RMMV Gladatora V.1.9.6 Alpha 4-22-20

Jeremiah Eastman · Jun 19, 2017

A new video was just released from Hypnojo Gaming in which he highlights some of the upcoming updates to Gladatora. If you check it out I thank you and if you can subscribe to Hypnojo on youtube I am sure he would be excited.

Stay healthy all.

Videos

Drifty First Impression

The review is of the 1.5.1 Alpha update. Any issue found within the review, like the word bolster and the masked man fight, was remedied in the 1.6.0 update. The review shows just a small bit of what's in the game, it would take way to long to cover everything. But it's still a great Drifty to watch.

Hypnojo Gaming Playthrough

First video, in a play through series, Hypnojo will be uploading. He's a new Youtuber trying to make it so show him some love.

Also, if any of you devs would like Hypnojo to do a game play or first look of your game just get in touch with him on his Discord or Twitter. He has informed me that he would love to do these for anyone here that has interest, so take advantage of that service.

Second video from Hypnojo's playthrough.

3rd Video in Hypnojo's playthrough.

This is the 4th Video in Hypnojo's playthrough. The support from you all has been amazing. I really hope you enjoy the new episode.

Video 5 has Hypnojo finding the long lost sister, among other things.

In the 6th installment of the play through, Hypnojo discovers the power of the Sagittarii.

In this, the 7th video, Hypnojo creates a special team build and tests it out. Things go rather well and I feel this video really helps to showcase some of the games possibilities.

Synopsis:

This is a game created in honor to the gladiators of old, in RPG Maker MV fashion. You will not be finding any magic in this game. Gladatora is a fictional city where the sport of the arena is booming, creating new opportunities for those willing to take it. While Gladatora is a fictional place, it exists within the real world of ancient Rome, and its surrounding lands.

You will guide a team of growing, once slaves, in their efforts to gain fame and fortune in the arena. All the while managing their own meager ludus and trying their hardest not to let Rome discover their true intentions and deadly secret. A secret made deadly by previous actions. Pushed to far this small band of slaves revolt against their Dominus and overthrow him and his allies. The group then finds themselves in a position to claim the ludus as their own, but is carving out this new life worth the great risk involved?

There are many different class types and unique bond arrangements. The combinations are endless which can offer many unique play though styles and experiences.

Triggand and his allies have the high hopes of turning their newly won ludus into a place where free folk can come and carve out their own destiny. And do so while not having to answer to a master but fighting for themselves, if they so choose. Beware, however, if Magistrate Brunnius takes notice of your criminal activities you will start to see growing punishment. Adversely, improving your good name will bring much fortune on your new journey.

Characters of Note:

Triggand, our circumstantial leader. Once a slave owned by his previous Dominus. Now he is thrust into the position of Dominus himself.

Starah,

Thex and

Brannus. These are Triggands fellow slaves and allies, who now find themselves as founding members to their risky new movement. With their help Triggands plan may just stand a chance.

Ordos, your old friend and training partner. Now, after a great misfortune, he takes up the mantle of Doctori for the new, rogue ludus. Learn from him as he trains those you recruit to dominate within the arena.

Magistrate Brunnius, the law in Gladatora. Keep on his good side to achieve true success.

Settonius, a rival ludus owner with an arena of his own. Do battle against his many champions, though only available once a day.

Korigus, another rival ludus owner. Once your reputation has grown enough you may be able to join in on his nightly wager battles.

Noliana, the greatest known Gladiatrix. A female only gladiator style that she has mastered and will teach to your recruits if you can prove yourself worthy.

Vettius, a grand Sagittarii that will train your recruits in the ways of the bow if that is a path you choose.

Changelog:

Version 1.9.6 Alpha, 4-22-20 Update:

3 New Maps.
You can now talk to Handyman Bravus to have him upgrade the Archery Range and Ludus Library before obtaining the lead NPC's for the areas.
Removed scrolling on the opening menu and improved mobility.
Fixed an issue with resetting in the opening menu.
On map enemies now give a better warning when agroed.
Fixed a few unintended passable tiles.
Made further improvements to shadows.

Over 475 Brand new Icons and in battle weapons.
Added a slight stretch to sprites. You can now see their bodies.
Softened Torch glow and adjusted some other lighting.
Large Reinforced copper Hasta now has its own image.
Two handers are once again visible in battle.
There is now a different icon for each type of arrow when attacking.
5 amazing new window skins replaced 5 old ones.
Standard gear no longer looks damaged.

New Tier 8 Weapons and armor. All in the Roman Auxiliary theme.
4 New Items.
17 New Weapons.
26 New Armor pieces.
37 New Recipes.
Normalized the balance on some gear that needed it.
Fixed some incorrect icons in the crafting windows.
Lowered Crafting cost of some over priced gear.
Corrected Aug slots on the Lionhelm and Fabled Lionhelm.
Renamed some knives that were misnamed.
Renamed Lyres to Lutes.
Added a new Ultra Rare to named Direwolves.

1 New Ally Task between Nixus and Modius.
Fixed an issue that prevented Tomes from spawning.
Fixed an issue that caused the Errands to lock up if attempted with an animal.

New Music added, replaced some old music.
Made improvements to how music is handled.
Some new sound effects.
Fixed some grammar issues.
Dimachaeri no longer attack 4 times.
Lower Ludus Addition renamed to Ludus Annex.
Added Bonus DP, Tomes Available and Explorer Points to the Path Tab.
Explorer Level 11 now unlocks Ludus Bard and Alternate Ludus BGM.
Added Block chance to shield info.
Fixed an issue with how nets reward the player.
Text from looting apples now appears on the bottom window.
Added more to the Detlus event.
Fixed an oversight with stealing.

Version 1.9.5 Alpha, 2-16-20 Update:

5 New Maps.
New Ludus Library expansion now available.
- Create special, upgradable versions of stat tomes here.
- Finish Dennasa's task to access the Library.
Added a new battleback to High Pass East.
Fixed many graphic issues throughout existing maps.

Animal Styles have been split into 2 versions.
- The two Styles share some skills but also have their own specific skills.
- Assault Animals have an Offensive focus.
  - These animals can have 2 Claw weapons attached to their muzzle.
- Protect Animals have a Defensive focus.
  - These animals can have shields attached to them.
Upgraded and improved many recruit Special Abilities.
A couple recruits have had their Styles changed.
Corrected some issues with Thex's dialog.
Hu Jun no longer dies instantly on Permadeath mode.

New Augment Type "Link".
- Link augments can only be attached to Bonds.
- Links are most commonly acquired from the new Ally Tasks.
23 New Items.
Some equipment slots have been renamed.
- Ie. Bow, Arrow, Net.
You can now shoot the final arrow in an arrow slot.
Nets and Ropes are now Offhand only.
New weapon type designation for 2 handers.
2 Handed weapons overall damage increased from 130% to 150%.
Overhauled equipment optimization.
- Now works perfectly.
- Bond slot location had to be moved.
Fixed an issue where some styles would lose equipment slots.
Fixed an issue that caused equipment to occasionally duplicate.
Increased Agility on Gloves and Claws.
Hoplomachi can now equip Axes.
Gladiatrix's can no longer equip 2 handers.
Shepherd Crook is now an Instrument and gives +50% Attack.
Fixed a crash caused from looting the Bow in Nines Clearing.

Major Action Sequence overhaul.
- Many new Action Sequences.
- Many errors fixed in existing sequences.
- Many sequences have been improved to better represent the skill.
5 New Skills.
Removed Stamina damage.
- This was mainly to prevent possible crashes with certain types of skills.
- Skills that did Stamina damage now deal HP damage and have been rebalanced.
Feed Skills now heal 10% HP.
Animal Skills have gone through a slight rebalancing to handle new animal Styles.

Some new custom icons.
New Victory window, cleaner and quicker.
Readjusted Title and Settings window layouts.
Edited default and a couple other Window skins.
Buffs and Debuffs no longer display a code in battle.

New Ally Tasks have been introduced.
- 3 added so far.
- These tasks are meant to improve the personal stories between recruits.
- These are tasks between 2 Allies and you are locked to those allies until the task is complete.
- To initiate these you must talk to an ally in the ludus with the corresponding ally.
- Current working set ups are.
  - Triggand and Starah.
  - Brannus and Thex.
  - Thex and Brannus.
Tasks are now auto tracked upon receiving the task.
Fixed an Issue with the Bandits Wanted task and improved its ending event.
Made improvements to the Night in the Graveyard Task.
Made Improvements to the Gorge Stalker Task.

