Gore


• Blood on enemies! enemies now show visible damage when you hit them!
  
• Blood on weapons:
  
  
  
  • Katana
    
  • Knife
    
  • Mace
    
  • Kopis
    
  • Celtic - v2
    
  • Barbarian v2
    
  • Knife v2
    
  • Skeleton 1h
    
  • Skeleton 2h
    
  • Minotaur mace
    
  
  
• Blood fountain on behead
  
• More dismember points (Part 2)
  
  
  
  • Legionary right hand
    
  • Sword Master right hand
    
  
  

  AI

  
  
• New unit! Siberian tiger - It's bigger and 30% stronger than regular tigers.
  
• Increased archer's draw arrow volume
  

  Body physics

  
  
• Twitching improved: It is not completely fixed yet, but is not as bad as it was :) The final fix will come with the physics grip.
  
• More realistic ragdoll movements for gladiators, legionaries, and sword masters
  
• Legionary shield hitboxes improved
  
• Legionary hit animation fixed
  
• Sword master lower leg changed to body instead of armor for consistency
  

  Arena survival improvements

  
  
• Enemies now come out of the gates!
  
• Increased number of enemies per round
  
• Added anti-cheesing systems to the gates
  

  Gameplay improvements

  
  
• Stronger controller vibration on hit
  
• Archers now spawn the new bow when they die instead of the old one
  
• Spawned Weapons are removed from the floor. You can choose how fast in the options menu (fast(10s), slow-default (30s), never.)
  
• Moved starting poing away from the table
  

  Fixes

  
  
• Realistic animations checkbox in the options menu not initialized correctly
  
• Fixed Sword master helmet changing texture after dismemberment
  
• Fixed items in back belt disappearing when changing levels
  
• Fixed dismembered enemies main capsule still generating hit events after death
  
• Archer and gladiator would lose all blood after dismemberment
  
• Spawned bows would disappear even if player grabbed them
  

Parrying Improved!


• Parrying is now much more reliable against all enemies. I have not finished on this front, but the new collision detection system detects fast movements much better than before. Please let me know if you still have issues.
  
  

  New options

  
  
• Sound volume sliders for crowd and music. Now you can play your favorite music while slaying enemies in the arena! :)
  
• Realistic flag: I added an option that removes over-the-top animations for those of you that prefer a more realistic combat experience.
  
• Added trackpad sprint tips in the options menu and start menu.
  
• Trackpad speed is set to maximum by default.
  
• New trackpad movement options: You can now choose between movement following controller (default) or your head
  
  

  Gore

  
  
• Added blood to kopis and celtic swords (not final versions)
  
  

  Gameplay

  
  
• Oculus Rift Trackpad: you can now sprint pressing the X button
  
• Trackpad orientation only looks at Z axis. This will make trackpad move faster more reliably
  
• Legionaries now randomly appear without shield to make combat with them more varied.
  
• Hits on horses will stop the boos so you can focus on flipping the chariot :)
  
• Disabled hotswap if hand does not overlap weapon - this created undesired hot-swaps during combat.
  
• Added anti-cheesing system to arena survival - If you stay at the gates the people will boo and throw stones at you.
  
• Survival arena enemies are spawned looking at the player
  
  

  AI

  
  
• Added blending time of 0.3s from blocking with shield to attacking to ease transitions
  
• Reduced tiger and lion hit cooldown
  
• Improved blending animations for Gladiator, Legionaries, SM, Archers, Barbarians
  
• Enemy sword only deals damage if speed > 400. This solves some undesired hits while the enemy was retreating
  
• Gladiators, Legionaries, SwordMasters, Barbarians and Skeletons do not glide back after a successful attack
  
• Archers
  
  
  
  • They now switch to sword combat modality at close range.
    
  • Attack cooldown depends on distance. The closer you are the faster they fire.
    
  • Fixed archer not attacking if close enough.
    
  • Fixed archers in chariots not firing.
    
  
  
• Sword master
  
  
  
  • Fixed sword master "moonwalking".
    
  • Fixed sword master jump attack, now it jumps over you.
    
  • Adjusted low attacks to aim a bit higher.
    
  
  
• Skeletons
  
  
  
  • Skeletons now come out of the ground
    
  • Fixed Skeleton sword position
    
  • Reduced Skeleton animations speed to 0.9
    
  
  
• Mummies in Day 2 now spawn from sarcophagus
  
  

  Fixes

  
  
• Fixed retrieving items from the belt in sticky mode. The item was not locking correctly to the hand
  
• Fixed the long sword rotation in gladiators.
  
