News and Updates

We’d like to announce the release of our new system: Bloodlines War. The Bloodlines War products have been out for a couple of weeks, as somewhat of a “soft-launch” to allow us to work out any major problems before we advertised it. The Bloodlines War system is a straightforward, easy-to-use combat system that works anywhere in Second Life. It allows you to use your Thirst Fangs and Rage Claws as weapons in combat with other Bloodlines players. However, you don’t have to be a member of The Thirst or The Rage in order to play. The War system includes a bare-fisted attack, and is set up to work with a future line of weapons. Check out the products page to see the full line of war items.

If you’re a current Bloodlines player, fighting in Bloodlines War will not affect your current Thirst or Rage stats. The War stats are an entirely separate set of stats where you can gain kills, a body count, and increase your level, xp, and lethality ratings. However, your vital blood level will increase the strength of your fang attack, and your lumen level will increase the strength of your claw attack.

If you have any questions or comments about the system, please send them to Lyle Maeterlinck in-world. We hope you like this new system as much as we do!

We are pleased to announce the long-awaited arrival of the Bloodlines lycan system, The Rage. We know it’s long overdue, but we couldn’t rush it out, we wanted to make it as richly featured as The Thirst, and we agonized over the details. We’ve configured it so that The Thirst and The Rage can stand alone, or can seamlessly integrate, depending on how you want to use it. Vampires and Lycans can exchange attacks, and can mix together in clans and packs. Or, you can become both enraged and embraced to achieve the status of Hybrid, moving back and forth between both worlds. For all the details, please see the Vampire / Lycan interaction section of our new Game Guide.

We’ve been through a lot of testing, but it’s a complicated system and we can’t guarantee you won’t run into any errors. If you run into a problem, just send a notecard to Lyle Maeterlinck with a description of the problem, and we promise we’ll get it corrected right away.

Over the last year and two months, thousands of you have endured a relentless Vampire Curse to form the true vampire armies of Second Life. You have taken part in an adventure that encompasses both real and invented stories, and every one of your characters have left their mark on the story of Bloodlines forever.

Now arise the Lycan armies. I’m sure you’re with us when we say that we can’t wait to see what happens next.

Also, there is another big development just over the horizon, so stay tuned…

Thanks to everyone for your support!

Mars Bracken and Lyle Maeterlinck

Liquid Designs

Below is a procedure you can use to help make sure you don’t buy a tank or cask that doesn’t work or has been deliberately removed from the system by us when an account is terminated.

1. Check to see if the avatar you’re buying from has an active Bloodlines account. Type their name into the search box on www.slbloodlines.com, and if you can’t find their page, don’t buy from them, regardless of what excuses they give you.

2. See if the container in question appears on their Blood Cellar page. (Make sure that if you’re buying a full 20 L cask, that you see at least one full 20 L cask on their blood cellar page. If there isn’t one, don’t buy it.) You can get to their Blood Cellar page by clicking on the blood container icon on their profile.

3. Check the creator of the object – including the linked prims! This isn’t foolproof, because scammers have found ways to repurpose Mars Bracken prims to link as the root, but have the seller rez the container in front of you. Right-click on it and select ‘edit’. Your build tools window should open. Look on the “General” tab, and make sure the creator is Mars Bracken on all the prims (or Voluntas Blackburn or Lyle Maeterlinck, other BL creators) and that the owner is the name of the avatar you’re buying from. Again this one isn’t 100% foolproof, but often times you can spot a fake this way.

4. In the build window, go to the ‘Content’ tab, and make sure that the container contains a script called ‘Bloodlines Blood Container’ for pre-version 5 containers, and for new containers, look for scripts named “_1_container_api_[version]” and “_2_container_operate_[version]”.

5. Have the seller set the container to open access and fill/drink mode. Once they’ve done this, when you click on the container, you should get a menu with ‘Fill’ and ‘Drink’ buttons.

6. Fill the container with 0.1 L of blood. (If the tank is full, then drink 0.1 L). Make sure that the blood comes off of your vital blood and goes into the container. The best way to check this is by looking on your own Bloodlines profile, and on the Blood Cellar page of the avatar selling the tank. Make sure that your vital blood dropped by 0.1 L, and that the amount in the tank went up by 0.1 L (or vice versa if you drank instead of filled). If this worked, the tank is good.

7. Now, if you’re ready to buy the container, DO NOT pay the avatar directly and have them hand it to you. Don’t take your eyes off of the container that you just checked. Have the seller set it for sale at the agreed price, and then right-click it and select ‘buy’. You will now be the owner of the container.

