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Offline Asid

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Re: Empires of the Undergrowth
« Reply #45 on: February 20, 2020, 02:50:43 PM »
Beta Testing - 0.21141 - Fixes & Optimisations
Thu, 20 February 2020


Latest round of fixes to the optional beta addresses some issues that arose whilst bringing the story campaign back
A bug fixing update for the optional beta, dealing mainly with the fallout from reintroducing the story campaign back into it. We’re homing in on having this update ready for the main branch but if you’d like to join the beta whilst it’s still running, follow the instructions in the box near the top of this previous post!


Fixes & Optimisations

•   Fixed issues caused by creatures jumping up ledges
•   Fixed creatures stuck near ramp tops
•   Fixed an issue that could cause infinite spawning of wood ants from fish landmark (and other issues in infestation landmark)
•   Fixed a crash related to creatures disappearing whilst climbing
•   Hidden some development boxes from ramps in 3.2
•   Minims will now appear on leaves carried by level 3 majors and mediae to represent their 100% chance of defending from phorid flies
•   Fixed underground marker path arrows being wrong way round when placing marker on surface
•   Improvements to collision detection with difficult shapes
•   Adjusted ramp collisions
•   Adjusted some plants and collision settings in 3.1 to help with creatures getting stuck
•   Difficulty applied due to getting close to completing an objective in freeplay is now removed once the objective is complete
•   Improved leafcutter repel phorid fly animation
•   Fixed some issues where loaded ants from old games could be moved to the top of a tunnel and get stuck
•   Food stuck under lab formicarium is now correctly on the surface
•   Fixed an issue where beach tiger beetle larvae would not attack in 2.x challenge modes
•   Fixed an issue where mole crickets were spawning in 1.2 far too quickly with the challenge on
•   Added some fixes for creatures dropping food, will now do a check to see if the dropped tile is accessible and can successfully drop off cliff without becoming inaccessible
•   Some fixes added to phorid fly spawners making spawn failures less likely
•   Removed excessive resource scans for creatures
•   Fixed an issue where creatures could get stuck trying to pick up a food item
•   Fixed an issue on 3.2 where army ants would ignore other enemies until attacked
•   Fixed an issue where Formicarium Challenge 2 could be won with spiders still alive in rare circumstances
•   Creatures should no longer get stuck on one another if they reload at same location or jump to same location


As mentioned, we're not far from fixing the issues and bringing this update to the main branch. We likely have a round of balance changes to go before we reach that point, so we'll be taking into account all of your feedback before we set about doing this.

Thanks to everyone who has been particularly helpful during this beta period (you know who you are!) and thank you to everyone who's given us clues about where glitches might be hiding - you've made the process much smoother.

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Offline Asid

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Re: Empires of the Undergrowth
« Reply #46 on: March 07, 2020, 12:01:08 AM »
Beta Testing - 0.21142 - Freeplay Changes & Fixes
STARTEDFri, 6 March 2020

Making things a little easier for leafcutters in freeplay and making changes to food scaling




Some help for leafcutters in freeplay with regenerating leaves now being a thing (in freeplay only - campaign level leaves do not grow back). This is an optional beta - if you’d like to join the beta whilst it’s still running, follow the instructions in the box near the top of this previous post. If you're already on the beta branch you won't need to do this; the game should update by itself. NOTE: The beta will only run on Windows. Once we've finished the beta period Mac and Linux will get the full finished update!

Freeplay Balance Changes

•   Leaves will now regenerate in freeplay five minutes after some have been harvested (saplings regenerate 100, red rusty plant 200 and green plant 300)
•   Food reduction in freeplay now kicks in at 200% difficulty (up from 50%) and drops to a minimum at 960% difficulty (up from 150%).
•   Creatures in freeplay will more rapidly get to scale level 5 between difficulty values of 100 and 200% but will then only increase 1 level per 20% after that point (up from 10%)
•   Physical creature size now increases slower and caps totally at triple size (in practice it should never reach this value)
•   Chance of uber spawning now increases the longer one has not spawned. At max at 45 mins after last spawn. This will cause more ubers to spawn at lower difficulties or if one has not spawned in a while


