Genre: Role-playing (RPG), Simulator, Strategy, Tactical, Hack and slash/Beat 'em up
We Who Are About to Die
Gladiator's Revenge: Preview #1!
Dear Aspirants!
I almost can't believe it, but we are quickly coming up on the second anniversary of the Early Access launch of We Who Are About To Die! The game has grown a lot, and we aren't done.
To celebrate the anniversary we are releasing a Content Update in November - one I'm personally very excited for! The game will also have a Steam Daily Deal discount on November 23rd.
Gladiator's Revenge
The theme of this update is very simple: we want to add some really classical feeling gladiator content, with a heavier inspiration from ancient Rome itself.
It's long overdue we gave players more ability to dress up and roleplay as your favorite real-world gladiators. Of course, all of this content has still been designed so it still fits the game's lore, cultures and general vibe.
Backstory: The Veteran Aspirant
We will reveal a lot more details about this in the following Preview Posts, but Gladiator's Revenge will add a brand new backstory: Veteran Aspirant (Professional Aspirant has been renamed Trainee Aspirant to avoid confusion)
In this backstory you assume a Veteran who already has an established career as an Aspirant, and is hellbent on revenge.
One very unique aspect of this backstory we can already reveal, is that it has 3 subclasses. These subclasses are: The Dormorian, The Myrodonian & The Terantian.
When you roll the backstory you also roll one of the 3 subclasses at random and the backstory's traits, the equipment loadout and starting skills will adjust based on the subclass. 3-in-1!
More info on these in future posts!
Translations are coming to the game! Testers needed!
We're happy to announce we're working on finally bringing We Who Are About To Die to other languages than English. The 11 languages are listed below. (note this could get expanded later)
For this we need testers who are native speakers/readers in these languages so we can ensure we get the best possible localisations of the game out right away!
If you speak any of these languages fluently and want earlier access to the update, please join our Discord (http://discord.gg/8PEutcdwf5) in the channel #Loc-test-application write that you want to help & on which language(s). Especially the bolded languages with their own alphabet will need extra testing (and may be harder to find) so if you speak any of those languages please consider helping out! Thank you!
French
Italian
German
Spanish
Polish
Brazilian Portuguese
Russian
Traditional Chinese
Simplified Chinese
Korean
Japanese
Want to stay up to date on the game and studio's development?
A patch with some bugfixing to hold us over untill the anniversary of the game! (Nov 14th!)
Bugfixes
Fixed players sometimes losing shields after a Spoils match
Fixed a cause of NPCs bumping into their attack target, in particular at high speed
The ranges of certain breakable objects that were missing new range calculations have been updated. This should reduce some NPC bumping.
NPCs will no longer continuously bump into their target after breaking their weapon after the first attack of a "double attack" move
Added that unique weapons wielded by Elites or their minions in elite fights can't be destroyed anymore
Reduced the amount and randomness of slow motion in the game. Now it only occurs on player kills and scales with damage.
Character re-roll no longer activates the "Skip completed backstories" checkbox
Fixed an issue with loaded trait activation, which solves the problem with Villain not working properly.
Fixed an issue where the red cross on locked slots would disappear when comparing items in the shop.
Fixed an issue where some end of match logic was delayed (causing things like the Sick character trait to still activate shortly after the fight ends)
Resolved a glitch with the Machismo trait and gamepad that allowed players to gain infinite gold.
Adjusted the Level-up reward system to prevent incompatible skills from being rolled when certain traits are present.
Multiple prompts triggered during fights are now properly layered
Late game rare fights now actually match the ones shown in the Calendar
Fixed an issue where some helmets did not visually break
Fixed a bug where, if the player waited at the spawn point for 15 seconds, they would spawn into the arena with allies and enemies stuck behind closed gates.
Addressed the issue where players get vegetables thrown at them during draft and ambush with the Villain trait
Resolved an issue where decorations in the career menu occasionally failed to display during a special week.
Balancing
Increased the Speed of the Owakhan Spears (the Unique twin spear, as well as the regular one)
Increased AI aggression slightly
Increased rotation freeze on AI attacks slightly to help with flanking. Shields weight in particular has a higher impact now.
Trait Balancing
Born Leader: Now also makes Entourage 50% cheaper and more common.
