"This path was never going to be easy, my friends. Look around you. Sand as far as the eye can see. Three weeks straight in the blasted deserts of T'Kash but not one of you has abandoned your fellow knight. Take courage, for over the next dune lies the blessed oasis of Taj Brandhir. There we may quench our burning thirsts and rest our weary souls in the cool glades. Now, pick up the backpack of the soldier next you and carry it. Offer the man to your right the rest of your waterskin. We shall get there ... together." - Sir Belgrave of Drakondier.

Hey everyone! Patch v1.0.5 has arrived! Not as big a patch as the other patches, but more an accumulation of all the hotfixes I've done over the last week or two to improve and balance the game. Enjoy!

Balances and Improvements

• Antares stats have now been buffed to make him a tougher end game boss
  
• Antares and Arglaxx now appear larger than other crusaders on the battlefield
  
• Antares' army no longer needs to be paid ( being undead and all ) - this gives his army a significant advantage.
  
• Nerfed the supercolossi wandering monsters health by -500
  
• All Crusaders return to their home castles after tournaments now.
  
• In Conquer the Realm mode, I replaced the little-used 'Permadeath' option with 'Large Starting Areas ON/OFF' to toggle whether Crusaders of higher ranks start with more than one province.
  
• Added the ability to turn leader powers on or off for quick battles
  
• C5 M3 Wolfgang now start with 70 instead of 40 archers, and they are upgraded to make this mission fairer for new players
  
• Leader icons now only 'circle/shake' in auto battle if the two leaders are close to each other - was too confusing before.
  
• Enemy armies now have a chance of completely fleeing the battle if they feel things aren't going in their favour
  
• Enemy soldiers are more likely to break when morale is low

Bugfixes

• Fixed a bug where enemy leaders attacking castles would be defeated but still appear in your castle
  
• Added a failsafe where if one army is 'stuck' during combat (eg one or two troops standing there frozen in terror), after a certain amount of time their army will flee the battle. This should happen after about 15 seconds or so.
  
• Fixed a bug where pressing ESC during the game cinematic would break the game
  
• Leaders no longer die from one boulder hit in sieges
  
• Visual - made the wooden platform crusaders stand on in castles larger
  
• Fixed a bug where sometimes clouds did not move in the overworld map
  
• Fixed a bug where colossus fights went on forever
  
• Fixed bug where campaign army would be drawn into battles they weren't supposed to be part of.
  
• Fixed a bug where province highlights appeared off-center in certain resolutions
  
• Fixed a visual bug where the wrong garrison troop picture appeared upon a lost battle
  
• Fixed an exploit where sometimes you could double click on dig and get two results.
  
• Fixed a bug where after garrison battles, your campaign army could be lost
  
• Fixed a bug on C7 M3 where the mission would sometimes freeze if you won all colossus battles
  
• Fixed a bug in C7 M5 where HeChaos would successfully complete the mission raising less than the required 80 soldiers.
  
• Fixed a visual bug where Antares stats were in the wrong place in battle
  
• Fixed a visual bug where too many 'fleeing clouds' and screams could be heard sometimes when an army morale broke
  
• Other small misc bugfixes I have forgotten to mention here! :)

"So your feet hurt. So you are cold. So you miss your home. So, I say to you, go home! I only need those who yearn for hardships, those who yearn to overcome them. They shall stand beside me on the battlefield and enjoy the sweet mead of victory." - Bors the Mighty of Warmhaven.

Patch 1.0.4 isn't as big as the earlier patches but still has some handy improvements, balances and bugfixes to the game - most importantly, I think I've found a solution to the game stalling after sieges ( where it goes to the black screen) ... do let me know if you still encounter this!

Thanks for your patience while I work to improve and stabilize the game. This is one of the more complicated beasts I've worked on and it's been a real challenge to iron out all the bugs just because there are so many situations that can arise in the course of a long strategic campaign.

As always, if you find any issues, hit me up here or on Discord and I'll try and fix them.

Cheers, Oliver Joyce
Whiskeybarrel Studios

Balance Tweaks + New Features

• Rebalanced auto battles to make them fairer. Armies can now flee autobattles and lose, but still keep remaining troops.
  
• Troops from armies with low morale more likely to break
  
• You now gain 1 GOLDEN SANDAL for taking an enemy's castle (nothing for Auto battle victories).
  
• You now gain 3 GOLDEN SANDALS for defeating wandering monsters.
  
• You can now click BACK when selecting ranged troops in battle
  
• You can now down enemy leaders with arrow fire in the castle phase of a siege. This will win you that phase (gaining entry to the castle), though the leader will return to fight in the courtyard.
  