You can now escape from random battles on Easy and Normal difficulties.
New Music for the Ludus.
Made many improvements to troop spacing.
Basic Info section has been updated.
Changed remaining instances of Front and Back Rows to Static and Dynamic.
Enemy HP now shows in number form as well.
Turns out there never was a 0 HP bug, this change should help reflect true HP.
Arena Medicus Supply rewards lowered to 1 from 3 per fight.
Rebalanced Tier 2 Arena Board rewards.
Lowered overall exp. curve across the board to make leveling easier.
Fixed an issue with Hard mode Crocodiles.
Fixed an issue with the Crocs in the Old Road.
Moved all Ludus recruit dialog to the lower window.
Many, many other minor fixes, tweaks and improvements not mentioned.

Version 1.9.4.b Alpha, 1-26-20 Hotfix:

Added the missing sprite sheets.

Removed the lock on Bonds. Change them now as you see fit.

Fixed a cause of a random crash in battle.

Fixed some interaction between Bounty Board Tasks.

Lucciea now wanders her cell so she can conversate.

Fixed some bad grammar.

Added the missing Special ability to Lark.

The Taskmaster now has the proper corpse image.

You can no longer loot through the bars in Lanista's House.

Fixed Larks recruitment and made improvements to the event.

Veridia's gear now uses an exclamation.

Hu Jun's Task is no longer level 251 recommended.

Fixed an issue with Triggand's Bond.

Version 1.9.4 Alpha, 1-25-20 Update:

8 New Maps.

High Pass areas are located off of High Pass Gate.

A new Lanista area has popped up off of Tiber Lake.

A new section is being opened up off of the Ludus through Tasks.

Testing Zone has gone through some upgrades.

Made many improvements to existing zones.

Shadows have been upgraded.

Graphics have been improved.

3 New Recruits.

Hu Jun submitted from community member @MMMm.

Geddon is now "Slottable" in the Ludus.

4 New Items.

3 New Weapons.

14 New Armor pieces.

8 New Recipes.

New Ultra rare Legendary loot added to battles.

Now all, non Arena fights, have an "Ultra Rare" drop that you will likely never see.

Bucklers are now craftable as intended.

Stat upgrade items have been turned into Tomes with brand new icons.

Improved the descriptions on most pieces of gear to better show how it affects the recruit.

No more chance of having 0 Augment slots on gear.

Improved the description on the Rudis.

Tier 1 and 2 gear now has Augment Slots to help reduce confusion.

Animals can now Auto Equip Collars.

Added a "Dire" version of the Collar and Guard.

Makeshift Cloth Cestus renamed to Cloth Cestus.

The Heavy Bandanna can now be crafted normally.

Augmenting armor with "Plate" type augs now also adds a slight Bleed resistance.

Removed the Record of Names from the Arena stat prize pool.

Gear now optimizes on Style change.

Togglable in the settings section.

10 New Skills.

Enemy Canine Skills now scale properly.

Jaw Lock no longer changes the targets row.

Upped Sword Dance success rate to 20% from 10%.

Incapacitate and Perma Injuries now only apply from a Critical hit.

Chance raised to 5% from 1%.

Hoplomachi's guard skill has been changed to Bulwark.

Bulwark: guards and adds a 5% damage mitigation for 3 turns.

New Graphics for the new Crocodile mobs.

Lots of new Icons. Many of which I just created.

2 New weapon graphics.

Many new map graphics.

Improved the Guard type battlers.

New Crocodile enemies.

Very difficult.

Found in the open, they will chase you.

Croc gear recipes added when you kill your first one.

Optimized a lot of scripting. Reduced Parallel Process to almost nothing.

Renamed Front Row to Static Row and Back Row to Dynamic Row.

This is to better describe how a player should look at the rows.

Static Row is anchored in the center of the battle taking the brunt of the damage.

Dynamic Row is for the mobile. Dart around the outside of the battle to help stay safe.

New method of Damage display which improves the feel of battles.

Made some fine tuning adjustments to all Styles stat growth.

New Maid type and maids.

Scholar type added. This is in the early stages but will be much more developed in the future.

Added a lot of hidden flavor text.

Updated the Basic Info section with the new information.

You can now use your keys if using a keyboard to name things.

New format added for items and loot.

All instances of items now show the Icon before the name to help visually identify the item.

Completed some missing story lines.

Lucciea now shows up in the jail cell when captured.

Made many improvements to the Style descriptions.

Easier to see what unique abilities Styles have.

Reduced the agro range of Lanista Guards.

Fixed a pathing issue in Corinas Lookout.

Fixed a pathing issue in the Lower Flatts.

Improved some labels in Gladatora and Gladatora East.

No more unlimited Mud Slickers from Simly.

Fixed some transforming logs.

Fixed some grammar issues.

Fixed a possible lock up in Lower Flatts.

Fixed NPC's that would walk in place.

Took many more steps to eradicate the 0 HP bug.

Fixed an issue with how Lions scaled.

Fixed an issue with Bridget's recruiting event.

Secret Event in the Testing Zone fixed.

Fixed a rare cause of a seemingly random crash.

Probably a bunch of other stuff I forgot about.

Older Changelogs removed due to space constraints. These older patch notes can still be found in the Changelogs file in the Gladatora.zip.

Community Contributions:

The list of community member contributed recruits is growing with more on the way. I wanted to highlight these recruits so the players would know whats what and as an extra thank you for the additions. The graphics for these recruits have all been submitted by the contributing members.

Hypnojo, Created by Hypnojo, of Hypnojo Gaming. He is a very skilled Orator and can help you unlock the Orator style for everyone.

Poryg, created by the great @Poryg of course. As well as some extensive dialogs for this character.

Nine, created by member @Drago9. This great recruit introduced a new battle type that will be used more and more as the game grows.

Lucceia, created by the amazing @MMMm. A deadly Scissores but how far can she be trusted?

Mary, One of @MMMm creations. She is the leader of a good will movement and a powerful Orator.

Brigit, created by the amazing @MMMm. Starah's long lost little sister, this character has introduced a new style of recruiting and some really cool events, as well as a pretty useful Bond.

Forty, Another one of @MMMm creations. Forty is an ex bandit that sells random goods if you can find him. This would be a very useful addition to your Ludus.

Hu Jun, another wonderful addition submitted by the great @MMMm Can you convince him to give up his bandit ways?

Screenshots:

Currently:

109 Maps.
4 Endings with multiple play through options.
13 Weapon types, 8 tiers each and some with alternate types like 2 handed or curved.
11 Armor types with 8 tiers.
Many hidden rare and ultra rare gear pieces to find.
17 Class styles.
13 Subclass styles to match the weapon types.
7 Skills per style type.
2 Ultimate type skills per weapon class type.
338 Skills with Action sequencing
247 Items
192 Weapons
293 Armor Pieces
423 Recipes
17 Special rare named mobs to seek out. Not part of arena battles.
7 Possible Arena board dailies.
44 Playable characters.
3 Difficulty settings with fine tuning possible through the Enemy Exp Modifier.
Optional Perma Death and Perma Injury modes.
Perma Injury mode Forces recruits to retire if they become too hurt.
7 Random fame reward tiers with 10 possible rewards per tier.
47 Tracked tasks, plus countless other non tracked ones.
Secrets hidden throughout the game that the best detective would have trouble finding.
1025 Switches.
703 Variables.
Over 700 custom icons.
302 Common Events

Features:

No two playthroughs are the same. Endless combinations of group types and strategies. Play how you want to.
3 difficulty settings and an Enemy Experience Modifier combine to make a gaming experience you can fine tune to your liking.
Optional Permadeath mode for added difficulty.
Perma Injuries if recruit gets too damaged they have to retire back into the world.
Play as community members Poryg and Drago9, named Nine. and enjoy content created by them.
Side view battle system.
Job point system.
Errand System similar to Final Fantasy Tactics Tavern Tasks.
Multiple play throughs with actor and item carry over.
Crafting system which is a heavy influence on upgrades.
Salvage system requiring special Tools.
Recruit allies from among the population and grow your numbers.
Bond System, Increase you relationships and unlock custom character growth paths.
Achievement system for that sense of accomplishment.
Save your various group make ups in the Group Sets section.
Randomly knock off enemy gear in battle, lowering enemy stats.
Bed system, you can only have as many allies as you have beds for them.
Increase Fame as you win in the arena or complete tasks.
Earn great rewards for increasing your Fame and possibly earn true freedom and the special unlockable Style, Rudiarius.
Ludus Reputation system that monitors your acceptance in the game and will reward you accordingly.
Simple yet effective healing system. Use Medical type items and increase your healing First Aid stat.
Other special recruitable types like Blacksmith, and Gladiatrix with special affects on your Ludus.
"Styles", or “Classes” made to represent the real gladiators styles, like Myrmillo and Retiarii. Equipment allowances to match what the real gladiator would wear.
Day/night system.
Arena board is random daily with different options possible from day to day.
Weapon proficiencies to improve your ability with each weapon type. The more you use it, the better you become with it.

