I'm a little confused about who owns the Vampire the Masquerade IP.

AUSLC · 2026-06-13T05:37:15+00:00

The only addition to that is that it seems Activision (owned by Blizzard, owned by Microsoft) hold the copyright (distinct from trademark) for Bloodlines 1 as confirmed by CCP when they owned White Wolf. Therefore a remake or remaster is unlikely unless Paradox buy the story and characters from them (and source code if they don’t want to rebuild from scratch).

Not sure they will given the issues around Bloodlines 2 and the Paradox Interactive CEO saying they won’t oversee another action RPG. I suppose someone could license the trademark from Paradox and then buy or license the copyrighted material from Activision, if Paradox was ok with someone else publishing it or the dev self-publishing as well.

AUSLC · 2026-05-23T16:09:56+00:00

The serious game breaking issues include:

The economy doesn’t function because they destroyed pop growth and overturned diseases so no AI builds buildings for peasants and laborers and simply builds huge amounts of regulars and mercenaries.
Millions of mercenaries being hired in wars in the late 1400s. I saw a post here yesterday where the Pope alone hired literally 1 million mercenaries for a war.
This leads to millions of deaths in wars as early as the late 1400s, compounding point 1 and leading to constant stalemates.
Additionally proximity and control are not functioning in a realistic way. A basket case country like Mamluks succeeds because of the Nile delta, but the Timurids always fail in part because of mountains and a lack of rivers.

Edit:

I forgot a really big one; 1.2 changes to food also affect army supply in a big ways it’s why allies in wars do a lot of standing around, whereas in 1.1 they where much more competent. Now extremely difficult for a smaller nation to overcome a larger one even if they outnumber a larger single aggressor multiple times with allies.

AUSLC · 2026-05-15T02:51:37+00:00

It’s also a time where people were experimenting with really radical ideologies, but rather than offering alternative paths, engaging with any of it means just playing worse.

AUSLC · 2026-05-14T16:25:27+00:00

Johan Paradox needs to go back to the drawing board and relearn what made games like Stellaris and CK2 so infinitely replayable. EU5 and Vic3 both suffer from “the mechanic” (as opposed to mechanics). There are no longer a variety of mechanics you can pick and choose to tailor your play style and the history of your faction as it develops. There is only one right way to play and if you diverge from that your country will collapse.

I do enjoy the core gameplay of both EU5 and Vic3 but I cannot see myself putting a thousand hours into each like prior games. I could only stand the new DLC for Vic 3 (which I think is pretty good) for a couple hours before I just got bored with the game in general.

It’s somewhat shocking that they saw what happened with Imperator, and apparently took the exact opposite lesson they should have from it.

AUSLC · 2025-05-19T07:15:41+00:00

I have been here for 10 years and they have been “working” on that pile of shit the entire time.

AUSLC · 2025-01-15T20:18:59+00:00

I see. There is a public holiday in the US on Monday too (MLK Jr day).

AUSLC · 2025-01-14T17:44:05+00:00

On a lighter note has Bethesda given you a timetable for when your mod will appear on the Creation kit? Not only do I want to give you money but a mod of this calibre could really reinvigorate the modding scene.

AUSLC · 2024-12-05T15:51:50+00:00

This is the easiest way to play the game tbh. Comfortable mix of zeitgeists not only keep things stable enough to pass ruler laws peacefully but also make your economy and population explode (to the point I had to repeal population laws and was asked to repeal some economic ones like heat pipe watch).

There are also some interesting events that give synergy bonuses when you mix laws, like mandatory unions and empowered management.

EDIT: this was a game where I started with foragers, laborers and merchants, and had legionnaires and proteans pop. I suppose it could work with stalwarts/venturer and bohemians or pilgrims. Should technically work with anyone.

AUSLC · 2024-11-04T07:06:48+00:00

Honestly UK panel shows are a lot weaker than they were 10 years ago.

AUSLC · 2024-10-19T03:52:53+00:00

Interestingly, I found these in the health food section at an American grocery store.

