Greetings gladiators! This is a patch I've been planning for the Classic Collection for quite a while.
Firstly, the most controversial arena champion in all of S&S by far is the Yeti Project! So many people have asked me to nerf him ( ie to make him easier to kill ). However, many purists argued against that, preferring the challenge. Now the option is yours - before the fight, you will be approached by someone who offers to sell you a potion for 1000 gold. This potion will then be used to 'nerf' the Yeti Project, essentially making him a lot easier to kill.
Secondly, and probably most important of all is this : many users have brought up the issue of the games not running as fast as they could - and the reason was basically the games were designed in 640x480 (or lower) resolutions and the 'game hub' scaled them up to fit modern monitors. Because they are vector based Flash games, your computer had to work extra hard to run them (simple as they are) because they're scaling them up x4. Now, however, I've come up with a solution to play the game in other various resolutions.
By default now, the game will try to run them at 1280 x 960 (double scaled) - which on most modern computers will run the games very fast. Swords and Sandals 3, 4 and Crusader benefit from this the most. You can change this in the Settings Menu.
Thirdly, and this is really for fans of the series' lore and my own backstory - I've added three art galleries of Swords and Sandals related art, my own drawings and images from the early RPGs I made as a kid. I hope you enjoy them.
Not every game received a big update, there are still some bugs in there I still haven't been able to iron out ( some of these games date back to 2006!) but I'll keep patching them as I find solutions in the months and years to come - just write up what you find in the discussion forum and I'll take a look as I can.
Cheers everyone, thank you so much for being fans of Swords and Sandals.
Oliver Joyce
Whiskeybarrel Studios
Global changes
- Added a SETTINGS screen that is accessible from the main game hub. Settings changed here are now properly saved, eg if you turn the sound off it will stay off next session. (Hub only, in-game sounds are toggled individually)
- There's now a setting to change the screen resolution of the games themselves. This will improve performance greatly on many systems! It's an option players can select if they find the games run slowly.
- [ The tech reason behind this: The old games used to run at 640 x 480, but when running fullscreen on modern PCs, that has to scale up the games themselves to fit the higher res, and so it takes a lot more processing power to run them. By allowing users to change their screen res to 640x480 or 1280x960 from the settings options, the old games will run much closer to the originals did. ]
- Added a Tome of Lore button that links to a huge amount of information about Brandor, the world of Swords and Sandals
- Added new game box art to the game selector screen
- New Art Gallery where you can check out drawings and images from Swords and Sandals' past
- In all games where he appears, Bargle has been renamed as Bhaargle
Swords and Sandals 1
- Fixed a bug where you could not name your character properly
Swords and Sandals 2
- When your gladiator is far away from the enemy, your option buttons panel will now appear in the middle of the screen (with your portrait showing) so you can select a move. This solves the issues of taunts and big hits knocking you too far away to perform an action.
- Reduced the volume of the Molten Death spell so it's not so ear splitting
- The Fearful Prisoner can no longer defeat you with an accidental taunt
- Enemy gladiators can no longer wield weapons they do not have the stats for ( eg daitakanas when they don't have the agility)
- Updated Bhaargle's description to make him mysterious rather than outright evil
- Fixed a bug where Arena Champion trivia facts did not appear
- Psyche Up attacks are always critical hits now (eg critical hit protection does not work against them)
- Added little rocks at the borders of the walkable area in the arena so you know how close you are to the 'invisible wall'
- Fixed a bug where you couldn't switch between melee/ranged weapons
Swords and Sandals 3
- Fixed a major bug where deleting a gladiator would often actually delete a different gladiator!!!
- Fixed a bug/exploit where talent points gained from items would sometimes be stacked after level-ups (lol!)
- Added an option for players to 'nerf' the Yeti Project by giving it a special potion before the battle. This is entirely optional and will make that Arena Champion easier to defeat.
- Fixed a bug where the Bard class had no name.
- Fixed an associated bug where the Bardiche weapon was just called 'iche'
- Increased the cost of Shocking touch from 50 to 100 gold
- Fixed a bug where rolling over gladiators armour in the pre-battle screen would show information as 'undefined'
- Fixed a bug where healing spells fixed armour before healing health
- Fixed a bug where "Holy Smite/Unholy Rites" actually restored enemy essence rather than took it away
- Fixed a bug where items that granted you bonus experience only worked if you were of evil alignment
- Fixed a bug where items that granted you bonus gold only worked if you were of good alignment
- Possible fix (hopefully!) for items mysteriously looking grey and bloodied
- Various typo fixes
Swords and Sandals 4
- Player 1's gladiator is guaranteed to level up when completing a board game, no matter what position you finished in. (Working on a solution to allow players 2, 3, 4 to level up in a future patch.)
- Gladiators receive bonus gold depending on what position they finished in.
- Reduced the level requirements to access each new board. You now unlock new boards at every 4th level.
- Arena Champions are now much more likely to spawn in games - they will start appearing once you reach character level 4.
- Fixed a bug where healing spells fixed armour before healing health
- Possible fix (hopefully!) for items mysteriously looking grey and bloodied
- Sped up fade tween on shops for faster shopping
- Sped up some other in game tweens
- Various typo fixes