-
The actual choice that you are looking for is “I confront Partridge about his perfidy.” There are a couple of prerequisites to unlock this choice:
…* notice_partridge_betrayal must be set (duh)
…* You must be able to speak English (also duh)
…* Your independence score must be greater than 70 (almost certain to have this)
…* Your discretion score must be greater than 35 (also almost a gimme)
…* To make the choice actually WORK (e.g. give you the big reveal) you must be able to corner Partridge /after/ choosing the option. To do this, you need one of the following:
…* Status 3 or greater OR
…* Willpower 3 or greater OR
…* Agility 4 or greater OR
…* Stealth 3 or greater -
Having met all of the above requirements all will be revealed – and one of the other senator’s will promise to “take care of the problem” for the next election. Unhappily, there IS no next election, so…
@ jasonstevanhill: Concur with @Dominic: Currently, you can’t get the refinement bonus if you get the random_bump, and there is no way to avoid getting the random_bump, and believe me, I tried – it would be somewhat helpful when you are trying to get the Status bumped up to 4 at the start of Part 2 (which requires Creation 3 during the meeting with the Governor), although to REALLY be helpful the first option needs to be “Learn to speak English” rather than “Learn to read and write”… 
Given that the game assumes that all writing is in English, it really would be more appropriate to have “Learn to speak English” as the first option. The downside, though, is that this really eliminates one of the major drawbacks of choosing certain backgrounds (especially the Spanish only background that is required to get Creation 3 at the start).
mreed, it wouldn’t particularly matter which one is listed first - it picks one of the nine randomly, and if you already have whatever it’s trying to give you, it moves on to the next.
I haven’t yet gotten around to playing the released version of the game, but I played the alpha version extensively, and I’m disappointed to read that the two issues I considered most serious back in November:
- The lack of a sense of accomplishment since nothing you do appears to matter or make a meaningful difference, and
- The insufficient stat points to meet the skill checks,
are still present. I was seriously hoping they’d been addressed.
@Dominic @mreed you are correct. I instituted the random_bump variable to prevent a bug that allowed players to view the stat screen repeatedly and thereby get the refinement bump more and more times. But you are correct, there needs to be an additional “*set random_bump false” in there. Thanks for pointing that out!
@mreed never played with source codes so, which program do you actually need (also, how do you get the URL connected to each page?)
@jasonstevanhill, thanks for your considerations on my criticisms! I’m glad to help where I can! I’ll look again the chapter and try to get some inspiration and ideas.
@dominic, about the refreshment stuff, yes, that can be, but still, everything’s so hidden and falls out of the blue, so that it seems you don’t have to control. It is not that easy, a priori, to understand if you (your character) is actually good at getting the refreshment, so accepting to help looks like a jump into the dark, while I’m sure that a real person/vampire would know more or less 1) if he’s capable and 2) in any case where to look according to his capabilities.
In the CoV 1 in many options you could see the list of possibilities (including some you couldn’t do that could have given you a hint), here it really looks you’re proceeding blind.
The source code is just plain text, so any text editor will work. I used notepad++; it’s useful for a lot of things.
Regarding the refreshments thing - I don’t personally consider it to be that big a deal (though I was admittedly a bit miffed when my combat-capable character didn’t quite meet the requirements to pull it off), but I suppose one possible solution would be to have a subchoice there to ask you how you intend to do it, with choices greyed out if you don’t meet the requirements for them. It would lend a bit of definition on the off-chance that you qualify for multiple methods, as well as allowing the player to see approximately the kind of capabilities they would need to pull it off, and offer up an ‘out’ when you realize that you aren’t really able to do it. “On second thought, I’m not sure I’m capable of gathering a full herd of mortals together.”
@Dominic following an email from a player, what I’m doing is allowing Stealth to lower the combat check.
The same individual pointed out that you should be able to use Shapeshifting >= 2 to stop Wilson/Hugh on his horse at the very end. Another noteworthy addition.
Ok, I’ve uploaded a new version of CoV to the web. Please take a look if you have a moment. In particular, if you’ll check my work on equaling-out characters (given my rating of points).
@jasonstevanhill I was just playing CoV Part 1 online and so far, I’m liking the new update. I found it slightly easier to be the favorite child of New Orleans by the 1820’s which is a blessing considering the few times we have to improve our relationships with our Maker, Jesse, and Estefania. I also thought the stats upgraded a bit more than before. I’m going to play again with different characters to see how it really works. Should I try with different makers? I usually use Van der Ahe (seeing as he seems canon).
A bug I have found earlier and was hoping would be fixed is in chapter 2 in Vicksburg. Playing as a female creole, I tried to romance Silas (I also romanced Clotho). I ask him when we first meet all the questions such as “what are you playing”, “Do you find it odd one such as I am watching you train?” (which never goes away after you choose it), and “What is your name?”, etc. He comes back and then he tells me the poem. I have high intelligence,3, and so I ask “who you believe the father of my reflections should be”, and then we have a long conversation, but there is no mention of us breaking up or anything and when I click the ‘Next’ button it’s suddenly the siege! @_@ The rest of the romance with Silas is skipped completely!
Could you take a look at this? Thanks.
@Dominic Thanks for explaining Hubris for me! You’re the best! I’ll be sure to keep an eye on it in the future and just do something a little not so nice before the confronting Sam scene.
