BloodLines
Not to be confused with the fan website Blood Line
"BloodLines was to be the most ambitious total conversion ever created for Blood. It still is, but it's far from what was intended. We have admitted that BloodLines will never be fully completed and have decided to release the TC "as is" with some retouching to make incomplete maps actually playable. I hope you'll enjoy playing it as much as we have enjoyed making it. Be aware though, that not all maps are what you would expect from a Blood level, it's not all bloody mayhem. Don't be disappointed if the TC doesn't fit your ideas about how a 3d-shooter should be, much of it is about atmosphere rather than action, you will benefit from approaching BloodLines with an open mind. This is the beta version of the first three episodes, including 13 maps, two new enemies and loads of new art and sound." — Necrosoft
BloodLines (also spelt Blood Lines or Bloodlines) is a classic fan add-on project that was hosted by PlanetBlood. The add-on features Caleb interacting with a failed writer named Maximilian "Max" Dunkel, who attempts to commit suicide after never actually writing his much anticipated upcoming book. Before he can do it however, he is approached by a man in the black suit representing "Prospero Publishing", who hands him an eerie typewriter to finish the book. Grateful, Max asks him what he can do to repay him, and the man in the black suite asks him to do "one small thing" for him.
It was one of the first major Blood add-ons to feature new multimedia assets, requiring the, at least temporary, overwriting of existing ones. This technique was later used in add-ons such as Bloody Pulp Fiction. The beta release featured thirteen levels spread over three episodes.
Necrosoft[edit]
See Also: List of Bloodites
The development team behind the project operated under the name Necrosoft, and contained many otherwise well known mappers.
- jAsOn
- Matt Mann (aka DaMann)
- Felix Drott
- Alexandre Vancomerbeck (aka Hades)
- Craig Duckett
- Adam
- BenMonkey
- StalkerX
- Joel "Reactor" and Kurt "Headhunter" Blackwell
Link: The Asylum
Beta Release[edit]
"However, I've made a promise to release the first three episodes, and enough promises about release dates have been broken through the years, so here it is, the beta-version of BloodLines. It's up to you wether you want to play it now, or wether you want to wait for the final release three weeks from now including the fourth episode, the cutscenes explaining the story, and possibly a map or two more in the 1st to 3rd episodes as well. Maybe some of you feel that playing an unfinished version will ruin the enjoyment of the final version, or maybe the additions in the final release will make you want to play the TC all over again. The choice is yours." — News release
Prior to this final release, a demo version was sent out on September 18, 1998 featuring "The Madhouse" by Alexandre Vancomerbeck (aka Hades). The beta release was announced on February 11, 2002.
Episode 1: Reality Bites[edit]
- ble1l1: The Madhouse - Alexandre Vancomerbeck (aka Hades)
- ble1l2: Dark Cathedral - Craig L. Ducket
- ble1l3: Epidemic - Matt Mann (aka DaMann)
- ble1l4: Highway to Hell - Felix Drott
- ble1l5: The City on the Edge of Dreams - Michael Shire (aka Micho)
Episode 2: Perchance to Dream[edit]
- ble2l1: Wide Awake in Dreamland - Alexandre Vancomerbeck (aka Hades)
- ble2l2: The Twilight Zone - Felix Drott
- ble2l3: Nightmare at 15fps - Felix Drott
- ble2l4: Gallery of Dreams - Felix Drott
Episode 3: Ashes to Ashes[edit]
- ble3l1: The Morgue - Alexandre Vancomerbeck (aka Hades)
- ble3l2: Crime Scene - Matt Mann (aka DaMann)
- ble3l3: The River Styx - Alexandre Vancomerbeck (aka Hades)
- ble3l4: Cemetery of Souls
Sin Campaign[edit]
"Sin requires a little bit of exposition to be understood. From an artistic standpoint it's the kind of thing that one wishes could be erased from existence, but that is simply the artist's curse of hating one's older creations. Many, many years ago I would generally make maps for friends. After giving them to friends, I would sometimes provide them to some people online. Sin is an example of a project or series of maps that escaped my grasp and made its way into the wider world. Sin was made with a really peculiar (and flawed) approach whereby only the fourth level requires Bloodlines assets (art and sound) to be installed. Essentially, there is no way in which to play Sin whereby one can get the full experience without quitting Blood, since Bloodlines assets cannot be loaded between maps. For the fourth and final map, I wanted to surprise a friend with something a little different and took that approach. He would play the maps as they were completed, so there was never a case where he sat and played all four in a row, but obviously it is jarring and pretty terrible if one sits and plays all four maps in a row on account of having to quit the game and transfer files.It is important to note that Sin has absolutely nothing to do with Bloodlines TC. I did not create it with permission from the Bloodlines crew. It was simply an "in-house" project that ran wild. Perhaps it is also worth noting that I never worked with the Bloodlines crew, and have communicated with them very little over the years, as most of the original team are no longer around, having disappeared in the chaotic early years of Blood's release. As a final warning, conceptually there are some interesting bits in Sin, but the quality of it is only a few notches above the standard "'lassic' trash usermaps. The quality of the maps makes me groan, but it does serve as an interesting indication of my own journey in map creation. Beware if you should choose to continue, though: Sin doesn't accommodate difficulty levels, so its challenge rating is quite high on account of the amount of monsters not adjusting between difficulties. This, combined with the fact that I deliberately made the maps a little bit difficult, means that they might be uncomfortable to play depending on the player's skill level. Sin is not "fair" as such, but it should be perfectly doable for more adept players." — Daedalus
A four level add-on that partially builds on from BloodLines by Matthew "Daedalus" Kallis, founder of The Postmortem and the Altar of Stone, as well as the later creator of Rage Against the Machine. Often stylized as "SIN Campaign", or "The SIN Campaign".
