Swords and Sandals Immortals
Patch 0.6.1 A - Randomized Arena Rules option ( new gladiators only )
In addition, I've added an Arena Rules Selector (for new gladiators only) - available when you create your gladiator. You'll be able to choose how you want your game to play, the standard rules, simpler arena rules or for complete chaos, randomized daily rules!
I hope you enjoy this update and again apologies for the crashes that have occurred as a result of it!
Cheers, Oliver Joyce
Whiskeybarrel Studios
V 0.6.1.A ( September 6, 2022 ):
--- NEW FEATURES ---
• You can now choose whether you wish to use the game's new Arena Rule system [ NEW CHARACTERS ONLY ].
You have three option:
* Simple Battles Only ( no tag team, survival etc )
* Default Game Rules ( each arena has its own unique rules that do not change )
* Randomized Daily Rules ( each day, the arenas will change their rules. )
--- BATTLE CHANGES / FIXES ---
• Fixed a bug where spikes still did damage after a gladiator had yielded.
• Fixed a bug where tag team gladiators sometimes showed armour even after it was broken
• Fixed a bug where tag team gladiators did not heal/repair armour etc after battle
• Fixed a bug where tag team gladiators with ranged weapons still showed melee buttons when switching
• Fixed a bug where tag team gladiators did not have access to their special skills from the battle buttons
--- MISC FIXES AND CHANGES ---
• Fixed a bug where the game crashed when entering Tag Team arenas
• Removed the Chasm / Tag Team combination as it was causing issues ( replaced in Khar'Khen with Chasm / Time Limit 10
Major Patch V0.6.0 ! Tag Team Battles, new arena rules, spike traps and more!
Thanks for your patience over this last few weeks as I worked on the huge new v0.6.0 Patch. Tons of new stuff here for you to sink your teeth into, primarily in the form of new special rules for each Arena. This will really change the game up as you are forced to try different tactics, even team up with other gladiators to win battles.
I hope you enjoy this update - next up, work will begin on the dungeon crawl section of the game. Probably about 6-8 weeks until that is ready, but there'll also be an update or two in between including the final battle against the Starbound Gladiator ( just waiting for the final high level armour set artwork).
Let me know what you think in the comments!
Cheers, Oliver Joyce
Whiskeybarrel Studios
V 0.6.0.A ( September 1, 2022 )
--- NEW FEATURES ---
- Huge new addition : ARENA RULES. Each arena now has specific rules that govern how gladiators may fight. Everything from not being allowed to bring axe into battle, to spike traps, to tag team battles, this will really change up how the game is played. There are 24 different arena rules spread throughout the realms' many arenas.
- All location art sketches are now in the game!
- New location available. Level 36's Arkmagius
- Added a new reminder prompt for gladiators who have not yet learned battle skills by level 5.
- Wizards now gain another bonus passive ability : Master of Elements, which increases all damage done by elemental spells by 20%.
--- BALANCE CHANGES / STAT FIXES ---
- Reclassified Molten Death as a high level elemental spell, thus increasing damage.
- Elemental spell base damage does 25% less but bonuses from Intellect are increased by 1.5x.
- Extra elemental damage when procced now is tied to intellect. For example, previously a fireball's fire status effect might drain 10% of your health . Now it will drain at a rate of 1 + 0.2 health per intellect point (capped at 20 %). A mage with 50 intellect will cause elemental damage of 10% health to enemies per turn.
--- BATTLE CHANGES / FIXES ---
- Fixed a bug where your alignment shifted when fighting the training dummy
- Fixed a bug where you could still wield guitars if missing an arm
- You no longer gain good/evil alignment points in Simulcrum battles
- Fixed a bug where successful attacks from non damage abilities counted as 'hits in a row' for skills like Ultimate Warrior
- Fixed a bug where the Essence Shield sprite remained huge after a Colossus ability wore off
--- SHOP FIXES CHANGES ---
- Runes and blueprints found in shops will never be holy or unholy.