• Enemy leader health is now visible during the siege phase of battle
  
• Enemy leaders always appear in the courtyard phase of battle when defending a castle
  
• Enemy leaders now upgrade their boulders slowly (unless in Quick Battle )
  
• Removed the retreat option from the defending army during sieges
  
• Enemy leaders no longer have random powers (spells) in Quick Battle or Survival modes, only their starting ones.
  
• Enemy leaders in Quick Battle and Survival modes powers will scale with their level ( 1 power level per 5 crusader levels )
  
• Antares' morale now shows as IMMUNE on the battle scroll.
  
• Wandering monsters (supercolossi) stats have been nerfed so they are a little easier to defeat.
  
• Doubled the damage heavy troops do when ramming walls

Bugfixes

• Fixed a major bug where sieges would fade to black and not continue with the game
  
• Fixed a bug where debris textures from battle stayed on screen after the battle ended.
  
• Fixed a bug where enemies you had declared war on stayed allied to you
  
• Fixed a bug where you could not buy more than 98 soldiers if you had a colossus.
  
• Some small memory optimizations - more work to come on this in future patches.
  
• Fixed a bug where fleeing soldiers did not return to the army after the battle.
  
• Fixed a graphical glitch where ladders appeared behind the castle's main wall
  
• Fixed a bug where players with wizards beside them in battle had 2 powers to use, not 3
  
• Fixed a bug where characters stats continued from campaign to conquer the realm mode
  
• Fixed a bug where the player got a free move after picking up a collectable item ( chest/adventure/troops etc)
  
• Fixed a bug where wandering monster quests would not respawn after a tournament /battle

"Fair? Don't talk to me about what's fair! I'm the one wrestling with an actual, fire and brimstone daemon who wants to consume my soul every damn day - and don't say that's your own fault even if it is!!!! Just keep marching, you fools! All you legionnaires have to do is put your spears forward and shut the hell up and I pay you generously! Most weeks, anyway!" - HeChaos of Eddengarth

Hey my friends! Work continues on improvements to and bugfixes for Swords and Sandals Crusader Redux. Thanks as always to the tireless bughunting efforts of the community on Discord, particularly Admiral Billy and Eldegoss. This patch adds a bunch of balance tweaks and patches to the game that I hope make the game a more playable experience ( as well as new achievements to strive for).

As always, if you find any issues, hit me up here or on Discord and I'll try and fix them.

Cheers, Oliver Joyce
Whiskeybarrel Studios

Balance Tweaks + New Features

• Added skill point stats to leader panels during combat
  
• You can now select starting levels in Conquer the Realm up to 46-50 range ( Rank X ) making for epic and brutal battles.
  
• You can now select the rate at which leaders gain XP in Conquer the Realm mode ( from slow to very fast )
  
• Wandering Monsters are always ON in conquer the realm now.
  
• Maxxed leader skills at 25 for late game balance reasons.
  
• Lowered the gold you get once you learn all powers to 10 gold per level.
  
• Troops raised in battle using RAISE DEAD now return to the grave at the end of the battle ( eg they don't continue on the campaign with you, or the next survival round etc)
  
• You now sell troops for half their original unit price.
  
• Made Call Critters have a higher chance of hitting foes (but lower damage)
  
• Changed Mass Healing so it starts off at 25% and goes up 25% per level
  
• Troop reinforcements in Survival mode give 10 troops, not 20
  
• Added a 'Retreat' button to Survival mode so you can end the mode quickly if things aren't going in your favour
  
• Also added a 'Retreat' option to sieges (for everyone except Antares, who may never retreat.)
  
• Reduced the maximum strength of castle walls to 50 + (5 per character level)
  
• Increased the cost of upgrading boulders for catapults
  
• Increased the rate at which enemy leaders add troops to garrisons
  
• Added extra inspiration quotes up to level 50
  
• Leaders levels in quick battle now go from 1 through 10
  
• Leaders now go up 10 levels, 1 spell power and gain 5 skill points when levelling up in Survival mode
  
• Slightly redesigned the provinces info panel
  
• Added some new Steam achievements

Bugfixes

• Fixed a bug where colossi could get one shot killed while defending sieges
  
• Fixed a bug your colossus could be killed during a dig or on a random adventure ( which would sometimes freeze the game)
  
• Fixed a bug where changing the map from redux to classic glitched the graphics out
  
• Fixed a bug where battles would freeze during sieges when the enemy ran out of siege options.
  