- SinC01: The Plot Sickens - for Plasma Pak
- SinC02: Hall of the Dreaming God - for Plasma Pak
- SinC03: Sky Rage - for BloodLines
- SinC04: Chateau Darkfrost - for BloodLines
Link: http://www.blood.freeminded.de/index.php?section=maps&id=185
Threads: Transfusion Forums, Postmortem Forums
Out of the Grave Edition[edit]
"Welcome! This is the rebooted Bloodlines project started by Felix Drott and many other amazing creators in the Blood and mod community of the late 90s. I (daMann) was a mapper back then on the project, and in 2018 rebooted the project as a fun creative outlet and have tried to include Felix as well as current modding legends like Dzierzan in it when they can to help out! This version has some updates to old maps, quality of life improvements that make installing and playing easier with the new modern source ports, and a couple of surprises here and there. Enjoy, and look for more SOON (™) WHEN ITS FINISHED :)" — Description
First mentioned on January 20, 2018 and aiming to finish up the original version's unfinished assets, inspired by the release of BloodGDX and the playing of Blood fan add-ons on YouTube by people such as pagb666. Was given a full title and ModDB page on April 21, 2021 as well as a new beta of work done so far.
Links: ModDB, blood.freeminded.de, Thread - The Postmortem (Background), Thread - Blood Line, Thread - Duke4
"In other news, the Bloodlines project I was a part of back then, we are now coming back to it and will be finishing up some of the unfinished maps, cutscenes, etc. and releasing it sooner than later :) All this BloodGDX stuff, finding all these cool TCs (what we called MODS back in the day), etc. coming out and being played... and finding youtube videos of kids and people who weren't even born yet or were youngin's when we made it, playing it... its pretty amazing stuff! I was just out searching for Reactor & Headhunter, letting them know we were coming back to this project and letting them know their amazing level was going to get posted out... finally... 17 years later!!" — Matt Mann (aka DaMann)
Reception[edit]
"...From all the Blood addons I have played so far I would definitely rank "Bloodlines" really high. There are some levels in this episode, especially in ep.2, that you have definitely never seen in any Blood game, maybe not even in any with the Build engine. Atmospherically it's top notch. "The Twilight Zone" was so weird and disturbing it gave me goosebumps at times, and "Nightmare at 15fps" puts you right into an old black/white movie from the 20s without any sound, just the noise of the movie projector all the time. Absolutely insane. And then there's a level (don't remember the name right now) where you see the reflection of the houses in a pool, you dive into the water - and you can actually enter those reflections you saw at the surface. Brilliant." — NightFright
"There are many stories about the mods for diffrent games that weren't released in their final form. Sometimes people have no time anymore, or their project is too big. They've wanted to make something really great and ambitious but something goes wrong along that road. Bloodlines was in work for many years, but the creators abandoned it and released all of the completed maps in episodes. It's a real shame, because after playing all of them I can say without any hesitation that this wasn't a case of overblown egos. The level design, as I call it, is semi-open. You can stray from the paths, look for secrets, and generally you have the feeling of each level being a coherent labirynth that can be beaten. Many times I saw an autistic design where the player doesn't really know what to do, or the hints for the key or lever are so obscure that you just backtracking, moving forward and backward like on some crazy roundabout. Bloodlines is entirely opposite. It has a very elegant approach, you can stop from time to time thinking about the proper door that you need to use the key on. Yes, you will need a good memory because with some of the bigger levels it's preety obvious. But I've never been in the situation where I would just give up and try to search the level through noclip to find the solution. I won't unload tons of screenshots because with the scarce number of levels (13) it's worth to try it. As an example we can see the destroyed city mini-hub. Not all shops and buildings are available to the player, but the sense of freedom is much bigger and feels diffrent from the usual Blood map. There is more. For example, we are teleported into black and white dimension, where the neverending sound of old film tape playing is heard in the background. We can see a poster of Cabinet of Dr Caligari on one of the walls, and after a couple of minutes all of the architecture of the level becomes something straight from that movie ! Another example is Slums, most depressing level, reeking with a gloomy atmosphere. The use of the fog, shadows and occasional light makes it a very memorable map. The Sin campaign pales compared to the original Bloodlines. I would say that it has too many enemies and lack variety of the bigger brother." — Ninja Destroyer
External Links[edit]
- http://www.planetblood.com/bloodlines/
- https://www.quaddicted.com/files/idgames2/planetquake/planetblood/bloodlines/
- http://www.bloodgame.ru/deepcoldgrave/add-ons/KillerBOB%20Interview.html
- http://bloodlines.questgate.net/
- http://www.moddb.com/games/blood/addons/bloodlines-beta
- http://www.the-postmortem.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=993
- https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLoxV-no_tlqyKX9lZanf1qrffGL4cYZT_