2009 soon... so what's coming up?

I hope you all had a good Christmas and ate loads, i know i did =]

Okay so what's up coming? I'm going to re-do the enemy and friends list, so they are more customisable and you can list them in different ways and do all sorts of cool stuff with them. There are going to be extra staff options added as requested by the staff to help make monitoring things easier. I have yet to look at the helper applications because of the Xmas period, but over the next week or so i will start to look at them. 

I also had an idea to add an extra harddrive onto the server so people can upload pictures and avatars etc instead of having to upload them else where and have to input the URL. I will look into prices of getting this done and take it from there.

The xmas VIP will be available until i get home, (sunday i think) even though it says the 26th on the site, gives people an extra couple days if they wanna grab a bargain.

Aswell as all that i'm going to be adding some extra little things to help new members, some things are difficult to grasp when you're new, so i'm going to help ease new people into them with some new methods i have worked out, which help keep new players playing.

On another note, i have now created a mySpace group for RoB. So if you have a mySpace please join it! Aswell as the facebook group if you have not already, both links are available at all times at the bottom of each page.

Myspace group: http://groups.myspace.com/reignofblood

Facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=22745276355

Enjoy the rest of the holidays.

Ash

Merry Xmas :)

Well this is it guys, i'm off home for the xmas week. This week i've added a "question of the day", which can be set by a staff member with a money prize depending on the difficulty of the question.  There can be a new one each day depending on if someone remembers to post one =P Spot and I will usually be doing it but of course being Xmas not many people will be around.

After Xmas i will be releasing some sort of FaceBook group task to help get the word of RoB out there, but more of that in the new year :)

The Xmas VIP special will end on boxing day (26th Dec), so if you want some bargain plasma/VIP go get some now!

Hope you all have a great xmas and look foward to seeing you all at the end of next week =]

A few small updates...

First off i created a FaceBook group for all the RoB members. And you should all join it :) I will be making a MySpace one too but i have to wait 7 days before i can make it.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=22745276355

For those who havn't noticed (hard not too) I have changed the layout of the "home" section, also added a few todays stats and viewing last posted status updates which were suggested. I've had possitive feedback so far which is good.

For new players, i have had a couple mails telling me it takes to you long to get to level 2,  agree or disagree i have had a few of these, so i have stuck a +100 blood bonus on your first battle. Everyone will get this, so enjoy the extra blood =P

Thank you to everyone who has applied for the helper position, i have yet to read them, but Aftershock has gone through a few of them and told me there is a lot lol.

The server seems to be running a bit better now, but with the sudden unexpected amount of signups it might start sucking in more resources again, so a backup plan has been set, but more on that in the new year.

There will probably be one blog post before Christmas, i'm heading off home on Saturday for the Xmas week as a lot of other people probably are too, so if you cant get to the next blog, merry christmas :)

Helpers wanted! && Ram installed!

Good evening fellow vampires.

The extra 4gb of RAM has been installed onto the server, which along with the new processor will make the site nice and smooth.

I am in need of helpers! Helpers as you can see on the staff list is currently empty, now these helpers are to help out in the help chat when they can and be available for blood letter help too. You will be listed as "new player assistants" where new players can ask you for help if needed.

Also it would be required for you to save all questions (along with the answers) so we can build some sort of huge FAQ and knowledge base where new players can search. So instead of you having to type out the same answer every time, you can just link them to that part of the FAQ.

Requirements:

• Active - Logging on at least daily.
• Good attitude - Having a helpful general approach to people.
• Dont mind being asked same questions over and over by new people.
• Want a yellow tick symbol.
• Care about the game and its future development.

Blood letter the Rob Bot (ID 2) telling him WHY YOU should be a helper.

And also i would like to thank everyone who does help out in the chat, i do check there and see some members helping out, i do really appreciate it.

Thanks and good luck :)

It's going to be a crazy week!

So the server upgrade was all good and the server could cope with a lot more. Then come last night it was lagging again, what the hell?! Turns out the everyone is sucking up all the RAM aswell haha. We got the processing power but needs more RAM! There is currently 2GB ram in there at the moment, so i have ordered another 4GB to be installed, which (suprisingly) will give a total of 6GB RAM. Which will be plenty to last until next year when i attach a whole new server onto RoB. For those interested at off-peak times its leaving around 400mb free memory, it cant leave anything at peak times, hence the lag.

That will be installed this saturday!

There will not be any updates these week as i have 2 essays and exams to revise for, but after this week i'm free and plan to add a few more things :)

Have a fun week.

New server upgrade installed!

The new QuadCore processor has been installed on the server, and page loads do seem to be faster! This will mainly only improve heavy pages like the top vamps page etc.

