Achievements/Trading Cards & Coupons

[drgribb]

I'm surprised this game doesn't have achievements or trading cards. This game was soo awesome. I always thought it was weird that it didn't get any sequels/similarly inspired games and never got much notoriety...

Wish they didn't have to charge 20 freakin dollars for it right now though. I still have my cds, but can't find 1 of the 3 :/
Anyone know if steam ever issues coupons for this game??

[Touch of Oblivion]

The game never had a sequel for two reasons: A)Activision ♥♥♥♥♥♥ it up and rushed final production so the game wasn't polished or finished. They also didn't allow Troika(the developer) to use the newest updates for Source at the time. Then they released the game the same day as Half-Life 2 so it got overshadowed and then got crap reviews for being unfinished. B)Troika Games went out of business less than a year after VtMB came out.

They charge $20 for this by Activision's request, since the publisher does get to influence the price on here. They do often put it on sale for 75% off, aka $5. It might happen during the summer sale, otherwise it'll likely be the Halloween sale in fall. That's when I got it.

[drgribb]

Oooohh yeah, Troika. They made a bunch of sweet underrated games. Temple of Elemental Evil especially is the one I remember most. :)

Yeah if I remember right, I think Valve delayed release of HL2 cuz of the source code hack/steal and so they forced Troika to delay Bloodlines until HL2 was released... Idunno, I just remember the game particularly for being one of the few times where the actual real game wound up being just as bada** and awesome as the early previews in CGW and PC Gamer made it look.

Fosho, $5 ain't bad though. Still kind of annoying since I still have my jewel case and instruction booklet and everything (except for that one blasted disc!), but I'll take what I can get. Thanks for the response :)

[Touch of Oblivion]

Actually, while I'm unsure about any issues Valve was having, Activision basically forbade Troika from updating the Source Engine after a certain point. They basically said "This is taking too long, finish it up. Stop updating the engine." so while Valve's people were able to keep updating while making HL2, Troika couldn't update VtMB. That was part of the reason the game as it is is so shoddy. Troika managed to get up to Official Patch 1.2 I think before being shutdown, but thankfully Wesp5 has been spending the last 10 years updating the game with his Unofficial Patches :D

[Wesp5]

For what exactly happened with Bloodlines read this interview with Tim Cain:
http://books.google.com/books?id=lroZsP4zyIYC&pg=PA102

[drgribb]

Thanks, interesting read! Hah, yeah I guess I was lucky enough to never notice a lot of those bigger bugs/unfinished areas since I never actually finished the game and I never played as Nosferatu (although I always intended to one day go back and do a runthrough as [whatever the schizophrenic race was called] and another as a Nosferatu). Always really interesting to hear a developer give their honest take about bugs and errors during development and how things could've been done differently. That is pretty sad that no one at QA bothered to do their job and test out the Nosferatu.

Sounds like my memory wasn't *too* far off then. Cuz I remember the embargo about other Source games, and according to the wikipedia page on HL2, Valve's reason for delaying release of HL2 for a year was the source code theft.

Wasn't there also supposed to be a multiplayer mode for Bloodlines? I remember reading in one of the gaming mag previews about a hunter vs. vampire multiplayer mode. I'm surprised that wasn't mentioned at all in that interview.

[Wesp5]

Originally posted by drgribb:

Cuz I remember the embargo about other Source games, and according to the wikipedia page on HL2, Valve's reason for delaying release of HL2 for a year was the source code theft.

That was Valves face saver but in my opinion the real reason was that Gabe Newell only cared about pushing Steam, and still does, and completely lost focus about the HL2 development. Like with HL3 right now...

Wasn't there also supposed to be a multiplayer mode for Bloodlines?

Yes, you can actually activate it using the Unofficial Patch but it's really buggy.

[drgribb]

Oh awesome!

Also, didn't realize, until now, that you are *the* guy mentioned earlier who's been updating the game with the unoffical patches! Just wanted to say thanks and that I appreciate all your hard work wesp5. :)

[Vinz]

Indeed he's the reason why this treasure is still playable and enjoyable, thanks a lot too.

Oh by the way

Wasn't there also supposed to be a multiplayer mode for Bloodlines?

Yes, you can actually activate it using the Unofficial Patch but it's really buggy.

HOW? Seriously I want to try this with Hamachi, please tell us how!

[Wesp5]

It is described in the patch readme:

Multiplayer Support:
--------------------
Each multiplayer clan starts with 100 XP, $500 and unique equipment.
Players can't damage each other thus only coop gameplay is possible!

Server:
1. exec multiplayer.cfg enable multiplayer support on this server
2. map 'name' load map 'name', admin must only spectate
3. noclip server admin needs to stay in noclip mode
4. sv_gravity "800" after clients connected switch gravity on

Client:
1. connect 'host'/'ip' connect to server 'host'/'ip' as a client
2. vclan 'mp-clan' play as 'mp-clan' with starting equipment
3. say/say_team '...' talk ingame to everyone/your team members
4. name 'player' optional set name of yourself to 'player'
5. team 'team' optional assign yourself into team 'team'
6. vgender int 0/1 optional to switch the character's gender

[Vinz]

The only readme.txt useful, I skipped it :/ Thanks

[Wesp5]

Originally posted by Mr_Pekoms:

The only readme.txt useful, I skipped it :/ Thanks :gordon:

If you get MP working, I would very much be interested in the results. I did hardly more than checking I could see another player move on another computer...

[☢ GoldFish (SVK) ☢]

Originally posted by wesp5:

For what exactly happened with Bloodlines read this interview with Tim Cain:
http://books.google.com/books?id=lroZsP4zyIYC&pg=PA102

Thanks for an interesting reading, just glanced over it now, will finish later (man, screw Activision) Also, you have my undying thanks for keeping this gaming gem alive and kicking ^.^

You know what I'd love to see? A kickstarter project to acquire the source code from publisher, "finish" this game (for starters, implement the fan patch to steam version by default), dedicated (and competent) fans - or maybe even some people from original team - to take over moderation of these forums and the official support for the game, along with workshop, achievements and trading cards for our e-peenies. Something like the recent glorious unprecedented resurrection of Postal 2 (which boosted and kept the sales surprisingly high since)... I'm sure the market is there.

Too bad that the legal and practical situation is completely different than Postal and this naive idea will never leave the category of "wet dreams"...

[Unchangeling]

I worked on a number of games that had Activision as a publisher, and that was pretty much their standard business practice for every title.

[Touch of Oblivion]

Originally posted by Bastard son of Jeff Minter:

I worked on a number of games that had Activision as a publisher, and that was pretty much their standard business practice for every title.

Which explains why the only major things they put out anyore are Call of Money: Recycled Warframe games.

[Unchangeling]

Originally posted by Touch Of Oblivion:

Originally posted by Bastard son of Jeff Minter:

I worked on a number of games that had Activision as a publisher, and that was pretty much their standard business practice for every title.

Which explains why the only major things they put out anyore are Call of Money: Recycled Warframe games.

Well, this was a while ago - before even VtmB came out. It seems to be what they decided worked for them: rush out half-finished games, while complaining the developers just weren't working hard enough - they wanted sheer quantity, not quality, as far as we could tell.

I could tell tales - OH SUCH TALES! - but I really don't think this is the place.