Anyone finished this game without cheating (spoilers?)

[pdblake]

This is a great game but I found certain parts impossible to do without using God mode.


For instance, the demon thing/tzimisch(sp) (forgotten it's name), in the search for the Nosferatu primogen. I just couldn't kill it.

The werewolf. I know the walkthrough says to just run like hell, but the damn game puts you right at its feet practically. I must have reloaded a couple of dozen times and gotten about three paces each time before being ripped apart.

Don't know about the sherrif or the behomoth (big bat thing) as I decided to leave God mode on by that point, but both were a sod to kill.

Finally ming's demon form, just as bad as the tzimisch(sp) thing.


Also at one point I had to go back to previous save and reload as the dialog and quest log screwed up (when you are told to go meet with nines). Simply reloading and talking to la Croix again fixed it all but it was really weird. Beckett stopped me in the street and started telling me abouth the hunters (previous quest) again. The anarchs wouldn't even talk to me and la Croix just kept telling me to meet with nines (but no quest log update). Weird.

[Faust]

Really? Wow. My guess is that most of us here on the forum have beaten it without cheating. I actually did so pre-patch without any serious problems, and I have a fairly mediocre pc. I never found Bloodlines that difficult of a game, though I suppose it had its trickier moments. Regardless, there are tips on most of the things you had problems with here in the forums, if you try the game again. Certaintly, some disciplines make the boss encounters (and potentially the werewolf encounter) easier than others (celerity, fortitude...). So one of those clans, may be more your style.

[Lestat]

I went through the whole game 5 times already and each time without cheating. Unless of course you consider reloading when you did something stupid (such as dying) as cheating .

Admittedly, to get past the werewolf depended each time more on luck than skill and each time I played the game I dreaded this quest. I would happily forego the XP associated with it in exchange for not having the frustration of going through it. But no such luck (but there is a whole thread dedicated to that issue). It took me a lot of reloads though.
BTW hiding works better than running.

Concerning Andrei, the Tzimisce:
1st time you confront him (in "Going the Way of Kings"), the easiest way to get through the encounter is to get on the table in the large room and start shooting at him whereever he appears. The headrunners can't reach you there and there will be only one, once Andrei is taking care of in this way.
2nd time you confront him (in "Hell at Hollowbrook Hotel"), there are two relatively safe places from which you can take shots at him: on the platform at the entrance and underneath the platform on the right hand side (when standing with your back to the entrance).

For Mings demon form: search the forum but essentially you have to adapt your technique to your skills & disciplines and have the necessary "blood recharge" ready (odious chalice & elder vitae packs). I usually needed the use the odious chalice (fully charged) and sometimes an elder vitae pack (but never two).
Same for the sheriff and his bat form (though maybe more bloodpacks needed).

[pdblake]

Well I'm trying again with a Malkavian at the mo, this time with no cheats.

Thanks for the tips on Andrei.

To be honest I think my biggest problem is constantly forgetting about the disciplines.

Speaking of disciplines, how do you manage to max them out while still keeping decent character stats? You don't seem to get too many XP points to spend.

[Lestat]

Basically, you need to specialise to a certain degree: while you put points in all of your disciplines, you augment only a certain group of your attributes & skills. Take a look at the autolevel schemes in the section dedicated to VtM:B to get an idea of what's possible and don't forget to use the tomes.
The beauty of the game is that you can't have a character that's good at everything, so you have to choose a certain "path".

[pdblake]

Thanks, I'll take a look

[Faust]

Lestat is correct. Each character you design in Bloodlines has the potential to be different from others. You will never be able to design a character - without cheating - who is good at everything they can possibly do.

Personally, it sounds like your largest problem with the game has been that you don't rely on your disciplines much. Disciplines are incredibly powerful. If used properly, disciplines like fortitude, celerity, dominate, obfuscate, thaumaturgy and animalism can great decrease the difficulty to the game (and each of these disciplines I mention requires a different set of strategies to operate at optimal effectiveness). As such, to truly tap into your character's abilities, you should spend some of your experience bringing those disciplines to respectable levels. This does not mean, however, that you'll want to max them all out (some disciplines will not fit into your play style, and, thus, not be worth the experience points), but every clan has certain disciplines which are of great aid to them.