Giant: Reduced damage buff to 10% (down from 15%). Reduced weight treshold increase to 15 (down from 20)
Joridus Apprentice: Max skill buff reduced to 25% (down from 35%)
Clairvoyance: Chance to reveal increased to 50% (up from 33%)
Sharpener: Damage buff increased to 15% (up from 10%)
Bloodlust: Stamina gain reduced to 50% (down from 100%)
1H Weapon Expert: Damage buffs reduced to 3 and 6 (down from 5 and 10)
2H Weapon Expert: Damage buffs reduced to 4 and 8 (down from 5 and 10)
One-Handed: Shops won't offer shields anymore
Vertically Challenged: Reduced damage buff to 10% (down from 15%). Reduced weight treshold increase to 15 (down from 20)
Careless: percentage durability damage reduced to 3 (down from 5)
Sick: damage received reduced to 4 (down from 5)
Hammer Time: Damage buff and debuff reduced to 15% (down from 25%)
Frenzied: Damage dealt and received buffs reduced to 20% (down from 25%)
Villain: Damage buff is now 75% (down from 100%) of your negative fame multiplier
Unloveable: the player has a -33% fame deduction after all fame reward calculations are done on Victory, and this is shown more clearly
Content / UI
Added the game's logo to the intro cinematic
Added match information when using the Toggle Ingame Items Tooltips during fights
We who are about to die salute you, Jordy
WWAATD EA v0.62 small patch/hotfix
Champion's Journey v0.62 changelog
Another small patch with some minor bugfixes!
Bugfixes
Fixed issue where enemies would get stuck at one of the entrances in The Great Pit
Fixed issue where enemies didn't drop their weapon when it breaks, preventing weapons from disappearing during or after a fight
Fixed a bug that allowed 1h characters to briefly pick up 2h weapons and keep them by quitting to the career menu
Fixed wrong pose displaying in career menu when holding spears with new 1h-only mode
Fixed an issue where some map selections were disrupted for 1v1 fights
Fixed an issue preventing the selection of trait rewards via their icons
Fixed navigation issues on the Spike Trap in the Grand Stadium causing odd rerouting
Fixed issue where players could get stuck at the Inner City gate when moving all the way to the right
The intro message and loading screen now only appear when launching the game
Fixed issue where Mazza's Trait info-text was not always visible in the Utility menu
Fixed issue where audience members appeared with bare torsos
We who are about to die salute you, Jordy
WWAATD EA v0.61 small patch/hotfix
Champion's Journey v0.61 changelog
A small patch with some minor tweaks and bugfixes!
Tweaks
Removed certain cases where the Backstory Character Trait set would contain many Minor Traits
Added the possibility of receiving 2 Neutral traits alongside a set of Minor or Major Positive and Negative Traits
Added exclusion of 2h weapon (skill) buffing Traits with the One-Handed Trait and of Dashing buffing traits with the Peg Leg Trait
Reduced physics impact on characters
Trait reward widget now shows tooltip when hovering the entire button and the trait card doesn't block the button
The following spears now act as "1H" even without shield (no more polearm mode): Fishing Stacca, All Tridi, All linolian stacca
Timeline animation has been sped up a bit
the trait Sick no longer causes interrupts or full damage reaction on the player
When you had a bet open and start a Draft fight, you get refunded and a message appears saying so
Apples and Rocks now have the Projectile trait
Bugfixes
Fixed investments not triggering properly
Fixed a rare crash related to the Ambush event
Fixed max HP (level up reward) not saving and loading properly
Fixed issue where "missing icon" would appear on the timeline
Fixed bug where the game would repair items when coming from main menu
Fixed bug where the game would execute a shop hold when coming from main menu
Fixed a bug where you couldn't access scollo upgrades with gamepad after an upgrade
Fixed default string on Unforeseen Damage event
Fixed a battle reroll crash related to the calendar
Fixed payout on Ambush for slave backstory
Fixed missing impatient crowd description
Fixed issue where Omniscient would only reveal all battle panels after a battle reroll
We who are about to die salute you, Jordy
MAJOR UPDATE: The Champion's Journey Update OUT NOW! + 30% discount
It's already here - we bring you the Champion's Journey Update! This update introduces massive new feature: Character Traits, and much more! Check out this overview video and get ready to unlock a whole new layer to the game.
