Hi everyone!

The new update is finally here! This one is probably the biggest update since we started early access. It brings a lot of improvements and fixes, and some of these considerably change gameplay in all game modes. That's why as of today, all leaderboards will be wiped so the rankings reflect players performance under this new system.

Here it goes!

Combat improvements

• Increased enemies animation speed in normal difficulty by 10%.
• Your helmet breaks when you don't have any armor left, making more "visible" the need to grab a new one.
• While you still have your helmet on, if you are hit by an enemy your vision will blurry but not become red.
• Increased a bit the blurry time when hit.
• Engage system will unlock when enemies are knocked out.
• Engage system is not experimental anymore and can be activated at the difficulty menu.
• Enemies in the blood arena now have full health instead of 1/2 like before.
• Ragdoll on hit is not experimental anymore and is now active by default. This makes the gladiators sometimes fall unconscious to the floor if you hit them on the head, on the leg while they kick you, or if you hit them hard sometimes. This is specially useful against a group of enemies, as you can stun one of them whil you kill the other one.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1417378931
• Enemies will be pushed back a little bit if you hit their armor, helmet or shield. This makes combat against armored enemies more responsive.
• Added grunt sounds when hitting the enemy armor or helmet.
• Added body armor to your own avatar for increased sense of presence. It does not increase your hp points, for now.
• Shields now break after some hits and visibly deteriorate when they are at 50% and 20% HP.
• Enemies will drop their shields sometimes when they die (like they already do with their swords).
• UPDATED: Nerfed skeletons damage to 10 from 20 and slowed them down when they are in close range.

New scene and starting point! The cell

• By default, you will now start the game at your cell in the gladiator school. The cell has the new main menu always open, which makes easier to start a new game.
• The starting point is also configurable, so if you prefer to start at the armory like before, you can do it just by changing the starting point in the options menu.

Main menu UI Revamped

• Restructured the content to make it easier to navigate.
• Added new Leaderboard section with all leaderboards and your stats summarized (the summary section is work in progress)
• Added a new "Your stats" section. You will have a summary of your positions in the leaderboards and your fame level.
• You now have your name, rank, gold and fame visible in the main menu.
• Added new difficulty section in the options menu to select the different parameters that effect the difficulty bonus.

New leaderboards!

• Completely removed old leaderboard system from the game and implemented a new one, which will give me much more flexibility in the future.
• You can now see your position in the in the global ladder (you could only see top players before this update)
• You can now see how you compare to your steam friends!!
• Also, very important, you have leaderboards next to the main stats panel at the end of each fight in the games or in the arena.

New Scoring System: Difficulty bonus

• The difficulty bonus is applied to the final score of The Games, Endless and Challenge and allows us to compete in a global leaderboard using different difficulty and locomotion settings.
• The new system to calculate the points on the leaderboard will take the money you get from a match and multiply it by the difficulty bonus. The difficulty bonus is calculated by adding the following parameters:
- Difficulty level: 0.5 points for Easy, 1 point for Gladiator, 1.5 points for Hero. - Locomotion: 0 points for teleport, 0.2 points for Trackpad, 0.5 points for arm-swing. - Engage mode 0 points if it´s off, 1 point if it´s On. For instance, if you select Hero+Trackpad+EngageOff = 1.5+0.2+0 = x1.7 Difficulty bonus.
• This system applies to The Games, Endless and Challenge Leaderboards. Chariots already have their own system for scoring based on time and difficulty.
• The Games: Points are now accumulated between days if you continue playing. The only way to be the top player in the leaderboard is to complete all 7 days in a row.

New Fame System (beta)

• Added a ranking system of 16 levels that will rank you depending on how much the crowd loves you.
• For now, the fame system only ranks you, but the idea is to use your fame for unlocking levels, etc. For instance, you will not be able to fight in the Colosseum without being at least a Slave.
• You gain or lose fame every time you fight in the colosseum or in the arena games (endless, challenge or chariots).

Weapons

• The Barbarian sword has now a x2 bonus vs armor and shields
• Reduced Mace damage to exposed parts to 12 and vs armor (48)
• Added a Scythe: 6000 gold at the market. Works like the halberds but will always behead the enemies. Thanks to 불법 Loli Nutcake for the idea! :D
• Added a new small shield that has 600 hp (the hardest in the game). Available at the market.

New sound effects

• Added over 200 new sound effects to improve overall sound quality of the game.
• Added sound effects and sounds when enemies drop to the floor: Effect added to archers, gladiators, sword masters, barbarians, legionaries, fighters, mummies and skeletons
• New sword drop sounds
• Changed sounds of gates chains
• Cheering will continue in the Blood Arena between waves.
• Improved legionaries sounds (attack, pain, die)
• Improved gladiators sounds (attack, pain, die)
• Improved archers sounds (attack, pain, die)
• Improved sword masters sounds (attack, pain, die)
• Improved barbarian sounds (attack, pain, die)
• The stadium crowd will now celebrate your death.
• Crowd raised volume a bit. 07. 09
• UPDATED: Improved sounds when hitting the floor with the sword.
• UPDATED: Added sounds and effects to shield bash animation

Tutorial (BETA)

• Added a complete new tutorial that walks you through the basic concepts and controls in Gladius. The tutorial includes a section to practice dismemberments, and most importantly, stabbings.
• This is a first version that I plan to improve in the next update. Please If you find any issue let me know.

Training Team Fights revamped!