- Fixed wrong description for turn duration on stat potions ( should have been 4 turns not 10 )
--- MISC FIXES AND CHANGES ---
- Defeated champions now appear in proper order at the training dummy
- Fixed a bug where Simulcrums were appearing as null at the training dummy
- Restored missing inventory art for Templar Leg Guards and Xenguard Boots
Hotfix patch v0.5.8.B - Fixing a memory leak in the skill array system!
You might have noticed with some high level gladiators, there would be a pause when accessing the skill buttons, this was because the game was looping through arrays up to 130,000 items in length!!! Not sure how I missed this but it's been fixed thankfully.
Next patch will be v0.6.0, which is a big one and contains new special rules for arenas, this will really change gameplay up ! This patch is probably a week or two away.
Cheers all, have a great weekend ! Oli
V 0.5.8.B ( August 19, 2022 ):
- Fixed a bug where gladiators with one arm could still wield bows
--- MISC FIXES AND CHANGES ---
- Fixed a MAJOR bug where data inside skill arrays accumulated, making them massive in size until the game would often crash at high levels.
- Fixing this bug also stops the 'pause' lag when choosing skills from the radial menu
- Music no longer stops when you view the character's info panel
- Fixed a bug where Haxxapods could find a way to spare enemy gladiators
Patch 0.5.8 : Altering your gladiator's appearance further at the tavern!
Also in this patch, two new arenas are unlocked - Drakondier and Ettania, as well as their respective arena champions. There's some increased damage for base class abilities, and new loading screens between long transitions in the game. I want to thank all the fans who provided fan art to the game for these screens, they look awesome!
Next week I will be looking to add more variety to the combat in arenas - new rules such as 'no axes', 'first blood wins' , that kind of thing.
Cheers, Oliver Joyce
Whiskeybarrel Studios
--- NEW FEATURES ---
- Added Alterations tab to the Tavern. You can now alter your gladiator's appearance even further after creation at the tavern. Here you can assign new skin, hair and even eye colours to your hero in exchange for stars.
- Added two new regional champions to the game
- Two new arenas are now available, Drakondier and Ettania
- Added Drakon armour set
- Added new artwork to in-game loading screens
- Added a button on the End Battle Screen to allow you to automatically spare or kill your enemies each battle (until you toggle it off again)
--- BALANCE CHANGES / STAT FIXES ---
- Battle Axes are now one handed weapons
- Reduced the damage done by the Skyman Sword
--- BATTLE CHANGES / FIXES ---
- Ghost Strike damage now scales with Agility
- Spiritual Hammer, Arcane Blast, Honoured Salute and Warrior Smash now scale with character level ( they get more powerful as you level up.)
Patch 0.5.7 - Grand Champion X and three new regional champions have arrived!
My apologies, this is a smaller patch than previous weeks as I had to take a few days off for a family emergency ( everything's fine now! ) . In this patch, four new brave champions enter the game in the hopes of defeating the Starbound Gladiator. Aussie fans may recognise one in particular, loosely based on an 80s music legend from Down Under.
Also in today's patched, a new difficulty setting for extra challenge, and some boosts to elemental damage in an effort to make mages more powerful.
You will also notice a lot of music tracks from the game have changed. One of the fans of the game mentioned to me he was receiving copyright strikes from YouTube after making a few Lets Play videos on the game. I have about 60% original music in the game, filled out with royalty free music for the various arenas, but it turns out some of the music was unable to be used on YouTube - they can be pretty prickly about these things, so for simplicity I have replaced all those tracks with CC4.0 tunes freely available to all.
Here are the full patch notes for this week. Enjoy, good luck with the new challengers!
Cheers, Oli
V0.5.7.A
--- NEW FEATURES ---
• Added Intimidator, Magnifico and Hellforged Armour Sets into the game.
• Added 3 new regional champions and 1 grand champion into the game
• Three new arenas unlocked : Port Skulden, Braxis, T'Kash Desert
• Added new NIGHTMARE DIFFICULTY mode for even greater challenge
--- BALANCE CHANGES / STAT FIXES ---
• Enemy grand champion alignments are now boosted to reflect the new -1000 to 1000 alignment values.
