Part 66: X - Negaposi*Continues

Through the negative and the positive, this be-be-be-beat continues. And last time, we were squarely in the negative. Sadly, I can not simply say "no" three times and escape from this madness, I'm stuck here. However, we should now be done with the worst part! Should. Yeah.

Oh, by the way, I don't think it needs clarification after last time, but I'm done trying to give this mod any legit credit beyond "holy shit, this part isn't really fucking terrible". I was browsing the forum for this mod, and I honest to god saw somebody claiming, with a straight face, that the sewers were "puzzle based", hell, he even said it was "puzzle laden". I'm not entirely sure why it was exactly this that did it, but something in me snapped right there. I can only assume that if confronted with actual puzzles, like the stuff in the Zero Escape games, that his head would just explode. "Put only interactive item in range other only interactive item" is now a fucking puzzle, as is "hit a switch and backtrack to a different switch". I don't know why this surprises me, given that this is the mod that threw some math homework at me and claimed it was a puzzle with a straight face. At least fucking disguise it in some sort of text, for the love of god - that way, you would maybe have had to think a bit to recognize it as a set of linear equations!



Anyway, look, we've found the Nosferatu now!



There haven't been any changes to this place, so we just go through the motions, picking up quests.



Imalia kind of breaks, in that her intro dialogue just doesn't play, it jumps right into it as if we had already talked to her. Well, it doesn't actually really break anything, so eh.



You know, I've never understood why Gary is supposed to be horrifying. Bertram Tung is a much uglier son of a bitch, Gary's practically handsome for a Nosferatu. Anyway, we get his quest too.



The quest log says that I should tell Isaac about the Nosferatu and the things in the sewers, but I can't, because I assume something broke. We instead pick up the quest about the gargoyle - that being the gargoyle in the Asian Theatre, not Edward VII. I could probably go through the full thing with going to Strauss and picking up some brownie points, but fuck it. This was right after the sewers, and I was not in the mood for fucking around.



SLEDGEHAMMER AWAY!



Also, the quest log breaks again, because I did not convince the gargoyle to do anything. I went the straightest route to "fuck you, fight me". Anyway, we don't get any rewards, so moving on to the next quest.



I dismiss Edward and Ash, because it's time for sneaking.



Bopping around, we find a new item. I wonder what this is?



Well, this sounds interesting, but I can't get it to work. Like, I know that you have to hit "use" to activate it, but it seems like I just randomly lose the effect while sneaking. Kind of weird.



So, we go through some discipline abuse and eventually finish the quest, backtrack to Imalia, get our reward, then rejoice that we'll never have to return to the Nosferatu warrens anymore! Yaaaaaay!

Now, things get a bit weird. I played ahead a bit to check some things, and multiple strange things happened to me. I didn't record any of this, but here's the gist of what happened:

- Head to the Tremere chantry to see if Strauss has anything to say about the gargoyle. He does not. Go to the Tremere haven and run into Heather there. Why is she there all of a sudden? Use the computer and check my e-mails, reading the ones from Mitnick about his quest and Gary about the posters. This may have been a mistake.
- Head back to the Skyline Apartments and the other haven. It turned out that pretty much all the furniture had disappeared, and I couldn't use the computer for some reason. This was still in the same gameplay session as when I went through the sewers, so that was pretty much the knockout blow and I quit right there without trying to figure out just why all the furniture disappeared.
- Reloaded a save from before entering the Skyline Apartments and entered again. This time, no disappearing furniture, but Edward VII and Ash were nowhere to be found. I also couldn't find the key that Mitnick was supposed to leave in my mail box. Well, maybe that's because I looked at the e-mail at the Tremere haven?
- Went to the Tremere haven. No Edward VII or Ash, no key.
- Went to the Santa Monica haven. No Edward VII or Ash, no key.
- Went back to the Skyline haven. No Edward VII or Ash, no key.
- Went to the Nosferatu haven, which is also unlocked, by the way. No Edward VII or Ash, no key - though I didn't expect it there, it was just a case of trying the last possible option, even though it's dumb.
- Decided that maybe I could solve the problem by continuing Gary's poster quest - since it requires you to put something in your mail box, maybe doing it would cause the game to get un-confused about just which haven I'm using?
- Got the item from the Asian Theater, brought it back to the Skyline haven, put it in the mailbox, left, came back. Edward VII and Ash suddenly reappeared in the haven, but the key is still MIA.
- Tried to use console commands to add the key manually. Failed.
- Said "fuck it" and reloaded the save right after turning in Imalia's quest.

So now, we can hopefully avoid those bugs.



I decide to do some shopping on the way back, and find that Larry suddenly has grenades in his inventory, which is interesting. I buy a full set because we're fucking rich, and quicksave to try them out.



This security guard will make a good target. The animations for throwing are wonky as fuck - you hold the grenade like it's a gun, when you "pull the trigger", the grenade disappears from your view, then flies out when you let go of the fire button, all with your hands staying in exactly the same position.