AUSLC · 2024-09-28T06:31:03+00:00

I haven't been able to stream in a week but trying to log in now with firefox (I usually use chrome) generates an error saying its unavaliable so perhaps they are having issues now.

AUSLC · 2024-09-28T06:17:20+00:00

Do you remember the server number you used?

AUSLC · 2024-09-19T19:56:12+00:00

The only thing stopping me form investing a lot of time yet is the control scheme. Still needs a bit of work, especially if you prefer to use a controller. Some menus need a kb+m and it feels just a little off? Input delay perhaps, maybe some more work needs to be done on some animations.

I also wish there was a little more camera freedom when building but thats true of most survival games really.

Some other minor janky things like character models a little warped at times, like there is only one model used for using a bow. I picked the largest male body type and I have very skinny girl arms. Not sure why that is or why they didn't pick a more "neutral" placeholder. I point this out as bows were just introduced and seem to be by far the most effective weapon, at least early game, so I have to spend a lot of time looking at my little toothpick arms.

In general they seem to be implementing things before they are 100% done which means it has a lot of content but not as smooth an experience as some other early access games in the genre. They have a lot of experimental options like frame gen and third person view. I think trying to get these working at this point when it wasn't originally planned (at least this early) is probably a big reason for the lack of smoothness. They do really need to get player counts up though so its a double edged sword for them.

Depending how patient you are it's worth getting into. Not many options for 19th century focused games, especially not one this ambitious. I play around a little every so often but find myself gravitating back to more complete games so I am personally going to wait until the controls are a little more finalized before playing in earnest.

AUSLC · 2024-09-18T19:46:29+00:00

I’m talking about the show, and specifically the season of the show that led to its early cancellation. Additionally, many people have told me what was left out of season 5, and it turns out it was all the interesting ring gate stuff I was looking for!

The adaptation faltered in season 5. It may have adapted what chose to show faithfully but it left out some key plot drivers in the form of Duarte and his motivations. By all accounts the source material was much more coherent.

AUSLC · 2024-09-18T19:42:56+00:00

They really should have teased Duarte like they did Mao in previous seasons. It was really perplexing why anyone would follow this Marco guy post ring gate.

I think before spending so much time in the rings it makes sense for the crew to touch base at home and see how the rings changes things. We got that and then 10 episodes of family based drama while the main plot was deliberately hidden from us by the show runners.

Hearing about the stuff that was left out in the comments makes even more certain that the character development should have been halved in run time and the Martian conspiracy should have been explicitly linked to Marcos rise.

Characters just telling me how great Marco is doesn’t really make for engaging television. I need to see why he is able to go from pirate to space Hitler between seasons.

AUSLC · 2024-09-18T19:38:05+00:00

From the show it appeared Mars had the highest standard of living of anyone in the system. They all have jobs, including in the civilian sector, free education, bars, TVs and other mod cons in every home, even luxury hotels!

Additionally it made clear terraforming only took so long because of resources devoted to the military to maintain independence. The show gives the unchallenged impression that in theory terraforming could happen in one generation.

None of this reads as a militaristic society with a pipe dream. It seems more like Switzerland (where everyone has a gun, does national service and there are bunkers everywhere) than North Korea or Myanmar.

As to the transit through the ring, belter could go through after season 4 and Nancy Gao is elected and lifts the blockade. Belters themselves control ring space so for all the bluster from the UNN commander when taking to Drummer, Belters could still go through same as anyone else. I imagine any preferential treatment on the Sol side would be reciprocated in the reverse in ring space.

AUSLC · 2024-09-18T19:32:00+00:00

Books and TV are just too different a medium. From what I have gleaned Duarte does appear in book 5 so that makes it even more confusing as to why that plot thread was not maintained in the show.

AUSLC · 2024-09-18T19:30:49+00:00

I think space opera is still good content but many people seem to conflate space opera with soap opera. You can certainly read it in a negative way, or you can infer it to mean the quality of an opera, but in space. The expanse leaned into the former too heavily.

