Ok so now it says that I won, but when I refuse to give the artifact to Amanda, it loops. I don’t know if the other options do that or not.
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I get an endless loop after meeting with Russel at the cemetery.
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@Isabella_Taylor
Oops, that smells like another pathway error. We’ll soon give it a look and fix it. Thanks again!
@Bathala
Do you remember at which point exactly did the loop occur? I’ll revise this scene anyway and look for any choicescript issue. Thanks!
Is it at all possible to survive on the roof with the three hunters? I’ve tried over 9000 times now, relying on my strongest skills, and I always die… 
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You’ll need at least some Physique skill in order to survive it. I think it was about 20 to 25? And even if you’re a Balkian who transmutes and triew to escape, you still need to pass a Physique check to not get shot.
Other than that, I don’t know how you can survive the rooftop encounter.
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@Bathala
I tried to find what is wrong at the end of this scene, but I failed. I’ll wait for @MahatmaDagon (whose choicescript skills are way above mine) to attempt to fix it. Thanks again!
@anon42941526 @AAO
I revised the skill checks on this fight and… well, they were a bit tough, really. I changed some check difficulties to make the fight a bit fairer, especially for characters who don’t have high Physique. Thank you for reporting that 
In my mind, a “boss fight” can be difficult, but it shouldn’t be frustrating.
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I died in the confrontation with Oswald as well. At first I thought that was my maker’s name, but no, that was Ozmund so I was a bit confused, but that’s my own fault for not being able to keep the names straight. 
Somewhat related note, I was a bit surprised at how… fragile these vampires seem to be, and a human being able to kill them with just a knife drives that point home. I suppose it’s for story reasons so it’s not that I object to it, but it was unexpected. (What’s the point of being undead if you still have to fence with practice swords?)
I would say I feel like this as well. My first reaction at seeing the choices of what to do every night come up was “oh, no, don’t tell me this is going to be a resource management game 
,” which in retrospect wasn’t guaranteed.
Some other random (and probably useless) comments:
- The name choices are randomised, aren’t they? That’s curious
(I usually like to keep using the same name for my MC every playthrough so it does inconvenience me a bit, but oh, well 
).
A dark gathering of clouds looms over Mordhaven, and the time to unite the many individuals of our cursed species is nigh.
-
I don’t trust this guy.
Seriously, who begins a letter like that? -
I was a bit surprised that my vamp could see her reflection in the mirror at the very beginning.
Aznuit rhymes with prophecy
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Wait, it does? How?! Can I have a phonetic guide?
-
Besides that, the poem. God, the poem. I feel it’s deserving of being quoted here in its entirety:
Poem
I dreamed I saw on a moonlit stair
Spreading his hands on the multitude there
A man who cried for a love gone stale
And ice cold hearts of charity bareI watched as fear took the old man’s gaze
Hopes of the young in troubled graves
‘I see no day’, I heard him say
So grey is the face of every mortal
No, wait, those are the lyrics to some Queen song. This is the poem:
Aznuit rhymes with prophecy
And these verses one shall beBalkanics, the old blood that flies
Cursed artery that, too, withers and diesNeshmaals differ, for the blood they boil
But they are not above the mortal coilMerovingians, then, infatuate, enrage, and lull
But they only whisper inside a human skullOf the others, we shall not speak
For they are forbidden and antiqueYou may think they do not exist
But they do, and they too kissedSo beware their schemes and their bloodbound
For they are red and want to be crowned
Let us just say our friend Umbrage was no Tennyson. For that matter, let us consider what we know about him, as per the stats page:
John Umbrage A controversial vampire polyartist who is said to have influenced many humans across the centuries. Some say he was a Merovingian due to his way with words, others that he was Balkanic for how often he managed to flee from trouble with authorities both in the human and vampiric societies.
Did you quite catch that one bit?
Some say he was a Merovingian due to his way with words
due to his way with words
his way with words
A way with words indeed! The man rhymed “antique” with “speak”, for heaven’s sake. 