Fan Art:

Here we have a wonderful new fan art of the closest person Gladatora has to a lead, Triggand. This great artwork comes to us from the talented GabrielSimoes @Deviant Art Link

Gabriel has created a new more HD version of his Triggand art! Very amazing work and quick as well. Show this amazing artist some love if you get a chance. His art link is right above the new image. I am again, very humbled.

Long lost sisters, Starah and Brigit.
Wonderful fan art by the artist Kakaa4 @Deviant Art Link

Terminology:

Ludus:
A training school, as it were, for slaves to be used in the arena to gain coin for their masters.

Denari:
Denari was the standard Roman silver coin from its introduction in the Second Punic War c. 211 BC to the reign of Gordian III (AD 238-244), when it was gradually replaced by the Antoninianus. It continued to be minted in very small quantities, likely for ceremonial purposes, until and through the tetrarchy (293-313).

Dominus:
Dominus is the Latin word for master or owner. As a title of sovereignty the term under the Roman Republic had all the associations of the Greek Tyrannos; refused during the early principate, it finally became an official title of the Roman Emperors under Diocletian (this is where the term dominate, used to describe a political system of Roman Empire in 284-476, is derived from). Dominus, the French equivalent being "sieur", was the Latin title of the feudal, superior and mesne, lords, and also an ecclesiastical and academical title. The ecclesiastical title was rendered in English "sir", which was a common prefix before the Reformation for parsons, as in Sir Hugh Evans in Shakespeare's Merry Wives of Windsor. In the past, the academical use was for a Bachelor of Arts. The shortened form "Dom" is used as a prefix of honor for ecclesiastics of the Catholic Church, and especially for members of the benedictine and other religious orders.

Domina:
The lady of the ludus. Generally the Dominus's wife. A lady, a title formerly given to noble ladies who held a barony in their own right.

Doctori:
Head trainer of the slaves within a ludus, responsible for their success or failure. When a new recruit (novicius) entered one of the gladiators ludus's to commence gladiator training he was assessed by the lanista, a doctori, the gladiator's trainer and he would be checked by a medicus (a doctor, not to be confused with the doctori) for any medical problems and whether he was physically suitable to train as a gladiator and equipped to withstand the rigours of training and combat.

Missio:
Submitting in battle, or, escaping. The term "missio" refers to the sign that a gladiator may give when they cede a fight to their opponent. It serves as both an acknowledgement of defeat and a plea for mercy. A gladiator performing missio would raise either hand with their middle and index fingers together and the remainder of their fingers clenched.

Medicus:
A medical orderly or doctor, as seen in variuos forms: medicus Castrorum - a doctor of the camp. Medicus Chirurgus - a surgeon. Medicus Duplicarius - a non-commissioned officer on double pay in the medical service. Medicus Ordinarius - a medical officer. Medicus Pecuarius - a vet.

Lanista:
A lanista was a man who purchased and looked after gladiators. They could gain considerable wealth in renting or selling gladiators, particularly to small, local games but their social status was considered low. Newly bought gladiators were formed into troupes called 'Familia gladiatorium'.

Primus:
The primary event of a series (usually a day's worth) of gladiatorial games. Basically, the "main event" or "main attraction". This could be anything from an epic re-creation of a historical battle, a "battle royal" between dozens of fighters, a duel between highly skilled and famous gladiators or the much-anticipated execution of a major criminal or enemy of Rome.

Verutum:
The verutum, plural veruta (Latin: spit), was a short javelin used in the Roman army. This javelin was used by the velites for skirmishing purposes, unlike the heavier pilum, which was used by the hastati and principes for softening the enemy before advancing into close combat. The verutum's shaft was about 1.1 meters long, much shorter than the pilum (2 meters), and its point measured about 13 centimeters long. The verutum had either an iron shank like the pilum or a tapering metal head. It was thrown with the aid of a throwing strap, or amentum.

Popina:
The popina (plural: popinae) was an ancient Roman wine bar, where a limited menu of simple foods (olives, bread, stews) and selection of wines of varying quality were available. The popina was a place for plebeians of the lower classes of Roman society (slaves, freedmen, foreigners) to socialise and in Roman literature they were frequently associated with illegal and immoral behavior.

Lora:
A bitter wine made from the grape skin husks, seeds and any other product left over from the pressing process. Fermented by soaking in water, it was generally served to slaves, though some lower classes, and even soldiers may have had access to wines that were hardly any better. Today these excess grape products are used in distilling the liquor Grappa.

Cyser:
A blend of honey and apple juice fermented together. A Polish mead, made using three units of water for each unit of honey.

Vinum Dulce:
A sweet wholesome wine, made from dried grapes that were pressed in the heat of the day.

Parmula:
Parma or parmula (the diminutive of parma) was a type of round or square shield used by the Roman army, especially during the later period of Imperial history. The Parma was about 36 inches (91 cm) across (or less) and had iron in its frame, making it a very effective piece of armor. The Parma was used by legionnaires in the Early Republican period of Rome's history by the lowest class division of the army, the Velites. The Velites' equipment consisted of a parma, javelin, sword and helmet. Later, the parma was replaced by the body length scutum.

Scutum:
The Scutum was a type of shield used among Italic peoples in the archaic period, and then by the army of ancient Rome starting about the fourth century BC. The Romans adopted it when they switched from the military formation of the hoplite phalanx of the Greeks to the formation with maniples. In the former, the soldiers carried a round shield, which the Romans called clipeus. In the latter, they used the scutum, which was a larger shield. Originally it was an oblong and convex shield. By the first century BC it had developed into the rectangular, semi-cylindrical shield that is popularly associated with the scutum in modern times. This was not the only shield the Romans used; Roman shields were of varying types depending on the role of the soldier who carried it. Oval, circular and rectangular shields were used throughout Roman history.

Subligaculum:
A subligaculum was a kind of undergarment worn by ancient Romans. It could come either in the form of a pair of shorts, or in the form of a simple loincloth wrapped around the lower body. It could be worn both by men and women.

Galea:
A galea was a Roman soldier's helmet. Some gladiators, myrmillones, also wore a bronze galea with a face mask and a decoration, often a fish on its crest. The exact form or design of the helmet varied significantly over time, between differing unit types, and also between individual examples. Pre-industrial production was by hand, so it is not certain to what degree there was any standardization even under the Roman Empire.

Fascia and Ocrea:
A Fascia was protective leg padding worn below a greave. It consisted of a band of material, skin, or leather. An ocrea was a metal leg guard, or greave, that ran from the knee, or sometimes the thigh, to below the shin protecting the front of the leg

Manicae and Galerus:
The Manicae were wraps of leather and cloth for arm and wrist padding. The Galerus was the distinctive metal shoulder guard of the gladiator such as the Retiarii or the Laquerarii

Cingulum:
The Cingulum was wide leather belt which was to protect the gladiators waistline from being injured. The Cingulum was often strengthened with metal plates

Latifundium:
A latifundium is a very extensive parcel of privately owned land. The latifundia (Latin: lātus, "spacious" + fundus, "farm, estate") of Roman history were great landed estates specializing in agriculture destined for export: grain, olive oil, or wine. They were characteristic of Magna Graecia and Sicily, Egypt, Northwest Africa and Hispania Baetica. The latifundia were the closest approximation to industrialized agriculture in Antiquity, and their economics depended upon slavery.

RP:
Rally Points, which is TP, or Technical Points.

