Thanks, there isn't any reason to wait I think. The release numbers aren't leading to 1.0 being a full release, they are just my internal numbering. The releases aren't even "better" the higher they go, IMO anyway. They are "different" though.
Version 0.7 is "closer" to the way the original game released, retaining some of the animation glitches, discipline stat issues, etc. I see those as things that give the original game "character". So, while 0.7 may get point releases it will never get any changes that blunt this "character" feeling.
Version 0.8 is more refined with lots more of those "polish" changes such as fixing discipline stats, animations, NPC behaviors, textures, models, etc. The player has the choice of something more vintage feeling in 0.7 or something more polished feeling in 0.8.
There is not even a 0.9 planned as every change moves the game further from the original game. So, for me it is a balancing act of trying to fix enough without going too far.
Finally, I'm not actively working on VTMB at the moment, I don't want to intimate that any releases will be coming soon.
The Game Mod Loader (GML) is part of the Unofficial Patch (UP) and will automatically get installed when the UP is installed.
Having a working GML installed is a requirement for launching this mod (SMP). However, the GML is only distributed with the UP or mods based on the UP.
The GOG version of the game comes with a UP pre-installed so no action is needed there, the SMP can be installed directly into the GOG game folder.
If using a Steam (or retail) version of the game, a UP must be downloaded and installed (to get the GML). Then the SMP can be installed into the same folder that the UP was installed.
Once you have a UP installed you will have access to two versions of that patch, a UP basic version and a UP plus version. You will be able to choose between the basic and plus versions when installing the UP. The GOG comes with the basic version pre-installed, updating to the UP plus version would involve the same effort as for Steam version.
The SMP is yet a third patch option developed completely separate from the UP basic and plus options. If you are completely new to the game, it is possible that you will not need to use the SMP at all.
---------------------------------
The purpose for having multiple versions of a patch is to allow users to experience the game in alternate development styles and with alternate design definition styles and priorities. If the player has no experience with the game and doesn't expect to play it multiple times it may not be important which patch they choose as they will have no comparative basis anyway.
The SMP is more "vintage" oriented as it is based on a set of design rules intended to produce a maintenance (bug fix only) style patch. The SMP exists because there were no maintenance style patches when I was playing. As I played the game more and more, I felt the game deserved a maintenance patch and I also became less and less satisfied with some of the technical details in the UP bug fixes.
Both the UP basic (and plus) versions (and True Patch Gold) are what I would call "update" patches. Maintenance patches (by my definition) are confined to the existing code base and within that restriction must be able to demonstrate that something is actually broken/not working.
An update patch is also a maintenance patch but goes beyond that to modernize, streamline, or otherwise improve on the product. The UP might find some game mechanic clunky or confusing and call that a "bug fix" when making changes where I would call that an "update".
As much as I might agree the game mechanic is clunky or confusing, for the SMP it does not meet the requirement of being demonstratable broken/not working. Therefore, it does not meet the test for being a bug, for the purpose of the SMP that is "vintage" behavior.
Hopefully that give some insight into the different approaches between the SMP and the UP (and the other update style patches). The SMP is more maintenance oriented, and the UP is more update oriented. Unless a player is comfortable with the mechanics and design elements of a 20-year-old game or is specifically wanting to investigate those elements they might be happier with one of the UPs more update-oriented patches.
If everything is installed correctly, then Steam isn't needed and should be closed/exited when running VTMB. Launch VTMB directly from the shortcut that this mod installs on the desktop. Therefore, the "failed to find Steam" error should never occur.
If for some reason you feel that you want Steam to be running, then find steam.exe in the root Steam folder path and copy it into the root VTMB folder. However, be aware that if Steam tries to update or verity VTMB it will try to "fix" the modifications made by the UP by replacing them with the original buggy Steam versions. This will destroy your ability to run mods. If you do want Steam running, make sure it is in "offline" mode when running VTMB.
The best solution (and the one I use) is to make a copy of the Steam VTMB root folder and place it somewhere in a directory structure you have created as a user. This bypasses the issues with needing to close Steam as well as bypassing many Windows UAC (user access control) issues created if Steam is allowed to install into the default directory it wants to.
