Is there any word on mod or workshop support? I'm hoping bug fixes from the community won't be as essential this time around, but it'd be nice for replayability.
They mentioned how important fan mods were for keeping the game alive, and said they plan to support mods from day one.
Vampire: The Requiem is from a completely different game line, so no, it isn't. The edition that precedes V5 is V20, which was the Ultimate Nostalgia Everything Is Here Edition.
Regardless, you can of course prefer whichever editions you like; what I take issue with is the characterization of these decisions as "lazy". They may be right or wrong, but they were made with specific intent and were by definition less lazy than changing nothing at all. A lot of work went in to rebalancing the mechanics of VtM to something playable.
Malkavians in the first game kind of spoiled the plot, so I’ll definitely save them for a replay
My first playthrough of Bloodlines was as a Malkavian, because I knew basically nothing about VtM, so I just went with the Clan the character questionnaire gave me.
In my opinion, the Malkavian does spoil the plot, but only when you already know what the plot is.
Malkavians in the first game kind of spoiled the plot, so I’ll definitely save them for a replay
My first playthrough of Bloodlines was as a Malkavian, because I knew basically nothing about VtM, so I just went with the Clan the character questionnaire gave me.
In my opinion, the Malkavian does spoil the plot, but only when you already know what the plot is.
Yeah, you'd have to very much be aware of what was coming to make sense of it. I'd say that one possible exception is referring to Jeanette as a Daughter Of Janus, but even then when I first played it I just thought "right, they're twins".
The psychic in Santa Monica is probably more spoilery
“Don’t open it”
That’s some endgame shit there
+20
Dr. ChaosPost nuclear nuisanceRegistered Userregular
Its going to be great later on when you tell the game you want to be turned into a nos and it goes "...are you sure?" and the character confused asks you for confirmation like five times.
One of the slight disappointments for me so far is that they don't seem to have picked up one of my favourite visual touches from Bloodlines: vampires skin being grey and corpse-like. It could be that the characters we've seen so far are thin-bloods (who lacked that pallor), but it'll be a shame if it's gone completely. It really reinforced one of the key things from VTM lore for me; the idea that these are walking corpses rather than Humans But Different.
One of the slight disappointments for me so far is that they don't seem to have picked up one of my favourite visual touches from Bloodlines: vampires skin being grey and corpse-like. It could be that the characters we've seen so far are thin-bloods (who lacked that pallor), but it'll be a shame if it's gone completely. It really reinforced one of the key things from VTM lore for me; the idea that these are walking corpses rather than Humans But Different.
Yeah, that was one of the things that felt off in the trailer.
The psychic in Santa Monica is probably more spoilery
“Don’t open it”
That’s some endgame shit there
One of the big themes of Bloodlines is who to trust, and I've always enjoyed the narrative plays with that. You get given some extremely concrete information from characters early on, repeatedly reinforced.
Don't Open The Box (repeatedly reinforced)
Don't trust anyone with an X in their name
Only trust Beckett and Mercurio (the lone wolf, the man on the couch)
The player's natural tendency is going to be to distrust those instructions or expect them to be subverted, because they've already been trained to be wary about what people say. In fact, these statements are 100% on the level, with the slight wrinkles that Maximillian Strauss is arguably on the level in his dealings (with the player at least) and Mercurio is willing to betray you if you work hard enough to get him there*. The game will provide you with various reasons to disregard the advice it has given, but you're being told the truth. "Jack seems pretty cool though...", nope. "Maybe opening the box leads to the All Powerful Vampire Ending", nope. Don't Open It. "Ming Xiao is being nice now, and makes some good points about...", nope. Don't trust anyone with an X in their name.
*This is a real mind blower if you do a 100% dick to everyone run, but yeah, Mercurio will full on try and kill you if you're enough of a shit.
One of the slight disappointments for me so far is that they don't seem to have picked up one of my favourite visual touches from Bloodlines: vampires skin being grey and corpse-like. It could be that the characters we've seen so far are thin-bloods (who lacked that pallor), but it'll be a shame if it's gone completely. It really reinforced one of the key things from VTM lore for me; the idea that these are walking corpses rather than Humans But Different.