Early Access v0.6 - The Champion's Journey Update
Full Changelog
MAJOR new content & features
New: Character Traits
New: over 50 random Character Traits
Added in-run trait rewards (Gained by winning Elite Fights and Tournaments)
Added Character Trait Overview panel
Added a Character Trait Trophy system to track your completion progress
New: Player Weight System
New Weight and Armor UI panel
Added Player Weight system
Added Light Weight class
Added Heavy Weight class
New: Bonus Skills
Added the concept of Bonus Skills: these allow you to go over 100 with any skill (all the way to 125)
Added Base and Bonus skill overview panel
New: item Traits: several item traits that give various Bonus Skill modifiers
New: Features and Content
New feature: Timeline panel, shows upcoming rare events
Added new Map: The City Market
Added new Map: The City Slums
New feature: Ambushes (dialog event that sends you into combat defending against bandits)
Added many map areas and alleys for Ambush
MINOR (Content, features, balancing changes)
Weapon ranges are now more accurate and based on in-game distance units. Used by the AI to determine the attack distance
Rerolling your character is now more seamless
Backstories can now be rerolled up to three times before losing any heirloom and/or invested gold
Balanced the gold and fame rewards for Elite, Tournament and Grand Tournament fights
Tournaments and Grand Tournaments now reward 3 favor to all patrons
Added a new Uniqye Rarity: Items dropped by Elites and other 'one of a kind-items' are now marked as Unique
A message will now pop-up when a run victory can be claimed
New item trait: Projectile (auto throw)
New item trait: Throwing Weapon (bonus damage when thrown)
New item: Throwing axes
New item: Sickle
Pilum now remains in 1h Spear mode even without a shield
Bugfixes
Potential fix on fights where the AI would spawn with the same uniform
Fixed issue where the utility menu would disappear when cycling too quickly between the menus
Fixed issues on several maps where you could get stuck or walk of the map
Fixed issue where cheering during draft triggers an audience response in the chat
Fixed issue on the War-event dialogue: shop prices are now updated correctly
Fixed issue with auto repairing on the Blacksmith backstory
Fixed issue where re-rolling matches would reset the healing price
Fixed issue with audience favor on Grand Plaza and Terrantia City Center
Fixed issue where multiple songs would play during the credits
Overall improvements on the AI entering arena’s
Several small bugfixes and QOL improvements
Fixed various camera issues in third person with targets
Fixed issue with gamepad controls (on certain maps)
Many many many more!
If you like what we're doing, please consider sharing this update and the game with your friends: we still rely on word of mouth more than anything.
And as always -we who are about to die salute you, Jordy
Champion's Journey: Preview #4! 1 day to release!
Ave Aspirants!
With this last and final preview on the Champion's Journey Update, we want to reveal the new Character Overview, Weight and skill systems, a new map and reveal more character traits!
The Character Overview Panel
The Character Overview panel provides all the essential information about your character at a glance. You can access it in the Armory, the old shop panel can now tab between this and the shop itself. On this panel you can review your character's skills, along with active item modifiers, as well as see the active Character and Run Traits.
In addition, the panel displays your current Health, Stamina, Stamina Regeneration, and Fame Multiplier. It also shows your Total Weight and provides a convenient overview of your Armor.
Weight System
Player weight has been overhauled. All items have a newly balanced weight stat (previously Stamina Regeneration), and your total weight drops you into a category: Light, Medium, or Heavy.
Light and Heavy come with specific advantages and disadvantages. When you are Light you gain movement buffs, while Heavy gives you debuffs. Heavy does give you stun bonuses, and of course, you will be wearing much more armor and better weapon/shield. These act as a threshold but within each class you get more and more of this buff/debuff, so going VERY light is still better than just barely light.
These weight classes give you a new choice to make: fight as a nimble and agile Aspirant, or go tank mode? You've now got a reason to take off certain pieces of armor, or take that smaller shield, even when in the late game.
We've also introduced character traits that are influenced by your total weight or influence your weight, it's all connected.
Bonus Skill
Hand in hand with weight, traits, item traits and more is the new Bonus Skill system. Your character overview panel shows your buffs at a glance, including a breakdown where they come from.
In this example, I'm a Light weight class, and I'm wearing 2 sandals which give me Swift x2
Some bonus skill can be negative too, and skills can now also go to 125 (but only via Bonus Skill)
With all these new mechanics, building a character has more depth than ever.
A new arena: City Market!
Welcome to the grand opening of a new arena in the heart of the Inner City! Located just next to the Grand Plaza, the City Market Arena offers a gathering spot for Terantians to witness thrilling battles and engage in lively market exchanges.
Preview #4 Trait Reveals!
Let's have a look at another Major Positive, Neutral and Negative Character Trait!
Brute Strength
It takes brutish strength to destroy's enemy's weapons and armor! You get +50% Durability damage when you are in the Light or Medium weight category, and a very tangible +100% Durability damage when in the Heavy weight category.
A good synergy is using an axe with bonus damage vs shields along with Brute Strength, and just smash right through shields instead of around them.
Villain
You thrive on the disdain of the crowd! Gain a damage multiplier equal to your negative Fame Multiplier (up to +50% damage). Remember that some armor and items influence your Fame Multiplier in a negative way, and so does hitting team mates... Get ready to embrace your inner demon and aim for the highest negative Fame Multiplier possible!