I wanna thank you for the patch, i'm one of those people that uses old PCs to play old games and i wanted something that could improve the OG game without really adding much of anything to 1.2 I have a question for you, i tried this game on multiple old PCs and on a period correct P4 3.0ghz 2gb ram DDR2 and nvidia 6800 GTS the game can barely keep up in terms of performances, the engine seems to not be performing any object\occlusion culling, the game should run at 60fps stable on such a system but it can't keep up in a scene like santa monica pier where the thin bloods are. Would you be able to check into this performance issue and see if it's possible to release a small performance patch for patch 1.2? it would be nice to have the game working nicely on contemporary hardware.
Interesting point, I never had the opportunity to run this on older hardware. I did look into it a bit but have to admit I'm not familiar with the issues that may be involved. For sure it is not well optimized as my system with a RTX 3060 can't do 60FPS on the thin blood beach.
I did mess around with some settings, like removing rain, but that only increased FPS by about 3 frames. I'll do some more reading and poking around to see if I can find anything useful.
Thanks for the info. I sort of knew that face culling was done at a model level due to looking at/using the $nocull material shader parameter. Which I try to fix models properly instead of using $nocull as a quick fix to model face/texture issues.
From what I've seen I think the issue might be poor Visibility Optimization with the way the levels were made. Although I'm not sure what can be done since we don't have the tools to compile maps "properly". I'm using properly to mean with the features and functions Troika maps originally had. I'm only guessing because when I just look in a direction the fps tanks, turning and looking in a different direction will often have a big impact on fps.
I'm playing the game with this patch because I don't like the arbitrary changes Wesp made to the game (even in the basic patch, not just the plus) and in the area with the ghouls around the fire on the beach near the astrolite area I can see a visual glitch, sort of like a dude floating in the air but in a ''stuttering'' way, is this normal? In the sense that this bug was in the original game and you decided to leave it there for ''fidelity'' or something?
Thanks for the feedback. I'm not sure, I would need more specific information to know. I did just load that area before going to the beach house and Copper is floating off the ground a bit and if the player bumps into him he can stutter a bit as he falls to the ground in his final position but that is only for a fraction of a second. Other than that, I've never noticed anything odd... but I probably wouldn't because I'm not really looking for those types of bugs at this point in the patch development. At this point my primary focus is on the functional aspects of the game and ensuring the game operates properly and in a way that Troika coded it.
The more superficial aspects of the game such as sound glitches, texture issues, etc I will fix if I run into them in testing but I'm not otherwise actively looking for them. If someone, like yourself, does report one of those issues, I do also try to fix it if it is something that is explained so I can reproduce and understand the issue and it meets the mod definition for what is a bug and what is not.
The exception to that rule is for characters like Beckett or Jezebel where the impression from the player interacting with them is important to the character and feel of the game. In those cases, I did a lot of work to fix the texture and model issues with Jezebel trying to make her look, if not attractive at least not "so" horrible, and Beckett not so goofy. A ton of work on physics models so the player isn't experiencing so many glitches moving around the maps. And such.
I would not leave issues such as you describe in the game for fidelity or historical purposes although there are bugs I have left in the game for historical and/or hilarity reasons. But never anything I feel will affect any functional aspect of the game. On a scale of 1 to 5 where fixing functional bugs is 1, I'm still working on 1 to 1.5 severity issues and superficial issue would be something like a 4 severity. It's not that I don't care about them it's more that they aren't something I've gotten around to yet and wouldn't expect to any time soon.
Ok understood. I quickly tested the game with the UP basic patch that comes with GOG and I have the same visual glitch there; it's probably something related to my integrated videocard, I'm playing on a pretty old laptop, not a big deal either way. Kudos for the patch btw, this game needed a truly bug-fixing oriented basic patch. cheers.
By the way I've found another minor thing, when you go to Lacroix to report on the Warehouse quest and toward the end he speaks about the anarchs, he says ''fascist opressor'' at some point, seems to be a typo that should be fixed.
