News and Updates

UPDATE 4/1/12:

Just an update: we are planning HUD updates for tonight. This is not an April Fool’s joke. More updates to come…

UPDATE 3/30/12, 5 PM:

We’ve reviewed everyone’s feedback on the impending HUD updates, and as a result, we’ve got a new proposal. All the updates below are going to be put into place, except for the ability to Glamour someone before they are a part of the game. We agree that this will probably cause too much confusion. So, Glamour will only work on your own direct human minions, and it will only last for an hour, unless broken by your human before that limit. Also, it will not cost blood or lumens in order to use. So, we’re not going to implement the option of Glamouring someone before they have joined in order to prevent them from using the Wormwood. To be clear, your human minions will have to agree to be Glamoured, and will be able to break the Glamour if they wish. For now, this will just be a fun new power that you will be able to use when role-playing with your humans if you wish.

PREVIOUSLY:

Later this week, we’re going to be updating the Thirst, Rage, and Human HUDs with a few new features and fixes. All HUDs are going to be getting the ability to register and manage accounts for logging into the Bloodlines website. If you already own a Blood or Lumen scanner, you already have an account, and the account you can manage with your HUD will be the same as the account you can manage on your scanner. This is so that everyone can have an account to log in. In the near future, we’re going to be building some new features into the website that you can use only when logged in, such as customizing your Bloodlines web profile, and this HUD update will allow us to launch those new features.

As part of this update, we’re going to be moving Charisma voting to the website. So, instead of the button on the HUD, you’ll be able to log into the website, and on everyone’s profile will be a button to send them a charisma point for the day.

We’re also going to be adding a new power: Glamour for vampires, and Terror for lycans. Of course, hybrids will be able to use either one. Glamour / Terror has different effects, depending on the status of the victim (who will have to agree to Glamour / Terror request for it to work). If you Glamour or Terror a new player who has not yet worn a HUD, it will prevent them from drinking the Wormwood potion in order to free their soul from limbo. That means that their soul will always go to you first if you bite them and then they join. Using a Glamour will cost a vampire 1L of vital blood, and a Terror will cost a lycan 10 lumens. Only humans and new players can be Glamoured / Terrored.  If you Glamour or Terror a human who has already joined, you will be able to bite them without asking, until they break the Glamour or Terror, which can be done with your HUD.

Let us know what you think of these updates, or if you have any thoughts for changes you think we should get into the HUDs for this release.

Happy hunting!

Today we released version 1.1 of the Coffins and the Sarcophagus. To get your update, you can just re-rez your copy of the Coffin or the Sarcophagus, and it will automatically deliver you the update.

The new versions include features to make sending Vital Blood and Lumens to your friends easier and faster. You can add quick lists of up to 25 names that you can easily select from lists on the menus. This way, if you have a few names that you regularly send blood or lumens to, you can program them in and you don’t have to chat them every time. Also, you can create a consistent link with a given container that will last for up to 15 minutes, so that you don’t have to select the container every time you send blood or lumens. Another convenient feature is the fill to max option, which allows you to fill someone to their maximum blood or lumens in a single send.

We hope you enjoy these new features, and get many thousands of years out of your Liquid Designs Coffin or Sarcophagus.

The Moonshine

We’re excited to announce a surprise release today of the Lumen shot, which we’re calling ‘The Moonshine‘. It comes in a stylish bar glass with an iron base and a crescent moon printed on the bottom of the glass. Just like the ever popular Blood Shot, the Moonshine can be sipped or shot. You can get one at the various hangouts around the Liquid sims, or stock up on them and offer them to your guests at your bar or castle!

The Moonshine is available now in the following places:

• The Rage Store at Liquid South
• The Haunt Bar
• Liquid South Welcome Area
• Liquid Designs Welcome Area
• Liquid East Welcome Area

We hope you enjoy this fun new product!

This is just a reminder: old catalogue vendors will be turned off on March 7. If you haven’t gone to the Bloodlines store and gotten new catalogue vendors since we made our last announcement, please do so now. There are new catalogue vendors available for Bloodlines Thirst, Bloodlines Lycans, Bloodlines Humans, Bloodlines War, and Crypt items. These new vendors have a gifting feature, and include update terminals and key grabbers. You can also change the size and material of the vendors by clicking on the backing board. All you should have to do is delete your old vendors and replace them with the new ones.

