Vampire: Bloodlines Achieves True Immortality, Hits Patch 9.0

EVE developer CCP's World of Darkness MMO might be naught but fang and ash, but Vampire will never truly die. Not so long as Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines (and, you know, a massively successful White Wolf role-playing setting) is still alive and kicking. But wait, that can't be right. Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines developer Troika keeled over way back in 2005. Any other game would be buried and forgotten by now, but Bloodlines' community - presumably made up of real immortal vampires, as that would explain how they have so much time (read: all of it, ever) for this - forges on. So here we are in the year two-thousand-and-four-of-the-teens, and there is a brand new Vampire patch. I know. I know.

It's nothing too earth-shattering, but there are new quests that send you frolicking through the most salacious of alleys to steal drugs, and also who could say no to more stealthy/non-lethal options on a couple missions? As you'd expect, there are also new effects and a blood-drenched smattering of fixes both large and small. Here's the full change list:

• Added Heather to sewers for Nosferatu and improved new idle sounds.
• Made stealth killing Johnny possible when using Obfuscate level 5.
• Added possibility to keep the quick Nosferatu in the warrens alive.
• Cleaned Mercurio's apartment after a time and fixed a SM map hole.
• Added seven missing infobar sounds and created seven infobar icons.
• Restored drug stealing quest of Trip for one XP and Finance bonus.
• Removed Blood Guardian waterspray and made Lily's purse unsellable.
• Fixed bug with casting Bloodbuff breaking off lockpicking attempt.
• Raised high firearms book requirement to 9 and updated travel maps.
• Made Hallowbrook atrium barrels solid and enemies navigate better.
• Restored Justicar to Camarilla ending and Jack's face for LaSombra.
• Moved fire axe to crashing elevator top and fatguy to atrium exit.
• Restored unused models to Society of Leopold, warehouse and Zhao's.
• Changed library to combat zone and fixed rotunda decal flickering.
• Repaired hearing warehouse boss conversation twice and some floats.
• Made Nadia react to zombies damaging player and removed fake door.
• Gave Occult Nut a Scholarship bonus and fixed new discipline lines.
• Fixed icons at Giovanni mansion and made Bruno react to feed-kill.
• Added modified trackerscheme into Extras to change Malkavian fonts.
• Repaired Carson, Knox, Damsel, Yukie, Regent and Hatter dialogues.
• Fixed two inverted textures and renamed Sheriff's warform Behemoth.
• Restored three King's Way headrunner for Nosferatu and Malkavians.
• Lowered McFly's float rate and fixed references to missing Heather.
• Added documents to Extras to reveal where restorations originated.
• Attached floor number to Empire Arms suite names in hotel computer.
• Fixed three wrong loop sounds and moved a Mandarin line elsewhere.
• Corrected some bug fixes that were lost in 8.9, thanks vladdmaster.
• Restored blast door to Giovanni crypt and fixed tutorial door bug.
• Improved Nosferatu Nines intro and map details, thanks vladdmaster.
• Fixed sewer sound transitions on SM, Hollywood and Chinatown hubs.
• Corrected two bad Lotus Blossom icons and lowered Skyeline humming.

As always, you can grab the new patch at The Patches Scrolls, your one stop shop for patches whose descriptions are displayed on scrolls. Also, there's ancient Egyptian iconography! Who doesn't love that and/or associate it with downloading updates for computer games?

Patch 9.0. Goodness. Would that all games had such immensely dedicated, craftsmanly (that is not a word is it) communities. Bravo, bloodlovers. Your reward is me never, ever calling you bloodlovers again. Who's planning to reinstall this one and check out the changes?