Tuesday 31 December 2013

2013 Roundup



2013 Round up

2013 was another great year for Reign Of Blood. I can't believe how quick these years are passing by. I want to take a quick look back and see the biggest features and updates that were made.

  • Auction house was added
  • Introduced the Wheel Of Death
  • Started selling the Reign Of Blood branded wristbands
  • Brand new Dead City layout
  • WP system
  • Big RP updates
  • The Dark Tower Demon (and his minions)
  • Revisited MP power potion system
  • Blood Hour added
  • Achievements list 6 and 7 added
  • New coven panel
  • Coven power relic
  • Fountain of Awe added
  • Brand new in-game layout thanks to Azz
  • Underground Level 2 added, including finding silver and having your own coffin
  • New throwing equipment & poison system


You can take a look at the 2010, 2011, and 2012 roundups. What was your favourite year in regards to updates and new features? Let me know!

New Year Surprise Pack

There is a New Year Surprise pack, the final surprise pack that's going to be available this year, which gives all sorts of goodies as well as DOUBLE features. Everyone gets double pvp blood though! A bloody new years eve indeed.

> Click here to get your pack <

Thank you

Thank you to everyone who has played over this last year, and a thank you to everybody who donates to help keep this game running. RoB wouldn't be here without you. Here's a promocode you can use: endof2013

Have a Reign Of Blood new years resolution? Tell us about it here. Also, make sure you attack that snowman as much as you can ;)

He's to a great 2014. Let's make it even better still!

Happy New Year,
Ash

Wednesday 18 December 2013

2013 Christmas Event


It's that magical time of year again. Hard to believe it's come around again so quickly. The Reign Of Blood 2013 Christmas event is now ACTIVE! You can enjoy this event until January 2nd 2014. That's over 2 weeks of Christmas bonuses and fun. (Also for those who missed it, the new throwing dagger system was released Friday, and updated Sunday, click here to read about it.)

Dead City Scratchcard



The scratchcard is back! After raving positive reviews of it last year, it's now back this year. Every vampire gets 10 free scratches a day for a chance to win some sweet prizes.

Christmas Tree

The Dead City Christmas Tree is standing tall wishing you a Merry Christmas. You can visit the tree each day for a free turn gift.

Candy Canes

The candy canes are back! You can find sugar when battling, searching Greenwood and completing 'The Daily' daily quest, which can be made into candy canes!

Dead City Snowman

After a few silly conversations about the pending Christmas event in our chat, a strange coincidence happened! A blood hungry snowman (that's right) has taken up a comfortable position at Dead City. He's holding onto a lot of sugar. Will you risk him taking your blood for a chance at a bunch of delicious sugar?

I have given everyone a free Candy Cane to start this event off!

VIP/Plasma Special

An event wouldn't be complete without some bargain VIP and Plasma deals. Head over to the Buy VIP/Plasma page for full information. (With further bonuses for multiple buys.)

Enjoy the event!
Ash

Sunday 15 December 2013

Throwing Equipment [Updated]




A couple days I released a new throwing dagger system. The system has had good feedback overall, with a few minor issues. I've gone through and re-written the blog as if it was being launched today. I also hope to clear up a few lingering questions about the feature too.

It's time for a cheap shot!

Throwing Equipment

A couple days ago, there was a new throwing equipment store that opened up at Dead City. When you reach rank 50, you can buy throwing daggers to throw at your opponents (if they're rank 50+) at a battle you initiate.

The damage of the daggers are low, but the reason for that is explained in 'Silver Fusing' below. The prices for daggers start at just $82 each.

You buy daggers at the throwing equipment store, and they now appear on your equipment page. You can either equip the use of daggers, or have them unequipped. When they are equipped, you throw one at the start of every battle you initiate. (If your defending an attack from someone, you don't throw a dagger.) It's a little bonus for being the attacking vampire. The dagger has a chance to poison your enemy (explained below) and once used, that dagger is discarded.

Silver Fusing

When you've purchased a dagger (or several thousand) you can head down to the Underground Level 2 (if you have access) and meet Bante, who has the skill of fusing your found silver into these daggers. The bonus you get for fusing silver into the daggers is displayed at the throwing equipment store itself. You can now choose how many daggers you'd like to fuse.

Poisoned!

Silver isn't a vampire's best friend. So if you get attacked, and someone throws a silver fused dagger at you, there is a chance that it will poison you (ONLY if you lose the fight. You won't get poisoned if you win.) When you're poisoned, you cannot attack until the next top of hour when you're healed, or you consume the antidote.

The antidote is completely free. And available from the DC Potion Shop
or the VIP quick heal.

A few other small convenient changes have been, like the antidote link in news etc. I also remove the green poison notice on the left sidebar, you only know if you're poisoned when you go to the battle arena, or view your enemy list.

More Underground Fixes

  • Fixed a bug that sometimes let you get silver if you didn't have a coffin
  • Fixed a bug that didn't let you teleport with 10 turns exactly
  • Found the reason a couple of the quests were not listing as completed

Karma Changes

You can now give your full day's karma once every 24 hours. Use it wisely!

You can continue to give feedback or ask any questions on this dedicated thread.

Hope you enjoy these updates!
Ash

Thursday 12 December 2013

New Throwing Equipment




It's time for a cheap shot!

Throwing Equipment

There is a new throwing equipment store that has opened up at Dead City. Prices for daggers start at just $72 each. How do they work? Well, when you attack someone, you start off by throwing a dagger at them before the battle begins. The damage on these daggers are pretty low, but there is a reason for that.

Silver Fusing

When you've purchased a dagger (or several thousand) you can head down to the Underground Level 2 (if you have access) and meet Bante, who has the skill of fusing your found silver into these daggers. The bonus you get for fusing silver into the daggers is displayed at the throwing equipment store itself.

Poisoned!

Silver isn't a vampire's best friend. So if you get attacked, and someone throws a silver fused dagger at you, there is a chance that it will poison you (if killed). When you're poisoned, you cannot attack until you consume the antidote. Which comes at a small cost from either the VIP quick heal or the Dead City General Potion Shop.

More Underground Fixes

  • Fixed a bug that sometimes let you get silver if you didn't have a coffin
  • Fixed a bug that didn't let you teleport with 10 turns exactly
  • Found the reason a couple of the quests were not listing as completed

You can give feedback or ask any questions on this dedicated thread.