It was an easy visual shorthand but it felt weird at times for creatures that are supposed to generally pass as human, Nosferatu excepted. And I have the feeling it would jump out more with modern graphics, e.g. how Mr X's skin in the RE2 remake looks really inhuman with the gray pallor on a somewhat realistic texture even outside of his meaty size. I'm hoping there's still something to make vampires seem at least a bit off that's more subtle with better tech available. Ideally with varying shades of it to mimic the PnP rules about how higher humanity vampires can more easily make their bodies look more human (e.g. draw breath, have more skin tone, etc.) while older and lower humanity ones more overtly project predatory corpse.
there probably will be a lot of thin-bloods in the game given the events they've talked about (your character starts as a thin-blood then will become a full-blood later... somehow?), but yeah.
there probably will be a lot of thin-bloods in the game given the events they've talked about (your character starts as a thin-blood then will become a full-blood later... somehow?), but yeah.
The only way in the lore mechanics (which Bloodlines is generally tepid on following) for a Thin-Blood to become a full vampire is diablerie of a stronger vampire, at which point they take on the characteristics of that clan.
Bloodlines barely interfaced with the core theme of "humanity" at all (just based on the main plot, your character would be hovering around humanity 3 by the ending), so I would find it really interesting if Bloodlines 2 presented you with the choice of continuing to be a Thin Blood or doing The Most Evil Single Act In The Setting and becoming a full vampire. I'd find a game that actually follow the humanity strictures of VTM fascinating, but I suspect I'm the only one.
The psychic in Santa Monica is probably more spoilery
“Don’t open it”
That’s some endgame shit there
One of the big themes of Bloodlines is who to trust, and I've always enjoyed the narrative plays with that. You get given some extremely concrete information from characters early on, repeatedly reinforced.
Don't Open The Box (repeatedly reinforced)
Don't trust anyone with an X in their name
Only trust Beckett and Mercurio (the lone wolf, the man on the couch)
The player's natural tendency is going to be to distrust those instructions or expect them to be subverted, because they've already been trained to be wary about what people say. In fact, these statements are 100% on the level, with the slight wrinkles that Maximillian Strauss is arguably on the level in his dealings (with the player at least) and Mercurio is willing to betray you if you work hard enough to get him there*. The game will provide you with various reasons to disregard the advice it has given, but you're being told the truth. "Jack seems pretty cool though...", nope. "Maybe opening the box leads to the All Powerful Vampire Ending", nope. Don't Open It. "Ming Xiao is being nice now, and makes some good points about...", nope. Don't trust anyone with an X in their name.
*This is a real mind blower if you do a 100% dick to everyone run, but yeah, Mercurio will full on try and kill you if you're enough of a shit.
The fact that you’re being given such differing accounts and information from all available sources and have no idea which you can trust is the only reason the psychic isn’t just a flat-out spoiler
When you play the game the first time your inclination is to go “okay crazy lady” and forget about the advice she gives you, but even if you believe that she’s trying to steer you one way it’s still possible that you start to think maybe you can trust this other guy from the anarchs, he seems cool!
It’s to the game’s credit that it is able to flat-out tell you what to do but you don’t know whether you can trust it because of your interactions with other characters and how they might motivate you towards their own ends
there probably will be a lot of thin-bloods in the game given the events they've talked about (your character starts as a thin-blood then will become a full-blood later... somehow?), but yeah.
One of the big collection of side-quests is actually tracking down all the other thinbloods created at the same time as the PC and helping them out, according to at least one article.
there probably will be a lot of thin-bloods in the game given the events they've talked about (your character starts as a thin-blood then will become a full-blood later... somehow?), but yeah.
There are other people that were turned the same time as you and apparently can seek them out and see how they're handling it.
Any good non video game media for World of Darkness I should be looking into? Particularly the vampire stuff. Haven't heard of much except for the games, I know theres the table tops but not really into that.
Rosa's prophecies also generally follow the standard of the Malkavian PC's in that, even if you understand them, they're not really actionable. She tells you that you'll see dinosaurs, one of Gary's vocal tics and the basic outline of where the plot will go, but in a context where even if you write down what she says you're just going to be going "oh" as you tick them off while playing. She only gives you one piece of hard advice, which is easy enough to follow.
there probably will be a lot of thin-bloods in the game given the events they've talked about (your character starts as a thin-blood then will become a full-blood later... somehow?), but yeah.
The only way in the lore mechanics (which Bloodlines is generally tepid on following) for a Thin-Blood to become a full vampire is diablerie of a stronger vampire, at which point they take on the characteristics of that clan.
