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Gladiator Guild Manager News

Update v0.600 - Timeline, Weather, Different Arena, Level Up Stats, Discounts

Hey guys! Here is the newest progress of the game. We gathered your feedback from the last big closed beta update and from people following the development. Our main goal right now is to make the gameplay loop more fun, engaging, and with more things to play with.

Join our Discord Server to follow development more closely, talk with us and share your thoughts with the community.

Here’s what’s new in v0.600:


[h2]New Timeline[/h2]
Timelines now consist of a full month with 30 days included, instead of 10.
Throughout the month, the timeline will move to the left, displaying info about things that are coming your way. Those include: gladiator/shop updates, shop discounts, current weather and upcoming weather, when you will have to pay your gladiator’s wages and when the championship is going to happen.


Gladiator wages are always at day 30 and are paid automatically (if you don’t have enough gold, the gold will go into negative value, but you will not lose your gladiators).
On the bottom right corner of the screen you’ll see text indicating how much gold was spent on gladiator wages.

Championships are always held on the first day of each month.
The activities you do throughout the month serve to prepare you for the most important part of progressing in the game: winning the championship.

There is now a weather system that affects gladiators in combat. This provides more strategy, as you know which gladiators are less effective during which weather so you can prepare accordingly.

Weather changes affect most arenas. But there are arenas like Ancient Temple or Hollow Mountain that always have the same weather buff so you know what to expect there.

From time to time a gladiator or item shop discount will appear on the timeline and you’ll be able to see how long the discounts last. It will discount random gladiators or items in shop with random discount percentages.



[h2]Ring of Death Arena[/h2]

While preparing for championship at start of the next month, between quests you’ll also be able to play the Ring of Death Arena. After playing this arena, it will become available again in 7 days.

In this arena you’ll be able to choose 3 different modes:
  • Blind fight
    Choose your gladiators without seeing the enemy team.
  • One VS One
    Choose a single gladiator to fight against an enemy champion.
  • One VS Many
    Choose a single gladiator to fight against many enemies. Another difference here is that enemies can be positioned at any part of the arena and so can your gladiator (no left and right side like in other battles)

Each of these will unlock after finishing one championship.


[h2]Gladiator Level Up Points[/h2]
Previously, stat points were automatically allocated when gladiators levelled up. From now on, when gladiators level up, you’ll be able to choose which stats you want to put the points in and with that have more control over the progression of your gladiators.



You can mouse over gladiator abilities to see how stats affect the calculations of the ability (such as damage, cooldown, etc). We’ll try to explain this in the tutorial once the game is ready for Early Access.
(This was already in the game before. It’s just a reminder since we seen people asking what those stats actually do.)



[h2]More[/h2]
-In the championship, you will only face the types of gladiators that you can hire yourself (or if buildings of those gladiators are available for buying). This feature will shine more once there is a larger pool of gladiators to choose from, making each playthrough more unique.
-Small gladiator AI improvement that helps them target enemies who are dealing higher damage.
-Some bug fixes, visual improvements and other minor things.


[h3]Note:[/h3]
Keep in mind, now that the timeline lasts 30 days, if you stay longer on some championships you might run out of quests. This will be solved by adding more of them soon. But you’ll always have the option to play some of the Ring of Death Arena modes each 7 days. And eventually we’ll add even more things to do, to make the gameplay more dynamic, engaging and interesting (You can read about the new features we plan to add below).



Plans For Future Updates

-Next things we’re planning to focus on is collaboration with local businesses for passive income. There will be a few available businesses, like a small stone mine or woodcutting camp. They will call for your help and you will need to fight several waves of enemies to set them free. After that the local business will give you part of their income, but from time to time they will ask for your protection.
You’ll be able to see passive income indicators on the timeline.

-Synergy for gladiators with various buffs. Example: Item that makes the gladiator deal 30% higher damage to frozen targets, making this gladiator very efficient if paired with the Cryomancer, who can freeze enemies. And many, many other combinations increasing the tactical possibilities of the game.

-First parts of the Main Quest Chains.
Also more side quests, so there is higher variety in each playthrough and more things to do while preparing for the upcoming championship.