Hope you enjoy these updates!
Ash

Thursday 5 December 2013

Some UG2 Tweaks



Underground Level 2 Tweaks



I'm so glad many of you love the new underground updates. Thanks for all the great feedback. After reading all the comments and suggestions that have been said from the people who've been playing down there, I'm happy to announce a further few updates.

  • Raid timers added - Instead of everyone becoming "raidable" at midnight, each coffin now has a 24 hour timer protection to help stop abuse
  • 5 new (silly) weapons added
  • Disband coffin ability
  • Failing raids description made more clear
  • Underground Level 2 link added to DC (to skip the turn step of level 1)
  • Game time added to both level 1 and level 2
  • Gem random daily quest changed
  • Fixed a whole lot of little bugs

More to come (including silver uses) very soon...

More New Quests

5 more rank 100 quests are now ready for your consumption:
  • Key Damage IV
  • Key Damage V
  • Silver Delight
  • Silver Delight II
  • The Ultimate Search

Little things

  • You can now give 1 karma every 5 hours (7 hours for non-vip)
  • Replaced the Realex logo with card payments logo on buy VIP basket page
  • Updated the description on the UG level 1 achievements


Thanks & enjoy!
Ash

Wednesday 27 November 2013

Underground Updates & More


I wanted to have all this out to you last week. But I've been as a sick as a dog, and now feeling mostly better to get this out to you today.

Weekend Double Charity Pack

Thanks again for everyone who bought a double weekend charity pack the weekend before last. We raised $320, which has been donated to the British Red Cross' Typhoon Haiyan Appeal.

Poll

I started a poll last weekend which a lot of you gave your feedback. Thanks for that. Every time there is a poll, I hope you all give as much feedback as possible, as I do read each and every one. There were a few things that either have been misinterpreted or misunderstood, so I have reached out to a few people's feedback I felt needed to be addressed.  There was some very constructive feedback. Thanks again for taking part. It can only make RoB even better than it already is.

New War System Proposal

Love it or hate it, the war system has been a continued debate for quite some time now. I've thought up a new system, which i think will be a bit of fun, and put some enthusiasm back into wars. Click here to view the thread and to give your feedback. We're making some good progress, I think.

Spam!

One of the downfalls of having a popular online game or website, is that it tends to become the target for spam. Recently we've had a few people attempt to spam blood letters and comments. I've built up a quick system to deal with spam. When a spam post is reported, ACT & I have a quick one button system that removes all their sent blood letters and jails them automatically.

I have now extended this to comments. So comments now come with a report spam link which acts the same as the blood letter link. If you ever get a spam post, please report it so we can clean it up as quickly as possible, thank you.

Paypal Updates

Some people preferred the old Google Checkout payment method because they accepted pre-paid gift cards. Paypal yesterday announced that they are now accepting pre-paid cards too! (I'm positive Realex does, but now it's even better Paypal do now as well.) It took them long enough, but at least they accept them now.

Thermoden Updates

Thermoden was launched over a year ago now. Its success is far greater than I anticipated. It took a hell of a lot of money out the game, and at the same time, gave people great equipment boosts.

Today I am happy to announce a few updates to Thermoden:

  • The layout has been updated to fit the same style as Dead City
  • Some of the prices have been adjusted
  • New 'EXP ENHANCEMENT' section. This allows you to pay to level up your weapon and armour past the 50 cap (depending on your rank).

New Underground


Ohhh the underground. One of Reign Of Blood's first features, but not one of the most loved. The underground has been a place of turn sucking adventure for years, and all to complete that pesky achievement.

Well good news! Firstly, the underground has gone under a bit of a facelift. It now looks a lot better than it did before.

Secondly, for all those that have completed the 2000 step underground achievement, you can enter: The Underground Level 2.

What's so great about level 2?

FREE

It's free to walk around level 2. FREE. You can walk around the 300x300 level 2 and it won't cost you any turns. If you choose to explore a certain area, that will cost you a turn. You'll be able to find all sorts down there, and more stuff will be added over time.

Coffin Homes



Claim a section of level 2 for yourself. You can pay a fee to own a certain location of the level 2 underground (for example: 100x99). Here you can have a coffin. It doesn't have to be your main home, but it's a part of the underground you can call your own. Other vampires walking around the underground level 2 can come across your home, and take a look whilst passing by.

Coffins are used to store some things that are only found on level 2. Things that are not safe for you to carry around for too long.

Coffin locations are unique. Once someone has bought a certain location, nobody else can have it. So if there's a certain location you'd (I.E 69x69) you better get down there quick!

Raiding!

Don't think because you've bought a piece of real estate below the underground that's the end of the story, oh no. Other vampires can raid your coffins and steal some of the contents you are storing in there. It costs 3 turns per raid, and gives the itchy vampires who love a bit of theft to be a bit naughty.

Quests

Can't have any underground updates without throwing in some new quests.

  • Home Sweet Home
  • The Giant Key
  • Gold Pot Of Silver
  • Gold Pot Of Silver II
  • Gold Pot Of Silver III
  • Key Damage
  • Key Damage II
  • Key Damage III

This all gives a great future for the underground, as well as plenty of opportunity for further expansion. As you could probably figure out, there's some stuff left open here. Head over to the underground to check it out.


Enjoy,
Ash



Sunday 17 November 2013

$320 Donated To Typhoon Haiyan Appeal


Thank you




A big thanks to everyone who bought a special double weekend pack. I decided that $5 of each pack would be donated to the British Red Cross' Typhoon Haiyan Appeal. Even though the pack was a last minute thing, my target was 50 packs sold. 64 of you decided to get a pack in the short time frame the pack was open for the double weekend goodies. That's $320 (£200) that has just been donated.



Thanks to everyone who contributed to allow me to be able to do this. As I said before, I know we have some players who live over there, my thoughts are with anyone effected.

Thank you
Ash

Saturday 16 November 2013

Double Weekend Charity Pack





I'm sure you've heard Philippines have had some major bad luck recently. This may be a vampire game, but there is a real world out there and sometimes there are people that need real help in times like this. As I've done before, I'd like to run a little something to help do our bit. I also know we have some players who live over there, my thoughts are with anyone effected.

Double Weekend

I've released a rare pack tonight which comes with all the awesome stuff as well as extra double rewards. These double rewards will last until first thing Monday morning. $5 of every pack bought will be donated to the British Red Cross' Philippines appeal. Alternatively, you can donate directly right here. Hopefully we can sell 50 packs and get at least $250 to donate this weekend.

