Hey gladiators!

This week's patch is, I think , a good one. Or an evil one, should your gladiator choose to go down that path! Finally, the alignment system has arrived in the game. You may have noticed a small halo / pitchfork on your character's info panel over the duration you've been playing the game. This was always intended to represent your character's alignment in the game.

From this patch onward, when you defeat your enemy ( but not when you behead them, break them in half or otherwise fatally injure them ), you now have the chance to either slay them or spare their lives. Doing so will give either a gold or XP bonus, and in addition shift your alignment towards good or evil respectively.

Alignment is a small part of the game, but you will notice over time your character's portrait background will start to shift towards either a more holy or unholy look. In battle also, you will either gain a special healing or smiting skill depending on whether your enemy is of the same alignment as you. This skill becomes more powerful the more your alignment shifts.

Certain random quests and adventures will also shift your alignment one way or the other too, so watch out for those.

You'll also notice certain new Holy and Unholy items appearing in shops. These items grant you extra armour or damage to your weapons but can only be used if you are of the corresponding alignment.

Also in this patch, a new 'lunge attack' appears by default on the battle bar. This was always a staple of earlier S&S games so I decided to bring it back to make melee combat a little more fun. There's also a lot of bugfixes and the usual balancing to check out, so I hope you enjoy this patch.

Next week I hope to bring enchanting items into the game at last. Until then, enjoy the game!

Cheers, Oliver Joyce
Whiskeybarrel Studios

V 0.5.5.A Patch Notes:

--- NEW FEATURES ---

• Simple alignment system is now implemented in the game. When battles end and enemies yield ( unless decapitated or spine broken etc ) , you have the option to spare their life or slay them. Choosing one of these options will shift your alignment to good or evil by 1 point.
  
• New special alignment based skills in your battle bar. Holy/Unholy Heal and Smite. You can use these skills once per battle. If you are the same alignment as your enemy, Heal will return health to you. If you are differing alignments, Smite will damage your enemy. The power of these skills increases as your alignment points increase
  
• Added Holy / Unholy items to the game with increased damage and armour values. You can only wield them if you are the corresponding alignment.
  
• New alignment based portraits in game. The more good/evil you become, the more your background portrait will change to suit.
  
• New sketch artwork for many town locations ( some still locked as arenas )
  
• Added new extra voice sets for Floralisks and Haxxapods
  

--- BALANCE CHANGES / STAT FIXES ---

• Added a new standard 'lunge attack' to your battle bar. This does sisimilar damage as a 'normal' attack but with a lower hit chance and from range. There's already a skill for this in the shop, Charge, but because it was such a standard part of earlier S&S games, I've brought it back and boosted Charge.
  
• Charge has now been renamed Leap of Lions and is basically twice as powerful as the regular new leap attack.
  
• Merged shield block chance back into main hit chance calculations to avoid confusion and the hidden secondary 'defend chance' after successful hits. So, now if you have a shield that provides 20% shield block, it will reduce your enemy's hit chance by 20% (while the shield is active)
  
• Capped Shield Block chance at 50%
  
• Increased shield's armour value by 25%
  
• Increased two handed weapon damage from 2.1x normal to 2.3x normal
  
• Fixed a bug where elemental resistances were being tallied wrong ( values were too high)
  
• Elemental resistances now give 8% resistance per point (down from 12 )
  

--- BATTLE CHANGES / FIXES ---

• Fixed bug on certain skills showing 1% hit chance ( Shove etc)
  
• Fixed a bug where using swords and attacking with skills that bypassed armour didn't include bonus damage (Salute of Honour etc)
  
• Fixed a bug where Yeti Project Redux's weapons did almost no damage ( they'll be back to hitting *hard* )
  
• Fixed a bug where Shred skill did not instantly change your enemy's spirit level
  
• Fixed a bug where some characters with bows insisted on using them like melee weapons
  

--- MISC FIXES AND CHANGES ---

• Fixed a bug where starting player gladiators got extra stats at higher difficulty levels
  
• Fixed bug on certain skills showing 1% hit chance ( Shove etc)
  
• Increased amount of blood splatters on screen
  
• Fixed a bug where dice roll required numbers could exceed 20
  
• Fixed a bug where storms could happen in underground locations
  
• Added new music track to Warmhaven