In terms of attributes, personally, I never spent a great many points on physical attributes. The "blood buff" ability that all vampires have allows you to boost all of your physical attributes to their maximum value for short intervals of time. As such, it was never worth a great many experience points to me. Others would disagree, finding the blood cost to be too high for "blood buff."

Regardless, the suggestion to look at the "auto-level" scheme is a pretty good one. It will help you get acclamated to some effective leveling schemes.

[Shellhead]

I haven't quite finished this game, because the battle with the Sheriff has been too much work and not enough fun for me to finish so far. Otherwise, the only time that I cheated was when I used the no_clip cheat to get through that swimming challenge in the nosferatu tunnels. I'm playing a second game right now (well, not recently), and one of the patchs must have fixed the swimming problem, because I got through it without no_clip this time.

[yrthwyndandfyre]

Originally Posted by pdblake

To be honest I think my biggest problem is constantly forgetting about the disciplines.

Learning to use your disciplines and vampiric abilities (like feeding), I found, was extremely important in Bloodlines. Doubtlessly very much like you, I came from the land of shoot-em-up and had the devil's own time with bloodlines until I finally got through my head the idea that my PC is a vampire not Sgt. Rock. The game becomes much more playable (and fun) once you realize that you should be playing your character as a vampire. Once that realization dawned on me, sections that I'd had enormous trouble with became almost laughably simple.

Of course, the bosses are quite another thing, but even there, strategic use of your PCs gifts can be very handy.

[pdblake]

Originally Posted by yrthwyndandfyre

Doubtlessly very much like you, I came from the land of [i]shoot-em-up[/I

Actually no, I come from the world of Elder Scrolls It's odd but in ES I rely constantly on magic. If I try to think of disciplines as spells I'll probably remeber to use them more often

[Lestat]

The disciplines are very much like spells, but since there are fewer of them (compared to spells in Morrowind) they easier to keep track of.
The pure mouse control of the disciplines (scroll wheel + rightclick) also makes for great ease of use even in the middle of a fight (above combined with hit/shoot with leftclick). As you said, it's a question of remembering they're there.

[Melchiah]

When I went through as a Malkavian I had to cheat to get the better of Ming, but only because my flamethrower was empty and I was to weak to go at her with a tal'ma'he'ra-blade, after that I just left godmode on and quickly zipped through venture tower.

[yrthwyndandfyre]

Originally Posted by pdblake

Actually no, I come from the world of Elder Scrolls It's odd but in ES I rely constantly on magic. If I try to think of disciplines as spells I'll probably remeber to use them more often

Yeah, I've played Morrowind c/w both extensions, but in Morrowind, the magic is too easy. You focus on Alchemy until you can boost your intelligence to the Nth degree, and then enchant everything in sight. I remember with great fondness my enchanted Glass armor, Daedric shield, dual Daedric longswords and innumerable everythings that allowed me to be pretty much invincible, invulnerable, invisible, able to fly, and literally jump from coast to coast in three leaps - to the point where the god-mode cheat was a non-sequitur, I being by far more powerful than any god. In Bloodlines, the magic system is much more limited, and requires a lot more finesse. To get that kind of power in Bloodlines, you would have to be given the opportunity to diablorize Caine.

[fable]

Originally Posted by yrthwyndandfyre

Yeah, I've played Morrowind c/w both extensions, but in Morrowind, the magic is too easy. You focus on Alchemy until you can boost your intelligence to the Nth degree, and then enchant everything in sight.

In all fairness, I should remark that not all of us who play MW do so to take advantage of the cheese. I've got mods running, for example, that remove the ability to make Fortify Intelligence potions, and impose severe time limits on potions or spells for Levitate, Chameleon, Invisibility, and other potential gamekillers. Bloodlines doesn't allow that kind of cheese, much to its credit, and in both games, I tend to play a kind of warrior with strong backup magic skills.

[yrthwyndandfyre]

I'm "taking advantage of the cheese", as you so fragrantly put it. These things are mine by right. I don't regard them as cheating anymore than I regard feeding in VTMB as cheating. The game designers chose to put those choices in my hands. If I manage to use them in unforeseen ways, well, them's the breaks.