• Fixed a bug where colossi had more than 10 health in duels
  
• Fixed a bug where you earned gold instead of skills when levelling up (this should only happen once you have maxxed out all your skills
  
• Fixed a bug (exploit) where you could buy troops, upgrade them and sell them back for a profit
  
• Fixed a 'null' string in Survival congratulations screen
  
• Fixed a bug where finding new soldiers during adventures would replace your current ones ( eg you might find 15 new light troops that replaced your cavalry.)
  
• Fixed a bug where leader's info text panels in battle showed only their bonus skill stats and not the full total
  
• Fixed a bug where enemy leaders don't upgrade their boulders fast enough

"So you made a mistake back there at the Siege of Eddengarth. Chin up, soldier. We've all screwed up one time or another, and most of us are still here to tell the tale. This round's on you, lad." - Baron Wolfgang

This is the second big patch for the game and is in response to the wealth of feedback I've received on the game so far, the good and the bad. I read every review and even after all these years making games I still can't help but take them personally, it's only human nature. Some reviews you can't do anything about ( "This game sucks!" ), but others that provide constructive feedback can be invaluable and should be listened to. There were some incredible ( though negative ) bits of feedback in the reviews for the game so far and I've really tried to address them and implement many suggestions.

One note on all content now being unlocked - I originally thought it might be motivating for players to play through chapters and be rewarded by unlocked game modes and characters, but the majority of people want it all available right away, so here it is ( Just like in classic Crusader! ). There's no wrong answer here, it's all totally personal preference. In this case, you wanted it - you got it!

Anyway, here are the new features and so on below. There is a lot of stuff that has changed and been improved, and honestly I haven't been able to test it all fully so if there are more bugs you find, hit me up in the Discussion and I will fix them ASAP.

This game is evolving and I'll continue to fix and tweak it as often as I can. Thanks, as always for your patience and enthusiasm for Swords and Sandals.

Cheers, Oliver Joyce
Whiskeybarrel Studios

New Features

• Added the ability to scroll up and down on the map by dragging the mouse or moving the scroll-wheel
  
• Simplified the "Greatest Colossus In The World" missions so you no longer have to travel round the map to fight your foes. Instead each colossus is presented to you one after the next, a little like the Swords and Sandals 2 tournaments.
  
• Colossi now have different duel location backgrounds for the Greatest Colossus missions
  
• Totally rewrote the auto-battle code to better represent the power of colossus troops, higher leader levels and upgraded soldiers on both sides
  
• You can now transfer garrison units 10 at a time
  
• You can also now sell army units 10 at a time
  
• New skill - ARCHAEOLOGY - Each point gives you a +10% chance of a better result when digging.
  
• Added Error log messages - hidden by default. If you tap the S&S Crusader logo (on the main title screen ) ten times, you'll hear a chime and ERROR LOGS will be turned on for the duration of the session. A lot of the time these error logs are useless to me but sometimes they strike gold so can be worth sending to me via Discord.
  
• Visit our Discord at https://discord.com/invite/swordsandsandals to find out how to help debug the game if you're keen!

Game Tweaks and Balancing

• All game modes and characters are now available from the start of the game.
  
• Levelling up has been changed! Your character stats and abilities now continue through the campaign and transfer from leader to leader. Previously, each chapter would assign new stats to different commanders (for variety) but many preferred the classic Crusader levelling up experience.
  
• Related to this, there's an XP level cap of 6 levels per chapter in the campaign. EG in Chapter 2, you can reach Level 12, Chapter 3 , level 18 and so on. This is to keep the game balanced and challenging throughout the campaign and reduce grinding.
  
• Removed the COLOSSUS MASTERY skill (replaced by Archaeology ) - this skill was not working properly and so it's been removed ( for now anyway )

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug in Ch 8 M4 where the mission would end after a turn
  
• Upgraded internal AIR SDK to 33 for more stability
  
• Fixed a bug where defeating an enemy leader in their stronghold did not count towards defeating their campaign armies in some missions
  
• Fixed a bug where Ch 8 M 2 and 3 were the same mission played twice
  
• Fixed a bug where the game would sometimes freeze when a player dug for gold/artefacts
  
• Fixed logic so Sir Belgrave will always have a catapult on hand during his first siege mission ( Ch 2 M 4 ) - though they can not be bought/upgraded (by design)
  
• Potential fix for troops stopping movement during sieges (rare bug where they appear to walk on the spot indefinitely and can't be hit)
  
• Fixed an exploit where you could capture a stronghold after retreating and returning.
  