General tips:

1. If they’re selling it in the Bloodlines store, NEVER buy from them. Selling blood in the store is prohibited. Please report them to us.
2. If you see anything funny happen after you check the container, check it again.
3. Don’t let them rush you. You’re the one that stands to lose if this deal goes bad. Take your time, and if you’re not certain it’s good, don’t buy it. If they’re in a hurry, ask to meet at a better time for them.
4. Don’t let them talk you into any other custom procedure, no matter what explanation they give you. In fact, if they try to talk you into anything else or convince you of anything, it’s a good sign that they’re scamming you.
5. If they say they work for Bloodlines, or that they’re friends with the creators, or that Bloodlines or the Lindens certified their tanks, they are lying to you.

If they give you any trouble or you get a bad feeling about them or anything else, trust your gut and don’t buy it.

If you do end up buying a tank that doesn’t work, I’m sorry, but we won’t be able to replace it for you. Here is the action you can take:

1. File an abuse report on the person for Fraud > $L. We’re not sure that they will be able to help you, but it’s worth a shot.
2. Send us their name so we can possibly take action against them, including but not limited to: banning them from our land, draining and deregistration of additional blood containers and termination and destruction of Bloodlines account(s).

We want to support the blood trade, but we take theft and fraud very seriously, and we pursue blood thieves and frauds to the extent that we are able.

Today we’ve released version 2.9 of The Thirst and 2.7 of the Spike. This is a mandatory update, but the current versions of the Thirst and the Spike will continue to work for 72 hours following the product release. After Saturday evening, 3/7/09, you will need to get the update. When you attach your Bloodlines HUD or Spike, it should be auto-delivered to you. If it’s not, try getting your update from the update kiosks in the main Bloodlines stores on Liquid Designs or Liquid East.

The Spike update is just to coincide with some of the server-side updates that we made to The Thirst. The changes to the Thirst include:

1. Setting your liege is now done through a local sensor and selection from a menu, instead of typing in the avatar name. This means it’s a lot easier to set your liege or to request freedom, but in order to set your liege, you have to do it in person.
2. With this version, avatars younger than 14 days old cannot be attacked. This is to cut down on vampire attacks on new avatars in welcome areas. New avatars can only join the game if they buy the HUD first.
3. Tampering controls have been added to keep the bite from being disguised as something else, like a hug. You can still modify your fangs to fit your avatar, including resizing them and moving the prims around, but please don’t rename them or add prims to the link set, these actions will set off the tamper controls.

If you discover any technical issues with the updates, please let Lyle Maeterlinck know immediately. Happy Hunting!

UPDATE: The Thirst 2.8 and the Spike 2.6 have been deactivated. Your animations still may work, but they will no longer interact with the Bloodlines server.  To continue playing, please update to Thirst 2.9 and Spike 2.7. If you have any trouble getting your update, send a notecard to Noire Luminos.

Announcing the much anticipated Electrum Potion! This potion gives the user the ability to move their soul from the possession of one avatar into the possession of another. So, for all of you that have wanted your soul to go to a special someone, now you have the power. However, to do this, there’s a price. The person receiving your soul must ransom another soul back to the current owner. So, the Electrum potion doesn’t change soul counts, it just trades the position of two souls. The person receiving the drinker’s soul must be present (within 20 meters) and must approve the transaction. They can choose to have any one of their souls go as ransom, or can choose a specific soul to go. The person losing the drinker’s soul does not need to be present and need not consent. Enjoy!

Today we’re proud to announce the release of Version 3.0 Blood Containers, Blood Siphons, and Blood Bottle Container Refills.

The Version 3.0 containers have a few exciting new features: Group Security and Drink / Fill Records. We’ve gotten rid of the unwieldy user list feature that we had on the version 1 and 2 containers, and we’ve added a feature so you can allow access to a Second Life group. So, you can either set your container to open access, or to group access only. You can still set the container to fill only or fill / drink for others that have access. To see a readout of the current security settings, just press the check button on the menu. In addition, we’ve made it so you can check the drink / fill record for your containers. Under security, just check ‘View Record’, and you’ll get a readout of the last 25 drinks and fills, so you’ll know who’s been filling and who’s been drinking.

The Blood Bottles are 5L refills for your blood containers. They will work on version 2 and 3 containers, and you can track them on your Blood Cellar page.