This upgrade is a temporary fix because as the site grows it will again need another upgrade... so next year i will be purcahasing a dedicated SQL server

(so reignofblood will be running off 2 servers).

But until then enjoy the upgrade :)

As for the points, i'll be taken them off monday or tuesday due to me going back to my hometown for the weekend,

and i did take off the points on the side bar, but to sell them just go to : http://reignofblood.net/points.php

Vampire powers have arrived!

If you have yet to notice, i have finally created the vampire powers feature. Which basically gives you a temporary stat boost depending on your rank!

You get 10 MP an hour to spend on these powers, with a cap of 200.

It is currently in BETA, so changes may apply depending on how it goes and how well it is recieved, more powers will be added as well as VIP only ones too. Of course there is no other way to get MP other than the hourly 10, so zapping people etc will not give you MP anymore.  Any bugs? Please let me know.

Other than that, the server upgrade is due tomorrow, the downtime will be 15mins max.

But its 2am and i have an exam tomorrow, wish me luck and enjoy :)

Important information regarding points

Happy Decemeber people :)

Firstly, the server upgrade is due to be installed this Saturday, which should speed the site up by quite a bit.

Points - Points are being removed from the game, they are a dead currency as there is no decent CPA offers around that i can find at the moment. You have until this sunday (7th Dec) to spend/trade off your points before they are removed.

The Xmas packs are very popular, and they will stay open until the end of Decemeber, so if you want to make use of the awesome santa hat you get with all the packs, treat yourself to a xmas gift :)

For those who have not noticed, i have added a new playlist on the chat pages, as the last radio thing i had up was a load of crap. This is set list i have set up, i can add a total of 200 songs to it, so if you want any songs you like on there, then simply click on the suggest songs link below the player, i will add some suggested songs every now and then.

Have a good one :)

New VIP packs and VIP Xmas special!

It's coming to that time of year again... the happy Christmas period. So i've added a few temp Xmas packs for all those interested, you get a nice Xmas bonus treat in them aswell. Maybe 2 =P The awesome santa hat is back!

I have also re-done the VIP page aswell.

Treat yourself :) 

I'll also keep you updated on the server upgrade, havn't heard anything yet.

Server upgrade and downtime

To help conquer some of the lag you are getting (which is natural with the growth of RoB over the last month or so) i have paid to upgrade the server!

Upgrading to : Quad Core X3210, 2.13GHz/2x4M 1066FSB

Which is over double the processing power of the current CPU.

This will be installed in the next few days or during of next week, there will be a small amout of downtime, up to an hour maximum. I'll make another post when it's installed.

Keeping you updated.

I have had a ton of College work to get done the last couple of weeks, which is why there is a lack of updates on RoB. I have 2 more essays due in mid December and i'll start working on more stuff then.

The new forums i have decided will go ahead, they will be completely re-coded and make much better and more efficient.

Please post all game suggestions you have in the forum, i do read them, even if i do not reply :)

HTML in profiles

HTML is allowed again in profiles... for now.  As it cannot be totally secure it may have to be stopped. Or the following:

- HTML will be have to be checked by staff before being saved.

- Use forum codes like [b] etc instead.

i need to think this through, i know lots of you like using HTML, but security is more important. You get stick the HTML in your profiles now no problem, click on the "see old profile code link" when editing your profile to grab your old code.

I'll update you further by the end of the week.

You're secure with us!

I have purchased a SSL certificate for ReignOfBlood. Which basically means your details are secure with us! It is currently installed on the signup page and the login page. You will see a padlock on the secure pages. It is not needed in game on everypage, only where you enter your login details on the main page. Enjoy :)

HTML in profiles and other things

HTML is currently disabled in profiles to answer all those BLs im getting. It'll be back up soon, just dont panic or complain, there is noooo need. I'm going through and working on some stuff so you might see some wierd things like that. Also i hear that the break tag is showing in blood letters for some reason, and you have to use the [br] tag now, not the HTML. If you think there is a problem please post it in the forums instead of spamming my inbox. Thank you.

Neeeeeew stuff!

For those who have not noticed (be pretty hard not to) but the homepage has had another major makeover thanks to Dark August Night (85300) again! Aswell as the blood letters getting a make over, and the long awaited coven lend weapon feature is now released.

The forum and weapons system are slowly being developed.

Please post your feedback of the new homepage on this blog :)

RoB toolbar v1.0 released!

I have found a site where you can create your own free toolbar. So i decided to make one for RoB! It is free, has useful RoB links and keeps you up to date what is happening on the site.

It works for Internet Explorer and Firefox.

