Swords and Sandals Immortals
V 1.0.3 - The Hit Chance Patch. A game changer for those interested in numbers
This patch is a pretty big one, and will need some testing by all of us haha!
For a long time, people have asked me how hit chances work in the game, and my standard response is, it's just too complicated for me to show you, and you know to be honest, half the time I actually had no idea what was really going on under the hood as it really did get far too complicated to explain even to myself.
Until now. I spent yesterday ( among fixing a ton of other things ) sitting down and documenting all the formulas and modifiers, and making it so they appear in the tooltip. Now what you see on the skill button hit chance is EXACTLY the hit chance you will need to hit your enemy. All the calculations are done and shown for you in the tooltip.
While putting this together, I found a few hit chance things were kind of busted, and a big one - weapon hit chance was not being added to base hit chance , so now dual wielding / two hand penalties properly apply and so on. Like I said, pretty big update for the game but WAY more fair now.
If you don't want all that extra info, you can of course turn it off in the Settings Menu.
There's a lot of other stuff, including a proper fix for the dual wielding unequip ( finally , again... ) and some fixes for possible multiplayer de-sync issues.
With such a big update, no doubt more bugs will arise but I'm right back at the forge ( right after lunch, its 2pm here) and updates / patches will continue through the day and over the next few weeks until the game is in a great place so I can park it until later, (DLC planned for maybe end of year, who knows exactly!)
Thanks so much once again for your feedback, bug hunting and enthusiasm for the game.
Cheers, Oliver Joyce
Whiskeybarrel Studios
V 1.0.3.E (March 13 2023):
--- NEW FEATURES ---
• You now see a small D20 Die next to the defender's name once an attack has been made. This roll shows the number your enemy rolled out of 100 ( if it is LOWER than your attack chance, the attack was successful).
If the attack was defended, the die is blue, if not, the die is red.
• Added a new setting ( ON by default ). "Extra Hit Chance Info"). This adds extra info to tooltips so you can see how the game calculates hit chance for gladiators in combat. This is a big update, not fully tested.
• All gladiators in single player mode gain 100 gold a day (in addition to a star) up to day 300 - this is so if you totally run out of money , have to sell your weapons, you can still eventually buy a new one and return to the action.
--- MULTIPLAYER CHANGES ---
• Fixed a possibly catastrophic de-sync issue where gladiators without a weapon equipped could enter a battle and really mess up the game.
--- BALANCE CHANGES / STAT FIXES ---
• Fixed a bug where Undead Priests never went below the calm spirit level when using Grave Pact
• Fixed a bug where you could challenge a player at the same time you were being challenged, leading to weirdness
• When Wild Magic procs now, it has the potential to increase damage by 50% instead of x2 ( too powerful)
• Improved the stats and changed skills for Emperor Cygnus to make him more of a challenge
--- BATTLE CHANGES / FIXES ---
• Improved Hit Chance calculations for battle buttons to more accurately reflect what's actually going on, taking into account terrain, stat bonuses, enemy debuffs etc
• Hit Chance now properly includes weapon bonuses / penalties correctly
• Fixed a bug where enemy gladiators could use skills in First Blood arenas
• In First Blood Arenas, gladiators now start two lengths apart now (like in multiplayer)
• Potential fix for Arena Champions on higher difficulties not having boosted stats for their first turn
• Fixed a bug where in multiplayer fights vs bots, spirit effects were not randomized
• Improved Spirit Break animation for battle poets so it stands out more as a unique effect - many players have been confused as to why battle poets get positive statuses when broken
• Changed calculations so clubs only do extra damage on armour properly
• Changed calculations so swords only do extra damage on health properly
• Fixed a bug where enemy gladiators using Cure Wounds used your healing stats to heal themselves
• Increased Cure Wounds cooldown to 6 turns
--- MISC FIXES AND CHANGES ---
• FINALLY I think I have a proper fix to the dual wield unequip bug. Fingers crossed.
• Moved Tooltips over to the right side of the screen (left side if you are facing the other way )
• Fixed a bug where the To Hell and Back achievement would not trigger
• Single player gladiators no longer gain XP if losing a battle.
• Reduced Doomtrek Portal entry stars cost by 30%
• Improved Portuguese Brazilian and Chinese translations
• Fixed a bug where Lantern' Jack's head no longer dropped as a reward item
• Cleaned up text on the Settings Screen
• Fixed a bug where spam clicking the save button in the Battle Caravan could crash the game
V 1.0.2.H - Weapon Unequip Bug fixed, de-syncing issue bugfixes + more!