We’re excited to announce the release of new catalogue vendors!

The new catalogue vendors have several highly requested features: the ability to gift, an included update kiosk, and an included key grabber. You can use the update terminal to get redelivery of any copyable product you’ve previously purchased from Liquid Designs.

There are 6 sets of vendors for you to set up if you wish: The Thirst, The Rage, War, Humans, Crypt Avatar, and Crypt Land.

To make the vendors fit with your store size and decor, you can change the size and background material of the vendor board cluster by clicking on the vendor board backing and using the menu. If you want to delete the backing board, you can, but before you delete it, you can use it to set the size of your vendors.

The old catalogue vendors will be disabled in about 30 days, so around March 7. This means that you have 30 days to replace your catalogue vendors if you want to keep selling Bloodlines items on your own land. All you need to do is delete your old catalogue vendors or take them into inventory, and replace them with the new vendors you can get at any Bloodlines store for 1 Linden. Bloodlines stores are located on Liquid Designs, Liquid East, Liquid South, Liquid Badlands, and Liquid Frontier.

If you have any questions about the new catalogue vendors, please contact Lyle Maeterlinck or Mars Bracken in-world.

All of the blood containers being sold on the Marketplace are fake or deactivated copies. If you buy a deactivated container on the Second Life Marketplace, we cannot help you. We do not sell official containers on the Marketplace, because as long as copy exploits still exist, we have to have containers rezzed and registered in-world before we can sell them. The only place to buy guaranteed blood containers is in the Bloodlines stores on the following regions:

Liquid Designs

Liquid East

Liquid Badlands

Liquid South

If you are anywhere else, you are buying a container that we cannot guarantee will work. ALWAYS test containers before you buy them. NEVER buy containers on the Marketplace, because it is not possible to test them first. Please see the procedure for how to test a blood container before you buy. Also, this is what to do if you have a deactivated container. Please be careful!

UPDATE: If you do end up buying a deactivated container on the SL Marketplace, please write a review on it saying that it is a scam, and warning others not to buy it. Also, please file an abuse report for fraud on the person who sold you the tank. You can get the name of the person who sold you the tank through your transaction history.

We’re excited to announce the release of the following new Bloodlines items:

1. The Human HUD
2. The Blood Vial
3. The Lumen Vial
4. The Insignia
5. Cider Barrels
6. Cider Jug Refills
7. Cider Siphon

The human products are available at these locations (click for SLURL):

• Liquid Designs
• Liquid East
• Liquid South
• Eternal Orchard
• Ravaged Orchard

We think that these new items are a lot of fun and will bring new and interesting role play experiences. We hope you have a blast with them!

This Friday afternoon, December 17, we’re releasing 7 new exciting Bloodlines products!

1. Cider Barrels: Humans can drink cider to restore their humanity. A great way to attract friendly humans.
2. Cider Refill Jugs: 5L refills to fill Cider Barrels with.
3. Cider Siphons: transfer cider between barrels quickly.
4. The Human HUD: registers you for the Bloodlines system with a Human Blood Type, allows you to drink from Cider Barrels, allows you to offer blood and lumens to vampires and lycans, and gives you the new human profile.
5. Blood Vials: transferable vials that you can bleed into and give to friends to wear around their neck. The vial displays whose blood it is in world and on your profile, so you can collect and trade a little piece of your friends (or your enemies)!
6. Lumen Vials: just like Blood Vials, but for Lumens.
7. The Insignia: this is a recruitment system for clan leaders. You can set up a server with a texture and a notecard, and it comes with a copy/transfer badge that will display your clan Insignia and vend a notecard with information about your clan when worn.

Please direct any questions about these new products to Lyle Maeterlinck. When the new products are released for purchase, we’ll announce it here!

Tonight we have released the much-anticipated new War weapons: the handgun, the sword, and the flamethrower! We’re really excited about this release, and we think these weapons are a ton of fun to play with. We’re also releasing some custom-built structures and items to help you build your battlezone: The Medieval Fortress and The Apocalypse Fortress are two structures custom-designed for Bloodlines War battles, plus we’re releasing our signature Hedge Maze from the ground level of Liquid Designs, so you can set up your own hedge maze base with the Dominion, or just use it to battle your friends! Plus, we have a handful of other old and new accessories featured in the Bloodlines War store that you can use to decorate your battlefield. Check out the Bloodlines War store at Liquid Badlands now!