Get your packs right here.

Thanks for your support and enjoy the weekend.
Ash

Thursday 7 November 2013

Fountain Of Awe & More



Halloween Event

I hope you all enjoyed the Halloween event at the end of last month. You can still view the top zombie slayers right here. Thanks to everyone who bought special packs, and thanks to everyone who joined in the fun by doing up their profiles.

Payment Changes

As I've said in the last blog post. Google Checkout is shutting down on the 20th of this month. I have now discontinued them. I recommend you now use REALEX. Realex is our recommended payment method because it is the fastest payment processor, and it support all the payment methods that Google did. We've had a few Onebip problems, and their support is less than useless. I've managed myself to work a few fixes to make it work. But if it's still not working for you, please contact me. If you have ANY questions regarding payments, please blood letter me.

NPC Updates



NPC arena is a great way to earn some blood when some good kills are taken by other vampires this hour. Due to the demand for more ways to earn blood a while back, the NPC Werewolf Arena was added to help, and the over the lifetime of the feature so far has given out 1,169,098,334 blood. Over a billion blood. People sure do love slaying those NPC werewolves. A few updates have been made to the werewolves, which include:


  • High ranks! Powerful wolves up to rank 3000 have been added
  • A new cleaner and less cluttered layout
  • New stats box which shows your NPC stats and total overall blood earned
  • Highest NPC wins and losses have been added to the top vampires page


Fountain Of Awe





The overall goal of Reign Of Blood is to rank up, increase your power and to have some fun doing it. I want you to rank up. I want everyone crazy high ranks. You get more money, you unlock more stuff, and even better, you're more blood for other vampires.

People are ranking pretty crazy high. I never thought when I started Reign Of Blood people would be in their thousands. Lots of people. So I decided I need to start creating some features for those top players, as well as creating further incentives for people to get up there.

Welcome to the Fountain Of Awe.

The Fountain Of Awe is a new location (via the portal) where high ranked players can use the fountains power to enhance a few PvP battle rewards even further. What's great, is they're free, and come with great rewards.

There are options there for vampires who are rank 100, all the way up to rank 2000. All the available options are displayed for everyone to see.

Includes: "Extract Extra Blood" and "Attack on The Dead".

Head over to the Fountain Of Awe, and meet Vestonia there for full details

Little Things

  • New player notes. Leave a note on people's profiles. (These are private.)
  • Workplace and bank links added to Portal. (To get them off every other location's page.)
  • List #4 - 6, 8, 10, 11 & 12 edited for balance. (QP given to all that completed.)
  • List #5 - 6 & 8 edited for balance. (QP given to all that completed.)
  • List #7 - 12 & 13 achievement activated.
  • 750 demon duration quest reduced to 600.
  • Whole bunch of new player & tutorial modifications added.
  • A new player newbie house added.
  • Fixed a general chat bug that wouldn't allow certain characters.

LOADS more updates coming, stay tuned.
Ash



Thursday 31 October 2013

Happy Halloween!




 

Happy Halloween!

Halloween is finally upon us! To celebrate even further, each vampire gets DOUBLE the chance of getting a zombie head when zombie slaying for today.

Top Profiles

Thank you to everyone who entered this months Halloween profile competition. I've seen a whole load of awesome profiles out there. Everybody who entered has been given 2 free zombie heads! There were so many good ones, thanks to everybody who put the effort into getting a profile made, it's really cool! I have to pick some, so here are some of my favourites who have earned themselves 10 free zombie heads:
  
ZombiePickachu (177037)
THEALICE. (331649)
Gir:The Pichu (630804)
•GummyBear• (336590)
AzzazelAesculus (438612)
JackSkellington (248616)
MichaelMyers (650392)
TheBatman™ (652601)
SandyOlsson (93008)
DannyZuko (97377)
KatrinaCrane (175390)
HitGirl (441156)
Sorcerer`sApprentice (1) (how did this get in here?)

Halloween Special Pack

You can now purchase the special Halloween rare pack. Each pack is filled with awesome surprises, and this time, a token to allow you to slay even more zombies and get even more zombie heads. Ohhh the amount of slaying has been insane! You can view the top zombie slayers right here.

[ Get your Halloween surprise pack ]

I can't quite let Halloween slip away from us quite yet. So the plasma special (which all packs come with zombie boxes which give even more stuff!) And all the event features will last until November 4th. Hallelujah!

Enjoy the rest of the event, there's some great stuff in the works.
Ash

Friday 18 October 2013

Halloween Event!



Halloween Event 2013

 








One of my favourite times of the year is upon us! Let's celebrate in style.

Zombiezzzzz

Who knew that vampire lovers like zombies so much? A high demand for a zombie event has made me decide to have one again this Halloween.





CALLING ALL DEAD CITY VAMPIRES! Zombies have again started to fight their way through the portal and spreading across the Dead City. Stop them from coming in and spreading too far. Each vampire can defeat 75 zombies a day, we need as many vampires fighting back the horde as we possibly can! Head to the Dead City [Zombie attack!] link to fight!

Zombie Kills

Kill up to 75 zombies per day. If you kill a zombie that isn't too rotted, you can  slice off their head and take them to Dempan at the Dead City. He wants them. You can also earn your coven experience helping to fight off the horde.

FREE Trick Or Treat

Once a day you can get a FREE trick-or-treat. Although the treats outweigh the tricks, it's a gamble. You must suffer (if any) consequences! Spooky, eh? Use at your own risk.

Head Collector

So you got some zombie heads from killing zombies? Head to the [Head Trading] Dead City link to trade your zombie heads.

Halloween Profiles

Have you created a halloween profile this month? You can show it off at the halloween profile page. By entrering this months competition, your profile will be displayed on this page. You can still enter by going to the competition page.

You also have the ability to give one thumbs up to another profile that you like per day. (This does also show up on your profiles.)

View the Halloween section of the Dead City for full information of the events features.

Halloween Special!

Halloween wouldn't be the same without the ability to buy some VIP and plasma at great prices. Over the last couple of weeks the amount of "When is the Halloween special going to happen?" I've had. Well... now! Head over to Buy VIP/Plasma page to see all the available special packs. All the packs come with extra goodies on top of the VIP and Plasma. (P.S there is a little bonus that you can get that's explained when you buy a plasma pack this special.)