• Increased base damage of all elemental spells by a small amount
• Increased damage scaling of all Elemental Spells per intellect point by a small amount
• Increased damage scaling of Arcane Blast to 1.5 (up from 1.2) points per Intellect
--- MISC FIXES AND CHANGES ---
• Replaced a lot of stock music used in the game with alternate tracks so content creators don't get hit with unnecessary YouTube copyright claims. Some of the old tracks were (supposedly) royalty free but did not allow for YouTubers to broadcast without copyright strikes. Over half the music in the game of course is original compositions, but filled out with some extra tracks licensed under CC4.0.
• Changed the appearance of several arena champions armour sets
V 0.5.6.B - New alignment scaling and some bugfixes for the forge
In addition, I've reworked the alignment system so it scales a bit better and makes Holy Smite/Heal more powerful at higher levels.
--- BALANCE CHANGES / STAT FIXES ---
• Alignment scaling now maxes at -1000 to 1000. Alignment now gives you +3 / -3 per fight. This improves the damage / healing done by Holy Heal / Smite at higher levels.
• Base chance of using Holy / Unholy Smite reduced to 50%
• Conviction now increases your hit chance when using Holy /Unholy Smite
--- BATTLE CHANGES / FIXES ---
• Fixed a bug where Wrath of Elitia threw your enemy backwards instead of forwards
--- MISC FIXES AND CHANGES ---
• Fixed a bug where arena champions weapons were unavailable to them after the rejigging of item tiers
• Fixed a bug where the icon for Stellar Crystals on the mini panel was sometimes invisible
• Fixed a bug where Gunteria and Warmhaven music battle tracks did not loop
• Altering unique items will still change their armour value, but the drop won't be so bad any more.
• Fixed a bug where enchanting Holy / Unholy items removed the Holy/Unholy stat
• Increased base item level of blueprints found in shops
The Forge Has Been Fired Up!
In today's update, the long awaited enchanting and forging systems have arrived in-game.
Any blueprints or runes you have found on your travels or bought from shops can now be used at the forge and the enchanter.
At the forge, blueprints can be used to strengthen both armour and weapons. You can use up to two blueprints per item. A spatha could become a 'Strong Spatha', and then a 'Strong Spatha of Kings', for example.
At the enchanters, you can etch runes upon your weapons to enhance them with things like fire damage, poison damage and so on.
A word of caution - if you find any of your existing runes / blueprints playing up ( crashing the game ), sell them at the shop and buy new ones. This *probably* won't happen for you but I did encounter it early on in testing, I think I put a workaround for it but let me know if it doesn't play nice.
There are also the usual bugfixes and balances, I hope you like this patch. Next week I'll be bringing some new champions into the game!
Cheers, Oliver Joyce
Whiskeybarrel Studios
V 0.5.6.A Patch Notes
--- NEW FEATURES ---
• Forging and Enchanting services are now available at the armourer and enchanter! Buy blueprints or runes ( or find them in your travels ) and take them to these shopkeepers to enhance your weapons and armour with powerful magic.
--- BALANCE CHANGES / STAT FIXES ---
• Holy Smite damage reduced to 1.5 points per 1 alignment (down from 2)
• Fixed a bug where random enemy gladiators all generated stats from the same pool (str focused)
• Changed shield block power to scale with shield level ( so rare/epic versions of simple shields now have better shield block power')
• Reduced the essence cost of all skills in the Warfare tree by 20%
• Reduced debuff duration of Hex and Little Fat kid from 6 turns to 4
• Greatly increased damage done by Honoured Salute
--- BATTLE CHANGES / FIXES ---
• Fixed a bug where enemy gladiators could use Holy / Unholy Smite no matter what
• Added slight delay while enemy walks to you after battle is over
• Fixed a bug where Holy Smite appeared in your 'use items' panel after use
• When the Relentless talent procs, you will now regain essence but not see the 'essence' icon appear as it can obscure how much damage you took.