• Fixed bug that would make the character eat the helmet if it was hot-swapped with a weapon.
  
• Fixed Shield3 and Spartan hand attachment positions.
  
• Fixed Shields highlighting when hitting other weapons on the floor - Now weapons only highlight if your hand is overlapping them.
  
• Optimized performance of belt items. They don't launch overlap events anymore.
  

Gore


• Blood on weapons! There are now two levels of blood. First level is added after the first hit, second level is added after 4 hits. Stabbing the enemy sets the blood automatically to level 2. Weapons with blood (part 1):
  
  
  
  • Gladius
    
  • Gladius2
    
  • Long Sword
    
  • Spartan
    
  • Barbarian
    
  • Mace
    
  
  
• Enemies and player leave blood on the floor when hit
  
• Archer leaves blood on the floor when dying
  
• Added extra blood when red hit (fast movement)
  
• More dismemberment points (Part 1)
  
  
  
  • Gladiator: Full Right arm (cut point at the shoulder)
    
  • Gladiator: Full Left arm (cut point at the shoulder)
    
  • Gladiator: Right hand (cut point at the wrist)
    
  
  
  

  AI Improvements

  
  
• Skeletons with Shield now dynamically block attacks like the gladiator.
  
• Enemies will stop their attack if you block their arm. Before they would continue the attack and hit you.
  
• Kicks now do 35% of the sword damage.
  
• Legionaries maintain a bigger space between each other.
  
  

  GamePlay Improvements

  
  
• Vibration on movement: controllers now vibrate proportionally to speed. You can deactivate this option in the menu if you want to save battery.
  
• You can now eat food just pressing trigger when you already have a weapon attached and the food is highlighted.
  
• New weapon! Knive. You can now take it to the arena. It deals 45 damage (compared to 30 gladius)
  
• Time stop duration for hero increased to 1.5s
  
• Lightened up the area around the weapon racks a bit
  
• Spawn rate Minotaur limited to 5 enemies.
  
• Archers are slower when running back in hero difficulty.
  
• No money is substracted anymore if the end score in the Games or the arena is negative.
  
• Crowd now cheers if they hit you and resets the boo counter.
  
• Boos in day 3 stages 1 and 2 will start after 30s nothing happens. The standard for the rest of the game is 15s.
  
• Flipped the shields in the market so they face up.
  
• Removed line traces for shields (should improve performance a bit)
  
  

  Fixes

  
  
• Fixed Weapon Hotswap.
  
• Fixed hand position (open/closed) after eating food.
  
• Fixed Weapons appearing in the middle of the armory after comming back from the games or training.
  
• Fixed position of the gladiator bracelet.
  
• Fixed error that would not allow to move in the Market if the player came from Day 3.
  
• Fixed gladiator walking on the edge of the wall in day 3.
  
• Fixed Archer and Mummies not registering correctly how they died (stab,behead, etc.).
  
• Velocity of the weapon now considers players velocity (specially important with trackpad movement).
  
• Fixed Barbarians stabbing transform in the abdomen.
  
• Fixed food going through floor sometimes.
  

Q2 2017 (April-June): Refine gameplay

1. Gore

   
   Blood on weapons based on hits (In Progress)
   More dismemberment points (shoulders, wrists, hips). This will also make dismemberment more frequent. (In Progress)
   Visible damage on enemies. Doing this in a realistic way is hard, so it might take some time.
   

2. Hitboxes and armor

   
   Wearable armor (helmets and shields): They will break after certain number of hits and will offer protection.
   Fix remaining hit box glitches
   

3. Combat mechanics

   
   Weapon vibration on movement (In Progress)
   Sword Throwing (In Progress)
   Taunting
   Grabbing (In Progress)
   KO, enemies to go ragdoll after some hits, and get up.
   Realistic weight balance: being able to throw the enemy off balance.
   

4. Physics

   
   Physics grip: weapons not going through shields and swords (In Progress)
   Fixing flying characters and weird ragdoll movements
   

5. AI

   
   Better group fight
   AI Parring
   Better animations: mostly AI state transitions, and animals turning around.
   

6. New weapons and game modalities

   
   Double handed weapons (halberds, spears, etc.)
   Net and fork
   Arena Challenge mode
   

7. General polish

   
   Starting the games via gates
   Better Sounds
   Crowd
   Better bullet time visual effect
   Tutorial
   

Q3 2017 (July-September): Finish content

1. The games

   
   Day 4 - Naval Battle: Will feature boats and ballistas. I already started this one, so depending on the progress of the Q2 items I will try to release it earlier (In Progress)
   Day 5 - Siege of Carthage: Attack a fortress using catapults, climb the walls, and conquer it.
   Day 6 - Maze: This will be more of a puzzle game that you have to solve to get out, with fantastic creatures that try to kill you before you do it.
   Day 7 - Mount Olympus: Final battle where you will have to protect the gladiatrice against all kinds of enemies.
   

