Junior Adventurer's Guild - October: Deus Ex + Vampire: The Masquerade - Redemption SPOOKY HALLOWEEN DOUBLE FEATURE

[loregamer]

@Vergil

REAL

[rusty_shackleford]

Real bros are bros who pay for a drugged out british homosexual to film a birthday gift for you

[Jordy]

@Vergil

Is he gay

Vergil or Astarion voice actor? Either way, yes.

[Luckmann]

So are there anything I should know about running Redemption in 2024? Any obligatory first-run mods, texture packs, widescreen fixes, whatever?

[rusty_shackleford]

So are there anything I should know about running Redemption in 2024? Any obligatory first-run mods, texture packs, widescreen fixes, whatever?

you'll probably need this:
https://dege.freeweb.hu/dgVoodoo2/dgVoodoo2/

there's age of redemption, but I wouldn't recommend using it — at least, not on a first playthru.

You guys should be playing this in 4:3, by the way. That is, if you have a 16:9 monitor there should be pillarboxing or else it's not rendering correctly.
Unless you're using the widescreen hack, it's not going to display properly in other aspect ratios.

[Luckmann]

You guys should be playing this in 4:3, by the way. That is, if you have a 16:9 monitor there should be pillarboxing or else it's not rendering correctly.
Unless you're using the widescreen hack, it's not going to display properly in other aspect ratios.

For some reason, the highest available 4:3 resolution is 1024×768, despite many higher resolutions being available. No 1440x1080 or even 1280x960. But yeah, all the regular 16:9 resolutions deform everything horrifically. But 1280x1024 (5:4, wtf) looks "close enough".

I won't be taking many screenshots on this one, though. Tabbing out of the game wrecks the game on tabbing in again, and there seems to be no way to run it as a borderless window.

Also, the controls and the camera are both ****. It's of no relevance to the conversation, I just felt a need to say it.

[1998]

So are there anything I should know about running Redemption in 2024? Any obligatory first-run mods, texture packs, widescreen fixes, whatever?

I spent a whole 5 minutes on searching widescreen fixes, but didn't find anything that works properly. Otherwise it was running just fine.

[Luckmann]

So are there anything I should know about running Redemption in 2024? Any obligatory first-run mods, texture packs, widescreen fixes, whatever?

I spent a whole 5 minutes on searching widescreen fixes, but didn't find anything that works properly. Otherwise it was running just fine.

The real question is what kind of ******* psychopath decided that they'd place "Run" on the middle-mouse button (in addition to holding Shift and Left-clicking), and then make "X" pan the camera, instead of just binding the camera to the middle mouse button. I realize that this was back when most mouses didn't have a middle mouse button at all, but what the ****.

And absolutely no way to customize controls. Shameful.

But we're off.

[1998]

So are there anything I should know about running Redemption in 2024? Any obligatory first-run mods, texture packs, widescreen fixes, whatever?

I spent a whole 5 minutes on searching widescreen fixes, but didn't find anything that works properly. Otherwise it was running just fine.

The real question is what kind of ******* psychopath decided that they'd place "Run" on the middle-mouse button (in addition to holding Shift and Left-clicking), and then make "X" pan the camera, instead of just binding the camera to the middle mouse button. I realize that this was back when most mouses didn't have a middle mouse button at all, but what the ****.

And absolutely no way to customize controls. Shameful.

But we're off.

Not the easiest game to get into, but I sure was glad that I didn't drop it after a few hours. It's worth pushing through.

[Trickster]

Ah, of course. First encounter in London should be a thug who's trying to rob us.





Thug didn't know it wasn't him robbing us....
And thanks to his carelessness, we can swap our falling apart medieval rags for modern clothes.



Update 1:
We learn the bitter truth that our prometheans no longer exist, and about the status of the brujah in the modern world.
We are also recruiting the glorious Sir Pink into our small but promising company for revenge against the damned Tzimisce and their accomplices.
Also, Christof so strongly attached to Anezka that he doesn't give up hope of finding any trace of her after so many centuries. I don't even know how to feel about that considering she literally betrayed him.

