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Originally posted by Shane DeFreest
After reviewing all the questions from the various forums here are the answers to the top 5 questions in October.

Posted here first as promised!

Question: Who wrote the music that has appeared on the official site and in the Bloodlines promo reel in the media section? Are they writing the music for the entire game? Is the music being handled in house or by an outside 'contractor' - in essence who is handling the music?

Leon: Womb Music is handling all of our sound effects and music

Question: Will there be any Elder NPC’s with stats over 5 dots?

Leon: No, not in the way you’re thinking.

Question: Have you thought of implementing any other types of multiplayer other than the competitive Hunters vs. vampire’s combat mode? If not, why not?

Leon: We know there’s a lot of MP questions right now, but we’ll be answering them at a later date.

Question: Will Bloodlines have a scalable difficulty levels?

Leon: It’s not planned for at this time.

Question: Cosmetic Items & Carry Weight? Tell us something about item control. Will there be "cosmetic" items available, such as sunglasses/cigarettes/booze? Will you be able to choose your current weapons (according to weight/strength), or will you carry "everything" FPS style?

Leon: Sorry, no cosmetic items are planned for, and you will carry everything FPS style.

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Originally posted by Shane DeFreest
As the community knows I've been collecting the various questions from different forums and compiling them to be posted when the blackout is over. Well now that it’s over here is the first set of Q&A's. We passed these questions off to Troika and here is what they had to say:

1. Who designed the story for the game? Was it Troika, White Wolf or a collaborative effort?

Troika came up with the story for the game initially and then began bouncing it off the heads of the guys at White Wolf, the end result of which is that they decided to incorporate the game’s story into the official World of Darkness canon (after giving us inside info on what they were planning, which then made its way into our story)

2. Even at this early stage is there any information you can share on the possibility of a public beta?

There are no plans for a public beta at this time.

3. Will there be clan disadvantages like in the PNP game?

Yep. They’re in there now, but everything is subject to balance.

4. How will draining your target’s blood be handled from a first-person perspective?

When you feed on someone the game goes to a third person view.

5. How much in terms of technology will bloodlines deviate from HL2?

We’ve added our own particle, cloth and lighting systems, not to mention all the RPG specific things like feat usage and dialog trees.

6. Will there be day/night cycles?

Nope.

7. Is Bloodlines softimage xsi like valve?

No, we’re using 3d max and Maya.

8. Will the 3rd person option be able to change camera angle?

It functions that way now, we’re not sure if we’re leaving it in or not.

9. How much of your appearance will you be able to alter at creation?

There are plans in place to allow you to alter your characters appearance, but we’re still working out the details.

10. Will Thaumaturgy rituals be viable?

No, we’re not having rituals for Thaumaturgy.

11. Is the Masquerade/humanity system going reward intelligent players ( i.e. hide the body or bribe the cops. I killed him in self defense, so no loss of humanity) or is it going to be used as a paddle to whack player into staying civil within the game?

The Masquerade system factors into game play in adding a strategic element to how you use your disciplines, and humanity adds to the moral dilemmas we like to put into our games. Someone who just wants run around shooting people like this was a shooter might find it more of a challenge, but we’re designing essential elements of game play around it.

12. What kind of things does Activision/Troika have planned? New screens, movies?

Activision and Troika have plans to reveal lots of cool information and assets for Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines in the months to come, so keep an eye out.
Thanks to everyone who has been patient over these last few months. Keep the questions coming! I'll be continuing to collect them and send them off if I can’t answer them myself now that the blackout is over.

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Originally posted by Leon
After reviewing all the questions from the various forums here are the answers to the top 3 questions in December.

1) Could you explain how you will work the humanity bar in the game
and/or the effects of low humanity in the game? Will you be able to
raise your humanity or just lose it?

Your humanity bar reacts to your actions in the game, for instance, the killing of innocents lowers your humanity. Your humanity level will change your dialog choices in certain instances, especially ones where morality is involved. A low humanity level will also increase your chances of frenzying. You will be able to raise your humanity through certain quests, as well as through direct spending of points.

2) How sensitive is the masquerade meter? Can you fix it?

The masquerade meter will react to you blatantly displaying your vampiric disciplines in front of innocent humans, as well as letting the general populace see you if you're Nosferatu. We're balancing it so that you won't be blindsided by losing a masquerade point, you should be aware that your actions are risking a masquerade violation. There will be some quests in the game that can restore some masquerade points to the player.

3) How much weaponry will our characters be able to carry? Will they
have a realistic capacity, like a few guns? Or will they be able to
carry multiple rifles, submachine guns, hand guns, grenades, knives,
swords, and a spare crowbar all at once?

While you do have a limited inventory, you will be able to carry alot of different weapons and items all at once. We've erred on the side of fun vs reality on this one.

leon

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Originally posted by Shane DeFreest - Activision Communities Liaison
As promised, directly from the folks at Troika here is the first of our new weekly update format. There will be more next week so make sure to check back late in the week.

Enjoy!

-Shane


1. I would like to know if you came to a decision about the other
possible paths of thaumaturgy. Is it still on your wish list? Will you
allow us to choose between different paths like Movement of the Mind, or
will the Path of Blood be the only one selectable?

It's still on the wish list, but right now we're really focusing in on
the path of blood. We've developed some really cool effects for this
that you'll start to see us unveil in the coming months.

2. How much flexibility is there going to be in feeding? I assume more
combative characters can probably still just grab people and feed from
them (at the expense of the Masquerade), but will there be systems in
place for seduction? How about sneaking into houses to feed from
sleeping mortals?

There is a system in place for seductive feeding through dialog as well
as a combat feed. We've made feeding into much more of a
game-within-a-game than allowing the player to simply sneak into a
mortal's house and feed on them while they are sleeping, though. You
will need to carefully watch people's paths and behaviors, or use your
abilities to lure them into isolated areas, to try to feed on them when
they are in opportune areas, either in darkness or away from other NPCs.

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