The event will continue until Monday 4th November. Enjoy!


Further New Layout Notices

Just in case you've not noticed yet, we've got a gorgeous new in-game layout. After launching and receiving (rather overwhelmingly) positive feedback, we did make a couple changes and some compromises. Here are a few more changes to it:

  • Coven pages still not working? Change your layout back to RoB-Lite or Gargoyle and go back, or click here. (Azz has come up with some new coven code also.)
  •  The top info bar solved some problems, but created others (depends on how you personally play the game.) So there is now an extra option to have the top bar floated at the top of the page.
  • Homepage screenshots have been updated.


I've also got some interesting stuff in the works, especially for high ranked players.


Enjoy the event
Ash

Monday 14 October 2013

New In-Game Layout (Updated)


 

New In-Game Layout!












Reign Of Blood started in 2006 with a layout theme which is now called 'RoB-Lite' (A fan favourite.) In 2009 a new more graphical interface was created. Now that it's 2013, it's time for another one. This new layout is more geared to the current 'Gorgoyle Theme' users. RoB-Lite users still love RoB-Lite, and I wouldn't want to change that.

"Don't fix what ain't broke." A common feedback line. I personally am completely against it. Things can always be improved. So, what's different about this layout?

  • New top header images, new side background, and new footer
  • Has the same structure as before. So it feels new, but also very similar
  • Few small changes to left sidebar, including new images
  • Portal link added to the top navigation
  • Main content area is a little wider to support 'wider' future features
  • Game blog posts moved to top for easy viewing when new post is made
  • Created with maximum compatibility with current profiles

I can also happily announce that I have removed Chill-Out from the top navigation on RoB-Lite and replaced it with the Portal.

You can change to any of the 3 themes on the account page at any time.

LAYOUT UPDATES!

Thanks for all the great feedback on the new layout! I have made a few changes and fixes, listed below:

  • Footer image now saved locally, and no longer appearing at the bottom of profiles
  • Coven and house CSS issues have been resolved
  • Made the red & green bar images a little brighter
An issue that some players have (especially ones with smaller resolution displays) is that you have to scroll down to see some stuff. That's always kind of been an issue. Reign Of Blood has a lot of content, and most of it does need to be displayed on the left. I am never going to create a 3rd column down the right, so that's simply out of the question. I have however, come up with a nice compromise.

Introducing, the new top info bar:






Using the new layout, you can enable this bar (it is on by default) which displays the game time, quick heal/suicide links, blood hour notification, and your general notifications (news, blood letters etc.) I hope you like this handy little addon. You can disable this by going to your account page.

A big thanks to Azzazel Aesculus for supplying the beautiful artwork for this new layout. Please continue to post any feedback or glitches on this thread, thank you!

September Competition Results

Thank you to everybody who submitted quest ideas last month. I've read through them all, and recorded all the ones I liked. I have given each of the top quest ideas 2 plasma each! You should see your quests (or quests based on your ideas) very soon.

Halloween Profiles/October Competition Reminder

Halloween is soon upon us! Don't forget that this months competition to win plasma is to have an awesome Halloween profile! I've even got one. If you've entered into this months competition, then you might as well enter Mayne's competition as well, he's giving away some IG cash for the same thing.

Google Checkout Shutdown/OneBip Issues

Just a heads up, early next month, Google Checkout are shutting down. (Which works out for the best overall, as they're a pain.) I have a replacement lined up, but I assure all the Google Checkout users, your card will work with REALEX. (Our recommended payment option.) More information next month. I am also aware of the problem some UK players are having with OneBip. My support request is still pending, but hopefully I'll get this fixed ASAP.

Have a great week!
Ash


Monday 30 September 2013

MM & Other Updates



I'm glad many of you liked a nice wave of new quests, we'll do that again soon!

Better Support System


The help forum is a good way to ask questions on anything you're stuck on. The only issue is that a reply from the help staff could take a while. But from now on, when a new thread is made in the help forum, all help staff get a notification (with news, blood letters etc) to show that a new thread has been made. Hopefully this will reduce the wait time for answers on the help forum.

I've also made a change to the ticket system. The ticket system has never been perfect. It's not as efficient as I'd like it to be. Some tickets don't require replies, like bug reports, but that makes them sit in limbo. From now, I get notifications (and ACT do in ones related to their jobs) when a new ticket is submitted. (I've also gone through and closed a lot of the tickets that are currently sat in limbo.) This allows us to view your problem and deal with issues in a more swift pace. I will also make sure I get a reply out to all tickets when I've dealt with them, even if it's a simple "thank you".

Inventory & Gift Updates

I've made a couple changes to the gift process today. The gift shop itself has had a little facelift, and has been effected by damn inflation. There is a new 'gift' section on the 'News' page to get gifts off your main news feed. I have also added links within the gift news messages for quick profile and inventory access. This means you can now get a separate gift notifications. And lastly, if somebody tries to send you a gift, and your inventory is full, you get a notification to tell you to sell/remove some to make room for more.

Midweek Madness (MM)



It's time for another MIDWEEK MADNESS! That means DOUBLE PvP BLOOD for everybody until Thursday midnight game time! You can get even more double goodies by purchasing a special MM pack (which has had a face lift.) I hope you enjoy it!

Little Things

  • Fixed a few quests bugs throughout last month's new quests
  • Fixed a linking error after you update your RP character's image
  • Fixed a bank error when a certain quest was active
  • Took the Dead City Bank out of beta
  • [+] and [n] equipment attributes added to coven armoury and lend pages
  • Fixed a glitch with the coven kick in regards to lent equipment
  • Transferred this domain to another host, because Google are a pain
  • Fixed a power relic bug that allowed coven owner to guess when they have it
  • Forum edit information text is now a dark gray
  • Added 'Has blood hour happened today?' to your daily to-do list
  • You can now edit a coven board to be no longer staff only
  • Added the date to the last demon/demon minion time displayed at the Dark Tower

October Competition

Halloween will be soon upon us! This month's competition winner goes to the best profiles, you can submit your profile here, but make sure you still have it on at the end of the month when they are judged. I will be doing one myself!

One More Thing


Coming soon...