Fixes and Optimisations

•   Minims should now appear on both sides of carried leaves by level 3 majors and mediae
•   Creatures should no longer get stuck in pickup state (appearing static picking up food)
•   Some tweaks to creature movement
•   Possible fix for issues where creatures can end up inside ramps
•   Corrected an error that could cause creatures to get stuck at the entrance to ramps
•   Fixed an issue (again) with the scientists hand not squashing ants
•   Can no longer see water in tunnels during cinematics in 2.1 and 2.2
•   A patrol route behind the players nest has been reactivated in 3.2
•   Tweaked some patrols in 3.2
•   Phorid flies will now display little health bars to make them more visible
•   Fixed an issue where a creature could get stuck trying to harvest a resource if combat started and ended briefly during it heading to the resource
•   Fixed an issue where workers could survive their tiles being deleted if they have the “evasive” skill
•   Fixed a crash caused by placing markers in banned areas using the minimap
•   After purchasing a queen ability, all queen cool-downs need to recharge (prevents switching queen abilities during formicarium challenge exploit)
•   An ant may only remove one phorid fly every three minutes to prevent clearing a patch by a single level 3 ant
•   The huge whip spider will now walk normally again in 3.2
•   Food visually can only be 40% its default size so small food items are more visible and scales slower at the upper end of values
•   Fixed an issue where loaded eggs could be tiny if saved in their frozen state
•   Update to how markers work fixing an exploit where you could use two markers to completely empty a trail
•   Updates to markers to pull ants from more old marker locations and changed these locations priorities. It should feel smoother and is more forgiving to army repositioning
•   Ladybirds now immune to many crowd control effects to prevent them being affected whilst eating an aphid
•   Camera now correctly exits victory animation after continuing freeplay post victory
•   Music restarts when continuing freeplay post victory
•   Fixed a crash that could occur on maps that have tiles removed such as the second lab formicarium
•   Got rid of some buried harvestable beetles in 3.1
•   Fixed a crash with swarm point in underground only maps
•   “Attack when favourable” creatures (such as mantis and jumping spider) now takes nearby allies into account when deciding to attack or not
•   Optimisations added to path following
•   Improvements to ant crowd movement - particularly in combat
•   Fixed an issue where leafcutters were not making digging noises
•   Fixed a rare crash in path finding
•   Fixed an issue where building and upgrading was no longer making noise
•   Mole crickets now take room size into account when selecting a room to spawn in
•   Fixed issues with funnel web movement

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Offline Asid

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Re: Empires of the Undergrowth
« Reply #47 on: March 24, 2020, 01:29:43 PM »
Beta 0.21152 - Last Bits of Balance and Fixes, Mac & Linux Builds
Mon, 23 March 2020

Last bits of balance and fixes! Just a very short test to make sure nothing we’ve added or fixed causes any major issues - and then this should be the last one before we set it on the main branch. Hang tight just a little longer if you’ve been waiting for the beta to finish!

This beta now includes Mac, Linux and Win32 builds if anyone would like to test for them! For those familiar with how to activate a beta password the word is christmasants. For more detailed instructions see this post on the forum.

Thanks to ant27rex for the screenshot used in the header and cover of this post!

Balance - Baby Sitting
•   Reduced number of funnel web spiders on hard and insane difficulties
•   Provided slightly more time between computer actions on insane difficulty
•   Dead creatures provide more food on hard and insane difficulties

Fixes
•   Just Isn’t Cricket achievement will now correctly complete instead of completing a different one
•   Slave makers now correctly drop resources when they see an enemy
•   Fixed an issue where an invisible enemy could be present in replays of formicarium challenge 3
•   Fixed an issue where you would autocomplete Rapid Growth and NOPE after beating 1.2 insane
•   Achievements will now only give their failed or succeeded announcement if you do not already have them
•   Fixed an issue where tunnelling enemies (Extremis and Surrounded) could get stuck digging nothing or standing still if they tunnelled out and could not see an enemy


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Re: Empires of the Undergrowth
« Reply #48 on: March 25, 2020, 12:39:35 PM »
0.21 Early Access Out Now - Freeplay, Phorids, Extra Levels and Achievements
Tue, 24 March 2020




Thanks to everyone in the optional beta who has helped us test the past few months! Read on for the 0.21 changes.
For many months we have been working hard on improving movement in Empires of the Undergrowth, and this patch represents successes in this area but also a bunch of content and quality-of-life changes that we hope you will be pleased with.

Thanks so much for those of you who have helped out during the beta phase for this update; we’re very glad to be able to release it for everyone!
 



Headline Features


Updated Movement Code

After replacing most of the movement code in the game and running extensive beta tests, this is now ready to go. This will lead to a noticeable performance boost for all which ultimately means more creatures and bigger maps!