Tips:

There are many different class types and unique bond arrangements. The combinations are endless which can offer many unique playthough styles and experiences.
Many battle types scale with your group level, but not all do. Using this you can have groups of stronger recruits and weaker recruits and still use them all effectively.
Levels are stored among Styles. Changing your style puts you at that styles current level rather than your previous level. Have your more powerful recruits switch styles to be at a level they can group with new recruits while being able to switch back to your upper level style at any time.
Having many similar level recruits can help you survive the more difficult battles by switching in new party members as needed.
There is a Basic Info section in the "Special" tab of your main menu. Most info you could need can be found there on the fly.
Save when you need to, auto saving occurs when you go in and out of the Ludus gates and certain other times. The first save slot is where auto saves go so save your games in the other slots.
The best way to heal in battle is from the back row, with Battle Dressings.
Switch out group members in battle or change equipment to get past enemy resistances or out live boss type mobs.
Every 100 fame, per actor you will receive increasing rewards see the Ludus for these.
Belts are found through the Fame random reward tiers.
Techniques are found on rare random spawn mobs or through task lines.
Only certain classes can use 2 handed weapon types.
Dog collars and guards are mainly crafted.
Higher tier items and gear become craftable as you raise the coinciding crafting styles levels.
Flax, Apples, Fish and Honeycombs respawn after varying amounts of game days.
The Ludus is your home base see the Doctori often and spend his Doctori Points, retrieve fame rewards, learn new skills, improve stats and more.
Rest in your bed within the upper Ludus if needed.
Ludus storage is available next to your bed.
Doctori only gains Doctori Points in daylight hours when he can be overseeing Ludus duties.
Arena boards are only available during daylight hours.
Use Missio battle command to escape battles if the opponent is too difficult.
Hard difficulty blocks escaping battles, among other things.
Most Style types must be unlocked by gaining job levels.
Damaged gear knocked off opponents can be repaired by a blacksmith.
Areas blocked off by the barrier graphic are not developed yet but will be in the future.
Keep weaker/ranged type characters in the back row for protection.
Tools for salvaging material are obtained through blacksmiths.
Rally Charge skill is very versatile, save charges for stronger foes or use it more often to keep the tides turned in your favor.
There are little "secrets" hidden all over the place.
Rally Boost is a state that occurs at max Rally Points, RP. This adds a small HP and SP regen and Hit boost.
Arena Board labels are green when available and red when not.
Errand Board labels are green when you can send a recruit, red when a recruit is on an errand and blue when a recruit is waiting to be picked up.
Bows require arrows, which are crafted from wood scraps and raw bits. Equip the arrow type you want to use in your Offhand slot.
Augments are removable, upgrades are not.
Blessings are only equippable on Legendary tier armors.

Known Issues:

There is a crash involving Yanflys Party System that can occur if you try to remove all but one of your members during a battle. You can still remove recruits, if you wish, as long as it wont leave only 1 battle member on screen. If you wish to fight with one member simply remove other recruits before battling. This is an issue with the Party plugin specifically.

Download:
Current download size, 145 MB
Reminder, updating usually breaks old saves.
Link

Jeremiah Eastman · Jun 25, 2017

Hey there gang, I took the week off from MV after a little over 3 months solid with no days off from it. Now I'm refreshed and ready to start knocking out more of the game. I was really hoping to have gotten some critique by now but alas, no luck. I'm at a point in my project where I could really use some outside opinions if anyone would like to help out.

I would love to get everything as dialed as possible before I start branching out into the more open world side of my game, so that needed changes could be dealt with a little easier. I hope to put together a solid, quality game, one that more than just myself would enjoy. So if anyone would take a look I would be super appreciative. Take care RPGers, hope to talk to you soon.

bgillisp · Jun 25, 2017

Was able to take a look at the game for about 30 minutes today. Seems like you have the start of a decent story there. A few things I'd suggest looking at though:

-There's a LOT of pauses in the dialogue. And I mean a lot. Are all those really needed?
-You often use to when it should be too.
-Check your spelling. I found a place where you misspelled seize as sieze (its right where you debate what to do after you gained your freedom). There might be more, but that is the one that I immediately noticed.
-Any reason you're only using about 75% of the text box (going from left to right?). Maybe consider using more of it. That would also eliminate the need to break up some of the dialogues into multiple boxes.
-Some of the text reads oddly to me. I don't know if that is due to going for a style from a different time or not. Maybe see what others think.

Got to the point where I had to recruit 6 members, found 4 then had to stop. Might see if I can continue later on, but overall seems like a decent start, just some polish needed on the text mainly.

Jeremiah Eastman · Jun 25, 2017

bgillisp said:
Was able to take a look at the game for about 30 minutes today. Seems like you have the start of a decent story there. A few things I'd suggest looking at though:

-There's a LOT of pauses in the dialogue. And I mean a lot. Are all those really needed?
-You often use to when it should be too.
-Check your spelling. I found a place where you misspelled seize as sieze (its right where you debate what to do after you gained your freedom). There might be more, but that is the one that I immediately noticed.
-Any reason you're only using about 75% of the text box (going from left to right?). Maybe consider using more of it. That would also eliminate the need to break up some of the dialogues into multiple boxes.
-Some of the text reads oddly to me. I don't know if that is due to going for a style from a different time or not. Maybe see what others think.

Got to the point where I had to recruit 6 members, found 4 then had to stop. Might see if I can continue later on, but overall seems like a decent start, just some polish needed on the text mainly.

Thank you very much for the reply. The pauses in the dialog are actually from a plugin I added that automatically adds pauses after each comma and period. It had a nice nostalgic feel to it when I first found and added it but with my own testing it did start to really slow things down. I'll probably go ahead and remove that plugin.

Thanks for pointing out the to, too thing I should know better than that, I'll go back over my dialog and stamp those out.

Same with seize.

The reason for the shorter text is from when I use the text code \pf[1]. That puts the first party members face in the face window but it doesn't actually show in the editor so the little dim safe line in text windows does not get moved to the proper place for having a face image. I found myself cutting it to close and having missing text often so I started lessening the amount of text in a line. That and when I use \p[1] I am not sure how long the name would be so I give a fair amount of extra room for those. I didn't really think about this as something that would be noticeable but, since it was I definitely want to get it cleared up. I'll go through and see about a better reworking of these issues.

And finally the text that reads oddly, yeah that is due to Hollywood, like Spartacus and Gladiator. I am a big fan of those shows and they definitely influenced my decision to make this game. They have a very distinct style in how they speak and I have tried to replicate that but it often causes the dialog to sound grammatically incorrect. I hope to get more input from anyone else that wants to weigh in on this to see what they think. I want to keep as much immersion as I can but if the text style is not well received it needs to go.

Again bgillisp, thank you very much for taking the time to look at the game and give some thoughts. I will definitely follow through with these fixes.

bgillisp · Jun 25, 2017

Yeah, I thought it might be a style thing. I'd leave it alone for now and see if more people have issues with it. About 20 minutes in I barely noticed it anymore, and you can still tell what they mean, so it wasn't a game breaking issue for me.

Jeremiah Eastman · Jul 4, 2017

Hey there gang, I will be releasing a new version of Gladatora in about 4 days. It has many improvements and will have new content. If anyone has any feedback or criticism I would love to hear it so I could get possible fixes into this next version before it comes out.

Also I would love to hear what anyone's thoughts are on the dialog style of my game, it's an attempt at the style of speech that Hollywood has told us they spoke like in this time period.

Anyways thanks for taking the time to have a look if you do and have a good one all.

Jeremiah Eastman · Jul 12, 2017

Hey there gang, it took a little longer than expected, but I had a lot I wanted to get into this update. Gladatora has now been updated to version 1.10 Alpha with lots of improvements and new content. Hope you enjoy it.

Version 1.10 Alpha, Update:

All actors now start with a versatile chargeable skill called Rally Charge.
3 new recruitable actors including the first advanced Healer actor.
11 new maps.
Reformatted all text to better fit the message windows.
Removed all spelling errors and hopefully all grammar issues.
Removed pauses from punctuation's.
Further improved New Game +.
Better tuned the Permadeath system.
Ludus Storage now carries over into New Game +'s. Thanks to whitesphere
Further improved, customized and optimized graphics.
Added many new Icons and gave every item, weapon and armor its own unique icons.
Customized many Animations.
Added and dialed game sounds and musics, as well as added many custom sounds.
Further worked all Elements to better tune the resistance system.
Added possible random events to sleeping at a tavern.
Re-tuned parallel processes to greatly reduce memory usage.
New Salvage system which requires special Tools to salvage.
Many, many other fixes, balancings and improvements.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/apahn7wx8782j97/Gladatora 1.10a.zip?dl=0

