The Bloodline News

[p]Harbingers,
[/p][p]Today we’re taking a moment to update you on the latest developments for The Bloodline![/p][p]After gathering your feedback, it’s time to share some important decisions regarding version 1.0 — directly from Milo (the dev behind the project) — along with our plans for the upcoming updates. One of them is just around the corner, and we’re ready to give you more than just a sneak peek!
[/p][p]NEXT UPDATES

[/p][p]In the upcoming updates — alongside ongoing general QA and bug fixing — you can expect a solid dose of new content to expand your experience in The Bloodline![/p][p]Before you get to explore a new realm, Lonland — which we've already told you quite a bit about through our State of Eudros series — you'll soon be able to dive into "Secrets of the Forge": an update improving tutorials, enhancing quests, overhauling weaponsmithing, and more![/p][p]You can watch the trailer below — the update drops on June 17! [/p][p][/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p][/p][p]AN IMPORTANT MESSAGE FROM MILO

As The Bloodline continues to grow, I want to take a moment to thank everyone who has offered feedback, reported bugs, and shared ideas over the past months. Your input has shaped the game more than you know—and it's helped redirect the path of development going forward! I think you all will love and agree with this (: The new development theme going forward will be a strong focus on refining and strengthening existing systems, areas, and content. Rather than spreading my efforts too thin, I’ll be diving deep into what’s already in place. Tightening mechanics, filling in lackluster elements,  improving clarity, and making the experience as polished and cohesive as it can be.[/p][p]To be clear, that doesn’t mean development on new content is stopping. Kingdom 3 has already been cookin’ for quite some time, and it’s still on track to release—likely before all the above-mentioned goals are finalized. I believe this will actually benefit the game’s flow, giving players a substantial chunk of new content to enjoy while I continue improving the foundation beneath it. The Kingdom 3 update will also push the goals listed above.[/p][p]To make this possible, we've adjusted the production schedule a bit (huge thanks to 505 Pulse for their flexibility and support. I couldn’t ask for a better team to be supporting production of the game), and I’ve re-prioritized development tasks with long-term AND shorter-term goals in mind. Some of these changes might not be immediately visible, but they’re vital for reaching the quality bar I want to hit for the eventual release of 1.0, which will only come when I feel the game is in a polished state. [/p][p]As many of you know, The Bloodline is developed by me alone, which means things can sometimes take a bit longer than we all wish. That said, I’ve recently brought on some help to speed up progress on a few highly requested elements of the game, and that support is already making a difference. I’m committed to upholding the promises I’ve made as reasonably as one can (from major features to polish and performance), and I’ll continue pushing forward with care, clarity, and the same passion that’s fueled this project from the start. I love The Bloodline with all of my heart and I hope that the soul of the game continues to shine through. [/p]

Harbingers,

It’s been a few months since our last SoE, but the updates haven’t stopped and today, we’re back to share the latest news, updates on ongoing work (did someone say controller support?), and our plans for version 1.0 of The Bloodline! So…

Welcome to our new edition of State of Eudros, your go-to summary for the latest news from the world of The Bloodline!

[h2]WHAT’S COOKING? 🥘 [/h2]

With the February and April updates, a large number of bug fixes and optimizations were introduced - but work continues daily! Last month, Milo shared the results of the "What's your The Bloodline Play Style?" survey with you, and we helped gather even more feedback from the discussion, aiming to support him in setting development priorities and better tailoring the experience for future updates.

Today, we have another form for you! Here, you can submit your requests for new enchanted items - as long as they’re not weapons - and Milo will pick the most interesting ideas from your suggestions! 👀

As for the much-requested controller support, we’ve got good news! Milo is receiving development assistance from an external studio, and their main focus will be helping him implement full controller support. That means it’ll be coming faster, and it will be set up with complete controller integration: all windows, all actions, all gameplay will be fully controller supported. This also means that – hopefully - the game will be Steam Deck compatible without requiring any custom layouts! We’ll keep you posted on progress, but we can finally confirm: it’s actively in the works.

These past few months have come with their own set of challenges. Milo had to face a strange and random engine issue that was incredibly hard to identify and diagnose, making it extremely difficult (if not impossible) to work with the game map. Fortunately, he found a workaround and resolved the issue, allowing him to refocus on bug fixing and preparing for the upcoming Kingdom update, which is shaping up to be the most content-rich update yet!