\*SPOILERS\*
@mreed Thank you so much for posting that tutorial! I was able to get the scene figuring out why the election was going nowhere with a Willpower of 3. I tried to follow your direction for getting rid of Pickering, but I never can find the option to out him to Lockridge. I only see an option to make his Freemason association known and when I do that Lockridge and Coffins go to defend him by sitting next to him.
@jammy one of my coworkers had me working on that section about a month ago, and you’re totally right: in one particular instance (black/creole/choctaw female), the game doesn’t trigger the love_hope flag. Thank you for catching that!
@jasonstevanhill No problem!
Jason:
Given your rating of points, the character backgrounds all appear to be approximately equal, now. Latin, I take it, is not being treated as a ‘point,’ as the two backgrounds that have it also have bonuses summing to 7 instead of 6. The only minor inconsistency I see is that all the backgrounds receive either a high initial wealth bonus of 40,000 or a low bonus of 2,500 - save for the priest background, which receives no wealth bonus whatsoever. Perhaps intended, but I’m leaning towards that being a mistake, as even the slave background begins with the low bonus.
I would say, though, that I still don’t entirely endorse that method of valuation, given that it puts equal weights on all (non-Latin) languages, when the practical utility is incredibly divergent. Going without English is a severe handicap in the story, while the other languages come up only for brief little bonus snippets, like giving a +5% rapport with Rios. Backgrounds like Irish and Yankee are therefore advantaged over those like German and FPoC. Not to a severe enough extent that it’s necessarily a problem, but the mechanical benefit is real.
Jammy: While overtly “not nice” things often increase hubris, it doesn’t really mean being cruel or violent. Speaking up against the KKK also increases hubris, for example, as does being truthful with Estafania when you’re asked about your goals and feeding habits.
@Dominic Okay, I gotcha. Thanks for the clarification. The only characters that I managed to learn all four languages is a creole. Do you know if these languages are going to come into play later? English is a VERY big part of the game later on whereas French seems to be important in New Orleans.
Is everyone expect Slaves and Priest suppose to get 40,000 bonus now?
@jasonstevanhill I wanted to show you how one of my playthroughs ended. Why is it saying that I couldn’t find Wilson in part 1 and that Apollo did when it’s impossible to find Wilson in part 1? Also I was favorite child of NO before I left and yet my maker doesn’t bring me up in conversation and Estefania is not my eternal best friend like Jesse is? Shouldn’t all of them love me? And if we chose to say that “Stone has done us all a favor” shouldn’t it say we have at least sympathies for Stone instead of “you had yet to take a real stand…” And it’s saying I already fled Memphis? And Cairo? O_o
Thanks ahead of time if you could take a look at this.
\*Below is what my endgame looked like.\*
Vampire Name: Lisette Rillieux
Dominus: Pieter Van der Ahe
Choice of Prey: Vegetarian
Final Income: 28
Final Wealth: 169375
You had yet to take a real stand on the matter of Consul Stone’s revolution.
The name of your dominus was Pieter Van der Ahe. He is alive, and probably doesn’t bring you up in conversation very much.
Jesse Whitaker was your broodmate. Your devotion to Jesse knew no bounds. News of your “retirement” is greeted with great sorrow by your elder broodmate.
Estefania Rios e Hidalgo was an acquaintance. The two of you were on friendly terms. She no doubt speaks highly of you when your name is brought up in conversation. You sought the vampire Wilson Maddox in Memphis. He was the offspring of Samantha Withers. But you failed to subdue him. Apollo Carothers had to do it for you.
You fled Memphis, still in possession of your limbs and your faculties. Leaving Cairo behind, you look forward to the next few decades with great anticipation.
No, the high wealth starts are French landowners, southern women, spanish craftsmen, and yankee entrepreneurs (If chosen for desire). The rest are low, 2500.
Also, there are five languages - English, Spanish, French, German, and Latin. Since German is the only one that can’t be learned in-game, that means that only the German background allows a true polyglot. I’m pretty sure it would work, anyway. Have Estafania teach you Spanish, then get exiled from New Orleans during the meeting with Overstreet by frenzying on Jesse. A man in Karlstein can teach you French. Choose to pick up Latin in a timeskip, and you can learn English the same way, or have Samantha teach you.
Actually, while I’m on the topic of Karlstein. This is a very minor complaint, and probably nothing you want to fiddle with while you’re revising Fall of Memphis, but one thing that always bothers me is how Anselm stays pointlessly behind to be murdered by the mob. Having him stay with you as you go to Vickburg would be an unreasonable headache, I’m sure, but it would soothe my spirit if you could at least order him to flee as well, and/or give him a chunk of cash to set up a new life elsewhere. And of course, you could still order him to guard your retreat, to give the same outcome as currently occurs.
I have a question when choosing to head up further up the lake and live in that town. And you deal with the priest I forget which one, but how do you get the option to say ‘if you host an evening mass, you may see me there?’ The choice is always greyed out for me.
It’s only possible if you’re less than 60% superstitious. Your reaction as a vampire to what you might call religious defenses (being on holy ground, being presented with the cross) is determined by your own level of rationalism; if you’re a skeptic, you can largely do as you will, but if you’re superstitious, you will be repelled by the cross and unable to enter churches and such.
edit: I forgot, the man from whom you meet Clotho can also teach you french, as long as you don’t already have English. That’s probably easier than getting yourself exiled and going to St. Charles.