• It's now possible to play unbalanced teams (e.g. 3 vs 5)
• You can play against 2 teams (e.g. 2 vs 2 vs 2 )
• You can also select each type of enemies per side (e.g. you can set a team of 2 tigers vs 4 archers and a mino.)
• Teams now spawn on opposite corners of the arena.
• Added two modalities:
- Timer 5 or 10 minutes (you respawn every time you die until the timer is up ) - Default - Endless (until you die )
• In both modalities the team with more kills at the end wins. Killing your own team mates does not count (of course :). Thanks for the feedback Ubi!

General Improvements

• Improved animation blending of all enemies.
• Modified Weapon Lock icons positions so they are more visible with the rift ( -90 vs - 45 degrees + Position)
• Added text to lock icons to tell users how to unlock their weapons depending on their grip configuration.
• Changed teleport visualization from straight line to arc.
• Teleport in Oculus now works by just pressing the thumbstick up in addition to A/X buttons.
• Added stats panel at the end of the games instead of starting again the game. You now get money just by playing it, but you risk losing fame if you lose.
• Improved lighting in all levels.
• Added warning before you start a fight without weapons.
• Chariots starting position closer to the handles.
• Chariots crash when gear > 3 (before they crashed if gear > 2), so it's a bit easier now.
• Chariots weapons configuration changed: you now get 2 quivers and 3 pilums.
• Chariots crowd will cheer every time you complete a lap, when you kill someone, or when you destroy a chariot. Also turned up the volume.
• Chariot handles collision boxes improved.
• Chariot handles make sound when you grab them.
• Moved starting position in Day3 so you are closer to the bow.
• Added the selling basket to the market for easier selling.
• Optimized poly count of the temple in the gladiator school to just 2k.
• Spectator screen is disabled by default for better performance and is properly recovered from saved settings.
• Updated control helpers.
• UPDATED: Added hitting on the standing leg of an enemy while they try to kick you while will send them to the floor.
• UPDATED: Moved catapult in Day5 so enemies can attack you.
• UPDATED: Improved attack distance in mid range situations.
• UPDATED: Improved fighters animations and added a left hand punch to the list of available attacks.
• UPDATED: Added warning you need more space for engage mode.
• UPDATED: Added warning to sell basket explaining that only works for previously bought items.
• UPDATED: Added LOD to the market trees.

Fixes

• Fixed some shields getting huge after storing them on the item locker.
• Fixed bow disappearing from you hand when starting the endless mode
• Added torchs in day 2 for more ambiance and additional weapons. Since skeletons and mummies don't spawn any shields when they die.
• Fixed stones being able to stab.
• Fixed Day 3 not showing the rope attached to the player.
• Fixed orientation of Parma and Cetratus Shields.
• Fixed weapons launching out of the arena when in slowmo.
• Fixed going directly to blood arena from the armory would make a lot of weapon noise sometimes.
• Fixed quiver still showing one arrow when was already depleted.
• Fixed gladiators getting up from ragdoll still moving.
• Removed old bow from the archery range.
• Fixed tigers not hitting the player sometimes.
• Fixed using hold grip setting and arm swing locomotion, when holding your weapons with the grip button, you'll be unable to use
Arm-swing locomotion until you release the grip button, thus losing your weapons.
• Fixed belt rotating in weird ways when you looked at the floor.
• Limited gladiator's mutilated bodies from flying away.
• Fixed pressing trigger while pressing grip and grip mode = hold would release the weapon.
• Fixed pressing grip while trigger and grip mode = hold would release the weapon.
• Fixed Hold grip + Teleport locomotion not working
• Oculus - Fixed Pilum not going into throwing position on the Rift (Or using sticky setting and trying to change to throwing stance with your pilum, it doesn’t work.)
• Oculus - Chaperone bounds not showing up correctly.
• Oculus - Fixed "start here" paper text for oculus rift.
• Oculus - Fixed help menu for oculus rift.
• Oculus - Fixed Shield1 attachment position.
• Oculus - Fixed the chariot handles grabbing position
• Oculus - Fixed Sprint sometimes only sprints a little bit ç
• UPDATED: Fixed distances of attack of all enemies so they always can hit you.
• UPDATED: Fixed bow not working properly when grip = hold.
• UPDATED: Fixed being able to stab through the shield.
• UPDATED: Fixed weapons would store on the belt while the game was on pause.
• UPDATED: Fixed crash in the challenge arena by temporarily removing tigers from list of possible enemies.
• UPDATED: Fixed MazeCrawler and Scorpio not dealing any damage.
• UDPATED: Fixed mummies not spawning sometimes in day 2.

Update to UE 4.19

• Upgraded to Unreal Engine UE4.19.2.
• Added support for NVIDIA Ansel.
• The default settings set to vr pixel density of 0.8 and mirror screen disabled.
• Vive PRO is now supported.
• Adjusted graphics settings to the new UE4 system.
• Screen percentage is always set to 100
• IMPORTANT: Spectator screen now disabled by default. I noticed a significant performance improvement when disabling it. You can enable it back in the graphic settings if you need to capture footage.
• New VR Pixel density = 100. Works like supersampling.
• Fixed Assertion failed: !IsUnreachable() https://forums.unrealengine.com/development-discussion/vr-ar-development/1444158-error-with-vr-assertion-failed-isunreachable

With this update we are getting close to finish the early access period. If you have any additional feedback/ideas please let us know as soon as possible. We can still try to include it in the final version before we release the game in aprox. 3 - 4 months from now.

As always, thank you very much for your support! please let me know what you think either here, in the forums or in our discord channel: https://discord.gg/63PBXdQ

Cheers!!