• Tweaked the volume of colossus attack sounds
  
• Other small misc bugfixes

Final note - I still don't have a solution for textures disappearing after some time ( this is when you see blank squares, white or otherwise ) instead of game graphics. I haven't been able to figure out why but there's a slow texture memory leak somewhere. I will absolutely try and solve this when I can, but meantime if it happens to you, my apologies. Reloading the game will clear it all up, of course, inconvenient as it is.

"These first steps of a crusade are never easy. The men are wary, the first blood of battle is not yet spilled. Mistakes on the road happen, but the days are yet early. We can still win this." - Celen Helmguard

Hey everyone, I just wanted to thank you all so much for the support and enthusiasm you have shown for Swords and Sandals Crusader Redux over the last few days. The bug reports I received here and on Discord have been invaluable in helping me fix and improve the game. Making a strategy game as a solo dev can be a massive challenge, especially one with as many working parts as this one.

This patch is to fix a bunch of things I somehow missed when I launched the game - blame it on trying to build a game while having a willful toddler and a 4 month old baby keeping me up at all hours of the night. Game dev is tough at the best of times, even tougher with a lack of sleep!

I've been making games long enough to know this won't fix all the game's issues and new bugs will continue to crop up - but I've got your backs. Rest assured I will keep patching the game in the weeks and months ahead to make it the best experience it can be! There are also patches coming for the other S&S games coming this month too.

Cheers, may your crusades be victorious!
Oliver Joyce
Whiskeybarrel Studios

V 1.0.1 Patch Notes

EXPERIMENTAL FIX Potential solution for disappearing textures in the game. This is caused by spritesheets running out of texture memory - eg just too many textures in RAM at once - it's not related to how powerful your machine is, just the nature of how the game's tech works. Amongst other things, I have reduced the texture scale of the main map and some overworld anims. This will hopefully be barely noticable and should improve both performance and memory management in the game because the memory footprint of these images will be considerably smaller. I hope this can minimize the reports of the game crashing - let me know otherwise.

BUG FIXES

• Fixed an issue where Arglaxx's troop pics showed up instead of your enemy's when defeating a garrison.
  
• Fixed a bug where you could buy more than the max 3 catapults.
  
• Fixed a bug where battle music kept playing after a siege ended.
  
• Fixed a bug in Conquer the Realm where the wrong playable characters were unlocked upon completing chapters
  
• Fixed a bug where digs that resulted in small amounts of gold were considered 'successful'
  ( as this is too early for the player to deal with sieges )
  
• Fixed a bug where tapping too quickly on a province made it so you couldn't move that turn
  
• Fixed an exploit where players could move many times in a turn
  
• Fixed a bug where garrison troops were not being restored to provinces upon victory.
  
• Fixed a bug where after Special Events occured, the game paused on the enemy's turn
  
• Fixed a graphical glitch where Bors' Heavy Infantry Troops had no weapon ( a broadaxe)
  
• Fixed incorrect troop descriptions for Iron Republic troops
  
• Fixed a bug where the help screen could be clicked on when summoning a wizard
  
• Fixed a bug where incorrect province names/backgrounds were listed during sieges
  
• Fixed a bug where sometimes clouds did not move at all on the overland map
  
• Fixed a bug where Survival mode would not load sometimes

*** NEW *** PATCH v1.0.1F Extra Fixes

• Achievements *SHOULD* be working but if not, I'll keep on this each day until they do!
  
• Fixed a bug where Survival Mode would not load
  
• Fixed a bug where the Shi-Tzurantula disappeared after a tourney
  
• Fixed a bug where Chapter 9 Mission 1 would crash
  
• POTENTIAL fix for game freezing while the CPU is thinking

GAME TWEAKS & BALANCING

• Changed Klerg and Helmguard terrains to mountain
  
• You can only dig in the province your army is at( This is to stop the confusion of selecting faraway provinces, clicking dig and finding you had dug at home)
  
• Allied leaders removed from dig missions so they can't claim the provinces you are trying to find the artefacts on
  
• Reduced the damage catapults do to colossi by 50%
  
• Reduced the odds of your enemies having wizards help in battle by 50%
  
• Nerfed War Drums so enemies will not flee from greatly inferior armies
  
• Lowered the successful gold required threshold on Chapter 1 Mission 1 to 400.
  
• Bors should no longer assault your castle in Chapter 2, Mission 2
  
• Repositioned overworld map slightly and changed the zoom effect a little
  
• Lowered hero's starting stats by 1 ( they will still become very powerful over time but start off not so strong.)
  
• Added a second border from Pilthia to Ak'Kash Steppes to stop Arglaxx from just lurking in Pilthia forever
  
• Improved the description of the Grail Quest for Chapter 2, Mission 5