Hey Jason!
Hope you’ve had a pleasant week! I come bearing more screenshots:
Bugs/Continuity Errors:
1. Shepard and Wolf reputation
Okay, I only have this one screenshot of this occurring but I believe the bug happens throughout the first half of Vampire 1 but I am not entirely sure of where specifically. What’s happening is that choices that should be increasing your Shepard reputation is instead raising your Wolf and vice versa. It’s difficult to track because there is no actual number to watch but I’m certain this happening in the screenshot below:
Unfortunately I couldn’t pinpoint the other times I’m just aware that they happen. Not much help I know but just keep an eye out for it when looking at your code
2. Jesse poem mad at non-english speaker
During the governors visit and even before, it’s made clear that Jesse can’t speak to my German character. During this scene, however, my character is able to understand Samantha’s English poem and Jesse is able to confront me with accusations of betrayal despite not sharing a common tongue. You also can’t really be accused of betrayal if you were ignorant of the plot in the first place:
3. Perception after stat increase text missing
When increasing the Perception, right before Vicksburg, there is some after text missing that explains the ability you gained with the stat increase. I’m not sure of the exact wording but it’s something like “you have increased your ability see and hear” or “you can now tell when someone is lying to you”. Sadly no screenshot of this as it just takes you directly into the intro of Vicksburg.
4. Shapeshifting stat and killing Calkins
Great new addition by the way! Unfortunately it doesn’t seem consistent, after a few play throughs I found that characters with a high Hubris and 3 Shapeshifting stat are the only ones that don’t get the claw kill scene:
5. Lore stat 3 Consul and praetors already explained.
After getting a stat increase in lore, there was text explaining what a Consul and praetor is. However when Withers is telling you about the revolution it doesn’t register and she has to explain their roles to me, this also happens with Apollo but I never got the screenshot:
6. Wilson fleeing and lying to Withers
When first turning Wilson, things somehow go wrong and I catch the plague I believe. After a few scenes dealing with that, Wilson flees and I lie to Withers claiming I didn’t succeed in turning him. All of that works fine until the decision to remain in Vicksburg or go. When choosing to remain in Vicksburg it takes me to a scene where you just discover Wilson is gone and it is as if you never lied to Withers at all and she is aware that you succeeded in turning wilson:
7. Seeking out Memphis Quaestor
When first arriving to Memphis without an introduction from Withers, you have the choice to either look for the quaestor or not. Despite choosing to seek out the quaestor and finding Dido, I got this odd dialogue where my character claims he wasn’t looking for him because he felt that he should appear before my Character instead, if he was any good a Quaestor:
8. Avoided all Vampires/Tasked to find Hugh (but was already looking for Wilson)
This character after declining to meet Carothers the first time at his Crapaud den managed to avoid talking to any vampire who had arrived at the city as well. It should be noted that I agreed to search for Wilson as a favor to Withers via letter as well. I believe this led to this scene where I receive a letter from the Quaestor tasking me to find Hugh Gallager:
This also leads up to a continuity error in the scene after dealing with Casey. Normally I would be given the choice of whether to tell Carothers about my findings or not but instead the choice never shows and I go meet him. He talks to me as if I know about the election even though the most I know of it is from the previous letter but it should be noted it correctly registers I am looking for Wilson not Gallager in this scene. However the follow up then goes to a scene where it is as if I never went to see Carothers at all nor do I know anything about the election:
9. High lore and gone to ground before
This character had a lore stat of 3 and had previously gone to ground during the siege of Vicksburg. However in this follow up scene as well the scene when talking to Carothers about what Wilson could mean by saying he was going to ground, it doesn’t register the stat or my previous experience:
10. Pickering at the reception about my Dominus.
This character went to the reception and spoke to Pickering where he mentioned my Dominus had become a praetor which is definitely a mistake since Jesse had told me he’d been removed from his position as Quaestor of New Orleans by a dutch vampire. My dominus was the pirate:
11. Going to Mrs. Thompson trial
Unfortunately I can’t find the screenshot I had of this but this happens when you first encounter Clotho in Memphis. Previously when deciding the reason as to why I was going to the trial, I chose the option to go not with the intention of meeting Clotho for romantic reasons but to gain more intelligence about the Barnum and Thompson affair by using her. However during the trial I am instead completely absorbed in trying to find out who Clotho is and when I do I forget my purpose for being there and do not notice the other speeches being made by Hester Carothers and Minor Merriwhether.
