f13.net

http://www.bloodlinechampions.com/
I grabbed my beta invite from FP today.  Looks interesting.


There are also 3 game modes.  Your typical arena deathmatch, a CTF, and a conquest.  The only persistence I see is the Ladder system in ranked matches, which makes sense in a skill only game.  Pretty much arena diablo it seems.
I will definitely be trying this out with the realization that grouping/guilding regularly is a must. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIdWDUmTD2w&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iceVNd-soE&feature=related

<topic moved>

thankee

Anyways, so who's firing this up tonite?

Thanks for reminding me, Ive had this sitting in my inbox but I didnt have a chance to download it before work.

I've been playing this all night.  Cant stop.  This has legs.
And apparently this studio is semi-supported by Funcom - so it's yet another Norse game.  Also seems to have been built using XNA.

Whole game is based on skill, even the healing and CC.  Hell, even knockbacks and aoe have some kind of sub-effect that'll reward you if you time/aim it properly, many times dependent on ally positioning or enemy grouping.  Most abilities are channeled and cooled down, so anticipating your opponent is also smart as well as not simply rushing in whilst your bread and butter is unavailable.

As for the "persistence."  There ARE levels in the game (not to do with the ladder) which are more an indicator of how much you've played rather than how good you are.  Your "skill" though is measured via Grade.  So you can actually have lowlevel people with high ranking/grade.  Since there's autobalance (if you use it) in PUGs it's a nice mechanic to keep teams even skill-wise.

Yes, there is single-player vs. bots.  So you CAN practice your skills alone.

The ladders look to be considered "seasons."  Teams and individuals can win these obviously.  Currently we're on season 4.  What kinds of rewards there are I havent learned yet.
For a simple isometric action game, it has surprising depth in combat.  I was worried battles would seem repetitive, but each one is vastly different even when choosing the same toon.  And for a quick game, there's a surprising amount of tension.  Even in simple Arena/deathmatch games.

The UI is perfect and the lobby is quick and intuitive.  No lag issues or connectivity problems.  Player profiles are fairly extensive and it's easy to sift through who's good and who's bad.

My only gripe so far is healing and resurrection take too long to be useful.  If you try it you're dead typically, unless you're on a bigger map, have a stealth character, and/or are playing CTF or conquest perhaps.

And now I sit and wait for 'Hoax' to enter this thread... 'cause he's been whining about playing a game like this for a long time.   :grin:

One of the things Im most happy about with this game is that it doesn't have a tacked on unlock system. I'm not sure how I feel about the game itself though. There seems to be very little visual / sound feedback to certain abilities and the few non practice games I played consisted of my team getting stomped and not knowing why / what was even happening. Not quite as bad as the clusterfuck that is LoL team fights though.

The key is nuzzling up to high level players and sticking with bloodlines you're good at regardless of group structure.  Although, this game punishes you badly if you dont maintain a semblance of group balance, assuming you dont adjust your strat.  Ideally, you'd learn 1 bloodline per class.  Some lines are fairly hybrid though, like the astronomer.  Imo the best way to learn the game at first is to play a healer.

It could indeed use more sound effects (or perhaps they should just be louder), but the only one of value is the one that denotes your ulti.

Game will be completely F2P btw with every line in the particular season unlocked (lines will rotate depending on season to keep things challenging).  And the only thing money will purchase is skins and lines from other seasons.  There will also be in-game currency you can earn through winning battles, which can be used to purchase said stuff.

Hmmm.  Looks worth trying out if nothing else.

I have 3 additional keys for anyone wanting to try it out, and not wanting to fool with FP or Funcom.

Oh, I'd really like one.  I was going to apply for beta when I got home today anyway, PM one to me if its still available please!

I've already applied my FP key so Malak you're gonna have to use the key I give you (which is from Funcom) to hand out the 2 remaining buddy keys, once you start your Funcom account.

Funcom sent me a closed beta key as soon as I registered for the file planet beta.  :uhrr:

Does the funcom key last longer or something?

Alright, got 1 left.  Any takers?

The Funcom key gives you buddy keys as well.  The IGN key doesnt.  So use your Funcom key.
If one lasts longer than the other, I shall be extremely pissed off.
edit:  Once you're in the beta, you're in for the duration.  i.e. till the game releases

Some one hit me with a key.

On the note of keys, my friend got one. He entered it on their site, it failed to register him fully, and now its telling him the key is in use.

Ok, I have had 3 sent to me. I'm pretty good. Thanks.  :awesome_for_real:

Btw, I'm ingame as "Psyfer"
Vent/TS anyone?

