Here is the most efficent character guide.

Brawl: XP, Nines, Mafia book, Mafia book, XP
Dodge: Grout book, Grout book, XP, XP, Giovanni book

Firearms: book, book, Romero, XP, Leopold book
Melee: XP, XP, Skyline book, Nines, Fu book or use the book twice to get level 5 before Chinatown and the Occult item, but you will need level 2 to use the book.
Security: XP, XP, Museum book, Museum book, Occult Item
Stealth: Neighbor book, Neighbor book, XP, XP, XP

Computer: book, book, Bertram, Occult Item, Ground Zero
Finance: XP, XP, Jezebel book, Jezebel book, Fat Larry
Scholarship: XP, XP, Becket Museum, XP, Becket Venture Tower

"Why does a well behaved character get more xp? "
Would you help me if I was an asshole to you?
I could have told you this but I didn't know really what you meant.
Thats what I was trying to explain about getting Trust level up with Jeanette and Therese, everyone has Trust levels in the game which measure how much the are willing to help you.
So the higher you get Trust the more they Reward you and offer you help.
You know to be nice to Mercurio, right?
Also you know Nines trains you twice?
Also books level 1 and 3 books can be used twice.
Bertram trains you.

" While feeding, reactive your buffs with every gulp of blood you take."
Really I have not played a Gangerel yet, mostly Tremere and Malk for me.

"So I'll probably go start my Malkav now"
Hehe, it's a riot.

I am testing 2.9 currently, as a Malk of course.
I jsut got to see the the Exchange in the Garage working for the first time since release, Wesp just got it working, was funny.

This comment was edited on Sep 15, 03:25.

Thanks Acleacius

I finished the game with my Toreador Slut, then went with an asshole Gangrel, low on humanity and just an unmitigated ass against everyone.

Sadly, the game does falter a bit here. While you CAN be an ass to almost everyone, it rather heftily restricts your rewards and even the option to start certain quests.

For example, the prince does not give you your new haven, Max Strauss does NOT give you the bloodstar after you've cleared the plague bearers (really irritating that), you cannot get training from Nines, and several other instances I noticed that gave me less xp. Which is a shame, really. Why does a well behaved character get more xp?

Also, it's frighteningly easy to play as a Gangrel. Since Unarmed Combat is your forte, you can feed on anything and everything in combat. Activate Fortitude, Blood Buff and Protean, hit someone once then feed. While feeding, reactive your buffs with every gulp of blood you take. The full time of the discipline gets added to your still remaining time. By the end of the Malkavian mansion, I think my Protean and Fortitude were set to run for another 25 minutes or so...

So I'll probably go start my Malkav now.

Creston

The two most popular forums, with the most traffic to get answers quickest and large searchable databases try either of these;
http://www.forumplanet.com/planetvampire/
http://www.gamebanshee.com/forums/vampire-tm-bloodlines-47/

Doing everything except giving the locket to Jeanette is ok as far as quest go, if you have above 4 Persude so your problem is the Trust level of each Jeanette and Therese which need to be 4 each.
So you need to answer correctly 4 times to each of them and not answer incorrectly which will take away Trust.

You have to say things to Therese like [keep in mind I play a Malk, so normal converstations elude me ] OMG you are the Greatest and I really hate that Annoying Jeanette or Is there anything I can do to show my appreaction for how much I worship you or Please tell me anything I can do for you or Why are you so forgiving of Jeanette, she doesn't deserve your kindness and when talking abuot the quest Speak your quest or I will do your will or I side with she of the most power.
To each say the absolutly niceset thing possible, how she is better than other sister deserves.
When speaking to Jeanette you must tell her about how beautiful, seductive, kinky and when decussing the necklace show sympathy, understanding, asking for forgivness and the quest as an exmple my line is "What can I do to put a smile on the face of a rainy day child?"

Ok that is how you talk to each seperatly, but never tell one to do in the other or just finish her when they are together, if that is your only choice you screwed up.

