Coliseum ships tomorrow !

[SlapBone]

Well, for those of you interested, Shrapnel's website has listed Coliseum to ship tomorrow.

http://www.shrapnelgames.com/

If you haven't tried the demo give it a whirl:

http://www.shrapnelgames.com/stormcloud/coliseum/6.htm

This game lacks a lot of the stats-based heavy duty gaming that Sports text-simmers are used to but I think that it is brilliant what Derek has done with some of the game logic. The way that fights can be based on hidden stats, random events, athlete drug use with real consequences, and active enchantments give a whole new dimension to sports text gaming. Some of these elements (hidden stats and drug use) would be great in a lot of the other sports sims.

I have been playing the Stormcloud Creations games for about a year and one thing can be said for any one of them is that they are rock solid out of the box and addictive as hell ( i guess that is 2 things). If Derek would combine these game traits with mad charts, graphs, and stats he would be a force to be reckoned with. Hell, it was these games that turned me on to games like CM and OOTP, eventually leading me to FOF, FBB, and the .400 games. So, I guess it's safe to assume his ideas work

Anyway, I have been playing this game in its various stages for the last 4 or 5 months and it is going to be just as addictive as the rest. I believe it's only $20 also.

Edit: forgot to complete a sentence

[korme]

Nice. Let us know how the final version is!

[SlapBone]

Correction: The price is $24.95 but still worth it. It will come in a nice DVD case.

[StormcloudCreations]

Thanks, SlapBone; I appreciate you spreading the word about the game!

Yes (after holiday related production delays..grr) the game will be shipping out tomorrow to all who pre-ordered. Thanks to all who gave me feedback and advice when I posted here before awhile back.

It comes with a nice custom DVD case, and a small printed manual as well, and US shipping is free.

[VPI97]

I've been checking my mailbox for a couple of weeks....another week won't hurt

[Flasch186]

i honestly dont know if i have room for another agme with FOF and Civ3. we'll see what the boards tell me to do.

[Bonegavel]

ouija?

[StormcloudCreations]

Flasch186: You can never have enough good games to play. At least that's what my own stack of unplayed games tells me.

[StormcloudCreations]

Quick Note: The game has shipped out today to all who ordered. Visit shrapnelgames.com for the press release and info about Coliseum. If you haven't heard of the game, feel free to try the demo (which only contains about 50% of the actual total game, but just gives you a basic feel for the gameplay) or ask questions.

Thanks!

[Peregrine]

Stormcloud, does the demo only contain 50% of the game's length, etc, or are we talking feature list? I tried it and found I got tired of it quickly, but if there are a lot more features in the full game I might consider getting it.

[StormcloudCreations]

Originally posted by Peregrine
Stormcloud, does the demo only contain 50% of the game's length, etc, or are we talking feature list? I tried it and found I got tired of it quickly, but if there are a lot more features in the full game I might consider getting it.

Well, both 50% of the game's length and less features than the full game (the full game has the championship tournament, contract signing at the end of the season, amateur draft, developing warriors over time, retirement, etc), along with a Memorial screen that displays all of your retired and killed warriors, and a special new news report screen possible between fights that details special events in their lives and reports if they get into trouble (which you may be fined for).

And an upcoming patch (mid-Feb. or so) will add even more stuff to the game, and will be available only to full version users.

[WSUCougar]

Mine arrived yesterday in the mail. Haven't cracked it open yet, but am eager to give it a whirl this weekend (during playoff game commercials, of course).

[Flasch186]

im going to wait for some feedback as ive never even thought about buying somehting like this.

[JAG]

I like this line particularly from the description:

"You've played other sports management style games, now play the only one that involves decapitations and disembowelments!"

Sounds interesting. Maybe when/if I get some free time I'll pick it up.

