Bloodlines Thursday
Apr. 18th, 2019 10:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crossover_chickAs it was also a "hanging about the house" Thursday -- kinda raw and gloomy outside, so yeah. It was kind of what I was planning on doing anyway, honestly -- just a day to chill out and do my own thing. And today's main thing was YouTubery with a Vampire: The Masquerade -- Bloodlines bent! Though I did watch a couple of other things as well:
A) Started off with a short video from The Sim Supply, showing off some bits and bobs on his website, including two new "toys" -- a pack randomizer and a traits randomizer he made to make choosing random packs and random traits for Sims 4 challenges easier. He wanted something that looked nicer than just plain old text lists and the like (the traits randomizer even uses the "personality molecule" set-up from the game itself!). And he even made a streaming overlay for the latter! It was pretty neat. :)
B) Moved onto a quick look at how a Malkavian's conversation with the cab driver might go (I love these little videos showcasing how different clans get different interactions with NPCs), then transitioned over to a short video showcasing things you might not know or might have missed in the original Bloodlines Most of them I did already know, though I learned a couple of new things. For example, they planned for the player possibly killing Orderly Phil in the Santa Monica hospital before he's scripted to die from Lily chomping on him; they have a substitute victim, Bill, waiting in the wings, complete with a slight change in voice line from Vandal. Neat! :)
C) From there I moved to an interview with Brian Mitsoda (one of the lead writers on Bloodlines, and Narrative Lead of Bloodlines 2 at Hardsuit Labs, the developer) and Christian Schlütter (Lead Producer on the game at Paradox Interactive, the publisher) on the original game and the upcoming sequel. Nothing incredibly new there, though it's always amusing to hear about how Hardsuit was basically ready to make Bloodlines 2 from the moment Paradox got the White Wolf IP XD And Brian being happy that his broken, buggy game still has fans -- is still MAKING fans -- 15 years later is pretty sweet. :)
D) And then it was off to one of Outstar's videos -- I've watched some of her past Bloodlines 2 content and enjoyed it, and this particular video seemed to be plugging some sort of VtM:B-related game!
Turns out, it was her own game -- well, her and a close friend's. There was apparently a "vampire jam" recently where people had a week to create simple vampire-themed games in honor of the Bloodlines 2 announcement. Outstar made a simple, short, point-and-click game called Santa Monica By Night, where the conceit is that a former player of Bloodlines has discovered that the vampiric underworld is real, and is visiting Santa Monica on a mission from his sire. It's actually quite a nice game -- short, as I said, but Santa Monica from the game is recreated very well in the retro-pixel style used, and there's dialogue choices that actually result in some different endings. She did one playthrough to show it off and give us some background information on the various references and such -- and, since she was kind enough to link to it in the description, I went and did my own playthrough. It's about twenty minutes, I'd say, and playable in your browser: Go check it out! Prior knowledge of Bloodlines is actually not necessary, though it does make the game more enjoyable. :)
E) After a break to play video games (see below), I returned to a Fun With Shorts about the importance of listening to people. Shown by a guy who has a very bad morning when he refuses to listen to his wife warning him about wet paint, and a mechanic warning him about his engine. And then nearly dooms an emergency order by refusing to listen to the guy trying to tell him about it after mentioning a problem on the production line. Which leads to his boss giving him a lecture on the importance of listening. And then our lead comes home and discovers his son has been fighting with another boy . . .
And refuses to listen to Junior's explanation, preferring just to punish him. Yeah, rare that one of these shorts shows the protagonist NOT learning his lesson properly! He feels appropriately ashamed when he learns the fight was because the other boy deliberately chucked a rock through their window, but still. Wow.
