Masquerade Violation from Serial Killer quest? (Carnival of Death)

[MMMrph]

I talked him down and got a violation.

Killing him gives me a redemption.

Is this the way it's meant to be?

I guess it's because he broke the law and I let him get away with it. Still though, it's a big punishment for taking the non-lethal route.

[Maddy]

If I remember right, it's because to help the masquerade you still have to kill him since he broke the laws, if you let him go, although you're a good fellow and maybe gain humanity, you're
technically breaking the masquerade so yes this is the way it's meant to be

[MMMrph]

Originally posted by Maddy:

If I remember right, it's because to help the masquerade you still have to kill him since he broke the laws, if you let him go, although you're a good fellow and maybe gain humanity, you're
technically breaking the masquerade so yes this is the way it's meant to be

Alright then, thanks for the reply.

[duchU]

Originally posted by MMMrph:

Originally posted by Maddy:

If I remember right, it's because to help the masquerade you still have to kill him since he broke the laws, if you let him go, although you're a good fellow and maybe gain humanity, you're
technically breaking the masquerade so yes this is the way it's meant to be

Alright then, thanks for the reply.

Did you use persuasion (level 7) line with him so he would stop his killing ride? From what I remember there is no Masquerade Violation in this case (but you also have to choose carefuly from normal dialog lines for this to work).

[MMMrph]

Originally posted by duchU:

Originally posted by MMMrph:

Alright then, thanks for the reply.

Did you use persuasion (level 7) line with him so he would stop his killing ride? From what I remember there is no Masquerade Violation in this case (but you also have to choose carefuly from normal dialog lines for this to work).

I don't remember. I just took the one that said "what would your family think of you?" which gave me humanity points.

Due to the masquerade penalty I ended up reloading my save and feeding him a buckshot sandwich.

[Wesp5]

Strange, I don't find a masquerade violation for talking him down. Are you playing without a patch?

[MMMrph]

Originally posted by wesp5:

Strange, I don't find a masquerade violation for talking him down. Are you playing without a patch?

Nope, I have the latest stable patch, 9.4.

I did it a few times and got the violation every time.

I'll see if I can find an old save and get a screenshot of it.

[duchU]

Originally posted by MMMrph:

Originally posted by wesp5:

Strange, I don't find a masquerade violation for talking him down. Are you playing without a patch?

Nope, I have the latest stable patch, 9.4.

I did it a few times and got the violation every time.

I'll see if I can find an old save and get a screenshot of it.

Maybe you let him go knowing he will kill again and this is the reason for a a masquerade violation.

EDIT:
Well, I just checked it. Seems like letting him go is not possible without using "what would your family think of you?" - and this is the persuasion blue line and you said you used it. So you shouldn't lose a masquerade point. I just tested (patch +) it and did not get a masquerade violation... Tested with 9.5 but I played the game recently with 9.4 too and there wasn't a masquerade violation also.

[MMMrph]

Originally posted by duchU:

Well, I just checked it. Seems like letting him go is not possible without using "what would your family think of you?" - and this is the persuasion blue line and you said you used it. So you shouldn't lost a masquerade point. I just tested it and did not get a masquerade violation...

Originally posted by wesp5:

Strange, I don't find a masquerade violation for talking him down. Are you playing without a patch?

Here's an album of my conversation with each choice in the description. [imgur.com]

Persuasion level 7, violation is in this image[i.imgur.com].

[MMMrph]

Originally posted by duchU:

I just tested (patch +)

As far as I know, I'm just using the standard patch and not patch+.

http://www.patches-scrolls.de/patch/4647

The second one from that link.

[duchU]

Have no idea then... You can try to open killer.dlg from \Unofficial_Patch\dlg\santa monica
and check if line 152 is the same like this:

{ 152 }{ Alright. Go. Get on with your unlife. }{ Alright. Go. Get on with your unlife. }{ 0 }{ Humanity 5 }{ G.Killer_Freed = 1; pc.SetQuest("Serial",9) }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ Cast no more dark shadows. }

eventually open quests_santamonica.txt from \Unofficial_Patch\vdata\system
and check this (if the same) for a quest titled "Serial"

CompletionState
{
"ID" "9" // Killer dialog lines 152/153
"Description" "You successfully convinced the serial killer to give up his quest for vengeance now that the killers of his family are all dead."
"Type" "success"
"AwardXP" "Killer01"
}

If these are ok then it must be some strange bug... cos I don't think that you can do anything before you confront the killer what would result in a masquerade violation after letting him go...

[MMMrph]

Originally posted by duchU:

Have no idea then... You can try to open killer.dlg from \Unofficial_Patch\dlg\santa monica
and check if line 152 is the same like this:

{ 152 }{ Alright. Go. Get on with your unlife. }{ Alright. Go. Get on with your unlife. }{ 0 }{ Humanity 5 }{ G.Killer_Freed = 1; pc.SetQuest("Serial",9) }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ Cast no more dark shadows. }

eventually open quests_santamonica.txt from \Unofficial_Patch\vdata\system
and check this (if the same) for a quest titled "Serial"

CompletionState
{
"ID" "9" // Killer dialog lines 152/153
"Description" "You successfully convinced the serial killer to give up his quest for vengeance now that the killers of his family are all dead."
"Type" "success"
"AwardXP" "Killer01"
}

If these are ok then it must be some strange bug... cos I don't think that you can do anything before you confront the killer what would result in a masquerade violation after letting him go...

Yes and yes.

{	152	}{	Alright. Go. Get on with your unlife.	}{	Alright. Go. Get on with your unlife.	}{	0	}{	Humanity 5	}{	G.Killer_Freed = 1; pc.SetQuest("Serial",9)	}{	}{	}{	}{	}{	}{	}{	Cast no more dark shadows.	}

CompletionState
		{
			"ID"		"9" // Killer dialog lines 152/153
			"Description"	"You successfully convinced the serial killer to give up his quest for vengeance now that the killers of his family are all dead."
			"Type"		"success"
			"AwardXP"	"Killer01"
		}

Strange one that. Oh well.

Do you know what file defines the killer01 award?

[duchU]

In readme file for the patch there is something like this for version 0.6:
should no longer get a masquerade violation for convincing the
serial killer not to kill again

Maybe this 'should' is not enough :D

But I think the fix was that they probably just removed the condition from the killer dialog file or something so it's strange it can still happen...

[Wesp5]

Originally posted by duchU:

But I think the fix was that they probably just removed the condition from the killer dialog file or something so it's strange it can still happen...

Indeed, are you sure you are playing the patched game from the shortcut the patch creates?

[MMMrph]

Originally posted by wesp5:

Originally posted by duchU:

But I think the fix was that they probably just removed the condition from the killer dialog file or something so it's strange it can still happen...

Indeed, are you sure you are playing the patched game from the shortcut the patch creates?

I've just been running it through steam.

Does the patch only "apply" with this alternate exe?

With no readme I assumed it would just work after running the patch.

[Touch of Oblivion]

Yeah you need to set the Steam launch options to -game Unofficial_Patch (I think that's it) so Steam launches the game through the patch. However, if you do this you'll have to start a new game. Continuing your current playthrough with suddenly implementing the patch will likely break the save.