2. RPG

   
   Weapon upgrade and customization system
   Cells for gladiators
   

3. Steam Achievements

   
   

Q4 2017 (October - December): Multiplayer

1. Multiplayer

   
   Lobby
   Spectator mode
   Coop mode
   

AI Improvements


• AI is more aggressive now, and their aggressiveness depends on the difficulty level. They will attack if you parry or hit their shields.
  
• Increased responsiveness, the AI now always faces the player, and is faster detecting your movements.
  
• Enemies stop after re-positioning a number of seconds depending on difficulty.
  
• Gladiators and legionaries dynamically cover attacks with the shield following your movements. I will be applying the same system to the rest in the coming days.
  
• The new blocking system only activates within 280cm, and blocking speed depends on shield size. E.g. Legionaries block slower than gladiators due to shield size.
  
• AI attacks if player is within acceptance radius and AI is circling
  
  

  New Bow

  
  
• It has a longer draw distance, a faster arrow and new sounds. This was one of the main requests during the testing of Day 3 and was requested also by several people in the forum. It's now the default bow in Day 3. Let me know what you think!
  
  

  New Grip Mode - Lock

  
  
• I recovered the old lock system and added it as a new option (default for new players) but now the combination to unlock is trigger+grip which is easier and does not conflict with trackpad movement. Some players were frustrated with the sticky mode because it was easy to lose the weapon in the middle of the combat if you accidentally pressed the grip.
  
  

  New sounds

  
  
• I replaced the old sound when hitting the shield for a more realistic set of sounds. Special thanks here to Turbatus that provided the basis for them. Thank you!!! :)
  
  

  General Improvements

  
  
• Max Trackpad Speed reduced to 1/4 of current value. The current max speed was not realistic for walking.
  
• Trackpad energy consumption only applies to sprint and amount depends on difficulty.
  
• Crowd given a bit of 3d depth, mostly noticeable in the arena
  
• Added difficulty setting in training mode so you can train against any difficulty. This is specially relevant now that AI behaves differently in all levels.
  
• Weapons are disabled for 0.11s after hitting an enemy shield, this improves shield protection for enemies.
  
• Modified collision box for long sword so is better detected by the engine
  
• Trackpad sprint is activated by double click in trackpad no matter the direction. This allows to sprint backwards when running away from the enemy
  
• Minotaur now has a fury mode, if you hit him more than 4 in 2 seconds he will not play the hit animation and will counter attack instead
  
• Chaperone (spears on the floor) is activated by default for new players. I highly recommend to everyone and to leave it always on :)
  
• Improved shield hitbox for gladiators, skeletons, and legionaries
  
• Skeleton acceptance radius reduced to 120, like gladiators.
  
• Stats and leaderboard are disabled (no score is sent) if debug mode is on.
  
  

  Fixes

  
  
• Fixed axe1 damage, transform position, and not being brought in the game
  
• Fixed Parma shield position
  
• Fixed teleporting hitting objects on the floor on arrival.
  
• Fixed shield bashing
  
• Fixed skeleton getting too close when attacking
  
• Fixed Tigers doing insta-kill
  
• Fixed error that would instantly kill any enemy with one hit
  
• Fixed Legionary distance reduced to 120, like gladiators
  
• Fixed Legionary shield position and orientation so it does not overlap
  
• Removed shield sound when hitting gladiator and sword master bracelet
  
• Fixed bow strange behavior in hold mode when releasing the trigger with the hand holding the bow and an arrow clipped
  
• Fixed the lock icons for belt and storage items
  
• Fixed dying in the armory, you can now die and re-spawn next to the table
  
• Fixed sparks on the ground in level 3
  

• Fixed sounds when pressing the track pad button (It was really annoying if you used track pad movement... sorry! :)
  
• Fixed shield1 attach position for the left hand
  
• Fixed time alive not counting the whole day, only the last stage, which resulted in lower overall score in The Games.
  

• Simplified sticky mode controls:

  
  
  
  
  • Press one time to grab a weapon.
    
  • Press again to release it. You can throw your weapon maintaining the grip pressed and releasing it when you throw it.
    
  • No more trackpad button to lock/unlock!
    
  
  

• Reduced enemy safe distance from 170 to 120

  This will make it much easier to play in smaller areas without smashing the controllers to the walls :) But you will find that the AI is not reactive enough at close distance (yet). I'm working on several improvements to fix this.
  
