The Early Access release is getting very close! Join us on [b][url=https://discord.gg/J7Ja2cK]Discord[/url][/b] to get the latest news and chat with us and the community, as we’re adding new content before the release. Here’s what is new in the latest beta update: [h1]Instructing Gladiators Who To Attack[/h1] -Now you are able to instruct your Gladiators on how much they should prioritize each individual enemy. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/36651033/31c7ded8c88b291d8446c204ed07bc72b1b574bf.gif[/img] -General Gladiator AI instructions are now simplified. They still affect Gladiator behaviour but individual enemy priorities have much more weight over general setting. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/36651033/c81dd1c97ee8ec5057ff054d926177aaaab20d7c.jpg[/img] -One very important setting can be found for support Gladiators like Priestess. This checkbox is instructing her to help out gladiators that are under attack and in need of her support. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/36651033/05ad6d019c1b003d01f1e4ba515e2c1d1a2514dc.jpg[/img] It’s turned on by default. But if you plan to execute different tactics and want her to behave purely based on your instructions, you can turn it off. -Here is an example of how gladiators instructions can be used to gain advantage [previewyoutube=5ua1kw2G7W0;full][/previewyoutube] -There is also a feature allowing you to see priority sliders just by rolling over you gladiators. [h1]Gladiator Code and AI Improvements[/h1] -One of the most important things we had to do is change how gladiators send buffs to each other. Till now, one ability attack could only send one buff. For instance Berserker Orc can Kick an enemy and send them Knock Down buff. But the code did not allow us to also send another buff. For instance we could not send Burning buff as well. Preventing us from combining all kinds of fun things. Now this code has been rewritten and we can send any amount of buffs we like in one attack. Meaning that if let’s say Cryomancer had certain items or learned some passive abilities he could: Knock Down an enemy, set them Burning and Freeze them all at the same time. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/36651033/6bbd129b567a15a1c1e10c91aabefd6dee73dbb3.gif[/img] We don’t have those combinations in the game yet, but new gladiator abilities are coming some time after Early Access, many of which will be passive abilities that will upgrade their current abilities and make them send some of the synergetic buffs. And we’ll also add items that can do that. For now we already have an item called Knockdown Gloves. When given to a melee gladiator, that gladiator will Knockdown enemy with first attack. [h2]Smarter Gladiators[/h2] Aiming to improve gladiators behaviour we have few improved things. Combining with gladiator instructions you can tell Cryomancer or Brigand if they should focus on protecting an ally. Freezing them or throwing a net. In this example you can see that by default Cryomancer will throw freeze to protect the archer as she will benefit the most from being able to get away form melee enemies. But if you turn off the “Ally That is Under Attack” checkbox, Cryomancer will focus on the biggest group of enemies instead. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/36651033/1cf6d7de71aa7452a31d5864c72e987eb0451472.gif[/img] You can instruct Necromancer which enemy to Raise from death.. He will always raise the one who dies first. But after the battle continues if there are more dead enemies around, he will choose to raise exactly the one that you told him to raise. [previewyoutube=ILpsEo71y3U;full][/previewyoutube] Necromancer will by default choose to cast Terror ability to an enemy that is not going to get hit right away from some ally gladiator. Because Terror is making the enemy run in fear for X seconds. But if they get hit, it’s interrupted and wasted. [previewyoutube=Gs0I8LJcQ-w;full][/previewyoutube] Of course, you can instruct him to throw Terror on any enemy you want if you change his priority points from default. [h1]Ring of Death - Changed[/h1] Ring of Death design was fairly flawed as you were able to play only Blind Fight until you finished the first arena championship. And for new players this was super confusing, not even knowing which enemy they will fight. And it wasn't the most interesting thing for a familiar players either. Now it works very differently. You are given 4 random fights that you can choose from. After completing each you earn green coupon reward, and after completing 4th you’ll earn purple one as a big reward for finishing all 4. Then you can press “Create New Battle Choices” and you’ll get a new set of battle type options. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/36651033/290f1e5408753c848285d69c49348b58d54e14b0.gif[/img] Finishing each championship arena brings one new battle to the pool of possible random fights that can appear. Now we have several new battle types (to addition to the ones we already had in the game): [list] [*] 2vs2 [*] 3vs3 [*] 1 vs few [*] few vs 1 [*] many vs 1 [*] 10 vs 10 [/list] And we plan to add some more in future updates. [h1]Quirks System Improved And 20 More Added[/h1] If quirk is not benefiting or harming a gladiator it will not appear on that gladiator anymore. For instance Berserker Orc, can’t get Brain Injury quirk that decreases his intelligence, because intelligence is of very little importance to him. With this handled, we made quirks affect prices of gladiators significantly. Now your choices in the gladiator market carry much more weight. It’s no longer just about waiting to find a gladiator with the best quirk and ignoring the ones with negative quirks. Gladiators with good quirks will be very expensive, and gladiators with bad quirks will be very cheap. And you will want both as you can’t afford only the ones with good quirks. Additionally to this we buffed some positive quirks to be even more effective. Now buying a gladiator with good quirks feels very rewarding, and getting ones with bad quirks is necessary to increase your team size and variety. And also doesn't feel bad, because their cost and wages are much lower. Numbers of gladiators that you can put in a battle are increased as you go further through the game. Especially in championships. Pushing you to build bigger teams and letting you enjoy bigger battles. Additional 20 quirks have been added to the game, increasing the variation of gladiators and adding new features to play around with. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/36651033/f1e58d1e57052c0812db47156dac71480e32d24a.jpg[/img] After finishing the 3rd arena (Ancient Temple) a small amount of gladiators in the shop can appear with even 3 quirks. Now that we have such a huge fluctuation in prices and power of positive and negative quirks, many interesting combinations can be found. We’d love to hear your feedback about this. Ether here in comments or even better in our [url=https://discord.gg/J7Ja2cK]Discord Community.