[h2]KINGDOM 3: LONLAND ❄️ [/h2]

Work on the next Kingdom update is well underway, and Lonland is coming along wonderfully. According to Milo, these frozen lands will feature the most beautiful locations so far, and a ton of new content.
The new guild arriving with Lonland will be his main focus for the next few weeks: called The Chapter, this paladin-themed guild is dedicated to preventing the spread of the Undead across Eudros, working closely with the Church of Arosa.

There will be plenty of new things to discover and experience in these icy lands, including an all-new themed weapon set. We’ve already shown you some of the concept art - but now, they're coming to life in their final form!



[h2]THE BLOODLINE 1.0: WHAT TO EXPECT? [/h2]

We’re slowly but surely approaching version 1.0 of The Bloodline, and we’d like to clear up a few doubts and share Milo’s vision for the release.
Version 1.0 of The Bloodline will be classified as a “Sandbox 1.0”. It will include all the core features originally planned for the game, and Miles wants to continue to update the game as often as he reasonably can with guilds, crafting types, companions, skills and – of course - bug fixes, QoL improvements, and optimizations. The scope of the game has grown and evolved with its success, so once we reach the core goal of The Bloodline (being a solid sandbox RPG), that will mark the soft 1.0 milestone.

Leaving Early Access is a big step, and certainly not a simple decision, but ultimately, it’s one made with the bigger picture in mind, balancing many different aspects and priorities. It will mark that the initial foundational goals of the game have been achieved - and the beginning of an exciting new journey, both for you, who have supported The Bloodline from the very beginning and made all of this possible, and for the new future Harbingers out there!

[h2]FOLLOW THE JOURNEY [/h2]

To stay in the loop with smaller and constant development updates, you could follow Miles on TikTok and X, where he posts regularly. If you want to chat directly with him, you can join the official Discord server, which is also the best place to share your suggestions and feedback.

The world of Eudros will continue to evolve, and we hope you're enjoying this adventure with us ⚔️

Harbingers,

A new update is available now to improve your journey in Eudros! This one is focused on bug fixes, optimizations and additions to the village system, with 140+ new decorations.

• Made the camera when talking to shopkeepers zoom in and out smoother (especially with Dwarven shopkeepers)
  
• Fixed quest info that would refer to the Khenmoore Flatlands as the Khenmoore Woods
  
• Fixed misspelling of “The Hills of Delvenaugh”
  
• Fixed issue with Quickness buff that would cause slowness if you harvested while buff was active
  
• Fixed issue with Quickness buff that would cause it to sometimes not activate properly entering an area or loading a save with the buff already active
  
• The “House Blend” questline can now be completed once again with the new farming system
  
• Fixed issue that would cause freezes if you rapidly clocked the crafting button when smelting
  
• Optimized villager spawns at the player’s stronghold
  
• Village buildings should now more reliably spawn NPCs
  
• Fixed issue that would cause the first-placed themed decor item to grant double theme EXP
  
• Fixed the decoration “Shop Stall 6” granting irrelevant resources upon demolition
  
• Fixed issue that would sometimes cause the player to spawn at their stronghold after taking an airship to another city
  
• Fixed issue with overworld airship that would force players to board the airship after disembarking from the airship during flight
  
• Fixed issue with all necromancer spike decorations not updating to the correct material after being hovered over
  
• Fixed farming plots not decreasing village EXP when deleted
  
• Player can no longer move when smelting/weaponsmithing/engineering
  
• Metal Lightposts now produce light correctly
  
• Players can no longer place decorations on or too close to the village overview board, donation box or decoration table. This should prevent players from locking themselves out of those features with placed decorations.
  
• Fixed issue with guild rank title not showing properly in the guild overview screen

• Added new potion drinking animation
  
• Added new shopkeeper spawn points for player village, allowing players to create vendor stalls. Different vendors will spawn based on your village theme levels.
  