As we mentioned in our post last week, we’re also releasing new versions of the mines and health serums, so that they are no-transfer. There are still some people out there using exploits to crack permissions on items, and then selling them. So, we have to continue with our updates to make all of our items no-transfer. We hope you were able to use up your current mines and serums over the last week, but if you weren’t, please refer to our post from last week on how to trade them in.

We’d also like to explain some adjustments we’ve made to the damage done by the various war weapons. On most weapons, we’ve scaled all of the damage down a bit, so that fights should start lasting a bit longer. Here’s what you need to know about the adjustments we’ve made:

1. The bare fist now only does 3 damage instead of 5.
2. The claw (Rage) and fang (Thirst) attacks now have the possibility of getting you a one-hit kill, depending on how high your Vital Blood (for the fangs), or Lumens (for the claws) currently are. The higher your vampire or lycan energy is, the more likely it will be that you’ll be able to slash an artery, but you’ve still got to have a bit of luck. If you don’t get a one-hit kill, then damage is based on your distance, and also how lucky you are.
3. The Psionic Blast works the same way as before, but you might find that it does a little less damage than it used to.
4. The  Handgun also has a chance of getting a lethal wound, based on your body count. The higher your body count, the greater the chance you’ll have of getting a head shot, but you’ll still need a bit of luck. If you don’t get a head shot, the damage done is based on some luck and on how far away you were when you fired.
5. The Sword has a chance of getting a lethal wound based on your current health. The higher your current health, the harder you’ll be able to swing when trying to chop an enemy in half. If you don’t score a lethal wound, the damage done is based on luck and how far away you were when you swung.
6. It’s not possible to get a one-hit kill with the flamethrower. The closer you are, the more damage you’ll do.

Thanks to everyone for their support, and we hope you all have a great time playing War!

We’re pleased to announce a release date for the new Bloodlines: War weapons. The Handgun, The Sword, and The Flamethrower will be released one week from today, on Tuesday, August 17th! The Handgun has a ‘silenced’ mode so that you can have a gunfight anywhere in Second Life without rezzing bullets and creating collisions with other residents. You can also use this silenced mode in areas where you don’t have permission to rez objects. Both the bullets and the sword contain blood effects when they make contact with other Bloodlines War players.

We will also be updating the Health Serum and the Mine so that they are no-transfer. We regret having to do this, but there are a small group of residents who have permissions-cracked versions of our transferable items, and sell them at below cost. As a result, we have to update all of our transferable items to be no-transfer, and we will not be releasing any more transferable items. So, you have one week to use up all of your current health serums and mines (a great excuse to create a nice big minefield), because after 8/17/10, they will no longer work. If you still have any mines or health serums left over after this date, you can trade them in for the new versions. If you see residents selling any health serums or mines for very low prices, please don’t buy them, they are counterfeit. We are only able to trade in mines and health serums if you originally purchased them directly from us, and not from a reseller. We can’t guarantee any item that’s purchased from a reseller. You must seek a guarantee from the avatar you’re buying from.

If you need to trade in your items, please observe the following procedure:

1. Items must be placed in a folder, and NAME THE FOLDER WITH YOUR NAME ONLY. To do this, go to your inventory, and select New > Folder. Right-click on the folder and select ‘Rename’, then type your avatar name. Drag and drop your items into this folder.
2. Please don’t name the folder with any text other than your avatar name. Including additional or different text will delay your trade-in.
3. Include a note card with a copy of your transaction history for the purchase. You can get this by logging into your account on Secondlife.com, then going to Account > Transaction history, and copying and pasting the transaction information into the notecard. Drag the note card into the folder with your name on it.
4. Pass the folder to Noire Luminos, but please do not start sending in mines or health serums until after they are deactivated on 8/17/10.

We appreciate everyone’s patience while we worked on the new War Weapons, and for your patience with the item trade-ins. We have more exciting Bloodlines additions that will be released in the coming weeks, so check this blog often for updates.