Team,

I know you are planning a Vampire release. When I did a search on the forum, only 14 topics came up relating to the term Vampire, none of them a suggestion. After this post, it should be 15 topics. But, I am not just some weirdo making eye-rolling demands. Oh no, not at all. This is a suggestion.

Whatever you plan on to implement the Vampire line, there are certain things that have been done correctly, and things that game developers have done badly. People like me, who are Vampire addicts, aren't addicted to the lore per se. We're addicted to the idea that we can gain power over another, through consuming or mind control, to do our bidding. Plus, it helps if the victim has a nice, sweet neck. Now, on to the things done badly.

Bad List (tm)
1. No neck biting. Just pull a red line, red mist, red stream of whatever out of the victim and across the distance to make the so-called vampire glow red for a moment to bolster their 'blood level' and all that jazz. Big Warning Here: There are tens of thousands of people, who are looking to play a vampire class in their game, who quit those games because of that level of not-so-cool vampirism. If you cut out neck biting, you will have lost 70% of the fan base interest on the spot. You may not be into neck biting yourself, but there are lots out there who do, and they cry at this terrible game mechanic.

2. No Mental Domination. Cut that out, you lose 25% of those remaining 30% of the vampire fan base.

3. Blood levels equals powers, health and other system silliness that runs out on its own. Just because.

4. 2 second drinking. A vampire takes time to charm their victim, draws them in close in a remote area, and 2 seconds later, it's all over. Yuck.

5. Tag. You're a vampire. That's it? Bleck.
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Good List (tm)
1. There is a reason that the game called Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines has a massive third party unofficial patch and many sit at home code developers fixing the game so it runs today, enough so that it's still sold for twenty bucks. They bite necks, and in more ways than one, and make vampires what they should be in a game. I'm not saying to copy that game, I'm just pointing out the fact that the game survived well after 2004 when it got abandoned by the developers. (It's EA, they abandon everything, successful or not in those days) A game that even I play today, because I get to stalk that cute woman, wait for the police to be too far away, and then I can bite that sweet unsuspecting neck. Or I can sweet talk her into a dark alley away from everybody else...

2. You can charm animals in Gorgon, awesome! Vampires need NPC humanoids they can charm, and occasionally snack on if they need a quick fix while in the wilds. Sure, those humanoid snacks can also fight and die for their vampire masters, just like the pets can, but not as well as they should if they were fighting with a free will.

3. Drinking blood should heal a vampire, yes, but only when they need to be healed. Their health, power or stamina shouldn't run out just because it's been awhile since they drank up. Immortal doesn't mean a weaknesses once per hour unless they drink buckets of blood. It's just the opposite.

4. Drinking blood takes a touch of time. It doesn't all fall out of the body in 2 seconds or less. A good embracing hug and are they necking? Nope, that's a vampire enjoying their victim. A good timer that runs down on a two minute slide may seem like a long time, but with the buffing benefits of drinking their victim almost to the point of death should be nice. With the option of course, to finish off the victim by draining them dry.

5. Rules on making other vampires should be a mutual consent between the vampire and the player victim. In fact, NPC blood packs a nice punch, but player blood should even offer more. Players should be able to bottle up some of their blood to sell to vampires, only so many per day of course, they don't want to drain themselves dry, lol. But a willing player who wants to be a vampire, should offer their blood and to be drained dry, killed in a non-pvp vampire drink skill that targets the neck, and they have a 45% chance of respawning as a vampire. Just saying. It can be done really cool this way. It'll be immersive on the vampire lore, which is what we want, right?
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There we have it folks. 5 bad ways that has been done, and 5 good ways it can be improved. No game out there today has ever put all 5 good things into one game, not even VTM: Bloodlines. If you do it, you'll be the first, and yes, there is a tremendous crowd out there who are just drooling to find a game this cool to play a vampire in. ^_^

I beg you, if I must, to do this or better. Maybe not all the good things, just to make it so at later updates. but please, PLEASE do not do it the way it's been done on the bad list.

This is my suggestion. As meager as it is, please consider.