Swords and Sandals Immortals news & patch notes

Hey mighty gladiators, just a small update today - my attention right now is fully focused on Gorgon Shield but I hope to return to the world of Swords and Sandals in 2024! Patch notes for today V 1.1.3.D (Dec 19 2023): • Removed version compatibility check on multiplayer ( experimental ) • Fixed flipped alignment on enemy panel

Hey gladiators, not a massive update today ( working on the iOS/Android builds and also patching the Classic Collection and other games over the next week or so ) but a few bugs were brought to my attention, so I've done a patch tonight. The major thing in this update is something I'd meant to do but forgot in all the chaos ( it's even mentioned in the stats info too ) - vitality/stamina were meant to restore a little health and essence every turn, like in classic S&S. A lot more if you rest of course. This is now working. Cheers everyone, thanks for the feedback I truly appreciate it - remember I'm a solo developer and this is a complex beast, so I appreciate the reports on the forums! Those who instead just leaving snarky reviews and refund the game without giving me a chance to either fix things or reply, good riddance - that is not the way of the gladiator! Anyway, enjoy my friends. Oli V 1.1.1.A (March 30 2023): --- BALANCE CHANGES / STAT FIXES --- • You now regain a small amount health each turn based on how much vitality and stamina you have. • All gladiators in multiplayer now start with the Noob armour set ( minus a helmet ) • Slightly nerfed the final dungeon boss stats --- BATTLE CHANGES / FIXES --- • Changed incorrect tooltip info on Joy in Sorrow talent (it should be 100% chance of proccing, not 50%) • Fixed a bug where the Automatons failed to drop certain reward weapons on defeat --- MULTIPLAYER CHANGES --- • Potential fix for NPC bots in multiplayer stalling --- MISC UPDATES --- • Added Android Compatibility for Multiplayer Cross Platform Gameplay • Fixed a bug where Boss Rush mode would only trigger when you defeated the Starbound Gladiator (instead of just facing them) • Fixed a bug where only the player's maximum health was shown in the dungeon, not their current health. • Fixed a bug where you could die from a single hit in a dungeon after visiting a First Blood Arena

Hey mighty gladiators! With the game now complete and stable, I've now turned my attentions to getting the mobile builds of the game up and running ( for iOS/Android ). These builds will be 'cut down' versions of the main game , no dungeons, In App Purchases, you know, the usual hallmarks of the wild west that is mobile gaming. The good news is, the Android build ( so far !) can take part in multiplayer battles cross platform against gladiators on Steam. You'll now see a little icon next to a gladiator's name in the lobby to symbolise whether they are on a PC or on a phone. Being able to fight cross platform should really open up to the doors to more and more battles as right now the lobbies don't have many players , as is the case for many small multiplayer games. Expect the Android build in the coming weeks - this Steam build is *infinitely* superior to that one but it may serve well as a companion build when you're on the move. Today's patch is by all comparisons a very minor update, but here are the patch notes. Thanks for being with me on this great journey! Cheers, Oliver Joyce Whiskeybarrel Studios V 1.1.0.F (March 27 2023): • Added Android Compatibility for Multiplayer Cross Platform Gameplay • Fixed a bug where Boss Rush mode would only trigger when you defeated the Starbound Gladiator (instead of just facing them) • All gladiators in multiplayer now start with the Noob armour set ( minus a helmet ) • Fixed a bug where the Automatons failed to drop certain reward weapons on defeat • Slightly nerfed the final dungeon boss stats

Hey mighty gladiators, version 1.1.0.A is here, and it's a big patch! Woah, where to start. Boss Rush Mode, at last - I always wanted to have some endgame content for those who defeated the Starbound Gladiator, and here it is. Once one of your gladiators has faced the final boss in the game (win or lose) that mode will unlock for you. If you've done this already, simply go to the Load Campaign screen, and click back and the Boss Rush will unlock - it just needs to check your saves. This is an endless mode where you can face off all of the champions, one after the other in either linear or random order. They progressively get tougher and you will ultimately fall, the challenge is lasting as many rounds as you can. A bit of fun for those who have beaten everything else. Also by popular demand, you can now bring (some) of your solo campaign gladiators into multiplayer. This is a one-way conversion but should be a fun addition for those wanting to test their great heroes against other real gladiators. So, this update represents the end of the major post-launch updates. I've basically put everything in the game that I had intended to now. Of course, with a game like this you could add stuff forever, but the time eventually comes when (especially as a solo developer) you need to start moving onto new projects to keep the business going, to ensure you can keep making games and supporting the family. Now and again a developer has a hit like Vampire Survivor and can work on it forever ( or never work again if they wish!) but when you're in that middle space of 'successful enough to do this fulltime' but 'not successful enough to not keep releasing games often' , like I am, you have to keep agile. That of course does not mean I will be abandoning this game at all, it just means that I'll slow down the updates and probably do weekly maintenance updates for the next while. I do plan on doing a proper DLC update with more content down the track too, possibly end of the year - so this is far from the end of the road. Here are the patch notes, enjoy!| Cheers, Oliver Joyce Whiskeybarrel Studios V 1.1.0.A (March 24 2023): --- NEW FEATURES --- • Boss Rush Mode! This is a new game mode unlocked when any gladiator completes the game ( all you have to do is have fought the Starbound Gladiator , whether you won or not does not matter - either way the Boss Rush will unlock.) The game will scan your saved gladiators when you first click "Load Gladiator" to check and see if one qualifies. • Boss Rush Mode allows you to select any gladiator and take part in a challenge where they face every arena in the game, one after the other in combat. Much like the "Survival Round" arena rules, you cannot regain armour or heal between battles. This game mode never ends, the challenge is seeing just how far you can get! • You can now load Single Player campaign gladiators to Multiplayer gladiators ( Full Launch version or later, no Early Access gladiators can be converted unfortunately ). This is a *ONE WAY* conversion that can be done at any time after creating your gladiator, so you can then use them to fight in multiplayer battles. --- BALANCE CHANGES / STAT FIXES --- • Removed 999 essence cap on skills ( no maximum cost now ) • Increased all essence regeneration by 30% • Hardy talent increased to 60% ( up from 30% ) • Salute of honour enrage removed • Fixed a bug where Virtuoso did could potentially do less damage than intended on bosses • Sword , Axe, Bow, Club and Polearm Mastery are now 3% per point up from 2% • Increased damage done by two handed melee weapons • Slightly increased the damage done by bows • Leap of Lions move distance is now tied to your strength • Reduced cooldown on Ghost Strike to 4 turns • Reduced essence cost of default attacks slightly • Adjusted skill essence costs across the board --- BATTLE CHANGES / FIXES --- • Laser gun is now treated as a two handed weapon • Better randomization on which limb is lost in battle • Fixed a bug where Combat Ready talent did not work in Single Player campaign • Overload talent now functions as designed --- SHOP FIXES CHANGES --- • Fixed a bug where learning a skill on multiplayer mode would take you back to shop selection and not the Training Dummy --- MISC FIXES AND CHANGES --- • Fixed a bug with XP percent showing 0% • Fixed an bug where characters could select subclasses not allowed by their species • Fixed a bug where you could keep fighting even past the final hours of the day at camp. • Adventures will no longer spawn on the overworld map from day 298 onward. • Switched the positions of Observatories 2 and 3 on the map • Alignment now shows on Load Character panel • Undead can now select hair/beards in character creation

