Digging up dirt on the Giovannis

Nitfol · Post by **Nitfol** » Thu Oct 12, 2006 5:27 am

I'm at the Giovanni family reunion and there are three hopeful family members
who are interested in hearing gossip about each other. All of them obviously have dirty secrets, but I can't seem to get any information from talking
to them - the closest I can get is that the banker admits to having lost some
money, but that's apparently not enough for the others to be interested.

Do I need to have really high persuasion to get something out of them, or am I
just not sayng the right things?

Lunaida · Post by **Lunaida** » Thu Oct 12, 2006 6:08 am

You have to have the Persuation of 9 to be able to get information from all three of them

Acleacius · Post by **Acleacius** » Thu Oct 12, 2006 10:51 am

Actually Wesp changed this in the Unofficial patches to Persuasion 8, after I brought this up to him.

I heard some players in this forum talking about how it was not worth doing the quest at Persuasion 9.
They mentioned it was 12 points is the cheapest cost to get Persuasion 9 and you only ever needed 9 for this quest and the most you got from this quest was 4xp, iir.

So if you have the Unofficial patch 3.0 [current], 2.9 or 2.8 you will only need Persuasion 8.

Coruel · Post by **Coruel** » Sat Oct 14, 2006 4:35 pm

For the banker type person you need 8 I think, not 9. But I'm using only the official patch.

Jhereg · Post by **Jhereg** » Sat Oct 14, 2006 6:23 pm

Coruel wrote:For the banker type person you need 8 I think, not 9. But I'm using only the official patch.

Yes, you need 9 for the entire quest, but the only one of the three who actually requires 9 is the bastard son. The rest you can do with 8.

ProgRockGhoul · Post by **ProgRockGhoul** » Mon Jan 15, 2007 2:00 am

Has anyone ever spoken to or heard Bruno Giovanni in the game? Any idea if it's possible or not, and what steps would be required?

I was listening to random sound files and heard a long speech of Bruno's, but I've never been able to interact with him at all, or even to enter the room he's in, outside of combat mode.

Anaximander · Post by **Anaximander** » Mon Jan 15, 2007 2:16 am

The only interaction you can have with Bruno is violent. When you enter the mansion, he's in a meeting with some other Giovani Kindred. You could cheat and use the noclip code to gain access to that room, but they would only attack you on sight. That speech you listened to is just him addressing the other Giovani Kindred in attendance.

There's a bug in the game that makes all of those kinds of NPC conversations cut short when you eavesdrop on them. The only way to hear the entire thing is to play them outside of the game. But be careful. Copy them to another location first before you play them. Playing these sound files with WMP while they reside in the game's folders can cause the game to crash the next time the sound is played in game.

Bruno's speech is one of the more interesting dialogues - or in this case, monologue- that you can listen in on.

noxious · Post by **noxious** » Mon Jan 15, 2007 4:46 pm

Anaximander wrote:The only interaction you can have with Bruno is violent. When you enter the mansion, he's in a meeting with some other Giovani Kindred. You could cheat and use the noclip code to gain access to that room, but they would only attack you on sight. That speech you listened to is just him addressing the other Giovani Kindred in attendance.

Would high level obfuscate function with noclip?

Anaximander · Post by **Anaximander** » Mon Jan 15, 2007 7:34 pm

Certainly. But like most other supernatural beings in the game, the Giovani vampires are not decieved by Obfuscation.

ProgRockGhoul · Post by **ProgRockGhoul** » Mon Jan 15, 2007 7:46 pm

Thank you again Anaximander. I've been curious about that for months, but by the time I get there my characters are invariably maxed on melee and stuck with a Persuasion of 7 or so.

It is a great monologue, with some nice details about the Giovanni's rituals and their motivation for the recovery of the Sarcophagus.

Anaximander wrote: But be careful. Copy them to another location first before you play them. Playing these sound files with WMP while they reside in the game's folders can cause the game to crash the next time the sound is played in game.

Yeah I did that once already - doh!

noxious · Post by **noxious** » Mon Jan 15, 2007 8:27 pm

Anaximander wrote:Certainly. But like most other supernatural beings in the game, the Giovani vampires are not decieved by Obfuscation.

