It's a losing proposition, but a fight worth fighting. A lot of issues with the game were caused by code from over a year ago when Afterlife Gladiator was a prototype of Medarot's combat system, but after delving into it I realize that the problems weren't as big as I first thought.

Anyway this devlog exists to document a series of fixes made in response to feedback received during Demo Days 54 so I'm just going to list them, but before I do that here's the new start screen. 

I have removed the long disclaimer because it's not like anyone will ever care and replaced the visual with something more fantasy looking. The old logo was kind of garbage so I replaced that too, white on dark purple doesn't look very good. I bet you are wondering what's the deal with that fishbowl too, hypothetical intrigued reader. 

1. Fixed cache issue with deleted save files. Save files are now deleted permanently for good, dissolved into atoms. 

2. Fixed a multitude of issues regarding Desert Pariah enemy, also known as the bane of my existence. I swear everything that could go wrong with that enemy went wrong. Now they spawn bulbs at the proper location, spawn the proper amount of bulbs on death, take recoil damage as intended and the bulbs spawn the proper amount of pariahs at the right location as well. 

All of the previously mentioned changes also apply to player controlled pariahs.

3. Removed non intuitive feature from dialog boxes because it was bothering everyone with the new and improved auto feature and text speed settings. Also, I couldn't recreate a reported bug of right clicking skipping the first cutscene without a warning but I'll keep an eye open.

4. Dialogue sections no longer play multiple times if the player visits the store or rest area.

5. Added a sound effect to signal time sensitive battles.

6. Fixed issue with multiple round battles. Partially related to the Desert Pariah, that bastard.

7. Finnegan's "Iker's Shadow" skill renamed to "Midnight Desert".

8. Disabled unspent stat/ perk points warning for unavailable characters.

9. Fixed issue with return button not working for the super secret level selector.

10. Fixed an issue with the settings menu in the starts screen not working properly.

11. Implemented new and improved state machine for units and status effects, a lot of interactions should be a lot less jankier now and status effect icons should display the correct values and for the right amount of time. Testing is still necessary in this area, but the demo should work fine.

12. Save/discard changes button in perk screen get disabled if there's nothing to save/discard. A floppy also appears for a second every time the game is saved, but nobody noticed it in the upper left corner so now it's located at the lower right corner instead.

13. Blue tooltip no longer shows up when aiming at an empty inventory slot.

14. A lot of mouse over tooltips during combat now disappear after removing the mouse. Also, the player can press ESC or right click to instantly display the last recorded message in the combat journal.

15. Mouse over icons are now a sword for attacks or harmful items and a pointing hand for support skills or beneficial items.

16. Improved visual for resurrection and warrior spirit. 

Well, that's all I had for today. I think that's all the feedback I received last DD (the UI related feedback has been particularly informative) and I finally fixed some really old issues so I'm happy about that. 

I have also made a significant amount of progress for level 19 despite being really busy with work.

Anyway, have a great day and I hope to see you again in 2 weeks. 

Afterlife Gladiator on Steam!