Bloody Herald is now... Phantom Press!

 The Phantom Press
 The Bloody Herald is under new management! First off, congratulations to Lukas Cytes (189598) for winning the January competition. The new name for the R-Paper bot is now Tab Lloyd Swen (or T.L. Swen.) The writers came to me and asked seeing as the bot got the new name, if the whole paper could get a new name. After a few hours of discussion the decision was to re-name the Bloody Herald to "Phantom Press". Like it or not, it's here to stay! The Phantom Press page will only show the editions from now on, but you can still view the old issues by navigating to the archives link. Due to illness, net problems, the volume has been slow lately. But, hopefully we can get on track and keep producing a weekly issue!

Click here to read today's new edition

Quests
You may have noticed last week I made a new rank 15 quest section, all new quests will now require rank 15. When there's a whole bunch of these, the next lot will be rank 20 quests etc etc.

I have added 6 new quests this morning:
- The Reseller
- The Reseller II
- The Reseller III
- Train Your Rank
- Train Your Rank II
- Train Your Rank III


Have a good weekend!
Ash

ReignOfBlood wins Favourite RPG 2010!!!

To my complete surprise, we won again! Not only that, we got 3rd place on the Most Popular category! This just shows how much RoB has grown and the amount of awesome support you guys give to the site. You can see the awards below.

As promised, everyone gets 1 free plasma*, 5 QP & 5 love hearts as a thanks!

The love hearts, plasma special etc ends Tomorrow night (around Wednesday 9pm game time). This is your last warning to use any unused Love Hearts.

Thanks for all your continued support as we power into 2011!

Ash

*The plasma is only given to players over rank 10 and who have logged in in the last 7 days

Google Checkout update & February competition!

Google Checkout Update
Not sure how many people this will apply too, but Google Checkout sent me this email recently:

Starting 21st February, authorisations for Solo cards will no longer be processed by Google Checkout.  Buyers will no longer be able to register Solo cards in their Google Checkout account or make purchases with Solo cards already registered in their account. Solo cards already registered will be marked as invalid.

I thought I'd let you all know, I'm not sure how many of you use Solo cards through Google Checkout, because of course, I don't see any of your card details. I assume they'll still work with PayPal though.


February Competition
We have yet to decide on the winner for January competition, so stay tuned for that. Until then, as there is only less than a couple weeks left in Feb, I'm going to run a guessing competition.

The question: Since Vadenhill was released, what's the TOTAL amount blood earned by ALL players combined? (Recorded on 18th Feb 2011 : 11:41am)

If someone guesses the correct answer dead on (lol), they will win 100 plasma. If nobody guesses exactly, the closest guess will get 10 plasma.

Click here to navigate to the thread and make your guess. Guesses must be in by 1st March.

Favourite RPG

Voting ends in a couple days, thanks to everyone who's voting, if we don't win, second place is ours! =D

Valetines stuff

The love hearts, the specials etc will all end next Wednesday. 

Have a relaxing weekend!
Ash

Coven Wars V2.1 & another "downtime" 16th Feb 9pm

Coven wars V2.1 is now open and live! V2.1 comes with these changes has indicated in the previous blog:


- Whoever wins the most rounds (out of 50) wins the war. But now if either coven gets to 26 wins, there is no way for the other coven to win. So If a coven gets to 26 wins in a round, they automatically win.

- Tiers were worked out on all members of a coven. But, because of under rank 5s and under 7 days old players not giving war exp, it's not balanced. So they are no longer included in the tier formula. If you go to the coven hall, click "see more info", it'll show the covens "war members", which show the amount of war exp yielding members in the coven, thats also the number of members used in the formula for the tiers as I've just explained.

- Whilst in a war, you shouldn't be able to kick people to drop your tier. Its an unfair loophole, so I'm afraid it has to be closed a little. If you're in a war, you get 3 kicks to use. If you REALLY need to kick someone, for whatever reason, you have 3 to use. It resets after each war. You're free to kick whoever you want whilst you're not in a war. People can still come and go as they please though.

- People have been asking an opt-out option for the wars. I've always been against this, and I still am. Although I'm going to make it less painful for you to be able to not worry about wars if you don't want to take part in them. If you DECLARE a war and LOSE, you still lose the 10% exp. If someone declares a war ON YOU, and you lose, you only lose 2% of your exp.

- White flags now have a 1% exp loss when used to surrender (2.5% before)

Any feedback, bugs etc to be posted on this thread.

The downtime this morning was successful, the server was down for around 40minutes, thank you all for your patience.   Unfortunately, tomorrow (Feb 16th) at around 9pm (server time) the server the avatar images are hosting on is getting a software update too. Although this will not effect the game-play, it will just make all forum avatars, profile pictures etc seem broken because the connection would be taken down. This should only last around 5-10 minutes but they're giving an hour just in-case something goes wrong.  Majority of people will not notice, but I thought I'd give you the heads up just in-case there's a panic because all the images will appear broken.


Thanks all!
Ash

Happy Valentines day! Downtime tomorrow & Coven wars updated inside...