Found another typo ''fanatiscism'' (in that same dialogue there is also a double space issue between words a few lines before that): https://ibb.co/mS6JwBQ
Also another mini-issue I've found, when you deal with the reporter for Pisha one of the walls of the closet he's hiding in has a wrong truncated texture (it has the same texture of the painting on the other side of the wall), seems like it would be an easy fix: https://ibb.co/D9bvNVF
Okay thanks. I'm not sure what I will be doing for the spelling and space, will take some thinking on my part. The charter for the mod, from the README, is to avoid fixing too much unless it can be justified as being important to the function of the game in some way.
When I say close to its original form I mean what I alluded to at the beginning, with the jank, the spelling and punctuation errors, the graphical glitches, etc. All the odd design choices, the difficulty, the lack of hand holding, etc.
The difficulty is that everyone will have their own definition and tolerance for what is important and justified. I do go on in the README to try and explain with examples my definition and logic behind my choices. It is a tough thing to fix things without changing the character and feel of the original game. But your reports are valuable information regardless because a month, or a year, from now I might change my definition and opinion on what should or should not be done.
The texture issue I probably won't change but not for the same reason. If it were easy to fix I would, but again it is a complicated issue... for me. To fix it properly the map needs to be recompiled, and we do not have a compiler that will recompile a map and retain the fidelity of what Troika produced. We do have a tool that will recompile a map into a useful form that on a superficial level looks and works ok. As long as a player isn't interested in the more complex details that Troika put into the game, this is fine. However, my patch is really dedicated to preserving for posterity exactly those types of complex details that have been wiped out in the UP. Which is why my patch and the UP are so opposite. The UP is mostly about superficial changes, even at the expense of altering, or completely removing, functional parts of the original game, and yes as you said even in UP Basic. Which is fine and I'm fine with it too when I want to play that kind of a mod. But there was no one working on a patch focused on trying to preserve the more complex aspects in the original game, which is want I care most about.
Anyway, after that long story... if it were a game breaking bug and the only way to properly fix it was to recompile the map then I would be forced to do that. But I would not recompile a map to fix a minor texture bug. I could fix it in other more kludge ways and if were a serious bug I would, but there are hundreds of these types of issues I am aware of, but I did miss seeing this one, so it becomes a question of opening Pandora's box at some point. And we are full circle with how to fix things without changing the character of the game - and how much is too much.
To go on a bit further, for full disclosure. There "are" some recompiled maps in my mod because I did those almost in the first weeks of starting work on VTMB modding. By the time I realized doing this wasn't a good practice, it was rather too late to go back in time and start over. Even if I were to go back, I couldn't make those changes without recompiling the map in any case. There are also a few maps that I recompiled early on, where I did go back and reverse those changes to bring the original Troika map back and work out different solutions to issues when that was a feasible option.
Ok got you. By the way I get a disclaimer sometimes that my stealth is broken, what does it mean? I don't have a stealthy character but I have noticed that enemies rarely spot me when I'm crouched even though I have no points in Stealth, is that what's ''broken''? I assume it was an issue in the original game as well?
There is a bug in the original game where the stealth your character has is more than is shown on the character sheet. In my patch it detects this bug and notifies the player when this happens, giving them the option to go back and replay the last part of the game to correct the issue before they get too far without knowing that their character save has become corrupted. It is the reason players say the stealth is so broken, they are playing on horribly corrupted saves, at least if watching streamers play is any indication.
Why it's a hard decision? Honestly the spelling errors bug me and take me out of the game same as a bug would. I have encountered a couple more but didn't take note so I don't even remember where I saw them. Imo even an ''essential'' patch should fix them same as with game-breaking bugs, you are not messing with Troika's vision by fixing typos they had no time to fix themselves, I don't see how it's any different than fixing bugs.
Not to create/add new ones but Dan created a tool that lets us make limited changes using existing animations. For example, I used Dan's tool to add a swinging animation to the gong in Ming's reception area - https://youtu.be/CdVfFKZLbi8.
hey, Mike. I found out about your channel through Something Compass, and decided to give this mod a try tonight. So far, so good! I'm still in santa monica, but I found two things you might be interested in:
1. I skipped the tutorial "sheriff pwning three sabbat" cutscene, and the gate behind him was open when I started the tutorial. I snuck behind him, and finished the job lol 2. my ventrue isn't having any side effects from drinking rat blood. Not sure if that's how 1.2 was, but thought I'd mention it.
