News and Updates

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.

There is a bug in SL at the moment that may be affecting your HUD and Bloodlines items. We want to make you aware of it, as well as ask for your help in filing messages on the SL JIRA, in hopes that it may get fixed sooner rather than later.

The SL bug is one that affects the owner data on prims; in some regions, the sim is unable to report who owns what prims properly. This has a negative effect on many things, including our HUDs; if your HUD cannot tell that you are the owner, or can’t tell that your friend owns their HUD, then you may have issues with scanning, drinking blood from casks/tanks, using potions, etc.

This is NOT affecting all regions, so if you are having issues, definitely try your items in another region to see if they resolve. 

If you’d like to do your part to help get this issue fixed – you can vote on the JIRA issue associated with this bug. Voting only takes a moment, and if sufficient votes rack up the Lindens tend to give the issue higher fix priority.

The JIRA issue can be found here.

Once the JIRA page loads, on the left side, near the top, it should say: “If you were logged in you would be able to see more operations.”

If you click the “logged in” portion  of that statement, it will prompt you to log into the SL JIRA. Once you do, you’ll then see (on the left side again):

” Voting: You have not voted for this issue. Vote for it if you wish it to be fixed”

Click on “Vote for it” and you’ll add your voice to those that wish to see this issue fixed in the near future!

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.

A few security checks have been activated on the Bloodlines systems today. First, we need to get everyone to indicate that they agree to our terms and conditions to continue playing. If you detach and reattach your HUD, our terms of service will be vended to you, and you’ll have to answer ‘Yes’ to the blue dialog window indicating that you agree to them. You’ll only have to do this once. In addition, we’ve added an automatic validation system, so that even if those pesky hackers and counterfeiters are able to modify the permissions on the HUD again, it won’t work unless it validates with our purchase database. No activation keys will be necessary, the system knows who purchased a HUD and who didn’t. We wish we didn’t have to waste your gaming time and our development time with troubles like this, thanks to everyone for your patience, and please know that we’re doing these things in the best interest of the system.

If you get an error message telling you that you’re not validated, or if it just tells you “There was an error, please try again.”, this may mean that our system didn’t get your avatar name properly. If your connection happens to be slow or there is a lot of lag, you might notice that the name on your SL resident profile appears as “(waiting)”, or “Loading…”. Our system may also get your avatar name this way, so it’s unable to check you in, and will give you an error message. If you just wait a few seconds, or try viewing your own profile and making sure your name comes up, then reattach your HUD, it should work. If not, be sure to let me (Lyle Maeterlinck) know, and I’ll look into it for you as soon as possible.

Also, please note that the current version of the Bloodlines HUD is 2.7, if you’re not currently using 2.7, you’ll need to update in order for it to work. We’ve been able to turn our auto-updaters back on, so your HUD should check in when you attach it and make sure that you have the most recent version.

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!