F) And then it was back to Outstar, analyzing the Bloodlines 2 trailer! Turns out the two ladies in the trailer have names -- Lu (for the one holding a wine glass full of blood) and Lillian (the narrator lady with a cigarette). Lillian in particular has a gorgeous dress on her fully-rendered model -- I'd love something similar to it in Sims for my Alice to wear. There's also going to be souped-up Thin Blood disciplines in the game as compared to the pen-and-paper RPG, but that's no surprise. What works in P&P might not work in a video game, and you've got to prioritize your players having fun. :)
G) And then, just as I was getting ready to wrap up for the night, spotted a video from Call Me Kevin on the side talking about working with the "worst sponsor." Curious, I clicked on it, and discovered:
1) It's actually sort of a public service warning video to other YouTubers, telling them about this scammy "company" AppNana that wants YouTubers to do ads for it without actually saying they were sponsored to do so (which is kinda ILLEGAL)
2) It's a look at Kevin doing some freaking DELIGHTFUL trolling of the scammy company by deliberately making shitty videos and demanding that "Nikki" tell him her opinion of his "Ring of Fire" cover XD
So yeah, that was a fun note to end on. XD
Rest of the day can be summed up in:
Fallout 4: The video game of the day (after Santa Monica By Night), since I missed out on it last weekend and Sims 4 is, as usual, having some patch issues (custom content names and descriptions got broken -- not the content ITSELF, just the names (so far as we know anyway). Gurus are saying they're hoping to have a patch for the patch tomorrow). I have made it out of Sanctuary Hills (after getting myself used to the crafting system), met Dogmeat (who is already the Best Boy, I love him and his ability to carry all my old extinguishers so I don't end up too heavy to run), entered Concord, and gotten yanked into a fight with some raiders at the old museum of American history.
And discovered that, while I can blunder my way through fights with mole rats and giant bugs, I am much worse at dealing with humans with firearms. I mean, I'm lucky enough to have some good guns on my side, but I had to GOOGLE how to use my laser rifle because I didn't understand why I couldn't get it to charge. (Turns out it's TAP X, not hold it.) Around the time I got killed by raiders for the third time, I decided I was out for the day. We'll try again this weekend. XD
Writing: As you might imagine, more Londerland Bloodlines -- Alice finishing up her talk with Mercurio about blood-bonding Victor, and moving onto talking with Victor. Basically, I'm thinking she might be more willing to bond him to her if she knows it's not the total death of his personality -- she REALLY does not want to lose him, even to old age. (Or Victoria either -- Emily, Lizzie, and Bonejangles are okay thanks to their own undead status.) Also because he might need more blood to remain a ghoul, depending on how long the game takes -- but, upon Googling, it appears there's a timeline on the wiki! Time to study that and see how much sense it makes. . . Okay, this thing is saying 11 nights, which feels -- short. Hmmm. . .
And I finished up my Valice Multiverse queue -- time to empty out the inbox as best I'm able! Been kind of bouncing around between sites for a bit. . .ah well, it's my long weekend, I can do that if I want. :p Tomorrow -- probably a Sims 4 day of some description. Doing the haircut on Saturday, as Mom offered to take me. Ah, feel good to get all this off my head at last. . .anyway. Night all!
A) Started off with a short video from The Sim Supply, showing off some bits and bobs on his website, including two new "toys" -- a pack randomizer and a traits randomizer he made to make choosing random packs and random traits for Sims 4 challenges easier. He wanted something that looked nicer than just plain old text lists and the like (the traits randomizer even uses the "personality molecule" set-up from the game itself!). And he even made a streaming overlay for the latter! It was pretty neat. :)
B) Moved onto a quick look at how a Malkavian's conversation with the cab driver might go (I love these little videos showcasing how different clans get different interactions with NPCs), then transitioned over to a short video showcasing things you might not know or might have missed in the original Bloodlines Most of them I did already know, though I learned a couple of new things. For example, they planned for the player possibly killing Orderly Phil in the Santa Monica hospital before he's scripted to die from Lily chomping on him; they have a substitute victim, Bill, waiting in the wings, complete with a slight change in voice line from Vandal. Neat! :)
C) From there I moved to an interview with Brian Mitsoda (one of the lead writers on Bloodlines, and Narrative Lead of Bloodlines 2 at Hardsuit Labs, the developer) and Christian Schlütter (Lead Producer on the game at Paradox Interactive, the publisher) on the original game and the upcoming sequel. Nothing incredibly new there, though it's always amusing to hear about how Hardsuit was basically ready to make Bloodlines 2 from the moment Paradox got the White Wolf IP XD And Brian being happy that his broken, buggy game still has fans -- is still MAKING fans -- 15 years later is pretty sweet. :)
D) And then it was off to one of Outstar's videos -- I've watched some of her past Bloodlines 2 content and enjoyed it, and this particular video seemed to be plugging some sort of VtM:B-related game!