• Trackpad movement now drains energy to be consistent with teleport, which drains energy when you move.
  
• You can now eat food without droping the weapon! Just press trigger when the food is highlighted.
  
• Modified Legionary Shield so it behaves better when hit
  
• Updated help with the new controls
  

New Arena survival game!


• Bring your own weapons to the new arena and endure random waves of enemies until you die :)
  
• You will notice the enemies are a bit weaker, it is intentional as I'm looking for a faster game pace in this modality.
  
• I also added leader boards for the arena mode in the lobby.
  
  

  Gameplay improvements

  
  
• Punching allowed! You can now punch enemies with your fist for a 8 points damage (for reference, a gladius does 25)
  
• Simplified Stab mechanics: just stab and press trigger! (or release the trigger if in hold mode)
  
• Enemies will now drop their weapons when killed with a probability of 33% for a regular kill or stabbed, and 100% if beheaded, or cut limb
  
• Acceptance radius reduced from 180 to 170 for gladiators, 235 to 180 for sword master. I'm still balancing the distance, so please if you have any comments let me know!
  
• Reduced animation speed from 1.0 to 0.8 on some gladiators to make parring a bit easier.
  
• Added storage items in the lobby, capacity for 10 items. Extra weapons will be spawned on the floor. The storage item works exactly like the belt, to store or retrieve an item just press trigger inside the red sphere.
  
• Added a tip to explain that points are accumulated in The Games if you continue to the next day without returning to the lobby.
  
• Adjusted money paper to a bigger font.
  
  

  Grip modes

  Added the possibility of having different grip modes:
  
• Sticky: The current one and selected by default. I'm thinking in further simplify this one though, so pressing grip will attach the weapon, and pressing it again will release it (no more trackpad combination). What do you think?
  
• Hold: New grip mode that will only hold the weapon in your hand while you press trigger or grip
  
  

  Barbarian level improvements

  
  
• Spawn points adjusted so enemies are spawned only at the sides
  
• Fixed one of the Barbarian attacks not aiming to the player
  
• Restored health of friendlies in the third round to make sure they survive long enough during the battle with the Barbarians
  
• Quivers and bows are now fixed using lockers so they are not lost if you hit them. This also makes more difficult to grab the quiver instead of the arrow.
  
• Added archer dismemberment sounds
  
  

  3 New weapons

  
  
• Greek hoplite axes available in the market!
  
  

  Fixes

  
  
• Fixed an error that would only allow buying 1 item at the same time in the market
  
• Fixed error that would attach a released weapon to the empty hand if the trigger or grip on that hand where pressed
  
• Fixed belt items not saving on exit.
  
• Fixed total stats not being saved
  
• Trackpad no longer allows to go closer than safe distance against enemies (like teleport)
  
• Fixed an error that would mark a level completed in lower difficulty if was completed in a lower difficulty even if it was previously completed in a higher difficulty
  
• Fixed several bugs in how stats were reset after player died
  
• Fixed Viking helmet double sided texture
  
  

  Updated game to UE4 4.15

  
  
• This fixes framerate in the lobby for HTC Vive
  

• New animated hands

  Also removed the option to show or hide hands since grabbing will be an important component of the game.
  

• Grabbing enemies (Experimental)

  Added a new feature to grab enemies and throw them away, that will be very handy in the next level :) Known issues:
  
  
  
  • Enemies get back to normal position after 1s after you release them no matter what.
    
  • No animation to get back up
    
  • Legionaries have a weird behavior depending on where you grab them (no, not there XD)
    
  • You can not grab the foot yet, just grab the ankle
    
  • Not possible to grab while in slowmo (I think I'm going to leave it like this, in general slowmo screws physics really bad)
    
  
  

• Officially Oculus Rift compatible

  I've modified the last pending items to be 100% compatible: help menu, the hands orientation and attach positions for main weapons.
  

• Barbarian Level:

  
  
  
  
  • Horses can now be killed! they will roll under the chariot and flip it. (horses have 300hp, so two head shots are needed)
    
  • Num enemies not matched in easy
    
  • Locomotion would be allowed even without breaking the stone
    
  • Added wheel protection to make sure the weapon is put in the wheel at the right time
    
  
  
• Katana is now unlocked by completing the Barbarian level in hard difficulty, instead of completing day 2.
  