Thanks for the mod. Looking forward to the rest of my playthrough. Peace edit: I started a new game and it seems to be normal. weird update: finished a playthrough, and saw very few bugs! couple of guys clipped on top of barrels in the hallowbrook, and the tremere there glitched so I had to noclip through the door, but otherwise very smooth. GGWP!
Thanks for the feedback, you are correct, the Ventrue drinking tainted blood in the wild is controlled by a random chance to react badly, and in general it seems to be a pretty low chance. Therefore, one time you may think it is working and another broken if your concept is that a Ventrue should always react badly. However, in my patch there are quest specific instances where the Ventrue will react badly 100% of the time.
Also correct in the gate issue in the tutorial, in fact that is one of the things I highlighted and explained in the Dee Dee playthrough of the SMP v0.8 on my YouTube channel. In general, I don't believe in trying to limit/restrict players in an RPG single player game. Meaning the button to skip cutscenes will skip any and every cutscene and the player is responsible for the result. If I "know" skipping at a particular point "will" break the game, then I do try to capture that and prevent it. In the tutorial case it is known to me the gate will remain open but since it doesn't really "break" anything I don't care. In this way the creative control is always in the players hands and they are free to do some really creative and interesting things with the skip button. The flip side is that I can't capture every instance that might produce bad results, but again I would rather err on the side of giving the player too much power than too little... too little IMO of course!
I'm not sure about the guys clipping on the top of barrels but to be fair it isn't something I would look for or care about until someone pointed it out. In general, I'm trying to focus on mechanical and functional issues as a priority over graphical or superficial issues at this point and there are still a mountain of those to work on, heck I'm still in alpha dev stage :) The issue with the Tremere not triggering would be something I would be very concerned with if it were something consistently repeatable and the conditions to create it could be explained. However, as you seem to know, and I appreciate, the game can randomly glitch out which as a result of trying to run it on modern OS/machines and not a function of a mod defect. As I've tested the Hallowbrook probably hundreds of times, I suspect it might be a onetime game glitch or something very specific to clan/build, killing or saving Heather, or... something other specific I just never tried/tested.
roger that. speaking of Heather, I was able to save her life at the start but she didn't show up at the ventrue tower in that save. I'll let you know if that happens in my next playthrough. thanks again for such a clean patch! o7
Thanks for the feedback. Yes, that is the way it is in the original game and the point of this patch trying to stay with the original experience of the game except where there is objective in-game evidence that something is "broken". Changing something like this falls outside of my definition for what is a bug. From the README "I'm not making any evaluation or judgement of the original game design. I'm not concerned if it is good or bad, silly or outdated, etc."
I'm trying to not change things unless there is objective in-game evidence for the change. Is this rain transition illogical? Yes. But looking at the code I don't see any convincing evidence that it is not working as they coded it. Was this because they ran out of time, or didn't know how to make it work, or ... I don't know and those types of speculation fall outside of the bounds of in-game evidence, and outside of the bounds of what I think is the definition for a bug fix patch. Of course, there will always be grey areas and disagreements of what constitutes sufficient in-game evidence. Even myself I agonize over some issues and flip back and forth from day to day as things aren't always clear cut or easy to unravel. And sometimes I just do get things wrong.
Trying to explain what it looks like Troika did from looking at the code. They made a sound for rain echoing off concrete that they used in places with large concrete/asphalt surfaces. But they didn't make/have a sound for rain on wet sand, so they made a short transition gurgling water sound for when player transitions from city to pier. Does this transition sound work very well? No, I don't think so, and maybe if they had more time this is something they would change but that falls into the realm of modding/reimaging the game and outside of patching the game as it exists. Meaning it isn't something that is "broken", it looks to me like it is working as intended, but maybe just not a great implementation.