Bloodlines barely interfaced with the core theme of "humanity" at all (just based on the main plot, your character would be hovering around humanity 3 by the ending), so I would find it really interesting if Bloodlines 2 presented you with the choice of continuing to be a Thin Blood or doing The Most Evil Single Act In The Setting and becoming a full vampire. I'd find a game that actually follow the humanity strictures of VTM fascinating, but I suspect I'm the only one.
I think it would need to be a different game than an action RPG. There are a lot of systems that were only given lip service for the sake of gameplay. The most obvious ones were a human you fed from being fine and dandy so long as you didn't take that last blood point and how you were free to ambush and drain dry as many people as you wanted without loss of humanity if the zone was marked as a combat zone.
there probably will be a lot of thin-bloods in the game given the events they've talked about (your character starts as a thin-blood then will become a full-blood later... somehow?), but yeah.
There are other people that were turned the same time as you and apparently can seek them out and see how they're handling it.
Any good non video game media for World of Darkness I should be looking into? Particularly the vampire stuff. Haven't heard of much except for the games, I know theres the table tops but not really into that.
They're long like most G&S streamed shows. It's tabletop, but with actors/voice actors. I haven't watched it myself (it's on the list) but have heard good things and it has a pretty dedicated fanbase.
Rosa's prophecies also generally follow the standard of the Malkavian PC's in that, even if you understand them, they're not really actionable. She tells you that you'll see dinosaurs, one of Gary's vocal tics and the basic outline of where the plot will go, but in a context where even if you write down what she says you're just going to be going "oh" as you tick them off while playing. She only gives you one piece of hard advice, which is easy enough to follow.
Assuming you actually remember it by the time the choice is there. One of my favorite parts when replaying the game was seeing how all of the weird predictions I forgot about showed something that popped up many hours later.
there probably will be a lot of thin-bloods in the game given the events they've talked about (your character starts as a thin-blood then will become a full-blood later... somehow?), but yeah.
There are other people that were turned the same time as you and apparently can seek them out and see how they're handling it.
Any good non video game media for World of Darkness I should be looking into? Particularly the vampire stuff. Haven't heard of much except for the games, I know theres the table tops but not really into that.
They're long like most G&S streamed shows. It's tabletop, but with actors/voice actors. I haven't watched it myself (it's on the list) but have heard good things and it has a pretty dedicated fanbase.
there probably will be a lot of thin-bloods in the game given the events they've talked about (your character starts as a thin-blood then will become a full-blood later... somehow?), but yeah.
The only way in the lore mechanics (which Bloodlines is generally tepid on following) for a Thin-Blood to become a full vampire is diablerie of a stronger vampire, at which point they take on the characteristics of that clan.
Bloodlines barely interfaced with the core theme of "humanity" at all (just based on the main plot, your character would be hovering around humanity 3 by the ending), so I would find it really interesting if Bloodlines 2 presented you with the choice of continuing to be a Thin Blood or doing The Most Evil Single Act In The Setting and becoming a full vampire. I'd find a game that actually follow the humanity strictures of VTM fascinating, but I suspect I'm the only one.
I think it would need to be a different game than an action RPG. There are a lot of systems that were only given lip service for the sake of gameplay. The most obvious ones were a human you fed from being fine and dandy so long as you didn't take that last blood point and how you were free to ambush and drain dry as many people as you wanted without loss of humanity if the zone was marked as a combat zone.
I'd like that combat zone thing to go, for sure. Killing a human being should be a serious, weighty act in a VTM game. It's one of my biggest dislikes about Bloodlines that you're a murderer before the end of the tutorial and never think anything of it, and it's particularly jarring when the magic combat zone sign comes on and you can murder innocents with aplomb.
Even just adding humanity loss to a lot of the quests would help a lot. For instance, taking a thin-blood's money for a grift and then sending him off to attack a vampire who will certainly kill them should be an automatic humanity loss rather than a free 300 bucks.
The psychic in Santa Monica is probably more spoilery
“Don’t open it”
That’s some endgame shit there
One of the big themes of Bloodlines is who to trust, and I've always enjoyed the narrative plays with that. You get given some extremely concrete information from characters early on, repeatedly reinforced.
