Just wanted to post a quick update since I haven't put out any patches or news lately. I took more than a week off... you know how that goes...

Still working hard on the game. Can't discuss details, but hope to have "proof of concept" done soon on some pretty cool DLC nuggets.

Would anyone have objections if I were to test some of the DLC on the beta branch of the main game? I only ask because it might mean that you suddenly have a bunch of content and then the next day, its all gone again.

Would that feel like you're getting ripped off, or would it feel like you got some special time-limited freebies? (broken AF with missing features, but freebies!)

Let me know in comments.

And thank you for your continued support,
bignic
<3

Just wanted to post a quick update since I haven't put out any patches or news lately. I took more than a week off... you know how that goes...

Still working hard on the game. Can't discuss details, but hope to have "proof of concept" done soon on some pretty cool DLC nuggets.

Would anyone have objections if I were to test some of the DLC on the beta branch of the main game? I only ask because it might mean that you suddenly have a bunch of content and then the next day, its all gone again.

Would that feel like you're getting ripped off, or would it feel like you got some special time-limited freebies? (broken AF with missing features, but freebies!)

Let me know in comments.

And thank you for your continued support,
bignic
<3

NOTE: this update unfortunately seems to break save games that were made with the previous version (resulting in invisible equipment and incorrect behemoth equipment being applied to regular gladiators) I'm not sure why. I'm sorry, though. It doesn't seem to be a problem with new save files, however.

- fixed: murmillo would get bugged out if he picked up a shield/trident/sword, leaving him unable to dismount the shield later.

- updated: moved more memory allocation from stack to heap. this reduces the size of the sprite atlas even further and should help with memory issues (not being able to get large swaths of contiguous free RAM on systems with shared RAM)

- new: film grain effects are user-toggleable in Game Options now

- new: employees/ludus will now indicate with a small blinker when resources have been created (extra wine, food, etc)

NOTE: this update unfortunately seems to break save games that were made with the previous version (resulting in invisible equipment and incorrect behemoth equipment being applied to regular gladiators) I'm not sure why. I'm sorry, though. It doesn't seem to be a problem with new save files, however.

- fixed: murmillo would get bugged out if he picked up a shield/trident/sword, leaving him unable to dismount the shield later.

- updated: moved more memory allocation from stack to heap. this reduces the size of the sprite atlas even further and should help with memory issues (not being able to get large swaths of contiguous free RAM on systems with shared RAM)

- new: film grain effects are user-toggleable in Game Options now

- new: employees/ludus will now indicate with a small blinker when resources have been created (extra wine, food, etc)

PAST
A broken man escapes corporate slavery with a singular goal: to deliver a top quality product that's good enough to fist bump the Steam Top 50

PRESENT
Domina repeatedly slaps around the other gladiators on the Steam Top Fifty: 100k units sold in Q1, Rating up to 89ish%, cats and dogs, living together.

FUTURE
Content!
Voxels?
Fewer references to my failed intimate relationships in professional literature.


One Last Big Heading

Thank you for your investment in me and my product.

Anyway, as it turns out, I'm suuuuuuuper greedy, so please also buy the Domina soundtrack and all my other music at https://bignic.bandcamp.com

stay gold,
bignic

PAST
A broken man escapes corporate slavery with a singular goal: to deliver a top quality product that's good enough to fist bump the Steam Top 50

PRESENT
Domina repeatedly slaps around the other gladiators on the Steam Top Fifty: 100k units sold in Q1, Rating up to 89ish%, cats and dogs, living together.

FUTURE
Content!
Voxels?
Fewer references to my failed intimate relationships in professional literature.


One Last Big Heading

Thank you for your investment in me and my product.

Anyway, as it turns out, I'm suuuuuuuper greedy, so please also buy the Domina soundtrack and all my other music at https://bignic.bandcamp.com

stay gold,
bignic

BUGS/PATCHES:
- tried adding driver hints for nVidia and AMD GPU's so that the game will actually run on performance GPU instead of picking the integrated one...

- fixed: if doctore is fired and rehired, the count of what he's learned has not been reset in stats - so player may be awarded an achievement for researching all of the techniques even if they only got half way through, twice!

- fixed: gladiator info > training levels showing up with decimal points

- fixed: gladiators still running around with 0HP again (actually 0.49 or something HP, just looked like zero)

- fixed: gladiators can not be damaged if they are standing outside of the arena, waiting for battle.