• Added option to disable head bobbing
  
• Added option to disable ALL screen shakes
  
• Added 140+ new village decorations
  ○ X4 crate stacks
  ○ Firewood Pile
  ○ Stone Lantern
  ○ Standing Torch
  ○ X7 new trees
  ○ X7 dead trees
  ○ X6 bushes
  ○ X4 grass types
  ○ X5 rocks
  ○ X3 cairn
  ○ X3 stacked stones
  ○ Monolith stone
  ○ X2 archery targets
  ○ Arrow barrel
  ○ Tanning rack
  ○ Hunters Campfire
  ○ Fish Rack (Large)
  ○ Fish Rack (Small)
  ○ Fish Bucket
  ○ X4 training dummies
  ○ X2 weapon racks
  ○ X2 Warrior statues
  ○ X2 Arcane statues
  ○ Prayer Candles
  ○ Chapter Banner
  ○ Divine Vessel
  ○ Shrine Archway
  ○ Necro Lantern
  ○ X3 bone piles
  ○ Wooden Table 4
  ○ Wooden Table 5
  ○ X5 Hunter Statues
  ○ X3 Carts
  ○ X2 fountains
  ○ X3 wells
  ○ Wagon
  ○ Cauldron
  ○ X2 buckets
  ○ X4 barrel stacks
  ○ Barrel
  ○ X2 Wooden Archways
  ○ X2 baskets
  ○ X5 benches
  ○ Gibbet
  ○ X2 Gargoyles
  ○ Crypt
  ○ X2 coffins
  ○ X3 glowing mushrooms
  ○ X4 logs
  ○ Gazebo
  ○ Gazebo Wall
  ○ Barrel Target
  ○ X2 sacks
  ○ Catapult
  ○ Mortar
  ○ Cannon Balls
  ○ Bard Spawner
  ○ Rabbit Spawner
  ○ Deer Spawner
  ○ Horse Spawner
  ○ Hitching Post
  ○ X4 Hay Stacks
  ○ X2 Bard Statues
  ○ X3 signs
  ○ X4 chairs
  ○ Stool

• Added a bit more detail to some parts of the overworld
  
• Deploying a zipline on an invalid surface, the skill will now immediately cooldown
  
• Reduced SFX for Rock Fists
  
• Reduced attack screen shake (especially for unarmed attacks)
  

Hey Harbingers,

Milo here! Last week, I asked players on our Discord server to fill out a "What’s your playstyle” survey.

Those who participated in the survey assisted me in gathering data on your individual playstyles to determine which are the most and least popular. This information will help me refine development priorities and better tailor the experience. Plus, it’ll be exciting to see the final results together!

To start, let’s take a look at the data summary!

[h3]What are your three most used combat skills? [/h3]



Necromancy took the lead by a longshot! Necromancy is one of the largest skill trees in the game with plenty of passive skills as well, which likely contributes to why it’s the winner for the most-used skill tree. Of course, Necromancy is also just a popular magic type in general, so that also can play into the results. People like summoner styles, after all!

The next three trees under Necromancy are all melee trees, which each have a decent number of skills and passives within them. There’s still room for more skills and passives within those trees, but this indicates that the trees are in a relatively good state and that those trees are fun to play currently.

The main part that I want to focus on in this graph is the lower half. So, from “Spears” downward.
This data tells me what trees are one or more of the following: The skills in the trees aren’t fun, the skill tree isn't expansive enough, or the tree just isn’t as popular as others.
My goal for The Bloodline has always been to allow players to play the exact class they want to play as. So, to me, the result of “the skill tree isn’t as popular as the others” doesn’t play a huge role towards if the skill tree will be expanded or not – just the priority it takes. So, don’t worry, those of you who love using a staff or a shield with aeromancy – This doesn’t mean I won’t be focusing on those skill trees. Quite the opposite! This tells me those trees need more love and attention.

Some expectations going into the survey was that the newer, smaller skill trees like staves, aeromancy, vampirism would all be low on the ranking – which they were. These trees have few skills and passives, which of course would result in them being used less than others.

What surprised me was that bow & crossbow was so low on the ranking! Same with daggers – I expected that one to be near the top.

Let’s dive a bit deeper into each category now!

[h3]Melee Weapons ⚔️[/h3]



Unarmed, One-Handed and Two-Handed weapons dominate melee skill trees. Again, these trees are well fleshed out with a decent number of passives within them. However, the outlier that I see here are Daggers. This tree is much lower than the others and has a good number of skills and passives within it! This can suggest that perhaps the daggers' skills themselves aren’t as fun to use as the other skill trees, or that daggers themselves just aren’t as popular, which I don’t think is the case. I do think that the games weak stealth system also plays into this – dagger builds are typically used by stealth characters and, let's be honest, The Bloodline doesn’t have a great stealth system in place (yet!)