There is a visible rain, and no sound. Thats a bug. You can go into the reasons for a bug, but that is certaintly not an artistic decision. Also, I think that the "default" rain sound is fine as is, it sound generic enough
Hey, I believe I found a bug. I am playing as a Nosferatu. I am in Downtown and I want to go back to Santa Monica but I can't interact with the map in the sewer that I am supposed to use to travel.
They can be copied and pasted into the console just as they appear above then press the Enter key to execute them. Sorry for the inconvenience and if you have any problems using those commands let me know.
77 comments
One question, is it worth to wait for 1.0 version or 0.8 is just fine?
Version 0.7 is "closer" to the way the original game released, retaining some of the animation glitches, discipline stat issues, etc. I see those as things that give the original game "character". So, while 0.7 may get point releases it will never get any changes that blunt this "character" feeling.
Version 0.8 is more refined with lots more of those "polish" changes such as fixing discipline stats, animations, NPC behaviors, textures, models, etc. The player has the choice of something more vintage feeling in 0.7 or something more polished feeling in 0.8.
There is not even a 0.9 planned as every change moves the game further from the original game. So, for me it is a balancing act of trying to fix enough without going too far.
Finally, I'm not actively working on VTMB at the moment, I don't want to intimate that any releases will be coming soon.
Thanks.
The GOG version of the game comes with a UP pre-installed so no action is needed there, the SMP can be installed directly into the GOG game folder.
If using a Steam (or retail) version of the game, a UP must be downloaded and installed (to get the GML). Then the SMP can be installed into the same folder that the UP was installed.
Once you have a UP installed you will have access to two versions of that patch, a UP basic version and a UP plus version. You will be able to choose between the basic and plus versions when installing the UP. The GOG comes with the basic version pre-installed, updating to the UP plus version would involve the same effort as for Steam version.
The SMP is yet a third patch option developed completely separate from the UP basic and plus options. If you are completely new to the game, it is possible that you will not need to use the SMP at all.
---------------------------------
The purpose for having multiple versions of a patch is to allow users to experience the game in alternate development styles and with alternate design definition styles and priorities. If the player has no experience with the game and doesn't expect to play it multiple times it may not be important which patch they choose as they will have no comparative basis anyway.
The SMP is more "vintage" oriented as it is based on a set of design rules intended to produce a maintenance (bug fix only) style patch. The SMP exists because there were no maintenance style patches when I was playing. As I played the game more and more, I felt the game deserved a maintenance patch and I also became less and less satisfied with some of the technical details in the UP bug fixes.
Both the UP basic (and plus) versions (and True Patch Gold) are what I would call "update" patches. Maintenance patches (by my definition) are confined to the existing code base and within that restriction must be able to demonstrate that something is actually broken/not working.
An update patch is also a maintenance patch but goes beyond that to modernize, streamline, or otherwise improve on the product. The UP might find some game mechanic clunky or confusing and call that a "bug fix" when making changes where I would call that an "update".
As much as I might agree the game mechanic is clunky or confusing, for the SMP it does not meet the requirement of being demonstratable broken/not working. Therefore, it does not meet the test for being a bug, for the purpose of the SMP that is "vintage" behavior.
Hopefully that give some insight into the different approaches between the SMP and the UP (and the other update style patches). The SMP is more maintenance oriented, and the UP is more update oriented. Unless a player is comfortable with the mechanics and design elements of a 20-year-old game or is specifically wanting to investigate those elements they might be happier with one of the UPs more update-oriented patches.
If for some reason you feel that you want Steam to be running, then find steam.exe in the root Steam folder path and copy it into the root VTMB folder. However, be aware that if Steam tries to update or verity VTMB it will try to "fix" the modifications made by the UP by replacing them with the original buggy Steam versions. This will destroy your ability to run mods. If you do want Steam running, make sure it is in "offline" mode when running VTMB.
The best solution (and the one I use) is to make a copy of the Steam VTMB root folder and place it somewhere in a directory structure you have created as a user. This bypasses the issues with needing to close Steam as well as bypassing many Windows UAC (user access control) issues created if Steam is allowed to install into the default directory it wants to.