Hey gladiators! Another big patch today, V1.0.6.A ! This patch represents probably the second or third last of the 'big post launch patches' until I park the game for a while and let it breathe. I never quite got around to doing 'everything' I wanted for the game by launch date ( in a game like this you could add content forever ) and there was a few subclasses I never quite got built. So, here they are - they are a little experimental at this stage and may find themselves buffed / nerfed depending on player feedback - but we have 6 cool new subclasses with their own unique talents, from tough Pit Brawlers to the most useless of them all, the Fool! By popular demand I've coded up a very simple minimap to help you find your way around dungeons too. There are also some more multiplayer syncing fixes and lots of bugfixes , so this is a good patch I think. Cheers all , thanks for all the great feedback on the game so far. Almost done! Oliver Joyce Whisekybarrel Studios V 1.0.6.B (March 21 2023): --- NEW FEATURES --- • Six new subclasses , one for each character class. Pit Brawler, Dark Paladin, Spellblade, Zen Monk, Thug and Fool. • Six new talents , one for each new subclass. • Added a simple mini-map to the dungeon for easier navigation • Added a Clear Achievements Button to the Settings panel - this will clear your earned achievements (locally only, not on Steam) so you can trigger them again. Use this if you found you were unable to trigger an achievement on Steam for whatever reason and want to try again - the Steam achievements will *NOT* be cleared online, just your own local record of them. --- MULTIPLAYER CHANGES --- • You can now visit any level room regardless of what level your gladiator is. • More potential fixes for de-syncing battles • Yield skill removed from multiplayer ( too buggy for now ) --- BALANCE CHANGES / STAT FIXES --- • Fixed a bug where Know Thy Sword used the enemy's talent tree to calculate whether to add damage or not • Grave Pact now clears all status effects when used • Simplified Whirlwind as it was too buggy / exploitable / underused. It's now just a more powerful Barbarian Storm, there are no longer multiple turn charge ups etc • Meaty Burp now treated as sonic damage and not necrotic • Doubled the Paladin's holy damage talent • Fixed Aria of Respite so it regains 50% of essence not 40% • Dark Paladins and Thugs can only ever be evil and gain no good alignment points (can never spare enemy). • Paladins and Zen Monks can only ever be good and gain no evil alignment points ( can never slay enemy). --- BATTLE CHANGES / FIXES --- • "Hits in a row" as used by Ultimate Warrior now only refers to physical attacks , not spells etc • Increased weapon range of polearms slightly • Added a Fight Selector button to the end of regular battles so you can skip the battle caravan and return straight to select a new fight • Fixed a bug where Gaseous Wind did not proc with the Trickster Ability • Fixed a bug where Combat Ready was reversed ( lowered your chance of going first instead of adding ! ) • Fixed a bug where regular attacks ("quick/normal/power") etc didn't target arms • Fixed a bug where Spiritual Hammer didn't show attack chance --- SHOP FIXES CHANGES --- • Blueprints no longer generate talents that can go above the max talent level ( eg you can no longer get an "Ultimate Warrior + 2" ) blueprint • Fixed a bug where final resale amount returned was lower than the amount on the button • Capes are now listed under Chest armour when searching for items --- MISC FIXES AND CHANGES --- • Gladiators of greater than a certain height now appear smaller in the portrait window so you can see their heads • Extra Chinese language translation • Reworked some boss character subclasses to use the new character subclasses

Hey guys, just a quick hotfix this morning before I work on the bigger 1..0.6 patch later today / tomorrow. This one mainly fixes the multiplayer battles issue where it would say one gladiator did not have a weapon equipped after they had equipped an enchanted weapon. --- MULTIPLAYER CHANGES --- • HOPEFULLY - Fix for battles not starting because of enemy gladiators not appearing with their equipped weapons --- BALANCE CHANGES / STAT FIXES --- • Meaty Burp, Fart and I Am Fartacus now properly have the chance of proccing with the Jester's Trickster skill • This Is Brandor now has a 4 turn cooldown and works with a ranged weapon equipped --- MISC FIXES AND CHANGES --- • Fixed a bug where reward panel items appeared offset • Fixed a bug where magical reward weapons from Champions did not appear Fixed a bug where the All Hallows event ended prematurely at 199 days rather than 249

Hey mighty gladiators, too tired for detailed explanation of patch notes ( long weekend but got a few hours in tonight ) , but check it out and I hope it provides a few fixes for some of the reported issues. Big week next week, the last 'real week' of big updates before I park the game and let it breathe for a while. Cheers Oli Patch Notes V 1.0.5.N March 19 2023) --- MULTIPLAYER CHANGES --- • More anti-cheat measures • Battle Intro screen now includes tiny version number so I can see what version players are on if I need to debug • Proper warning text in Battle Intro now tells you if either you or your enemy has no weapon equipped and cannot do battle. --- BALANCE CHANGES / STAT FIXES --- • All gladiators in single player mode now start off with at least 10 stars • Ultimate Warrior Talent nerfed to +10% per hit in a row ( down from 20%) --- BATTLE CHANGES / FIXES --- • Shadows and Dust movement now scales slightly with agility --- SHOP FIXES CHANGES --- • Potential fix for low value items --- MISC FIXES AND CHANGES --- • You can now add blueprints and runes to Unique items. • Removed common armour/weapon items from boss rewards • Most recently created gladiators now show up first in the load panel • Multiplayer characters no longer show up to load in single player load game menu and vice versa • Fixed offset position of King Lionel's weapon

Hey gladiators, there was some issues that arose from the most recent patch just around loading savegames crashing. Hopefully this patch fixes it but if not I'll have something else later tonight. V 1.0.5.H March 18 2023): This patch *should* fix some savegame corruption issues that have arisen since V1.0.4. Fingers crossed. --- BATTLE CHANGES / FIXES --- • Fixed a bug where you sometimes were shown the defeat screens on victories after loading a character • "Hopeless" spirit type no longer triggers in multiplayer • Status effects should no longer remain after battles in multiplayer mode --- SHOP FIXES CHANGES --- • Fixed a bug where the Alterations panel charged you for armour/skin alterations even if you hadn't selected any • Extra checks on incorrect value items appearing in shops --- MISC FIXES AND CHANGES --- • Added gladiator's power score to load game panel • Potential fix for single player characters exiting to multiplayer lobby on end fight

Hey mighty gladiators, the last big patch for the week. I'm not working this weekend so don't expect any major changes over the next 2 days or so but if anything catastrophic happens with this update, I'll be sure to hotfix it as best I can. Firstly, apologies for the rapid rate of updates - to tell the truth, there was a lot of stuff I wanted to get into the game before the launch but honestly I had set a deadline and just ran out of time. So all these patches are just there to improve the game, continue to balance and bugfix it based on your suggestions. This patch includes some cool new gradient options for your gladiators ( visit the tavern !) so you can make them look more like the Arena Champions. The armour gradients will override the colours for magical armour, just be aware, but I think that's kind of cool, makes the gladiator look much more streamlined I think. Finally too, a fix for the dungeon softlocks when you ran into walls! Plus a bunch of other changes, Sellsword changed to Ronin , and more. The patches will slow down a lot in a week's time or so as I'm nearly finished with what I wanted to add in and the game is pretty much complete ( until I do a DLC some day !) , but be sure to hit me up in the Steam Forums with feedback on balancing and so on - I really appreciate it ( especially rather than just long posts and thumbs down reviews, they do nothing to help ensure the longevity of the game, so you can stop with those - ha!) Anyway gladiators, enjoy the new customization options and see you in the arena! Cheers, Oliver Joyce Whiskeybarrel Studios V 1.0.5.A (March 17 2023): --- NEW FEATURES --- • New special skin gradient and armour gradients for players! You can now customize your gladiator so all their armour will appear uniformally the same colour you choose. You can also add special skin gradients to further make your gladiator look unique. Visit the Tavern Keeper's Alterations panel to find out more. --- MULTIPLAYER CHANGES --- • Serverside stability issues - these will remain ongoing in the days ahead to fix issues with gladiators who have trouble re-logging in after going AFK , desyncing etc. Stay tuned. --- BALANCE CHANGES / STAT FIXES --- • Defence stat now increased to 1.1 per point (up from 1.0) • Quick/medium/power attack base hit chance increased by 5% • Increased all damage done by two handed melee weapons (not ranged/guitars) • I Am Fartacus talent changed to do damage and knock back your enemy ( no poison, acts as taunt with taunt bonuses) • Meaty Burp talent changed to do damage and stun your enemy for a turn ( same as Fartacus, acts as taunt) • Man At Arms talent changed (too buggy) to give you 40% physical resistance to start the game. • Arcane Blast and Flame Hands now scale with Intellect (not Charisma, was a bug leftover from when Charisma scaled magic damage) • Reduced Little Fat Kid hit chance to 25% base (down from 60) • Sellsword class has been replaced by Ronin • Ronin's talent Know Thy Sword increases physical damage when fighting with any sword by 33%. • Fighter's Combatant Talent increased to 25% (up from 20) • Increased scaling agility damage of Shadows and Dust and Ghost Strike • Increased Salute of Honour hit chance to 40% base up from 33% • Increased Salute of Honour's damage and added Intimidate effect to it • Lowered Heart of Fear's cooldown to 6 turns from 9 --- BATTLE CHANGES / FIXES --- • Alignment penalties no longer apply if you cause a limb loss fatality in the heat of combat. • Fixed a bug where modifiers could move a dice roll below 1 • Fixed bug where certain talent defence chances were not being added / shown in tooltips • Fixed a bug where Simulcrums did not have their holographic shader • Fixed up inconsistencies in Spirit Effect cutscenes with Battle Poet --- SHOP FIXES CHANGES --- • Fixed a bug where some shop items were cheaper on reload • Fixed a bug where you could get softlocked if you pressed the 'talents' button after resetting all your talents --- MISC FIXES AND CHANGES --- • Fixed a bug where the game could softlock if you were using the mouse buttons to move around in the dungeon and you hit a wall. (Also, remember you can also move with the ASDWQE keys, much faster!) • Doomtrek Portal Stars cost now maxxes out at 40 Stars. • Fixed a bug where Doomtrek was offered as a teleport option by the LFK • Replaced Whispering Farnsey's sonic Claymore with a lightning based Claymore • Fixed a bug where Emperor Cygnus was not wielding his Honour's Edge blade • Extra anti-cheat measures on before battle screen • Fixed a bug where Cycladians showed a white glowing eye instead of a red one if unholy