[Luckmann]

► Adventures in Mining & Some ****

Yeah, no, this Archbishop is hanging out in an all-too dark room to be legit.

Also, those whispers from the walls is a dead tip-off.
If Christof had any sense at all he'd cut the Archbishop up in his first showing.

So wait, this road goes just from the big gate in Prague's old town.. only to the mine? Nowhere else.

It's not like other paths are blocked off by rubble or some bridge is out.
It *only* goes to the mine, ~50m down the road from the city wall.

Yeah it's OK, I didn't need to be able to see anything anyway, I guess.


I am diseased.

The game, of course, does not explain what this means or does.

Managed to fix the darkness. Apparently the game was missing a bunch of .dll's that also came with dgVoodoo2, but not with the other .dll's, and had to go into the game directory directly, but was stuffed in a different folder for some reason. If this happens to anyone else, just take DDRaw.dll, D3DImm.dll, D3D9.dll, and D3D8.dll from the \MS\x86\ folder and dump it in the main game folder, and suddenly dgVoodoo2 will work and you will be able to adjust in-game gamma as well as use gamma boosting, etc.


Credit where credit is due, the game made me smile:

I'm imagining someone just carting around an entire bag of rats just to snack on when out and about.

Yeah this is fine.


If ever I was to say that there be such a thing as incel writing, I would proclaim this to be so.


And now all NPCs are only targetable for attacks. They don't even have banter.

They're not even hostile or anything.

I swear to the ******* gods, this dialogue is causing me physical and emotional pain, full-on aggravated damage.


This golem was such ******* ********. All combat in the game so far is either a chore or a lesson in frustration.

Not the easiest game to get into, but I sure was glad that I didn't drop it after a few hours. It's worth pushing through.

I am finding this increasingly doubtful.

[Trickster]

They're not even hostile or anything.

Killing non-hostile characters, such as monks, lower humanity. This can affect the ending, from what I understand.

In the meantime:

► Show Spoiler

We've come to the Setite's lair. A place that's connected to crime world of mortals and Sabbat in America. Which means it's time to get information the only way our Christof knows how. The purge.




Our team is joined by the charming toreador Lilly, who clearly has some nice.... features.

[Finarfin]

► Show Spoiler

Thus doth Christof's journey commence.

Prague, a faire and beauteous place, yet concealeth horrors beyond mortal ken

Gallant Knights of St. John, weary though they be, yet ever steadfast in their sacred duty.

Christof shall surely vanquish the foul evil that doth beset the Silver Mines.

As was feared, this mine concealeth evil far beyond mere bandits or savage beasts.

A mockery of a cathedral, which doth harbor an evil most foul.

Azhra, the loathsome she-devil, doth vow that our mortal realm shall be subjugated by her vile kin.

Christof bestoweth upon Anezka his most cherished possession, yet she remaineth the dearest of all that he cannot possess.

His love for Anezka doth compel him to confess, though both are servants of God and may not indulge their forbidden feelings.

Katherina's embrace did shatter Christof's spirit, his soul laid bare before him. Naught remaineth for salvation or damnation. Is there yet hope for his wretched plight?

Prince Brandl requireth us to fulfill his bidding ere we be permitted to proceed.

These laboratories are most vile, and we would best ensure the dispatch of all who are involved therein.

Luther Black, throughout the Ages.


Our goodly friend Erik hath been transformed into a hideous beast by the vile Etrius.

We have found Anezka, as fair as when last we beheld her, yet her words are vile and wicked.

After disrupting the dark ritual to summon Vudkodlak, the edifice did collapse; yet Christof, valiant in his resolve, did protect Anezka, awakening in the year of our Lord 1999 in London.

After battling his way through the Society of Leopold, he gazeth upon the world, feeling naught but a profound sense of loss, for all that he once knew and loved hath vanished.

After being waylaid by a cutpurse, he doth turn the tables, striking fear into the rogue’s heart and compelling him to part with his own garments. Thus clad, he wandereth into a club teeming with... curious folk. Among them is a punk by the name of Pink.