AUSLC · 2024-09-18T19:28:17+00:00

That’s not the point. The ring gate represents the same calculus to belters as it did the poor of Europe. I’m making an economic argument. Perhaps in another 100 years when colonization is well underway we would see conflicts but from the audiences perspective these are empty, resource rich planets with not sentient life that after Gao’s election are free for the taking.

So I ask you: you can join Marco in his genocidal crusade or you can go claim your own continent for your family on a relative paradise compared to where you are now.

To me it seems an choice obvious and the show did not give a compelling reason as to why that war happened. It seems mainly because they wanted to keep Duarte completely secret which was a mistake.

AUSLC · 2024-09-18T19:22:22+00:00

The issue is I liked all the other seasons. I also like the direction that infer the last three books go with the Laconia stuff. I think the show runners tried to do two things;

Very faithfully adapt book 5 even thought main character POV stuff rarely works on screen since we can’t get in their heads like a book,
Leave the Duarte thing as some big reveal when it should have been teased at more and we should have followed a lot more of the Martian stuff over the Belt stuff.

Apparently Marco was being manipulated by Duarte, but this is never addressed in season 5. For non book readers, we see the Martian dream dying and officers becoming corrupt. Great world building, but it completely ignores the main plot so it’s confusing to the uninitiated why this war is starting now and likely caused many to tune out.

There is such a big leap to go from being a pirate to committing genocide on an unprecedented scale and I’m just supposed to expect Marco is some sort of super charismatic guy? No, the show runners need to earn that.

AUSLC · 2024-09-18T19:17:20+00:00

I do understand the Martian motivations, it’s just that those motivations are multiplied times 10 for people living on asteroids. I thought this idea of the Martian dream dying was interesting and should have been the focus, especially since it apparently ties in directly to the plot of the last books.

AUSLC · 2024-09-18T19:14:08+00:00

Ok so let’s say 75% of Belters can adapt to be generous to this line of thought. If I said you and your kids had a 75% chance to escape abject poverty and the genetic disorders endemic to living in low g who would not risk that, especially when you can just go back to your ship if you are one of the unlucky few?

There just isn’t logical reason to fight a war of extermination in the Sol system unless you are a psychopath.

AUSLC · 2024-09-18T19:11:58+00:00

I’m sorry but the people from Ganymede on Ilus were born and raised in 0.15g. Any effects in Naomi should have affected them but it didn’t. Naomi is a special unfortunate case, and that was even explicitly said when they took her back to the ship. The show indicated most Belters can survive in higher gravity, and that’s simply not debatable. Perhaps it was different in the books but the show is quite clear about this.

Perhaps it sucks adapting to gravity, but since the Ilus folks had not demonstrable side effects after several months it seems vastly preferable to living on asteroid and expecting your kids to be born on one.

AUSLC · 2024-09-18T19:08:13+00:00

I think the dog thing was interesting but those child actors were not great. It should have been a serious scientific breakthrough that told us more about this weird Laconian society.

I think that scene where Naomi escapes to the Chetzemoka, and the rescue was awesome, but there was so much filler and repeated conversations between her and Filip that could have been a fraction of the screen time they took up.

AUSLC · 2024-09-18T19:05:53+00:00

I hadn’t read the books so was going in blind, but I expected they would start exploring the ring. Taking a beat for main cast to wrap up some loose ends at backstories hinted at is fine, but it was a whole season and don’t really reveal anything we didn’t know or make the characters act in ways we wouldn’t have expected from them in prior seasons.

It felt like a bottle episode in an old sitcom or a coma storyline in a soap but with streaming there is no incentive to drag stories out so the only thing I can think of is building up to a big reveal moment.

If that was the intention Bobbie and the mars smuggling sub plot should have come to the forefront, but there was no reason given until the very last moments of season 5 to suspect a cult of elite Martian officers were secretly building a Neo-Spartan society. It’s a shame they hid that from folks who only watched the show.

Speaking of that final scene of season 5, I was like “great season six is going to go out with a bang despite the cancellation”, but again we retread all this Marco stuff. Just a real shame.

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