individual.

Never send a programmer to do a writer's job.

:-)

[Angie Gallant]

Ok doesn't look like they have anything up on gamefaqs so tell me, How do you get past that damn electrical level in sewers?

Get up to the top part and use the computer console to kill the electricity. Then go over to the switch and set it to empty the resevoirs. Once it's fully empty, set it to on, jump over the railing and down to the bottom level, throw yourself into the water and swim up until you have a choice, and go right (I think). You have to do this very fast.

Honestly, when I came up with this solution I thought to myself "God, this is so stupid, they couldn't possibly reasonably expect you to do it" but there you go.

[Kunikos]

Uninstall the game. Seriously, this section is one of the worst "fuck this game" experiences I've ever had.

Eh? I've finished all the way up past the Chinatown section... you really don't want to miss the Hengkyogai (sp?) side quest...

[Kunikos]

Ok doesn't look like they have anything up on gamefaqs so tell me, How do you get past that damn electrical level in sewers?

Look in the *forum* on GameFAQs for Bloodlines for solutions to every thing like this question....

[Kunikos]

Honestly use the spoiler tag people...

<SPOILER ROOM>

Get up to the top part and use the computer console to kill the electricity. Then go over to the switch and set it to empty the resevoirs. Once it's fully empty, set it to on, jump over the railing and down to the bottom level, throw yourself into the water and swim up until you have a choice, and go right (I think). You have to do this very fast.

To further refine this answer:

You can also shoot the little thingies, run across and jump over the section that falls out of the catwalk, pick the lock on the door (diff. 5 or 6 i think?), flip the switch inside to turn off the electricity or go to the terminal and hack it for the XP point and turn off the electricy and water pumps.

Turn the pumps off, wait for the safe light to turn green. Then turn it back on and run for dear life and jump over the railing into the water and swim up the pipe towards the now slowly speeding up fan at the end. Hang a right in the first junction, go down and then up all the way into the next junction and head left (if you see a grate, you are facing the opposite direction). Head towards the inky darkness and it will change maps.

[Angie Gallant]

I went ahead and finished the sewers. I am pissed beyond words that the Nosferatu jackass still wants me to do crap for him.

[Kunikos]

Oh, by the way, hop on IRC and msg me if you get stuck up through and past the Fu Syndicate building in Bloodlines and I can help you out (assuming it's not something specific to other clans, such as Malkavian or Nosferatu "isms"). I'm playing as the Tremere girl, for what it's worth...

[Kunikos]

I went ahead and finished the sewers. I am pissed beyond words that the Nosferatu jackass still wants me to do crap for him.

Heh. Yeah. I wanted to bitchslap him, but I'm guessing Auspex won't let you see where he is even if you have it maxed out... :evil:

[Kunikos]

<SPOILER (about Hollywood area)>















Anyone finish the zombie shoot-out in the graveyard, as opposed to just using persuasion so that you'll bring the caretaker a hooker? I tried it and after the timer runs down there were way too many to get rid of... I realized later on in the game that the melee weapons are surprisingly effective against them (because it sends them flying more often than not, and sometimes insta-kills them)-- I could see a strong character w/ high melee and the fire axe or katana just cleaning their clocks.

[Kunikos]

Oh, Vision of Death works A-OK on stuff down there, there's just precious few places to get back my blood. Feeding on rats is slow AND tedious. There's really just no excuse for this section being as long as it is. I already killed the damn Tzimisce, there should not be places where new monsters spawn. If I decide to clear a section of sewer it should stay clear.

There are also several places where you can exit to the above sewer and go buy some blood packs at the blood bank in Santa Monica. If you are short on cash either:



<SPOILER WARNING>
<spoilers regarding sidequests at various points in game>









1) hit your ghoul up for her tuition money in santa monica at haven

2) collect your share of the money at confession in downtown

3) sell your autographed polaroid of VV -- it's worth a huge chunk of change if you have a maxed out finance! Tseng sure likes it! LOL (he values it for sale at $795)

[Sam Jones]

She'll give you three items, a picture of Lily, a bail bond and keys to a car. Try going back and speaking to the guy again and see if you can maybe get the quest triggered.

Shit, defiinitely looks like a bug. I tried to talking to the guy multiple times but I'll try again.

I haven't ever been able to get the Lily quest from E. It just never appeared in my quest log. Maybe there are some special non-obvious requirements that need to be met, like a specific humanity level.

[Jonathan Blow]

I gave up on this game after hitting another game-stopping bug in the Gratuitous Obstacle Course.

My stance is, I hope now that they have some basic code laid down they make a sequel that is solid and polished and provides a little bit in the way of freedom of choice. But I would not recommend this game to anyone who isn't a total Vampire freak.

It doesn't help that I have Extreme Stuttering Issues on my machine (The same texture upload problem that a lot of people are complaining about with HL2... except I don't have the problem in HL2, only Vampire). Without that I probably would have enjoyed the game somewhat more.

[Kevin Grey]

She'll give you three items, a picture of Lily, a bail bond and keys to a car. Try going back and speaking to the guy again and see if you can maybe get the quest triggered.

Shit, defiinitely looks like a bug. I tried to talking to the guy multiple times but I'll try again.

I haven't ever been able to get the Lily quest from E. It just never appeared in my quest log. Maybe there are some special non-obvious requirements that need to be met, like a specific humanity level.

Judging from comments on the Vampire forum it definitely looks like a bug. Humanity shouldn't be a concern from me- I'm playing a Toreador so my humanity is already pretty high.

[Kunikos]

I gave up on this game after hitting another game-stopping bug in the Gratuitous Obstacle Course.

What, Fu Syndicate? Shoot the boxes behind the whirling blades, or shoot the middle metal part of the lightning rods... ;)

It doesn't help that I have Extreme Stuttering Issues on my machine (The same texture upload problem that a lot of people are complaining about with HL2... except I don't have the problem in HL2, only Vampire). Without that I probably would have enjoyed the game somewhat more.

I get stutter problems sometimes but not very often... try turning down your texture quality from high to medium?