Reign Of Blood News BlogFor all major news, updates and announcements for the online vampire game, Reign Of Blood.Revisited: Blood LettersPosted on 11-Nov-2022Blood Letters are an important part of the social aspect of the game. The current (well, now previous) Blood Letter system (although it has had tweaks and new features over the years) was released in 2010! With many suggestions made over that period, I thought now was the time for me to spend some time revisiting the Blood Letter system. So that's exactly what I've been doing over the last couple of weeks. Over 30 million Blood Letters have been sent, so for the next 30 million, let's make them even better. New Look & OptimisationsBlood Letters have been given a new and improved look. There were many pages (for example, search) that have not been touched in years. Every single Blood Letter page has been updated and now looks awesome and brings it up to the current Reign Of Blood design. Along with a new look, each function has been improved to be more efficient. For example, the viewing of sent blood letters now loads much faster than it used to. The main inbox feed now displays the date in a smaller format, as well as their folders listed. Your folders are listed on the top of your inbox feed, with the ability to choose to have them always displayed or clicked into. No More Inbox SpamPreviously, every time you received a new Blood Letter, it would create a new inbox entry that could quickly fill your inbox up in a very repetitive manner. It required you to either ignore it or have to constantly clean it up manually if it bothered you. Those days are over! When a new Blood Letter is sent within an already existing thread, it now marks that previous feed entry as unread and moves it to the top of your inbox. It doesn't matter if you had previously deleted it, it will still bring it back. Two ModesThere are two types of Blood Letter users. Ones that use folders, and ones that don't. There wasn't an elegant way for me to create a Blood Letter inbox feed that could please both types of users. So instead, I created two modes. The Standard Mode (default) is Blood Letters as you've known and loved them. With one single feed for all your Blood Letters are listed and you can organise them how you please. There's now also Folder Mode which focuses on folder organisation. The main inbox feed only shows read Blood Letters not sorted into a folder. When a Blood Letter is sorted into a folder, they're removed from the main inbox feed and will only appear if you click into the folder you placed them in. When you have a new Blood Letter come in, a new "Unread Blood Letter" section will appear where all unread Blood Letters will be listed. When they're read, they'll then go into the inbox feed below unless you place them into a folder. Previews & SummaryYou now have the ability to preview a Blood Letter before you send it. Just tick the checkbox before sending your Blood Letter to enjoy the preview experience. This checkbox can be turned on permanently through the options page if you wish. The preview page and the summary after you send a Blood Letter now accurately shows how the Blood Letter you sent will look when the receiver reads it. New OptionsA lot of the new features today have optional components, all of which you'll find on the "options" page linked along the top. This page also brings in all the Blood Letter options that were currently only listed on your Account page. Other Tidbits:- Quick reply emote strip added to BL's for quick replies where appropriate (can be disabled) - Send new Blood Letter link now goes straight to compose where you can choose ID and from your friends list - You can now save up to 10 Blood Letter templates - New red arrow icon next to Blood Letter thread subject to indicate you last replied - Jump to bottom link added when reading a BL to get to next links quickly - BL sig can now use the RoB codes, and the character cap has increased to 125 from 100 - Deleted players are now handled better rather than entries just showing up blank - New notices when trying to reply to BL someone who has you blocked. Also, you can no longer reply to a BL from someone you have blocked - And of course, this new Blood Letter experience is available on the mobile version too What's the catch? (Incompatibilities)I've taken every step possible to make this new Blood Letter system as compatible as possible with the previous Blood Letter system, however, your previous folders are not compatible. I will always do what I can to make things easier in these circumstances, so I have created an Import page (linked at the very top of the BL page) where you can import your folders into the new system with one click. Underneath that, there is a list of Blood Letter threads you previously had in folders. You're free to go down that list and use the links provided to move them into your new folders. I apologies for the inconvenience, but it'll be worth it. There might be a few niggles when you reply and carry on conversations from previous made Blood Letter threads, but there should be nothing major. All issues and feedback can be posted on this forum thread. Also, in case you missed it, the Reign Of Blood server will be moving to a new private suite in a London data centre. This move will take place Saturday 12th November at 10pm (game time) and the downtime will last up to an hour. Enjoy, Ash |
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