Hey gladiators, today's patch is not as earth shattering and interesting as yesterday's monster, but still contains some important updates to the game. First and foremost is a new load game system ( see notes )- it loads slower , especially if you have tons more gladiators, but it is WAY more reliable as there's no way of it losing the files in your saved directory anymore like some users reported happening. Secondly, I hope this update fixes some of the de-sync issues people have had ( where you won't see the battle ready button in the before battle screen , see the notes below ). The multiplayer fixes are a work in progress, there's also some serverside stuff we need to fix too, especially if your character goes AFK for a long period of time you can still be locked out of the game - dont delete your character in that case, will find a solution at some point soon hopefully. There's also some other fixes to hitchance from talents etc and prettying up of the tooltips from yesterday. Enjoy! Cheers, Oli V 1.0.4.A (March 16 2023): --- NEW FEATURES --- • Redid how loading characters work. It now scans your directory for save games, rather than relying on data based in the settings file. (Players were finding they were losing gladiators if they removed/cleared their settings file) , this way is much more robust - but you will find it is slower to display all your loaded gladiators if you have a lot ( it now has to cycle through them manually , a small price to pay for the increased security/stability) • Added new Automaton voice set to Automaton masters ( several of them will use it ) • Replaced some arena champion voice sets to more appropriate ones • Hit chance stats are now colourized for easier viewing --- MULTIPLAYER CHANGES --- • Potential fix for enemy armour/weapons not loading before battle ( this is when you don't see the 'Battle Ready' button, it won't let you fight if that is the case. This new version hopefully is better synced. • Save and Exit now takes you back to the Title Screen. This is still a work in progress and may cause reconnection issues but I'm working on it! --- BALANCE CHANGES / STAT FIXES --- • Replaced Iron Will Talent so it now gives Physical Resistance (the only talent in the game to do this) - basically reducing physical damage (melee weapons etc) by 12% per point • Galvanized buff now affects all healing, not just rest amount --- BATTLE CHANGES / FIXES --- • Fixed some incorrect hit chance displays in the tooltip ( the final number was correct, just not the text summary ) • Fixed enemy defend chance being capped at 100 , now only final attack hit chance is capped between 0 and 90. --- MISC FIXES AND CHANGES --- • Xor Gogris arena changed to Survival / First Blood combo ( from 15 turn time limit )

Hey mighty gladiators! This patch is a pretty big one, and will need some testing by all of us haha! For a long time, people have asked me how hit chances work in the game, and my standard response is, it's just too complicated for me to show you, and you know to be honest, half the time I actually had no idea what was really going on under the hood as it really did get far too complicated to explain even to myself. Until now. I spent yesterday ( among fixing a ton of other things ) sitting down and documenting all the formulas and modifiers, and making it so they appear in the tooltip. Now what you see on the skill button hit chance is EXACTLY the hit chance you will need to hit your enemy. All the calculations are done and shown for you in the tooltip. While putting this together, I found a few hit chance things were kind of busted, and a big one - weapon hit chance was not being added to base hit chance , so now dual wielding / two hand penalties properly apply and so on. Like I said, pretty big update for the game but WAY more fair now. If you don't want all that extra info, you can of course turn it off in the Settings Menu. There's a lot of other stuff, including a proper fix for the dual wielding unequip ( finally , again... ) and some fixes for possible multiplayer de-sync issues. With such a big update, no doubt more bugs will arise but I'm right back at the forge ( right after lunch, its 2pm here) and updates / patches will continue through the day and over the next few weeks until the game is in a great place so I can park it until later, (DLC planned for maybe end of year, who knows exactly!) Thanks so much once again for your feedback, bug hunting and enthusiasm for the game. Cheers, Oliver Joyce Whiskeybarrel Studios V 1.0.3.E (March 13 2023): --- NEW FEATURES --- • You now see a small D20 Die next to the defender's name once an attack has been made. This roll shows the number your enemy rolled out of 100 ( if it is LOWER than your attack chance, the attack was successful). If the attack was defended, the die is blue, if not, the die is red. • Added a new setting ( ON by default ). "Extra Hit Chance Info"). This adds extra info to tooltips so you can see how the game calculates hit chance for gladiators in combat. This is a big update, not fully tested. • All gladiators in single player mode gain 100 gold a day (in addition to a star) up to day 300 - this is so if you totally run out of money , have to sell your weapons, you can still eventually buy a new one and return to the action. --- MULTIPLAYER CHANGES --- • Fixed a possibly catastrophic de-sync issue where gladiators without a weapon equipped could enter a battle and really mess up the game. --- BALANCE CHANGES / STAT FIXES --- • Fixed a bug where Undead Priests never went below the calm spirit level when using Grave Pact • Fixed a bug where you could challenge a player at the same time you were being challenged, leading to weirdness • When Wild Magic procs now, it has the potential to increase damage by 50% instead of x2 ( too powerful) • Improved the stats and changed skills for Emperor Cygnus to make him more of a challenge --- BATTLE CHANGES / FIXES --- • Improved Hit Chance calculations for battle buttons to more accurately reflect what's actually going on, taking into account terrain, stat bonuses, enemy debuffs etc • Hit Chance now properly includes weapon bonuses / penalties correctly • Fixed a bug where enemy gladiators could use skills in First Blood arenas • In First Blood Arenas, gladiators now start two lengths apart now (like in multiplayer) • Potential fix for Arena Champions on higher difficulties not having boosted stats for their first turn • Fixed a bug where in multiplayer fights vs bots, spirit effects were not randomized • Improved Spirit Break animation for battle poets so it stands out more as a unique effect - many players have been confused as to why battle poets get positive statuses when broken • Changed calculations so clubs only do extra damage on armour properly • Changed calculations so swords only do extra damage on health properly • Fixed a bug where enemy gladiators using Cure Wounds used your healing stats to heal themselves • Increased Cure Wounds cooldown to 6 turns --- MISC FIXES AND CHANGES --- • FINALLY I think I have a proper fix to the dual wield unequip bug. Fingers crossed. • Moved Tooltips over to the right side of the screen (left side if you are facing the other way ) • Fixed a bug where the To Hell and Back achievement would not trigger • Single player gladiators no longer gain XP if losing a battle. • Reduced Doomtrek Portal entry stars cost by 30% • Improved Portuguese Brazilian and Chinese translations • Fixed a bug where Lantern' Jack's head no longer dropped as a reward item • Cleaned up text on the Settings Screen • Fixed a bug where spam clicking the save button in the Battle Caravan could crash the game