Turns out, it was her own game -- well, her and a close friend's. There was apparently a "vampire jam" recently where people had a week to create simple vampire-themed games in honor of the Bloodlines 2 announcement. Outstar made a simple, short, point-and-click game called Santa Monica By Night, where the conceit is that a former player of Bloodlines has discovered that the vampiric underworld is real, and is visiting Santa Monica on a mission from his sire. It's actually quite a nice game -- short, as I said, but Santa Monica from the game is recreated very well in the retro-pixel style used, and there's dialogue choices that actually result in some different endings. She did one playthrough to show it off and give us some background information on the various references and such -- and, since she was kind enough to link to it in the description, I went and did my own playthrough. It's about twenty minutes, I'd say, and playable in your browser: Go check it out! Prior knowledge of Bloodlines is actually not necessary, though it does make the game more enjoyable. :)
E) After a break to play video games (see below), I returned to a Fun With Shorts about the importance of listening to people. Shown by a guy who has a very bad morning when he refuses to listen to his wife warning him about wet paint, and a mechanic warning him about his engine. And then nearly dooms an emergency order by refusing to listen to the guy trying to tell him about it after mentioning a problem on the production line. Which leads to his boss giving him a lecture on the importance of listening. And then our lead comes home and discovers his son has been fighting with another boy . . .
And refuses to listen to Junior's explanation, preferring just to punish him. Yeah, rare that one of these shorts shows the protagonist NOT learning his lesson properly! He feels appropriately ashamed when he learns the fight was because the other boy deliberately chucked a rock through their window, but still. Wow.
F) And then it was back to Outstar, analyzing the Bloodlines 2 trailer! Turns out the two ladies in the trailer have names -- Lu (for the one holding a wine glass full of blood) and Lillian (the narrator lady with a cigarette). Lillian in particular has a gorgeous dress on her fully-rendered model -- I'd love something similar to it in Sims for my Alice to wear. There's also going to be souped-up Thin Blood disciplines in the game as compared to the pen-and-paper RPG, but that's no surprise. What works in P&P might not work in a video game, and you've got to prioritize your players having fun. :)
G) And then, just as I was getting ready to wrap up for the night, spotted a video from Call Me Kevin on the side talking about working with the "worst sponsor." Curious, I clicked on it, and discovered:
1) It's actually sort of a public service warning video to other YouTubers, telling them about this scammy "company" AppNana that wants YouTubers to do ads for it without actually saying they were sponsored to do so (which is kinda ILLEGAL)
2) It's a look at Kevin doing some freaking DELIGHTFUL trolling of the scammy company by deliberately making shitty videos and demanding that "Nikki" tell him her opinion of his "Ring of Fire" cover XD
So yeah, that was a fun note to end on. XD
Rest of the day can be summed up in:
Fallout 4: The video game of the day (after Santa Monica By Night), since I missed out on it last weekend and Sims 4 is, as usual, having some patch issues (custom content names and descriptions got broken -- not the content ITSELF, just the names (so far as we know anyway). Gurus are saying they're hoping to have a patch for the patch tomorrow). I have made it out of Sanctuary Hills (after getting myself used to the crafting system), met Dogmeat (who is already the Best Boy, I love him and his ability to carry all my old extinguishers so I don't end up too heavy to run), entered Concord, and gotten yanked into a fight with some raiders at the old museum of American history.
And discovered that, while I can blunder my way through fights with mole rats and giant bugs, I am much worse at dealing with humans with firearms. I mean, I'm lucky enough to have some good guns on my side, but I had to GOOGLE how to use my laser rifle because I didn't understand why I couldn't get it to charge. (Turns out it's TAP X, not hold it.) Around the time I got killed by raiders for the third time, I decided I was out for the day. We'll try again this weekend. XD
Writing: As you might imagine, more Londerland Bloodlines -- Alice finishing up her talk with Mercurio about blood-bonding Victor, and moving onto talking with Victor. Basically, I'm thinking she might be more willing to bond him to her if she knows it's not the total death of his personality -- she REALLY does not want to lose him, even to old age. (Or Victoria either -- Emily, Lizzie, and Bonejangles are okay thanks to their own undead status.) Also because he might need more blood to remain a ghoul, depending on how long the game takes -- but, upon Googling, it appears there's a timeline on the wiki! Time to study that and see how much sense it makes. . . Okay, this thing is saying 11 nights, which feels -- short. Hmmm. . .
And I finished up my Valice Multiverse queue -- time to empty out the inbox as best I'm able! Been kind of bouncing around between sites for a bit. . .ah well, it's my long weekend, I can do that if I want. :p Tomorrow -- probably a Sims 4 day of some description. Doing the haircut on Saturday, as Mom offered to take me. Ah, feel good to get all this off my head at last. . .anyway. Night all!
