Salvēte great Roman Citizens!
Today I have quite an update for you which adds a lot of improvements, QOL and Bugfixes to the game.
I saw the feedback in the forums that the game needed more balancing / provide a bigger challenge for mid and lategame to prevent the player from snowballing as much. The new Gladiator ageing system is a first step in that direction, as now keeping your gladiators forever will no longer be possible.
Additionally, I do want to emphasize that them starting to decline by age 33 is just for gameplay purposes and balancing as otherwise players would rarely ever see the impact of Gladiators ageing. As for the Legendaries & Demigods I was a bit on the fence if I should exempt them from having age penalties, but in the end I decided to have them adhere to it as well. Storytelling wise I feel like it makes it more interesting to see and face an ageing Achilles way past his prime.
New Features & Major Changes
Added a new Gladiator ageing system. Younger Gladiators receive an XP bonus, while older Gladiators may gradually lose stats as they age. Doctores are exempt from loosing stats, but if later recruited will be subject to that as well.
Reworked the Champions Cup format so clubs from higher divisions enter the tournament during later rounds.
Added a new Very Hard difficulty setting.
Added a new Roster tooltip that previews each Gladiator’s traits and equipped items. The tooltip can be toggled on or off by right-clicking.
Added a Favourite icon sorting option to the Roster panel.
Added a training effectiveness overview to the Roster Training panel.
League and Champions Cup fixtures are now randomized.
Gameplay & Balance
Reduced the XP bonus from the Talent trait from 50% to 25%, as younger Gladiators now also receive a flat 25% XP bonus.
Improved the calculations used by Auto-Equip, making equipment selections smarter.
Injured Gladiators can no longer begin Heavy Training.
Added new league standing tiebreakers. Clubs tied on points are now ranked by:
Head-to-head results
Ludus Renown
Alphabetical order
User Interface & Quality of Life
Tooltips now automatically resize based on the amount of text displayed.
Added character limits to Roster header rows to prevent longer translations from overlapping.
Improved the alignment of numerous minor UI elements.
Fixed the Ludus Management navigation buttons overlapping the Exhibition panel.
Fixed the Exhibition Match wave counter so it correctly displays the current and total number of waves.
Fixed an issue where the Start Match button could be pressed in Pregame Selection without any Gladiators selected.
Localization
Added support for Cyrillic and East Asian characters in the League panel and End of Season window.
Improved translations throughout the Gladiator Detail panel.
Fixed missing translations for the Doctore trait.
Improved and corrected various translations throughout the game.
Performance & Visuals
Optimized how game data is loaded, which should improve scene loading times.
Fixed post-processing in certain Arena scenes causing Gladiator names to appear blurry while moving.
League & Season Fixes
Fixed an issue that could cause the placement shown in the End of Season window to differ from the actual league standings.
Multiplayer
Made numerous optimizations to Multiplayer synchronization.
Fixed an issue that could prevent players from joining campaigns that had been running for an extended period.
Fixed an issue where Doctores were not always saved and restored correctly in Multiplayer.
As always if you find any bugs, please do report them in this forum only - Makes it much easier for me to keep track of:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/4088670/discussions/3/
Hope you enjoy a lot this new update, and remember once again - Rome wasn't built in one day :)
Best regards
Mathias