*** UPDATE ***- Please update your game to V1.0.4.H , because C and D were crashing the game pre battle, and bots were defending every hit. Apologies, a bug appeared while I was fixing some syncing issues. Hey mighty gladiators - this is the first 'full day' patch for the game since launch , as it's Monday and I've been able to spend all day on the game. I still have a list of 20 or more bugs and balancing issues I need to look at ( including making hit chance more transparent etc ) in the days to come, so bear with me. In this update , a (hopeful) fix for weapon de-syncing. Goodbye to the shank! This has been a problematic item in the game for a long time and so I'm glad to be able to get rid of it. New gladiators now start with a starting weapon like the blackjack or dagger etc. Be aware that if you unequip a weapon, you can't enter an arena (single or multiplayer) and the game will tell you that. *NOTE* For best results, try unequipping and re-equipping your weapons once in the shop, just so the game remembers them. A few small fixes for de-syncing in multiplayer, but there's more to do. Looking forward to getting stuck into it tomorrow and once again improving the game. Thanks for all your feedback. Kinda sucks to get a bunch of negative reviews today, but it is what it is, you can't please all people all the time and not everyone has the patience to learn systems. Enjoy, let me know what you think! Cheers, Oliver Joyce Whiskeybarrel Studios V 1.0.2.H (March 13 2023): ** FIXED PRE_FIGHT CRASH, apologies for that! --- NEW FEATURES --- • Removed the Shank from the game. It is no longer part of the game, was causing too many issues with weapon equipping/unequipping. It is much simpler now. If you do not have a weapon equipped, you may not enter an arena. • Each class now starts with either a dagger, blackjack, or a cleaver at random. Archers start with a shortbow. --- MULTIPLAYER CHANGES --- • Improved multiplayer battles for less de-syncing issues • All NEW multiplayer gladiators now start with the Yield skill in their battle bar so you can concede fights that drag out forever. • Fixed an exploit with the nefarious gladiators waiting for guillotines to kill their enemies while on the loss screen. • You may not enter a lobby room without a weapon equipped ( since the shank is now out of the game) --- BALANCE CHANGES / STAT FIXES --- • All shield block power has been halved and maxxes out at +25% (down from 50% defence vs hit chance) • Increased max hit chance modifiers for stats from 50 to 75 , meaning you can get up to 75% bonus hit chance from any stat, up from 50% max before. • You can no longer throw weapons while dual wielding • Command skill now has a 'slow' debuff on your enemies - helpful against fearful, leaping archers • Holy / Unholy Smite accuracy increased to 80% • Slightly lowered maximum movement speed per turn for all gladiators. • Nerfed Acrobatics bonus from 20 % per point to 15% • Wail's essence reduction amount have been nerfed significantly • Captivation has been nerfed to 2% per point (down from 4%) • Taunt Mastery has been nerfed to 8% extra damage per point (down from 12%) • Forked Tongue has been nerfed to 8% extra damage per point (down from 10%) --- BATTLE CHANGES / FIXES --- • Fixed a bug where the game would error out when the Command skill was used • Fixed a bug where Grave Pact didn't always break the spirit of the Undead who used it • Fixed a bug where Battle Rage did not trigger critical hits • Fixed a stalling bug on the Starbound Gladiator fight --- SHOP FIXES CHANGES --- • Redid shop weapon equipment system to hopefully fix weapon unequipping bug with dual weapons • Restored item portrait pic to small item panels on right --- MISC FIXES AND CHANGES --- • Gave Bruce the useless a starting magic blackjack (not that he knows how to use it) • Fixed a silent error sometimes being thrown when using Manual Save button at the battle caravan • Fixed a bug where the game could crash on completion of Hellscape mode • Fixed a bug where the game could crash if cutscenes were off for the Starbound Gladiator arrival scene

Just a small patch tonight guys, Sunday night so had a little time to sit down and start working through all the new bug reports. Tomorrow's going to be a big one, V1.0.2. For now though, just a few things , the main one is fixing the bot resting issue in multiplayer. Also some anti-cheat stuff: So, if you fight someone now with impossible stats, they will no longer be victorious. Instead, they will yield to you, be labelled a traitor and removed from the game. Such is the punishment for breaking the code of the gladiator. Cheers, Oli Patch Notes V 1.0.1.H (March 12) --- MULTIPLAYER CHANGES --- • Extra checks against nefarious would-be cheaters in battle. They shall not prevail! • Fixed a bug where enemy bots in multiplayer could use potions and switch weapons. --- BALANCE CHANGES / STAT FIXES --- • Flame Hands is now Arcane Grasp . This was done to reduce the confusion over whether it was an elemental spell ( it wasn't ). It no longer does fire damage but has increased physical damage. --- BATTLE CHANGES / FIXES --- • Fixed a new bug where bots resting would stall the game for a while and create a loss condition. • You now gain a small amount of XP even when you lose a battle in single player mode ( as long as the enemy gladiator is within your level range).

Hey gladiators, snuck in an hour or so this Sunday and was able to do a few little fixes to the game that hopefully improve multiplayer. Expect a much more sizable balance/bugfix patch tomorrow (Monday) - I hope you're all enjoying the game, the feedback has been overwhelming - appreciated! Cheers, Oli V 1.0.1.G (March 12 2023): --- MULTIPLAYER CHANGES --- • Removed the Yield Fight skill from multiplayer to stop players abusing it and quitting after 1 turn • Fixed an exploit used in battle with the Jump Swipe selector • Player challenges no longer appear if you are already being challenged in the multiplayer lobby --- BALANCE CHANGES / STAT FIXES --- • Improved hit chance roll calculations • Reduced base hitpoints of all gladiators by 20 --- BATTLE CHANGES / FIXES --- • Fixed a bug where Bruce the Useless found a way to hit you (villain!)

Hey gladiators! It's early Sunday morning here and this isn't a big patch full of bugfixes, that will come sometime on Monday ( just not a lot of time to work on the game on weekends ), but I got up early today to try and combat some of the nefarious cheaters in the multiplayer build of the game. I *hope* the anti-cheat system isn't too stringent and that it doesn't target gladiators unfairly, it is supposed to search for the more egregious and blatant hacking, but it may be a work in progress. Lots of balancing and bugfixing coming next week, to all gladiators who are playing this weekend, I salute you! Welcome new players, and welcome back veterans! Cheers, Oli V 1.0.1.B (March 12 2023): --- MULTIPLAYER CHANGES --- • Anti-cheat measures implemented for those who would break oaths of fairness with other gladiators --- BALANCE CHANGES / STAT FIXES --- • Throw Weapon cooldown now 6 turns --- BATTLE CHANGES / FIXES --- • Fixed a bug where enemy's "hits in a row counter" was reset if they got hit

Hey mighty gladiators, just a small patch this launch day, been so hectic! My brain is seriously fried as I've been up since 2am. (It's now 5pm). Didn't get to as many bugfixes as I had hoped and there's still a lot on the list but potentially over the weekend and definitely come Monday I will tackle many more things as they come in. Thanks so much for your feedback, well wishes and encouragement today - (and your patience!) Cheers Oli --- BALANCE CHANGES / STAT FIXES --- • Significantly increased the damage of Arcane Blast and Flame Hands • Increased the damage of Spiritual hammer • Increased the base health of all gladiators by 20 • Wail now has a cooldown of 3 turns (up from 2) • Nerfed Huge Charles' stats a little ( too hard for a first boss!) • Throw Weapon now has a 4 turn cooldown --- BATTLE CHANGES / FIXES --- • Fixed a bug where Armour Expert reduced damage vs health as well as armour • Improved dice roll calculations for hitchance (subtle but should 'feel' slightly more accurate now) • Fixed a bug where enemies could use species special skills in forbidden arenas • Fixed a bug where Sorcerer's Vortex skill only impacted status damage and not original hit damage. --- SHOP FIXES CHANGES --- • Cleaver, Bow, Dagger and Blackjack are now level 1 weapons so they can be available ASAP in multiplayer • Increased the base damage of all non-shank weapons by 2 --- MULTIPLAYER CHANGES --- • Fixed a bug where level 1 bots could not hit you … ever… Fixed a bug where the multiplayer matches could go on for far too long if a player left the 'jump swipe detector' on and didn't jump