Enjoy the week!
Ash

Tuesday 10 September 2013

Possible Slowness



We've experienced 2 network card failures on one of our servers. So over the next 24 hours things might be a bit slower, especially at busy times. Server guys have an engineer booked for the morning to replace the failed hardware, and should be back to normal very soon.

Thanks for your patience, and hope you looking forward to the rest of the quests that Quest Month will be pumping out in the remainder of September.

I'll update this blog with any new information when I get it.

Thanks,
Ash

Monday 2 September 2013

September Quest Month




Plenty of quests to sink your teeth into

 

Battle AP Rage Event

Everybody loves the AP rage events. Killing killing killing. I'm glad you all liked it, and thank you so much to everyone who bought any of the special packs. We should do this event again sometime. (And thanks for all the birthday wishes!)

September Quest Month

So the moment you've been waiting for! 'September Quest Month' starts right now. With the 1st September's quest being 'The Metal Man VI'. And today's quest being Minion Slayer. Each day this month (at midnight game time) a new quest will be added to the Quest Hall, so make sure you login and check back each day to see what new quests have been added.

There will be a total of 30 new quests added (to the over 130 we have already.) There will be 11 duration quests, and 19 rank 75 quests.

Edited to add: Server problems have been fixed. More information on what happened later. But everything seems to be back to normal, sorry for the inconvenience.

Have fun everyone!
Ash

Monday 26 August 2013

Birthday AP Rage Event


DarkAsh's Birthday Event

As it's my 25th Birthday on Friday (which is crazy since I started Reign Of Blood when I was 16-17), and following on from past events, we're going to have another event where all the Reign Of Blood vampires can have some fun. Nothing wrong with a bit of e-celebration to everyone's benefit.

7 Day Plasma Special
You can grab yourself a plasma bargain during the event (Some VIP days too,) and turn that juicy plasma into juicy AP. All packs come with FREE extra AP! Click here for full details.

Which leads to...

Battle AP Rage
It's been a while now since we've had a battle AP rage event. And I know how much you all like it, I get asked for it over and over. So for the next 7 days during the event, the battle AP rage is active! Head over to the AP Shack (also at the Dead City) for full information on FREE bonuses you get for spending AP!

Presents
There are a few presents hidden around the site, and they're addressed to me! Go find them,  hand them over to me, and as a reward, I'll give you half of what's in there. Can't ask for more fair than that. (This is for current players only.)

The event & special will end on September 2nd, when this kicks in...

September Quest Month

I've decided to name this years September; Quest Month. There are 30 days in September, and that means there will be 30 new quests next month. One for every single day. Sounds good, eh? Make sure you login daily to check out the new quest added that day.

September Competition

Write a quest competition! Write a quest for Reign Of Blood, have it created, and win plasma! Click here for full details.

Little Things

  • The time stamp on the coven chat now has the real time ticking clock for those who wanted it
  • Fixed the house forum links that pointed towards the coven forums
  • Fixed the 'staff' issue on the coven & house last posts page
  • Fixed a bug that didn't let you create RP forum boards without first creating normal coven boards
  • Fixed a bug that didn't allow your in game husband/wife to read your family only blog posts


Enjoy the event,
Ash

Monday 19 August 2013

Midweek Madness



Midweek Madness

 

M-m-m-mad mad mad


Who's up for another Midweek Madness? I sure am. I know I usually like to run my double stuff on weekends, I also know that a lot of people are unable to play over the weekends and only play during the week. So from right this second until Friday morning, everybody gets to enjoy DOUBLE PvP BLOOD. If you want even more double madness, there is a special rare pack that's available for just the next 48 hours that unlocks even more double goodies until the end of the event on Friday.

Little Things

  • Latest posted threads/posts link now on house & coven forums
  • Information page added in regards to players rights with lent equipment from covens
  • RP character sheets now support [center][/center]
  • Game time added to the top of the coven chat page

Social Networks

I like to keep connected with you inside and outside of Reign Of Blood. Facebook, which quite a few people use, is our main point of external interest for updating you all on Reign Of Blood activity. We currently have over 3800 likes, and would be great if we got it to 4000 over the summer. All these blog posts are posted there, and it's great way to give quick feedback as well as blog comments, and forum posts. Click here to check out our Facebook page. You can find all our other social network pages on the top right of this blog.

I'm looking forward to next week, but for now, enjoy this week!
Ash

Thursday 15 August 2013

Coven Relic Changes



Coven Power Relic Changes

I'm glad many of you enjoy the coven relic feature. It is pretty cool. Now it's been going for a couple weeks, its flaws and loopholes are starting to seep through. Remember, with most first versions of features, this is always possible. The main complaint is how turn hoarding it is when a larger coven has the relic. That's to their advantage. That's a plus of having lots of members in your coven. I have however, made a few adjustments from all the feedback on the forum, as well as from my own head. As the idea of this feature was to give every coven a chance to at least hold it once every now and then, these changes have been made:

Hidden Code Part 1:
The first part of the code remains the same for coven owners. You must first guess correctly in order to move onto the second part which requires a team effort from your coven.

Hidden Code Part 2:
A few notable changes to this part. Firstly, when a coven successfully acquires the relic and enjoys their 12 hours protection, the random player that holds the code will now be an active player. So it will randomly choose a coven member that has logged in Reign Of Blood in the last 2 weeks.

The coven owner (or co-owner) can still choose somebody else to place the relic on. But, that player must accept that responsibility. If a coven owner chooses not to move the relic code, or nobody accepts within the 12 hour period, the relic will stay on the random active player.

To go with this, the coven search page has been updated (link added to coven relic page too.)  There is a new "active search" section, where you can list all the active members of any coven. I.E the potential relic holders. A new "All" limit option has been added also.

The same strategies still apply, covens can protect their members in order to hold onto the relic for as long as possible.

Covens get the same 12 hour protection as before. With a slight change. To help stop further monopolising of the relic. After you've had the relic for 36 hours, it is returned to the Coven Power Relic Guardian. If this ever happens, it is easy to steal the relic. The coven owner just needs to guess the first part correctly. But to stop people just waiting for that time out and going for the easy steal, the coven power relic becomes instantly steal-able as soon as you get it. It also doesn't count towards your steal count.

I have updated the layout a little bit, and fixed a bunch of bugs too. There is also one more thing I've added, which I will release to the public in the coming weeks. I hope you approve and enjoy these changes, and the discussion can continue on this thread.

I have created a FAQ which fully explains this system as it stands today.