This will also help fix bugs that have been persistent in movement for a long time. Bugs to do with ants freezing or getting stuck on ramps should, for the most part, be eliminated.

Freeplay Overhaul

Freeplay has seen many changes and should feel very different now than it used to.

•   Leaf cutters make their way to freeplay, along with climbable plants!
•   New rainforest map Embankment
•   Difficulty has been tuned and and extra difficulty option added that affects how quickly and how far the games difficulty will change
•   Optional victory conditions have been added allowing you to set goals (these also affect the difficulty as you approach victory)
•   Freeplay setups can be saved, and can also be shared via a string
•   Ubers have been rebalanced bringing them to a fairer difficulty level. They have also been altered to be strong / weak against various enemy combinations
•   As difficulty increases, creatures will now get stronger (rather than just more numerous) and will have much less food reduction

Extra Levels

We will be bringing regular extra missions to the game apart from the main campaign. Here we have allowed ourselves more freedom to do things in a more game-like fashion rather than true to nature, like we strive to be in the story.The first 3 maps will be released a month apart!

•   Aggrandise launches today! Command a Formica ereptor colony featuring the fierce trap jaw ants and carefully choose your targets as your colony grows large enough to take on a large foe!
•   More are on the way - follow our social media for details!

Third Tier Challenge Mode

Phorid flies are tiny, inconspicuous-looking insects that could easily be mistaken for fruit flies but are far deadlier. They lay their eggs between the armoured carapaces of insects, in particular your ants, leading to a time where they will be less effective followed by inevitable death as the larva eats away at the innards.

All ants have a chance of fighting off the flies when they are attacked, but level 3 mediae and majors have a 100% chance to fight them off.

First Tier Achievements

We have also added a bunch of achievements for the first tier levels of the game. This includes New Home, Subjugation and the first formicarium challenge. Multiple achievements have been added for various difficulties and challenge modes. There are the generic achievements, such as finishing a level on a specific difficulty, but also tasks that have specific conditions to achieve. Check your achievements from the in-game menu.


Optimisation and Balance

On top of all these additions there has been a raft of optimisation changes made that should also improve performance. Some areas have also seen balance changes including area-of-effect (AOE) attacks, insane difficulty on 3.2 Front Line and many others. Many of these changes are listed below.

Optimisations

•   Projectiles have been significantly optimised (very noticeable with rapid fire wood ants)
•   Substantially reduced the cost of rendering the Isolepis Cernua (spiky plant)
•   And many more! See previous patch notes from beta testing for extensive details


Balance

•   Black ants now take 20% less damage from AOE attacks
•   3.2 Front Line on harder difficulties will spawn less environmental creatures and more higher level army ants
•   Formicarium challenge 3 has been made much easier on harder difficulties:
•   Reduced the number of resource refills the enemy colony receives across various difficulties (now 0/1/2/4 down from 0/1/5/10)
•   Reduced reload quantity to 1800 (down from 2000)
•   Resource reloads will now appear gradually (10 per second) rather than instantly
•   Reduced size of cricket drops on harder difficulties
•   Damage falloff implemented on wood ant mortar, uber basic attacks and some whip spider attacks. This deals less damage the further away from the epicentre of the attack the creature is (reaching zero at the very edge)


Selected Improvements

•   Multiple frame rate limits added
•   Added an option slider for a darkened square behind resource counters for visibility
•   Markers should feel more responsive with faster movement between different markers, more ants at the end of the marker and far fewer ants waiting at home to head to the marker
•   Camera zoom now interpolates very rapidly
•   Visuals added for leafcutter major auras
•   Difficulty levels have been added for Formicarium challenges 1 and 2
•   Trail calculations have been updated. Should lead to more ants at the end of trails, more consistent flows and less ants waiting underground
•   And many more! See previous patch notes from beta testing for extensive details


