I see many people complaning about the gameplay loop, but not many point out what they'd change, if you guys got any suggestion, go ahead, we're always listening
As for the complaints of art being the same for all three gladiators, it is because art is expansive, especially of such quality, the game focus isn't just the scenes, if it was, the game would be a puzzle game where you get the full gallery in 10 mins then delete it from your harddrive. No the point here is the story, writing, being a gladiator simulator. Each character got their own personal story that unfolds starting late bronze/early silver leagues.
Yes I do understand the early gameplay is a slog. In the most recent update, fast travel for FREE (so not the taxi which cost credits) was implemented,there is also discussion to change how infiltration can be done so that it doesn't require returning there on specific days.
After the underground league, the gameplay do open up, I myself spent 6 hours yesterday grinding in the arcade minigames to sell legendary gear for credits
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There was an early concept for the gallery that caused issues, a mod is easy done, but when you seek to implement it properly into the game, can cause issues (unlock conditions, triggers, UI and more), so it got delayed to the steam release (in about a month/ a month and half).
Elona will get a BIG buff next patch, which will make her early game less painful!
Next patch should be the biggest one so far.
In all honesty, and humbly, we apologize for any issues encountered with the game, we playtested it, bug were fixed, release happened annnnnd... Bugs returned. We all pulled our hairs out when it happened....
But, also in honesty, whining and mocking an already stressed out dev team, who tried to not delay the game more, actually pressured into releasing it, isn't a good way to go either. You want quality games, but you also want them now. As seen with CP77, and some of our own bugs, both aren't compatible.
Could we have done more playtesting ? Definitely, even though, as said above, bugs were fixed within our internal build, but returned in release.
But now, more playtesting would mean bigger delay, which mean more crying, mocking, whining, it isn't healthy for any of us.
So now you got what was released now. An overhaul working game, with some bugs that the dev team are working hard to fix, alongside rebalancing, and adding more tiny QoL to the daily loop following everyone's feedback.
This game is a labor of love, I never want to see Kaliyo in the state he was in during development ever again. I wish everyone here could see it this way, but I doubt it.
Now, tomorrow will be the release of the 1.0E patch, no shame in sharing the info, y'all gonna get it from leakers soon anyway.