"This path was never going to be easy, my friends. Look around you. Sand as far as the eye can see. Three weeks straight in the blasted deserts of T'Kash but not one of you has abandoned your fellow knight. Take courage, for over the next dune lies the blessed oasis of Taj Brandhir. There we may quench our burning thirsts and rest our weary souls in the cool glades. Now, pick up the backpack of the soldier next you and carry it. Offer the man to your right the rest of your waterskin. We shall get there ... together." - Sir Belgrave of Drakondier.
Hey everyone! Patch v1.0.5 has arrived! Not as big a patch as the other patches, but more an accumulation of all the hotfixes I've done over the last week or two to improve and balance the game. Enjoy!
Balances and Improvements
Antares stats have now been buffed to make him a tougher end game boss
Antares and Arglaxx now appear larger than other crusaders on the battlefield
Antares' army no longer needs to be paid ( being undead and all ) - this gives his army a significant advantage.
Nerfed the supercolossi wandering monsters health by -500
All Crusaders return to their home castles after tournaments now.
In Conquer the Realm mode, I replaced the little-used 'Permadeath' option with 'Large Starting Areas ON/OFF' to toggle whether Crusaders of higher ranks start with more than one province.
Added the ability to turn leader powers on or off for quick battles
C5 M3 Wolfgang now start with 70 instead of 40 archers, and they are upgraded to make this mission fairer for new players
Leader icons now only 'circle/shake' in auto battle if the two leaders are close to each other - was too confusing before.
Enemy armies now have a chance of completely fleeing the battle if they feel things aren't going in their favour
Enemy soldiers are more likely to break when morale is low
Bugfixes
Fixed a bug where enemy leaders attacking castles would be defeated but still appear in your castle
Added a failsafe where if one army is 'stuck' during combat (eg one or two troops standing there frozen in terror), after a certain amount of time their army will flee the battle. This should happen after about 15 seconds or so.
Fixed a bug where pressing ESC during the game cinematic would break the game
Leaders no longer die from one boulder hit in sieges
Visual - made the wooden platform crusaders stand on in castles larger
Fixed a bug where sometimes clouds did not move in the overworld map
Fixed a bug where colossus fights went on forever
Fixed bug where campaign army would be drawn into battles they weren't supposed to be part of.
Fixed a bug where province highlights appeared off-center in certain resolutions
Fixed a visual bug where the wrong garrison troop picture appeared upon a lost battle
Fixed an exploit where sometimes you could double click on dig and get two results.
Fixed a bug where after garrison battles, your campaign army could be lost
Fixed a bug on C7 M3 where the mission would sometimes freeze if you won all colossus battles
Fixed a bug in C7 M5 where HeChaos would successfully complete the mission raising less than the required 80 soldiers.
Fixed a visual bug where Antares stats were in the wrong place in battle
Fixed a visual bug where too many 'fleeing clouds' and screams could be heard sometimes when an army morale broke
Other small misc bugfixes I have forgotten to mention here! :)
Patch 1.0.4 is live
"So your feet hurt. So you are cold. So you miss your home. So, I say to you, go home! I only need those who yearn for hardships, those who yearn to overcome them. They shall stand beside me on the battlefield and enjoy the sweet mead of victory." - Bors the Mighty of Warmhaven.
Patch 1.0.4 isn't as big as the earlier patches but still has some handy improvements, balances and bugfixes to the game - most importantly, I think I've found a solution to the game stalling after sieges ( where it goes to the black screen) ... do let me know if you still encounter this!
Thanks for your patience while I work to improve and stabilize the game. This is one of the more complicated beasts I've worked on and it's been a real challenge to iron out all the bugs just because there are so many situations that can arise in the course of a long strategic campaign.
As always, if you find any issues, hit me up here or on Discord and I'll try and fix them.
Cheers, Oliver Joyce Whiskeybarrel Studios
Balance Tweaks + New Features
Rebalanced auto battles to make them fairer. Armies can now flee autobattles and lose, but still keep remaining troops.
Troops from armies with low morale more likely to break
You now gain 1 GOLDEN SANDAL for taking an enemy's castle (nothing for Auto battle victories).
You now gain 3 GOLDEN SANDALS for defeating wandering monsters.
You can now click BACK when selecting ranged troops in battle
You can now down enemy leaders with arrow fire in the castle phase of a siege. This will win you that phase (gaining entry to the castle), though the leader will return to fight in the courtyard.
