Congrats Subbie! It sounds like Nossies are truly masters of shadows!

Already done with the playthrough? That was quick

She came, she saw, she kicked its ass!

The only clan for me is Malkavian, but man that font is irritating. I have trouble understanding what I'm really saying but even reading the letters is hard.


Best clan imo though.

It was quick. Not much else to do. The Nosferatu was fun to play. It is a very different experience than playing the other "normal" clans. Sadly there are a few places where my Obfuscate did not work. Mostly boss fights, and especially the Hallowbrook Hotel. For some reason the Sabbat could always see me, even at Obfuscate level 5.

I started a Gangrel game already. Really I just did the tutorial to see how the clan played. I am also thinking of trying a Malkavian. I might do the tutorial with one as well, and see what I am more in the mood for.

I also vaguely have ideas for playing a Toreador at some point. What I read is that they are the ideal clan for a firearms character. Auspex and Celerity are supposed to be really good for that. I have never really had a lot of use for guns in this game. They seem really weak. But maybe with a Toreador it would be viable? Besides, I have a mod that allows you to change the Toreador character model for a bunch of NPCs. I was thinking of using the goth girl from the clubs, with the white dress.

Guns are great against humans, which are mostly what you fight. You could probably blood buff and combat knife most anything else to death. Or stealth for sneak attack kills. You might have problems fighting the tougher vampires (Brother Kanker, possibly Andrei and the Sheriff). And the Gargoyle, but I think there is a talky way of dealing with that, which as a Toreador you should be good at.

I just gave a Malkavian and a Toreador tutorial a try. The Malkavian was definitely the more interesting. I liked the dialogue, and their way of speech. Mirocu is right though, the font is hard to read. Like the Ventrue, they get special options in dialogue to dominate people.

I found the Toreador to be kind of bland. None of their disciplines really do much for me. I never used Auspex much when I played a Tremere. Now I am reminded why. It is kind of useful for stealth. But you don't really need it. With January I found that Celerity is little use in melee. But it is supposed to be good with ranged when combined with Auspex (to raise Per and Wits). Finally Presence never really impressed me. It ruins sneak attacks.

So I am either going to continue with the Malkavian or Gangrel. I am not sure which.

Brigitte was a blast to play. It’s funny how people react to Malks. They are also good with sneaking since they also have access to Obfuscate (Brigitte only got up to like level 3 in that though). Dementation is fun too, but I found myself using Vision of Death most often. You do get conversation options based on your Dementation level though, so I think it is definitely worth investing in, despite what some crows might say. (‘Rocu! )

I'm not quite sure how to play a Malkavian. Should I try going the stealth kill, melee ninja type? Or should I concentrate on ranged combat with guns? I have looked online, and I see people suggesting both. OTOH, the Toreador seems to be straight up best at ranged combat. While the Gangrel is clearly a melee fighter.

I might give the Toreador another try. With the plus patch at least, they get extra conversation options like the Ventrue and Malkavians. I am not sure if they got that in the vanilla game or not. So they can talk their way through a lot of things. Plus I really would like to see if there is a way to make ranged combat really good in this game. It has always disappointed me in the past. But Celerity + Auspex + putting a lot of points in Firearms might do the trick.

The trouble is I cannot seem to find a look I like. I am not thrilled with the vanilla Toreador skin. I tried the goth girl, but the physics on the skirt just get too wild. It winds up looking like a mushroom around her hips a lot. I tried another mod that replaces the vanilla toreador with the high class party girl NPC you see walking around Downtown. So I might try that one for a bit.

If you decide to play Malk, stealth kills is the way to go mostly. As with your Nos playthrough it's only boss fights that make you go fisticuffs and for that I always found Vision of Death useful as a substitue for regular fighting as it damages them at least a little and also stuns them for a short period. I expect Bedlam to be of greater effect but I never used that on bosses due to it being blood heavy.


But yeah, imho Malks is the most interesting clan.

With the Nossie, you just got done playing a mainly stealth character. Perhaps playing a Malk with a focus on guns and a minor in stealth would be a good option?

Well, they do have Auspex which helps with guns.

Indeed.

Though I never actually used Auspex at all. Guess I didn't realize how good it is with guns


Btw, Subrosa is correct; the guns are weak, almost to the point of why bother. I still used them though becuase I'm a gun nut. I like when it goes BOOM

Brigitte actually used the hell out of the little Glock pistol and the JaegerSpas. The Steyr also came in handy during the fight against the Chiropteran Behemoth.

I played a Toreador a bit longer into Santa Monica. I spent a lot of time trying to scrape up enough money to buy a pistol from Trip. Only then did I go to the beach shack to get the astrolite from the punks who had ambushed Mercutio. The first thing I did there was turn off the power, and sneak attack kill the guy who came back alone to fix it. A guy carrying a pistol... Sigh.