Hey mighty gladiators - this is the first 'full day' patch for the game since launch , as it's Monday and I've been able to spend all day on the game. I still have a list of 20 or more bugs and balancing issues I need to look at ( including making hit chance more transparent etc ) in the days to come, so bear with me.
In this update , a (hopeful) fix for weapon de-syncing. Goodbye to the shank! This has been a problematic item in the game for a long time and so I'm glad to be able to get rid of it. New gladiators now start with a starting weapon like the blackjack or dagger etc. Be aware that if you unequip a weapon, you can't enter an arena (single or multiplayer) and the game will tell you that.
*NOTE* For best results, try unequipping and re-equipping your weapons once in the shop, just so the game remembers them.
A few small fixes for de-syncing in multiplayer, but there's more to do.
Looking forward to getting stuck into it tomorrow and once again improving the game. Thanks for all your feedback. Kinda sucks to get a bunch of negative reviews today, but it is what it is, you can't please all people all the time and not everyone has the patience to learn systems.
Enjoy, let me know what you think!
Cheers, Oliver Joyce
Whiskeybarrel Studios
V 1.0.2.H (March 13 2023):
** FIXED PRE_FIGHT CRASH, apologies for that!
--- NEW FEATURES ---
• Removed the Shank from the game. It is no longer part of the game, was causing too many issues with weapon equipping/unequipping. It is much simpler now. If you do not have a weapon equipped, you may not enter an arena.
• Each class now starts with either a dagger, blackjack, or a cleaver at random. Archers start with a shortbow.
--- MULTIPLAYER CHANGES ---
• Improved multiplayer battles for less de-syncing issues
• All NEW multiplayer gladiators now start with the Yield skill in their battle bar so you can concede fights that drag out forever.
• Fixed an exploit with the nefarious gladiators waiting for guillotines to kill their enemies while on the loss screen.
• You may not enter a lobby room without a weapon equipped ( since the shank is now out of the game)
--- BALANCE CHANGES / STAT FIXES ---
• All shield block power has been halved and maxxes out at +25% (down from 50% defence vs hit chance)
• Increased max hit chance modifiers for stats from 50 to 75 , meaning you can get up to 75% bonus hit chance from any stat, up from 50% max before.
• You can no longer throw weapons while dual wielding
• Command skill now has a 'slow' debuff on your enemies - helpful against fearful, leaping archers
• Holy / Unholy Smite accuracy increased to 80%
• Slightly lowered maximum movement speed per turn for all gladiators.
• Nerfed Acrobatics bonus from 20 % per point to 15%
• Wail's essence reduction amount have been nerfed significantly
• Captivation has been nerfed to 2% per point (down from 4%)
• Taunt Mastery has been nerfed to 8% extra damage per point (down from 12%)
• Forked Tongue has been nerfed to 8% extra damage per point (down from 10%)
--- BATTLE CHANGES / FIXES ---
• Fixed a bug where the game would error out when the Command skill was used
• Fixed a bug where Grave Pact didn't always break the spirit of the Undead who used it
• Fixed a bug where Battle Rage did not trigger critical hits
• Fixed a stalling bug on the Starbound Gladiator fight
--- SHOP FIXES CHANGES ---
• Redid shop weapon equipment system to hopefully fix weapon unequipping bug with dual weapons
• Restored item portrait pic to small item panels on right
--- MISC FIXES AND CHANGES ---
• Gave Bruce the useless a starting magic blackjack (not that he knows how to use it)
• Fixed a silent error sometimes being thrown when using Manual Save button at the battle caravan
• Fixed a bug where the game could crash on completion of Hellscape mode
• Fixed a bug where the game could crash if cutscenes were off for the Starbound Gladiator arrival scene
V 1.0.1.H - Fixing resting gladiators in multiplayer mode + anticheat stuff.
So, if you fight someone now with impossible stats, they will no longer be victorious. Instead, they will yield to you, be labelled a traitor and removed from the game. Such is the punishment for breaking the code of the gladiator.
Cheers, Oli
Patch Notes V 1.0.1.H (March 12)
--- MULTIPLAYER CHANGES ---
• Extra checks against nefarious would-be cheaters in battle. They shall not prevail!
