Vampire Bloodlines 2 Thread - All We Know So Far. Chat!

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Same.

If there's one thing in particular I'd like clarifying is whether it's going to be a Sigle player RPG or will online somehow factor in it.

Of all the things they said about it, this is one of the things they haven't really committed on.

Honestly i think it will be a single player RPG like the previous one.
I really hope they wont sacrifice that for some cheap monetization that chops up the game. They did thankfully say you wont be needing to pay extra for any new factions.
 
That's an interesting theory, but it doesn't fit in one detail. Brian Mitsoda said:




If there were creative tensions, it wouldn't have been a shock I think and I'm sure before just firing him, they would have a lot of discussions first to reconcile those differences. And in such case he could anticipate them firing him due to that. But the way Brian Mitsoda phrased it, he had no idea it was coming and it was a complete surprise.

So money issue therefore could be more plausible, especially considering that the game is already delayed. But if that's the case, it's a really weird outcome.

I think that argues for just how out-of-sync he may have become with the rest of the team. Normally, someone that's calling shots with a vision of their own may be totally blind to other things taking shape. Fact of the matter is, there are a lot of people that are majorly uncomfortable with any form of confrontation. Especially if it's going to be challenging one of the leadership team. In my own experience, when there's an awkward situation developing on a team concerning someone, that one person is normally the last to know.

(I hate that, btw. If there's awkwardness or contention, I normally call it out the instant I notice it and go for giggles. :D Forward motion!)
 
when there's an awkward situation developing on a team concerning someone, that one person is normally the last to know.

Sounds like very poor job on people's management part then. Their task is to resolve such things as soon as possible, communicating any concerns right away. If that's your experience, it's not pleasant for sure. It's very counter productive for any company.
 
These days, if someone is suddenly removed from a project? It's usually because of scandalous reasons, like either a racist tweet or picture from the past or some kind of situation with a co-worker (usually of the opposite sex) that HR is usually tasked to handle. Both parties may have agreed to keep details under wraps for both of their benefits, so we may never know exactly why...just that if this was the situation? Whatever happened was so bad he had to be let go.
 
I don't think (based on Mitsoda's statement) that this was attempt to cover up some misconduct. It kind of sounds like he was just a sacrificial lamb because the directors and managers had to show they were trying to resolve the delay issue and someone had to hang.

Or, perhaps he just wasn't necessary anymore? Sounds like the narrative has been pretty well fleshed out... but then, why hire someone to replace him?

I'm excited for the game too, and I am sure there is a TON of stuff that goes into developing a game that I have no clue about... but it seems like AAA titles take forever to make these days and then after forever, it gets delayed with only vague and confusing explanations.

Why is communication so difficult for game developers?
 
Sounds like very poor job on people's management part then. Their task is to resolve such things as soon as possible, communicating any concerns right away. If that's your experience, it's not pleasant for sure. It's very counter productive for any company.

I'd agree. Generally you'd want to communicate concerns and give time for people to adress them. If they fail to do so then they would have to go. But judging by his statement it seems no such attempt was made.

Brian wasn't just "a developer" for this project either. He was the face of the project and a big marketing boon. For him to be ousted so suddenly.. It just screams poor management. I think Paradox bit more then they can chew and they're just cutting their loses at this point. Or trying to. Judging by all the reactions, this move might have just cost them more then they'd gain. I do hope I'm wrong but my optimism only goes so far. I'm kinda sensing another Tyranny.

I don't think (based on Mitsoda's statement) that this was attempt to cover up some misconduct

It wasn't. PDX officials confirmed it on their discord.
 
My hot take is that Paradox (publisher) would only allow a furfher delay to the release date (& extra resources) if Hardsuit changed its leadership team-most likely blaming them-wrongly-for the delays. The game has been in Alpha for more than 6 months at this point. If there was conflict with Brian over the narrative direction, I suspect it would have become public months ago. Heck, their recent XBox Series X trailer heavily.leaned into the mood that Brian has always been going for (dark humour).
 
Most likely explanation here, is that this is a cost saving measure. The stock market situation due to the Covid-19 situation is what is putting the squeeze on the development budget, while paradoxically (pun not intended, but welcome) increasing the total available budget.

Software industry is one of he industries that is doing well, despite the pandemic. However, what this means is that the shareholder expectations are also higher. Since software - including games - is a source of RoI, investors are expecting that return, which puts pressure on the companies to trim costs where able.

It is quite probable that the Bloodlines 2 storyline is largely or fully complete at this point, we were a few months away from release before the delay. No time to develop and test large storylines anymore. So given circumstances, the narrative development team simply become redundant and firing is what happens to reduntand employees.

The quote;
It's showbusiness, not showfriends.
Applies to games industry as well.
 
Without Mitsoda I have absolutely no faith right now for this project.. I wanted a Bloodlines sequel, but not without the main reason why I love the first game despite the not great combat, clankiness and jank to many of the gameplay aspects and technical side and bugs.. yeah, I know that Paradox and Hardsuit Labs are not going to throw everything that Brian did for the game away, but I really don't know what is going to left untouched and what is going to be scrapped.. and add to that, I really don't like how Paradox is cashing on tons of addons and DLCs for their games, so that is and always was a big problem for me when it comes to Paradox and Bloodlines 2 being together

Right now, my bar for the success of the game is so low, that it only can surprise me in a good way..
 