I have a question for you, i tried this game on multiple old PCs and on a period correct P4 3.0ghz 2gb ram DDR2 and nvidia 6800 GTS the game can barely keep up in terms of performances, the engine seems to not be performing any object\occlusion culling, the game should run at 60fps stable on such a system but it can't keep up in a scene like santa monica pier where the thin bloods are.
Would you be able to check into this performance issue and see if it's possible to release a small performance patch for patch 1.2? it would be nice to have the game working nicely on contemporary hardware.
I did mess around with some settings, like removing rain, but that only increased FPS by about 3 frames. I'll do some more reading and poking around to see if I can find anything useful.
From what I've seen I think the issue might be poor Visibility Optimization with the way the levels were made. Although I'm not sure what can be done since we don't have the tools to compile maps "properly". I'm using properly to mean with the features and functions Troika maps originally had. I'm only guessing because when I just look in a direction the fps tanks, turning and looking in a different direction will often have a big impact on fps.
The more superficial aspects of the game such as sound glitches, texture issues, etc I will fix if I run into them in testing but I'm not otherwise actively looking for them. If someone, like yourself, does report one of those issues, I do also try to fix it if it is something that is explained so I can reproduce and understand the issue and it meets the mod definition for what is a bug and what is not.
The exception to that rule is for characters like Beckett or Jezebel where the impression from the player interacting with them is important to the character and feel of the game. In those cases, I did a lot of work to fix the texture and model issues with Jezebel trying to make her look, if not attractive at least not "so" horrible, and Beckett not so goofy. A ton of work on physics models so the player isn't experiencing so many glitches moving around the maps. And such.
I would not leave issues such as you describe in the game for fidelity or historical purposes although there are bugs I have left in the game for historical and/or hilarity reasons. But never anything I feel will affect any functional aspect of the game. On a scale of 1 to 5 where fixing functional bugs is 1, I'm still working on 1 to 1.5 severity issues and superficial issue would be something like a 4 severity. It's not that I don't care about them it's more that they aren't something I've gotten around to yet and wouldn't expect to any time soon.
Also another mini-issue I've found, when you deal with the reporter for Pisha one of the walls of the closet he's hiding in has a wrong truncated texture (it has the same texture of the painting on the other side of the wall), seems like it would be an easy fix: https://ibb.co/D9bvNVF
The difficulty is that everyone will have their own definition and tolerance for what is important and justified. I do go on in the README to try and explain with examples my definition and logic behind my choices. It is a tough thing to fix things without changing the character and feel of the original game. But your reports are valuable information regardless because a month, or a year, from now I might change my definition and opinion on what should or should not be done.
The texture issue I probably won't change but not for the same reason. If it were easy to fix I would, but again it is a complicated issue... for me. To fix it properly the map needs to be recompiled, and we do not have a compiler that will recompile a map and retain the fidelity of what Troika produced. We do have a tool that will recompile a map into a useful form that on a superficial level looks and works ok. As long as a player isn't interested in the more complex details that Troika put into the game, this is fine. However, my patch is really dedicated to preserving for posterity exactly those types of complex details that have been wiped out in the UP. Which is why my patch and the UP are so opposite. The UP is mostly about superficial changes, even at the expense of altering, or completely removing, functional parts of the original game, and yes as you said even in UP Basic. Which is fine and I'm fine with it too when I want to play that kind of a mod. But there was no one working on a patch focused on trying to preserve the more complex aspects in the original game, which is want I care most about.
Anyway, after that long story... if it were a game breaking bug and the only way to properly fix it was to recompile the map then I would be forced to do that. But I would not recompile a map to fix a minor texture bug. I could fix it in other more kludge ways and if were a serious bug I would, but there are hundreds of these types of issues I am aware of, but I did miss seeing this one, so it becomes a question of opening Pandora's box at some point. And we are full circle with how to fix things without changing the character of the game - and how much is too much.
To go on a bit further, for full disclosure. There "are" some recompiled maps in my mod because I did those almost in the first weeks of starting work on VTMB modding. By the time I realized doing this wasn't a good practice, it was rather too late to go back in time and start over. Even if I were to go back, I couldn't make those changes without recompiling the map in any case. There are also a few maps that I recompiled early on, where I did go back and reverse those changes to bring the original Troika map back and work out different solutions to issues when that was a feasible option.
