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I missed last weeks update, and this week I will explain why. Unfortunately due to the low sales of Gladiator Trials II, I’ve had to take an offer for full-time work to support myself. While I am not abandoning GTII, I won’t have as much free time to work on it as before. I will try to give updates as to the progress, but at this stage I don’t expect the 1.2 update to be done by this year.

I’m still trying to perfect the look and feel of the new interface, so there’s no screenshot this time.  But I can reveal some more information, this time about the stat changes to your slaves.

New Wage Stat
Instead of slaves losing happiness when they gain a level, they will now have a wage stat. This will go from 0% to 100% based on how much your slave is currently earning. As he gains levels, the wage stat will decrease, until you cave in and give him a rise.

Happiness
Happiness is now calculated by combining the Hunger, Thirst, Fatigue and the new Wage stat. Instead of being a stat itself, its just the overall level of all the previous stats mentioned. In order to increase happiness, you need to ensure the stats are all 100%.
Happiness now also has an effect on the slaves performance. A lower happiness level means the slave will not perform his task as efficiently as possible.

Stat Bars
All stats now work the same in regards to what is best and what is worst. Having 100% in Hunger, Thirst and Fatigue is now desired, while 0% means they are starving/thirst or tired. This ensures that all of the visual status bars act the same, avoiding any possible confusion.

Almost every aspect of the game is being touched in this update, so it’s a big task to complete. I’m not going to give an estimated time frame for completion this time, since I am unsure as to how much time I can dedicate. But being my first game, I don’t want to simply ignore it as I do believe with the right tweaks it could be a much better game. It’s just hiding under some bad design choices

I’ve decided to skip v1.1.1 and instead focus directly on v1.2. There’s going to be alot of changes included in this patch, so much so that some may consider it a different game. It’ll be an immense undertaking, so it’s unlikely to be ready anytime before December. I’ll be able to give a more precise date as it gets nearer to completion. With each entry, I’ll reveal some of the improvements and additions that v1.2 will bring.

This weeks entry will focus on the new GUI, the first change will be getting rid of the overview screen. When you start a scenario, you will go straight to the camp screen and be shown a parchment with the associated storyline and objectives. On completion you will be given the choice to view the statistics of the scenario, or to continue onwards.

The slave market will no longer be accessible from a camp, instead slaves from the slave market will be visible at all times at a community campsite. To hire one you can drag one over to your camp or click on him and press the hire button. The slaves won’t be visible if you reach the scenario’s limit of slaves, taking away any guess work that was previously required.

To bring up the Arena Entrance window now requires you to click on a special object location on the map. While the scenario editor will allow any object to do this, in the main campaign this will always be a signpost with “arena” written on it.

Look out for a mock-up screenshot next week, to show off the general look of the new GUI. As well as information about the new changes and additions to your Peasant’s and Gladiator’s stats and happiness.