Little Things

  • Relationship forum sig issue has been fixed
  • Fixed a bug that stopped you from joining new covens after you disbanded a coven you bought off an auction (how rare that actually is)

 

July Competition Winners

Thank you to everyone who submitted a survey. Everyone who completed each answer has been given a QP. And the 3 Reign Of Blood Wristband winners are Alegna McClellan~Raynes (520460)Tancman (248616) and Graey, The Phuri Dae. (289510). Please blood letter me with your shipping address.

I'd also like to thank you for all your kind words. I've learned a lot where people's focuses are, what they like, and don't like. I will do this often to keep up to date with feedback.

Lottery Double Rollover

The lottery has hit another double rollover! As there has been 2 rollovers in a row, that means that this week there will be guaranteed winners. The jackpot currently sits at over $400million. Click here to get some tickets.

Enjoy the rest of the week,
Ash

Friday 9 August 2013

A Few Adjustments



Double Blood Weekend

Oh yeah, it's time for another blood bath weekend filled with lots of killing and blood sucking. Everyone can enjoy double blood for free this weekend, starting now until Sunday evening game time.

Coven Power Relic Adjustments

I'm glad so many of you are enjoying the new Coven Power Relic feature. I thought it would be a bit of fun. I've made a few changes however:

  • Fixed the bug that didn't allow some coven owners to see the link to change the player who holds the relic code
  • You can no longer give the relic code to vampires under 7 days old, and they are also now excluded from the random selection
  • Reduced the wait time in between coven owner guesses to 2 hours from 24 hours
  • Replaced the text box guess to a drop down menu for coven owner guesses
  • Added a timer to show when your coven owner can guess again (part 1)
  • Fixed the bug where the owner link to guess the code wasn't showing up
Further discussion and bug reports can be posted on this thread.

Other Small Changes

  • 'Coven Pages' now support the same HTML/CSS codes as the coven welcome page etc
  • The 4 day wait to re-join coven has been reduced to 2 days
  • Added an "edit" link on your profile to change your status (I get asked how to edit this all the time)
  • Added additional help for those who get rare login issues with Facebook

Enjoy the weekend!
Ash



Monday 29 July 2013

New Coven Power Relic




I have worked hard this past week on some updates for your beloved covens!

Coven Pages



As you can see above, coven owners (and co-owners) can now create coven "pages" that are displayed across the top of the coven page. You can put whatever content you want into these pages, and you can have up to 4. Very nice, yes yes.

VIP Credit Donations

You can now donate  VIP credits to your coven, so now covens are able to give out VIP prizes to their members. VIP Credits can be used to increase your VIP, or to trade on the market with other players.

Top Covens Page

The Dead City Top Covens page has also been updated. It has been given a new look, and expanded the amount of covens shown in each category.

New "Coven Power Relic"


The glowing green power of the "Coven Power Relic"

I have been toying with the idea of some sort of power relic for a while now. And I think I've figured out a good way to introduce it. So here it, the new POWER RELIC for covens.

What Is A Power Relic?
A power relic is a powerful relic that is held at the Dead City. There is only one power relic, and only one coven can control and gain the benefits at a time.

What It Does
When a coven has control of the coven power relic, all its members gets +10% coven exp and blood on all their PvP battles.

How To Get It
This is where it gets fun. Once a coven acquires the power relic, it gets 12 hours protection and use of it before another coven can steal it. That's right, steal it. In order to create a fair system (explained below) there is a two-part process for a coven to steal the power relic from another coven.

The first part is guesswork. The coven owner (or co-owner) can go to the power relic page and attempt a guess of the first code (generated randomly when it was last stolen.) If the coven owner (or co-owner) gets it wrong, that's where it ends for that coven this try. They can attempt another theft in 24 hours. If the coven owner (or co-owner) gets the code correct, they unlock the second part.

The second part is a hidden on a coven member. When the previous theft happened, a random vampire in their coven was chosen to hold the second part of the code. Keep in mind within the 12 hour protection, the coven owner (or co-owner) can choose to re-allocate the code onto any vampire in their coven they choose. This can be done once. So now that there is a vampire in their coven with this code, you are able to attack that vampire to find out that final code. This part can be done by anybody in your coven. So any of your coven members can go through attacking all their coven vampires to find the code, and enter it themselves.

Keep in mind there will be several covens doing this at the same time as you, but whoever enters that code (it is the same for everyone) into the coven relic page first, gets control of the relic for the next 12 hours. (Expect their coven to try and keep that player protected as much as possible.)

Once a coven has successfully stolen possession of the relic, they get it for 12 hours and gain the benefits from it. Then after that 12 hour protection is over, all this starts again!

Where Is It?
The power relic page is located under the "coven & house" section of the Dead City. There you can see the relic and the coven that currently controls it. This page also handles the theft process. The Dead City "top covens" page also now displays the counts of the total thefts.

Why This System?
I've been working on this for about a week now, and it's changed from the original first draft. I didn't want to create a system that only the many and powerful can benefit. Any coven has an equal chance of getting their hands on it. Although (as always) does slightly favour the more active covens, as when it comes time to steal, the more online finding that hidden person the better.

Anything Else?
To stop coven owners sticking the relic code on their most powerful members and making the relic unable to be stolen by anybody else, you simply need to get a successful attack on that player. Also, to avoid people trying to cripple the system, if the relic holder gets kicked or quits the coven, it is automatically given to another member. If the coven gets disbanded, it comes back to mine and would be steal-able right away. Finally, when your coven has the relic, the +10% bonuses only apply to attacking rank 10+ due to rounding.


It's a lot to take in, but overall it's a pretty straight forward simple to understand system. Please post any questions, comments or bugs on this thread, and I'll do my best to answer.

I hope you enjoy these updates.

Good luck!
Ash

Friday 26 July 2013

Double Awesome Weekend



I've got something quite cool in the works that is taking a little bit longer than expected due to my indecisiveness. I'm hoping for a Monday release day.

In the meantime, let's get some juices flowing this weekend.

DOUBLE TURNS FOR EVERYBODY


I have also released a summer surprise pack which gives even more double bonuses to those who wish to indulge. There is only 100 though, so get 'em quick.

Have a great weekend,
Ash

Tuesday 16 July 2013

Lots Of Little Things



Dark Tower Updates

 

It's getting hot in here...


A few changes and new additions to the Dark Tower have been added today.