Poryg · Jul 13, 2017

There are still plenty of grammar errors. However, that's not that much of an issue.
You may want to change the default windowskin. The default windowskin and default font make the game letters hard to read. Default gamefont is easier, but then the game loses a bit of authenticity.
As for the game, I found that the permadeath mode is kind of crazy in combination with hard difficulty. But it doesn't make too much sense to play without it, except if you want to practice, because if you play without permadeath, you only need four party members, since they're not gonna die. Although maybe there is some sort of a hidden thing behind having more members.
Well, I immediately jumped on hard mode with permadeath turned on, which may not be the best idea ever, but even so, just wanted to check the hard difficulty, because many game creators confuse the word "difficulty".
I defeated the Doctori and Dominus with still 800+ hp to spare (on both characters - I ignored the order to pull the youngster to the back row, which made him tank some crucial damage), the "final blow" took me only 561 hp, so I still had 300+ left... Yet it was like he'd be killed and he lost his leg. I'm not sure if it happens even if he gets killed by that, but if so, then maybe you'll want to strengthen the final blow so that if the character shouldn't "survive", he doesn't.
But back to the business.
Frankly, this game has lots of potential, but as it is, it looks like a mishmash of features to me. And better yet, with little to zero explanation for the most part.
Learning skills using CP (Job points? Looks more like Chop points to me if it is CP) is kind of weird. I have an option to study a myriad of skills, but first I will probably have to gain a couple of levels before they even unlock. But if I didn't know rpg maker, I would never figure out that I needed to use page up/page down to circle through party members.
Then crafting system. I have to craft a battle bandage first (or how the item is called). I have to search through the building for two materials... And then I am allowed to craft a ?????????????????.
Once I craft it, this ????????????, item disappears and so far hasn't reappeared in my crafting items again, so maybe it was the only item of this kind I could craft. But I can craft a dozen of another ????????????. What is this? If I don't know what I can craft, how can I decide what I want to craft? I mean... How can a craftsman not know what he is doing? That doesn't make any sense.
Then there are lots of another features like equip, subclass, weapon profeciency, in which case we can choose our profecience, which adds to the chaos even more, since explanations are mashed together, so to speak, and pretty chaotic themselves (although it may be the fact that I read them on yellow background with white letters, which made me lose focus quickly).
Rows are explained well and the subclasses are described well too. But the city takes a while to adapt to. The arena itself is the same. I spent like three minutes searching for arena board.
But there are so many things in the menu. Dismiss (I don't even know what it does), return to home, then under there are several system settings and in the end the save menu and game end. I at first overlooked the system settings, because it didn't occur to me that there could be something under Dismiss, I thought dismiss was End game

Maybe you should redo the menu a bit, perhaps create a 4x4 grid of commands, it will make it easier to see. Nevertheless, having so many menu commands is certainly overwhelming. Having so many equip types, classes and skills available for learning (but of course not for using) too. And since you don't have early access to most features, it might not be a bad idea to limit them until they become relevant and then explain them in more detail once they come, otherwise it will be overwhelming.
But again, the game balance is what worries me the most. Especially on hard difficulty. And the reason for it is simple... Reliance on random numbers. That is no difficulty.
Random encounters are very tight. Since you run for a lot of time on small place, I find that reasonable. However, if a group of bandits damages me and then I encounter a group of angry puppies before I can heal, I'm sunk. Their bite skill is ridiculously strong and there is nothing as escape. So in the end I am put on mercy of these angry puppies, whether they use the bite skill, on whom... And whether the character who has 240 hp left avoids it or receives 300+ damage or dies.
But honestly, while it is very dificult to present a concept of difficulty to JRPG games, many people just think it's enough to increase stats and call it increased difficulty. That is not an increased difficulty though. It's just more stats grinding necessary. If you want to make difficulty, then make larger variety of stats, smarter AI that will try to pick off the weaker... But amplifying damage where the damage avoidance is out of player's hands... This is not difficulty.

Jeremiah Eastman · Jul 14, 2017

Wow, I wasn't expecting so much feedback thank you, I do appreciate it. I want to go over some of your feedback if ya don't mind. First off, the grammar errors, are they actual errors or is it the style of speech they use? Like: What set purpose to feet that see's you to my door. I am still trying to determine if the speech style needs to be dummed down but I worry about authenticity if I do, if that's not the grammar issues then sweet.

The default font and window screen. To me it looks fine until it goes into full screen mode at which time the font seems to become a little fuzzy, which I do not like. I personally enjoy the sand window screen so I left it as default but I have 6 different window screens because of this for people to customize to their preference. For this maybe I should have the player set which window type they want at the beginning then let them know it can be changed at any time. But I do want the starting window to look right so I will look for a way to make it easier to read, and I am thinking I should add some more font options than the 3 there.

Permadeath on hard, that's pretty rough to start with. Permadeath mode is meant for those highly skilled at the game. I tried to get that point across in the intro selection but I think I need to better elaborate on it. Permadeath mode and Hard mode is pretty tough for a beginning group make up, especially since they are only slightly geared in tier 1 gear. Hard should be reserved for New Game +'s where you already have a group that starts with your old gear and levels and whatnot, or maybe changing the difficulty mid game if enemies become to easy. A first play through should really be played in normal, non permadeath mode.

For the non permadeath mode they do get knocked unconscious, which is a sort of temporary death state. Battles on normal mode will sufficiently defeat actors enough where in battle party management becomes very important, A difficult boss could take 10 people to beat with deaths and switching in and out. So if you only use the 4 starter actors you wouldn't be able to get very far in a decent amount of game play time.

You said you defeated the Doctori and Dominus with 800+HP left. Do you mean you defeated the 3 guards with that? The Doctori is not killable. With the ignoring being to told to move to the back row, I do that every play through myself but if the main character is put back there he will fare much better. I wish there was a way to force the player to put the actor in the 2nd row but I have not found a way to do that. I just wanted to show an example for the player about the row. It was an attempt to add a bit of tutorial without slowing the opening down to much, I dislike long openings myself. I will work on better explaining and implementing that part of the intro, I just wish I could force the actor into the back row.

You said the final blow left you with over 300 hp, that final blow event isn't supposed to happen until Erdris is at 0 HP I am not sure why that wouldn't happen I will look into what caused that. Thanks for the heads up. Erdris is supposed to be knocked out in every opening so he need to be taken to the medicus but in permadeath mode it should not count as a death. it's meant to just be an almost death for the intro. I think I know whats happening there I'l get it fixed up.

I am trying to make the Doctori be the hub, he has a lot of management options and controls many game settings as well as offering much info about the different aspects of the game. That is where I try to put a lot of the info about the games features. You said I give little to no info about this, did you find the info in the teachings section of the doctori or did you not see it? I am wondering If I need to make it more obvious that it's there, or I just need to have more info in other places as well. I think probably a little bit of both.

Learning Skills. CP is supposed to be class points, I changed that in the very early stages of my game and it isn't even called classes anymore so I need to fix that, I will put it back to JP. You said you would need to level some before being able to check out the skills, do you think I should start the player off with JP? Maybe give them enough to buy the first ability with the main actor or something. As for the page up and down to cycle though actors in the skill learn window, I hate that myself but unless I have the skills learnable from the main menu that is the only way to control it. The Doctori is your trainer so I thought learning skills from him should technically be his main use. I do show a text window every time you use the learn skill option telling you what buttons to use, other than that I am not sure what I can do. Wait scratch that I think I just came up with a great new way. I am suddenly stoked about this issue.

I'll get it cleared up.

With the crafting you can only see recipes you currently have crafting materials for. The ??????? is the default way they are handled after crafting the item once they show the name, but after hearing your reasoning you make a lot of sense. I will make the Item names always visible, I am definitely on board with this change.

You say the city take a bit to adapt to, is that an issue? I am not sure what you mean exactly there. But the arena board I can definitely see finding it being an issue. I had added to the Arena Board the text above the board in an attempt to make it more noticeable but now that someone else has tested it I see it needs to be more obvious I have some ideas to fix this, I will get that straightened out.

Dismiss is how you remove actors from your party. There is a limit to how many max actors you can have at any given time, If you find some one more useful or that just looks cooler you may want to remove an old party member for the new one. The dismiss button was a huge leap forward in this system but I called it Remove Allies, which made the letters all bunched up. So I went with a smaller word, I will fix that. It sounds like I need to add a tutorial section about the main menu.

The difficulty aspects. Bandits and dogs are generally very easy but on hard mode you need better gear to defeat them, or have enough recruits to survive. Of the 6 possible setting you chose the most difficult of all, the dogs are very manageable in normal, I just didn't expect anyone to start off with the most difficult setting. I will work on further tuning this however. On hard mode the run command is removed among many other things, maybe I should re-add the ability to run away with missio to non arena battles on hard mode. And addressing the difficulties and enemies, all enemies have 3 version the easy, normal and hard versions with different level spreads, abilities and traits. I may need to down tune the hard versions some but they weren't meant to be defeated without being very difficult with a starting group not in new game +. I do need to work on enemy ai, that is one aspect I still haven't spent a lot of time on. It is on my to do list though, I have just had very little testing done outside of myself so to this point it has been a list of things I see, you have been a huge help in moving forward toward getting this core area and mechanics dialed.

You gave me quite a lot to work on and I am excited about that. I am working toward a very complex battle system and one which will take a lot to get dialed, I have a much better view of the battle state now and the next version release should address all of these issues. Thanks for everything Poryg, I am super appreciative that you took a look at the game and gave me so much info on it. Thanks again.