You should always have lines like {remember I play a Malk}
"Where did this hate come from" or " The Past is a worn garment" or "If you could learn to live together you would have twice the power"

There is one point near the end where you have to say "Therese share more power with Jeanette" and "Jeanette don't stand in Therese's way".

So since your having problems before you go in Asylum make a Hard Save that you don't redo, I save Asylum for last in Santa Monica.

This is possibly the most complicated quest ever written with really nice xp bonus if you can pull it off, so don't give up.

"nothing could really touch me."
Hehe, yeah with the Malk I have Auspex also, it is very nice to have Super Armor, Accuracy and Sight all built into one.

Hey Acleacius,

I tried the Jeanette and Therese thing again, this time I took every possible combination in the quests, and I still can't get the two to reconcile their differences.

I've tried the following

1) - Give locket to Jeanette.
- Destroy the paintings.

I get the angry argument, no persuasion options in the discussion, and in the end I can basically choose which of the two you want to win.

2) - Give locket to Therese.
- Destroy the paintings.

I get the angry argument, no persuasion options, and can choose whomever I want to survive.

3) - Give locket to therese.
- do not destroy the paintings. Talk to the cop.

I get the argument that starts with Therese being very calm. Mostly still the same though. Then, all the way at the end, no matter what I do, Jeanette always wins, but is then pissed off at me for telling Therese to finish her off.

I just can't seem to get the two to reconcile? I've gone in there with as much as Persuade 6?

Celerty Rocks!
You will find that by that time in the game most all PC are pretty unstoppable, so I can see why it seems to bit to easy and is sounds like you had a rocking character.

Well, it wasn't just with Celerity though, nothing could really touch me.
One thing I didn't realise is that Auspex also boosts your defense, so I was constantly walking around with defense 10. I guess I just got a really strong character

Thanks for the linkies!

Creston

This comment was edited on Sep 14, 03:36.

If I mentioned this but this site has some nice downloads for Bloodlines.
http://paine.planetvampire.gamespy.com/index.php?action=files&catid=4
Including skins, awezome Paint jobs for places like Asylem and your Skyline pad.

You can even use any characters skni in the game as your PC skin, which I like to do sinceI think most of the Player skins are the uglest in the game, with a few exceptions.

Yeah actually your directory string does seem kinda long.

Well I would still go with Jeanette except giving her the Necklace as that dooms the poor woman at the hotel to live in Hell, unfairly for etrnity, so you fail that quest and lose a Humanity, this is really hard to catch the first time but noting Jeanette only does things to Therese.
Though Jeanette doesn't know this or she wouldn't do it, if you notice Jeanette never hurts or wants innocents hurt, i,e if you get in the Gallery by Persuading Chunk you get an Extra 1 xp.
Like many missions you get really good bonuses for noviolent or Stealth, i.e. the Warehouse in Santa Monica if you can plant the explosoves without killing anyone you get an extra 2 xp.

Ok will check on the Tin Can thing, this is new problem haven't heard of before and I will try to reproduce it.

Celerty Rocks!
You will find that by that time in the game most all PC are pretty unstoppable, so I can see why it seems to bit to easy and is sounds like you had a rocking character.
Well to save you some points on Intimidate if that is the wise craking part you really only need a max of 4 in Santa Monica at the most, that gets you the max blackmail money from the Dr and Vandel to resell blood to you with out commiting the huge Humanity hit by bringing him that adorable Danielle, plus I think 4 will even get your through Hollywood.

Re Install, well, the instructions are fine, it's just so strange that the package itself is five useless folders down, but like I said, no biggie

Re Theresa vs Jeanette, oh okay, that actually does make sense. I stuck with Jeanette ALL the way, to the extent that I gave her the locket and slashed the gallery, so probably my trust level with Theresa wasn't high enough.
That still makes it seem kinda strange that you can then get her to "win" at the end, but it does make more sense.

Re : Tin Can Bill. No, he definitely wasn't there. He's in that alley opposite the Anarch bar, just behind the fence, but that fence was CLOSED until after I had done the Paul the Ghoul part. I didn't see Bill there either while it was still closed (ran around with Auspex 4 trying to see if some character was hidden). And yes, I know it's only the old bum just across the street from the Confessions that tells you his location.