  • 3 demon minions have now come out of hiding in the Dark Tower. They give less demon blood, but you can attack one every hour
  • You must now confirm an attack on a demon or his minion (don't worry, the links move so you won't accidentally go past them)
  • The last time you killed a demon or his minion, is displayed on the Dark Tower entry page (you must exit the DT to view it)
  • Dark Tower FAQ page updated here
  • More failed messages added 
  • Increased the chance of success when attacking the demon (it is based on your power)
  • Made a few layout adjustments

Little Things

  • Edited the failed market sale notification advising lower prices are better
  • VIP Credits have been added to the left sidebar
  • Help chat appears at the top of the chat list for players under 7 days
  • The 30 second blood letter wait now only applies to new blood letters, not replying to one
  • Plasma Paradise has been removed from Ghost Town
  • Fixed the leaving house [leave] link
  • Lottery breakdown page now shows your total amount of tickets with your % chance of winning a prize (this will work properly from next week as this week everyone got to keep their tickets)
  • The external linking system (out.php) has now been fixed to allow all links and given an updated look
  • Blood hour box appears on the bottom of the left sidebar when blood hour is active

20% Off Potion Credits

This week only get 20% off the top Potion Credits pack! This would be a good time for all you potion lovers get a good stockpile of credits. The pack that is 20% off is highlighted lime green on the Buy VIP page.

Enjoy the week,
Ash


Tuesday 9 July 2013

Win A Free RoB Wristband




July 4th Event

I hope you all enjoyed all the July 4th events. BBQ and setting off fireworks everyday sure is enjoyable. Thank you to everyone who bought one (and more) of the special packs.

Wristband Giveaway


This is just two, I know. The 3 will be freshly packaged and unworn, don't fret

This month I am giving away 3 free Reign Of Blood branded wristbands! If you want to get your hands on a free wristband, fill out a short questionnaire, and the winners will be chosen at the random at the end of the month. (You can also get free QP too.)

Click here for more information and entry details.

June Competition Winner

Thank you to everyone who entered last months competition. Each entry got 1 plasma, and the top 6 below earned themselves 10 plasma each. Their stories may be used soon, so I won't post them yet :)

Tizzie™ Phuri Dae (127113)
_Freakazoid_ (289510)
Lydea Mey Keates (292043)
Sierra Rojo Tancette (390959)
Tancman (248616)
poisonhatemachine (152771)

Little Things

- Fixed the lottery log glitch. The lottery system gave out money to 10 vampires, just didn't log it. It should be fixed. Again this week we will have no rollover.
- Increased the 'add listing' market text boxes
- Fixed the bug that made house boards appear on both RP and non-RP board lists
- Fixed the coven search list glitches

Enjoy the week,
Ash

Monday 1 July 2013

July 4th Event



 


July 4th is here again! And as the majority of the Reign Of Blood vampires are American, it's well worth celebrating. Everybody gets to benefit after all!

Head to the Dead City to check out the July 4th celebration features.

And of course with every special occasion comes a beautiful VIP & Plasma special. Click here (opens in a new window) to indulge in some fun.

This event will be active until Monday 8th July.

New Lottery Updates

 

Winner winner chicken dinner!

The lottery is one of those features you'll never really like until you win. There is a winner most weeks, and has made quite a few rich vampires around the game (and helped the economy a lot.)  Having just 3 winners is a little limited. So I have decided to spread the jackpot over 10 vampires.

So now every week (if there is no rollover) 10 vampires will have a chunk of the jackpot. The prizes are spread out below:

1st place: 50% of jackpot (~$15,000,000 win)
2nd place: 20% of jackpot (~$6,000,000 win)
3rd place: 10% of jackpot (~$3,000,000 win)
4th place: 5% of jackpot (~$1,500,000 win)
5th place: 5% of jackpot (~$1,500,000 win)
6th place: 3% of jackpot (~$900,000 win)
7th place: 3% of jackpot (~$900,000 win)
8th place: 2% of jackpot  (~$600,000 win)
9th place: 1% of jackpot (~$300,000 win)
10th place: 1% of jackpot (~$300,000 win)

The above payout example is based on a jackpot of $30,000,000 (which is about average on a non-rollover weekend draw.) I know many don't like the lottery because the chances are slim to win, as it is meant to be really, but this spreads the jackpot over a few extra people.

There is also a new [ prize breakdown ] link on the lottery page, which shows the payout over the top 10 places based on the current jackpot.

All 10 winners will get a notification when they win (it seems only the winner got the news notification before) and for this first draw, there will be no rollover.

Also remember whoever wins 1st place each week gets a collectible.


VIP Credits

For a more secure way to trade VIP, I have introduced VIP credits. VIP credits can be bought from the "equipment & extras" tab on the Buy VIP page. These can then be spent or traded on the market or through the secure trade feature. VIP tokens can be spent on both VIP and VIP+ and is accessible through the VIP section on the stats page.

I have also added coven and house VIP credits to the market.

I hope you enjoy the July 4th event. And hope you all indulge in an awesome special plasma pack.

Enjoy the event!
Ash


Wednesday 26 June 2013

RP, Market Updates & More



Time for more auction updates!

Coven And House Roleplaying

As much as I love the people who roleplay on our dedicated roleplaying forums, I know a lot of people rather roleplay in their covens and houses with their friends. So I have decided to add all the features of the roleplaying forum into your covens and houses!

Just go to your coven forum as before, at the top you'll see the regular coven forum boards, and below will be the new list of RP boards where you can add any of your created RP characters and use them within your coven or house.

Coven forum mods, the co-owner and owner have the power to add different themed boards.

I have also updated the house and covens forums to the new layout versions that are found on the regular forums.

Any issues, please feel free to post on this bug thread.


Market & Auction Updates

I have made a few changes to the market and the auction house today. (All of which is subject to change.)

  • [market] Up to a 2% fee for AP and Plasma listings. The rest stay at 1%
  • [market] Updated the layout to make it more constant with other pages
  • [wants market] Layout updated (fees stay as they are)
  • [auction] Now choose 1 day, 3 day or 7 day auction times
  • [auction] Made a few layout changes
  • [auction] Fee is now fixed and not % of starting bid on AP and Plasma
  • [auction] Reduced the minimum bid increment from 5% down to 2%

 

Union Church 

The Priest who works at the union church is getting pretty sick of the Dead City's divorce rate. A union between two vampires should not be taken lightly. Because of the amount of divorces and re-marrying, he wants to make a bit of money for all this work he has to do. There is now a fee for divorcing. (Don't worry, we're not ever going to indulge in property splitting or alimony payments.)

