Unofficial Patch 6.6, Bloodlines 5th anniversary!

Wesp5 · Post by **Wesp5** » Mon Nov 16, 2009 10:06 am

The latest unofficial patch version 6.6 will be available this evening (around 20:00 CET) from its home at The Patches Scrolls: Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines : Patches, Updates, Addons, Downloads (The Patches Scrolls)

To celebrate Bloodlines' 5th anniversary it will include the largest content restoration ever! I took the great PackfileExplorer tool by Dave Gaunt, went through all the Bloodlines archives looking for unused stuff and was able to restore almost 20 character skins, over 40 sign decals and over 200 scenery models! Most of these are used all over the maps in inconspicuous positions so that many players probably won't notice most or all of them, but I hope you will notice something different at the Empire Arms hotel, the beachhouse, the netcafe, the Dane, King's Way, the Nosferatu Warrens, the warehouse, the Ocean House, the Lotus Blossom, Grout's mansion, the Giovanni mansion and the museum.

I tried to restore most of the new content according to the map labels in the archives, but sometimes I had to take liberties to fit it in somewhere adequate. Because these are pure cosmetically restorations there shouldn't be any impact on the gameplay, but if you somehow don't like a special placement or find it inappropriate, we can discuss it here. Some of the restored items were intended to be more than scenery, like the hollow book or the vacuum tube socket board, so if you have any ideas on where to use them, I am open to suggestions as well! A few items were not restored because it wouldn't be worth the effort or there was just no place they would fit, like stuff from the cut library level and simple and colourful Malkavian furniture that doesn't seem to belong inside Grout's mansion. Some models are even missing their textures like the "Gio spirit", any ideas what this could have been?

Last not least an interesting observation of mine: Almost all of the restored content was found concentrated in the last not-sound-or-stats archive of Bloodlines. This implies to me that most of it was not cut on purpose because in that case it should have been in the archives connected to the levels from which it was removed. No, I imagine that Troika was well aware that their publisher was again taking an unfinished game out of their hands, as mentioned in the article on The Escapist, and included the unfinished content either because they intended to use it in later patches, if their company would survive, or to show everyone interested that they were not finished, if they went under. Now at least their work is not wasted!

Version Changelog:
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v6.6 16.11.2009
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+Translated Japanese and Russian text, thanks to szhinji and Lenuska.
+Added Masquerade redemption for Gary's photo and fixed weapon info.
+Gave humanity for Dominating Milligan and fixed tutorial key and xp.
Made Misti refill and fixed prophet and pinball dude not animating.
Fixed fire not triggering at junkyard and basic poster quests mixup.
Restored original flicker-less decals to Dane, netcafe and warrens.
Fixed some dialogue issues of Imalia, LaCroix, Isaac, Jack and Phil.
Adjusted a too strong history and removed many possible text loops.
Locked outer Tawni door and corrected bad Giovanni invitation names.
Corrected clipping problems for Venture Tower lamp and cop glasses.
Fixed frenzy for all clans and eye colours, thanks to Zer0Morph2000.
Prevented Heather from appearing in Hallowbrook if you ignored her.
Restored dialogue tutorial popups and removed Ventrue's rat feeding.
Added the frenzy animation to common NPC models, thanks to DDLullu.
Fixed Voerman emails not appearing and Copper suddenly having money.
Restored Isaac's gift for the warrens in basic being Toreador only.
Used white SWAT skin at Venture Tower and Nines skin at solo ending.
Placed alternative Cal skin into diner and rookie cops on the Dane.
Restored Lu Fang, Therese and hustler to Lotus Blossom and Vesuvius.
Used new Ming skin in Empire hotel and hustler and girl in Asphole.
Restored headless security corpse and severed head to warrens level.
Placed two scrubs into Grout's mansion and bartender in Last Round.
Added raver and female models into Glaze and missing VW bus to pier.
Placed alternative Chang in temple and fixed Luckee Star fireplace.
Used alternative stripper skins at Sin Bin, Vesuvius and Giovanni's.
Restored over two hundred scenery props and over forty sign decals.
Added breakable tomb stone, gas tank, board and phones to warehouse.
Fixed and added breakable air compressor and board into Ash sewers.

