[yrthwyndandfyre]

A plethora of unused voice files doesn't surprise me. Voice actors cost $dough$ so typically you'll bring them in, get them to do anything you can think of that you might eventually need, and get them back out, hopefully never having to hire them back again. You don't pay them money to sit around sipping pina coladas just in case you might need them later.

However, after long play, and long discussions with others in this forum, I've reached a conclusion that, in retrospect, is obvious. White Wolf wouldn't want a half-baked game with their name on it, so they probably intended to go for the gusto. Likewise, Troika would want to release a game that would wow the gaming world and ensure their immortality. Game programmers being what they are, they naturally wanted to produce the Bigger, Better Game and Blow Everybody's Socks Off. A terribly nice thing to have on one's resume.

It would not surprise me if they fully intended to provide every clan and bloodline as options, and provide a far more diversified environment. Then they ran head on into the hardest obstacle in the universe like Mr. Magoo playing Jai-Alai. A budget buttressed by a release target.

When that started to loom dark and ominous, things started getting tossed unceremoniously out the window in favor of simply getting something done that didn't suck. Implementing clans and bloodlines would be the hardest, so pick and choose from the best available implementations and toss the rest. Then quests become the next target. Then NPCs. Eventually it just got whittled down from something awesome and grandiose to something that could be done in the time available and within the budget.

Hence, we have all of these hints and clues of something greater, but nothing to back them up. They were probably supposed to be there, but couldn't be finished in time. You would doubtlessly find Troika's dumpster littered with unused concept art and storyboards that look very promising, but just took too long.