<3 is in the air. What's even better is you have a promocode loveisintheairorisit
 to use until tommorrow. Mmmm free stuff.

Coven Wars V2.1

The heated debates of late over the coven war system have been interesting. The majority feel, at this time, only a few changes are needed to help balance it out, and that's what I've done. You can read the changes below, and let's see what effect this has as we cover up some of the holes and loopholes in the system.

- Whoever wins the most rounds (out of 50) wins the war. But now if either coven gets to 26 wins, there is no way for the other coven to win. So If a coven gets to 26 wins in a round, they automatically win.

- Tiers were worked out on all members of a coven. But, because of under rank 5s and under 7 days old players not giving war exp, it's not balanced. So they are no longer included in the tier formula. If you go to the coven hall, click "see more info", it'll show the covens "war members", which show the amount of war exp yielding members in the coven, thats also the number of members used in the formula for the tiers as I've just explained.

- Whilst in a war, you shouldn't be able to kick people to drop your tier. Its an unfair loophole, so I'm afraid it has to be closed a little. If you're in a war, you get 3 kicks to use. If you REALLY need to kick someone, for whatever reason, you have 3 to use. It resets after each war. You're free to kick whoever you want whilst you're not in a war. People can still come and go as they please though.

- People have been asking an opt-out option for the wars. I've always been against this, and I still am. Although I'm going to make it less painful for you to be able to not worry about wars if you don't want to take part in them. If you DECLARE a war and LOSE, you still lose the 10% exp. If someone declares a war ON YOU, and you lose, you only lose 2% of your exp.

- White flags now have a 1% exp loss when used to surrender (2.5% before)


Please keep all discussions on this thread for V2.1

Downtime

Tomorrow (Tuesday 15th) at 10am (server time) we will be updating the software on the database server, this does mean the server will have to be inaccessible during this time. We estimate it will take an hour. But if it's one second over 1 hour, I will issue everyone a promo code for the inconvenience. Aren't I nice?

I'll be posting updates during the downtime on RoBs Facebook page, so make sure you keep watching.

Because today is a day to love, the wars will re-open tomorrow at ~11am after the downtime. This will also give a chance for the coven owners war list caches to update with the new tiers. Prepare for war!

Ash

Family/friends update & fave RPG status

Favourite RPG 2010

Well, we've had some fun the past couple days with this. We stayed up on the last night and watched it tick over with us the winners.... and yeah we didn't win. Turns out there was an error on their part as the countdown was counting down locally, instead of against their server time. So I watched it countdown to 0 and we were first place... but there was actually 5 hours left. In that time we got overtook. I'm not a sore loser, I'd be happy with 2nd place, but I watched us win!! As there was so many bigger games this year, and we've got a total of 27k votes in that category, 50% extra over last year! I'm really happy and grateful for all your support. I sent them an email giving them shit that I saw us win, and all they've decided to do is extend the competition. I guess that's something. We'll just have to see how it goes. You'll see it pop up on the vote sites again soon  no doubt. More on this after the event. #3 on most popular though? Sweet!

Family/Friend updates
You can now view & delete any pending friend/family requests through the social panel as requested! I've had a few questions about the family system as to why it doesn't automatically add back like the friends. The reason for this is simple, if you add someone as your sister, they'd be your sister too, right? Sure. That scenario is logical. It's not logical when you add an auntie, because you're not going to be their auntie too.

Coven Wars
As you can now tell, Coven Wars are closed as we make a few changes to the system. I do believe the last wars have just finished up so I'll work Sunday/Monday to get it up and running again ASAP.

Oh, and it's our ACT staff member Sinara's (162961) birthday today. Go show her some love!

It's the weekend!
Enjoy,
Ash

New Quest log, new quests & VIP+ offer

Good afternoon vampires!

VIP+ Offer
I get so many requests for adding special offers on VIP+ days. So I've finally caved and have added one. On the VIP+ page you will see that you get 50% extra VIP+ days for the duration of the Valentines special. (Please note you will need 45 days VIP to get 45 days VIP+).

New Quest log
As more and more quests get added, the list of quest links just keeps getting bigger and bigger. It may not be a problem for the majority of people who complete them, but when a new person comes along and sees this huge list of quests, it can be a bit daunting. So using the new format I've been using, I've put them all in hidden sections, you click to the show the quests of each category. You can still see the full list if you want, just click the "Show all quests" link at the top.

New Quests!
About time we had some new quests huh? Well here they are. (All rank 10)
- Woodland search
- Woodland search II
- Woodland search III
- Woodland search IV
- Bounty Hunter
- Bounty Hunter II
- Bounty Hunter III
- Hate for a vampire
- Hate for a vampire II
- The Hanging Man


Dum dum duuuuuuum
I've also added another new quest for you all to go mental over, Metal Man III.

More to come this week, stay tuned.

Enjoy!
Ash

Friends & Family updates & Valentines 2011 special!

Did you miss Thursdays blog about battle reports, new profiles and new friends & family feature? Click here to get read that blog.

This weeks new features
Thanks for the great feedback so far with the new features released Thursday. So glad some of you are really liking the new profiles and they're starting to look really good with your creativity added into them.

