Greetings, gladiators!
As promised, alpha 0.4 is finally here! Its been 6 months of works, rethinking some of the systems, creating new assets, new stories and more content. We think that releasing all new content at once is a better way to tackle updates, for some reasons: 1. it's easier to correct bugs when you already have all systems in place and you know you won't be changing the moving parts all the time. 2. Its a better experience for the returning player to get a couple more hours of gameplay, than every week getting a few minutes worth of new content.
We intend on keeping this type of work, releasing fewer but better updates for the game. When you boot the game on this new version, you'll see a roadmap telling you what to expect for the next updates down the line.
Now, let's talk about the new stuff! Some of the highlights of this new version are:
A new "pre-battle" UI. Now you'll know everything about your opponent before getting down to the actual fighting. You can access these panels at any time just by hovering your mouse over the HP bar of any fighter. This is also great to know how you're affected by buffs and debuffs. Also, we added an "Auto-Battle" button, that auto-resolves the fighting based on the metrics of how strong each gladiator is, taking into account the base stats, armor equiped, number of skills/passive, items etc...
We added 2 new full sets of armor (Lamellar and Imperial) and 8 new weapons (2 of each type):
Two new bosses were added! One is this pirate fella with a huge sword that will fight you on a boat. The other one is a surprise, you'll see when you get to him.
Besides that, we revamped A LOT of the skill tree, and added some missing skills and passives. Its not final, we still have some skills to change, but we're getting closer to what we want: More agressive fights.
One important change we've made to the battles is that opponents now derive from gladiators "archetypes", so they won't have crazy builds that make no sense. For this reason, the AI got a little bit harder to deal with.
There are also some new "events" that will have a random chance of appearing when you're chilling at your ludus.
If you're still curious, here are all the patch notes for this new version:
Gods of Sand 0.4.0 Patch Notes
Game Engine:
- Updated Game Engine to a more stable/recent version.
- Updated backend from Mono to IL2CPP for better support accross platforms, faster code.
- Updated Steamworks plugin to the newest version.
- Updated all game engine modules/packages to a newer/faster/better version.
Ludus:
- Fixed a bug causing the gladiator UI icon not updating equipped items correctly on the map panel.
- Fixed a bug causing the tween (up/down animation) of the world map events to get slow/stop.
- Changed background to a more detailed one to fit better with the other graphical elements.
UI:
- Added a panel to the fight where you can see your gladiator's/enemies stats, skills, passives and items.
- Added a "Start Fight" button, now the battle will only start if you wan't.
- Added a "Auto-Battle" button, that resolves the battle automatically when clicked, based on a calculation of all elements of both gladiators.
- Fixed a bug in the gladiator slot outline causing them to not update properly.
- Fixed a bug where the player could click through UI's if the game was not focused due to a bad raycast system.
- Fixed a bug related to mouse clicking detection on the Ludus Skills/Passives panel.
- Fixed a bug related to mouse clicking detection on the Battle SKills/Items panel.
- Fixed "Armor/Weapon/Item" tabs alignment to be properly centered.
- Changed "Armor/Weapon/Item" tabs on the inventory panel, now it will pop to the front to better indicate what tab are you currently on.
- Added a "Tiers" system to the description of armor and weapons.
Passives:
- Added "Weaponlord" passive > Weapons give triple the extra stats it would give normally (even when weapons are changed during a fight).
- Added "Resourceful" passive > Double consumable items values (heal, damage, effects...)
- Added "Static Shock" passive > For each position your enemy moves, he has 50% chance of being hit by a lightning.
- Changed "Tease" passive > Every time you receive a damage, gains +1 STR (strength).
- Changed "Toxic Breath" passive > Damage given is now percentage (5 stacks = 5%) and max damage is limited to 5 stacks.
- Changed "Push" passive > If you have a lower RES than your opponent you give 5 damage, otherwise you give 50% of your res + 5.
- Changed "Weak Point" passive > Changed critical multiplier from 2.5x to 2.2x
- Changed "Deep Relaxation" passive > Now instead of healing it will recover 50% stamina instead of 30%.
- Changed "Blood Lust" passive > Decreased healing from 50% to 20%.
Skills:
- Added a brand new "Silence" effect, it prevents the entity from using skills.
- Fixed "Reverse Punch" skill not playing the SFX upon using it.
- Fixed "Mantra" skill showing negative values upon healing enemy and fixed its size.
- Changed "Crack Armor" skill> armor removal increased from 10% to 33% and cooldown increased from 5 to 10.
- Changed "Push" skill > cooldown increased from 6 to 8.
- Changed "Concentration" skill > cooldown increased from 8 to 15, changed AGI/DEX increase amount from 20% to 50%.
- Changed "Feint" skill > Now the damage you deal is half of your AGI + 10, and cooldown was decreased from 5 to 4.
- Changed "Unfair Exchange" skill > Now it removes only half of the INT that it was removing before.
- Changed "Mantra" skill > Enemies will only use it if less than 90% hp (previously it was 80%) and now it recovers 5% max HP during 4 turns (previously it recovered 20% instantly), increased cooldown from 8 to 12.
- Changed "Reinvigorate" skill > Now instead of healing the full stamina it will silence the opponent for 3 rounds.
- Changed Silence/Stun effects text size, now it's smaller.
Armor:
- Added 2 new full sets of armor to the game: Lamellar (Tier 5), Legionary (Tier 6).
Consumables:
- Added missing text emitter on Health/Stamina potions causing confusion on players about them not healing properly.