[StormcloudCreations]

Flasch and others: Here is a thread on Gone Gold from people who have been playing the game, including the primary columnist Bill Harris (author of the "Night Calls" on the front page). So far good impressions, I think:

Gone Gold thread about Coliseum

[WSUCougar]

Originally posted by StormcloudCreations
Flasch and others: Here is a thread on Gone Gold from people who have been playing the game, including the primary columnist Bill Harris (author of the "Night Calls" on the front page). So far good impressions, I think:

Gone Gold thread about Coliseum

[Homer Simpson]
Mmmm...death rattles.
[/Homer Simpson]

[Vince]

Heh, mine arrived the other day as well. Haven't had time to bust it open, but will regale you all with tales of my gladiators prowess as soon as I do.

[WSUCougar]

So...this Gladiators Prowess of yours. Is it colossal? Formidable?

[VPI97]

Got mine today...Can't wait to get home to give it a whirl.

[JAG]

We expect some good Gladiator dynasties.

[StormcloudCreations]

Yes, i'd love to see some dynasties with this one!

[StormcloudCreations]

Just FYI for those who may be interested: The version 1.5 patch for Coliseum has been sent in to Shrapnel and will be released in the next few days. Lots of bug fixes, tweaks and new features based on user feedback.

List:

Version 1.5 Info
Bug Fixes:
- Corrected a problem with Head-to-Head losses not always being
tallied correctly.
- Corrected a problem with the Season Number not incrementing up correctly
if you keep all of your warriors in between seasons.
- Fixed a rare problem where news reports would report on a warrior
on your team fighting that hasn't fought before.
- Fixed a problem where news reports would be cut off occasionally.
- Fixed occasional stat irregularities with injuries and spells.
- Fixed a bug where if you released a suspended fighter and signed
a new free pool fighter, he would inherit the old warrior's suspended
status
- Fixed a bug where if a CPU warrior retired early, it would sometimes
clear the wrong set of stats, leaving an empty CPU slot
- Fixed the problem where the Exit Arena button would stay
lit and active while simming matches, and clicking it again
would reset the simming and cause stat problems
- Corrected some rare injury bug problems with CPU warriors

Tweaks:
- Adjusted the cost of enchantments up and reduced
their duration ranges slightly
- Adjusted contract signing costs up slightly.
- Added a "poisoning" element to using enchantments as well
as potions; using too many can have harmful results for your warriors
in the long term, similar to potions
- Added a possible "Performance" bonus in combat which could
occur if you pass a manager Performance stat check; also
added possible combat bonuses for "experience" as a warrior
moves into prime fighting years
- Tweaked the chance of deaths down slightly, so that your warriors
will tend to live a bit longer and aging will be more of a factor
- Tweaked the various ways manager stats can go up, so that
they may change a bit more often
- Changed the enchantments to shuffle randomly more often if
one is not currently active
- Redid and moved the Cancel Training button to be cleaner looking
on the interface
- Added a warning on the Exit Game button text that the game data
will be lost unless the game is saved before exiting
- Players now collect a 250 Gold award for qualifying for the playoffs,
and 1,000 Gold award for winning a championship

New Features:
- Added a "Tome of Champions", which keeps track of and stores tournament
playoff champions for the last 50 seasons.
- Revamped Gambling in the game to be payout/odds-based, where the odds
are based on the warrior's record and stats, to make gambling more
challenging and balanced, and redesigned the schedule screen with
new graphics, and added text explaining the betting system to the
Schedule help screen
- Added fully implemented season fatigue, with a visible status bar. Now
warriors,
when fighting or training, tire and you must periodically rest them
- Retooled the look of the Manager Options screen to be crisper and
cleaner looking
- Added the current season record in parenthesis next to
each warrior, along with their career record
- Retooled the development curve for warriors through ages 30-49 to be
more distinct and slightly more varied
- Added a funeral screen that may pop up when warriors are killed, with
new music, to enhance the visual impact of a death in the game
- Added current injury display to the Playoff screen
- Added access to the current news report via a new icon
in the match-up screen to make it easier and more streamlined
- Added an option to delete existing saved games to the
Save Game menu
- Added a selectable Season Length option (20, 30 or 40 days)
when creating a new league

Old saved games are NOT compatible with this release due to lots of data storage changes and will be lost when installing the patch.

Thanks and I still hope to see a few dynasties on this one! I might even offer a few random prizes (DVD's and the like) to the first few that come up with some cool dynasty reports.

Thanks!