• Made AI a bit faster (removed some waiting times)
  
• Fixes:
  
  
  
  • Crowd cheers and boos not reseting after player died
    
  • Levels became locked with debug option active
    
  • Added barbarian soldier and archer as random enemies in training
    
  • Names of upcomming levels fixed
    
  • Attach/dettach to belt left the hands in incorrect locked positions
    
  • Made arrows easier to grab from the quiver when is attached to the back
    
  • Fixed arrows rebounding against enemies (specially against archers)
    
  • Fixed trackpad locomotion collisions. No longer possible to go through walls and gates
    
  • Fixed blood appearing in the center of the arena when a chariot was hit by another chariot.
    
  • Fixed controller rotation for trackpad movement in left handed set up.
    
  
  

• 2 New levels!

  
  
  
  
  • Barbarian Invasion is now available in “The Games” so you can play and give feedback. Will be automatically unlocked once you complete the Underworld level. This is just the first pass, so please let me know what you think!
    
  • Market! It is not finished yet, but you can already go and buy stuff there. How it works is very simple, whenever you buy something at the market, the stuff will appear in the lobby every time you go there. For now the stuff is just spawned on the floor next to you, but i plan to add the possibility to buy a cell and shelves to store stuff soon.
    
  
  

• 4 new units:

  
  
  
  
  • Barbarians: Slow moving with long swords and high damage per hit.
    
  • Archers: Lightweight units but deal 20 per hit and have high accuracy.
    
  • Chariots: Will kill everything that stays in their way. Only way to kill them is to kill the archer driving them or to put a weapon between their wheels.
    
  • Gladiators with no shields: They will appear with the following probability: 20% in hard, 30% in normal, and 50% in easy.
    
  
  

• Bow improvements:

  
  
  
  
  • Modified aiming system to work more like Quivr (two handed).
    
  • Added trail to flying arrows.
    
  • Added a quiver, no more unlimited ammo! You can attach the quiver to the belt or to your back. If attached to the back be careful to press the trigger high enough or you will detach the quiver instead of grabbing a new arrow.
    
  • Added more sound effects.
    
  • Arrows will now break arrow if they collide against a shield or sword .
    
  • Arrows now will stick to enemies if hit.
    
  • Added a quiver in the lobby.
    
  
  

• New archery training mode

  With lots of pottery to break! :)
  
• Training modalities in the Training menu are now buttons to make it more user friendly
  

• AI improvements:

  
  
  
  
  • Included anti-wiggling behavior: now enemies will not launch an attack if the player is moving the sword and they will wait instead.
    
  • Tigers will jump back if hit, this makes them harder to kill as they will not wait there to be slaughtered anymore.
    
  • Crowd will boo at you if your head is lower than 4 feet (120cm) for more than 3 seconds, and after 5 seconds they will start throwing stones at you. This will remove the exploit of sitting on the floor to kill enemies.
    
  • Fixed AI getting lost sometimes and not attacking for several seconds
    
  • Improved gladiator attacks to be more accurate
    
  
  

• New weapons!

  
  
  
  
  • 5 New Swords and Shields: Added two new swords (Spatha and Gladius 3), and three new shields (Scutum, Cetratus and Parma). These can only be bougth at the market.
    
  • New weapon type: Flail (beta!): Available to buy at the market of course :)
    
  
  

• Armor

  Helmets now offer protection. When you put on the helmet an additional bar will appear on top of your health bar to show the armor level. I will include body armor and bracelets in the upcoming releases.
  

• Gameplay:

  
  
  
  
  • Increased force feedback effect when hitting enemies
    
  • Minotaur acceptance teleport radius reduced to 180 from 240, like a gladiator
    
  • Increased the animation speed of easy so it feels more natural
    
  • Enemies will stay closer to player (fallback distance from 400 to 300).
    
  • No longer possible to teleport inside the lion pit to cheese the arena
    
  • Mace damage reduced from 70 to 30
    
  
  
• Improved main menu look and feel
  
• Added initial menu in the lobby to make easier the start for new players and show the latest updates
  
• Added dead bodies disappear time option: fast (default), slow and never. Beware that modifying this option can affect the performance as more bodies will be rendered on the screen, just try it and see what works for you, but with a GTX 970 (min specs) is best to leave it as fast.
  
• Fixes:
  
  
  
  • Fixed Shield orientation of one of the shields in the lobby.
    
  • Fixed food not being removed from the arena floor when the player died
    
  • Fixed arrow in the hand not spawning correctly when changing levels.
    
  • Fixed impaled arrows not disappearing after enemy disappeared.
    
  • Fixed Right Hand to be the main hand by default
    
  • Fixed all levels locked in debug mode, now the first one is always unlocked
    
  • Fixed bug that would send the player to lobby in Days 2 and 3
    
  • Fixed music from Day2 overlapping with Day3