Ah, yes. I *should* remember that, considering how unhappy that fact made me near the end of my first playthrough, I think I just repressed it.

Jhereg · Post by **Jhereg** » Tue Jan 16, 2007 4:16 am

Anaximander wrote:Certainly. But like most other supernatural beings in the game, the Giovani vampires are not decieved by Obfuscation.

Actually, I wonder if that's true, or if it is only true of supernaturals that have Auspex. Auspex will turn up ghosts, so presumably it will see past Obfuscate as well. Just out of morbid curiousity, are there any clans that don't have Auspex?

Jhereg · Post by **Jhereg** » Tue Jan 16, 2007 4:56 am

*** Possible Spoiler ***

Anaximander wrote:The only interaction you can have with Bruno is violent. When you enter the mansion, he's in a meeting with some other Giovani Kindred. You could cheat and use the noclip code to gain access to that room, but they would only attack you on sight.

Is that perchance a version dependency, Anaximander? I haven't truly dusted down the Giovanni in quite awhile, but I remember the board room with all of the vampires in it. I jumped on the table and started attacking them all. They didn't even react. I couldn't kill them, and they took no interest in me. Or are we talking about different rooms? The board room I'm talking about is on the main level. I seem to recall that Bruno might be on the second floor? Sorry, but as I said, it's been a long time. Many dust-bunnies in ye olde cranium.

If I'm talking about a different room, then there is a second board room full of vampires. On the main floor. I don't remember where, or how to get there, but they're there. If I recall correctly, it would be approximately behind the stairs in the main gallery. I stumbled upon it many eons ago before I realised you didn't actually have to fight your way through the mansion (And yes, for about eight games I spent a heck of a lot of time and effort slaughtering Giovanni. So sue me.)

Oh, and as ever, I am official patch 1.2, plain vanilla, but I'm not sure if the last time I dusted down the Giovanni I had that patch installed, yet. It was a long time ago.

OK, now you've done it. Now I have to go back there and slaughter the Giovanni. It will be a lot easier now, but I've got to find that room again, if for no other reason than just to satisfy my curiosity. Now you know how it killed the cat.

Anaximander · Post by **Anaximander** » Tue Jan 16, 2007 11:01 am

[quote="Jhereg]On the main floor. I don't remember where"]

That's the one I'm talking about. There are two doors on the back side of the room, on opposite sides of the mansion. One of those doors has a Giovani Kindred guarding it. I tired to sneak in there one time as a Nosferatu to see what was going on inside. My first attempt, the vampire guard spotted me through Obfuscate and attacked me on sight. It's been a while, but I believe my second attempt I actually used the noclip cheat code to get inside. This time it was Bruno who attacked. He doesn't take kindly to intruders barging in on his secret meeting.

Regarding Obfuscate: In the PnP game, you would need Auspex or some other form of extra sensory perception to see a character hidden with Obfuscation. There are plenty of clans who don't have Auspex. In this game, however, it seems like everything that isn't human sees through it. Zombies, vampires, Andrei's monsters... I've been spotted by them all with Obfucate running. Except the Keui-Jin. Despite being supernatural "ghost people," they don't seem to have any powers at all in this game. They're just like humans.

Jhereg · Post by **Jhereg** » Mon Jan 22, 2007 6:39 pm

Anaximander wrote:That's the one I'm talking about. There are two doors on the back side of the room, on opposite sides of the mansion. One of those doors has a Giovani Kindred guarding it.

I found the problem. I went in the back way, found the room, picked the lock, and yep, Unkie Bruno was some ticked - and heavily armed.

Then I went back to get some pay-back, but the locks wouldn't pick, so I no-clipped through the door, which is what I must have done last time, because nobody responded to me at all, and nobody took any damage. Just a bunch of statues.

I guess if you no-clip your way into the room, Bruno is never activated.

Iguanac64 · Post by **Iguanac64** » Sat Mar 03, 2007 6:44 pm

I've been in Bruno's boardroom and never used clip...this was before installing any patches. I just killed one of the guards and picked my way into the room. You can attack Bruno all you want, but he just looks around like "Huh? What was that?"

It didn't seem to work after I had patched up, tho.