[Fonzie]

I'm very curious about this game. Would anybody care to share their experiences with it, either here or in the Game Impression forum?

[hukarez]

Is this game available only via CD, a la FOF the 4th Edition?

[StormcloudCreations]

Yes CD only. Snazzy DVD snap case with printed instructions too (almost a rarity these days).

Fonzie: You can read this thread from Gone Gold about the many positive reactions to the full game:

Coliseum reactions

[StormcloudCreations]

Just a note: The patch is now available for download for Coliseum owners. Go here to read what it does and download it:

http://www.shrapnelgames.com/stormcloud/coliseum/6.htm

Thanks! Comments welcomed as usual.

[StormcloudCreations]

Just a small note, for those who may be interested: The new Coliseum 1.6 patch was released today. It adds many tweaks, bug fixes for all reported bugs, and new features. This is the link to the patch page and the full list of fixes, including persistent save games (are not deleted when you load them anymore), bribery and quests for your guys to pump up their stats:

http://www.shrapnelgames.com/stormcloud/coliseum/6.htm

A new demo has been released as well, that reflects many new features in the 1.6 version and uses a new end of demo screen that more clearly indicates what is missing from the demo version, so people who may have passed on it or didn't try it before can try it out with the new stuff added.

Thanks! Comments welcome as always.

[QuikSand]

Has anyone who has played this game got anything to offer? I'm dabbling with the demo... but I'm not sure I see enough depth here to merit the investment of time to take up a full career with it.

Anyone have better insights?

[Peregrine]

That was pretty much my opinion Quik, I got tired of it after about 30 minutes of the demo, much less the full game. If there was more to the stats side of things I would be more interested. I like the gladiatorial idea but I prefer something more like this game:

http://www.goshgolly.com/gladiator/

[sachmo71]

Originally Posted by Peregrine

That was pretty much my opinion Quik, I got tired of it after about 30 minutes of the demo, much less the full game. If there was more to the stats side of things I would be more interested. I like the gladiatorial idea but I prefer something more like this game:

http://www.goshgolly.com/gladiator/

Sweet! Thanks!

[QuikSand]

I'll give that a try, too.

[StormcloudCreations]

Originally Posted by QuikSand

Has anyone who has played this game got anything to offer? I'm dabbling with the demo... but I'm not sure I see enough depth here to merit the investment of time to take up a full career with it.

Anyone have better insights?

Hey Quik,

I honestly tried to make the game not a "stat-head" type game, and more of a CM Ultra-Lite type game. I tried to steer clear of the 1,000 stats on every page model that most text-based sims follow, and make it more flavor and fun. In some ways I succeeded and some I failed, but I think it came out pretty much the way I intended.

There are a number of experienced text sim players that bought and use Coliseum as a bit of a break from the intense stat-heavy models of other games they enjoy, and I actually had a fair amount of customers who typically didn't enjoy regular sports-based text sims.

All this being said, if I did a C2, it would probably involve more warriors you can manage, maybe a "minor league" type system where you could monitor stats from there, and send warriors up and down, more stats displayed, more contract entanglements, more in-depth news reports and maybe some ideas from another thread (you could fit or engineer warriors with special enhancements, like razor claws, poison/ice/fire breath, and the like).

[QuikSand]

Sure -- I realize there are a variety of different niches out there to be filled. Glad you're working to fill some of them.

At the moment, at least, I am looking to fill my head with stats, and seek 1,000 stats on every page. So, it's a miss for me... no harm done.

[QuikSand]

Originally Posted by Peregrine

That was pretty much my opinion Quik, I got tired of it after about 30 minutes of the demo, much less the full game. If there was more to the stats side of things I would be more interested. I like the gladiatorial idea but I prefer something more like this game:

http://www.goshgolly.com/gladiator/

I haven't been able to get back onto the site sine I initially started... is this thing dead? Or is there possibly a connection problem on my side?

[Peregrine]

Not sure Quik, it's down for me too. I know that it was down for a while because the guy who wrote the game just didn't check on it for about a week. It's usually up though.

[DanGarion]

http://www.goshgolly.com/gladiator/forum

His forum is online though...