Team Nessassity Mods - Vamping and Revamping (Patreon)

Can you believe 2020 is almost over? It's NOVEMBER! That's almost December! Which makes it almost January next year!

But, back to the present for the time being, we're here with more news on Veiled Realms today!

And, I know, I know, it's been a bit since we had anything exciting Stellaris-wise to announce, but it looks like there's a LOT happening on the Paradox side of Space right now and we're super excited to find out what that means for our mods, so perhaps once we have a little more information on the upcoming pop growth and district/building reworks (both of which are very relevant to MEC and EoS), we'll share our thoughts and plans with you.

Of slightly more immediate interest is the 1.2 patch coming to CK3... this... TUESDAY? AAAAH! @o@ PANIC! PANIC! PA- oh... right, we haven't actually released Veiled Realms yet, so at least it won't be broken on patch day! Yay! Silver lining~!

Veiled Realms - Court of Blood

And on that topic... About that Halloween release I was hinting at last month...

Ehe...

Looks like the Princess Prediction curse struck again >.> While I was quite confident about it at the time, between a poorly timed avalanche of RL distractions and a sudden urge to rework half the mod mid-development, that plan went out the window!

But I suppose at least the latter is worth expounding upon a bit, because while it did set our progress back slightly, I believe it will ultimately result in a higher quality and better thought-out final product.

Do you perhaps recall the last time I showed the Vampirism Lifestyle tree?

As I was going through it and implementing the perk effects in their associated features, something was starting to bother me. And I think the point where I finally identified the problem was while testing the Mesmerize interaction in-game.
It was working correctly, it was doing what I designed it to do... but it didn't feel like it belonged in this game. It wasn't really rooted in the theme of the lifestyle it came from and the perks meant to upgrade it were so... video-gamey, like upgrading a power in an action RPG . The entire thing felt so... mechanical, artificial, out of place.

Wondering how to fix that problem, I revisited a conversation I had a few months ago with one of Team Nessassity associate writers, #TRIGGERED, where he'd asked me about the nature, origins and general lore of the vampires in this mod. At the time, I didn't really have a strong idea, I was more concerned with the gameplay and thought that I could reverse-engineer some flavour from the mechanics once everything was functional.
What kind of vampires are these? Whatever you want them to be. What can they do? Anything, if you can think of a vampire trope, they can play into that. Where did they come from and how do they work? Nobody knows so you can come up with your own explanation.

Unfortunately, when it did eventually come to it, the result turned out... predictably uninspired.

Granted, there was a reason I initially wanted it to be a bit generic - most of all, I wanted to do my own thing, un-influenced by any particular IPs, unrestricted by lore getting in the way of mechanics. I'd been working within the confines of our Mass Effect-inspired mods, pushing against the boundaries as far I could, for years - I wanted to do something completely original for a change.
As painful as it's been, I've even avoided playing the excellent Princes of Darkness mod set in my beloved Vampire the Masquerade because I was scared that I'd end up taking too many ideas from it, get wrapped up in nostalgia and ultimately end up turning Veiled Realms into a "we have Princes of Darkness at home" meme.
Another reason was, as stated, I wanted the mechanics to inform the flavour, giving me the freedom to design the mod however I wanted and worry about making it all coherent afterwards. Which... brings us back to the Lifestyle tree from that old picture,

The idea of it was that Secrecy and Blood Reign were going to be two diametrically opposed ways of managing Menace (mitigating it, and taking advantage of it, respectively) while Forbidden Lore would just be a grab-bag of powers and features that didn't fit into the other two.
The idea sounded great on paper... but even the initial playable implementation turned out to be unfun to play and thematically incoherent. What are "secrecy" perks supposed to be about? They include mind-powers and social engineering, except there's also a lot of social engineering under "blood reign" but it's also full of hunting-related perks that have nothing to do with the idea of ruling openly as a vampire... And "forbidden lore" for some reason encompasses seduction and bearing dhampire children, just because they didn't fit anywhere else?

It was a mess, and the more I tried to rationalise it, the messier it got. In the end, I came to the difficult but necessary decision to tear most of the perks down, tear the three foci down, tear some of the related features, and start over, but with stronger themes and a clearer vision this time.

Welcome to Court of Blood 2.0! Well... it will still be 1.0 when it comes out, but it's very different from the one that was supposed to come out 3 weeks ago n_n

Before we get to the nitty-gritty, let's take a moment to swoon over the beautiful hand-drawn icons Nessa made for this! They bring so much personality to it already!

And although it's not as prominently displayed in game, the beautiful illustration art created for us by Vale makes for a striking eye-catcher on the Lifestyle selection screen and fits perfectly with the new theme of Veiled Realms!

So, then, aside from being prettier, how does this Lifestyle tree differ from the old one and why did it require reworking half the mod?

Perhaps I should start with the change that is not visually depicted first - the kind of vampires our vampires are.

There are as many interpretations of vampires as there are folk tales and pieces of media dealing with the topic. At first, I kinda wanted to embrace that infinite diversity by refusing to define the nature of our vampires in anything but broad strokes. And while I do still want to preserve some aspects of that as to maintain an air of mystery (and leave a measure of creative flexibility for myself down the line), I feel now that it is important to at least define the rules and limitations by which these vampire operate - their "power level" if you will.
Given that Menace is such a central, omnipresent mechanic in Veiled Realms, our vampires are somewhere on the lower end of the scale, whose power manifests in subtle, insidious ways, and in whose best interest it is to stay hidden in plain sight and find dark cracks in the human society to slither into, the better to manipulate it for their own gain.