I'm having a good time with this game. I think the one thing they could do to improve balancing teams is not allowing teams to have more than one of a character. Otherwise, it's pretty solid.

Malakili in game, friends me.

Pretty fun game, definitely worth playing.

I'm glad to see that this game is maturing somewhat into a game with appeal and promise! the earlier betas were ... hit and miss. Mostly miss.

This only happens when people random.  It's basically a bug and usually gimps a team more than helps.

Now that I'm beginning to decipher what the hell is going on, It's starting to grow on me. Though there are still some things that can be worded or expressed better.

1 -  Being afflicted with "spell lock" isn't exclusive to actual spells or abilities. Your vanilla attack can be locked as well.

2 - Characters simply vanishing without any visual feedback as to what the hell is going on. I've had a few matches where one guy I was nearly ready to kill just vanishes. It wasnt until later than I figured out it was a healer archetype using this ability.

If anyone gets a beta invite and there aren't people who are more into the LoL/DoTA/FPS side of thing than me I'd happily take an invite. This looks pretty fun.

Is it going to be PC only?


You'll be waiting a couple of weeks at least for that  :oh_i_see:

Seems like it's going to rely a lot on latency due to the twitch nature?
If so, I think I'll pass since i'm in S.E Asia. :(

Everything has a casting time, which is client side.  Therefore lag dependancy is minimized once everything hits the server/host.
It's a very smart, subtle mechanic.  Even your vanilla attack has a very slight casting time, just enough to negate most lag.

Typically, if you have someone with bad ping it's not TOO noticeable 'cept to themselves.

Played some 3v3 for the first time today, this game has serious potential.  I know i kind of already said that, but its got that little extra something that most games just don't.

It has nothing to do with choosing random, I selected a second gunner after someone else had their's. I've also gone up against numerous groups with the same characters (ex: 2x of the same tank and 2x of the same healer and a random dps on one team in a 5v5, Root and Alchemist? I don't know the names yet).

As for gimping, I've noticed no such thing, though it may be more gimping at higher end play. Lower end play, like 3v3, using multiple gunners with chain blind and stun works pretty smoothly.

Hmmm... that aint cool.  Maybe they intended it then.  I was told it was a bug though by a high lvl player.
I suppose certain champs are better than others if you've got a lot of em, only if they've got adequate CC though.  A group full of thorns probably wont work, etc.

In game as malakili

We should get a beta names list going.

In game as Satsui, server's down though or something which is good timing since it means it's time to go out. It went down at the same time last night too, I'm wondering if 9-9:30pm cst is when servers come down for patches due to them being Euro.

Any keys left ? I got this weekend off.  :drill:
 

Sent.

Anyone with an extra key able to pm me? I have a friend interested in playing and could use an extra.

If anyone has one available, I have another irl friend who could use a key. Shoot me a pm if an extra is available

What is this like? LoL/DotA? Fury? Wow Arenas? I just got a beta invite, wondering if I should bother downloading it.

It's like a red, red rose/That's newly sprung in June

It looks like LoL/DotA, but there are no experience points, no levels, no upgrades of gear/abilities, no one side getting the upper hand and then it being impossible for the other side to catch up. It's a purely skill-based team-PvP game.

There's nothing out there like this and yes, it's well worth downloading if you're the competive PvP type.
Once Diablo3 releases though (which will essentially have this game as its pvp element), this game will covet crickets.  So basically, it's a nice F2P D3 pvp game till D3 actually comes out.

edit:
D3 will be quite a bit more button-mashy than this though.

Oh, doesn't really sound like my cup of tea then. Might give it a shot if I'm bored over the weekend but I'm a sucker for ding, gratz and not so much into the pwning of noobs.

I think I got a key via email that I'll never use if anyone wants. First in best dressed reply in thread.

Like Counter Strike, World of Tanks, and Mount & Blade Warbands but fantasy?

Yeah, its basically the multiplayer modes usually associated with shooters, using a top down view class based fantasy setting.

Got an unsolicited beta invite this morning. May have to check it out this weekend.

Yeah, ditto, looks like they started sending them out to random people with funcom accounts.  Not sure what the real criteria is since I have like 3 for varying reasons from Anarchy Online, and I don't actually know which one I received the invite from.

I received one as well. The only Funcom account that I have is to The Secret World.

I got one at both emails I have attached to Funcom accounts.  If anyone wants the spare key, shoot me a PM, and it's all yours.

I got a key from Funcom, but don't really feel like playing it. First PM gets it.