• Fixed a bug where enemy bots in multiplayer could use potions and switch weapons.
--- BALANCE CHANGES / STAT FIXES ---
• Flame Hands is now Arcane Grasp . This was done to reduce the confusion over whether it was an elemental spell ( it wasn't ). It no longer does fire damage but has increased physical damage.
--- BATTLE CHANGES / FIXES ---
• Fixed a new bug where bots resting would stall the game for a while and create a loss condition.
• You now gain a small amount of XP even when you lose a battle in single player mode ( as long as the enemy gladiator is within your level range).
V 1.0.1.G : Multiplayer stability improvements, bugfixing and balancing
Expect a much more sizable balance/bugfix patch tomorrow (Monday) - I hope you're all enjoying the game, the feedback has been overwhelming - appreciated!
Cheers, Oli
V 1.0.1.G (March 12 2023):
--- MULTIPLAYER CHANGES ---
• Removed the Yield Fight skill from multiplayer to stop players abusing it and quitting after 1 turn
• Fixed an exploit used in battle with the Jump Swipe selector
• Player challenges no longer appear if you are already being challenged in the multiplayer lobby
--- BALANCE CHANGES / STAT FIXES ---
• Improved hit chance roll calculations
• Reduced base hitpoints of all gladiators by 20
--- BATTLE CHANGES / FIXES ---
• Fixed a bug where Bruce the Useless found a way to hit you (villain!)
V 1.0.1.B - Some Anti Cheat stuff
I *hope* the anti-cheat system isn't too stringent and that it doesn't target gladiators unfairly, it is supposed to search for the more egregious and blatant hacking, but it may be a work in progress.
Lots of balancing and bugfixing coming next week, to all gladiators who are playing this weekend, I salute you! Welcome new players, and welcome back veterans!
Cheers, Oli
V 1.0.1.B (March 12 2023):
--- MULTIPLAYER CHANGES ---
• Anti-cheat measures implemented for those who would break oaths of fairness with other gladiators
--- BALANCE CHANGES / STAT FIXES ---
• Throw Weapon cooldown now 6 turns
--- BATTLE CHANGES / FIXES ---
• Fixed a bug where enemy's "hits in a row counter" was reset if they got hit
V 1.0.1.A - Launch day balancing and bugfixes .... zzzz ....
Thanks so much for your feedback, well wishes and encouragement today - (and your patience!)
Cheers Oli
--- BALANCE CHANGES / STAT FIXES ---
• Significantly increased the damage of Arcane Blast and Flame Hands
• Increased the damage of Spiritual hammer
• Increased the base health of all gladiators by 20
• Wail now has a cooldown of 3 turns (up from 2)
• Nerfed Huge Charles' stats a little ( too hard for a first boss!)
• Throw Weapon now has a 4 turn cooldown
--- BATTLE CHANGES / FIXES ---
• Fixed a bug where Armour Expert reduced damage vs health as well as armour
• Improved dice roll calculations for hitchance (subtle but should 'feel' slightly more accurate now)
• Fixed a bug where enemies could use species special skills in forbidden arenas
• Fixed a bug where Sorcerer's Vortex skill only impacted status damage and not original hit damage.
--- SHOP FIXES CHANGES ---
• Cleaver, Bow, Dagger and Blackjack are now level 1 weapons so they can be available ASAP in multiplayer
• Increased the base damage of all non-shank weapons by 2
--- MULTIPLAYER CHANGES ---
• Fixed a bug where level 1 bots could not hit you … ever…
Fixed a bug where the multiplayer matches could go on for far too long if a player left the 'jump swipe detector' on and didn't jump
V1.0.0.0 : The Full Release is here, it is time to step onto the arena sands.
To tell the truth though, I couldn't sleep much either. So after putting his blanket back on, I headed to the computer room and sat down, and pushed the 'Launch Game' button on Steam.
I was going to wait until this morning, but I was so wired - and I haven't slept a wink since. It's now 8am, and I'm still yet to exhale. The game is live.
It's funny, there isn't the same sense of extreme trepidation and dread that comes when you first launch a game on Steam ( in this case into Early Access ), but there's this other sense of both dread and finality to it all. Although you can of course update your game, patch it forever and bring in DLC, the 'Full Release' window represents a psychological milestone to both the developer and the player saying, this is it. This is the game now, for better or worse.