• Fixed a bug where you could not use many skills while missing shield arm
• Fixed a bug where enemy gladiators could whirlwind with a bow
--- MISC FIXES AND CHANGES ---
• Improved NPC weapon selection, especially at high levels ( more likely to use two handers )
• Very long item name descriptions on the Vital Stats panel are now truncated with […] for legibility
• Fixed a bug where buying runes from Enchanter did not save the type of rune bought (could crash game)
• Changed SFX for thunder rolls during ambient storms
• Changed the Fight Selector's default greetings sound "Power up!"
• Fixed some text bugs on holy/unholy dialog
• Fixed missing translation on several buttons /text boxes
• Fixed a bug where StatText errors were thrown on XP Bars for some users
• Fixed a bug where Arcane skill options were temporarily unselectable
• Fixed a bug where Gunteria and Warmhaven music could not be heard
• Made rain sound loop smoother
• Reduced alignment shift from adventures dramatically ( never more than +20/-20 per adventure
• Moved Ak'Kash Steppes slightly north-west on map
V0.5.5 : To spare or to slay your enemies? Alignment System is now in the game!
This week's patch is, I think , a good one. Or an evil one, should your gladiator choose to go down that path! Finally, the alignment system has arrived in the game. You may have noticed a small halo / pitchfork on your character's info panel over the duration you've been playing the game. This was always intended to represent your character's alignment in the game.
From this patch onward, when you defeat your enemy ( but not when you behead them, break them in half or otherwise fatally injure them ), you now have the chance to either slay them or spare their lives. Doing so will give either a gold or XP bonus, and in addition shift your alignment towards good or evil respectively.
Alignment is a small part of the game, but you will notice over time your character's portrait background will start to shift towards either a more holy or unholy look. In battle also, you will either gain a special healing or smiting skill depending on whether your enemy is of the same alignment as you. This skill becomes more powerful the more your alignment shifts.
Certain random quests and adventures will also shift your alignment one way or the other too, so watch out for those.
You'll also notice certain new Holy and Unholy items appearing in shops. These items grant you extra armour or damage to your weapons but can only be used if you are of the corresponding alignment.
Also in this patch, a new 'lunge attack' appears by default on the battle bar. This was always a staple of earlier S&S games so I decided to bring it back to make melee combat a little more fun. There's also a lot of bugfixes and the usual balancing to check out, so I hope you enjoy this patch.
Next week I hope to bring enchanting items into the game at last. Until then, enjoy the game!
Cheers, Oliver Joyce
Whiskeybarrel Studios
V 0.5.5.A Patch Notes:
--- NEW FEATURES ---
- Simple alignment system is now implemented in the game. When battles end and enemies yield ( unless decapitated or spine broken etc ) , you have the option to spare their life or slay them. Choosing one of these options will shift your alignment to good or evil by 1 point.
- New special alignment based skills in your battle bar. Holy/Unholy Heal and Smite. You can use these skills once per battle. If you are the same alignment as your enemy, Heal will return health to you. If you are differing alignments, Smite will damage your enemy. The power of these skills increases as your alignment points increase
- Added Holy / Unholy items to the game with increased damage and armour values. You can only wield them if you are the corresponding alignment.
- New alignment based portraits in game. The more good/evil you become, the more your background portrait will change to suit.
- New sketch artwork for many town locations ( some still locked as arenas )
- Added new extra voice sets for Floralisks and Haxxapods
--- BALANCE CHANGES / STAT FIXES ---
- Added a new standard 'lunge attack' to your battle bar. This does sisimilar damage as a 'normal' attack but with a lower hit chance and from range. There's already a skill for this in the shop, Charge, but because it was such a standard part of earlier S&S games, I've brought it back and boosted Charge.
- Charge has now been renamed Leap of Lions and is basically twice as powerful as the regular new leap attack.