Poryg · Jul 14, 2017

Alright, one by one

There are several issues that are 100% grammatical or typological. There are some that may not be, I will have to check it out again, but not now.

About the default font and window... Of course you like it, otherwise it wouldn't be there

I got used to it eventually too, but it's very hard to read initially, because the thin white letters blend in with the yellow background. But you know, combined with the yellow desert it's pure hell. Overwhelmed by yellow. I think it wouldn't be a bad idea to use the darker pergamen system window as a default, but I will of course leave that to you. It's not necessary to add more fonts though, because the default game font reads perfectly fine even on that bright yellow background.

Permadeath on hard is quite a bad way, but without permadeath the hard difficulty isn't really hard. I can beat the bandits easily, gained 6 levels on them with no problems. But the cute puppies (in translation mad dogs) are the real troublemakers. If I meet two groups of bandits on the row, I can manage well with row formation. But if I meet bandits and then puppies, I'm in deep troubles. If I meet puppies, I am fine, but if I meet puppies and then again puppies, I am toast. Luckily I know how to circumvent it, I just need to be on the edge..
Also, I can just sleep and gather doctori points and then just train.
Which reminds me, what use does the water have? I always feel refreshed after drinking it, but you know, nothing seems to happen. No healing, no anything... Same with sleeping (well, sleeping advances game time, giving some precious Doctori points).

Yes, I defeated Doctori and Dominus. Those three guards were easy prey, since they missed so often that I got quite a bunch of counterattacks on them (btw. counterattacks aren't mentioned anywhere, so I don't know at all how they work, except for the fact that it isn't a 100% chance and that the youngster has a dodge counter) then I got into battle with Doctori and Dominus. First I killed Dominus, then I sapped hp from Doctori little by little... And when he reached zero, he unleashed his ultimate power, harming, but not defeating my Doctori. Looks like a bug there.
EDIT: Played it for the second time. There must be a bug. The second time when the second battle begun, I took 1121 damage, killing Erdris before I could even do anything (which didn't happen during my first playthrough. Maybe you have AI level 80?)

Yes, I know about the teachings, but there's very little written there. There are secondary weapons, there are those rare equips in fifth equip slot, but there aren't any equip classes, their advantages/disadvantages. There is fame, but in the end I didn't get any fame at all even after clearing three standard arena battles (full party fights). There is first aid nicely described. But there are no strategy tips, not even basic ones, so I went on with the strategy "Use main party and don't change anything." It worked quite well, with two heavy hitters, one tank and one dodger-counterattacker. Even on hard difficulty with basic equip I could handle the basic fights. I won't lie, I couldn't handle the special challenges, since they are really tough.

Which reminds me, the game balancing has one more issue... The more your and the bandits' levels grow, the weaker the bandits are. Puppies still retain a considerable firepower, but bandits grow weaker and weaker. On lv 7 I already received 50 damage from basic attack and 130 damage from thrust. Which is, honestly, more than manageable. But evil dogs give 220-350 damage, which is very lot.

I don't think you should start the player with JP. I earned more than thousand JP and more than two thousand denari from bandits. The issue is their usability. I have learning skills blocked for some reason (I can't even see the job points needed for them. Is it by level or weapon proficiency?). This is what I thought about having to level up a bit before I could use them. There should be an explanation about them, but there is no relevant info unfortunately.

And I should have finished my thought about the town... It wouldn't hurt to create a map of the location. When you're new there, you get lost very quickly, especially without labels.
About the Arena board... Well, quite frankly, the first thing I did was I deactivated the labels. My potato PC can't handle too much, so I conserve RAM where I can. Which explains why I had real troubles finding it. This is another reason why a map would be good... For idiots like me who like to turn everything off

Also, I wonder if I could ask you to cut the prices of doctori points down a bit. The income, being random between 1-5, is very small compared to the prices of doctori points. I need to wait for so long for 50 points. Then another 50 points. Training costs 25 doctori points, but since I keep expanding my structures, where am I supposed to fight?

And one last bug at the end of the post... Permadeath cannot be turned off, at least not on hard difficulty. I'm not sure about other difficulties.

I'm very glad I gave you something to work on

And about not expecting me to choose the hardest difficulty of them all... I always choose permadeath, since it forces me to try to preserve characters. Suddenly I have to think about keeping the damage they receive roughly equal (which resulted in me being mad that those bite skills reached the back row, since it's a contact fighting skill, so I don't think it should) And I like to pick the hard difficulty on JRPGs, because the difficulties are usually so poorly balanced in JRPGs... My experiences from difficulty based rpgs are like this: Hard difficulty is usually still manageable but the bosses are absolutely brutal, so I have to lower the difficulty to normal where the boss is suddenly very easy to beat. So hard difficulty usually makes my game easier... This game uses enemy levels, so it kind of backfired on me, but at least I was able to give you some insight from the hard difficulty

Jeremiah Eastman · Jul 14, 2017

You're great Poryg

Thank you so much for taking all the time that you have with my game, too kind. On the windowskins I have done some optimizing in the initial ones to improve their readability, and I changed the default one to one that looks nice but is much easier to read. I also removed the windowskin option from the main menu and put it in the options/settings tab. This helped to clear up the main menu some. I also changed the menu names of Disband to Disband Ally and Return To Return Home.

I have changed the damage formula on bite some it was (a.atk + a.agi) * 4 - b.def * 1, I changed it to (a.atk + a.agi) * 4 - b.def * 2 so far but need to test it more. The Bandits and Dogs in the Mud Flats are supposed to be newbie zone mobs so I want them to be fairly easy overall, the wolves in Outer Gladatora are much tougher. I do want them to remain relevant however so I need to look into better stat progression for them thanks for pointing that out.

You were only supposed to be able to gain Doctori Points if sleeping during the day Doctori point should be off during dark hours so I need to find that bug. I just took a look at the beds you can sleep in and they are missing some healing, they were only healing SP I'm happy you noticed that, not sure what happened there.

Fresh water is very minor, it is just like drinking from water on the map in that it heals 10 Hp and SP. Its real use though is for crafting other liquids, when it came to scaling cost and power through the crafting system I ended up having to make Fresh water very minor in its healing power.

Yep AI is currently at 80

I need to rework the ai system, I will definitely get it better tuned by the next update. Counter Attacks are very low 1% to start for most actors 33% for Triggand as that is his special ability/trait. and enemies range from 3% to 7%. Counter is only up gradable by 1% increments through Doctori Training. One of my biggest issues seems to be a lack of tutorial/info, that will be one of my main focuses in the upcoming days.

I wasn't sure if "Teachings" was easily overlooked or not was why I asked if you saw it. I will greatly expand on that category now that I have some good direction with it. Fame though you should have been getting. Did you check the actual fame stat of your actors or just the Fame section of the Doctori menu? There are quite a few things that add to the fame stat so I couldn't see them all not working. If it was Fame from the Doctori that is just because you haven't reached at least 100 fame with anyone yet.

Job Points shouldn't be blocked, the only requirements to buy the skills currently are just having enough JP in whatever Job type you are, the JP doesn't transfer to different jobs. But the cost of all skills should be visible on the left side when viewing the skills. Also I added a character select screen right before you enter the learn skill window to better choose who you want to skill up.

I am liking the map Idea I'll take a look at the map plugins out there and find one that will fit. I think I will also add some quest step early on that sends you to the arena board, to teach more about it and its location.

The expansions to the structures will all be either underground or behind the ludus so as not to interfere with training grounds.

But I do agree with you about the DP cost. In my play throughs I felt the same way but kinda wanted someone else's opinion on it first. I'll lower the costs for Doctori aspects. Side not there, I do plan on implementing an upgrade system for the amount of DP gained per hour.

Permadeath mode, to me, was an option I felt should not be able to be turned off in its play through. I feel it's a major game choice that should be played out that way, if you die you can always start a New Game + with carry over and a little bonus, being that you lost in permadeath mode. That being said I want the people to enjoy this game in the end so I will consider changing this. I would love to hear your thoughts after hearing my thoughts on the subject.

Well I have quite a bit to work on so back to the grindstone. You have been such a huge help already, thank you very very much.

I have also been thinking about adding recruitable actors dedicated to those that have been really helpful to the game making process. I would love to add a character in your honor if you're ok with that. If not. totally no worries, just thought I would throw that out there. Also I would use tact in the creation, not make you do or say anything stupid, controversial or otherwise. Anyways have a good one and thanks again.

