Hey everyone,
V0.750 is here, bringing in a number of new features, combat improvements, balance changes, visual upgrades, bug fixes, and new content. I highly recommend starting a new game to experience all the new features.
10 New Greaves Added
10 new greaves have been added to the game, with some providing unique class bonuses. Also some SANDALS!
A huge thank you to freelance artist Julio "JKen" for his hard work on these. I am very happy with how they have turned out and you can expect more equipment and visual variety as development continues.
Reworked Arena Gladiator Cards
Gladiator cards in the Arena have been visually reworked and now display the gladiator you are actually sending into battle.
The goal is to make your gladiators feel more visually distinct and ensure the combat preparation screen better represents your roster.
Auto Equip All
A new Auto Equip All button has been added to the Arena scene.
This allows players to quickly equip their gladiators without manually managing every equipment slot before combat.
Class Specialisation Morale Bonuses
Gladiators now receive morale boosts when selecting a class specialisation.
Additional morale bonuses are awarded when the chosen class matches the gladiator's ethnicity and cultural background.
New Event: Barbarian Raids
A completely new event has been added: Barbarian Raids.
Barbarians may arrive and demand tribute. You can choose to pay them off or fight back.
If you defeat the raiders, captured prisoners can be:
Recruited into your ludus
Sold
Executed
Prisoner recruits have a higher chance of strong rolls than standard gladiators found through the regular market, making these battles dangerous but potentially very rewarding.
Rival Event Combat Improvements
Combat during rival school events has been improved to provide much better clarity and presentation.
These encounters should now be easier to follow and feel more consistent with standard combat.
Combat Actor UI Improvements
The combat actor UI has been improved.
Skill icons will now appear when skills are activated, making it much clearer when abilities and combat effects are influencing a fight.
Blood VFX Improvements
Blood VFX have received another improvement pass.
This work is still ongoing, and I will continue improving blood splashes, impact effects, ground blood, and the overall presentation of combat.
Animation Improvements
Basic-class gladiator animations have been improved, including:
Receiving hits
Attack reactions
Kill animations
General combat presentation
More animation work is already ongoing and will continue through future updates.
Multiple Combat Reworked
Gladiators will no longer politely stand around waiting for their turn when multiple units are fighting a single opponent.
In 1v2, 1v3 and other uneven fights, multiple gladiators can now actively pressure a lone target rather than effectively taking turns.
This makes outnumbered combat significantly more intense and ensures the risk of fighting multiple opponents is properly represented.
The age of forming an orderly queue to murder someone is over.
Killer Trait Removed
The Killer trait has been removed from the game.
The trait completely broke parts of the economy and would also clash with future planned content, particularly the upcoming magistrate outcome decision system.
New Stat: Intelligence 
Intelligence has been added as a completely new gladiator stat.
Intelligence now affects several systems:
Gladiators with less than 10 Intelligence will struggle to communicate properly
Intelligence increases overall XP gain
Intelligence governs critical-hit performance
This also opens the door for more personality, dialogue, training and class interactions in future updates.
Tournament Difficulty Improvements
Tournament difficulty has been improved.
Other schools may now send their champions into tournaments, meaning some brackets can contain significantly more dangerous opponents.
Winning a tournament should feel like an achievement, not a sponsored day trip.
Enemy Scaling Increased
Enemy scaling has received a slight increase to maintain challenge as player rosters become stronger.
This will continue to be monitored and adjusted based on player feedback and progression data.
New System: Patron Guidance
Patron Guidance objectives have been added.
Players will now receive goals from their patron and earn gold rewards for completing them.
The main purpose of this system is to provide direction for players who choose to skip the tutorial while still allowing experienced players to progress freely.
Class Balance Changes
Several class balance adjustments have been made.
Hoplomachus
The Hoplomachus stun-lock issue has been resolved.
Hoplomachi maintain their powerful reach advantage, but now have a slight cooldown between attacks. This gives other classes an opportunity to close the distance rather than being permanently locked outside attack range.
The spear speed penalty has also been removed for Hoplomachi, while spear damage has been increased to ensure the class remains deadly and distinct.
Bug Fixes
Multiple minor bugs have been fixed throughout the project, including:
Fixed a morale bug that could disable the Proceed button in the post-combat scene
Fixed a game-completion issue when the final progression state landed on a League or Tournament day
Various smaller stability, UI and gameplay fixes
I will continue monitoring the game-completion fix closely due to the number of different progression states involved.
UI & Cosmetic Improvements
Various UI and cosmetic improvements have been made throughout the project.
This remains ongoing, particularly as I continue replacing weaker or older presentation elements with more polished artwork and clearer interfaces.
Development News
Some good news as well.
Last month's coverage from ReformistTM was received extremely well and brought a large influx of new players into the game.
Because of that support, my art budget has increased going into the end of this month. You can expect more background scenes, more visual improvements, more equipment variety and generally more content going forward.
Also Splattercatgaming covered Gladiator Command yesterday, bringing even more new players and attention to the project which I am very grateful for.
The game is growing and I can now reinvest more back into it.
Retiarius Is Coming
The demand for the Retiarius class has been overwhelming.
So, I have heard you.
I will now be creating the class and the current plan is for the Retiarius to be ready for the next update.
Thank You
A huge thank you to everyone for your feedback, bug reports, reviews and continued support for the project.
Seeing the reviews come in and watching people genuinely enjoy the game, even at this very early stage, is an incredible feeling.
I will not let people's expectations go to waste. There is still a huge amount I want to build, improve and expand.
Let's carry on building Gladiator Command together.
As always, if you encounter any issues or have feedback, you can reach me through the Steam Discussions or Discord.
Thanks, everyone.