- Changed "Health Potion" > decreased healing from 15% to 10% max HP.
- CHanged "Strong Health Potion" > decreased healing from 30% to 20% max HP.
- Changed "Small Tonic" > now it gives a 10% buff to all stats except VIT and END for 5 turns instead of recovering stamina.
- Changed "Strong Tonic" > now it gives a 20% buff to all stats except VIT and END for 5 turns instead of recovering stamina.
- Added "Cannon Bomb" as the prize item from the 5th boss > Deals 20 damage and stuns the opponent for 1 turn.
- Added "Golden Apple" as the prize item from the 6th boss > Raises all stats by 100% for the next 3 turns.
Weapons:
- Added 2 new sets of weapons to the game (Tier 5 and Tier 6): Katar (Tier 5 Bare-Handed), Chakram (Tier 6 Bare-Handed), Kopis (Tier 5 One-Handed), Khopesh (Tier 6 One-Handed), Glaive (Tier 5 Polearm), Halberd (Tier 6 Polearm), Great Sword (Tier 5 Two-Handed), Morning Star (Tier 6 Two-Handed).
- Changed "Tonfa" > decreased damage from 8 to 7.
- Changed "Claws" > decreased damage from 11 to 9.
- Changed "Gauntlets" > decreased damage from 14 to 11.
- Changed "Katar" > decreased damage from 16 to 13.
- Changed "Chakram" > decreased damage from 19 to 15.
- Changed "Wooden Club" > decreased damage from 5 to 4.
- Changed "Short Sword" > decreased damage from 8 to 6.
- Changed "Sickle" > decreased damage from 10 to 7.
- Changed "Gladius" > decreased damage from 12 to 9.
- Changed "Kopis" > decreased damage from 14 to 10.
- Changed "Khopesh" > decreased damage from 16 to 12.
- Changed "Quarter Staff" > decreased damage from 6 to 5.
- Changed "Hunting Spear" > decreased damage from 8 to 6.
- Changed "Pitch Fork" > decreased damage from 10 to 6.
- Changed "Drill" > decreased damage from 12 to 10.
- Changed "Glaive" > decreased damage from 14 to 12.
- Changed "Halberd" > decreased damage from 17 to 14.
- Changed "Iron Axe" > decreased damage from 8 to 7.
- Changed "Heavy Sabre" > decreased damage from 11 to 9.
- Changed "Mining Hammer" > decreased damage from 13 to 12.
- Changed "Great Sword" > decreased damage from 15 to 14.
- Changed "Morning Star" > decreased damage from 18 to 16.
- Changed "Agnidanda" > increased price from 20 to 60.
- Changed "Scalpel" > increased price from 60 to 168.
- Changed "Butcher's Hook" > increased price from 43 to 120.
- Changed "Minotaur Mace" > decreased damage from 14 to 12, increased price from 124 to 250.
Battle:
- Added "Beast" fights that are currently only used in "Dog Quest", but will be used more often in the future.
- Added text that shows how much stamina was recovered upon resting.
- Removed cooldown text on the consumable items tooltip.
- Fixed a bug where the walk buttons from the actions panel were not showing if the player got stunned.
- Fixed effects/texts spawning offsets to prevent texts from spawning in weird positions.
- Fixed a bug causing extra stats not to be removed from previous weapon while changing weapons in a fight.
- Fixed a bug causing the action buttons (attack, kick...) to be interactable even if player doesn't has enough stamina.
- Fixed wrong numbers being shown at the skill/passives cooldown on the tooltip.
- Fixed entities wrong position on battle scene start.
- Changed critical damage multiplier > from 1.5x to 1.6x.
- Changed the UI handling to be more efficient by not refreshing it all every time, now it only refreshes things that were meant to be refreshed.
- Changed "Kick" action > Fully reworked, now it can be defended (entity doesn't get pushed), 20% critical chance, physical damage (STR / 2), gets more powerful with "Powerful Legs", stamina costs 10 more than a basic attack.
Enemy AI:
- Changed enemy A.I. behaviour, now it's smarter while performing it's actions/skills (example: kicking when opponent is buffed, to use potions, etc..)
- Changed Enemy entities (such as beasts, gladiators and bosses) > They can now use consumables like potions,etc...
Bosses:
- Added 2 new bosses/arenas after the Minotaur (no spoilers, try it yourself).
- Fixed a game-breaking bug causing bosses not to appear at all.
- Fixed "Tease" passive not affecting bosses.
- Changed "Ixionus" (hook) boss > now you can break his charged attack by using any push/stun skill/action.
Quests:
- Added "Dog Quest", now you only get the dog after winning this quest.
- Added repeatable quests that happens depending on the climate/other conditions.
- Fixed "Alpha Arena Quest", now alpha arena will only be unlocked after the quest is done, it was being unlocked before that.
- Fixed "Untamed Beast" quest, not it will only be triggered if you have available gladiator slots.
- Changed "Untamed Beast" gladiator stats.
Other changes:
- Fixed "Steam Cloud Save" misconfiguration, now it works properly ( big thanks to LobaPSD https://www.twitch.tv/lobapsd ).
- Fixed a bug that allowed gold coins to be a negative amount.
- Changed some formulas of the game for better balancing, including hit formula, stamina formula, and others.
QoL improvements:
- Added a few verifications on the code to avoid errors / weird bugs that can be caused due to that.
- Created new developer testing tools, players can expect better balancing.