Poryg · Jul 14, 2017

It's not really too kind of me to take time I took. I'm just trying to be thorough in playtesting

because this game has a clear potential and it's going at some direction (in other words it's under active development), it needs attention to develop, otherwise it will wither.
If they AI is at 80, that could explain why the fight with doctori and dominus has that evil bug. Although that means I've been quite lucky for once, usually the rng screws me over

Maybe you can do it like this.
New game - permadeath togglable
New game+ - permadeath untogglable

This way if someone feels like they have made a beginner mistake, they can revert it easily. If they feel non-permadeath is too easy, they can change in time. During new game+ you should know better what you want and what difficulty you want (let alone your chars have been developed), so there it could be untogglable, but as it is, during the new game the only way to turn permadeath on is to go through the story and the only quick way to turn it off is to die with all characters. Not the most pleasant solution.
Which reminds me, new game+ should also be described in the help, so that permadeathers aren't scared of killing their characters. I accept that it is irresponsible from me to cheese permadeath with save/load, but even so...

I'm not sure whether you gain points through sleeping overnight or not. I only wanted to say that I could just wait till the points pile up and train. This doesn't increase the xp, so you can train indefinitely, effectively killing any difficulty.

Feel free to add something about me there. But if you really want to be courteous, then you should not bother about my character saying uncomfortable things. I'm a character that feels that if something needs to be said, it is said, with no sugarcoating. And due to my emotional instability I often act in unpredictable ways. And I'm also very lazy and don't care about too much, the only thing I pursuit is cuteness... And cuddles with cuteness and pets

My most notable trait is that I crack up very easily and do crazy things just for laughs. And that I don't like males, that's the second one.

So if the persona does something stupid or says something controversial, as long as it's within my character, I don't mind

I'm going to talk about the rest tomorrow. It's 3:30 am and I have an important check-up in the morning.

Jeremiah Eastman · Jul 14, 2017

Nah it is kind of you.

It is great that there are people like you here that want to help, that goes a long way. I am not giving up on this project and have nothing but time so it will stay in heavy development. Your argument about the beginners using permadeath struck a cord, I'm on board now with it being toggle-able. And I'm thinking maybe having the option to lock peremadeath on or not with new game +'s so the player can decide then if they want to be locked in to the mode. And that isn't necessarily cheesing permadeath when you're play testing.

Sleeping in the bed wont accumulate DP, since it is an 8 hour rest I made it not possible to get any, like the whole ludus is sleeping and not training. I'll definitely add you into my game and thanks for the info there it will definitely help with character development.

Have a great night sleep, and thanks for everything today, it was extremely helpful.

Poryg · Jul 14, 2017

Frankly, every setting that needs scrolling through choices is kind of easily overlookable

It took me quite a while to realize how to save in the game, because I thought disband was the last menu command

Which is why I suggested remaking of the main menu to make the commands better visible.
Whatever map plugins you use, please don't use a minimap plugin... Because it's already a bit of a problem for low end machines. Surprisingly enough it's not laggy when I resize the window to be small enough, which is a good sign. Only map transfers take long.
Getting through it now, I also doubt any usefulness of collision sound plugins. Sure, it is interesting at first, but that quickly wears off and becomes a liability instead. Except for if you're using it as a guide for blind people of course

I can finally learn skills and see the cp costs. Don't know why I couldn't earlier, looks like this was a bug on my side though. Today when I launched the game, I had to relaunch it two times to hear game musc, which is another bug on my side,
I know that you can't transfer the CP, since it's class points after all

It's even mentioned in one of the tutorials.
Oh, now I see that the doctori tells me to use page up and page down to choose between characters... I shouldn't have overlooked that one.
Regarding fame, yes, I checked every member's fame. Everyone has 1.
And quite funnily enough, even after being defeated in 3 to 1 battle, I got a message "Each live members fame has increased". Should be living or, even better, alive, but I don't think that 3 to 1 battles should increase any other member's fame at all, let alone if I die.
Here is a typo. The class is called thraex, the skills are caled thraex on skills page, but I'm learning threax skills from thraex class.
Letting the player set the permadeath to be toggleable or not sounds good in my book

Although it would be nice if the game somehow rewarded the player for his courage :}
That's it for now, I will be sure to look forward to meeting myself

Just make sure I can only be recruited with two girls in the party, since I can't stand males

Just kidding of course, Starah is cute enough. Starah and Kimbra.

Edit: I think this won't make you happy.
I broke your game. Absolutely, completely broke your game. I don't know how huge the cap for special training is, but it still...
I have made huge progress in mapping out how the game works. You receive no DP during night, sleep and training. However, you receive full DP after return (except for when night comes, night is there and night leaves). In other words do it enough times and you receive 25 DP in like three minutes. Do it for an hour or two and you can max out hp and tp regen rate, no matter how huge it is. If there is no cap, then the hp and mp regen completely breaks the game. And even on lower difficulties a 15% hp regen is quite a lot. I have 17% hp regen, regenerating 150 hp every turn, so I can tank two monsters that deal 300 damage per turn with no issues at all on hard difficulty. With undeveloped characters and potato gear

The ony thing that makes me calm is that the arena enemies get progressively harder, so at some point huge hp regen meets huge damage. But as long as I have one tank, I am safe.

As a side note though, it wouldn't be a bad idea to raise the amount of hp you receive from a hp training. 5 hp is too little. Maybe 15 hp or 25 hp... But definitely not 5 hp

And instead of always choosing an action it wouldn't be a bad idea to ask how many training sessions does the player want, because the way it is it is quite a pain to spend 175 points at once.

Another edit, another things to report.

I finally understand how fame works. Every non-party member receives 10 fame after the party fights in the arena. Kind of weird if you asked me, gaining fame for something they did not do while the fighters gain nothing.
Disassembling items doesn't seem to work. Do I need a certain item to be able to disassemble?
The shopkeeper's stats are very inaccurate. Probably it's because your unique weapons have different stats from the average. But it's weird that I bought an item that in theory gave me 4 more defece and 2 more agility and in practice it was the other way around

Jeremiah Eastman · Jul 15, 2017

I have reworked the main menu and working on any other scrollable windows to show all choices rather than scrolling. I am happy you said that about the mini map plugins I spent a lot of time checking out the ones there are and didn't find one I was into. Collision sounds have been removed. I still have no idea whats wrong with the fame but I am working on that, for me it still all works normally so I am not sure why it wouldn't be working but I'm trying to track that bug down.

I also better worded the receive fame text, and if a battle is, for instance, one on three, only the person who fought should get the fame.

I can't believe I never saw the threax spelling errors.

Thanks for pointing that out. Permadeath is now toggle-able on playthrough 1 but after that the player is given the option to lock it on or leave it toggle-able.

Hmm, the stat cap thing I didn't expect I wanted the player to be able to go as high as they could but thought that would take quite a long time. I even lowered there costs yesterday.

I will remove the option to gain DP while returning home but that probably wont be enough. I think I'll up the costs some and see about making a cap for them but I am not sure how I can work a cap atm that goes off of whatever battle group is active and whatnot. I'll look into that. I think I may remove regens from the Doctori training though. And don't worry it does make me happy I need to squash bugs like that, I'm stoked you found it.

Funny a few days ago I upped the amount of hp or stamina received from training from 1 to 5.

You're right though I will better tune that. Yesterday I set training and special training to cost 20 DP, would you say that is to low for those training's now? And yeah np I will improve the usability of training to make it not take as long.

Hmm Fame should only be added to the final battle members not non battle members, I'll look into that. Also they only get 1 to 5 fame at that point, depending on the battle type and difficulty. Any more fame than that gained in a single fight comes from basic attacks and skills. I have it so that occasional hits will be considered crowd pleasers which would reward 1 fame to the person who used the attack.

Yep you need a tool set to disassemble gear. To acquire that first you need the ludus extension then recruit a blacksmith to work inside it. The blacksmith will offer a few nice options as well as give you the tools. With this system I plan on having multiple smiths that will be recruitable with their own bonuses and some one time choice options, but that will come once I start delving into the rest of the games world.

The shop gear can not have the random variance that gear obtained any other way would have, because of that shop gear is always at the core stats I set for them. Would you say it would be better to remove buying gear from shops, or maybe make gear not be able to have a negative variance? Anyways thanks for your continued support here, I'm working on getting this new version out soon so you don't have to play with all those bugs. You rock bud.

Poryg · Jul 15, 2017

I'll be waiting for the new version

Don't you dare to remove the regen!