Peg Leg
You are missing a right leg. Your right leg is permanently replaced by a Peg Leg (item) -20 Bonus Movement Skill and you cannot dash! Maybe later on we could add different types of peg legs you can swap out, what do you think?
We haven't revealed a ton of traits, in the mean time there's already well over 50. Ultimately it's up to you to discover them in-game. The Traits get discovered as you play with them in a trait overview panel, and we've also added a little trophy icon that shows up when you win with that trait active: for the completionist, you have your work cut out!
In general, traits have been an amazing way to tie all the game's systems together or let them come forward in a more understandable way.
Release?!?!
That's it for the previews of the Champion's Journey! Let us know what you think!
I'm happy to say, the Champion's Journey update is dropping tomorrow, September 16th 2024 along with a new Overview Video, if all goes well!! We've been excited to get the character traits out there for a long time now - HYPE
Want to stay up to date on the game and studio's development?
With this third preview on the Champion's Journey Update, we want to highlight the all-new Calendar, different Item Modifications and reveal a bunch of patron and career management traits!
Timeline
We've added a Calendar to the game: it shows you a timeline for upcoming events. This directly links to The Spectacles Update which introduced rare fights at certain weeks. With the Calendar, you can better organize your career strategy and make informed decisions that will have a positive impact on your journey.
Item Traits
We’ve introduced various new item traits to the game. Many are stat buffs or debuffs, with each one affecting a new bonus stat (more on that later) for a specific skill.
Another example is Throwing Weapon and Projectile (experimental). In this line we've also added a new item: Throwing Axe. A related small QoL feature with the Pilli is now it still acts as a 1H spear even when you don't have a shield, so you can still easily throw it.
Unique Items
A small but flavorful change: the items unique to Elites introduced in The Spectacles Update are now marked a new tier: Unique!
Preview #3 Trait Reveals!
We're thrilled to introduce a bunch more traits! This time will focus on minor positive traits!
Patron Traits
There are 4 Patron Traits (so far) and they have effects that scale by your positive Favor with that specific Patron.
Each of these effects scale up to you having 100 Favor:
Alluora's Boy: Reduced Favor decay (up to +3%) after battle with all other Patrons. You gain Favor with all other Patrons (up to 25%).
Joridus Apprentice: All your Weapon Skills increase, up to +35.
Valerius Coupons: Up to +25% Shop Discount
Mazza's Star: Up to +50% Fundraises rate of conversion.
Career Management Traits
The following traits primarily focus on the career management aspects of the game. They can affect your character's skills, influence battle traits, adjust shop prices, and more. These are some examples of Minor Traits, which means they can also be gained during your run as rewards.
Blacksmith's Friend: Significantly more fights have the Battle Trait "Insurance".
1H Weapon Expert: Influences your 1H weapon skills. +5 Base Damage if Weapon Skill above 50. +10 Base Damage if Weapon Skill above 100
2H Weapon Expert: Influences your 2H weapon skills. +5 Base Damage if Weapon Skill above 50. +10 Base Damage if Weapon Skill above 100
Dodgy: +30 Bonus Dashing Skill.
Closed Test
We are currently still in the debugging and polish stage of this update. To help us out we're running closed tests - do you want to help out and play this update early? Are you good at breaking the game, have a feel for balancing, love bug reporting & giving feedback? Join our Discord (link below) and write an application in #closed-test-application
That's it for preview #3 of Champion's Journey! Let us know what you think!
Want to stay up to date on the game and studio's development?
With this second preview on the Champion's Journey Update, it's time to talk about how traits are generated and embedded in the game. We'll also reveal 3 new traits and a brand new feature of the game!
Trait Generation
The highlight of the Champion's Journey update is the introduction of random character traits, which brings a whole new depth to the game - check out Preview #1 for the introduction. Here's how they are added to the game:
Backstory Traits
At the start of each new run, Aspirants will be assigned a random set of traits known as Character Backstory Traits. Traits can be Minor and Major, and Positive, Neutral or Negative.
A character gains a set of traits which more or less balance each other out. So you could get 1 major positive trait, 1 neutral, and 2 minor negative traits, for example.
These traits not only diversify each playthrough's strategy (or at least add a serious curveball) but also just significantly enhance the game's variety by offering different experiences every time. In short, now there are not just 7 backstories but 7 backstories each with millions of variants.
Run Traits
Some of the new Rare Fights introduced in The Spectacles Update (Elite Fights, Tournaments) now reward you the choice between 3 random minor positive traits, so your character can also develop during your run.
You are allowed to skip this reward holding out for a better trait later on, up to a total of 4 run traits for any character.