Selected Fixes

•   Significantly less ants getting caught on corners
•   Corrected an error that could cause creatures to get stuck at the entrance to ramps
•   A previously dormant patrol route behind the player’s nest has been reactivated in 3.2
•   Fixed an issue where workers could survive their tiles being deleted if they have the “evasive” skill
•   After purchasing a queen ability, all queen cool-downs need to recharge (prevents switching queen abilities during formicarium challenge exploit)
•   Ladybirds now immune to many crowd control effects to prevent them being affected whilst eating an aphid
•   “Attack when favourable” creatures (such as mantis and jumping spider) now take nearby allies into account when deciding to attack or not
•   Improvements to ant crowd movement - particularly in combat
•   Mole crickets now take room size into account when selecting a room to spawn in
•   Improvements to collision detection with difficult shapes
•   Battle arena now only removes creatures that are not in combat
•   Ubers will no longer ignore the nest invasion setting in freeplay setup
•   Moved all pebbles off walkable area in the original Hungry Spider level
•   Fixed a visual error with the wood ant projectile splash
•   And many more! See previous patch notes from beta testing for extensive details

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Re: Empires of the Undergrowth
« Reply #49 on: April 24, 2020, 12:55:08 PM »
Baby Sitting - New Extra Level - Available Now!
Fri, 24 April 2020




In the 2nd extra level, you're responsible for a foolhardy AI sister colony. Both colonies must survive for victory!
There's a new Empires of the Undergrowth extra level available now! In Baby Sitting, you have an AI-controlled sister colony. They're very plucky, but not that bright. You'll have to make sure they don't bite off more than they can chew and keep them out of trouble! Both queens must survive to win the level. To find the new level, choose "Other Modes" from the main menu, then "Extra Levels". Good luck!




Note: your game client will not need to update for this level to be unlocked.

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Re: Empires of the Undergrowth
« Reply #50 on: May 02, 2020, 03:00:41 PM »
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)


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Re: Empires of the Undergrowth
« Reply #51 on: May 02, 2020, 03:04:22 PM »
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


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Re: Empires of the Undergrowth
« Reply #52 on: May 24, 2020, 12:34:00 PM »
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)


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Re: Empires of the Undergrowth
« Reply #53 on: May 24, 2020, 12:58:03 PM »
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.

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Re: Empires of the Undergrowth
« Reply #54 on: June 14, 2020, 03:12:03 AM »
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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Re: Empires of the Undergrowth
« Reply #55 on: June 25, 2020, 12:43:59 AM »
New Extra Level - The Other Foot - Available Now!
Wed, 24 June 2020



The most complex extra level yet, you take command of the counterpart colony from challenge 3.

Did you think your colony was the only one the scientists have been giving a hard time? How would things look from the perspective of the counterpart Formica ereptor colony - the one that has been providing feeder ants for the primary colony to fight against in its challenges?




It's time for some payback! In The Other Foot, you take command of the counterpart colony, controlling different units such as army ants, trap jaws and slave makers. To start off with, you'll need to provide workers for the scientist's diabolical experiments, working through challenges 1 and 2 before finally reaching the ultimate goal - the defeat of the primary colony in challenge 3.

Considering the context of this level, we do not recommend you play it until you've completed formicarium challenge 3.

Change history - because this time, the shoe is on The Other Foot. Available now in the Extra Levels menu!


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Re: Empires of the Undergrowth
« Reply #56 on: August 10, 2020, 11:18:54 PM »
Yogscast Tiny Teams Festival - Featuring Empires of the Undergrowth!
Sun, 9 August 2020

We're entirely delighted to be part of this week-long festival celebrating very small dev teams!
It's a regular query, but we imagine not many of you here on Steam know the answer. We are often asked how big our team size is, and that's a very valid question - it affects many things about a game's development cycle. In our case, the answer is three - three developers on a very ambitious project that is laden with pitfalls.

Despite the extra difficulties in being very small, really neat things can come from tiny teams - we'd like to think that Empires of the Undergrowth, for all its small-team shortcomings (our big updates take a long time, but you're all super understanding!) is a quality game worthy of your time investment. There are many other indie devs that operate solo or in tiny teams, and some of the best works of this generation of gaming have come from that.

The Yogscast agree with us. We've been selected to be a part of their Tiny Teams games festival, which is running from 8PM BST tonight (9th August) until the 15th. It'll be highlighting and celebrating the very small teams (a core team of 1-3) who produce amazing things with limited resources.

As well as this Steam event, the Yogscast will be running tie-in Twitch streams to go along with the festival. Empires of the Undergrowth will feature.

Join the Yogscast stream at
. We'll see you in Twitch chat!

Also for you guys who don't visit the forum very often - here's a very early work-in-progress of fire ants building bridges with their own bodies.