Now seriously though. It is the only thing capable of reasonable healing in battle (I can't use battle dressings to heal 50 hp if I receive 400 damage next turn, I'm not as stupid as the AI can be

) and it adds some interesting strategy aspect to the game. I have to manipulate the rows in such a way that I have to allow my hurt allies to get back to life and then to switch them back to allow other guys to heal... I didn't even go for too huge of a regen, I only knew it was gamebreaking on 50% and more, because from there if you just boosted hp, you would outheal any damage. But I have 17% and the regen makes my hard permadeath playthrough so enjoyable. The mad dogs' huge damage is now clashing with human strategy and now it's not just a matter of luck if a character survives (although if he gets locked on first row, nothing can help him but luck).
I would vote for a cap though, let's say 20-25% (or 26% for those with a boost). This way you can make it through actor variables or just variables that, you know, track the reg special training for individual actors.
I haven't really found the optimum cap for regen though. I only know it shouldn't be too high, because even right now I can already manage my characters if I receive 800 damage per turn. Which isn't a bad thing, because I often have to make strategy calls and judge when it is safe to switch, when it is not... I even had to use heroism once to save my low health companion until the row lock wore off and she was able to pull to back row. Luckily the myrmillo is very tanky, so the damage he received while being heroic wasn't an issue

Removing the DP while returning home actually is enough. During battles no game time passes and actually, if you just spend time waiting, while that may be viable to gain DP, it's still very slow. Yesterday I did it while typing that mssage for you and that message took me about 65 minutes... I had 170 DP, after that, which isn't much at all. If you want, you can create some DP mining quests. That way you will make sure the DP will be gained through player engagement and if you limit the quests to, let's say, one per two days or something like that, it will be good enough on my opinion while still keeping the player engaged. Since this game is more or less sandbox, it would be nice if farming dp could be a feature, since dp is the main influence on the development.

Regarding return though... I'm not sure if it is an issue or not, but return insta returns you at the cost of 2 hours or so... Which allows you a safe return from any dangerous place. I'm not sure whether it is better to prevent it or not though. So I'll only report it to make sure it's noted

Although on hard difficulty the return home should probably be blocked in dangerous locations.

I don't think the shops should have variable items, or not at least too much, because while items differ in a way that some are made better, some are made worse, it's in the shopkeeper's interest to keep the items as consistent as possible so that it wouldn't be a threat to his life for selling crap

I just asked, because I think there could be a bug in the shop core plugin since 1.5.0 update. I'm not 100% sure about that, since I don't have any experience in using it... But I'll try to track down if it is a bug or not. Because the stats increase in stats preview is absolutely messed up. I asked if the items you can buy were variable, because the stat gain preview was absolutely messed up, so I wanted to know if it was through stock item difference or it could be a bug.
Edit: Apparently there IS a bug in the plugin. In the preview the items completely ignore what my heroes are wearing. I found out by checking the armor's stats. Or maybe if not in the plugin, then in plugin compatibility with some other plugins dealing with equips.

I'm definitely glad for collision sounds to have been removed

There was nothing worse than walking into a guard and then hearing the punch sound, like he was being beaten

So far so good though, my party already has 12 members, but I still use the main 4. They are level 9, but I can't beat any of the more special challenges. Party challenge is a lot of fun, I can still beat 1v1 and 2v2, but still not 3v1 and Special battles or battle royale (there are still very huge damage outputs against me and since I don't even have a blacksmith, I have no good items). I won't play any further for now, I haven't opened my work in and out of rpg maker for days

It's been a pleasure though, because I really enjoy this game, even more as I found out about the special trainings

Edit: I have to admit, I've been very reluctant to use regen... But now that I've seen how much strategic potential it has in games, I will use it - thanks for showing me the way!

Jeremiah Eastman · Jul 16, 2017

Ok that sounds good about the regen. I am thinking 20% cap and 25% for those with a boosted amount. With the Battle Dressings I am thinking about upping their heal amount so it is more applicable. I will set it to 100 HP for now and see how it goes. I like your thoughts on the farming of DP, I had originally planned on doing something along the line of special Doctori Whips to boost the amount of DP gained, whips are the tool of the Doctori, but I am liking the idea of DP mining, I'll definitely work on adding this.

I'll set Return home to be blocked in Battle areas, on hard mode, that sounds like a good idea. I need to decide how to manage this with outer gladatora though as enemies there only appear in about half the screen and only at night. That is a bummer about that bug in the shop core, I am happy you noticed. For now I will remove all weapons and armor from vendors and focus on crafting all upgrades to see how it works out, then go from there. The bug you found, was it only on vendor gear of was it all gear?

Yeah the collision was really starting to annoy me, after the early nostalgia wore off. In my regular testing I use a mouse so everything I clicked on made the sound, I am happy you said something about that.

I'm kinda sorry

to drag you away from your own game for so long but I am super thankful for it, you actually took time with my game and really delved into it, I am truly in your debt. You have given me some great new direction in my game and it is making so many improvements. I am trying to have the new version done in time to release later today but I want it to be done right so I can't promise that, I don't want to rush things and mess something up. I have completed my initial work on integrating Poryg into the game, I plan on further developing all recruits so there will be more to him but he is off to a great start I think. Anyways I better get back to work, you have a good one. And a huge thanks again, I know I've said it a lot now but I really mean it.

Poryg · Jul 16, 2017

You haven't really taken me off my game.
I am a lazy bum that takes myself off the game more often than it should. I have never finished anything in my entire life, even though my experience in rpg maker eventing is formidable. Never got myself over 8 maps in a project... So I guess I should make something shorter with sandbox story so that I would be able to finish it at the very least.
For example today I wanted to continue working on my game. But then when I opened my browser to find something I wanted to find, suddenly I found myself searching for icons to download... And found a site with lots of icons and spent the entire day building an iconset even though I don't really need one... This is how bad I am

The shop menu core bug I found was only on vendor gear and only when you have equipped repaired gear. It compares completely normally with my initial weapons and armor and gear I bought, but it ignores the items that have been gained through repair of broken items and equipped. It's not that much of a problem though, since the armor is cheap and can be scrapped

(I have now like 4.6k denari and have nothing to do with it, because I still haven't found that guy who expands my ludus (because I didn't try, I fought to advance my characters instead of getting on with the story), so it's not a grave bug at all)

I didn't delve that deep into the game, I'm still on the surface

. I pulled through with a miraculous combination of basic attacks and strategy, still have yet to try battle skills. Pulled through with my basic gear as well, which is quite interesting. I still haven't won a single match in three vs one and special matches or battle royale section. I haven't advanced in the story. There's so much depth that's still covered from me

And I intend to delve as deep as I can.

Don't rush it. Take your time, I won't run anywhere. I'm currently unemployed, so I have loads of time in my hands. And it's already half past 10 PM, so the only thing I'm eager to rush to is bed

As for the debt, don't mention it

I learned from your game quite a bit about possibilities I hadn't been able to see earlier. I'm having a blast trying to overcome the game. And you've helped me more than you may think you did. For the first time in like three weeks I'm not like a grumpy old man, but I'm feeling like myself again. And I'm always glad when I can help.

Jeremiah Eastman · Jul 16, 2017

I'd play your game.

Though I am not as skilled at testing as you are, you're a pro tester. I've so been there with Icons, it seems every time I go icon hunting I spend most of my day perfecting them. I feel that even if I don't end up using them in this project my next one likely will. I do hope you make some progress on your game though, for yourself and so I can take a look.

Ludus Expansion costs 1000 Denari and the guy is in the arena. That extra Denari should be spent on upgrading though but it probably wasn't that simple with the crafting window the way it was still for the version you have. The damaged gear having the same bug as the vendor gear is troubling though. That gear should have been ok, I will need to look into that. I tend to only win the special matches and 3 on 1 when using most of my party to do it, but that requires more recruits to be higher levels and well geared.

It is great to hear you have learned something from my game that's a huge compliment to me. I have learned quite a bit from you and your testing so I am very happy it wasn't just me benefiting.

Well I almost have the next version ready to go just need to do some more testing first but you have a great night bud, sleep well and I hope your game development takes off from here.

Poryg · Jul 16, 2017

The damaged gear doesn't have the same bug. The vendor gear does have this bug in the shop core overview, but only when you have equipped the items gained from damaged items. And only in shop, in equip screen it shows what it should.
In other words the shop core treats the damaged items as nonexistent. But only the shop core, evething else is fine.
It's a shop core itself's bug though, because since the independent items have 3000+ higher item ID than they have in database and of course items like these are nonexistent in the database, the shop core doesn't know what to put there.

Well then, it's time to begin testing the new version. On hard and permadeath, I'll begin with a new save to see

Have a good one!

Edit: Ok, I finally see how the doctori and dominus are supposed to be unbeatable... It's quite weird that I managed to beat them during my first playthrough, but oh well... Nevermind it for now

I think I've got a huge problem though... After the intro ends, I can't see my character

I'll try a new game to see if it is a game bug or a bug my computer made.

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