Empires of the Undergrowth

[Asid]

New Year's Feast & Fixes
Thu, 4 January 2024



Some fixes for a few issues that cropped up over the winter break

Welcome to 2024! This patch fixes some issues with achievements and extra levels that have cropped up over the Christmas break - and I thought I’d throw in a reminder about the New Year’s Feast level as well, which is now active and playable through until the end of February. It’s a little early for Chinese New Year, but we figured we should be early with something for once.




"The fire ant queen is making her famous New Year's Eve hotpot, but her daughters have forgotten to bring her the ingredients for the broth. Help them find the correct spices in time for the New Year celebrations, whilst making liberal use of festive firecrackers to clear enemies and shorten your path. Rescue lost invitees to diversify your colony!
"

This patch is somewhat urgent because of the achievement issues, and we hope this resolves the last of them. For that reason, it is being rolled out in stages as we can compile them - starting with Win64, then moving onto Win32 and Mac as soon as they’re ready. This might take a day or two.


Version 0.320032 Patch Notes

Achievements

    Cramped extra level will no longer trigger 3.2’s achievements
    'Multitasking' can now be completed if the pinecone on the island has been deleted
    Fixed an issues where 'Clever Little Ants' always failed even when nothing got hit
    New Year’s Feast achievements should now register
    'Full House' counting issue fixed


Other

    Fix for velvet worm attacking itself
    Closed the New Year’s Feast nest entrance
    Christmas hats removed from invisible queens on a few levels (Festive Spider, etc)
    Beetles Rise Up no longer stuck on impossible difficulty
    Creature stats resynchronised between campaign & custom games:
        We have some time scheduled coming up to spend a few days just playing custom games & may make some custom game-specific creature changes in a future update

[Asid]

March 2024 Newsletter - Matabele Ants & Friends
Tue, 19 March 2024



Just in case the change in the winds isn't perceptible to all yet, I’ll spell it out - we're approaching a point where we'll soon be ready to announce our release date for version 1.0 of Empires of the Undergrowth. Official reveals for the setting and species you'll be encountering have begun, and so this newsletter will focus firmly on that.


What wonders await in the savannah?

The reveals began at the start of the month and since then we've been doing regular posts on our social media (X/Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Discord), usually on a Saturday. A few other content creators are also getting involved in the fun this time around! Let's go through everything that has been revealed so far and give it some in-depth discussion.


The Matabele Ants

The final ants that the player will control in the campaign is the Matabele ant, a large and fierce termite-eating species Megaponera analis. They live in sub-Saharan Africa. We did a 'Creature Feature'-style short video about it, which also begins to show off some of the environment they live in - the grassland savannah.




Read on:  Here

[Asid]

RELEASE DATE REVEAL!! Empires of the Undergrowth Version 1.0
Tue, 7 May 2024



We've got a special gameplay trailer for you - and we're revealing the release date of 1.0!

It's been a long time coming. Version 1.0 is coming very soon, so please enjoy this special new gameplay trailer for the whole of the game that reveals the release date at the end of it.

Spoilers for the release date from this point on, so watch the video first!




Empires of the Undergrowth will hit version 1.0 exactly one month from this post, on June 7th 2024! The final story tier of the game will feature the fearsome Matabele ants and their surrounding species. Here's a breakdown of the major features:

-    The Matabele ants, termite-eating specialists, feature in 3 brand new fully voice-acted campaign levels in their own environment of the sub-Saharan African savannah!
        - Harvest food from the towering spires of the cathedral-like termite mounds, carefully managing this precious resource
        - Matabeles have a special medic class, allowing them to revive injured colony members!
        - The scorching savannah is rich in biodiversity, and rife with danger
        - Encounter marching lines of driver ants & solo-hunting African stink ants
        - New huge titans, deadly scorpions, spiders, earwigs, beetles and more!

-    New Game Plus mode will activate upon completing the campaign, unlocking new units and new options for further playthroughs
-    Once you're done in the savannah, return to the lab and add the Matabeles to your home colony for one final climactic formicarium challenge - the REAL final experiment!
-    Sweeping changes to custom game modes
-    Many quality-of-life tweaks and improvements

Later on this month there will be a newsletter with an updated roadmap, taking us past 1.0 and into the future for Empires of the Undergrowth.

This long, long journey that we've been on and has transformed our lives is so close to completion now, and the kind patience of our community has allowed us to make our dream game into reality. From the very bottom of our hearts, thank you. We'll see you in the savannah.

[Asid]

First Post-Release Newsletter! May-June 2024
Thu, 13 June 2024



EotU 1.0 is here, so let's talk about where it's going in the near future!