][_aVey · Post by **][_aVey** » Mon Nov 16, 2009 11:29 pm

Congratulations, Werner!

I've been waiting a long time to see this new version, it sounds great and I'm downloading it as I type. I'm anxious so see all the restored stuff and to give another run to one of my favorite games.

So, five years already? Bloodlines has aged like fine wine and we appreciate that you and your team have dedicated all those long hours to improve a game that felt kind of unfinished in many aspects.

Kudos, and be well.

Wesp5 wrote:Most of these are used all over the maps in inconspicuous positions

I bet you waited a long time for an excuse to use that word.

Crenshinibon · Post by **Crenshinibon** » Mon Nov 16, 2009 11:55 pm

Great job Wesp5! I'm really excited to try this patch out!

Tricky · Post by **Tricky** » Tue Nov 17, 2009 3:38 am

Wow, I can't believe you're still just finding stuff. I suppose those creepy hands you see casting the Thaumaturgy disciplines in the early Bloodlines demonstration videos weren't there?

Wesp5 · Post by **Wesp5** » Tue Nov 17, 2009 6:33 am

Tricky wrote:I suppose those creepy hands you see casting the Thaumaturgy disciplines in the early Bloodlines demonstration videos weren't there?

I found them earlier than 6.6 already but I can't see a way to activate them. Also having to cast the disciplines that way would mean you'd have to switch to and from your weapon and maybe Troika removed it because of that.

Tricky · Post by **Tricky** » Wed Nov 18, 2009 3:20 pm

As far as I can remember from the videos, the hand was only used when showcasing Thaumaturgy powers.

I have run discipline-only games. Especially the Tremere get enough out of their abilities to forgo weapons altogether. It has made for the most memorable game in (not so) recent memory, for it was the only one where I had to make creative use of the bloodpool.

Consider how a lot of different disciplines pretty much have the same effective power but with different graphic effects. Dementation and Domination are a good example here. Especially the latter can be used in combination with weapons just as effectively. If I wanted to wield a gun-blazing or sword-slashing Tremere, I might as well focus on upgrading Domination instead of Thaumaturgy.

My point is that restricting usage of Thaumaturgy a little shouldn't be so bad. They are mages after all.

][_aVey · Post by **][_aVey** » Wed Nov 25, 2009 1:44 am

Hello, I'm currently playing the game again. I love all those restored skin textures, furniture and random stuff scattered through all of it, kudos.

I just encountered this tiny error when reporting to Isaac about the Gargoyle problem [see attached image].

I'll keep an eye if I find anything else, cya!

Wesp5 · Post by **Wesp5** » Wed Nov 25, 2009 5:32 am

][_aVey wrote:Hello, I'm currently playing the game again. I love all those restored skin textures, furniture and random stuff scattered through all of it, kudos.

Thanks!

I just encountered this tiny error when reporting to Isaac about the Gargoyle problem.

Fixed!

][_aVey · Post by **][_aVey** » Sat Nov 28, 2009 11:10 pm

I haven't played the game for several months but it's until now that I noticed that whenever Gary offers a poster for one of your items it appears in your Active Quests log. I usually try to get all of them at one time, entering and exiting my haven, just checking my mail and putting the needed item in the mailbox.

I did that, but I decided to just put the vacuum tubes in the mailbox for the final poster and I went to complete other quests. Later, when I returned, the poster was there but the quest was still in the Active Quests log and it never disappeared for the rest of the game. Is this a bug or do I just needed to enter the haven immediately after putting the vacuum tubes in the mailbox?

Oh, and on another note, this is the first time I've watched the ending where Strauss takes power of the Camarilla and the ending looked kinda weird to me, you can see some guys putting away the sarcophagus in a warehouse but you can clearly see how the sarcophagus is already in its final resting place while the guys are walking into the warehouse with an empty trolley. Later you can see them exiting the place, again with the sarcophagus in its final place, although now it makes more sense.