I also gave a Gangrel a go. Protean has really turned out to be surprising, and not in a good way. When I turn it on, I cannot hold a ranged weapon of any kind. My guess is I probably cannot hold a melee weapon either, but have not tried that. I also noticed that the attack animations are slower and clumsier than the regular bare-handed attacks. Finally, I read on one forum post today that Protean claws use the Melee Weapon skill rather than Brawl? Oi! Ok, I just looked again, and that was for the Camarilla Edition mod. Not the vanilla game or Unofficial Patched versions (I think).

That is not all. For some reason with Protean turned on, I cannot go to first person pov.

So weird, and kind of underwhelming.


Lyceia is a female canine...

Lyceia is about to make some California pizza, heavy on the sauce...

Time to hit the nail salon

We are twins!

Yeah, the Spas and the Steyr are good. I also like the Anaconda but that's basically it for me. It takes too many bullets to take a foe down, even regular humans. Besides them going BOOM I used guns also because I like to have enemies away from me because that means taking less damage while dealing damage


@Sub - Yeah, I noticed that about Protein too with my very first character. You can't hold anything because in that mode you are using your claws. Which is why I never used that discipline.

I think the only guns I really had much use for were the Spas and sometimes the Swat rifle. I seem to recall that Hecate used the Glock for a bit. But that was before I realized what I could do with at katana.

I did discover a way to take down the Sheriff in his bat-form. There are two spotlights on the roof where you fight. Turn them on, and when he flies through their lights, he is forced down to the roof. You can slice and dice him there.

Yup, that's what I did too except I used guns. Funny thing is he never learns and keep flying into those lights and drop down

I just had the same problem with the game freezing on the Load Game screen that I had a few weeks ago. I was able to trace it down to corrupted save games. I figured it out when I tried to move my save games to another folder, and the Windows file move process literally froze on a handful of specific files. After I deleted them, the rest moved just fine. I moved the other files back, and the game runs just fine.

So something is clearly going wrong with those particular files. Most of them were late game saves, so were 6gb and change in size. But I had larger files that worked just fine. Maybe I had too much stuff in my inventory? Maybe there was too much stuff laying around like guns that I could not pick up? I don't know.

Hmmm, the only trouble with save games I’ve ever had was because I tried to play an older save file on a newer GOG version.

Well I gave up on my Gangrel game. The issues with Protean were just too much. Especially not being able to pick locks with it turned on. That and how clumsy the attack animations are. I was constantly missing in combat. It kept making me remember how much better it went with January. So I started a new game with her. Hopefully this time I can finish it.

As you know, my next play through was going to be a Gangrel. I was originally planning on a protean focused character so it is a bit disappointing that you say it doesn’t perform well. I’ll probably still try it for myself just to see, but now I’m wondering if a gun focused character with Animalism and fortitude support would be fun.

That's exactly what I did with my Gangrel, worked pretty good. Especially with Animalism where you can keep stealing blood while in sneak mode


Also, am I the only one disappointed in Celerity? At one point I maxed it out just to see how it worked but all it did was making me feel like I was walking in jelly. I never actually felt much faster than the enemies

I’ve never used celerity, so I can’t say.

Yes, it seems kind of useless. So far as I can tell it does nothing in melee combat. I think its effects only work when using ranged combat, so you shoot and reload faster.

Looks like for Toreador, it’s primarily good for firearms, coupled with Auspex.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.reddit.com...y_seem_so_weak/

That is what I have read too. When I am done with January I am going to go back to that Toreador game and try again with firearms.

I just tried a little test in the Hallowbrook Hotel. I used the console to give January a Perception and Celerity of 5 each. Then I tried shooting it out with the Sabbat with the Steyr. It was a lot different. Time does slow down. You can actually see the bullets slowly coming toward you through the air, and move around them. So it is basically bullet time.

January went back to her normal game. I put more points into Celerity, enough to get it up to 4. This time out I found it was definitely changing things in melee combat. Everyone was moving a lot slower, myself included. Doors became something of a hassle, as they were so slow to open. I was moving forward to walk through them, and getting stuck in them because they were not opening like normal. When fighting, I was definitely hitting people 3 or 4 times more than they attacked me.

A long time back I read not to put points into Investigation. This time out I used the console to give Jan 5 points in it from the start of the game. I did see a real difference with it. The glowing streamers above items became much more visible. It did make things a lot easier. I was not walking past things without realizing they were there. I even discovered some thing I never knew existed until now.

My first time Downtown I witnessed a gang war. These Jets and Sharks all killed each other right in front of me.

Stormcrow does not simply walk into Mordor... She leaps!

January is powered up

I discovered these secret doors in the Giovanni Mansion. They lead to secret passages that go all the way around each side of the building, with one way mirrors to spy on the people inside.