At 1am this morning, my toddler woke me up, as so often he does. To tell the truth though, I couldn't sleep much either. So after putting his blanket back on, I headed to the computer room and sat down, and pushed the 'Launch Game' button on Steam. I was going to wait until this morning, but I was so wired - and I haven't slept a wink since. It's now 8am, and I'm still yet to exhale. The game is live. It's funny, there isn't the same sense of extreme trepidation and dread that comes when you first launch a game on Steam ( in this case into Early Access ), but there's this other sense of both dread and finality to it all. Although you can of course update your game, patch it forever and bring in DLC, the 'Full Release' window represents a psychological milestone to both the developer and the player saying, this is it. This is the game now, for better or worse. As the great Gandalf so wisely said , "The journey doesn't end here...", and old greybeard was right. There's more to do on the game. Hell, even today there are bugs to fix, some new, some old foes that have resurfaced. There are new and interesting game suggestions for me to implement. There is a mobile version of the game to build. I'll be patching the game probably daily for the next few weeks at least, with more stuff to add and fix - you can be sure of that. And yet ... realistically, I cannot work on this game forever. I'm a solo game dev with a wife, a mortgage and two kids, 5 and 2. I need to be agile, I need to keep building games. Eventually the well runs dry on a game like this (unless you have Vampire Survivors-esque success), often a lot quicker than you'd hope - and you need to start making money again, and fast. With S&S Immortals, I've taken the series about as far as I can for now, and this year I want to take a little break and try and build a new game , perhaps start a new franchise, perhaps make a bunch of different games. I do hope to return next year, I'd like to remake Swords and Sandals III with the Immortals Engine ( perhaps even S&S 4?) - and then who knows? So with that said, the road for Swords and Sandals Immortals, and I guess in a larger sense, the Swords and Sandals franchise, comes to a pause. Not a dead end, or a sheer cliff face, but instead a respite at a cosy tavern with a crackling hearth, fine beers and the company of those fine gladiators who have taken this journey with me. My artist Bokkimi. My musicians Alyctro and Tekl Ikogea. My business partner Aram Fuchs. Not least of all, you guys - the fans who have stuck with me through the launch of so many of these games, the fans who have battled all the pain of the bugs, balancing nightmares, crashes. The fans who have suggested the features that have turned the game from a bad game to a potentially great game. You are the real Arena Champions. Cheers, Oliver Joyce, Whiskeybarrel Studios.

This is it, gladiators! I didn't plan it like this, but we're at 0.9.9 right before launch... which is good as I was running out of version numbers. Technically its March 9 here in Australia, but I'm going to either launch the full game late tonight ( in 10 hours from now ) or tomorrow morning ( still March 9 somewhere in the world ) - possibly tomorrow morning just so I'm fully awake and able to answer support questions and so on. We'll see! This is a patch just based on your feedback on game balancing and so on. When I say 'final patch' , no doubt I'll sneak another minor one up later today haha. Just wanted to say a final big thank you to everyone for your feedback and support getting this game right up to the finish line, you've made the game infinitely better. Cheers Oli Patch Notes V 0.9.9.A (Mar 09 2023) --- BALANCE CHANGES / STAT FIXES --- • Command is now a Tier One skill with a 2 turn cooldown and low essence cost. This is to combat the ranged strategy of constantly leaping back and hitting you with a bow in multiplayer, which at low levels is nigh impossible to defeat with a melee build. • Defence stat now reduces hit chance by 1.0 per point. Attack increases hit chance by 0.9 • Taunt,burp, fartacus, gaseous wind's damage has been reduced but are now treated as sonic attacks for hit chance purposes rather than physical • Ultimate Warrior now only works on Physical skills, not elemental damage etc • Warrior Strike now destroys 1 piece of armour, Eagle Talon does 2, Wrath of Elitia and Sunder Armour does 3 • Jester's Trickster's proc chance is now 33% ( down from 75%) • You now have a base Critical Hit Resist Chance ( shown on your Vital Stats) which provides basic protection against being critically hit. Some attacks automatically crit and override this, like if enemy is in Battle Rage etc. • Each point put into vitality impacts Critical Hit Resist Chance by 1% (maxxes at 90%) • Lightning Bolt negative status effects can never last more than 2 turns ( unless another successful lightning attack causes the status effect to reset ) • Removed Holy Smite hit chance bonus from the Conviction Skill --- BATTLE CHANGES / FIXES --- • Movement speed in battle has been halved - you can still reach a maximum of 75M per turn, but it will take twice as much agility to do so. • Fixed some tooltip glitches --- SHOP CHANGES / FIXES --- • Charisma now gives you a discount of 0.5% per point in Charisma, down from 1%. --- MULTIPLAYER CHANGES --- • In multiplayer, Resetting Talents now costs a flat 20 stars each time. • New gladiators in multiplayer gain 10 Stars and 2000 gold. • Fixed server issue where de-connecting gladiators were not being removed from the total online count of gladiators (making it seem like more gladiators were online than were actually there) • Reduced amount of armour pieces NPC gladiators can choose from at level 10 and below

Hey gladiators, with roughly a day or so until launch, I've been absolutely swamped with things to do both on the promotional side, so I only got a few short hours in to work on the game itself - but I've done some fixes and (hopefully) some improvements. The patches will of course continue post-launch for a short while of course, I want to see this game be the best version it can be. ( within reason, I can't spend forever on it and the road calls me on to new adventures soon !) Here are the patch notes for today, expect some more fixes tomorrow! V 0.9.8.C (Mar 08 2023) --- NEW FEATURES --- • Improved tooltips in battle to show if a skill can do critical hits, cause knockback. These will be further improved in future patches. --- BALANCE CHANGES / STAT FIXES --- • Taunt,burp, fartacus, gaseous wind's damage now scales with charisma • Altered Reality skill now has a chance to proc only if you use an elemental spell • Reduced essence costs for all talents in the Warfare and Survival trees --- BATTLE CHANGES / FIXES --- • Fixed a bug where the Trickster taunt talent did not proc properly • Fixed a bug where Armour Expert took effect against health and not just armour • Reduced knockback power by 30% across the board and increased the defence stat's resistance against it b 50% --- MULTIPLAYER CHANGES --- • Fix for desyncing issues involving some armour-based skills like Sunder Armour and Warrior Strike --- MISC FIXES AND CHANGES --- • Potential fix for weapon unequipping while dual wielding - I'll monitor this if it regresses anything! • Removed Quit to Title from Settings Panel in multiplayer battles • Fixed a glitch with the Armour Bar sometimes throwing silent errors • Added Chinese character font to game logo when using Chinese language

Greetings again mighty gladiators - it's time for the daily patch as we lead up to Full Launch on March 9th! This patch is mainly balancing and bugfixing based on player feedback ( thank you once again!) . Perhaps the biggest change is removing the use of potions from multiplayer battles. They were causing some desync issues and also dragged out battles a lot longer than they should have. There are also now cooldowns on potions in single player mode so they can't just be spammed. --- MULTIPLAYER CHANGES --- • Players may no longer use potions in battle in multiplayer in the spirit of balance (and some desyncing issues) --- BALANCE CHANGES / STAT FIXES --- • All species special skills now have a base hit chance of 60% (except Yerens, which remains at 33%) • Wrath of Elitia now does 30% total health damage if used on an enemy with no armour. • Strength now increases attack hit chance by 0.5% per point • Agility now increases ranged hit chance by 0.5% • Strength no longer increases critical hit chance. • Increased Mighty Smash base hit chance to 60% • Fixed a bug where Fighter of Faith did more damage vs good than evil • Reduced damage from elemental spells by roughly 30% • Two handed melee weapons now increase melee critical hit chance by 10% • Increased maximum movement speed to 75 from 50 • Ancestral Warcry and Occult Aura hit chances lowered to 60% from 80% base • Captivation talent reduced from 8% to 4% per point • All lightning spells hit chances have been reduced by 20% base • Weapons Master and Final Judgement bonuses increased to 6% per point (up from 3 and 5) • Reduced the amount of total potions regular NPCs can carry into battle --- BATTLE CHANGES / FIXES --- • There is now a 4 turn cooldown on drinking another potion after you drink one. • Removed the ability to use Shadows and Dust with a bow - introduced too many bugs and was supposed to be like a sneaky melee hit anyway. • Fixed a bug where you could get stuck doing Shadows and Dust skill • Fixed a bug where some magical attacks counted as critical hits when they weren't supposed to (only physical/sonic attacks can crit usually) • Fixed a bug where some Switch Weapon rules were being ignored --- SHOP FIXES CHANGES --- • Fixed a bug where some fire runes could not be used on melee weapons • Increased physical damage bonus to weapons enchanted by Physical Runes and Sonic Runes • Sonic runes now act as physical runes, but only for sonic weapons like guitars. This damage is 'baked in' to the weapon when you enchant or when you see it in the shop, so it doesn't appear as 'bonus damage' in the battle - you can see the damage update when you look at the enchant panel in the shop. • Phalanx skill moved to a tier 4 ability down from tier 5 --- MISC FIXES AND CHANGES --- • Fixed a stat exploit on the character creation menu • Changed description of some class special abilities to show percentages instead of points • Fixed a bug with difficulty selection slider on repeat views • Loading saved games from earlier patches (pre 0.9.7) will now match the boss difficulty to your game difficulty