-Expeditions - this feature will probably come a bit later, as it needs a solid amount of work and we have many other things to finish before we get to this. But we started considering it so we want to hear your thoughts about it.
The idea is that you’d be able to buy a guild building that lets you use a caravan and send a number of gladiators on an expedition. You’d see a hand drawn map of a dangerous, uninhabited nearby region that you would explore and dwell deeper into.
There would be no actual battles to look at. You would only send a couple of gladiators and they would be unavailable for a certain amount of days, depending on how far you sent them.

When they return, they would bring the news of what happened. If they were successful, they would bring you some loot and resources. If not, you’ll need to consider sending stronger troops or a higher number of troops to conquer that part of the map.
The map would have caves, old buildings/towers occupied by bandits, forests and other locations with valuable loot. Sometimes abandoned, but more often occupied with various enemies that need to be defeated by your caravan party of gladiators.

We feel like this would be a pretty fun additional thing to do. Planning which gladiators to send, and when to send them to get the most out of them. That is also different from usual battles so it would add to variety in the gameplay and keep things more engaging.
We’d love to hear your thoughts about this idea.

If you haven’t already, join us in our Discord Community where you can follow up development more closely or chat with us about the direction that the game is going and help us with your feedback to make the best game that we can! :)


Thank you for your patience and all the valuable feedback! We’re working hard on getting the game fun and polished before Early Access, and we’re getting closer and closer.















Basic Editor Is Ready To Use In Beta!

Basic editor functions are now ready in beta!
You can put together friendly and enemy gladiator teams, set their levels, and watch them fight!



There is also an option to copy friendly or enemy team so you can send it to a friend or to our Discord Community to show others the teams that you've made.

Keep in mind that is is just a basic version of the editor and new features are coming. We’re planing on adding options to choose items and quirks for gladiators. And eventually additional abilities for each gladiator.

Another feature we're planing is Challenge Mode. Where you can create an enemy team, set amount of points player can use to create their team (for gladiators, items, etc) and then send the challenge to a friend.
We'd also have prepared Challenges that you can load in the game and test your skills.


This features is both something we need for development and a fun toy to play with and test how gladiators work (or don’t work ːsteamhappyː). This will be a huge help in figuring out when the gladiators behaviour breaks, or where they don’t act in the way they should.
But more importantly, a place for you to test out some strategies and combinations really quickly.

Here’s a quick tutorial about how to use the editor: https://youtu.be/lh9ATHRmsf0

All feedback about what you'd like to see or change in the Editor is more than welcome! Tell us here or in our Discord Community.

Also we have new channel on Discord called #share-editor-team where you can share your teams or try teams that others have made.

Thanks for following up on the development of the game!

Next feature that we’re planing to focus on is changing how timeline works and adding weather effects that will affect all the gladiators in the arena. As well as to update the editor with new features.

Let’s Brainstorm Design of a New Type of Arena on Twitch Stream

We’re having a 45 minutes brainstorming session on Twitch Stream where you can help us generate ideas for a specific aspect of the game together.



[h2]Change of Design And Reason for New Arena Type[/h2]
In short, here’s the change we’ll make in the game. We want to make Championships a BIG deal. They will be available only at every 30th day (end of the month). And at one point we will also add a boss fights at the end of each championship and of course a larger reward for wining. Making you feel great once you beat the championship and move forward in the game.
But during these 30 days we’ll have quest, and we also want to add another type of arena that can be started at any point you want to. But after finishing it, it would have 7 days cooldown before it can be played again.

[h2]Theme of the Brainstorming Session[/h2]
The theme of this brainstorming session is this new arena that will be playable at any point with 7 days of cooldown.

The current idea that we have for this new arena (Ring of Death - current name) would let you choose 3 types of gameplay whenever you start it (it can be more than 3 if we figure out more fun things)

  • Blind Fight
    You select your team and lock it down. And only after choosing your gladiators, you will see the enemy team appear. You can then change positions of your gladiators and items they carry. But you can not change the gladiators themselves.
  • 1vs1 Melee Fight
    Here you can see the gladiator that you are about to fight. But arena has barricades around fighters making it very small, so it’s intended for proving your strongest melee fighting gladiator.
  • Betting
    Two teams are already in the arena. And you can place a bet on the team you think will win (not using your gladiators at all)


We are still thinking about those types of gameplay and want to make them more interesting. Perhaps we can have more than 3 type, and then as you progress in the game, new random modes would be unlocked.
But what better way to think about new types of gameplay, than to brainstorm it with you guys :)

So in this Twitch Stream what we want to brainstorm with you the new and interesting gameplay types that can be chosen in this arena.