Preview #2 Trait Reveals!
We're excited to introduce 3 new major traits: one positive, one neutral, and one negative.
Giant
You must have had plenty of milk growing up! As a Giant, not only are you physically larger, but you also deal +10% more damage. Throughout your run, your equipment's total weight is categorized into light, medium, or heavy. Thanks to your size, you can carry more gear, giving you a +10 to the heavy weight category threshold.
Brawler
If you love smashing things in the arena or just enjoy causing chaos, the Brawler trait is perfect for you. With this major neutral trait, you'll deal +5 more damage when using destructible items and another +10% when your weapon’s durability drops below 50. When the Terantian spectators sense the brawler in you, they’ll toss more destructibles into the arena, giving you even more opportunities to smash, bash, and dominate the fight with! Your weapons will however take 25% more durability damage and break sooner.
Unlucky
For you... well, not everything goes your way. With this major negative trait, you’ll have a -20% chance of favorable outcomes in most randomized effects: events, discounts, match information, item drops, bribery attempts, and even disarming. As if surviving the arena wasn't tough enough! Oh, and it always seems to rain around you.
Ambush!
Not everyone is as trustworthy as you, and some Terantians are eager to take advantage of your success. As you navigate the treacherous streets after battle, beware of bandits lurking in the shadows, waiting for the perfect moment to strike! Danger could be hiding around every corner...
An Ambush is a random event which will take you to new parts of the city of Terantia to fight off any looters that dare to fight you.
Closed Test
We are currently in the debugging and polish stage of this update. To help us out we're running closed tests - do you want to help out and play this update early? Are you good at breaking the game, have a feel for balancing, love bug reporting & giving feedback? Join our Discord (link below) and write an application in #closed-test-application
That's it for preview #2 of Champion's Journey! Let us know what you think!
Want to stay up to date on the game and studio's development?
With the recent Spectacles Update having been a massive success, we are excited to already start showing off the next version of We Who Are About To Die! Introducing the next major update: Champion's Journey!
This update contains a few major character-oriented features that change the game completely, yet again. We are adding a good deal of QoL, bugfixes and - of course - content, but the most prominent features are oriented around the player character, the mainliner being Character Traits!
Character Traits
Traits are randomly added to your character, and impact your character in all kinds of creative and interesting ways. Character Traits are positive, neutral or negative, and there are minor and major types indicating the impact on your run. It could be something as simple as a stat increase, to as run-altering as missing an arm.
Backstories already have inherent traits that are always the same, so with these new random character traits on top, the game is about a million times more replayable.
Take a look at current roster of traits above (most likely still to be expanded). I've even numbered them to fuel some speculation on what these trait icons might represent! We will reveal traits post by post.
Preview #1 Trait Reveals!
In today's preview, we'll reveal these 3 traits! All three are major traits, one positive, one neutral and one negative.
Born Leader
Your taunt/cheer now becomes a buff that temporarily increases effectiveness and aggression of all your allies in combat. Born Leader is a trait that will guide your run to large group battles with allies.
Owakhan Heritage
A neutral trait: an Owakhan Mask Spirit follows you. You gain a unique Owakhan Mask that you cannot unequip - it haunts you!
One-Handed
How it happened, we'll leave up to you - but you are missing a left arm. You cannot equip left-arm armor, 2-handed weapons or a shield, but are more effective with 1H weapons. Good luck! You can imagine the deep impact this has on a run, we also imagine character traits will be deeply connected to challenge runs the community invents (especially once Sandbox is added).
A new arena!
In the gang-owned back-alleys near the Inner City you may find a seedy fight or two from time to time. Even if they may be hosted by those dwelling in the underbelly of Terantia - coin is coin...
Did you spot it?!
Over the last few months I've actually been teasing traits here and there in creative subtle ways. What was not so subtle however, was the shop in Inner City that has traits on the wall as a little easter egg! Did anyone notice?
We're at Gamescom!
Pictured:Developer Lino thinking about Rome in Köln. (Linolians - get it?)
The entire team is at Gamescom 2024! If you're in the industry and want to chat, search for a We Who Are About To Die shirt!
That's it for todays preview! We have been working hard even while in the last stages of The Spectacles Update, so that means Champion's Journey is well on its way. We'll talk more on how traits are generated and embedded in the game in the next posts, as well as revealing some more features and traits in the Champion's Journey update!
Want to stay up to date on the game and studio's development?
Fixed (or at least drastically improved) a bug in melee weapon collision detection. Weapon attack collision should be more consistent now, eg. attacks phasing through shields and weapon blocks failing.
It took a long time to find, but ladies and gentlemen, we got 'em.