Download RoB's Blood-Bar V1.0 @ http://BloodBar.OurToolbar.com

Toolbar Link ideas

Comment this post for links that you would like on the ReignOFBlood toolbar.

New forum maybe?

I am having to create a new forum for someone, and i had the amazing idea of adding it into RoB. Why? Because it will be bug free (i.e: sticky threads not sticking, auto break problem etc). And it will look better and just be a general upgrade.

The only problem with it is, is that it would have to be a clean database. meaning all current posts will be lost...

There is a good and bad to most things. But as for the coven forums, i might keep the same as the amount of valuable guides etc in there.

let me know your thoughts by commenting this post or creating a thread in the forums.

What's coming soon?

It's gone mid-October and the amount of Uni work already is insane. But all is not lost :) Some stuff i'm making for my solo project i can use on RoB. So soon, i will be implementing a new weapon and armour system, as well as adding the coven weapon/armour loan system.

I will also re-design the VIP page and the packs at this point aswell, you'll see why when it's done =P

There is stuff to look forward to, just might be a bit slow due to college work :) One last thing, if all goes well, should be getting some more artwork around the site, which will improve the overall look of the site.

Enjoy

New Layout!!

Thanks to Dark August Night (85300) who has done some nifty banner/artwork for RoB, i have uploaded the new upgaded RoB layout :) I think it looks pretty damn awesome.

I've set it so everyone is currently viewing the default layout, you can go to your account options tab at the top and change it back if you wish.

Leave feedback by commenting this or in the forums, thanks again to Dark August, and i hope you all enjoy it.

VIP special offer

I have started a *get some plasma in the game* VIP special offer. It will run until 10th October. Trying to raise money to buy advertising on some big voting sites to get more players on RoB. If you have not got VIP yet, now is the time to get it.

I havn't done any work on RoB this week! Uni is taking its toll, but i am about to start creating the new weapon system, so there is something to look foward too :) More details on it later.

Have a good week guys.

Latest with RoB and Ash

It's a Tuesday evening and i wanted to post a new blog, so here i am. For those who have not noticed, ReignOfBlood's daily signups have gone through the roof! Which is thanks to a few donations from Chaos of course. I've got some advertising in different places and on some vote sites, you probably notice when you vote for RoB daily. (which i'm still tracking by the way ;~) ). And i've been looking into search engine optimization to get RoB high in Google's search results.

On a more personal note, i started University today. For those who don't know i'm doing my 3rd and final year doing a BSc (Hons) computing degree. I don't know how much work there will be compared to the last 2 years of it, so i cannot predict it. But i will always find time to work on new stuff for you guys. (I did the first 2 years of my degree at my local college up in Barny where i used to live, much closer and easier learning enviroment, pretty boring actually lol, but now i've moved to Plymouth to a proper "university" to finish it off, for those interested).

What's next you must be thinking? Well, there are a few things that i want to do, a new weapon system, vamp powers. I have quite a few things on my list (not going to announce all of course :-P), but i have quite a list to work through as well as fixing and tidying stuff up, and all the suggestions you guys are making in the suggestion forum. Which i do read by the way, i get blood letters saying please read my suggestion etc etc, i do read them all, even if i dont reply, all possible suggestions i do note down, so for people who think they're being ignored, you're not!

I'll report any progress next week and let you know how my first week at Uni went!

MP gone =[

There, it's finally gone. It's over. Bye bye. I have had a few questions, so i'll answer them publicly.


"Do you still gotta zap people for the achievement?"
Yes, MP being removed from the game will not effect the achievement, nor will the achievement change.

What do you get for zapping people now?
... killing them?

Will MP be replaced?
In the sense of a reward for magic? No. But for a new future feature? Yes.


Also, for those who have not noticed, i have added 2 more chat rooms, a help chat and a roleplaying chat. Chat rules apply to all of course :) As well as the general chat there aswell.
Enjoy.

New Underground complete!

The new underground is now launched, check it out, and click the "give feedback" link when you're down there to give your thoughts and/or suggestions. Thanks :)

MP, turns & underground

Okay, lets start with the underground. It is almost complete :) I've gotta run some tests and maybe add a couple more things in, but it will more or less complete and will be released in the next couple days, if not, the end of this week if all goes well.

MP, finally MP is going to go. (I know i've been saying for AGES i'm going to get rid of it, but i really am this time :P). This sunday night i will be removing MP completly, you have until then to sell or trade in what you have. There are 2 reasons for this, one explained in the next paragraph, the other for a new feature, with vampire powers, coming into play which will replace it.

Turns, i'm getting rid of all ways to get turns other than the hourly turn rate. This includes, alignment, and plasma trades. Something else will be rewarded instead of turns. The exception to this is a new feature coming out soon, you'll know about that later. This will help keep cheating down, and of course getting MP will help that too. This will happen Sunday also.

