Author: admin

Current progress and update 0.11.5

by admin

Lately, I’ve been mostly busy with the phalanx combat. It’s not something you’ll find in this update, as you will meet the Macedonian phalanx in the third and last campaign which has not been released yet, but I had to make sure it would work properly before moving on to other things.

It was a bit tricky to design and balance this new kind of combat, because there is going to be at least one or possibly two mandatory fights against the phalanx. Players with very different Skill levels could reach that stage of the game and even legionaries on the lower end of the spectrum should have a fair chance to survive with a very careful approach. Characters with superb Skills might attempt something more “heroic” if they feel like it, like trying to cut their way through the spear wall and engage the phalangites in close quarters.

As for today’s update, let’s see what’s new in version 0.11.5:

  • The weight of Attitude in combat has been increased by 60%. A very defensive Attitude won’t make you 100% safe, but it should improve your survival rate. Remember that Attitude is a double-edged weapon: if you are aggressive, you will see your chance to hit go up, but you will be more exposed than before, so be careful.
  • The probability to improve your mental Attributes after leading a successful foraging mission or after a display of good leadership has been increased. The chance of *not* improving any Attribute is now about 20%; it was 35% before this change. As always, the odds of improving will gradually go down as your current values grow more distant from the initial ones; this process is so slow that you probably won’t notice any difference for a while.
  • Attributes that are suffering penalties due to equipment are highlighted in red.
  • One of the branches of the battle at the end of Part V, specifically the one that involves staying in the ranks, lacked an appropriate reduction of Fatigue at the end. Now you should get a little rest before the next onslaught.
  • There are two new random events. One of them only triggers if you have the rank of optio.
  • The sound effect for shield blocks has been changed.
  • I have made some changes to the engine regarding the way the Hall of Fame and saved games are handled.

I would appreciate any feedback, especially on the balance related changes. Once again, thanks for your support and encouragement.

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Demo v. 0.5.3 released

by admin

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Release notes

  • The Game Over screen is more informative and lively
  • Added a title to each Lull phase
  • Added a new activity reserved to high rank characters in the Misc section
  • Added a new random event
  • Reduced the penalty when a character who has the rank of Optio fails to keep in line the rear of a formation during a battle
  • Enemies using a spear will no longer suffer a further penalty to the Recover action when hit, unless they are fighting in an open space. All other penalties still apply as normal
  • The average length of the typical Lull phase is the same as before, but the standard deviation has been reduced


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Demo v. 0.5 released

by admin

Before version 0.5, Stats were represented as plain numbers on the combat interface. That never sat right with me. Mind you, I’ve nothing against numerical representations in RPGs, but I’ve always felt the peculiar combat system of A Legionary’s Life needed something different. The Indicators below each combat action are an example of this: the early prototypes of the game had raw percentage values, but the current portrayal using the image rotation makes players much more reliant on their instinct and intuition, which is exactly what I’m trying to accomplish. Now I’ve extended the same logic to the Combat Stats. Instead of numbers, we have circles representing the current status. Let’s take a look.

 Health – Full Health is now represented as a whole circle. As one would expect, the max Health value varies from character to character, depending on their Constitution. For example, a character with a Constitution (CON) value of 60 has a max Health of 60. Another character with 30 CON is stuck with a max Health of 30 and so on. Both have their max Health value represented by a whole circle. If the first character is hit for 10 damage, the circle is reduced by one sixth. Similarly, if the second suffers the same amount of damage, the circle is reduced by one third. When the circle disappears, the character is dead.

Stance – Stance is a percentage just like before: for all characters, the maximum value is 100%. The farther it falls below this value, the more open and vulnerable a fighter becomes.

Fatigue – Like before, there are three levels of Fatigue in A Legionary’s Life: Fatigued, Tired and Exhausted. This gauge will tell you how close you are to the next level of Fatigue. The actual quantity of Fatigue required depends on your Endurance (EDR), so characters with high EDR will see this circle grow at a slower rate. By the way, if your character becomes a centurion he will be expected to fight at the front of the maniple for much longer than common soldiers; an attentive management of his Fatigue level will get even more important.

Other changes in this update include:

  • Added a rank requirement for the most valuable Armillae, as promised in a previous post
  • Tweaked some values for a few equipment pieces. Nothing big except for the Caetra shield type, which received a significant boost to its Guard value. It’s still lower than the Scutum and Hoplon, of course, but the Caetrati have been way too easy pickings until now
  • New random events
  • Minor cosmetic changes

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