- fixed: Endless Mode difficulty curve now matches regular game for the first 364 days (users reported it was just too difficult at the start)

OPTIMIZING:
- crowd reactions have been reworked so that they shouldn't take so much CPU (ie: in final battle when 15 dudes swing and hit another 15 dudes, the audio bugs out because the crowd is trying to cheer so damn much they break they universe.)





BALANCING:
- cursed weapon card was OP so rather than make it less OP I just made it 4x more rare. Because I can.

- cursed weapon card was OP so eventually I just caved and made it less OP - attacks are now 50% to 250% dmg (used to be 0% to 500% dmg)

- training levels are now hard clamped at 200 - strength training will still increase HP.

- ai skill rewards for an individual victory over another gladiator have been dialed back slightly

- ai skill / meditation is now 50% slower (was still getting maxed out too early)

- Jupiter's Blessings that level up training faster are not stackable any more


AI:
AI isnt reacting to attacks with defense enough (and is reacting with rolls too often)
TLDR: roll-happy behaviour dialed back, defensive/blocking behaviour has been FIXED/enabled for dudes high in turtle characteristic, or just high in AI skill overall.

PROBLEM: if a gladiator launches an attack with 2 skipped frames (no warmup/warning frames because he is highly skilled) then the first instant that an AI can even detect an attack is when its too late (the animation frame where the collision has already happened.)
SOLUTION: maximum starting frame advance for any attack animation is now capped at 1.5 frames rather than 2.0

PROBLEM: I am already attacking when I see an opponent attacking me - I cant interrupt my attack so even though I'm TURTLE, my attack has blocked me from being able to defend myself.
SOLUTION: allow gladiators high in turtle characteristic to interrupt attack animations (as though they had the defensive priority card mounted!)

The result of fixing these two problems is an AI system that seems to handle quite differently so... this could be good or bad depending on if you really liked the old play style. Additionally, it exposes two other areas that probably need balancing:

PROBLEM:
since TURTLE can now get out of an attack that was already launched if he wishes to DEFEND
it seems reasonable that an EVASIVE/ROLLY dude would be able to exit out of an attack if he wanted to ROLL

PROBLEM :
since TURTLE and EVASIVE/ROLLY can get out of attacks should we leave it such that AGGRO can't get out of attacks - doesn't seem fair
thus: as AI skill is maxed, then there is an increasingly greater chance of being able to interrupt an attack to defend an incoming strike.

Personally, I think this brings the simulation more organic/natural fight feeling, imo -- I really like that I can finally hear the BLOCK sounds triggering because the AI is actually able to defend himself reasonably often now.

BUGS/PATCHES:
- tried adding driver hints for nVidia and AMD GPU's so that the game will actually run on performance GPU instead of picking the integrated one...

- fixed: if doctore is fired and rehired, the count of what he's learned has not been reset in stats - so player may be awarded an achievement for researching all of the techniques even if they only got half way through, twice!

- fixed: gladiator info > training levels showing up with decimal points

- fixed: gladiators still running around with 0HP again (actually 0.49 or something HP, just looked like zero)

- fixed: gladiators can not be damaged if they are standing outside of the arena, waiting for battle.

- fixed: Endless Mode difficulty curve now matches regular game for the first 364 days (users reported it was just too difficult at the start)

OPTIMIZING:
- crowd reactions have been reworked so that they shouldn't take so much CPU (ie: in final battle when 15 dudes swing and hit another 15 dudes, the audio bugs out because the crowd is trying to cheer so damn much they break they universe.)





BALANCING:
- cursed weapon card was OP so rather than make it less OP I just made it 4x more rare. Because I can.

- cursed weapon card was OP so eventually I just caved and made it less OP - attacks are now 50% to 250% dmg (used to be 0% to 500% dmg)

- training levels are now hard clamped at 200 - strength training will still increase HP.

- ai skill rewards for an individual victory over another gladiator have been dialed back slightly

- ai skill / meditation is now 50% slower (was still getting maxed out too early)

- Jupiter's Blessings that level up training faster are not stackable any more


AI:
AI isnt reacting to attacks with defense enough (and is reacting with rolls too often)
TLDR: roll-happy behaviour dialed back, defensive/blocking behaviour has been FIXED/enabled for dudes high in turtle characteristic, or just high in AI skill overall.