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Re: Empires of the Undergrowth
« Reply #57 on: August 14, 2020, 01:48:37 AM »
Optional Beta Available Now - 0.22 Tug of War, AI in Freeplay
Thu, 13 August 2020



You can opt in to the 0.22 beta now on Windows 64 bit - read the full article for instructions and patch notes.

An optional beta is available to all Steam owners of the game running a 64 bit Windows system. The idea with these occasional builds is to give people access to new things that need wider testing, with the understanding that there are likely to be crashes and balance issues. We would appreciate feedback if you can provide it - post on our Steam forums, or our official forums.

The beta code is summertimeants. If you’re unfamiliar with how to activate a Steam beta, here’s how to do it:

1.   Find Empires of the Undergrowth in your Steam library, right-click on it and choose "Properties"
2.   Choose the "Betas" tab
3.   In the box titled "Enter beta access code to unlock private betas", enter summertimeants
4.   After the "Access code correct" information appears, make sure you've chosen "openbeta" from the "Select the beta you would like to opt into" drop-down menu
5.   Press close - the game will now update to the beta branch.


Due to the unpredictable nature of beta tests, we strongly recommend you back up your formicarium saves before you play:

You will find your saves on Windows in:
C:Users[YOUR USER NAME]AppDataLocalEotUSavedSaveGames

Note that AppData is usually hidden; you can either un-hide the folder in the files settings or just type it into the bar. If you make a copy of this folder and save it somewhere else, you can restore your saves by replacing this folder with the backed up one.
Headline Features

New Extra Level - Tug Of War

•   An auto-battler game mode in which you pit your chosen build against an AI opponent
•   The enemy has a number of different builds to choose from; to beat it you’ll need to be smarter and faster!
•   Instead of gathering resources you are given food periodically based on how well you’re doing
•   Push back the enemy and kill their queen to claim victory

Freeplay AI Colonies

•   AI enemy colonies can now be added to a new freeplay game in the setup menu
•   In this first implementation their AI is basic so they don’t have a difficulty setting (it is greyed out; this will be expanded on later) but you can give yourself a challenge by having them cheat to varying degrees
•   A new victory condition - Conquest - can be set in Advanced Options. To achieve it, all enemy queens must be killed

Fixes & Balance

•   Fixed an issue where a loaded harvestman’s leg could cause the game to crash
•   Can no longer place markers for nest group underground via minimap
•   Blocked side routes for the huge whip spider on Aggrandise (preventing your ants pathing through its chamber unintended)
•   Underground enemy icons are now scaled based on how many points they provide. This should make it easier to gauge threats before attacking
•   Allied creatures now show health when camouflaged
•   Ramp collision improvements
•   Reduced point value of army ant media
•   Marker calculations have been improved (should be more responsive)


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Re: Empires of the Undergrowth
« Reply #58 on: August 23, 2020, 12:15:44 AM »
Optional Beta Update - 0.2202 Release
Sat, 22 August 2020



Some additions and fixes for the currently-running optional beta

We’ve updated the currently-running optional beta - this will only affect you if you're participating in said currently-running optional beta, detailed in the above post.

New Features

•   Freeplay teams implemented - AI colonies in freeplay can now be assigned a team (including allied with the player)
•   If the player places a marker on an enemy colony, AI allies will join the attack if it deems it sensible
•   Allied players ping the minimap when they themselves are attacking an enemy colony to let the player know
•   AI allies will join in each other's attacks on enemy colonies
•   Conquest victory condition now takes into account allies
•   Counterpart colony will now be available to play in freeplay once you beat extra level “The Other Foot” (you will need to beat it again if you already have done so; difficulty doesn’t matter)

Changes

•   Royal Guard are now immune to stun, confuse, pickup and execute
•   Royal Guard health increased to 200 (up from 120)
•   AI colonies now build more rooms and should have a more sensible distribution of ants in their marker groups
•   Formica ereptor AI colonies can now build from the entire pool of ants available to them (even those unlocked by editing the save files)
•   Formica ereptor AI colonies will now build up to 4 species in freeplay
•   Infestation landmark is now defaulted to off
•   AI now turns off harvesting and turns on attacking when going into combat with a colony and turns both on when leaving combat with a colony
•   AI cheats now have bigger pre-built bases at lower difficulties
•   AI cheats now have smaller pre-built bases and higher difficulties
•   AI cheats now have more starting resources at lower difficulties