Note how he apparently was also very influential. I can just picture him being a sort of muse for bad artists everywhere. And now I find that I’m dying to meet the man. Well, vampire. Whatever. But he is dead for good, isn’t he? What a shame.
Pointless ramblings aside (sorry about that ) I’m looking forward to having another go now that the fight stats have been adjusted. 
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@Myrtle
Oswald, Ozmund… they’re both quite edgy chaps, too, so I don’t blame you for such confusion! hahah
On the vampiric fragility, so to say, yes, they’re not exactly the classic depiction of folks that need a stake in the heart or beheading to be stopped. (Even though both would work with these vampires, you see.) In this world, vampires are as fragile as humans in most aspects. There’s superficial healing that occurs over the course of hours/days, and that is mentioned in some occasions in the game, but not much more than that.
Speaking of fencing with practice swords, have you already made the initiates duel to death? 
Now, bullets points to answer your bullet points:
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Names are randomized, yes
There’s a larger pool from which a subset of names is chosen at every new playthrough. -
Russell is quite fond of his vocabulary and he doesn’t mind showing off. You have to excuse his French, too.
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Yeah, mirrors aren’t really a big deal. Our little vampies can eat human food, too, although every food would taste more or less like generic oatmeal.
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I believe that in English you would pronounce the ending “t” in “Aznuit” (like “Inuit”), so it wouldn’t rhyme with prophecy whatsoever. John Umbrage lived in France for a while (a few centuries, mayhaps), so his pronounciation would differ a bit. (Or perhaps this is just the writer trying to excuse himself? We’ll never know! The poor guy seems to be dead, after all.)
That said, both the poem and Umbrage are what I’d call “WIP storylines”. So yes, perhaps you’ll have the opportunity to see how an outstanding artist he is!
Thank you for your comments! We haven’t updated the skill checks on Dashingdon yet, but by tomorrow I think you’ll be able to beat Ozmund, I mean, Oswald, in a fairer fight.
And don’t mind me asking: are you in the UK/Australia? I noticed the randomised. I would ask your opinion on the portrayal of British characters (Theresa, anyone?). Ideally, every character should have its own (believable) voice, and that is especially true for the main characters.
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So Aznuit = az-NEW-ee
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Yep, my character is a “sweet talker”, so I chose Merovingian instead of Aznuit. But even with my huge Manipulation level, the hunters always ended up kicking my ass on the roof so I had to increase my Physique and talk less 
Oh, one question: can we acquire and increase other Arts as secondary skills? As Merovingian my Art is Induction, but in the fight versus Oswald I decided to fry him with Enfever 
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Well, if vampires being more like humans in this universe means they also get to have sex, I shan’t complain 
(someone please reset the “posts I have gone without sounding like a pervert” counter 
).
No, but thanks for adding another item for my to-do list for my next playthrough. 
He is quite an interesting character, for sure. Take the way he signs himself simply “Respectfully”, as if making a point of begrudging the “yours”. (Not that I was expecting to get “Your most humble and obedient servant” from him). Though if we’re being literal, I would have rather commanded his sincerity than his respect, but I’ll take what I can get.
Mind you, then you meet him… And he sits there toying with you, like a bored cat does with a mouse it’s caught but has no intention of killing. In another story, this would be the point where he’d start flirting with the MC. Shame about all the politicking interfering with my dating sim aspirations. 
And it makes me very glad that you mentioned the French line, because I wanted to comment on it and had forgotten. Specifically:
C’est rien, c’est juste une merde . Excuse my French. It is something I have to warn you about, because it worries me, too.
What, his French worries him? 
Does he just break into it in the middle of conversations, without being able to help himself? The poor fellow. What a torturous affliction to have.
I’m ecstatic to know that I may yet see more of Umbrage. I do have a soft spot for poets, after all. (To be fair to him, whatever the bartender foisted off on me could be a fake, for all I know. Else, it probably remained unpublished for a good reason 
. And I suppose we could take “rhymes with” as being a convoluted metaphor. If we strain).