Until then, you'll have a new underground to play with a maybe a new weapon system thought out. Enjoy :)

Not reading the blog is not a valid exuse to not selling your MP in time. It's made clear on everypage on the site when a new blog subject has been posted, and on the main page it states you should read this to keep in the loop of what's happening. So that exuse will not be accepted:)

Underground Ore

I've decided to scrap the whole ore (to get AP) in the underground. Don't worry, it's going to be replaced with other stuff, it just really does not fit the new underground. So i suggest you trade what you have or you will simply lose it. The underground will be complete sometime this week, got a few more things to add in etc. Should be fun.

Also today i have been thinking about re-doing the weapon system, it could be A LOT more fun than it is now, so i am going to think it through. Don't worry though! All current weps etc will not be effected or changed, deleted, or anything like that. I'm not that mean! But it's just something for you to think about :) I'll let you know more after the underground is finished and i'm ready to move on to my next improvement.

We need you!

I've had a pretty busy weekend, thus not being able to work on much. Been having trouble getting my Uni stuff sorted, which is a pain in the ass. And had a job to finish off for someone else. The underground is coming along nicely, and should be more interesting that what it is now:)

Suggestions, suggestions, i need you guys to tell us what you want in the game, or what you think could be improved. I cannot give you what you want unless you tell me what you want to see. If you have any ideas please post in the suggestion forum (http://reignofblood.net/forum.php?brd=sug), i read all posts, all ideas that will fit, i will do :)

For those that have not yet noticed, we hit a total of 80,000 signups today. Which is awesome! I cannot wait untill 100,000! Thanks to everyone who invites their friends and for donating to help support advertising RoB around the web. Keep it up!

Voting Cont. & updates

More people seem to be voting now which is good, i will watch it over the next week and see how it is going, and take any action if needed. The underground is about 50% complete, please keep posting your ideas in the forums, if i like it, i might just add it in :)

Voting and stuff.

A couple weeks ago I put a counter on the voting links to find out who is actually voting and who is not. I know some people just click the link and get the turns and that's it. The reason why you get those turns is the help RoB in the rankings by VOTING. It turns out only 1/4 of you actually vote after clicking the link and claiming your turn reward. That is pretty sad don't you think? An extra second of your life just to click confirm or type in a 5 letter word. If this dosn't improve i'm going to have to start being an asshole and either reduce the turns you get, take it away completely, or just stop individual from getting turns from voting. (Yes most sites log Ips, so i can match!). If you havn't noticed, Apex has an incentive system where it will add your turns only when you actually vote. So far this month RoB has had 1257 votes, if i take another random site, on MM100 RoB has 345 votes. That just shows because you don't have to vote, you're not. Not all sites have the incentive system like Apex does, if i'm forced just to use sites that has incentives then your total turn bonus from voting would be decreased because you have less sites to vote on. It takes no effort to just confirm your vote, so please think about this the next time you vote. With RoB higher in the rankings we can get more players and more fun and competition in the game.

I've been away for the weekend, and i will now start to work on the underground, i have noticed a few threads pop up about it and will keep this them in mind, thank you :)

Just to clear a few things up with these achievements, NONE of them are buying VIP, earning points or anything stupid like that. I may be mean, but i'm not that mean :-P

Achievements

So i added two more achievements onto list 2, i've been keeping an eye on what people are up to and they're not that hard... just about wasting turns really. To answer any questions, yes, there will be a list 3. But not yet though, but that will be a very hard list. The problem being is that i started the achievements idea 2 years into the game, so whatever i set them as there will be some people who have already hit those points so its no work for them. So list 3 will be designed for the future, but of the course the prize will be phenomenal of course.

The idea of the "secret" achievements has done what i wanted them to do, and that was to get everyone buzzing around trying to find out what it is. #16 seems to be a tough one, but i know of a couple people who have it so it won't take long for it to be spread everywhere. But the new 2 are not that hard, just wanted to add a little more buzz.

There has been some complaints about the link thing that i changed. The idea of the link, is to get your friends to join/click whatever. Not for people to post to people already signed up, thats not the point of it. It's an incentive to bring other people to the site. But it wont change, you can only click one link per day. I might make it 50 clicks in a week or something... i'll see how it plays out.

What's next? I think i'm going to work on making the underground better, i don't think people go down there much. It's either battle or train your turns. I want the choice to be battle, train or search. Gives you more of a choice and more in need of a strategy to play the game.

Ideas

So this is ReignOfBlood's blog. I will post random stuff, ideas etc here. A way to keep my personal views off site but for anyone to view and comment :)