Shields being the lowest of the melee trees isn’t quite surprising – it's more of a passive and defensive piece of gear and the skill tree is somewhat limited in its skill selection. I would love to bump shields up to where spears are in usage – perhaps by allowing players to use shields with more weapon types or even when unarmed, as well as adding more shield skills to the tree.

Next, let’s take a look at magic!

[h3]Magic 🪄[/h3]


I believe magic is the backbone of The Bloodline and shows my mentality for the games’ development. "If it’s fun, it gets added."
With so many magic trees, it’s difficult to find time to make skills for all of them - ideally, every magic skill tree will be as expansive as Necromancy someday. This chart should help me focus my efforts into skill trees that need it.

We see much more of an even (disregarding Necromancy) spread between magic types here, which makes me super happy. Blood Magic, Druidism, Arcane and Electromancy are all super close in ranking with Geomancy and Cryomancy not too far behind.
As mentioned before, Necromancy is one of the largest and most fleshed-out skill trees in the game. The next largest magic tree is pyromancy, both on the graph and in-game.
Seeing that many of the other trees are so close to one another in ranking, this leads me to believe that they each have their own identity and feel at least somewhat fun to use – they just need a bit more love and attention to bring them up to the level that Pyromancy and Necromancy are at.

Lastly, we have the smallest category – ranged.

[h3]Ranged Weapons 🏹[/h3]



This is the most balanced of the categories – likely in part due to the small selection. What surprised me most about this one is that nearly 26% of those who participated in the survey don’t even touch ranged weapons. This could be due to a few factors – maybe they just use ranged magic, nullifying the need for a ranged weapon. Or, maybe (and in my opinion, more likely), players find the ranged skills difficult to use. Whether this is due to the forced camera change for some skills or maybe difficulty aiming while pressing the skill button, they’re valid reasons to not use ranged skills. Another factor to consider is the limited skill bar. Most enemies tend to get up close pretty quick, and having your precious few skill slots taken up by ranged skills can be a dealbreaker!

This had led me to brainstorm what I can do to alleviate the need to pick-and-choose skills for your limited skill bar. I’ve come up with a couple ideas, which I hope to get feedback on from the community:

• Dynamic Skill Bar
  Your skill bar was actively swap depending on what weapon you have equipped. This would allow you to have a full skill set for every single weapon class. Example: You enter an area, weapon sheathed. Your skill bar would be set to an “out of combat” skill bar. You equip your 1H sword and your skill bar automatically swaps to your 1H skills. You see a goblin in the distance, so you swap to your bow and your skill bar swaps to your bow skills.
  
  
• Radial Skill Bar Loadouts
  Similar to the dynamic skill bar, but not automatic. The player can have many skill loadouts, allowing them to actively swap between them as they desire.

And, finally...

[h3]Non-Combat Skills 💎[/h3]



Unsurprisingly, mining, running and jumping all take the top 3 spots by a long shot!
This, of course, was expected. All players run and all players jump – and who doesn’t like mining? Although I did expect wood cutting to be closer to the top 3. The big drop between jumping and woodcutting was somewhat surprising.

With many of the crafting skills being low, this tells me that that aspect of the game needs to be improved. Adding more interesting and unique content to the crafting types would of course help. I also think having small guilds focused on the crafting types would help make it more interesting and allow for more world-building and roleplaying opportunities. Perhaps the small guilds could offer crafting recipes, unique quests, etc. - it’s really just a matter of improving what is already in place rather than completely revamping it.


Thank you to everyone who took part in the survey! So many of you participated, and – as I’ve already mentioned – your responses will be incredibly helpful in improving your experience in The Bloodline!

For those who couldn’t take part, feel free to leave your comments on the topic here: the 505 Pulse team will help me gather your feedback and integrate it with the survey results. 💪

Harbingers,

A new hotfix patch is available now to address some of the latest issues you reported!

• Fixed issue with smelting and weaponsmithing menu locking up if you click “auto craft” without enough resources. (Auto craft button no longer available for smelting)
  
• Fixed issue where leveling up could sometimes block skill book interaction
  
• Fixed issue with the gathering minigame not ending properly if the player doesn’t click at all during the minigame