It seemeth that Pink is much displeased by the antics of the Malkavian hacker known as Dev/Null.

Dev/Null is a most curious being, his speech fraught with riddles, mystery, and madness.

Pink, after parleying with Alessandro Giovanni, doth slay him against our will, and revealeth himself as Abdul Al-Hazim, an Assamite assassin, sworn to serve the very evil we sought to vanquish.

We were betrayed by one we believed to be a friend, yet in turn regained another whom we once thought lost to death. Wilhem, who stood with us in our darkest hour, now standeth once more at our side.

Upon discovering the whereabouts of Lily's sire, we hastened thither with all speed. She had been compelled to paint Vudkodlak’s likeness with her own blood. His lackeys did arrive, but we swiftly dispatched them, that she might use their blood to complete the cursed painting.

Once more we have encountered Orsi, the serpent who did betray us 800 years past. This time, Orsi shall not escape our wrath!

The clock doth strike midnight, and our aim to prevent Vudkodlak’s rise from torpor hath failed. Yet, we may still halt him ere he unleasheth havoc upon this world.

His foul presence doth fill the chamber, but soon he shall lie slain at our feet.

After battling him, his patience waned, and the very ground beneath our feet did crumble. Whilst we smote his monstrous minions, we came upon a hallway lined with faces—each bearing the visage of Anezka. As we drew nigh, they spake of her fate during the long years when Christof himself lay in torpor.

The grotesque manner in which the face doth emerge from the wall sendeth chills down one’s spine, as the emotionless visage recounteth the torments Anezka was forced to endure.

We did reach Vudkodlak, whose anger hath bred arrogance, revealing unto us his true form.

And so, Christof and his companions did vanquish the ancient evil and rescue Anezka. Christof and Anezka may now find bliss in one another's company.

THE END

[Luckmann]

► Night 2; it's bad

What a fat ******* of a vampire.


It is hard for my to impart just how mind-numbingly awful the combat is in this game.

Yeah, one of the guys back there is drinking an invisible nosferatu, but **** you if you missclick anywhere even once as they blink in and out of existence and the janky camera follows each individual character that is moving in a zig-zag pattern because the pathing is just as bad. If I had a propensity for motion sickness, I'd kill myself.

Combat essentially only have three states: Complete trash filler, borderline impossible, and essentially random, all of which are frantic uncontrollable clusterfucks. In this fight, the coterie went up against 6 Nosferatu, and both Christof and Serena went down almost immediately. Wilhem then proceeded to auto-attack the remaining enemies to death with barely a scratch. Note the nosferatu in the background that is just running around like a headless chicken for no reason; there's actually another one behind the camera, too.

This was followed by me having to use Awaken, but since the corpses are all invisible, I ended up accidentally awakening an enemy (because yes, you can do that for some reason) and wasting the scroll, forcing me to load.

And when you change focus to another character, the character you were controlling forgets what you ordered it to do, and immediately starts being ******** again. And woe to you if you hit the hitbox of an ally in battle, because then you can start drinking from your ally instead, interrupting both characters with a lengthy animation in the middle of combat, interrupting all actions for both of them.

Did you think Wilhem could move between Serena and the beam leaning against the wall? Of course not! How stupid of me! Let's just start running back and forth while tied to the camera and **** the **** out!

**** YOU. **** YOU.

There was a boss-fight here, but it was like all other fights; swing attacks over and over again until it dies, maniacally spamming very short-time buffs that doesn't explain what they do, hoping that you kill the enemy before it kills you.


Yeah, Serena is shooting straight into the wall, wasting all her arrows. It is also impossible to reposition her, because if you tell her to move she just shoots there, wasting more arrows.


Sometimes followers just stop following for no apparent reason. Regrouping interrupts movement and usually does nothing.

I also wish that I could impart the sound effects and the music of the game. I can only describe the current "ambiance" as "sleep-inducing repetitive white noise interspersed with the soothing wailing of an exceptionally stoned drunk white girl". The rest of the music in the game seems to go in the same vein so far.