PROBLEM: if a gladiator launches an attack with 2 skipped frames (no warmup/warning frames because he is highly skilled) then the first instant that an AI can even detect an attack is when its too late (the animation frame where the collision has already happened.)
SOLUTION: maximum starting frame advance for any attack animation is now capped at 1.5 frames rather than 2.0

PROBLEM: I am already attacking when I see an opponent attacking me - I cant interrupt my attack so even though I'm TURTLE, my attack has blocked me from being able to defend myself.
SOLUTION: allow gladiators high in turtle characteristic to interrupt attack animations (as though they had the defensive priority card mounted!)

The result of fixing these two problems is an AI system that seems to handle quite differently so... this could be good or bad depending on if you really liked the old play style. Additionally, it exposes two other areas that probably need balancing:

PROBLEM:
since TURTLE can now get out of an attack that was already launched if he wishes to DEFEND
it seems reasonable that an EVASIVE/ROLLY dude would be able to exit out of an attack if he wanted to ROLL

PROBLEM :
since TURTLE and EVASIVE/ROLLY can get out of attacks should we leave it such that AGGRO can't get out of attacks - doesn't seem fair
thus: as AI skill is maxed, then there is an increasingly greater chance of being able to interrupt an attack to defend an incoming strike.

Personally, I think this brings the simulation more organic/natural fight feeling, imo -- I really like that I can finally hear the BLOCK sounds triggering because the AI is actually able to defend himself reasonably often now.

- new: "Conways Game of Life" on main menu

- RE: CRASHING ON STARTUP: Game Options > Video Adapter (Debugging) *should* allow you to change the default display device that the game will use if you have more than one video adapter. Unfortunately, I can't test this feature - my main development machine DOES have two adapters but of course, only one shows up and it happens to be my performance GPU so its not an issue for me... so I have no idea if it works yet. HURRAHHH, BETA!

- new: *dons a fine silk robe*

- update: *lights candles / fireplace*

- *settles into a fine leather chair as the ice cubes jingle in a glass full of cognac-appearing iced-tea*

- *edits patch notes like a boss*

The game runs flawlessly now on my HP EliteBook Core i5 / 4GB / SSD. Yes, the FPS drops to about 20 while a 3.5GB photoshop document is open and adobe media encoder is encoding a DVD movie at the same time, but you know, shit happens. But the game doesn't seem to crash, gladiators don't disappear, and the world does not appear to end.

The game will also run on my glorious HP POS workstation but ONLY with quality set to about medium. Still, way below min specs so... you can't say I didn't try. Basically lowering the quality slider will turn off the Depth Buffer which appears to be the main issue (hahaha yeah right. I dont have a clue.)

Anyway, I'm shifting focus onto content and endless mode now.

We will likely shut down for a few days/weeks (perhaps during summer sale?) so don't be alarmed if you don't see daily updates for a while.

Stay gold,
bignic

- new: "Conways Game of Life" on main menu

- RE: CRASHING ON STARTUP: Game Options > Video Adapter (Debugging) *should* allow you to change the default display device that the game will use if you have more than one video adapter. Unfortunately, I can't test this feature - my main development machine DOES have two adapters but of course, only one shows up and it happens to be my performance GPU so its not an issue for me... so I have no idea if it works yet. HURRAHHH, BETA!

- new: *dons a fine silk robe*

- update: *lights candles / fireplace*

- *settles into a fine leather chair as the ice cubes jingle in a glass full of cognac-appearing iced-tea*

- *edits patch notes like a boss*

The game runs flawlessly now on my HP EliteBook Core i5 / 4GB / SSD. Yes, the FPS drops to about 20 while a 3.5GB photoshop document is open and adobe media encoder is encoding a DVD movie at the same time, but you know, shit happens. But the game doesn't seem to crash, gladiators don't disappear, and the world does not appear to end.

The game will also run on my glorious HP POS workstation but ONLY with quality set to about medium. Still, way below min specs so... you can't say I didn't try. Basically lowering the quality slider will turn off the Depth Buffer which appears to be the main issue (hahaha yeah right. I dont have a clue.)

Anyway, I'm shifting focus onto content and endless mode now.

We will likely shut down for a few days/weeks (perhaps during summer sale?) so don't be alarmed if you don't see daily updates for a while.

Stay gold,
bignic