- Merged shield block chance back into main hit chance calculations to avoid confusion and the hidden secondary 'defend chance' after successful hits. So, now if you have a shield that provides 20% shield block, it will reduce your enemy's hit chance by 20% (while the shield is active)
- Capped Shield Block chance at 50%
- Increased shield's armour value by 25%
- Increased two handed weapon damage from 2.1x normal to 2.3x normal
- Fixed a bug where elemental resistances were being tallied wrong ( values were too high)
- Elemental resistances now give 8% resistance per point (down from 12 )
--- BATTLE CHANGES / FIXES ---
- Fixed bug on certain skills showing 1% hit chance ( Shove etc)
- Fixed a bug where using swords and attacking with skills that bypassed armour didn't include bonus damage (Salute of Honour etc)
- Fixed a bug where Yeti Project Redux's weapons did almost no damage ( they'll be back to hitting *hard* )
- Fixed a bug where Shred skill did not instantly change your enemy's spirit level
- Fixed a bug where some characters with bows insisted on using them like melee weapons
--- MISC FIXES AND CHANGES ---
- Fixed a bug where starting player gladiators got extra stats at higher difficulty levels
- Fixed bug on certain skills showing 1% hit chance ( Shove etc)
- Increased amount of blood splatters on screen
- Fixed a bug where dice roll required numbers could exceed 20
- Fixed a bug where storms could happen in underground locations
- Added new music track to Warmhaven
v0.5.4.0 - Permadeath and Difficulty Sliders in game!
In this week's main patch, I've added in two interesting new things to the game. Firstly, permadeath mode is now available when you start a new game. In this mode, if you are killed in battle, your game is over and you do not return to the campfire. This is a challenge mode for hardcore players to test how long they can survive in the game.
After last week's patch increased boss difficulty too much, I talked with fans about the challenges of balancing the game to suit the needs of a wide spectrum of players, and decided that a difficulty slider was in everyone's best interests.
Now, when you create a new character, you will have the option to select a difficulty to your liking ( as well as turn on tougher bosses and permadeath ). This slider will alter the amount of stats enemy gladiators have as well as the amount of skills and items they bring into battle.
This new difficulty slider does not mean I won't continue to balance and improve the way the game plays of course, it just gives more players options to play the game how they want. I've also gone through and refined once again the stats enemy bosses have. They all still have more stats than you ( on a sliding scale ) but should be more reasonable to fight against - and now of course you have the option of higher difficulty modes too.
In the next patch, I will be adding in the alignment system into the game ( this is about 60% complete but couldn't fit it into today's patch.)
Cheers, Oli
V 0.5.4.0.A Patch notes (July20,2022)
--- NEW FEATURES ---
• Game Difficulty Settings - You can now select your game's difficulty ( new characters only ) at the start of a game! There are a number of difficulty settings ranging from 'cakewalk' to 'insane'. Scaling the difficulty of the game increases or decreases the amount of stats enemy gladiators will have, as well as the skills and items they take into battle.
• Tough Bosses Option - An additional parameter than optionally boosts arena champion stats for extra challenge.
• Permadeath Mode - Games can now be permadeath - the first time you die in battle, the game is over. If an enemy gladiator spares your life, you will live on.
• Added two new music tracks into the game : "Crusader Redux Remix" and "S&S Medieval It’s A Duel" theme
--- BALANCE CHANGES / STAT FIXES ---
• Bosses stats have all been reworked - they now will all have higher stats than gladiators of the same level , but not as high as they were in the previous patch.
* Regional champs* (11 base plus 2.2 stat points per character level instead of 3 base + 2 per level for normal gladiators)
* Grand champs * (13 base plus 2.4 stat points per character level instead of 3 base + 2 per level for normal gladiators)
NOTE - These stat increases will scale in difficulty. Remember, bosses have one stat a lot higher than nurmal due to armour bonuses. This stat can be reduced in battle of course when you destroy their enchanted armour.
• Increased the base health of all arena champions to compensate for lowered stats
• Reduced Doomtrek portal stars cost
• If Knightly resolve is used when spirit meter is above 0, you gain 25 spirit
• Golems now use Rock of Ages only when low on health
• Returned item weapon power/cost to pre 0.5.3.B levels ( was OP )
• Reduced item weapon power of all enchanted weapons
• Changed how the Excelsior talent works. Now critical hits against you restore X% of your health and essence. You will hear a sound when this happens.