As the great Gandalf so wisely said , "The journey doesn't end here...", and old greybeard was right. There's more to do on the game. Hell, even today there are bugs to fix, some new, some old foes that have resurfaced. There are new and interesting game suggestions for me to implement. There is a mobile version of the game to build.
I'll be patching the game probably daily for the next few weeks at least, with more stuff to add and fix - you can be sure of that.
And yet ... realistically, I cannot work on this game forever. I'm a solo game dev with a wife, a mortgage and two kids, 5 and 2. I need to be agile, I need to keep building games. Eventually the well runs dry on a game like this (unless you have Vampire Survivors-esque success), often a lot quicker than you'd hope - and you need to start making money again, and fast.
With S&S Immortals, I've taken the series about as far as I can for now, and this year I want to take a little break and try and build a new game , perhaps start a new franchise, perhaps make a bunch of different games. I do hope to return next year, I'd like to remake Swords and Sandals III with the Immortals Engine ( perhaps even S&S 4?) - and then who knows?
So with that said, the road for Swords and Sandals Immortals, and I guess in a larger sense, the Swords and Sandals franchise, comes to a pause. Not a dead end, or a sheer cliff face, but instead a respite at a cosy tavern with a crackling hearth, fine beers and the company of those fine gladiators who have taken this journey with me. My artist Bokkimi. My musicians Alyctro and Tekl Ikogea. My business partner Aram Fuchs.
Not least of all, you guys - the fans who have stuck with me through the launch of so many of these games, the fans who have battled all the pain of the bugs, balancing nightmares, crashes. The fans who have suggested the features that have turned the game from a bad game to a potentially great game.
You are the real Arena Champions.
Cheers,
Oliver Joyce,
Whiskeybarrel Studios.
V0.9.9.A - The Final Patch before the big launch tomorrow
Technically its March 9 here in Australia, but I'm going to either launch the full game late tonight ( in 10 hours from now ) or tomorrow morning ( still March 9 somewhere in the world ) - possibly tomorrow morning just so I'm fully awake and able to answer support questions and so on. We'll see!
This is a patch just based on your feedback on game balancing and so on. When I say 'final patch' , no doubt I'll sneak another minor one up later today haha.
Just wanted to say a final big thank you to everyone for your feedback and support getting this game right up to the finish line, you've made the game infinitely better.
Cheers Oli
Patch Notes V 0.9.9.A (Mar 09 2023)
--- BALANCE CHANGES / STAT FIXES ---
• Command is now a Tier One skill with a 2 turn cooldown and low essence cost. This is to combat the ranged strategy of constantly leaping back and hitting you with a bow in multiplayer, which at low levels is nigh impossible to defeat with a melee build.
• Defence stat now reduces hit chance by 1.0 per point. Attack increases hit chance by 0.9
• Taunt,burp, fartacus, gaseous wind's damage has been reduced but are now treated as sonic attacks for hit chance purposes rather than physical
• Ultimate Warrior now only works on Physical skills, not elemental damage etc
• Warrior Strike now destroys 1 piece of armour, Eagle Talon does 2, Wrath of Elitia and Sunder Armour does 3
• Jester's Trickster's proc chance is now 33% ( down from 75%)
• You now have a base Critical Hit Resist Chance ( shown on your Vital Stats) which provides basic protection against being critically hit. Some attacks automatically crit and override this, like if enemy is in Battle Rage etc.
• Each point put into vitality impacts Critical Hit Resist Chance by 1% (maxxes at 90%)
• Lightning Bolt negative status effects can never last more than 2 turns ( unless another successful lightning attack causes the status effect to reset )
• Removed Holy Smite hit chance bonus from the Conviction Skill
--- BATTLE CHANGES / FIXES ---
• Movement speed in battle has been halved - you can still reach a maximum of 75M per turn, but it will take twice as much agility to do so.
• Fixed some tooltip glitches
--- SHOP CHANGES / FIXES ---
• Charisma now gives you a discount of 0.5% per point in Charisma, down from 1%.
--- MULTIPLAYER CHANGES ---
• In multiplayer, Resetting Talents now costs a flat 20 stars each time.
• New gladiators in multiplayer gain 10 Stars and 2000 gold.
• Fixed server issue where de-connecting gladiators were not being removed from the total online count of gladiators (making it seem like more gladiators were online than were actually there)
• Reduced amount of armour pieces NPC gladiators can choose from at level 10 and below
V 0.9.8 - Improved Tooltips, desyncing issues fixed and more. Almost launch day!
