A major audio overhaul with cinematic combat sounds, seamless crowd ambience, and a new background music track — plus arena polish and performance improvements.
Combat Sound System Overhaul
- All 9 combat sound prompts rewritten with cinematic Roman-themed descriptions (gladius impacts, cornu horns, stone colosseum acoustics)
- 5 new sound types added: Shield Bash, Spear Thrust, Crowd Roar, QTE Prompt, and QTE Success
- Crowd ambience now plays as a seamless loop during the entire fight using double-buffered audio (no gap between repeats)
- Ambience starts immediately when the combat screen loads, not just when the fight begins
- Ambience stops and a Crowd Roar plays when the fight ends
- Sound cache-busting ensures newly generated sounds are used immediately
- QTE Prompt sound now also plays for Critical Typing prompts
Admin Sound Studio
- New "Sound Studio" admin tool for generating and previewing individual combat sounds
- Edit prompts, adjust duration, and set per-sound volume levels
- Play preview respects the configured in-game volume settings
- Generate individual sounds on demand via ElevenLabs
Background Music
- New background music track: "Rise of the Imperium" by cinematic acoustica (Pixabay)
- Music automatically pauses when entering the combat screen and resumes on exit
- Master gain cap (0.15) gives the full volume slider range for fine-tuning — no more "1% is too loud"
Critical Typing Prompts
- Unified rectangular layout for all Critical Typing prompts (1-word and 2-word)
- Removed the circular SVG timer that clipped long words like "CENTURION" or "VENGEANCE"
- Horizontal countdown bar now used consistently across all prompt types
QTE & Prompt Positioning
- QTE and Critical Typing prompts now use absolute positioning within the combat container
- Prompts center correctly in the main combat area regardless of sidebar width or browser
itch.io Demo
- 30-day browser-playable demo via Anonymous Auth for itch.io distribution
- Admin-configurable demo settings (day limit, enable/disable)
- Demo users restricted from Challenges, Shadow Deployments, and Spectare
- "Play Demo" button only visible for itch.io visitors (requires ?demo=1 parameter)
- Sign-out button hidden for demo users to prevent orphaned sessions
- Automated cleanup edge function purges expired/abandoned demo data
- Fixed cross-origin iframe issue that showed a black screen on itch.io
Leaderboard
- Live leaderboard now loads 100 entries at a time with a "Load More" button
- Players inactive for 14+ days are automatically hidden from the active games list
Performance
- Removed expensive backdrop-blur CSS from mobile and desktop headers
- GPU acceleration (will-change, translateZ) added to the main scroll container for smoother scrolling
Bug Fixes
- Block sound now uses the Shield Bash audio asset for a more impactful feel