Imagine how great it would be to CDPR to buy the Vampire Masquerade - Bloodlines game and hire Brian Mitsoda to add his talent to the team *wink wink*
 
Without Mitsoda I have absolutely no faith right now for this project.. I wanted a Bloodlines sequel, but not without the main reason why I love the first game despite the not great combat, clankiness and jank to many of the gameplay aspects and technical side and bugs.. yeah, I know that Paradox and Hardsuit Labs are not going to throw everything that Brian did for the game away, but I really don't know what is going to left untouched and what is going to be scrapped.. and add to that, I really don't like how Paradox is cashing on tons of addons and DLCs for their games, so that is and always was a big problem for me when it comes to Paradox and Bloodlines 2 being together

Right now, my bar for the success of the game is so low, that it only can surprise me in a good way..

To be fair, all the narrative work would have been done for the game back during pre-alpha, & Brian sounded confident that the team he left behind would stay true to his vision. To be honest, it'd probably be far too expensive to re-do any of the narrative beats. So this is probably more of a cost-saving, not creative, measure. Still, I will reserve judgement until I see new gameplay footage.
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Without Mitsoda I have absolutely no faith right now for this project.. I wanted a Bloodlines sequel, but not without the main reason why I love the first game despite the not great combat, clankiness and jank to many of the gameplay aspects and technical side and bugs.. yeah, I know that Paradox and Hardsuit Labs are not going to throw everything that Brian did for the game away, but I really don't know what is going to left untouched and what is going to be scrapped.. and add to that, I really don't like how Paradox is cashing on tons of addons and DLCs for their games, so that is and always was a big problem for me when it comes to Paradox and Bloodlines 2 being together

Right now, my bar for the success of the game is so low, that it only can surprise me in a good way..

Also, to be fair, PDX rates second only to CDPR for how pro-consumer their games are. Be thankful this isn't being published by EA, Activision or Ubisoft. They'd all probably have pushed the game out in Q1, regardless of its quality or completeness.
 
Don't know was this posted here. Some rumors:

Originally posted by "frustrated keywords localiser":

The Publisher Paradox Interactive want more microtransactions in this game and to tone down some of the more mature elements. Both Brian Mitsoda and Ka’ai Cluney disagreed and were removed from the project.

(I was on the call with Keywords discussing their assistance with this game)

We are currently providing assistance with localization, animation and some vfx teams to help Hardsuit Labs. We only recently got into this project.

From what I understood in this call. The two fired employees disagreed with their boss and the publisher on the direction this game should go. Since they missed multiple deadlines and its looking more likely they will delay this game some more. The publisher wants to change some aspects of the game to fit into a more profitable sales model now that the game has been delayed and is over budget.

The original game was supposed to have significant violence, adult content and nudity (probably on par with Cyberpunk). Now the latter is presumably being removed entirely, the others will get cuts but not removed completely and they want to introduce micro-transactions of some kind into the SP experience. What those look like and how they will integrate them into the game I am not sure.

Yes. So some versions of the game would obviously be changed depending on the countries released. What it looks like now though is every version is getting changed. So I wouldn't be surprised if they delay this game even further.
 
This is starting to get boring.

Regardless of the (unknown) truthfullness of that rumor, I think I have better ways to spend my money than investing in a hope that it’s not going to be ”too bad”.
 
Thinking about it in a reasonable way, the delay was very much needed in VTMB - 2.

There are a lot of bad concepts, bad animations and ugly models going on there (IMO)

About the concepts:

a) Why they brought Damsel back? She was very annoying in the first game, and very shallow. ("I hate you, but now that you solve the pague stuff for "me" you are ok cammy, but don't tell anyone we're cool, hur dur"). They could bring back Nines Rodriguez, Jack, or, you know what? Be brave and do everything from scratch;

b) The spider parkour stuff. Why it's there? What's the point of it? Why some vampire, who have to hide itself from humanity, would do it in the middle of the city? (Hiding is what vampires do to don't be hunted down by humanity , Camarilla just exploit this fact to manipulate other kindred)

c) What's up with the acrobatic jumps in the middle of fights? It breaks immersion. Why not some simple dodging mechanics?

d) What about caitiff being the standart before you get a "promotion" to some clan? Why did they do this? It's not from Vampire the Masquerade. Caitiff are supposed to be abandoned kindred, without any mentorship and weak blood, not jedi masters.

About the animations, they're very bad, they move in a strange way, in the dancing clip the moves are very mechanic and breaks immersion. (Why did they made a dancing clip to promote it?)

And what happened to the models? Especially in the newer clips, they're worse than in alpha build, at least in the gameplay build the nosferatu looked good.

The character models looked very generic, or ugly, or something you already saw in another place (Yes I'm talking about Jesse Eisenberg luthor vampire dancer and the nosferatu killer slugg croc).

So, for me, that'll need some fixing, so Paradox should make Hardsuit Labs hire someone to adress this kind of problems and not fire Mitsoda.

There are cool stuff too, like adding some society groups.
 
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