Strauss's Invitation addon - Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines

You thought you were getting lucky.

You got anything but.

You got:

• turned into something you don't understand.

• used for a political statement you understand even less.

• "recruited" into some kind of underground society.

• the key to a crummy apartment.

• an invitation.

The invitation arrests your attention. It's not light catching on the gilding, though there is quite a lot of gilding; the light is coming from the invitation. You try to take everything in: the "mission" you've been given, the new place, the laptop you'll no doubt need to stay on top of the details of your new life, all while the horror of what's happened to you threatens to overwhelm you, but the gentle shimmer of the card overrides it all for the moment.

You open the card to find a message.

Neonate, it begins.
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Strauss is curious about you. He writes you a message, complete with a little poem, on a card with his monogram to nudge you to visit him. For some reason, it looks like garbage.

I thought it'd be interesting if the card looked magical itself. Be sure to read the details carefully, especially if you play a non-English version of Bloodlines.

Regarding colors and lighting options:

There are two color variants: red (which, of course, fits Strauss best) and purple (because I like purple).

I've included a version without the animated glow in case that works better for some. It still uses the $selfillum script so it will look quite magical regardless. :)

There are instructions in the image gallery for disabling the sine wave. If you wish to disable the light coming from the invitation completely, change the "1" after $selfillum to "0".

Regarding the message and font choices:

I've tweaked the message to look and feel better, including the punctuation of the poem. I added the message to the texture and disabled the hover text, though I edited that, too. If you don't like the changes to the message at all, delete the vdata folder from the mod folder before installing; it should revert back to vanilla without a problem.

There are two versions of the script. I chose something elegant, something I could imagine as Strauss's handwriting. For those that find it difficult to read, there is a simpler script font I thought looked good enough that you wouldn't miss out on the improvement. If you play in another language* or don't like either font option, there is a plain version of the paper texture included with each color variant so you can still use the vanilla text.

To change back to the vanilla message, do the following:

1. Overwrite with the files in "plain paper texture"

2. Go to the folder into which you installed it (Vampire, Unofficial_Patch, tfn, CQM, etc.), then vdata/signs.

3. Open regents_invitation in a plain text editor.

4. Delete the double slashes before the message (you will see them at the start of the line before "Text"; check the screenshot above or in the mod folder)

5. Save

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Update 2021-05-04: A set of textures using the Russian message has been uploaded to overwrite the English version: no more using the hover text if you want to use this mod with the game in Russian! :)

Note on translations: If you play Bloodlines in another language and would like to help me add another translation, check out the Nexus mod page.