Alright, alright ... I know last week I said 0.9.6 was going to be the last big patch before Full Launch ( in just 4 days time! ) If you guys have been following me this last few years ( or if you've been with me my whole 20+ years of making games, you know I make things in an unorthodox way. I develop games intuitively and am often tweaking, changing and updating my games right up to the eleventh hour, the minute before midnight of a game's launch. A triple A studio would tell you 'lock down features LONG before you launch', but I'm just not like that. If I see something that needs changing, something that could be better or I hear a fan suggestion that I know would improve the game, I just know I gotta try and add it. So here we are, this is *I hope* the last big patch, known as ... The Simplicity Update. A bit of background. Back when I was first designing Swords and Sandals Immortals, I wanted to try and put as much stat synergy in the game, so there were 'no useless stats' - and for a while there, I kind of achieved that, at the expense of the game just being super obtuse and hard to understand for players. An example : Until now, Intellect increased magic damage, but charisma increased magic hit chance - the idea being you'd need both stats to make a well rounded mage. I've learned ( slowly ) that people don't like this. Many players want to min/max and not be forced to spend points on stats they would otherwise safely ignore. Now... Intellect affects magic damage and magic hit chance. Charisma affects sonic hit chance and damage , and so on. Check out the full patch notes below to see just what I've done to try and make things a bit easier to understand, but in a nutshell, with the introduction of character subclasses and so many talents and skill combos, there is no need for this extra layer of complexity, so I'm glad to be able to simplify things a bit. Also in this patch, after a great fan suggestion, you can now tweak the difficulty of both arena champions or regular gladiators (instead of just 'one game difficulty setting') - you'll need to start a new gladiator for this, of course. Oh yeah, and now NPC gladiators have smarter skill selection AI and can wear magic armour and wield magic weapons, so that'll boost the challenge a little! Anyway, I've only got 4 days 'til launch but I'll be monitoring this update and patching where I can, both pre-and-post game launch, to continue to try and make Swords and Sandals Immortals the greatest in the series. Cheers, Oliver Joyce Whiskeybarrel Studios Patch Notes V0.9.7.A --- NEW FEATURES --- • Game Difficulty has now been divided into "Gladiators Difficulty" and "Champions Difficulty". You can now independently set how hard you want a) regular fights and b) champion fights to be. ( New gladiators only ). • New game difficulty level added - Hellscape. Play at your own peril, this is nigh impossible! • Tough bosses remains on to 'boost' difficulty even more extremely and has now been boosted further for EXTRA challenge --- MULTIPLAYER CHANGES --- • Leaving the Multiplayer Lobby now quits the game to the desktop instead of back to the main menu. This is necessary as reconnecting to the server multiple times with multiple characters is problematic. I will restore this if I find a solution. --- BALANCE CHANGES / STAT FIXES --- • Defence vs hit chance reverted back to 1.0 ( was too powerful) • Hit Chance • Health per level is now 4 instead of 5 by default • Agility / strength / intellect / charisma bonuses are all now 4 per point and 5 if your class has a bonus - all standard across the board • Agility no longer increases hit chance with ranged weapons but increases ranged weapon damage • Strength does not increase hit chance with melee weapons but increases Critical Hit Chance at 0.25 % per point in strength • Vitality no longer increases hit chance for melee weapons but gives you more health than before • Intellect now improves hit chance with magic and not sonic • Charisma now improves hit chance with sonic and not magic • Lowered sonic weapon base damage • Respecced NPC gladiator base stat choices • Respecced NPC AI logic to be more aggressive with skills • Respecced Arena Champions to take into account how the new stats work • Virtuoso Stat now does 25% health damage to your enemy in multiplayer (not an instant kill) • Wake The Dead now does 10% damage vs undead, down from 20% • All armour values increased by 50% • Arcane Blast, Shadows & Dust, now scale with intellect • Ghost Strike and Fire Blast now scale with agility --- BATTLE CHANGES / FIXES --- • NPCs now wear sometimes use magical armour and wield magical weapons • Improved NPC skill selection to be less predictable in battle • In battle, rolling over your character panel (or your enemies) now shows your skills the first time, your talents the next time and finally your consumables ( I couldn't fit both in that parchment box) • Fixed a bug where Guitar God took precedence and overrode Virtuoso in some sequences • Recalculated how some damage was taken and absorbed for more accuracy • Class special skills Shadows and Dust and Wrath of Elitia can now be used with a bow • Battle Poets now have their own Unwavering Cutscene (glows blue/gold instead of purple) when spirit broken and Unwavering effect triggers • Rune enchanted items with 'Physical' and 'Sonic' damage will no longer 'proc' bonus effects because there is no bonus physical/sonic effects (unlike fire) - see below --- SHOP FIXES CHANGES --- • Removed description from Physical and Sonic Runes about 'bonus effect' as there is no special effects for these two ( unlike fire, lightning etc) - Physical and Sonic Runes just improve the weapon's base damage. • Sonic runes now only work on sonic weapons and simply add bonus damage to them (melee + power chords) • Fixed a bug where sometimes weapons would not unequip if alt hand weapon was equipped • Much higher chance of enchanted weapons being runic rather than blueprint (eg more frost/fire enchants etc) --- MISC FIXES AND CHANGES --- Fixed a bug where starting a single player character and then abandoning before creating a multiplayer character would cause issues like permadeath in multiplayer

Hey guys, weekend here so not much time to work on the game (young family and all!) but I've been able to put a few little bugfixes and balances into the game. Here are today's patch notes. As usual thanks for the positive feedback and encouragement - always appreciated! Oli V 0.9.6.I (Mar 04 2023) --- BALANCE CHANGES / STAT FIXES --- • Fixed a bug where lightning did insane amounts of damage • Defence now improves defend vs hit chance by 1.25 up from 1.0 • Meaty Burp and Taunt damage has been nerfed a bit • Increased bow base damage • Reduced Weapons Master talent to 3% per point (down from 10%) • Reduced Final Judgement talent to 4% per point (down from 8%) • Increased Essence regeneration on rest and walking • Fixed a bug where Order of the Magi triggered if your enemy had the skill, not you • Fixed a bug where Paladins did incorrect damage • Fixed a bug where Arena Champions stats were greatly weakened --- BATTLE CHANGES / FIXES --- • Fixed a bug where the Tough Opponent achievement would trigger at the wrong time • Fixed a bug where the First Blood rule did not apply to regular skills

