Vampire Suggestion - Idea - Beg If I Must

[Xarduvik]

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.

[Schizo]

This was a very good read IMO. I agree mostly, maybe even wholy. Your mention of vampire the masquerade is spot on. That is the best vampire game ever made to this date. I still, even now think about that game. I got new PCs over the years and did what ever I could to still play that game on newer systems. (I have high hopes for Vampyre) anyway, I don't want to be over powered. I just want to be viable. That is one reason I hate playing Animals. You miss most of the Damn game because nobody will talk to you. You have one town that is always empty. You have huge disadvantages with no worthwhile reward or trade off. I just don't want Vampire to be like this. Vampires have "mostly" always been able to pass as normal folk and I hope it stays that way. Also please no crappy 10 second 3 hour refresh spells (slight exaggeration) that give us barely enough time to even sell one item or use the bank. If we get our own city pleaae put it in Serbule and please give it everything the normal city has. Hopefully this will be done for animals also at some point. I am mostly fine being excluded from one city as long as other cities are equal. People shouldn't be punished for playing Animals or Vampires. Now I am fine with negatives as long as the positives match. IMO nothing can ever outweigh missing most of the game because npcs won't talk to you though lol. If you want to make these playable things with all these negatives and no real rewards then make it that way for every single race. Humans etc need constant chances of getting sick, from common colds to more serious things like the flu and pneumonia. Then maybe even super diseases like cancer etc that are much harder to cure (nothing will kill or permanently ruin your character of course) I just want equality for all Maybe tie in Vampire as advanced so you can't play it unless you are an active subscriber to the game. Some people won't like this (mostly the people who expect everything in an mmo to be free.) but I am more than fine paying extra for quality and to help a good game like this to succeed.

[Taledar]

Wouldn't the metabolism mechanic need to go out the window to be replaced by blood/energy?

I wonder if there has been any plan to incorporate bat form into vampires.

I think the problem you are going to run into the "Bad #1 " is from an animation/resource standpoint it is going to cost a lot more to animate that since it involves your character and the other character/mob in a coordinated animation. I imagine even if you did something like stun/mez to the other character there would be lot to account for with different races/heights, gear, terrain, etc that you just don't have to account for if the other character/mob is performing independent animations.

Not sure how the Dresden Files are viewed by vampire enthusiasts but I thought it was interesting how they had different Courts. Black = traditional vampires with all the positive/negative like Bram Stoker's, Red = Giant bat like creatures able to disguise and blend in with humanity, White = feed off emotions, energy like a succubus/incubus.

Whatever they decide to do, I'd like to see them put their own personal touch on it so that it fits into the world.