Actually, I’m a Spaniard, so I won’t be much help there, I’m afraid. Students are mostly taught British English here but I picked up a lot of Americanisms along the way, so my English comes out as a strange mixture of dialects, I would guess. I do try to stick to British spellings for consistency — usually the z (zed? zee?) slips and then I have to go back and edit it. The one you pointed out I did without realising.
I do remember it being brought up someplace that Theresa is a Brit. How very appropriate that she should be the “proper” one, and the foil to Juarez and his profanity.
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Isn’t there a forbidden Art in the game that lets you speak with the dead?
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The Dashingdon update is on, folks. Please report if you still can’t beat Oswald with a low-Physique character 
@Isabella_Taylor
I think the pronunciation of these ancient names can be quite flexible, especially if you consider that many characters in the game have French origins
I’m kinda messing with you 
That’s exactly the way I pronounce “Aznuit” myself, but I don’t think people should care about it too much. But since we’re here, how do you pronounce “Neshmaal”, guys?
@Vashnik
I’m unaware of methods for learning arts from other bloodkins. The rule is: every vampire has only a single art, which is the one related to its blood. And the exception is: there are the forbidden arts, which are learned through rituals and experimentation.
Russell masters a forbidden art: Mortuorati. Perhaps if you be nice to him he agrees on teaching you?
@Myrtle
Vampires definitely can have sex. If you employ “sex” here in a broader sense, that is.
I’d say you’ll have good chances of meeting up with your favorite bad artist. Even if it is a “post-mortem” meeting.
About the possibility of Russell flirting with the MC… well, I admit I never thought that people would want that 
Yeah, who knows?
Still on Russell, yeah, he drops a French line now and then. That’s actually something that intrigues me when writing dialogue for this game: how do vampires talk, really? Do they grasp the neologisms and subtle changes in the language, for one?
@AdventureIV
Thanks! We’ll fix it asap.
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I tried with these stats Physique: 10, Perception: 27, Manipulation: 42 and my results on the roof are:
Physique actions: dead
Induction actions: dead
Manipulation (even 42): why does no one listen to me? 
But then I tried with these Physique: 23, Perception: 28, Manipulation: 32 and the results are:
Physique actions: alive
Induction actions: alive
Manipulation: still ignored
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@Vashnik
Oh 
Do you mind telling me your stats exactly?
There are 4 difficulty levels for an attribute check in the game:
easy (>= 10)
medium (>= 20)
hard (>= 35)
epic (>= 50)
And so, during the battle…
If you’re playing a Merovingian…
To use Induction on Oswald, you need to have a Manipulation equal or greater than 20. If so, you’ll receive a +16 Physique bonus during the fight, given that Oswald would be “nerfed” due to the effects of your art.
If you’re playing a non-Merovingian vamp…
* You can trash-talk and blur his focus. For doing that, you’ll need to beat a hard Manipulation check (>= 35). Then you’ll receive a temporary +8 Physique bonus for the fight.
* If you beat a hard Perception check (>= 35) when analyzing him, you’ll get an insight on his movements and a temporary +8 Physique bonus for the fight as well.
* You can also try to dash to the sniper rifle and shoot Oswald afterward. You need to beat a medium (>= 20) Physique test to do that. If you’re a Balkanic, though, you can simply fly to the sniper rifle (easy check, >= 10).
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With the first stats (Physique 10) I never survive the encounter with the three hunters, whatever action I make but with the second stats (Physique 23) I survive the hunters’ attack and move forward to fight Oswald. In this scene (I’m playing a Merovingian) I get an option to use Enfever too against him
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“Neshmaal” rhymes with “dismal”. See, I can write poetry too.
In my case, asking Russell to teach me the Mortuorati would work out sooo well for me, given that I forbade the sucker from using it in the first place.
Well, that’s intriguing.
Oh, people most likely don’t want that. I would flirt with anything that moves, but that’s probably not universal. 
Btw, I can’t wait for the male ROs to be written in. I’m particularly looking forward to Morgan de la Fontaine.
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Very interesting game so far however I too have been having problems with the three hunters when I’m playing a low Physique character. I was a Merovingian vampire with Physique: 5, Perception: 30, Manipulation: 43.
I was gunned down no matter what option I chose.
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