Hey gladiators! Well, we are almost there. Full Launch is slated for March 9th, roughly a week's time. With multiplayer finally stable and working well, this week I've been able to turn my attention to the one final thing I had wanted to add to the game before launch. In a word, subclasses. I always like the idea of character subclasses in RPGs, for example a knight who specialises in two handed weapons becomes a cavalier, or a wizard who specialises in elemental magic becomes a sorcerer and so on. Originally I had thought of making these 'full classes' but I figured they were better served as subclasses for the 6 main character classes ( Warrior / Rogue / Bard etc). There are now 18 subclasses to choose from, your previous saved gladiators will be automatically assigned on when you load the game, but new gladiators will be able to choose from the character creation screen. There are a bunch of new talents associated with these subclasses, bringing the total number of classes and skills each class has to 4 and 2 respectively. Now of course these are not fully tested or balanced, so I'll be looking at your feedback closely over the next week to see what I need to buff / nerf, and this will go on during Full Launch as more players come to the game. There's also a ton of bugfixes and other balances in this patch, I hope you enjoy it and get ready for Full Launch - the end of the journey is almost upon us! Cheers, Oliver Joyce Whiskeybarrel Studios Patch Notes V 0.9.6.A (Mar 03 2023) --- NEW FEATURES --- • Subclasses! Each character Class now has three subclasses- so a Warrior can now be a Fighter, a Barbarian or a Man At Arms, for instance. Each Sub Class has its own unique talent. • All Arena Champions now have subclasses too. • Each character class now has 4 talents and 2 skills. When you load an old character, a subclass will be assigned to it, but when you select a new character, you can also select a new subclass. --- MULTIPLAYER CHANGES --- • Throw Weapon has now been restored in multiplayer battles ( confirmed not a cause of desync ) • Leaderboards now sort by ELO Score ranking. • Bots now have slightly less armour than they did previously in multiplayer only • Add temperature ranges to preferred arena picture so you can see how cold to hot these arenas generally range. Extreme weather is listed in the Before Battle panel as either Heat Wave or Freezing ( in Celcius -40C or colder or 40C or hotter , in Fahrenheit -4F or colder or 104F or hotter) and causes penalties (check the Head To Head Crest for more info). • Remember, if you have the Weather Expert talent, you now do not suffer the normal penalties of extreme heat and cold (essence reduction and lowered health regen). You also of course get a hit chance bonus in these extreme conditions as per usual. • You now gain 1 star even when losing PVP battles in multiplayer • Potential bug fix for fatalities not counting towards win/loss record --- BALANCE CHANGES / STAT FIXES --- • Essence Cost for any one single spell now maxxes out at 999 • Imperial Armour is no longer listed as "Unique" so it can be enchanted now. • Bhaargle's Apprentice now correctly reduces damage from elemental debuffs • Fixed some misc bugs in calculating skill effects across the board - enemy AI was sometimes using the players skill levels to calculate their own skill amounts etc. • Weather Expert hit chance bonus now 7% per point • Removed 100% immunity bonus to Sonic for Haxxapods ( was a relic from an earlier version ), now they have 75% damage reduction. • Altered how damage reduction is calculated for more accuracy (in the favour of the defender) • Charisma now increases damage by 5 per point • Increased the damage of the power chord, now takes into account the guitar's base weapon damage • Guitar melee damage has been halved • Renamed Man At Arms talent to Weapons Master • Renamed Troubadour to Balladeer • Increased damage of Meaty Burp • Some skills hit chances have been altered • Fleet Foot now scales with agility • Greatly reduced the Essence cost of Reaper's Bargain • Some Arena Champion classes and weapons have changed • Other misc balancing and tinkering -- BATTLE CHANGES / FIXES --- • First Blood Arenas now disallow the use of Special Skills • Extreme Weather penalties now show up in the little 'rules' text in the main battle screen. • In the final battle against the Starbound Gladiator, players on NORMAL or EASY difficulty now regain their armour / health between rounds. This does not happen on higher difficulties. --- SHOP FIXES CHANGES --- • Added an 'exit shops' button on the Switch Shops button panel --- MISC FIXES AND CHANGES --- • Redesigned Character Select Screen • Fixed a bug where the Doomsday 'days remaining' panel appeared in multiplayer mode • Cycladians with pure good or pure evil alignment now show a singular glowing eye

Hey gladiators, thanks for all your testing of the multiplayer servers over the weekend. Good news is they've been remaining stable and online and there's been over 2000 battles fought, so that's awesome. Bad news there are still de-syncing issues and I think one of them is to do with weapon switching (and by association throwing weapons), so I have removed that skill from the multiplayer side of the game from this version onward. At some point hopefully I can restore those skills. I've also done some skill tree reworks to do with the new bow skills, and there has been some reworking of item levels in forge / enchanters. Good luck with the new build - once again, new gladiators will be required ( from here on in , pretty much every big update until the full launch will need new gladiators , so I can eliminate what might be causing syncing issues. Bit of a chaotic time here with a sick kid so not sure when I'll be working on the game next, hopefully tomorrow. Thanks, Oliver Joyce Whiskeybarrel Studios Patch Notes V 0.9.5.A (Feb 27 2023) --- MULTIPLAYER CHANGES --- • You can no longer use Throw Weapon or Switch Weapon in multiplayer due to them causing de-syncing issues. • Gladiators can now level up if their XP is full even after losses. • Reduced the gold penalty for losing fights to bots • Halved the star cost of buying skills in multiplayer --- BALANCE CHANGES / STAT FIXES --- • Man at Arms skill now improves melee and weapon damage by 15% per point. It no longer gives bonuses to hit chance %. • Critical Mastery improves melee and also ranged weapon hit chance now • Forsaken Sword is no longer an axe ( lol ) • All armour values increased --- BATTLE CHANGES / FIXES --- • You no longer gain/lose alignment if an enemy player flees the battle --- SHOP FIXES CHANGES --- • *EXPERIMENTAL* You can now enchant any non-unique item / blueprint and it will turn the item into the highest level possible. So if you have a level 15 sword and enchant it with a level 72 blueprint, it will turn the sword into a level 72 sword. Or if you have a level 72 sword and a level 20 blueprint, the sword will remain at level 72. • You cannot unmake unique items • I might have to play around with this change a bit more as it’s a bit untested

Hey gladiators, once again sorry for the fickle nature of the multiplayer servers. Still working through issues with it, so sometimes it's online, sometimes not, and sometimes you have to make new gladiators. Getting there though! This patch is for all those gladiators who asked for special skills for their archery build. Here are 6 new skills to help you in battle - they may need a little tweaking as I'm not sure if they are overpowered, underpowered etc. I'll work on this over the next week. Please note - you should *really* update your build to this one or multiplayer will have real issues, some gladiators having the new skills, others not etc. Cheers, Oli V 0.9.4.A (Feb 25 2023) --- NEW FEATURES --- • Six new archery skills for ranged based characters. These may need some balancing, so I'll monitor them. * Hamstring - Shoot your enemy for damage, knock back and slow them down. (requires bow) * True Shot - High accuracy shot that does damage to your enemy and reduces their attack. * Suppressive Fire - A defensive arrow shot that does %s damage and decreases enemy defence. (requires bow). * Dazing Shot - Forceful shot that damages your enemy for damage and leaves them stunned. (requires bow) * Eagle Talon - Powerful ranged attack that will destroy at least one piece of your enemy's armour. (requires bow). * Heart Pierce - Devastating ranged attack that bypasses armour for %s damage and causes instant fear. (requires bow) --- BALANCE CHANGES / STAT FIXES --- • Changed some skill selections for bosses to adapt for new archer based skills • Improved some dungeon boss skill selections • Frost/Fire/Necromancy/Poison/Lightinng Protection Resistance talents increased to 12% per point. --- BATTLE CHANGES / FIXES --- • Parry / Shield Block / Dodge icons now all appear as 'Defend' during battle to cut down on confusion as they are all essentially just 'your defence'. Previously they would show different text depending on if you had a shield, were fired upon by an arrow etc • Slightly improved enemy ranged AI --- MULTIPLAYER CHANGES --- • Daily bot fight allowances increased to 12 per day ( your gladiator may need to wait for the next 'real day' for this to kick in ) • Canned chat in Multiplayer to phrases only (potential security vulnerability + moderation issue) • You can no longer fight gladiators on different game versions as you

After 5 days down, finally we're back online with multiplayer battles. Let's hope this version is stable enough to keep online - it'll need testing and no doubt there'll be some teething problems but we're getting closer to Full Launch now, so let's see how we go. You'll have to create a new gladiator for this build , so delete any old multiplayer gladiators you have lying around. See you in the arena, I hope! Oli --- MULTIPLAYER CHANGES --- • Fixed multiplayer de-syncing issues so gladiator fights should play out on both screens exactly how they should. • Realms are now divided into 8 rooms ( down from 36) - this is to stop the player base being so diluted in so many rooms • You can now select your preferred arena to fight in. When you challenge an enemy, you will both fight in the *challenger's* preferred arena. • Added ELO Rankings to Leaderboards - this is a bit like a Chess Ranking system where you are ranked via your win / loss record against comparable gladiator levels. • Added total number of gladiators online to multiplayer lobby count (includes players in battles too) • Added a "total number of fights" tally to multiplayer lobby • Fixed a bug where enemies who were hit with the 'confused' status would freeze the game • Your gladiator's name is highlighted in BLUE on the leaderboards now --- BALANCE CHANGES / STAT FIXES --- • The Miasma talent has been replaced by a new talent 'Intensify' which increases the damage of all elemental spells by 8% per point and can be increased up to 5 times. • Reduced the cooldowns on Arcane Blast, Spiritual Hammer and Shadows and Dust • Increased Cycladian's Call of The Sea attack hit chance to 60% • Increased the base damage of Arcane Blast --- BATTLE CHANGES / FIXES --- • Fixed a bug where characters who had the enraged status effect got stuck in an endless loop of running without having their turn