Bug Fixes

•   Fixed an issue where switching from evasive worker upgrade would leave the camouflage on
•   Fixed an issue that could cause the first wave to have no creatures in Extremis
•   Fixed an issue where creatures spawned on lab formicarium 2 after returning from a mission could be stuck slightly in the ground. The previously friendly spiders will now immediately attack; F in comments for spiderbro :(
•   Fixed a bug where reloading a freeplay game that has no manual save would cause the map to load in its default setup without workers or queen tiles
•   Fixed an issue where an AI colony ants could be carrying eggs on the surface
•   If no AI player exists and Conquest is selected a Formica fusca colony is added in freeplay
•   Fixed an issue where leafcutters were climbing empty plant leaves
•   Fixed an issue that would cause AI colonies to attack player 0 even if no colony exists in the game with that ID (AI ants will no longer attack inactive nests)
•   Fixed the revenge mechanic for AI colonies; they will now be more likely to attack a player that has killed some of their ants recently
•   Fixed an issue where the whip spider (and other large enemies) could potentially skip the line-of-sight check if switching targets while an enemy is actually visible (stops whip spider attacking ants above it on the ridge)
•   Minor improvement to target acquisition efficiency for abilities
•   Fixed an issue where only 20 refuse was removed when cancelling a build or upgrade job rather than the full amount that was created
•   Check added to prevent save files read-only crash and appropriate error message given to player
•   Fixed an issue where resource numbers could appear to float upwards when food drops close to and behind the camera
•   Fixed a crash that would occur when loading a level with pre-set leaves

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Re: Empires of the Undergrowth
« Reply #59 on: August 27, 2020, 11:23:51 PM »
Optional Beta Update - 0.2203 Release
Thu, 27 August 2020



Some additions and changes to freeplay AI as well as some wide-reaching balance changes that affect the campaign

We’ve updated the currently-running optional beta. As well as fixes and changes to the freeplay AI, this one also includes some rather extensive balance changes that will affect the campaign levels as well. We’re particularly looking forward to feedback on these.

This will currently only affect you if you're participating in the optional beta. If you’re not participating in the beta and would like to, please see the details in this link  https://store.steampowered.com/newshub/app/463530/view/4639224265623430978 . Note that the beta is only available to Windows Steam owners.

Freeplay and AI changes

•   Easy AI Player added
o   Will not attack another colony for at least the first 20 minutes
o   Far less likely to attack another colony
o   Attacks on enemy colonies are shorter
o   Will wait longer between attacks
o   Makes decisions less often

•   Medium AI Player added
o   Can regroup during an attack if it is going poorly (briefly pause an attack)
o   Can come to the aid of an ally if they have more than 10 enemies in their nest and are not currently attacking

•   Raiding defeated colonies added
o   Players may now remain inside enemy colonies once they are defeated
o   Defeated players colony is dismantled at a rate of 1 tile per half second, dropping resources to the ground
o   These resources can be carried off by an opposing colony

•   Players can now see into nests where allied ants are located

Balance Changes

•   Lower difficulties of cheats starting base size and resources reduced slightly
•   Leafcutter ant media buffed
o   Attack damage increased to 4.5 / 6 / 7 (up from 3 / 4.5 / 6)
o   Health increased to 100 / 115 / 130 (up from 90 / 105 / 120)
o   Speed increased to 310 / 320 / 330 (up from 300 / 300 / 300)
o   Piercing increased to 0.2 / 0.3 / 0.4 (up from 0.2 / 0.2 / 0.2)

•   Wood ant melee buffed
o   Threat generation increased to 0.2 / 0.25 / 0.3 (up from 0.1 / 0.1 / 0.15)
o   Damage increased to 0.6 / 1.2 / 1.8 (up from 0.5 / 1 / 1.5)
o   Armour increased 0.2 / 0.4 / 0.6 (up from 0 / 0 / 0)
o   Distance values altered so they will get slightly closer to enemies before attacking (should allow other melee units the ability to get closer to the fight)

•   Health regeneration on many melee units buffed
o   Leafcutter major, army ant major and slave maker ants health regen increased to 0.1 / 0.15 / 0.2 (up from 0.1 / 0.1 / 0.1)
o   Black ant, wood ant melee and leafcutter media health regeneration increased to 0.1 / 0.2 / 0.3 (up from 0.1 / 0.1 / 0.1)

•   Rapid fire wood ants will now get in and out of attack mode much more quickly

Fixes

•   Fixed an issue preventing movement avoidance code working properly
•   Fixed an issue where enemy colonies would continue building after their queen had been killed

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