Re : Ranged, I like what you guys have done with the patch, especially where people are now dropping ammo (in fact, all my ammo is full and I still have ~2500 bucks left), and I can understand it makes it a bit easier in the start, it just seems to be too overpowered in the end. Not sure if that's because of the rifles themselves or because of a high skill or both, but it's just terrifyingly easy. I killed the warform Tzimisce (Andrei) basically without him ever getting close to me.

To be fair, Celerity 5 probably has something to do with that, hehe, but it just seems the damage is a tad too high.
It's not a big issue, since the game really isn't all that difficult to begin with anyways.
In fact, I think the one thing that's really too strong in the game for what it costs are the armors. 3 soak for heavy leather armor is just brutal, it basically makes every gun in the game except a sniper rifle useless, and it costs only 300 bucks or so. (Not to mention the riot gear, but you at least have to work quite hard to get that, by Ghouling Heather.)

I will play a Malk, but my next character is going to be a Gangrel wise-ass who just insults people, I want to see where things go with that.

The Malk comes after that.

Thanks for your comments!

Creston

if you get bored waiting for Gothic 3, just starting a Malk charater and talk to Jack just to see what you think.
You can skip the intro moive if you have a save game from your last playthru, a little Skip Intro will popup on the Charater sheet as you set your points.

You might not make a very good diplomat but I certainly think you hit the nail on the head

I'm a carpenter, not a wordsmith

Creston

about the sales, but remmeber also that Bloodlines was the game that was killed not so much by Troika but because of the Half-Life 2 code theft.
Activision had to stop production on Bloodlines [which killed Troika] becasue orgianlly nooneknew how long Valve would postpone Half-Life 2 and this went on for a year, iir.
So once Activison got word they could release, I think they let Troika work for about 3 months polishing up and bug fixing with no new content.
So this game which had the potiental to be one of the best RPGs especially with the Amazing diverse charaters, acting and interations was kill by that 17 old kid whom hacked Gabe.
Sad, sad stroy.

Maybe the instructions aren't clear enough about applying the patch.

Ok with Jeanette and Therese you need to have a Seduction of 2 [unless your a Nossie} to Seduce Jeanette and 4 Persuasion to Reunite them.
Now Therese is the kicker at least for me, as a Malk you know whom is naughty and whom is nice, so I never gave Therese much thought.
Turns out there was a bug in the original game that never checked Therese's Trust level so everyone was getting them to reunite easily.
Now the bug is fixed so you most treat Therese like you hang on every word and would do anything for her to build her Trust up to 4 and Jeanette you must use every chance to Seduce her or flatter her to get her Trust up to 4.
This may seem unfair to have to suck up to both but it really is how the game is made, think of LaCroix if you want the Super Hot Skyline Pad before Grouts Mission you must suck up to him and including that is how you get him to give you excessive cash bonuses, so it really does jive with the over all game and Vampire hierarchy.

"you can't actually go talk to Tin Can Bill until AFTER you've done the Paul the Ghoul part."
Well you may have had that trouble or at least seemed like it to you but I always do Tin Can first cause he is the closest, so I don't know why or how you had a problem and that was not changed at least on the last 4 or 5 play thru I recall, atm.
If you think of more details why it felt/seemed like that let me know I will try to sort them.
Oh wait did you know that there is only one specific Bum you speak to that tells you Tin Can's location and that you can't get to Tin Can's alley until you talk to him, but you can talk to the Bum before you do Paul's part, just guessing at why you had trouble.

"I personally feel that ranged is overpowered compared to melee"
Now that is a new issue we can look at as we just adjusted Range because so many peeps had problems as you mentioned.
What is new is there is cheaper ammo for the 38, which is the base starting gun, so Range characters can have a chance at eh start of the game when money is low.
Second is with 2.8 all enemies now drop the weapon/ammo they were using, Wesp and I came up with the best case of dropping as much ammo as possible up to 1 full clip, now you don't always get the full clip but it is much better.
Since 2.9 was released I will pay extra attention as I start to test it.
Basically my feelings are if it is a little easier than Melee at this point it would be good for people just trying the game for the first time and if they like it they can go back and try Melee or Discipline characters next.