The Bar

The Dead City bar has had a facelift and a new bartender employed, Jasper. It has been given a new look, and the same 4 drinks are still available.

I have also changed the bar formula which has brought the prices down a bit, and the daily cap is 10 drinks. Happy days! Head over to the bar for more information on what secrets it holds.


Little Things

- Portal link added to Spring Valley when in the game is in cooldown
- Added more information on the VIP/Plasma basket page on what payment methods add packs automatically and which ones do not
- Added common problems if a payment is declined on the declined payment page
- Trik's potion [back] link now takes you to Trik's homepage
- QP achievement text updated on list 7
- When your VIP/VIP+ runs out, you now get a blood letter notification

June Competition

Just under a week left of June's competition. Click here for more information.

Enjoy the rest of the week!
Ash

Tuesday 18 June 2013

Minions, Collectibles & More




Last week we saw some blog changes. Many people love them and I'm glad to see such great feedback for it.  The top of hour page loads are much better, hope you all agree. So happy about that. I've got quite a bit lined up for you here, hope you're sitting comfy.

Petrik's Shack, the home of enslaved minions ready for work


Minion Updates

Ah the minions. A loved feature. But can be a little frustrating to get the little things to fight, right? I have watched minions over the past year, seen how people use and upgrade them. I have read the feedback on them, and have now come up with a list of changes which are active from today.

Attack Chance Increase

Your minion can now be upgraded to have a 1 in 5 attack chance, rather than the 1 in 10 chance it has been since release. There is a slight $ price hike when you're upgrading from 1 in 10 down to 1 in 5 (as to be expected.)

Food Increase

Because the attack chance has been doubled, I don't want to add to any frustration by making minions get hungry twice as fast. So I have doubled the amount of food required before getting hungry to 100. The food packs now fill up that 100, but are the same price as before.

New Defence Stat

Some argue (the same with the stat 'speed') that the counter to minion attack is itself. I somewhat agree, but because of the slight (unforeseen whilst developing outcome) issue that if you are not fast enough to get any hits on your opponent, your minion is still able to get hits in, and sometimes kill your opponent without doing any damage yourself. As fun as that might be, and seeing as your minion cannot do more than 10% damage than you, something isn't quite right there. So I am introducing minion defence.

Your minion attack increases the damage your minion does, and minion defence reduces the damage done by any minion to you from their minion.

Some might choose to ignore the defence part completely if their battles are not effected by minions much, but the option is there for people who do.


Minion-AP

Minions now have their own version of AP called Minion-AP. When your minion used to level up, you got +2 attack. Well now you have 2 stats, that makes that a little more complicated. I was just going to give defence when you level up, but that gives no room for strategy whatsoever.

So now every time your minion levels up, you get +2 minion-AP to use on  minion attack and defence.

Your minion defence cannot be higher than 10% of your toughness (just like your minions attack cannot be more than 10% of your strength.) You can now choose whether to use your personal 3 AP per level on either attack or defence (or even a bit of both.)

Hold up, that's not fair! I've already leveled up my minion!
You're right it isn't. Luck for you, I'm a nice guy. I have given every minion the amount of minion-AP of their current attack (minus the 5 you start with) for you to be able to allocate either back onto your attack, or to throw some on defence. It's up to you. I'd suggest you go to this as soon as you finish reading this post.

To view and use your Minion-AP. Just click the [increase] link under your minions attack or defence on the minion page.

New Profile Location

As many of you know, the minion only gets a one line space on profiles. With the update last week allowing you to have 5 blogs listed instead of 3, profiles can look a little lopsided. So I have created a minion section below the links on the right, giving it a bit more attention.



General Potion Store

I have given facelift to the general potion store at the Dead City. I have also reduced the cost of the turns heal option from 50 to 20. The most significant update to this is the new ability to drink a potion which gives you the strength to resist taking blood from vampires that attack you and lose. Of course there is a reversal potion for this when you wish to get blood again.

Pentagu's Hut

Pentagu has setup camp on the outskirts of Ghost Town. He is there starting a little project of his own in regards to all of your collectibles. You should head over there to check it out.

Collectibles

Vampires love their collectibles. We introduced the feature a couple years ago and until now they've not had that much use. Pentagu sorts that out. That's not all though. There are now 6 collectibles hidden around the site for completing certain tasks. You can view your collectibles by either clicking the [view all] link on your profile, or going: Home > Equipment > Your Inventory.

Here's a sneak peak where one of the collectibles are:

Winner winner chicken dinner!







Little Things

- Increased the amount of blood you get from 'the daily' daily quest
- Fixed the vampire powers activated number bug on home page
- Inventory summary section added  at the bottom of the equipment page
- New reign of blood game blog format (as you can see!)
- You can now add a reason with vampires you've blocked from your coven
- Inactive account deletion policy page wording updated

Voting Sites

I have finally gone though all the voting sites, cross referencing them with my analytics to find out which ones are giving good new players back to RoB and which ones are not. This resulted in me removing a few of the voting sites.

This has resulted in slightly less turns available for everybody each day. To make up for that though, I've put a timer on the voting page. What's great about the new timer system, is if you are completing your votes, it makes no difference. When you click a voting link, and continue with confirming the vote (sometimes including the captcha), close the tab/page, and come back for the next one, you will get bonus turns for not clicking through them too quickly. (Extra turns for patience and going through them slowly!)

There is a yellow or red notice on the top of the voting page, keep an eye on that text for information on when you can grab bonus turns. (You don't NEED to pay attention to this, you can pace through clicking all the vote links and voting quickly, but you will not earn the bonus turns, just the +5 turns for the vote.)

The voting page refreshes by itself every 10 seconds, but you can click the [refresh] button yourself to get the most up to date notice on when you are eligible for bonus turns.

Rare summer packs

[ This offer has ended ]

On a general note about payment methods. Of course all payment processing companies charge fees on all transactions. Some more than others. (For example pre-paid cards and mobile.) Some people increase the costs of items to the player (you) to cover those fees. I don't do that here. You pay for the value of those items no matter payment company you use.

Enjoy,
Ash

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