Don't Open The Box (repeatedly reinforced)
Don't trust anyone with an X in their name
Only trust Beckett and Mercurio (the lone wolf, the man on the couch)
The player's natural tendency is going to be to distrust those instructions or expect them to be subverted, because they've already been trained to be wary about what people say. In fact, these statements are 100% on the level, with the slight wrinkles that Maximillian Strauss is arguably on the level in his dealings (with the player at least) and Mercurio is willing to betray you if you work hard enough to get him there*. The game will provide you with various reasons to disregard the advice it has given, but you're being told the truth. "Jack seems pretty cool though...", nope. "Maybe opening the box leads to the All Powerful Vampire Ending", nope. Don't Open It. "Ming Xiao is being nice now, and makes some good points about...", nope. Don't trust anyone with an X in their name.
*This is a real mind blower if you do a 100% dick to everyone run, but yeah, Mercurio will full on try and kill you if you're enough of a shit.
Strauss doesn't betray you but you should still not trust him. He is the true prince of the city after all and has more or less set things up so that, no matter what happens. You are out of the way and the jester Prince is dead.
there probably will be a lot of thin-bloods in the game given the events they've talked about (your character starts as a thin-blood then will become a full-blood later... somehow?), but yeah.
The only way in the lore mechanics (which Bloodlines is generally tepid on following) for a Thin-Blood to become a full vampire is diablerie of a stronger vampire, at which point they take on the characteristics of that clan.
Bloodlines barely interfaced with the core theme of "humanity" at all (just based on the main plot, your character would be hovering around humanity 3 by the ending), so I would find it really interesting if Bloodlines 2 presented you with the choice of continuing to be a Thin Blood or doing The Most Evil Single Act In The Setting and becoming a full vampire. I'd find a game that actually follow the humanity strictures of VTM fascinating, but I suspect I'm the only one.
I think it would need to be a different game than an action RPG. There are a lot of systems that were only given lip service for the sake of gameplay. The most obvious ones were a human you fed from being fine and dandy so long as you didn't take that last blood point and how you were free to ambush and drain dry as many people as you wanted without loss of humanity if the zone was marked as a combat zone.
Even just adding humanity loss to a lot of the quests would help a lot. For instance, taking a thin-blood's money for a grift and then sending him off to attack a vampire who will certainly kill them should be an automatic humanity loss rather than a free 300 bucks.
But then, TWIST! The thin-blood somehow gets the upper-hand and commits diablerie on said vampire, and now he's PISSED at you and super powerful.
Am I just overthinking the fancy pants white dude near the end or is that LaCroix. There's probably a lot of fancy pants white dude Princes around places. I guess with a Camarilla ending maybe when he got booted out of Santa Monica he then came up to Seattle to claw his way back? That would be kinda dumb though considering how much he fucked up.
My detector for what would be too dumb and what would be the right amount of dumb is being thrown off by my never expecting a Bloodlines 2 ever in the first place though.
Now i'm starting to wonder about who the narrator/hand at the end is, while simultaneously wondering if maybe Christof will show up. This is where I disengage for a year just for my own sanity.
I'd love a more true to tabletop experience where combat is relatively rare, freeform problem solving is the core gameplay and maintaining humanity is a struggle, where killing someone is as big a deal for your character as it would be for you in real life and a full murderhobo approach hits humanity zero and a game over.
But the trailer features a whole lot of violence so I'm expecting a similar "these are talking areas and these are fighting areas" affair.
I wonder if they'll canonically resolve the ending of VtMB or just write the story in a way that keeps it ambiguous. The only ending that seems right out is the Kuei-Jin one, as I believe that one would have resulted in the dissolution of the Camarilla and the end of the Masquerade.
I'd love a more true to tabletop experience where combat is relatively rare, freeform problem solving is the core gameplay and maintaining humanity is a struggle, where killing someone is as big a deal for your character as it would be for you in real life and a full murderhobo approach hits humanity zero and a game over.
But the trailer features a whole lot of violence so I'm expecting a similar "these are talking areas and these are fighting areas" affair.
We don't see a lot in the little trailer so it's hard to tell how common that kind of thing will be. But I do like the chase sequences and the brawl giving way to an exposed neck. It gives the impression of actually being a predatory being with enhanced abilities over humans designed to help hunt.
I'd love a more true to tabletop experience where combat is relatively rare, freeform problem solving is the core gameplay and maintaining humanity is a struggle, where killing someone is as big a deal for your character as it would be for you in real life and a full murderhobo approach hits humanity zero and a game over.