The patches will of course continue post-launch for a short while of course, I want to see this game be the best version it can be. ( within reason, I can't spend forever on it and the road calls me on to new adventures soon !)
Here are the patch notes for today, expect some more fixes tomorrow!
V 0.9.8.C (Mar 08 2023)
--- NEW FEATURES ---
• Improved tooltips in battle to show if a skill can do critical hits, cause knockback. These will be further improved in future patches.
--- BALANCE CHANGES / STAT FIXES ---
• Taunt,burp, fartacus, gaseous wind's damage now scales with charisma
• Altered Reality skill now has a chance to proc only if you use an elemental spell
• Reduced essence costs for all talents in the Warfare and Survival trees
--- BATTLE CHANGES / FIXES ---
• Fixed a bug where the Trickster taunt talent did not proc properly
• Fixed a bug where Armour Expert took effect against health and not just armour
• Reduced knockback power by 30% across the board and increased the defence stat's resistance against it b 50%
--- MULTIPLAYER CHANGES ---
• Fix for desyncing issues involving some armour-based skills like Sunder Armour and Warrior Strike
--- MISC FIXES AND CHANGES ---
• Potential fix for weapon unequipping while dual wielding - I'll monitor this if it regresses anything!
• Removed Quit to Title from Settings Panel in multiplayer battles
• Fixed a glitch with the Armour Bar sometimes throwing silent errors
• Added Chinese character font to game logo when using Chinese language
V 0.9.7.E - Balancing, bugfixing and potion cooldowns introduced.
This patch is mainly balancing and bugfixing based on player feedback ( thank you once again!) . Perhaps the biggest change is removing the use of potions from multiplayer battles. They were causing some desync issues and also dragged out battles a lot longer than they should have. There are also now cooldowns on potions in single player mode so they can't just be spammed.
--- MULTIPLAYER CHANGES ---
• Players may no longer use potions in battle in multiplayer in the spirit of balance (and some desyncing issues)
--- BALANCE CHANGES / STAT FIXES ---
• All species special skills now have a base hit chance of 60% (except Yerens, which remains at 33%)
• Wrath of Elitia now does 30% total health damage if used on an enemy with no armour.
• Strength now increases attack hit chance by 0.5% per point
• Agility now increases ranged hit chance by 0.5%
• Strength no longer increases critical hit chance.
• Increased Mighty Smash base hit chance to 60%
• Fixed a bug where Fighter of Faith did more damage vs good than evil
• Reduced damage from elemental spells by roughly 30%
• Two handed melee weapons now increase melee critical hit chance by 10%
• Increased maximum movement speed to 75 from 50
• Ancestral Warcry and Occult Aura hit chances lowered to 60% from 80% base
• Captivation talent reduced from 8% to 4% per point
• All lightning spells hit chances have been reduced by 20% base
• Weapons Master and Final Judgement bonuses increased to 6% per point (up from 3 and 5)
• Reduced the amount of total potions regular NPCs can carry into battle
--- BATTLE CHANGES / FIXES ---
• There is now a 4 turn cooldown on drinking another potion after you drink one.
• Removed the ability to use Shadows and Dust with a bow - introduced too many bugs and was supposed to be like a sneaky melee hit anyway.
• Fixed a bug where you could get stuck doing Shadows and Dust skill
• Fixed a bug where some magical attacks counted as critical hits when they weren't supposed to (only physical/sonic attacks can crit usually)
• Fixed a bug where some Switch Weapon rules were being ignored
--- SHOP FIXES CHANGES ---
• Fixed a bug where some fire runes could not be used on melee weapons
• Increased physical damage bonus to weapons enchanted by Physical Runes and Sonic Runes
• Sonic runes now act as physical runes, but only for sonic weapons like guitars. This damage is 'baked in' to the weapon when you enchant or when you see it in the shop, so it doesn't appear as 'bonus damage' in the battle - you can see the damage update when you look at the enchant panel in the shop.
• Phalanx skill moved to a tier 4 ability down from tier 5
--- MISC FIXES AND CHANGES ---
• Fixed a stat exploit on the character creation menu
• Changed description of some class special abilities to show percentages instead of points
• Fixed a bug with difficulty selection slider on repeat views
• Loading saved games from earlier patches (pre 0.9.7) will now match the boss difficulty to your game difficulty