[/url] [h2]Championship Change[/h2] Now you can lose up to two battles in championship and still complete that championship arena. You will lose one cup each time you lose a battle. But this will allow you to play less conservatively, to try fun and risky combinations, or harder battles, without being stifled by the fact that one lost battle will end whole championship and make you wait 30 days before you can try again. [h2]Quests System Ready For Voice Acting[/h2] Quest system in the game is now ready for implementing voice acting. We will try our best to get the recordings done by Early Access but we can’t promise anything. Since too many factors and people are involved and very little time is left. If we do release Early Access without voice acting, do not worry, they are coming very soon in one of the first updates. We’ll keep you informed how this goes. For now here is the video of how the characters will sound. We’d love to hear your thoughts about voice acting. [previewyoutube=QLQYzZtZqbc;full][/previewyoutube] [h2]Various[/h2] [list] [*] Universal items: Tusk Shield and Knockout Gloves are added to the game. [*] Once two minutes of battle runs out, all gladiators will get “Taking Too Long” that is damaging them similarly like getting Burning buff on them. This is a system that is made for ending battles that can’t end on their own (situations with too many healers and tanks, or a situation where Knight chases Archer in a circle indefinitely). [*] All undead units have “Undead” buff. Signifying that they can not be brought back to life as undead again by Necromancer. [*] Bosses have “Boss” quirks. Marking them as dangerous units, and also explaining that they can’t be knocked down by gladiators. [*] Now whenever you get back to the map menu, the game automatically pauses, letting you figure out what you want to do next. Problem before was that if you had Fast Speed setting on, entered a battle, and then went back to the map menu screen, a few days would fly by before you see what is happening. [/list] [h2]Game Polish[/h2] [list] [*] Slider for battle speed now shows exact percentage of game speed while you’re sliding it. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/36651033/614d686703146a792fa37ce49176dd56a52cb20e.gif[/img] [*] Once you have enough resources to update a building in the guild, a green arrow shows up. [*] New frozen effect is added. [*] If gladiators priority points are changed there is a warning when you roll over gladiator or their icon. [*] Once you use a gladiator upgrade point on some stat, it used to automatically push you back to the first ability of the gladiator. Now the panel stays at the ability you’re currently looking at. This is useful for seeing how much the stat affected this ability. [*] When rolling over a weather icon during battle now you can see what that weather does to gladiators. Before you could only see this in the map menu screen. It’s also very important because some arenas like Ancient Temple are not affected by weather but have their own unique Aura buff instead. And before you wouldn’t know what the buff does, until you start the battle. [*] Ray casting lines for abilities used to be static. Gladiators would only add them once when they choose an enemy and if the enemy moves the line would stay in its original position. Now lines follow both your and enemy gladiator. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/36651033/0b4c48b680f2fb31b29c6eec147b0774e8fcf99f.gif[/img] [*] Other small fixes and polishes. [/list] [h2]Bug Fixes[/h2] [list] [*] Each time you open a quest panel, enemy gladiators would be created from scratch. Making their stats and quirks different as they were not saved with quests. Now this is fixed and can’t be abused. [*] You used to be able to sell item rewards right from the quest panels (Items that you didn’t even earn yet). Now fixed. [*] Tavern building had a weird bug showing gladiators earn -2400% XP. Now fixed. [*] Various minor bugs all over the interface are fixed. [*] Few level editor bugs fixed. [/list] [h1]Plans For Remaining Updates Before Early Access[/h1] [list] [*] Localizing game for all languages we had in Prologue version of the game. [*] New types of battles where you have certain amount of seconds to win, or to survive in order to win. We’ll use these both in quests and new Ring of Death modes. [*] Adding new units. Few gladiators, a bit more enemy type units, and two new bosses. [*] Improve enemy team formations. Right now some teams are way to easy to defeat because of the randomness that doesn't always create very good teams. [*] Updating current quests and adding new ones. Hopefully with voice acting if all our voice actors manage to record everything in time before Early Access. If not, it will come in one of the first Early Access patches. [*] Options. Adding basic options that every game needs like resolution, vsync, graphic quality, and more. [*] Polish things up a bit with new sounds effects and few graphical improvements. [*] In game tutorial [*] Updated start game screen where you can select more difficulty modes, as well as enable time limit if you want additional challenge. [*] Meta progress. Hopefully we’ll manage to implement this into the game as well by the time of Early Access release. Once you finish the game, you will unlock new quirks, items or even gladiators for the next playthrough. The value of reward will increase as you increase the difficulty setting. [/list] After Early Access is released we are planing to keep adding a lot of new content and features in the game. Main thing is to adding 6 more championship arenas. Each bringing new gladiators, quests, enemies, items and quirks. But we also intent to extend guild features. At the moment only non-gladiator building is Temple of Revival. But we want to add more buildings that will affect the way you play. Like training areas where you can level up or even learn gladiators new quirks. And more. Option to learn gladiators new abilities as they level up. We’re considering even additional different game modes at some point. Of course, we’re a small team and it will take time to get all this into the game. Also we’ll carefully listen to your feedback like we did so far and focus on things you guys want the most. So this list might change as we get lots of new feedback once the Early Access is out. So far your feedback made the game incomparably better, and we’ll keep the trend and work together with you guys to shape the game into the best version possible. [h2]Early Access is Almost Here![/h2] Thank you for reading and following the development of our game! We are super excited to release Early Access on Steam in the middle of October! If you haven’t already, we encourage you to join our [url=https://discord.gg/J7Ja2cK]Discord Community[/url] and chat with us, as we are finishing the last features before releasing the Early Access on Steam!