Anyone got a key for this?

I stopped caring about this game once they released their pricing scheme, but I might still have one.

This seems like it could be fun.  But I take massive issue with the character design/graphical style.  Everything is small, bland and hard to tell apart.  It's like the anti-TF2.

trias_e is the name.

Also, I swear I've heard the music in this game elsewhere.  It sounds really familiar.  I like it, so thats good, but still kinda weird.

Was playing in a bunch maybe a month ago and enjoying it, but just sort of stopped and didn't feel the urge to login anymore.  I like the idea, but for some reason I just stopped clicking the shortcut in favor of other things.  Oh well.

Bloodlines has officially launched!

Free Account Registration (https://register.funcom.com/signup/ctrl/register/us/bloodline/BLOODLINE-CHAMPIONS-LIVE)
Bloodline Champions Information (http://www.bloodlinechampions.com)

It's of course F2P still and open to anyone who wants to check it out.

I do read the forums here frequently and would love some feedback on the game. If you take the time to give some input, I'll take the time and ensure it get's somewhere. Feel free to hit me up in-game if anyone wants to play a few rounds. My name in-game is Famine.

It doesnt seem to want to let me sign up with my existing Funcom account which I used for AoC. If I click account it takes me to a AOC based account page. And if I click play now for free, it asks for me to sign up. If I use my existing account it says account exists. I cant seem to link it to my existing funcom account.

If you have an existing Funcom account, log into the account and then Create a New Game Account. Remember, we use a Master/Slave system where you only have one Master account with different Slave accounts. That way you can have Age of Conan, Anarchy Online and Bloodline Champions all under the same Master.

If you can't login, ensure you're logging into the account page with your Master account details. This is normally not the same User/Pass as the one you logged into the game. You can set different User/Pass information per game to better secure your characters.

Ok, I got it.

I have to say, your account system is horrible, also there is no indication when it asks for your login, which one. Streamlining the account system would be awesome. Real ID anyone?

Good deal!

Doesn't really seem to have much of a hook for me.  It's a fun game while I'm playing it, but I don't really have any desire to play after I log off.  The art style is neat (though I can't find a character I really like the look of, I'm sure one will come out eventually), the controls are nice, but it just seems kind of shallow to me.  The maps are all rather small, and the action is constant, so nothing flows, it feels like there's no strategy, it's just all brawling all the time.  Hit the guy with your fireballs, don't get hit by his fireballs.  There's no choice about where to go or what to do or what kind of overall strategy you should use, there's no mana so you're just always spamming everything you have, no messing around with different character builds or anything.  The maps are basically just deathmatches; there's a token CTF mode and a control point mode, but the maps are so small and the character abilities are all ways of killing people rather than being useful for flag running or capuring points, which makes strategy kind of superfluous to the brawl.  It's still a fun game, it's just that I wish there was more to it than throwing fireballs at dudes.

At least, that's how it looks to my noobish eyes after a handful of games.

Thanks for the input. :)

I would say there is much more strategy the deeper you get into play. Right now, it's just launched and players are still trying to learn too. But, their are roles per champion and with roles, you have certain ones you need to avoid or react in combat. Like those who disable to those who heal to even those who have great mobility.

It will take a while for the metagame to develop, and for strategy to become important there needs to be a metagame.

My main problem with the game is the lack of local servers (AUS).

How is the latency for you? Was it not playable?

I was actually playing with a player from Conan who was in the same situation last night. But he seemed to be fine playing on the US servers and had around 120 to 140 ping on average. This is about the same ping for US players playing on the EU servers during their prime time.

It's playable, but very hard. 290-350ms ping makes aiming shots and timing interrupts quite difficult. I'm used to a ~150ms ping on US servers (in other games), so it may just be an anomaly. I'll probably give it another shot once the working week is over.

I'll see if I can get you a location to do a traceroute then. We played a few others in AUS who didn't have above 200ms ping on the US servers. It may be something from your location we might be able to take a look at in the route. That way others in your area would have a better lag-free experience.

Just double-checked this morning, it's a ~354ms ping on the US servers (higher for Europe). Technically playable, but really frustrating.

Nub question:  how are you supposed to make money in this game?  I was planning on playing practice games to give all the characters a spin, and use the money to buy the one I liked best.  Knowledge base says practice games have half the income rate of normal games, which gets a minor grumble out of me, but whatever.  But when I checked how much I was making per game, it was something like fifteen to twenty red coins, and each hero costs seventeen thousand.  Is there something I'm missing, here?  Because that seems a bit steep to me.