The grenade lands, and I'll be hanging out to watch the firew-



SHIT



Let's try this again.



DAYUM. So yeah, these are fucking useless. The blast radius is so god damn massive that there is no way you're getting out of the way. The only way I can see one using these is to chuck them around a corner and leg it, but the enemies run from grenades as well, so it's just a massive goat rope that could just as well be you just shooting the bastards.



Back home. Edward and Ash are still gone, but that was to be expected... I guess? At least I know what can bring them back.



This time, I read the e-mail from Mitnick in the right haven. Pretty sure this should un-fuck everything alongside bringing the Tap Hotel tape to the same haven.



So, we're off to Santa Monica for the first part of the Schrecknet quest. I decide to drop by the weapon sellers to see if they have anything new - and the game crashes when I enter the pawnshop. Bah. Anyway, Trip has nothing new, but Mercurio does.



Replacing the SWAT rifle is... this thing. With the grenades being the indiscriminate dealer of death they are, I'm very scared about a grenade launcher.



Also, he has this thing, which is just another melee weapon. Nothing actually special about it except that enemies emit some sparks when struck - it doesn't seem to actually do more damage or anything. It's shit, basically. Now, let's take this grenade launcher out for a spin.



BOOM



BOOM



FUCKING BOOM

In short, this thing is actually awesome. It pretty much oneshots everything, and it doesn't deal any damage to you. I have absolutely no idea why that is, given how much regular grenades wreck your shit, but quite honestly, I don't give a shit. This is going to save my ass through so many boss fights you don't even know.



Picking up some blood packs and Vandal gives Victoria some shit, which is really fucking ballsy considering she just got done blowing up cops with a grenade launcher because she needed somebody to do a test run on. She's sitting squarely at 1 Humanity, too - being a Giovanni, I guess that's fitting. She would be the type to engage in "utter perversion or heinous acts". Roleplaying! Augustus would be proud. Best hope she doesn't need to enter Torpor any time soon. Actually, is it possible to kill Vandal without cheating? I think you can't get into the door behind him, and the glass blocks everything.



Anyway, the Santa Monica Schrecknet job goes off without a hitch.



We head back home, and the game finally worked out that this is the haven we want and placed Ash and Edward at their correct spots. Hooray!



I make an exit, but not without Goomba stomping Heather on my way down from the computer. She'll be fine, though.



On the way to finding some manhole to get to the sewers for the second Schrecknet job, I run into the prostitute we saved a while back. She's still there and still willing to get sucked, so I guess she's a permanent blood doll, which upgrades the reward from "entirely pointless" to "mostly pointless". Woooo! Excitement!



Furthermore, I stop by the Nosferatu haven while I'm at it - mostly to grab the blood pack in the fridge.



And there, I find this guy! I guess he's the Nosferatu equivalent of the guy that's still locked in the other bathroom. But wait, if he's the Nosferatu equivalent of that guy, why wasn't there one in the Tremere haven? Actually, for that matter, why isn't Heather here, when she was in the Tremere haven? I'm very confused. Something is messed up with the havens, and I have no idea what it is. Well, I can still do quests fine... I think. I hope. I wish?



Anyway, the second Schrecknet job. It turns into a disaster. Not helping was the fact that I accidentally exit into the Skyline Apartments basement and spend about thirty seconds seriously considering that the mod changed this mission instead of recognizing that I don't know where the fuck I'm going. Apparently, I should have taken that as a sign, because I was all over the god damn place. I ended up getting caught about six or seven times when this sneaking isn't even that fucking hard.



The biggest problem is that Command doesn't seem to have the runtime it used to have. I got caught rounding the corner when I cast it here - pretty sure I could have made that with time to spare in the regular game. That caught me off guard a few times, the rest was me being sloppy because I was getting frustrated.



We also find this item on a file cabinet. I don't have Celerity. Actually, none of the clans have Celerity. The only way to use this is to possess a Toreador, which is a big goat rope for little real gain. I could use this to boost Humanity easier, but why the fuck would I want to do that? Also, note that once again they're just throwing in characters from WoD lore in a way that just screams "LOOK WE KNOW LORE".



Anyway, I eventually get my shit together, set up the hub and manage to get out without fucking up the escape.



Moving swiftly on to the Hollywood Schrecknet job, things actually go surprisingly smoothly.



Well, at least until the return trip, where things just go to shit, even disregarding oddities like somebody just walking into the room and yet not noticing Victoria at all. Not sure what exactly made the return trip so much more difficult, but I had a hell of a time trying to get through without getting caught, and eventually only made it through copious use of Command. We also pick up a CD marked "B. Tung" from the safe. Not sure where exactly this comes into play, since I thought the Tung CD quest was something that Wesp re-added from unused assets.



Next, it's the Chinatown Schrecknet job, but since that involves going to Chinatown for the first time, this seems to be as good a time as any to take a break. So next time, it's Chinatown!