[h2]Here are the few guidelines:[/h2]
  • Once we start brainstorming I’ll set the counter and brainstorming will last 45 minutes. (If you still have ideas after the 45 minutes expire, join our Discord Community and tell us about them in #feedback channel)
  • I will not judge any idea. At this stream we only want to generate as much as possible.
  • Write anything you like, no matter if it’s wrong or ridiculous. Bad or out of place ideas can be an excellent pathway for a new more creative and excellent ideas that we wouldn’t arrive at if we didn’t start with wrong idea that lead us up to the right one.
  • You’re encouraged to build upon or get inspired by ideas presented by others, in order to generate new ideas.
  • Stay on subject of this “New Arena Gameplay Types”. (You can write ideas related to other subjects in #feedback in our Discord Community) (And we’ll have more streams like this with other specific aspects of the game too)



After a day or two, Danijel and me (Darko) will work those ideas out, see what fits the game, maybe build upon them or adjust them. And then I’ll do another stream where we can discuss and evaluate those selected/adjusted ideas.

Here is our Twitch Channel Link: https://www.twitch.tv/entertainmentforge

Stream will start in less than 2 hours from now (countdown in on twitch page).

If you miss it. You can still give us your thoughts on the new Arena Type in the #feedback at our Discord Community.

So let’s have a chat and figure out how to make the game as fun as possible! :)

Tell Us Your Feedback About Final Design (Or check out what we're planing)

After considering your feedback and our thoughts on how the features from the new update are working out, we brainstormed some final changed and additions to what the main gameplay loop will look like.

Here are the changes and new features. Tell us your thoughts about them :)


Timeline

We wanted to change the timeline to last 30 days but also to move forwards like this:


It would tell you what kind of weather is coming (weather will affect all gladiators in the arena), as well as when gladiator and item shop updates are. At day 30 the main championships would be organized.

[h2]Championship[/h2]
We want championship to be a big deal that happens once a month. We'll add more things in between to do (gonna talk about it right after this).
We noticed that you guys enjoyed the boss fighting quests in beta. So we are thinking about adding an unique boss/champion at the end of each arena, that you'd need to defeat in order to prove yourself and unlock the next arena. Making it even more satisfying when you conquer the arena.

Ring of Death Arena

While you're preparing for championship other than doing quests, you'd be also able to join The Ring of Death Arena. This arena would be available right away, but after playing it, it would require 7 days until it become available again.

Here you'd get to choose 3 types of games:
  • Blind Fight - You would set up your team and lock them up. Only then the enemy team would be revealed. You won't be able to change your gladiators, but you'll be able to change their position and items.
  • 1vs1 Fight - Here gladiators would have a very small fighting area and both you and the enemy will have just one gladiator. Place to prove your best fighter.
  • Betting - If you choose this type of arena, you're not putting your gladiators into arena. Instead you'll see two gladiator teams and be able to bet gold on the one that you think will win the fight.

We believe that this will refresh gameplay and let you guys do something different.

Passive Income

There will be several places of business in the map, unlocking as you progress. They will need your protection.

At first you'll need to defeat several teams of enemies (bandits, undead, beasts, etc) and then you'll make a deal with this place where they will give you passive income every 15 days in return for your protection. The place might get attacked again and you'll have limited time to defend it before it's taken away.

[h2]Conclusion[/h2]
These are main changes/additions we have in mind to make the final gameplay loop more fun and with more variety. Of course other features that we talked about are coming as well, but we need to make sure the main gameplay loop is fun and that we can build upon that.

What are your thoughts on these ideas? You can tell us here or join our Discord Community and talk with us there.

Thank you!

Biggest Beta Update Is Finally Here!

