> The arena is no longer yours alone. Rival houses now answer your name, senators stage their own games, and every fighting style has a style that answers it. Rivals & Rhetoric is the largest update since launch: a full competitive layer, a rebuilt progression foundation, a restructured Ludus, and a deep security and performance pass.
Senatorial Games — Rival House Tournaments
✨ New Systems
Senatorial Games — Rival House Tournaments
- Senators now stage their own games: register a gladiator, watch the bracket fill, and fight for the purse.
- Live bracket view with round-by-round progression and standings.
- The Games Herald announces openings, draws and results while you play, with countdowns to the next stage.
- Tournament fights produce full replays and settle their rewards like any other match of consequence.
- Every fighting style now answers another. A well-chosen matchup turns a coin-flip into a favourite — and a careless one hands the advantage to your rival.
- The counter relationship is always shown before you commit, never discovered afterwards.
- A new Matchup panel in the loadout editor reads your current gear and style against the opponent you are about to face, and updates live as you swap equipment.
- Scout Intel reports on contracts reveal an opponent's style and the vulnerabilities scouting has uncovered.
- Rival houses now appear as named opponents with their own fighters, gear and reputation.
- Pairings account for a fighter's level, not just raw strength, so a veteran is recognised as a veteran.
- Armour and helmets now carry weight. Heavy kit protects more but asks something in return; light kit keeps you quick.
- Your gladiator's total load is visible in the loadout, so the trade-off is a decision, not a surprise.
⚔️ Progression & Balance
- Earned disciplines — discipline strength is now something a gladiator grows into over a run instead of arriving early.
- Rebuilt opponent generation — opponents and market recruits are generated from a single, consistent standard, so the challenge keeps pace with your house instead of drifting.
- No Glory — crushing a hopelessly outmatched opponent no longer brings Fame. Glory is earned against real risk.
- Featured Duels now field opponents that reflect a fully equipped, fully prepared house.
- Champion defeat no longer strands a run — losing the Champion fight after qualifying keeps the path onward open.
- Opponent scaling and world progression settings are now visible and adjustable in the admin tools.
🎯 Quality of Life
- My Ludus navigation restructured; Settings now live outside the run shell and stay reachable at all times.
- Unspent discipline points and unresolved gladiator demands now announce themselves in the navigation rails, on the mobile menu and directly on the affected gladiator's card.
- New "Begin your journey" moment introduces your lanista before the tutorial starts.
- Replays always open in a new tab, so you never lose your place in the run.
- Redesigned Game Over ledger with a clearer account of the year.
- Dashboard reworked: *New at Market* now sits in the upper row beside your lanista and today's orders.
- High-resolution scaling — the interface no longer looks cramped on 2400–2560px displays.
- Clearer Start New Run flow with honest labels and no phantom locks.
- Treasury and history lists paginate more comfortably.
🎵 Audio
- New background theme "Morituri te salutant" by *Olivier Andres — Musikki Production*, with smooth fades and gapless looping.
- Music behaviour reworked: no abrupt cuts, no audible loop seam, and it respects your volume settings.
- The composer is credited and linked in the Credits screen.
🐛 Fixes
- Challenge Final Trial now completes reliably, delivers its legendary reward, and offers its replay. A recovery path repairs older interrupted trials.
- Interrupted fights — refreshing the browser mid-fight no longer produces a phantom defeat; the fight is recovered and settled correctly.
- Public Arena portraits are framed properly (no more cropped heads) and the feed loads dramatically faster.
- Equipment icons no longer blank out when switching between gladiators.
- Ending a run works again for all houses.
- Comments on champion fights in the public Arena post correctly.
- Event result dialogs now show the true new skill value instead of rounding it away to nothing.
- Admin overview reports each player's correct day and career record.
- Arena contract cards: reliable click targets, a persistent stats sidebar, and clearer Scout → Intel behaviour.
- Various tag and label truncations in the arena UI corrected.
🛠️ Under the Hood
- Broad server-authority pass: fights, rewards, purchases and other irreversible outcomes are resolved on the server, with retry-safe settlement.
- Hardened access control for competitive surfaces, internal admin data and privileged routines.
- Performance: heavy scrolling lists, public feeds and fight history are now lazily rendered and far lighter on the browser.
- New challenge analytics for tracking participation and outcomes.