The Blood Siphon is a tool you can use to quickly move large amounts of blood between your containers, without having to drink from or bleed into them. You can use it to distribute or consolidate your blood. It’s a must-have tool for blood merchants, and anyone who keeps a blood cellar for their clan or bloodthirsty guests. Blood Siphons will also work on version 2 and 3 containers. Once you get your blood siphon, you’ll get a new item icon on your Blood Cellar page.

We’ve just released catalogue vendors which include the majority of the non-Bloodlines items at Liquid Designs; you can now resell “The Brethren”, “The Murder”, and the various Halloween-themed items we have at Blood.

The vendors can be found at the Blood store at Bloodlines West, or on our Halloween sim at Blood:Halloween.

We’ve released a an updated set of Catalogue Vendors. In addition to performing better and having less dropped sales due to lag (thanks Andy Enfield!) we’ve added several sizes, as well as an optional TP board with links to a few important Bloodlines locations, like the Eternal Orchard. The vendors are available at Bloodlines East, to the left of the Thirst vendor.

* UPDATED: 10.21.08 – The new Cask/Tank Siphons should appear in the Bloodlines Catalogue vendors, but you may need to take them offline / update them in order for them to show up.

Hi everyone, we’re excited to announce the launch of the official The Thirst: Bloodlines blog. We created this blog to be the official source of information for all things Bloodlines.  There have been some fraudulent in-world communications distributed by griefers claiming to be us. From this point forward, any note card distributed in-world claiming to be from Liquid Designs, Lyle Maeterlinck, Mars Bracken, or Curse Aszkenaze is not from us, even if one of us is listed as the notecard creator. Modifiable notecards created by all of us have gotten loose, so anyone could edit them and pass them around. Now that you know where to come for official Bloodlines updates, we’ve got lots of exciting news for you.

Announcement #1: New Region at Liquid South!

Liquid Designs has just opened a new region south of Liquid Designs called Liquid South. This region currently holds the Blood: Halloween store, Halloween products from guest artists, and the Bloodlines: Werewolves contest (see below).

Announcement #2: Bloodlines: Werewolves

The Bloodlines: Werewolves system is currently under development. While we’re working hard on it over at Liquid Labs, we’re holding a contest to see who can choose the best name for the system. If we like your name the best, you’ll get the system FREE for yourself and 5 friends!

Announcement #3: Important updates to The Thirst

Today we released The Thirst 2.6. This version includes some important security updates, and includes the much-requested clan management system. Now you can remove a minion, ban/unban a minion, or view your minion ban list. Be aware that the settings menus have been shuffled a bit.

Announcement #4: Bloodlines now has commission-paying catalog vendors!

We’ve set up vendors at the main Bloodlines store where you can get your own set of Bloodlines catalog vendors for only 1 Linden! No more waiting list for Bloodlines vendors, and now you’ll earn 3% on every purchase made from your vendors.

Announcement #5: (yes, there’s more) Bloodlines Profile Updates

We’ve made a few updates to the Bloodlines profiles: everyone now has a cask / tank page that will show you the level of blood in all of your tanks and casks at any given time. If you own casks or tanks, just click on the new profile icons to get to your Blood Cellar page!

Announcement #6: New products.

A while ago, we announced that a new set of products were going to be released “soon”, but unfortunately we’ve been spending a lot of time dealing with griefers, hackers, and counterfeiters. However, we’ve put the majority of that behind us, and we hope to have the new products out before Halloween.

Setting the Record Straight

We know that there are some people out there that claim to have worked for us in order to explain their possession of our open-perms items, and that there are claims that open perms items cannot be obtained through Second Life exploits. Both of these claims are false. There are only two employees of Liquid Designs that are authorized to have open perms Bloodlines items: Lyle Maeterlinck and Mars Bracken. No one else has ever at any point been given open perms items. Also, it is a fact that it has been possible to view no-mod scripts and to modify the permissions on items by using modified viewers that exploit Second Life security vulnerabilities. In the release notes of Second Life server code 1.24.7, it states that the updates include three security fixes. It was confirmed to us through the Second Life JIRA that one of these fixes was for the UpdateTaskInventory exploit, which allowed permissions to be illegally modified. There was an additional exploit performed in late July that allowed hackers to open our items and obtain our scripts. The Lindens have assured us that the exploits used so far against us have been closed, and we’ve updated our items and our application to block communication from the scripts that were compromised.

Meanwhile, the Bloodlines system is still supporting communities of thousands of vampires, and we’re doing everything we can to make sure Bloodlines continues to grow and prosper. Thanks for all of your encouragement!