Hey guys! Here is the newest progress of the game. We gathered your feedback from the last big closed beta update and from people following the development. Our main goal right now is to make the gameplay loop more fun, engaging, and with more things to play with. Join our [url=https://discord.gg/J7Ja2cK]Discord Server[/url] to follow development more closely, talk with us and share your thoughts with the community. [h1]Here’s what’s new in v0.600:[/h1] [h2]New Timeline[/h2] Timelines now consist of a full month with 30 days included, instead of 10. Throughout the month, the timeline will move to the left, displaying info about things that are coming your way. Those include: gladiator/shop updates, shop discounts, current weather and upcoming weather, when you will have to pay your gladiator’s wages and when the championship is going to happen. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/36651033/ba858df8286426fae74247b8a8dfee887ad62223.gif[/img] Gladiator wages are always at day 30 and are paid automatically (if you don’t have enough gold, the gold will go into negative value, but you will not lose your gladiators). On the bottom right corner of the screen you’ll see text indicating how much gold was spent on gladiator wages. Championships are always held on the first day of each month. The activities you do throughout the month serve to prepare you for the most important part of progressing in the game: winning the championship. There is now a weather system that affects gladiators in combat. This provides more strategy, as you know which gladiators are less effective during which weather so you can prepare accordingly. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/36651033/94f44450d57edff06c966ab3a8f4c176390e794f.gif[/img] Weather changes affect most arenas. But there are arenas like Ancient Temple or Hollow Mountain that always have the same weather buff so you know what to expect there. From time to time a gladiator or item shop discount will appear on the timeline and you’ll be able to see how long the discounts last. It will discount random gladiators or items in shop with random discount percentages. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/36651033/ada314a6e55f9d87194668118d45d1d88ce4195f.jpg[/img] [h2]Ring of Death Arena[/h2] [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/36651033/fc402112efb07557765e9be6fb89418525d7a338.jpg[/img] While preparing for championship at start of the next month, between quests you’ll also be able to play the Ring of Death Arena. After playing this arena, it will become available again in 7 days. In this arena you’ll be able to choose 3 different modes: [list] [*][b]Blind fight[/b] Choose your gladiators without seeing the enemy team. [*][b]One VS One[/b] Choose a single gladiator to fight against an enemy champion. [*][b]One VS Many[/b] Choose a single gladiator to fight against many enemies. Another difference here is that enemies can be positioned at any part of the arena and so can your gladiator (no left and right side like in other battles) [/list] Each of these will unlock after finishing one championship. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/36651033/2b10692d8b761db98fa4d8aea3233bd13d707242.jpg[/img] [h2]Gladiator Level Up Points[/h2] Previously, stat points were automatically allocated when gladiators levelled up. From now on, when gladiators level up, you’ll be able to choose which stats you want to put the points in and with that have more control over the progression of your gladiators. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/36651033/2bed5e5770c084aef8588b1df8b28567a81297fa.jpg[/img] You can mouse over gladiator abilities to see how stats affect the calculations of the ability (such as damage, cooldown, etc). We’ll try to explain this in the tutorial once the game is ready for Early Access. (This was already in the game before. It’s just a reminder since we seen people asking what those stats actually do.) [h2]More[/h2] -In the championship, you will only face the types of gladiators that you can hire yourself (or if buildings of those gladiators are available for buying). This feature will shine more once there is a larger pool of gladiators to choose from, making each playthrough more unique. -Small gladiator AI improvement that helps them target enemies who are dealing higher damage. -Some bug fixes, visual improvements and other minor things. [h3]Note:[/h3] Keep in mind, now that the timeline lasts 30 days, if you stay longer on some championships you might run out of quests. This will be solved by adding more of them soon. But you’ll always have the option to play some of the Ring of Death Arena modes each 7 days. And eventually we’ll add even more things to do, to make the gameplay more dynamic, engaging and interesting (You can read about the new features we plan to add below). [h1]Plans For Future Updates[/h1] -Next things we’re planning to focus on is collaboration with local businesses for passive income. There will be a few available businesses, like a small stone mine or woodcutting camp. They will call for your help and you will need to fight several waves of enemies to set them free. After that the local business will give you part of their income, but from time to time they will ask for your protection. You’ll be able to see passive income indicators on the timeline. -Synergy for gladiators with various buffs. Example: Item that makes the gladiator deal 30% higher damage to frozen targets, making this gladiator very efficient if paired with the Cryomancer, who can freeze enemies. And many, many other combinations increasing the tactical possibilities of the game. -First parts of the Main Quest Chains. Also more side quests, so there is higher variety in each playthrough and more things to do while preparing for the upcoming championship. -Expeditions - this feature will probably come a bit later, as it needs a solid amount of work and we have many other things to finish before we get to this. But we started considering it so we want to hear your thoughts about it. The idea is that you’d be able to buy a guild building that lets you use a caravan and send a number of gladiators on an expedition. You’d see a hand drawn map of a dangerous, uninhabited nearby region that you would explore and dwell deeper into. There would be no actual battles to look at. You would only send a couple of gladiators and they would be unavailable for a certain amount of days, depending on how far you sent them. When they return, they would bring the news of what happened. If they were successful, they would bring you some loot and resources. If not, you’ll need to consider sending stronger troops or a higher number of troops to conquer that part of the map. The map would have caves, old buildings/towers occupied by bandits, forests and other locations with valuable loot. Sometimes abandoned, but more often occupied with various enemies that need to be defeated by your caravan party of gladiators. We feel like this would be a pretty fun additional thing to do. Planning which gladiators to send, and when to send them to get the most out of them. That is also different from usual battles so it would add to variety in the gameplay and keep things more engaging. We’d love to hear your thoughts about this idea. If you haven’t already, join us in our [url=https://discord.gg/J7Ja2cK]Discord Community[/url] where you can follow up development more closely or chat with us about the direction that the game is going and help us with your feedback to make the best game that we can! :) Thank you for your patience and all the valuable feedback! We’re working hard on getting the game fun and polished before Early Access, and we’re getting closer and closer.