Was this an error of Troika not finishing that ending properly or did I misinterpreted the whole scene?

Octarine · Post by **Octarine** » Sun Nov 29, 2009 5:57 am

I got some weird bug, the first time I started a new game I didn't get the pawnshop apartment key or the fists. Couldn't give them to myself even by using the console (I tried give item_w_unarmed, maybe I used the wrong command...). Started over twice after that and everything is fine, so maybe it was a one time glitch.
[edit] I rechecked, give item_w_fists works. I still don't know what caused the problem and couldn't reproduce it. [/edit]

I also have to say, Wesp, I really like what you did in the ocean house hotal. The vehicle crashing in the shed really made me jump

.

Argent Blood · Post by **Argent Blood** » Tue Dec 01, 2009 11:57 am

][_aVey wrote: Oh, and on another note, this is the first time I've watched the ending where Strauss takes power of the Camarilla and the ending looked kinda weird to me, you can see some guys putting away the sarcophagus in a warehouse but you can clearly see how the sarcophagus is already in its final resting place while the guys are walking into the warehouse with an empty trolley. Later you can see them exiting the place, again with the sarcophagus in its final place, although now it makes more sense.

Was this an error of Troika not finishing that ending properly or did I misinterpreted the whole scene?

That might be a one time bug, I'm not sure. When I chose the Camarilla ending for my last Ventrue playthrough, the same thing happened. Likely it was a map error, though it could be just a random glitch, or a wrong number somewhere.

Though for that ending, Strauss doesn't exactly take the a "power" position in the Camarilla, (though he does have status as a primogen already), he simply elects to remove LaCroix's status as Prince. Which he must have met with the other Primogen later, both to discuss LaCroix's sentence, and finding a new Prince for LA.

Wesp5 · Post by **Wesp5** » Wed Dec 02, 2009 4:15 am

][_aVey wrote: I did that, but I decided to just put the vacuum tubes in the mailbox for the final poster and I went to complete other quests. Later, when I returned, the poster was there but the quest was still in the Active Quests log and it never disappeared for the rest of the game.

Oops, you are obviously playing the basic version of the patch and the quest log for the poster quests shouldn't be in there at all. I'll remove it for 6.7...

As for the sarcophagus already visible in his place at the warehouse, I just tested this and indeed it happened once in five tries. Must be a random glitch.

Octarine · Post by **Octarine** » Wed Dec 02, 2009 10:24 am

Another small bug in the Gone Fishin' quest.
Wesp, you've placed a [ instead of ( in line 341 in yukie.dlg. Because of that, Yukie doesn't say the last line and the quest status won't update (so you can't tell her to wait at the fish market).

Wesp5 · Post by **Wesp5** » Thu Dec 03, 2009 2:45 am

Octarine wrote: Wesp, you've placed a [ instead of ( in line 341 in yukie.dlg. Because of that, Yukie doesn't say the last line and the quest status won't update (so you can't tell her to wait at the fish market).

Hmmm, I don't see how this can be a problem. The quest works fine on my system with the wrong bracket there too, but I'll fix this for 6.7 anyway!

Octarine · Post by **Octarine** » Thu Dec 03, 2009 5:31 pm

Wesp5 wrote:Hmmm, I don't see how this can be a problem. The quest works fine on my system with the wrong bracket there too.

Maybe it's because I'm playing as malkavian.
Anyway, that's the only thing I changed and it worked after that.

Octarine · Post by **Octarine** » Thu Dec 03, 2009 5:45 pm

Wesp5 wrote:Hmmm, I don't see how this can be a problem. The quest works fine on my system with the wrong bracket there too.

Maybe it's because I'm playing as malkavian.
Anyway, that's the only thing I changed and it worked after that.

Wesp5 · Post by **Wesp5** » Fri Dec 04, 2009 2:10 am

Octarine wrote: Anyway, that's the only thing I changed and it worked after that.

Yeah, it worked for somebody else too. Maybe it is because of different character sets or something. With my German Windows I had no problems with the wrong bracket..