Hey gladiators - firstly, I need to apologise for the Multiplayer Server being down since the weekend. There's been some technical / security issues that appeared and until they are resolved, I don't want to put the server live again - good news is it should be fixed in the next 24 hours. I've used this time to put a lot of work into multiplayer . Coming soon will be the ability to select which arena you wish to fight in, less realm rooms (meaning less dilution of players) , ELO Leaderboard score rankings, total online player count and more. Most importantly, I think I have solved all the de-syncing issues in multiplayer battles where gladiators see different things during the battle. I need to test this more but in every battle I've tested the results have been the same on both machines, so I'm confident that should continue - though there may be some outliers with certain skills (will keep an eye of this in testing this week!) There's also a lot of balancing and regular bugfixes, so see the patch below and I'll post again the moment the Multiplayer Server is live - at which point I'll ask you to update your game version once more. Thanks so much for your patience on this, Cheers, Oliver Joyce Whiskeybarrel Studios Patch Notes V 0.9.2.F (Feb 22 2023) --- MULTIPLAYER CHANGES --- • Multiplayer is currently disabled -the server and database are experiencing some technical issues that should be resolved by Thursday/Friday 24 Feb. Huge apologies and than you for your patience - if you are reading this on Friday or after, be sure to update your game via Steam! --- BALANCE CHANGES / STAT FIXES --- • Reduced provoke's duration to 2 turns and increased cooldown to 6. In multiplayer it forces the enemy to rest. • Floralisk's photosynthesis now restores 80% of your health (up from 40%) • The Massive talent now increases your health by 30% (up from 20%) • Fixed a bug where Guitar God caused a longer stun than intended --- BATTLE CHANGES / FIXES --- • Increased chance of limb losses in battles so they can potentially happen on Critical + Grievous Hits ( instead of just Grievous hits ) --- SHOP FIXES CHANGES --- • When in Grid View, equippable items will now have a small blue frame around them • 'Show Pic on Equip' in settings has been replaced with 'Auto Equip Items' . If this is on, items in shops will automatically be equipped on purchase. This is back on by default ( I turned off auto-equip in a recent patch) --- MISC FIXES AND CHANGES --- • Potential fix for bows unequipping between battles • Potential fix for dual weapons of same type unequipping • Fixed a bug where leaving dungeons, halloween events and observatories would place you back in a town instead outside the area you just left • Final dungeon boss reward no longer auto-equips by default • Fixed a bug where Haxxapods gained good alignment points if enemies fled battle • Fixed a bug where some single player characters were labelled Oathbreakers • Change description on Protection talents in the Survival tree to remove incorrect text about 'increased resist chance' as these talents only reduce the damage you take, not your chance to avoid getting hit by fire/frost/lightning etc. • Respec talents panel now shows the correct amount of talent points available • Fixed a bug where fight wins/losses were not tallied in single player • Fixed a bug / exploit where map adventures moved around when you viewed your info panel • Fixed a bug where some battle achievements would not trigger • Some overland mini adventure reward stats have been changed

Hey gladiators - been a tumultuous 24 hours since Multiplayer first went live! Firstly let me apologise for the syncing issues many of you have been experiencing - please update your build to this one and *most* of them should be solved. There's now a warning if you fight a gladiator on an earlier build as this might de-sync you (where both gladiators see different things). A bunch of other small quality of life updates and fixes here. More to come tomorrow and through next week too as we head to Full Launch. Cheers, Oliver Joyce Whiskeybarrel Studios V 0.9.1.J (Feb 16 2023) -- NEW FEATURES --- • NPC Enemies now have more talents available to them to make them more challenging --- MULTIPLAYER FIXES AND CHANGES --- • Most multiple de-syncing issues with talents/weapons fixed (not 100% though) • Fixed a bug where enemy NPC bots did not have armour,talents, stats etc • You can now view more than the top 99 gladiators in the leaderboards. ( Leaderboards will be wiped and restarted once ELO rankings come into play) • All arenas in multiplayer now simply use default rules ( no chasms etc) • Added a warning before battles if both gladiators are using different builds of the game ( because it can cause weirdness in battles with de-syncing) • Fighting bots now skips the battle intro • Added info if server is down and cannot connect • Increased gold and XP from fighting bots --- BATTLE CHANGES / FIXES --- • The character panel of a highlighted player's turn now appears orange ( and blue when not your turn ) • Haxxapods now have access to the 'always kill' button so you don't have to press 'slay' every time after the first fight if you wish. • Fixed a bug where enemy gladiators targeted legs with every melee attack • Added animation to 'Life hangs in the balance' panel • Fixed a bug where the game could hang after spare / kill selected --- MISC FIXES AND CHANGES --- • Fixed bug where defeating certain simulcrums could send you to the multiplayer lobby • You can now view both your and enemy equipment from the Head to Head Crest ( the last small square button on the right )

Gladiators! I'm thrilled to launch V0.9.0 at long last, featuring multiplayer battles! This has been a long time coming, and was of course promised when the game launched in Early Access. The S&S series has not had proper multiplayer since Swords and Sandals III Multiplae Ultratus back in 2007 ( which sadly didn't last long when the servers crashed, never to recover.) So what you see here today is at last fully working multiplayer against actual real life people. I'm really fascinated to see what happens with this, what tactics will become popular, what classes will need re-balancing, who the greatest gladiators will be and so on. With multiplayer now live, the game is now feature complete. I'm going to monitor multiplayer over the next week or two, do some bugfixes and balancing and then I will launch the game into 1.0 Full Release. A few notes for you:

• ELO Rankings ( kind of based on chess rankings ) are coming in a few days, so until then the leaderboards are still just based on Power Score rather than actual wins/losses/skill levels of players.
• There's a chat panel in each realm room but if I see this being used to abuse players or for too much mischief, I'll have to turn it off - so I'm trusting you guys to be responsible and kind to each other.
• Multiplayer is a 'bonus' mode for the game, not a full on massive experience, so it is a little bare-bones. If I find all of a sudden there's 10000 players playing, I'll throw lots more at it to add new features and so on - right now I'm kind of at capacity and the game's scope is complete, so at this point 'it is what it is', but it is for the most part a fully playable experience!
• If the servers go down, I'll monitor them and add more bandwidth - right now the setting is pretty low.
• You have to create a new "multiplayer" gladiator to fight in the multiplayer battles, you cannot take a single player campaign gladiator in for balance reasons.
• Try not to cheat with cheating tools - I don't have sophisticated anti-cheat stuff in there but there's a few checks and if you cheat, your gladiator won't be able to keep fighting multiplayer battles. Besides, where's the honour in beating someone just because you falsely bumped up your stats?

Cheers gladiators, I really hope you enjoy this update and perhaps I'll see you in the arena! Oliver Joyce Whiskeybarrel Studios V 0.9.0.A Patch Notes --- NEW FEATURES ---

• Multiplayer now arrives in Swords and Sandals Immortals! This is still a work in progress and you may encounter some issues. I will look to improve the experience based on feedback where I can.
• Please bear in mind, Multiplayer is a bonus game mode and not designed a sophisticated experience, that is to say this is no League of Legends, there are no guilds, matchmaking etc.
• It's kind of 'bare bones' just because I don't have the resources to work too much longer on it. If it becomes hugely popular I'll be able to pour more into it.
• The ELO Ranking (based on chess) is coming this week, and will rank gladiators based on games won/lost and quality of foes.

--- BALANCE CHANGES / STAT FIXES ---

• Reduced the amount of XP won per battle after character level 5 (on a sliding scale - as you level up you need to win 3 or 4 fights to level up instead of just 2.)
• Increased value of defence stat from 0.75 % hit chance per point to 1.0

--- BATTLE CHANGES / FIXES ---

• Fixed a bug where Clamp XOR's flamethrower particles did not always go in the correct direction
• Enemies will no longer yield to you in tag team battles
• Your character name panel is now highlighted in yellow when it is your turn

--- SHOP FIXES CHANGES ---

• Shops will now restock every 2 days ( down from 3 days )
• Shops now remember if you use the grid view or the wide item view

--- MISC FIXES AND CHANGES ---

• Fixed an issue where text looked jagged on some monitors in full screen mode
• Added camera tracking to the overworld map when the gladiator is moving ( the camera will properly follow them without the need to double click to return focus to them )
• Added Klergish Xorg voice set ( thank you to user Xorgius )
• Potential fixes for some achievements not firing
• Changed Defensive Stand and Furious Anger achievements to 5 hits/misses (down from 10)