12. Bug
I’m unsure what happened here it just hit bug without any explanation, I played it again and never encountered the bug after many play throughs:
13. Carothers owes me a debt
The screenshot I took of this isn’t helpful because although it happens in the scene where you ask Carothers to repay his debt to you, right after he tries to evict you out of his city, I believe the issue occurs before that.
After many play throughs I found that Carothers does not acknowledge his debt to you if:
-You volunteer to acquire refreshments the during first meeting, right before the reception at his Crapaud den WITHOUT asking for a debt in return. Then in the second meeting, if you choose any of these choices you don’t get the debt owed to you:
- I will offer to acquire the refreshments in exchange for a debt.
- I will proactively make excuses as to why I will be unable to provide the refreshments again; hopefully, he will offer a debt to persuade me to do this himself.
-You DON’T volunteer to acquire refreshments during the first meeting but in the second meeting you choose:
- I will offer to acquire the refreshments in exchange for a debt.
These are the only times I have encountered such a scenario but I can’t say for sure if these are the only times it happens.
Suggestions/Feedback
1 .Opportunity to learn about the effects of stakes
Early in the game you get a chance to attempt to feed on the hero of the battle of New Orleans. This of course ends poorly for you as you get your first real encounter of a stake poised over your heart:
You later get an opportunity to tell your Sire, Jesse or Estefania about the incident during the course of improving your relationship with them and each give their own answers an opinions. I believe this is a good opportunity to allow for a follow up question on what would have happened had he stabbed you with that stake. Of course I’m sure each might have a different degree of knowledge on stakes but I believe at least one of them can provide information that can later be useful when dealing with events in Memphis for example here:
2. New Orleans Enterprise
You already know how I feel about random stat boosts and although this is much different from that it follows the same kind of reasoning where I advocated for complete control on what stats our characters gain or don’t. In this particular scenario my Vampire is native american with 2 lore and is quite rich and I reached the point where I could exchange that wealth for a stat boost:
My first gripe with this is that there is no option to simple not choose any of these. I think some would rather have no stat boost at all than be forced to pick one that doesn’t suit the Vampire created. For example my literate Choctaw Vampire is quite traditional and archaic and has no interest in tech and is incredibly compassionate so committing a crime is out of the question if he can help it. That leaves the option to build a library or patron the arts and the one I wanted is not available I think due to a stat limit of 2. So in the end what started as 4 choices ends up being one for players like me who are sticklers for immersion and that sort of thing.
I would suggest at least increasing the stat limit cap of lore so it is the same as the others because I know my Irish thug vampire managed to increase his streetwise to 3 in another play through, same with creation but haven’t tried it with tech yet.
3.Opportunity to warn Withers
In this scene below I have vampire with 3 perception who is able to detect Calkins lies to Withers during his introduction:
I think you should add a dialogue option about your suspicions of the story he told you. Of course Withers can just dismiss it but I believe it can be a fun and rewarding piece of dialogue specific to highly perceptive Vampires.
4. Opportunity for smart/perceptive/politically savvy(High status) vampires
Right after confronting Partridge over his betrayal and Elinor Harding comes to his defense I think there’s an opportunity here for a Vampire with high enough stats in intelligence, perception or status (maybe even streetwise considering their experience with blackmail) to be able to immediately put together that Elinor is behind Partridges odd behavior. It has always grated me that the responses following this scene when talking to Bailey, Dido etc that I seem bewildered and have no idea what it is that I have uncovered.
5. Minor issue, Gallagher decapitation
Since you included the scene in which you can decapitate Andrew Calkins and you get to see the result of his head turning to ash with just his skull left in place, I believe the experience should dissuade vampires from the same action later when attempting to collect Gallaghers head to return to New York at the end of Memphis.
And that’s all I have for today. I plan on focusing on the chasing Wilson story line after your fixes because I feel as though compared to the election story line it is a bit lacking in the same enjoyment you get from talking to the other vampires at the election or your manipulations as well as a nice story achievement you get by uncovering Hardings plans.
See you again next week maybe!
-Tau
