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Empires of the Undergrowth
Asid:
V0.213 Update - Changes & Fixes
Fri, 1 May 2020
Update to the most recent freeplay changes and some miscellaneous changes and fixes
For patch 0.213 we’ve addressed some issues that have come up in the past few weeks - in particular one which has prevented new content (the 4 jungle uber creatures) from appearing. Freeplay map Towhead has seen a fair few changes - increased landmark numbers and some new paths. Also a bunch of quality-of-life changes in this one.
Towhead has seen several changes this time round
Freeplay Fixes and Changes
• Solved a bug preventing the 4 new ubers showing up in freeplay (they would be announced but not show)
• Landmark spawn rate with leafcutters reduced down to 200% (from 250%) as it was filling all available landmark spots causing landmark droughts on some maps
• Leaves now regenerate every 4m down from 5m
• Increased the number of landmark locations on Towhead by about 8 (and shuffled some around)
• Added a couple of central crossing paths into Towhead to allow better access to the new landmark locations from all spawn points
• Funnel web landmarks no longer spawn pebbles (eliminates a bug making ramps inaccessible if the web spawns near one)
• Fixed an issue where creatures could end up stuck on top of your nest in freeplay
• Uber spawn chance increased when playing Hunter victory condition
• Creative mode now automatically spends resources allowing you to harvest resources if you wish
• Wave number will no longer increase if defeated before the timer for the next wave starts in freeplay
• Added option in freeplay to disable difficulty increase when approaching victory
• Renamed a couple of difficulty options in freeplay
• Uber spawns now cause a minimap ping
• Funnel web landmark despawn timer will tick down 4x as fast if all its inhabitants are dead
• Funnel web spiders will not be given targets until they reach their nest
• Besieged victory now occurs on final wave defeat rather than just before spawn
• You can no longer save the game during an attack wave
Other Fixes and Changes
• Achievement fail and success messages are now off by default and can be turned on from an option in the menu or from the scoreboard (achievement tracking)
• Added a widget to the main menu that will show up after you have completed the campaign and will highlight games made by our friends (only on Steam)
• Fixed a bug that could break formicarium challenge 2 if you kill the tube spawning ants too quickly after they spawn
• Fixed a bug that could cause a green riser to appear if you cancel a dig job the moment a cavern is tunnelled out
• Fixed more issues with creatures or food getting stuck under ramps
• Funnel web now has immunities to several crowd control effects
• Hungry Spider projectile is now visible again
• Hungry Spider mouse movement should feel a lot smoother however it no longer paths around walls so you need to manually manoeuvrer it
• Fixed an issue where Hungry Spider bite and venom strike were doing less damage than intended further from the centre of the attack
• Creatures with low visual range can now see enemies that attack them from further away
• Fixed some text issues
• Fixed an issue that could cause aphids to float (sometimes very high in the sky) when ladybirds attempt to pick them up
• Ladybirds will no longer try and escape once they have started picking up an aphid (they will escape after anyway)
• Fixed an issue with brood tile hotkeys not functioning correctly
• Massively reduced issues with chamber rep panel thinking the mouse is hovering over a chamber when it is not (worse at lower FPS)
Asid:
March / April 2020 Newsletter - Extra Level News, Fire Ant Progress, Publishing
Fri, 1 May 2020
Update on the extra levels, what you can expect from the future, and introducing Beetle Uprising by Iocane Games
Welcome to our March / April 2020 newsletter! First of all, I'll address the corona-elephant in the room and hope that you and your families are staying safe during the lockdown. Let's all remember to be kind to everyone, especially to ourselves, during this pandemic. Let's hope things return to normal in a safe and steady manner. Play some video games, read a book, keep in touch with your loved ones, stay indoors when you can. Now, on to slightly more cheerful matters - including a new game that is joining Ecosystem as a Slug Disco publishing project - Beetle Uprising!
Uber wolf spider from Steam user fetisov.a
The 0.21 Update
A month ago we released the 0.21 update for Empires of the Undergrowth. This update concentrated on an overhaul of freeplay mode, but more fundamentally it included a near-complete rewrite of the crucial pathfinding and movement code that all creatures in the game use. It's difficult to exaggerate the importance of this change, as well as how fundamental it is to the game.
Ants working out how to avoid each other in the new movement system when it was in development in August
It took us many months to get to this point with it, since it replaces nearly all of the default Unreal Engine equivalents (which are excellent built-in functions but not ideally suited to our purposes) and thankfully there don't seem to be any major issues with the new system. Thanks so much to everyone who helped us test these updates - in particular HofNerd on our official forums, who I think has submitted more bug reports than everyone else combined!
More Extra Levels - Baby Sitting & Beyond
On 24th April, a second extra level was added to the game to join Aggrandise - Baby Sitting. You can find the extra levels, which aren't part of the main campaign, from the "Other Modes" option on the main menu. We will be adding to these regularly - we're aiming for a month apart for them, but it might sometimes take us longer (hence us calling them "regular" rather than "monthly" - you know how it is with game development!).