I made a video explaining the bug, how it occurs and how to detect it: VTMB: Development progress and new information on avoiding a game breaking character stealth bug.
p.s. about the spellings I've almost decided to change those spellings, man it is a hard decision to make! :)
Why it's a hard decision? Honestly the spelling errors bug me and take me out of the game same as a bug would. I have encountered a couple more but didn't take note so I don't even remember where I saw them. Imo even an ''essential'' patch should fix them same as with game-breaking bugs, you are not messing with Troika's vision by fixing typos they had no time to fix themselves, I don't see how it's any different than fixing bugs.
1. I skipped the tutorial "sheriff pwning three sabbat" cutscene, and the gate behind him was open when I started the tutorial. I snuck behind him, and finished the job lol
2. my ventrue isn't having any side effects from drinking rat blood. Not sure if that's how 1.2 was, but thought I'd mention it.
Thanks for the mod. Looking forward to the rest of my playthrough. Peace
edit: I started a new game and it seems to be normal. weird
update: finished a playthrough, and saw very few bugs! couple of guys clipped on top of barrels in the hallowbrook, and the tremere there glitched so I had to noclip through the door, but otherwise very smooth. GGWP!
Also correct in the gate issue in the tutorial, in fact that is one of the things I highlighted and explained in the Dee Dee playthrough of the SMP v0.8 on my YouTube channel. In general, I don't believe in trying to limit/restrict players in an RPG single player game. Meaning the button to skip cutscenes will skip any and every cutscene and the player is responsible for the result. If I "know" skipping at a particular point "will" break the game, then I do try to capture that and prevent it. In the tutorial case it is known to me the gate will remain open but since it doesn't really "break" anything I don't care. In this way the creative control is always in the players hands and they are free to do some really creative and interesting things with the skip button. The flip side is that I can't capture every instance that might produce bad results, but again I would rather err on the side of giving the player too much power than too little... too little IMO of course!
I'm not sure about the guys clipping on the top of barrels but to be fair it isn't something I would look for or care about until someone pointed it out. In general, I'm trying to focus on mechanical and functional issues as a priority over graphical or superficial issues at this point and there are still a mountain of those to work on, heck I'm still in alpha dev stage :) The issue with the Tremere not triggering would be something I would be very concerned with if it were something consistently repeatable and the conditions to create it could be explained. However, as you seem to know, and I appreciate, the game can randomly glitch out which as a result of trying to run it on modern OS/machines and not a function of a mod defect. As I've tested the Hallowbrook probably hundreds of times, I suspect it might be a onetime game glitch or something very specific to clan/build, killing or saving Heather, or... something other specific I just never tried/tested.
I'm trying to not change things unless there is objective in-game evidence for the change. Is this rain transition illogical? Yes. But looking at the code I don't see any convincing evidence that it is not working as they coded it. Was this because they ran out of time, or didn't know how to make it work, or ... I don't know and those types of speculation fall outside of the bounds of in-game evidence, and outside of the bounds of what I think is the definition for a bug fix patch. Of course, there will always be grey areas and disagreements of what constitutes sufficient in-game evidence. Even myself I agonize over some issues and flip back and forth from day to day as things aren't always clear cut or easy to unravel. And sometimes I just do get things wrong.
Trying to explain what it looks like Troika did from looking at the code. They made a sound for rain echoing off concrete that they used in places with large concrete/asphalt surfaces. But they didn't make/have a sound for rain on wet sand, so they made a short transition gurgling water sound for when player transitions from city to pier. Does this transition sound work very well? No, I don't think so, and maybe if they had more time this is something they would change but that falls into the realm of modding/reimaging the game and outside of patching the game as it exists. Meaning it isn't something that is "broken", it looks to me like it is working as intended, but maybe just not a great implementation.
__main__.Find("sewer_map").Unlock()
__main__.Find("sewer_map_apt").Unlock()
They can be copied and pasted into the console just as they appear above then press the Enter key to execute them. Sorry for the inconvenience and if you have any problems using those commands let me know.