These are not the invincible, super-powered, glamorous demi-gods of Underworld, Vampire Chronicles or World of Darkness. But neither are they quite as tragic as the folklore sources that started it all. Instead, my inspirations leaned closer to the down-to-earth vampires of Carmilla, Let The Right One In, and most recently, Shiki. They possess supernatural powers, predominantly forms of mind-control, and use them to influence and hide amongst their prey, but are otherwise not much stronger or tougher than they were in life and their magic does have limitations. You won't see them tossing cars (or carriages) around or brushing aside a mob of angry peasants, but if they're smart, they never have to. Their horror is inherently visceral, but even more so, it is psychological.

And that is where the new Lifestyle perks come in. They no longer ask "what vampire tropes do you want to emulate?" Now, they pose the question of "how do you survive, hunt and interact with the world around you as a vampire?" The Foci represent three broad themes that help answer those questions:

• Obfuscation, depicted by an empty mirror, is a lifestyle that encourages avoiding undue attention and creating an illusion of normalcy in one's court, while keeping outsiders at arm's length. It is not just about putting up an act, but also adjusting one's own identity and morality to keep up the charade over generations.
• Mastery, depicted by an ornate ankh, is focused on manipulating mortal minds and hearts, applying a mixture of conventional and supernatural influence to fill the court with obedient, malleable thralls.
• Predation, depicted by a wine glass of blood, is about giving in to decadence in the short term as a way of preserving one's sanity in the long run. It deals most closely with the Thirst and vampirism itself. A cloud of foreboding hangs over a Predator's court but no one dares ask too many questions lest they become the next prey.

You might also remember the perks explained in previous Monthly Mod Reports, and some of their names might even look familiar, but almost all of them have changed as well. And I think it's time I posted an overview of what is HOPEFULLY (subject to change) their final form.

Obfuscation:

• Masquerade: The base likelihood of Feeding and Menace Events resulting in Severe Consequences is reduced to 0. Menace still increases it as normal
• Deniability: Feeding on Prisoners and Thralls generates 50% less Menace
• Web of Lies: Fame's impact on Base Menace is reduced by 50%
• Secret Solace: Stress lost by Feeding is increased inversely proportional to the level of Menace
• Human Guise: Unlocks the Vampire: Embrace Persona Decision, allowing to reroll one personality trait every 50 years at a high cost of Stress
• Court of Shadows: Allows the vampire to occasionally discover the secrets of their own courtiers
• Shadowplay: Allows to spend owned Hooks to instantly reduce some Menace
• Thousand Masks: Unlocks the Vampire: Tabula Rasa Scheme, enabling the vampire to re-hide one publicly exposed secret if successful. Can be used on self or others.

Mastery:

• Mesmerize: Unlocks the Vampire: Mesmerize Interaction, making the victim more susceptible to manipulation and more prone to Stress for the duration
• Enchant: Unlocks the Enchant option for Vampire: Mesmerize, allowing to exert a measure of direct control over the victim via a special Weak Hook, which can be spent normally or to increase the chances of successful Feeding
• Obliviate: Unlocks the Obliviate option for Vampire: Mesmerize, making the victim unable to expose one's secrets
• Enervation: Vampire Powers are more effective against recently fed on characters
• Puppetry: The delay before Vampire Powers can be reused on the same target is 50% shorter
• Succubus/Incubus: Unlocks the Entice option for Vampire: Feed, facilitating hunting through a combination of personal charm and supernatural bewitchment
• Vigor Mortis: Makes it possible to conceive a Dhampire child with a mortal while Quenched. Additionally, Laying with another character provides an opportunity to Feed
• Bloodline: Own Vampire and Dhampire Progeny can be affected by Powers (supernatural characters are immune by default)
• Queen/King of the Night: Unlocks the Vampire: Enthrall Scheme, allowing to use Mesmerize interactions on the target without having to spend Stress or Blood Buffs while the scheme is ongoing

Apex Predator:

• Primal Fear: Feeding on an already injured victim inflicts them with Stress
• Docile Prey: Menace no longer reduces the success chance of Feeding if the victim is affected by Dread or at least Stress Level 1
• Immortal Flesh: Unlocks the Vampire: Sustain Interaction, allowing to spend a Blood Buff to heal physical injuries and even restore lost body parts
• Metamorphosis: Unlocks the Strengthen option for Vampire: Sustain, temporarily increasing Prowess proportionally to the quality of Blood Buff used
• Trueblood: Feeding on Rich Blood reduces additional Stress
• Bloodlust: Unlocks the Drain option for Vampire: Feed, allowing to drain the victim dry, instantly killing them
• Insatiable Thirst: Draining a victim dry improves the blood's Quality by one level. This can increase Blood Buff to the otherwise unachievable level 5 (Incomparable)
• Apex Predator: Unlocks the Vampire: Blood Bath Decision, sacrificing a group of Prisoners to relieve a large amount of Stress and gain a temporary boost to all Skills, also with a chance to gain or upgrade positive Congenital Traits possessed by the victims or absorb a portion of their youth

As you can also see, some of the previously shown features, such as creating Vampire Clans and resetting once-per-lifetime CBs, ended up removed from the perk trees. We've decided to table them for now as they no longer fit the new vibe we're going for, and also posed a number of technical, narrative and balance issues. I am hoping to at least bring the Clans back at some point, but if I do, it will most likely be in a different form than originally planned.

Anyways, as much as I would like to talk about Veiled Realms development all day long (and, looking at the time, I have @.@) this is a good time to end it for now!

Thank you for continuing to support us, sharing in our passion and following our progress! We couldn't do this without you <3 Hopefully see you next month, but in the meantime, you can find me on Twitter @PrincessitySC2 where I post teasers and smaller progress updates from time to time! And as always, have fun playing Paradox games... or not playing them as you're experiencing the Paradox Paradox waiting for the next update n_~