Firstly, I recommend starting a new save file to ensure you have access to all newly added systems and balance changes.
This update mainly focuses on addressing several gameplay pain points reported by players while also introducing new arena immersion features.
The equipment loss system has been redesigned.
Previously, losing a gladiator could result in heavy equipment losses. Now when the 10% death roll occurs, only one random piece of equipment is lost from the fallen gladiator.
To balance this change, if an enemy gladiator dies, the player will gain one random piece of equipment from the fallen opponent.
All gained and lost items are now displayed in the post-combat summary, including during team combat battles.
A bug was fixed where kill streak stat rewards were not correctly overriding the maximum base stat.
UI also did not clearly display whether stat points were being applied. A visual progress bar and level update indicator have now been added so players can clearly track their stat progression.
Heritage bonuses also apply correctly to this system. For example, Roman heritage providing a 20% XP bonus will now properly influence progression.
Medic System Improvement
Late game players reported that health recovery became extremely slow due to the large HP pools of experienced gladiators.
The final tier Medics now provide:
Standard base HP recovery
An additional percentage-based HP recovery
This ensures high HP gladiators can recover at a reasonable pace.
The arena crowd system has now been implemented.
Crowd members will appear during combat and the size of the crowd scales with the prestige of the event. Smaller events will have fewer spectators while major arena matches will feel much more populated.
The Magistrate has been added to the arena.
He will only appear at the most prestigious events, such as:
Tournament Finals
Major Boss Battles
5v5 Arena Events
For now this is primarily a cosmetic feature, but it lays the groundwork for future Magistrate diplomacy and political mechanics.
Prestige Balance Adjustment
Players reaching 1000+ Prestige were experiencing heavy enemy stat scaling that led to power creep.
Enemy scaling beyond this point has now been reduced to keep progression more manageable.
Training injuries have been rebalanced:
Low and Medium intensity training can now only cause Minor Injuries
High intensity training can cause Minor or Moderate Injuries
Severe injuries have been removed from training
Training facilities now provide 60% more XP bonuses, helping players train gladiators more effectively during the late game.
A UI issue was fixed where the total XP displayed in Training Assignment did not match the XP actually being awarded.
Various minor bug fixes and stability improvements.
I would also like to give a special thanks to SinfulDa Masta from the Discord community. His long-term support, feedback, and commitment to the project have been incredibly valuable, and he has now been added to the game credits as a small token of appreciation.
I want to sincerely thank this growing community for all the support and the great feedback you continue to provide. It has been incredibly valuable while shaping the direction of the game.
I will always make time to read through your comments and suggestions. It is important to me that the game continues to move in the right direction, so please do not hesitate to share your feedback.