January has a new sword!

Come at me wolf-bro!

Valhalla Awaits

Last one standing

Another play through bites the dust. Jan looks a bit like Cloud Strife with that sword!

Nice pics, Sub. Could you post a pic of her stats at the end?

January's final stats

I used the console to give her 5 points in Investigation. Otherwise that would be at zero. I think I will probably do that with all characters from now on. It saves a lot of backtracking when I realize I forgot something, or headaches when I can't see something that I know is there, somewhere.

I also increased the XP awards a little around 2/3rds of the way through. So Jan had a little more to play with at the end. I was just one point of raising Celerity to 5 at the end. So instead I dumped everything I had left into Firearms and used the skill book to get it to 5. Not that I really used guns much. She killed Ming-Xiao in melee combat with the Tal'Me'Rha sword.

With her I changed the Brujah's disciples to Celerity, Fortitude, Potence, because that fitted who Jan is much better than with Presence. But in the tutorial you have to use Presence or you cannot advance. So I had to console that in. I started to use it later in the game, and came to appreciate it. It is really handy in crowds. I think the slowdown effect from it, combined with the speed of Celerity, is what put me over in the fight with Ming-Xiao. That and spamming blood packs.

I had a Masquerade violation in the Chinatown Tong Club. The one that leads you to the Fu Syndicate. I think because I was using Celerity at rank 3. I never had an opportunity for a Masquerade Redemption after that. Even though I earned quite a few before then, even though that was the only time I had a violation.

That's some pretty hefty stats


Ming-Xiao is annoying. I used flamethrower on her, emptied all tanks you could carry. Best boss weapon imho, very good damage plus it stuns her completely during fire (eh-hrrm). Thanks to that I don't think I ever had her spawn a blobeline on me.

I always use the flamethrower on Ming-Xiao too. I start out with it, and it usually gets her down to nearly half her health.

Yup, pretty much. Then I think I Spased her or something while spamming bloodpacks like you


Btw, did you use Camarilla Edition?

I don't use the Carmilla Edition. I think that is the one where you lose a blood point every 3 minutes?!? I use the Unofficial Patch Plus.

I tried playing a Toreador again today. I still did not really like it much in the end. So I decided to switch to my Malkavian - Kaliska. I am enjoying her a lot more. Though the font is a little hard to read. I might try out one of the mods that change the font.

Yes, but you can tweak that so that doesn't happen., I did that


I've seen that in videos but I never found a mod?

I never had a problem reading that font. Does that mean I’m crazy?

I can read it but it's annoying

I can read the Malkavian font too, if I concentrate. But it does get annoying after a while.

There is a mod that replaces it with the regular font in the Unofficial Patch extras. I am pretty sure there are a couple ones free floating out there too. Here is one

Thanks!

I won't reinstall the game but I still saved the link just in case...

Kaliska is in the end game now. She just dealt with the Sabbat, and the blood hunt. Now she is about to take on the Kue-Jin. I got her Auspex up to 5, and her Firearms as well. That puts her Ranged feat at 10. Guns are pretty useful now, even against vampires. I was even killing some with the Glock. The Steyr is really impressive in her hands. Maybe I will try that Toreador a third time...

This will also be my first Camarilla go around. So a few things will be new.

When Brigitte needed to deal low cost, and consistent damage at range, the Glock-ish gun was her go to firearm. Very handy against zombies and most humans since ammo is so cheap and plentiful. She also enjoyed using the Steyr when she was able to control it. For really tough enemies, she used the Jagerspas. The Hengeyokai went down fairly easily using a combo of that and melee, as did Ming Xiao.

I used the Glock against the Giovanni zombies as well. I found that headshots did massive extra damage to them. But it does not seem to matter against others.

Ok, so I beat the game once more. This time as a Camarilla. So far that is the most different ending I have had. Jack did not get to celebrate. I think I like the more... explosive... endings better. I don't see ever doing the Kue-Jin or Sabbat endings. So I think I have done all I ever will.

The Jin ending is funny in a “you get what you deserve” kinda way. I remember laughing my head off after seeing that ending. Then I immediately reloaded the save I made right before making “The Decision”.

This one did a similar thing during his first playthrough as Gangrel. Chose to open it and BOOM. Went back and left it for LaCroix.



And yeah; When you fail to speak in third Khajiit-person, this one has to do it instead

Takes real dedication man!

I went on YouTube and watched the other endings. The Kue-Jin one is definitely a case of "You got what you asked for".

There are enough people in the game saying: "Don't open it." that I never really had a desire to do so, even my first time. Beckett especially cements that when he runs up to you and tells you not to open it near the end. It is like when a ghostly voice in your house says "Get out!" It is a good idea to do what it says.