• Slightly reduced reset talent cost
• Capped Height / Weight bonuses + penalties at -25/25 either way
• Reduced Fear Of Wizards bonus to 2%
• Reduced hit chances of basic attacks power/medium/quick to 25/40/55
• Fixed a bug where Final Judgement increased crit chance by far too much
--- BATTLE CHANGES / FIXES ---
• Gladiators using shields now have a separate % chance to block physical attacks (melee and ranged attacks, not spells). You will see them raise their shield if the block is successful. This does not show up as a regular 'attack' chance but is a separate roll between 1-100. So if you have a shield with 25% shield block chance and the separate roll is <= 25, you will successfully block the attack.
• Fixed a bug where spirit meter would trigger even if enemy was dead
• Fixed a bug where the fight log did not show most combat actions
• Fixed a bug where legless gladiators casting command would move enemy gladiators down to their Y pos
• Gladiators no longer use purification potions if they have no negative status effects
• Fixed an animation bug where gladiators with sonic weapons played the 'sheathe' celebration animation
• Fixed a bug where gladiators would appear to stand up after being defeated
--- MISC FIXES AND CHANGES ---
• If Special FX is set to OFF in your settings panel, gladiators will no longer show visual effects for shockwaves when taunting etc Turn this on if your computer is very old and you find the game crashing.
Patch 0.5.3 : New Arena Champions and smarter gladiators arrive in Brandor
This week's patch brings in six new regional champions and two grand champions to Swords and Sandals. I'm not going to spoil them by naming them but you can discover them as you continue your journey through Brandor. One of them may be familiar to veterans of the series and give you a few nightmare flashbacks to an earlier S&S game.
In addition to this and the usual bugfixes and balances, I've also reworked the enemy gladiator AI a bit so they are more aggressive with the skills the select in combat (and choose from more appropriate skill trees), and enemy gladiators will now be smarter with the stats they select upon generation - wizards will favour intellect more, warriors strength. It's not perfect yet but hopefully you find there's an increase in challenge against regular random gladiators.
Enjoy the patch and let me know what you think! Next week I'll be starting on either enchanting/forging or the character alignment system.
Cheers, Oliver Joyce
Whiskeybarrel Studios
--- NEW FEATURES ---
• New arena champion for Shackleford, Sir Atlas Fox (replacing Tewtiy the Jovial)
• 6 new Regional Champions ! (Discover for yourself)
• 2 new Grand Champions!
• New locations unlocked : Gunteria, Ak'Kash Steppes, Warmhaven, Taj Brandhir, Bog Stench, Pilthia
--- BALANCE CHANGES / STAT FIXES ---
• Reworked gladiator stat generation algorithm so warriors favour strength/vitality more, wizards intellect/charisma and so on.
• Reworked skill generation algorithm so each class favours skills from its favourite tres
• Updated talents, some stats and skin palette of many of the arena champions
• All weapons damage increased
• All regional champions now have +10% extra health
• All grand champions now have +25% extra health
• All arena champions have increased stats (slightly for lower level champs, more noticable at higher levels)
• Species elemental immunities have been replaced with strong resistance ( 75% ).
• All species terrain bonuses / penalties increased to 20%.
• Grave Pact restores 90% of health
• Capped stat rewards from adventures at +3, and penalties at -2.
• Yeren's limb chance starts off at 33% but increases by 1% per level higher than your opponent (and vice versa, it can decrease also. Caps at 90%)
• Reduced cooldowns on Barbarian Storm/Charge/Mighty Smash by 1 turn
• Increased distance you move during Barbarian Storm
• Changed appearance of the Chadiator
• Increased starting gold by 100
• Changed stars gained per day from 2 to 1
--- BATTLE CHANGES / FIXES ---
• Fixed a bug where enemies using some skills (Knightly Resolve etc) would crash the game
• Resistances now max out at 90%.
• Fixed a bug where golem's necrotic resistance was 1%
• Fixed a bug where Sir Atlas Fox held a shank
• Gladiator's combat panels will update more frequently to show potion effects instantly ( for example, you drink a vitality potion, your new health value will show straight away)
• Improved gladiator AI to better select skills to use in combat and hopefully improve the challenge for you.
• Fixed a bug where you could use a bow while missing your weapon arm