But the trailer features a whole lot of violence so I'm expecting a similar "these are talking areas and these are fighting areas" affair.
I'd love that game, but I'm also happy with the more Action RPG style even if I'd like more of the humanity elements to come in. Honestly, I'd love it if Paradox started kicking out a wide variety of different VTM games, including ones closer to tabletop simulation. They own Harebrained Schemes after all.
I wonder if they'll canonically resolve the ending of VtMB or just write the story in a way that keeps it ambiguous. The only ending that seems right out is the Kuei-Jin one, as I believe that one would have resulted in the dissolution of the Camarilla and the end of the Masquerade.
Nah, the Camarilla would survive that, even if LA fell to the Kuei Jin. There's nothing apocalyptic about that ending.
Canonically, LaCroix died and the anarchs took LA back entirely. That could be from any of the non Kuei Jin endings, but I think I recall that the bomb definitely goes off which would lead to it being either the anarch or independent ending.
Posts
Ok then, although to me it feels like praising D&D5 for killing sacred cows from D&D3.5.
The only way to get blessed hamburgers is to slaughter the sacred cows.
They mentioned how important fan mods were for keeping the game alive, and said they plan to support mods from day one.
Regardless, you can of course prefer whichever editions you like; what I take issue with is the characterization of these decisions as "lazy". They may be right or wrong, but they were made with specific intent and were by definition less lazy than changing nothing at all. A lot of work went in to rebalancing the mechanics of VtM to something playable.
My first playthrough of Bloodlines was as a Malkavian, because I knew basically nothing about VtM, so I just went with the Clan the character questionnaire gave me.
In my opinion, the Malkavian does spoil the plot, but only when you already know what the plot is.
Yeah, you'd have to very much be aware of what was coming to make sense of it. I'd say that one possible exception is referring to Jeanette as a Daughter Of Janus, but even then when I first played it I just thought "right, they're twins".
“Don’t open it”
That’s some endgame shit there
Maybe if you make your character like it’s an episode of Monster Factory that’d be an appealing option
One of the big themes of Bloodlines is who to trust, and I've always enjoyed the narrative plays with that. You get given some extremely concrete information from characters early on, repeatedly reinforced.
The player's natural tendency is going to be to distrust those instructions or expect them to be subverted, because they've already been trained to be wary about what people say. In fact, these statements are 100% on the level, with the slight wrinkles that Maximillian Strauss is arguably on the level in his dealings (with the player at least) and Mercurio is willing to betray you if you work hard enough to get him there*. The game will provide you with various reasons to disregard the advice it has given, but you're being told the truth. "Jack seems pretty cool though...", nope. "Maybe opening the box leads to the All Powerful Vampire Ending", nope. Don't Open It. "Ming Xiao is being nice now, and makes some good points about...", nope. Don't trust anyone with an X in their name.
*This is a real mind blower if you do a 100% dick to everyone run, but yeah, Mercurio will full on try and kill you if you're enough of a shit.
It was an easy visual shorthand but it felt weird at times for creatures that are supposed to generally pass as human, Nosferatu excepted. And I have the feeling it would jump out more with modern graphics, e.g. how Mr X's skin in the RE2 remake looks really inhuman with the gray pallor on a somewhat realistic texture even outside of his meaty size. I'm hoping there's still something to make vampires seem at least a bit off that's more subtle with better tech available. Ideally with varying shades of it to mimic the PnP rules about how higher humanity vampires can more easily make their bodies look more human (e.g. draw breath, have more skin tone, etc.) while older and lower humanity ones more overtly project predatory corpse.
Steam Profile
3DS: 3454-0268-5595 Battle.net: SteelAngel#1772
The only way in the lore mechanics (which Bloodlines is generally tepid on following) for a Thin-Blood to become a full vampire is diablerie of a stronger vampire, at which point they take on the characteristics of that clan.
Bloodlines barely interfaced with the core theme of "humanity" at all (just based on the main plot, your character would be hovering around humanity 3 by the ending), so I would find it really interesting if Bloodlines 2 presented you with the choice of continuing to be a Thin Blood or doing The Most Evil Single Act In The Setting and becoming a full vampire. I'd find a game that actually follow the humanity strictures of VTM fascinating, but I suspect I'm the only one.