Read on
Asid:
V0.2131 Update - Changes & Balance, Languages
Sat, 23 May 2020
Updates to the localisation as well as a relatively large list of balance changes and fixes, plus a new feature or two!
Some fairly significant balance changes for the game in today’s patch, as well as important updates to localisation and a bunch of fixes and minor changes, all detailed below!
Thanks to Raptorr575 for the screenshot used in the artwork for this post!
Language
• Updated translations for Russian, German, Chinese and Spanish
• Fixed some interface element issues that could occur in some languages
Changes / Balance
• Story now always highlights if the player does not have a formicarium colony
• Small army ants (media) now cost 3 to hatch down from 5 (this will affect both formicarium challenge 3 and an upcoming extra level)
• The ‘Evasive’ worker ability now avoids damage 60% of the time down from 95% and the workers are now camouflaged (enemy creatures need to be a lot closer to see them)
• Leaf landmarks in freeplay now regenerate every 5 minutes up from 4
• Aggrandise balance: Hard and Insane mode now have slightly more food available (an extra 10% of each creature’s base level food)
• Aggrandise balance: The fish provides 50 more food in Insane and 100 more food in Hard
• Aggrandise balance: Woodlice and woodworm will not wander about and are located closer to the player’s starting location
• Aggrandise balance: There is now a 3 tile wide access route between the player and the huge whip spider. If it or its two bodyguards are disturbed they will all now attack the player’s queen
• Freeplay now has an autosave feature. The time between saves can be set from the options menu. When loading a freeplay save you can choose to load the most recent save, the autosave or the manual save. Load most recent save from the in-game menu will now load whichever of those is most recent
Fixes
• Tooltip for allied colony minimaps no longer says you need to be in their colony to see them
• Fixed an issue where the new ubers had incorrect (low) food values and too few harvesting points
• Pebbles will now be removed from web landmarks even in loaded games
• Fixed some issues with ants falling through ramps
• Fixed an issue where sometimes in freeplay egg collection would take multiple attempts
• Moved a problematic pebble in 2.1
• Fixed an issue with player starting ants being grey in an upcoming extra level
• Balance changes and fixes for upcoming extra levels
• Fixed an issue where the nest group marker could be placed via the minimap
• Fixed an issue on 2.1 where a voice line was not playing
• Creatures that do not wander such as wolf spiders can no longer stay still if they are inside a nest entrance (fixes the issue on Baby Sitting with the wolf spider hiding in the allied nest entrance)
• Potential fix for ladybirds being harvestable after they have flown away
• Fixed an issue in freeplay setup where play difficulty would not change if changed from advanced game setup
• Fixed an issue on 2.2 where a ramp near an enemy colony was trapping ants (the dreaded BOX 4 has been removed)
• Collision updated for cliff edges; should mitigate some movement issues
• Movement robustness improved around ramps (gaps should be removed)
• Fixed an issue allowing players to name their colony with the same name twice (or no name)
Asid:
Extremis - New Extra Level - Out Now!
Sun, 24 May 2020
Unlock new ants with points earned from your previous run - can you complete this wave survival map with a twist?
A new extra level is available now for Empires of the Undergrowth - Extremis. The aim is to survive all the waves - but you won't do it first time. After you die, you are given a number of points (based on how far you got) to unlock new units for your army the next time you play! You might need to reinforce your colony with some wood ant ranged units, or save up for the mighty tanks of the leafcutters!
To find the new level, choose "Other Modes" from the main menu, then "Extra Levels". Please note that your game client will not need to update to unlock Extremis - it will be present in version 0.2131.
Asid:
May / June 2020 Newsletter - All About Fire Ants
Sat, 13 June 2020
During the last few weeks we've been able to really crack on with the fire ant update. After the long and arduous process that was re-designing the game's movement code from the ground up, we're really glad to be concentrated nearly solely on our Solenopsis invicta ants and all the accompanying flora and fauna that will bring them to life. As is always the case when we add a new formicarium tier to the game, there are several new systems that have to be designed and those are also in the works.
Taking down an uber Spiny Devil from Steam user BrickyGraph631
It's important to note that although this newsletter will concentrate mainly on the fire ant update, as a matter of policy we do not do estimates for the timings of our updates. That's because historically we've been pretty terrible at even guessing these, and given the small size of our team it's better for us to be 100% sure we can hit a deadline before we announce it. At the moment the best we can say is it's a while off yet, but as soon as we have a date we'll be very loud about broadcasting it!
Fire Ant Models / Animation
Whilst he's our engine specialist and deals with lots of deep-level gubbins of Unreal Engine 4 which powers the game, Matt is also our artist. He's recently been working on the models and animations for the fire ants - the first one here is of the fire ant queen. By comparison to the existing queens in the game, she's positively miniscule!
Whilst he's our engine specialist and deals with lots of deep-level gubbins of Unreal Engine 4 which powers the game, Matt is also our artist. He's recently been working on the models and animations for the fire ants - the first one here is of the fire ant queen. By comparison to the existing queens in the game, she's positively miniscule!
The Solenopsis invicta queen
Read on....
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