This took some serious time! But we had to add all these features at the same time.
On the bright side, this means that today we have the biggest update of the game so far! ːsteamhappyː

If you own Beta, try it out and tell us what you think. If not, you can check how things are progressing towards Early Access and tell us your thoughts all the same.

You can talk with us or follow the development more closely by joining our Discord Community



What's New?


[h2]Updated Gladiator Guild [/h2]
Now it’s simplified and made into a panel because there was no purpose in previous design where you would place buildings around each other. We got feedback from many people that this was the weakest part of the game. Here is what’s new:
  • Two random gladiator buildings unlock after finishing each arena.
  • There is Revival Temple building that lets you bring units back from death (this is disabled on PermaDeath mode).
  • Gladiator and Inventory slots can be upgraded at bottom of the panel.
  • Upgrading specific gladiator building increased that gladiators inventory space and experience gain.

[h2]Updated Gladiator Info Panel[/h2]

  • Panel is visually changed to nicely show all stats and quirks.
  • More stats are now shown like: Range and Type of Attack.
    Knowing Type of Attack is useful because you can compare it to enemy defences and see what kinds of attacks they can defend from (and vice versa).

[h2]Timeline[/h2]
There are days, weeks, and years (no days limitations anymore).
In upcoming updates this feature will be connected with weather system.

[h2]Gladiator Wages[/h2]
At middle of the week you'll need to pay gladiators wages. Higher level and better gladiator quirks makes their wages higher.

[h2]Gladiators Dying and Reviving[/h2]
Now gladiators die in normal more too. But you can revive them. This will cost you a mana crystal and time. Higher level gladiators take more days to get revived. You can upgrade Reviving Temple in guild to reduce the time it takes. (PermaDeath mode still exists but in this mode there is no reviving)

[h2]Quests and Events[/h2]
During the week quests will appear from different factions asking you for favors.
Championships are organized at end of the week and quests serve to help you prepare.

[h2]Faction Reputations[/h2]
You have reputation with each of the 3 factions. Higher the reputation, higher the quest rewards. But in future updates we’ll add the main quest lines for each of those factions and you’ll need reputation to start those quests and also to continue the next ones.

[h2]Boss Fights[/h2]
You may encounter two boss fights in quests.

[h2]Bank[/h2]
Place where you can buy or sell resources. Also where you can loan some coin to bounce back if you find yourself in bad situation.

[h2]Custom Gladiator Heads[/h2]
You can put a transparent PNG file to replace any gladiators head (experimental feature so we can’t guarantee it will work on every computer yet)


Units

[h2]New[/h2]
  • Old Villager (Placeholder name)
    Villager with pitchfork
  • Tank Villager (Placeholder name)
    Villager with wooden shield that protects massive amounts of damage but the shield breaks after a certain amount of damage taken.
  • Female Villager (Placeholder name)
    Villager who throws knifes with low accuracy but with great strength that will knock the opponent down.
  • Forest Troll (Boss)
    (We had him in the game before but didn’t use him since there were no quests)
    Has huge health and damage. Melee attack that attacks single gladiator, and Smash ability that hits everybody around him.
  • Undead Yeti (Boss)
    Has strong attack that knocks enemy down with every hit. Also a Thick Fur, passive ability that blocks 80% damage from ranged and explosion attack types.

[h2]Changes[/h2]
  • Priestess
    Does not restores stamina any more and has longer cooldowns.
    (Still very useful with shield and heal, but not overpowered like she used to be (hopefully))

  • Invigorator
    Has new ability to restore stamina.
    His Diving Vigor that boosts gladiators main stat is 80% stronger.

  • Horn Beast
    Has Dense Fur passive ability that blocks 30% of the damage from ranged and explosion attack types.

  • More
    We made minor balancing to other units like nerfing Berserker a little bit, buffing Archer, making Hunter less accurate as he’s really good at keeping melee units away from him, but should not be that great against ranged units. And many other small tweaks to other gladiators.


[h3]Items[/h3]
Consumable items are now 50% stronger than ordinary items of the same level. Use them smartly when odds are not in your favor.


[h2]Thank you![/h2]
Thank you for following our games development and all the support! If you have any feedback or want to hang out with us and keep closer look on how development is going, join our: Discord Community ːsteamhappyː