Enemy leader health is now visible during the siege phase of battle
Enemy leaders always appear in the courtyard phase of battle when defending a castle
Enemy leaders now upgrade their boulders slowly (unless in Quick Battle )
Removed the retreat option from the defending army during sieges
Enemy leaders no longer have random powers (spells) in Quick Battle or Survival modes, only their starting ones.
Enemy leaders in Quick Battle and Survival modes powers will scale with their level ( 1 power level per 5 crusader levels )
Antares' morale now shows as IMMUNE on the battle scroll.
Wandering monsters (supercolossi) stats have been nerfed so they are a little easier to defeat.
Doubled the damage heavy troops do when ramming walls
Bugfixes
Fixed a major bug where sieges would fade to black and not continue with the game
Fixed a bug where debris textures from battle stayed on screen after the battle ended.
Fixed a bug where enemies you had declared war on stayed allied to you
Fixed a bug where you could not buy more than 98 soldiers if you had a colossus.
Some small memory optimizations - more work to come on this in future patches.
Fixed a bug where fleeing soldiers did not return to the army after the battle.
Fixed a graphical glitch where ladders appeared behind the castle's main wall
Fixed a bug where players with wizards beside them in battle had 2 powers to use, not 3
Fixed a bug where characters stats continued from campaign to conquer the realm mode
Fixed a bug where the player got a free move after picking up a collectable item ( chest/adventure/troops etc)
Fixed a bug where wandering monster quests would not respawn after a tournament /battle
Patch 1.0.3 is live
"Fair? Don't talk to me about what's fair! I'm the one wrestling with an actual, fire and brimstone daemon who wants to consume my soul every damn day - and don't say that's your own fault even if it is!!!! Just keep marching, you fools! All you legionnaires have to do is put your spears forward and shut the hell up and I pay you generously! Most weeks, anyway!" - HeChaos of Eddengarth
Hey my friends! Work continues on improvements to and bugfixes for Swords and Sandals Crusader Redux. Thanks as always to the tireless bughunting efforts of the community on Discord, particularly Admiral Billy and Eldegoss. This patch adds a bunch of balance tweaks and patches to the game that I hope make the game a more playable experience ( as well as new achievements to strive for).
As always, if you find any issues, hit me up here or on Discord and I'll try and fix them.
Cheers, Oliver Joyce Whiskeybarrel Studios
Balance Tweaks + New Features
Added skill point stats to leader panels during combat
You can now select starting levels in Conquer the Realm up to 46-50 range ( Rank X ) making for epic and brutal battles.
You can now select the rate at which leaders gain XP in Conquer the Realm mode ( from slow to very fast )
Wandering Monsters are always ON in conquer the realm now.
Maxxed leader skills at 25 for late game balance reasons.
Lowered the gold you get once you learn all powers to 10 gold per level.
Troops raised in battle using RAISE DEAD now return to the grave at the end of the battle ( eg they don't continue on the campaign with you, or the next survival round etc)
You now sell troops for half their original unit price.
Made Call Critters have a higher chance of hitting foes (but lower damage)
Changed Mass Healing so it starts off at 25% and goes up 25% per level
Troop reinforcements in Survival mode give 10 troops, not 20
Added a 'Retreat' button to Survival mode so you can end the mode quickly if things aren't going in your favour
Also added a 'Retreat' option to sieges (for everyone except Antares, who may never retreat.)
Reduced the maximum strength of castle walls to 50 + (5 per character level)
Increased the cost of upgrading boulders for catapults
Increased the rate at which enemy leaders add troops to garrisons
Added extra inspiration quotes up to level 50
Leaders levels in quick battle now go from 1 through 10
Leaders now go up 10 levels, 1 spell power and gain 5 skill points when levelling up in Survival mode
Slightly redesigned the provinces info panel
Added some new Steam achievements
Bugfixes
Fixed a bug where colossi could get one shot killed while defending sieges
Fixed a bug your colossus could be killed during a dig or on a random adventure ( which would sometimes freeze the game)
Fixed a bug where changing the map from redux to classic glitched the graphics out
Fixed a bug where battles would freeze during sieges when the enemy ran out of siege options.
Fixed a bug where colossi had more than 10 health in duels
Fixed a bug where you earned gold instead of skills when levelling up (this should only happen once you have maxxed out all your skills
Fixed a bug (exploit) where you could buy troops, upgrade them and sell them back for a profit
Fixed a 'null' string in Survival congratulations screen
Fixed a bug where finding new soldiers during adventures would replace your current ones ( eg you might find 15 new light troops that replaced your cavalry.)
Fixed a bug where leader's info text panels in battle showed only their bonus skill stats and not the full total
Fixed a bug where enemy leaders don't upgrade their boulders fast enough