Personally if you haven't play the Malk yet now that you have finished it once you will be missing out on some of the funniest lines every written in a game.
Malk is more Stealth [Obfuscate] with a Mix of Melee doing like 200% to 300% Melee damage with Obfuscate and Ranged.

Thanks for the info, glad you like it and yeah I really miss Troika.

Ofcourse, those cocksucking cunts at Atari will never understand that.

You might not make a very good diplomat but I certainly think you hit the nail on the head.

This comment was edited on Sep 13, 20:41.

I know it costs a lot of money to develop a top-tier title, but it ends up costing more when no one wants the game because of all the bugs and the publisher ends up eating most of the development costs itself.

This is definitely True. Bloodlines' sales were KILLED because of the hideous amounts of bugs in the game, and the negative effect it had on the community.

Ofcourse, those cocksucking cunts at Atari will never understand that.

Creston

Acleacius,

Some feedback :

When installing the patch, it said just to extract the archive file into the bloodlines folder, but when I did that it didn't patch. Turns out that the archive, for some reason, was about four folders deep before the actual textures etc folders were there.
It first starts with Raid10\temp\manager\iiigwkkzzp\ before finally going to Vampire.
Not a big problem once you've figured it out, but just thought I'd mention it.

I've just played through the game with patch 2.8, and with a character with 7 persuade (at that point), there was NO WAY I could get Therese and Jeanette to co-exist. All I could do was choose one over the other. Since having them co-exist is the only "good" way to finish the quest, that's a bit sad for someone trying to keep their humanity at maximum?

I didn't care so much with my first character (A Toreador Slut who just seduced everyone), since she wanted Jeanette to stay around, but it seems like that quest may be broken a little.

Also, in the hunt for the plague carrier in Downtown, Damsel (the commie vampire) tells you to go talk to the hobos, who in turn tell you to go talk to Tin Can Bill. But in the way you guys changed the quest (I think?), you can't actually go talk to Tin Can Bill until AFTER you've done the Paul the Ghoul part. This is confusing, because I spent literally two HOURS looking for that fucker.

Also, I personally feel that ranged is overpowered compared to melee. I remember some comments here after the game had just come out that ranged was useless in the end game, but pfftt, I mowed down the entire society of Leopold with just the McClusky/Desert Eagle, and it wasn't even really a contest. And my melee skill is actually much higher than my firearms skill. Blood buffed with the Tal'Ma'Hera and melee 9, I do about 32-35 damage per hit.
Auspex'ed with ranged 7 and the Desert Eagle, I do around 25 per shot, with the Steyr Aug / Bulpup I do ~ 30, the lassiter / IMI uzi does ~25 and the SPAS 15 does in the high 50s, low 60s.
So why bother with melee?

Obviously, this is nothing major, just figured I'd give some feedback. I almost finished the game first time through, and it's great fun. The combat could be beefier, but in the roleplaying department, it just slaughters all the competition. It's sad that Troika had so much design vision, but never the technical skills to pull it off

You guys have done an amazing job with these patches, thanks a ton!

Creston

I'll have to try that, even though it's been a while since I last played the game. Too bad game publishers don't encourage (or permit, in many cases) the developers to have this type of dedication to fixing things or the time to get them right in the first place.

Infogrames/Atari wouldn't be having the financial trouble they're in now if they had released less buggy games, rather than pushing things out the door that had no right being on a retail shelf. I know it costs a lot of money to develop a top-tier title, but it ends up costing more when no one wants the game because of all the bugs and the publisher ends up eating most of the development costs itself.

Head Chef & Bottle Washer for LAN Addict - http://www.lanaddict.

wow...still going on these...I think I'll have to locate a copy of this and play it after patch.

Play a Malkavian on your second time through, quite possibly the greatest Player Charater ever created. No joke.
Make sure you don't play Malk the first time though, you really won't understand or have much of a clue as to what, how or when. :p

Same here - I just bought a copy over the weekend.