Here are few tweaks I've made today:
- Family privacy option added - Hide your in-game family from the world.
- Option on the account page to hide the friends box from your profiles as some people have no interest in this feature, which is fine.
- Increased the family cap to 10 for non-VIPs, and 50 for VIPs.
- Added a drop down menu on the friends list for easy contacting.

There are still more updates to come to these new features, including pending requests, they'll all come next week. You can keep up to date with all the updates by keeping an eye on the updates page.

Valentines special
It's that loving time of year again! The love heart candies are out and just wanting you to consume them. Sugar as also been brought back and the love heart candy maker is just waiting to make you some love heart goodies. You can get sugar from doing the daily quests, battling and searching in Greenwood. (QOTD daily not included). There is a Valentines Love Heart quest added too. And of course, a VIP/Plasma special as always for all those who need their fix.

The VIP/Plasma gifting system is again open for business. Where you can buy other people VIP/Plasma and send a loving message along with it! Click here to find out more. Check the VIP page too for the special couples pack :D


More to come next week :) Including some updates to a touchy subject of late.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend,
Much LOVE <3
Ash

New profiles, new battle reports, new game families, new friends system & loads more!

A lot of new stuff is about to hit you... comfy? Some updates for the social lovers today, as well as a couple game updates.

New news page layout

The news page has had a little bit of a face-lift. You'll also a new option at the top called "Invites/Requests". More on that in a bit. News is now set to delete after 14 days of being received. There are over 10million news items in the database, and they've all been cleared :)

Battle Reports

A long requested feature has now been put in place, battle reports. Ever been attacked but wanted to know how that battle went? Now you can! You can quickly view your last battles on the home tab by looking under the "battle stats" section. Or, you there is a [ View Report ] link on battle news items now, if you click that, it'll show the last battle reports from that vampire. All battle reports are deleted after 14 days, so if you want to save them, make sure you put copy/paste or screen-shot them before they get deleted.


New Profiles V2
The profiles need a new layout, they've been that way for so long and it's about time they've had a face-lift. And there's a couple pretty cool features to go with it. First off, you click here to see my profile in the new layout. As you can see, it looks a lot better and is much more orgasnised. The game stats section at the top shows a couple extra new variables. New friends & family features (more info below), quick comment box & by default, hidden comments.

Let me say this first to all you profile layout fanatics, this is an optional upgrade. You all have the option to keep the old profile layout, you will not be forced to switch. Head over to the account options if you want to switch to the new layout with the new features. *Most* fancy profiles you guys have will not fully work with the new layout, so some of you may decide to stay until people start coding to get the same job done in the new format. Keep in mind, you won't get some of the features of the new profiles by not switching. It's completely up to you. You can switch back and forth as many times you want.

The public profiles will not be changed quite yet.

Family
Every week I get a random blood letter, "Hey Ash, I want to have 5 wives, why can't I?". I've always said no no no. My answer is still no! Although I have created a work around... families. On your profile & homepage there is a link to show how many family members you have. (Non-VIPs can have up to 5, VIPs can have up to 25). To add someone to your family, simple go to their profile and click "Add to family", decide what you want them to be labeled as & click invite. If they accept, they'll be added to your family tree.

Friends

I've created a whole new friends system. The downside to this is that all your current added friends has to be wiped, but panic not! For a limited time you can see a list of your added friends on the old system and add them again. When they accept, they'll be added to your friends list. On your profiles you can choose to list your top 5 favourite friends. You can do this from the "Social" panel on your home tab. (Listed friends only appear on profile v2). I'm going to follow in the footsteps of Mr.Tom from MySpace and have you all on my friends list to start with. Feel free to remove me if you want ;)

(P.S I added some random people whilst testing this, and i forgot to turn off the news notification of me testing removals, so those select few who were shocked to see I removed you from my friends list, don't be offended! Lol)

PLEASE NOTE: People who sent friend requests between 10:55am and 11:03am will have to either re-add them, or get them to add you.


Uploading avatar & VIP custom pic
For a long time it bugs me when people link huge files as their avatars and/or broken images.  I noticed one avatar in the forum that was nearly 10mb in size! That's crazy and just slows down pages for everyone. So to keep things as smooth as possible, I've invested in another external server just for people to upload avatar images on. It's a very cool and simple process, just head over to the account page and update your avatar. This does mean all avatars are reset, but for a limited time on the avatar page you can see your old avatar so you can re-save it if you need too. There is a file size limit of 100kb. The same goes for VIP profile custom pics, you have to upload an image to RoB for that too. Up to 250kb, go to the account page to update your picture.

Invite/Requests Link In News

The invite/Requests section of the news is where notifications for marriage proposals, family, friends & coven invites. These will delete after 14 days too.

Coven invite changes

Coven invites now store in the above section of the news, they will be deleted after 14 days, not right away as it is now.

Social Panel

On your "home" tab page, you'll see two links at the top, game panel & social panel. This is to try and separate the game stuff with the social stuff so you just get the content you want.

Hope you enjoy the updates, give me feedback & report bugs as always

Ash