Trying to grab the coins behind Serena. Christof is just running in the air, stuck. This happens frequently in the middle of combat, too.


I just found a book, right-clicked it, and it just disappeared.
This is where I'd post an image but I didn't think to take one, because all I was doing was trying to read a ******* book.
Did it do something? I have no idea, because the game doesn't tell you.
Poof, gone.

You have to expend blood and then drink blood constantly, and drinking blood is so ******* slow, holy ****.

I estimate that the game has already stolen 30-60 minutes of my life just standing around waiting for someone to be drained.

Edit: I posted this by accident, I was going to just preview it, but it doesn't matter, there's no sensible division to these anyway, might as well stop and start a new one in the middle of the ******* druidic Tremere chantry. Shared suffering is double suffering, as they say.

[rusty_shackleford]

It's soul, you wouldn't get it.

[Finarfin]

I get the feeling that Luckmann:
A) sucks at videogames
B) has **** taste in games
C) is ********
D) all of the above

I tend to go with D.
inb4 newfag, come up with something better.

[Trickster]

Setite Temple. There's just a bald motherfuckers and snakes there. They're nothing compared to the Tremere we defeated during the Dark Ages. The greatest threat comes from those equipped with a grenade launcher. However, they can be quickly dealt with when we get close enough to them. A combo of Prison of Ice and Theft of Vitae makes us feel really powerful. I plan to enhance this further by adding a Firestorm and make Christof a truly unstoppable force.






Also, This **** is a banger:




Just listen.

Update 1:

The boss of the temple is sexy. But very easy to defeat. Unfortunately, the game tells us that she survived. As her heart isn't inside her body, we shall venture to the Tower of London in order to finally eliminate her once and for all.

[Vergil]

What sort of mental illness compels people to repeatedly make AAR logs to ***** about a game they hate?

[Tweed]

What sort of mental illness compels people to repeatedly make AAR logs to ***** about a game they hate?

The same kind that makes them ***** about polls and not playing a game after it wins.

[Vergil]

What sort of mental illness compels people to repeatedly make AAR logs to ***** about a game they hate?

The same kind that makes them ***** about polls and not playing a game after it wins.

[Brother Michael]

Looks like I’m gonna get that mean-spirited badge!

[Zothique]

The ****** arms dealer in Deus Ex is the most realistic thing about the game, especially how he **** you on prices.

[Tweed]

The ****** arms dealer in Deus Ex is the most realistic thing about the game, especially how he **** you on prices.

In GMDX if you rescue his friend the discount stays active, a bug in the original game removes it.

[Zothique]

The ****** arms dealer in Deus Ex is the most realistic thing about the game, especially how he **** you on prices.

In GMDX if you rescue his friend the discount stays active, a bug in the original game removes it.

"The Discount"

Yeah, that bioelectric cell is TOTALLY worth the credits, even after said discount.

Apparently he needed one extra book in that trap house he inhabited on how to be an effective Jew.

[Tweed]

The ****** arms dealer in Deus Ex is the most realistic thing about the game, especially how he **** you on prices.

In GMDX if you rescue his friend the discount stays active, a bug in the original game removes it.

"The Discount"

Yeah, that bioelectric cell is TOTALLY worth the credits, even after said discount.

Apparently he needed one extra book in that trap house he inhabited on how to be an effective Jew.

Have you tried not being poor?

[Zothique]

In GMDX if you rescue his friend the discount stays active, a bug in the original game removes it.

"The Discount"

Yeah, that bioelectric cell is TOTALLY worth the credits, even after said discount.

Apparently he needed one extra book in that trap house he inhabited on how to be an effective Jew.

Have you tried not being poor?

Sorry, shooting kids with the GEP gun in Battery Park didn't make me a rich man. I forgot to read the book on Keynesian economics for that one. Perhaps I should have listened to Paul and taken the stun baton instead so I didn't end up incenerating everyone's wallets?