The fact that you’re being given such differing accounts and information from all available sources and have no idea which you can trust is the only reason the psychic isn’t just a flat-out spoiler
When you play the game the first time your inclination is to go “okay crazy lady” and forget about the advice she gives you, but even if you believe that she’s trying to steer you one way it’s still possible that you start to think maybe you can trust this other guy from the anarchs, he seems cool!
It’s to the game’s credit that it is able to flat-out tell you what to do but you don’t know whether you can trust it because of your interactions with other characters and how they might motivate you towards their own ends
One of the big collection of side-quests is actually tracking down all the other thinbloods created at the same time as the PC and helping them out, according to at least one article.
Gamertag: PrimusD | Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
Any good non video game media for World of Darkness I should be looking into? Particularly the vampire stuff. Haven't heard of much except for the games, I know theres the table tops but not really into that.
I think it would need to be a different game than an action RPG. There are a lot of systems that were only given lip service for the sake of gameplay. The most obvious ones were a human you fed from being fine and dandy so long as you didn't take that last blood point and how you were free to ambush and drain dry as many people as you wanted without loss of humanity if the zone was marked as a combat zone.
Steam Profile
3DS: 3454-0268-5595 Battle.net: SteelAngel#1772
There's a weekly Geek and Sundry livestream show called LA by Night. Episodes here: https://geekandsundry.com/shows/la-by-night/
They're long like most G&S streamed shows. It's tabletop, but with actors/voice actors. I haven't watched it myself (it's on the list) but have heard good things and it has a pretty dedicated fanbase.
A) Let me play Sabbat
C) Failing that let me play Lasombra Antitribu
XOXO
White FC: 0819 3350 1787
Assuming you actually remember it by the time the choice is there. One of my favorite parts when replaying the game was seeing how all of the weird predictions I forgot about showed something that popped up many hours later.
Steam Profile
3DS: 3454-0268-5595 Battle.net: SteelAngel#1772
Some of those are really fun. I'll check it out.
I'd like that combat zone thing to go, for sure. Killing a human being should be a serious, weighty act in a VTM game. It's one of my biggest dislikes about Bloodlines that you're a murderer before the end of the tutorial and never think anything of it, and it's particularly jarring when the magic combat zone sign comes on and you can murder innocents with aplomb.
Even just adding humanity loss to a lot of the quests would help a lot. For instance, taking a thin-blood's money for a grift and then sending him off to attack a vampire who will certainly kill them should be an automatic humanity loss rather than a free 300 bucks.
Strauss doesn't betray you but you should still not trust him. He is the true prince of the city after all and has more or less set things up so that, no matter what happens. You are out of the way and the jester Prince is dead.
But then, TWIST! The thin-blood somehow gets the upper-hand and commits diablerie on said vampire, and now he's PISSED at you and super powerful.
Am I just overthinking the fancy pants white dude near the end or is that LaCroix. There's probably a lot of fancy pants white dude Princes around places. I guess with a Camarilla ending maybe when he got booted out of Santa Monica he then came up to Seattle to claw his way back? That would be kinda dumb though considering how much he fucked up.
My detector for what would be too dumb and what would be the right amount of dumb is being thrown off by my never expecting a Bloodlines 2 ever in the first place though.
LaCroix's situation at the end of Bloodlines is best summed up as Pretty Fucked.
But the trailer features a whole lot of violence so I'm expecting a similar "these are talking areas and these are fighting areas" affair.
We don't see a lot in the little trailer so it's hard to tell how common that kind of thing will be. But I do like the chase sequences and the brawl giving way to an exposed neck. It gives the impression of actually being a predatory being with enhanced abilities over humans designed to help hunt.
Steam Profile
3DS: 3454-0268-5595 Battle.net: SteelAngel#1772
I'd love that game, but I'm also happy with the more Action RPG style even if I'd like more of the humanity elements to come in. Honestly, I'd love it if Paradox started kicking out a wide variety of different VTM games, including ones closer to tabletop simulation. They own Harebrained Schemes after all.
Nah, the Camarilla would survive that, even if LA fell to the Kuei Jin. There's nothing apocalyptic about that ending.
Canonically, LaCroix died and the anarchs took LA back entirely. That could be from any of the non Kuei Jin endings, but I think I recall that the bomb definitely goes off which would lead to it being either the anarch or independent ending.