It's wise to listen to the bio-aug that is ******* Maggie Bow-Wow Chow-Chow.

[Trickster]

Should I drink blood from her heart or nah?

[SpellSword]

► Night 2; it's bad

I just found a book, right-clicked it, and it just disappeared.
This is where I'd post an image but I didn't think to take one, because all I was doing was trying to read a ******* book.
Did it do something? I have no idea, because the game doesn't tell you.
Poof, gone.

I've also found a scroll and a book like that, they don't 'seem' to do anything. I haven't used either of them and my progress hasn't been barred yet so don't worry too much about it. Their existence does still leave me curious though...

[Trickster]

► Night 2; it's bad

I just found a book, right-clicked it, and it just disappeared.
This is where I'd post an image but I didn't think to take one, because all I was doing was trying to read a ******* book.
Did it do something? I have no idea, because the game doesn't tell you.
Poof, gone.

I've also found a scroll and a book like that, they don't 'seem' to do anything. I haven't used either of them and my progress hasn't been barred yet so don't worry too much about it. Their existence does still leave me curious though...

I'm going to assume it's a piece of cut/unfinished content. There are plenty of traces of this sort of thing in the game. For example, armor, items and weapons that only humans can use. Various gameplay mechanics for humans. I mean, it's a game that was published by Activision.
They must have pushed the developer in every way possible, as they did with the Troika and Bloodlines.
And just like with Troika, the developer of Redemption soon met it's “final night”.

[Luckmann]

► Leaving Prague, Enter Vienna

RIVETING!


Why the **** would life-debts be a part of "cainite law"? I understand conceptually why they'd want to do something like that, but come the **** on, what the ****.


The timeline (or the presentation of such) is so ******. From my perspective, it's been maybe two nights, but somehow Anezka has been back and forth to the gypsy woman, the university, the Tremere, the Tzimisce, and then left three days ago. What the ****.

These dumps manages to be worse than Tides of Numanuma, at least those could be skimmed without someone talking over it all.

Great, now I have four ******* to babysit.


"Exit to Vienna"; as we all know, Prague and Vienna are really just separated by a wall and a wooden door.


Hahaha, holy ****, I was just joking, I didn't think it'd actually treat Vienna as if it was just a district of Prague. I was actually expecting some kind of transition scene or having to travel some distance on the roads or something. Goddamn.


Yup, we're in Vienna alright. Just.. there.

The map is as useless as the one in Prague, too!

A "scroll" that does nothing.


Holy ****, this barkeep can be interacted with. Not meaningfully, but it's still something!


>the antediluvian Salout


Just **** me with the invisible wall I guess.


Whomever designed a section where you have to avoid sunlight, but with a party AI that happily runs straight into sunlight and that cannot be micro-managed, resulting in aggravated damage, was a psychopath.


This is a very common bug, wherein the target just.. stands around, untargetable, and does nothing. Eventually, they just fade away.


The shadows in this place are pretty cool, though, I have to admit.


But we have ******* town portals, though? For some reason, somehow.


They can't fit through the door at the same time, but they keep trying, being stuck there.


There's some neat art in the game at times, but you rarely see it if you don't stop and look (and know that you can enter first-person view with Z), due to the bad camera.


The same goes for a very small number of the locales, so far. This looks great, but again you'll never actually see it "during gameplay"; you have to stop and enter first-person view at just the right place. But I want to end this one on a good note:

This screenshot alone makes the game look and feel and seem so much better than it is.

inb4 newfag, come up with something better.

Why would I call you a newfag? I don't even know who you are.

The ****** arms dealer in Deus Ex is the most realistic thing about the game, especially how he **** you on prices.

Yes, this is true, but to be fair, he is also incredibly based.

What sort of mental illness compels people to repeatedly make AAR logs to ***** about a game they hate?

These aren't AAR logs, and who said I came into it hating the game? I was very clear on never actually having played it before, and I went into the game expecting to finish it, and I bloody well will.

We all know you're an intensely butthurt ****** at all times, but gods almighty, you're the one that wanted us to play this!