We’ve put many of our best years into Empires of the Undergrowth, and it is finally released. Welcome to our first newsletter in a post-1.0 world! For all of the many new people who are joining us, you are most welcome, and we hope you’ve been enjoying the game since launch on Friday, 7th June 2024. It’s been a rollercoaster of a few days for us, to say the least, and we’ve got a lot to talk about - so let’s get to it.


Matabele ants in a custom game from Zvistic

First and foremost, thank you so much for making sure that our launch to full release was a successful one. So far, our highest concurrent player count was on the Sunday after launch - peaking at 6,367 - absolutely annihilating our previous best of 2,509 which happened nearly 2 years ago when the fire ant update was set live. These are stunning numbers for our little ant game, far higher than we could have hoped for, and we will be eternally grateful for that.

On launch day we also posted a new roadmap, detailing some of our plans for the immediate future of Empires of the Undergrowth. This newsletter will mainly deal with that, but we’ll also talk about some of the coverage that the game has been getting and how the launch itself went.

1.0 Launch

In the early evening of 7th June, we took a short break from our preparations to do a short livestream celebrating the reach of 1.0. It was great being able to take a quick breather with more than 800 of you watching at one point, and to be honest this was for us as much as it was for everyone else! The recording of the livestream is available on YouTube for anyone who would like to have a look:




Read on...

[Asid]

Fixes & Changes - First post-release patch for Empires of the Undergrowth
Thu, 4 July 2024



We've released the first patch of fixes and changes for Empires of the Undergrowth, following its release into 1.0 last month. This deals with most of the more common issues that have been reported - more patches of this scale and type are likely to come in the near future.

Thanks to everyone who's been helping to test this patch in the optional beta over the past several days!

Changes

    5.1's titans can now spawn in huge creature landmarks in freeplay
    Added a system to restore saves from backup in-game rather than manually (not yet localised)
    Added some extra protection when reloading or quitting the game when defeat rewards are being saved
    Increased save backup number to 5 (up from 3)
    Bullet ant tech tree video added
    Scroll added to behaviour toggles box (will only appear when needed)
    Added more recent localisation for Polish and Czech
    Updated lighting for custom game levels and extra levels, and changed some underground tile grids to the new ones
    Whip spider main menu icon is replaced if arachnophobia mode is active
    Added arachnophobia hats to hybrids
    Creature stat list can now show percentages to a single decimal point


Fixes

    Reduced chance of all backups corrupting
    Fixed some small reverb problems in Tier 5 lab music
    Food taken from dead critters should now look closer to what it comes from
    Wood ants now turn to their targets before each shot
    AoE resistance now displays as a percentage in the Inspect tool
    Creatures mounted on another are now killed when shaken off and landing off the tile grid
    Fixed low resolution shadows in Tug of War 3
    Large underground creatures in 5.1 and 5.3 can now only demolish a tile if at least one of its neighbours is demolished
    Quadrupled VRAM allocated to overground tile grid textures - should improve issues when rapidly moving camera around the map
    Inspect tool health-per-second now includes buffs (such as the Matabele medic aura)
    Fix for whip spiders rapidly pinging from their creature encounter narration in 3.2
    Bullet ant species hex now used in the improvements menu
    Allowed marker placement through some plants that were blocking it in 3.2
    Matabele colonies should now always drop termites when they sell a tile
    Creatures that reach zero health while mounted will always drop to the floor to actually die
    Water on the minimap removed on 5.3
    Termites will no longer take sun damage in the ending cinematic of 5.3
    End game messages now say the NG+ level that has been unlocked if this is not the first NG+ completion
    Corrected some issues in the credits
    Fixed a ping issue in Occupation 2
    Texture size optimisations (should help with some blurry issues)
    Skimmer in Battle Arena will now fly and land when there are enemies at the midpoint
    Fixed some overhanging moss in the final formicarium / terrarium
    Fixed an issue where loading a damaged creature with a star level would restore its health
    Prevented ants walking into a rock in 5.1
    Fixed an issue where several ants hatch costs were being affected by upkeep in custom games
    Fixed an issue where bullet ant lean pupation was not applying in custom games
    Fixed an issue where UI scaling 150% would cause formicarium rewards to be off the bottom of the screen and hence unselectable
    Fixed an issue where Matabele colonies would drop seeds instead of termites when an upgrade was cancelled
    Speed chambers now drop lignocellulose for termites and termites for Matabele when sold
    Fixed an issue where food refunded into storage chambers owned by Matabele ants was seeds (and hence was worth a lot less)
    Great blue skimmer displays health in battle arena again
    Fixed an issue where ants would leave via the top of a tunnel exit on Strawclutch
    Fixed an issue where poppy plants would appear on some custom game levels when loaded that were not meant to be there
    Earwig nymph can no longer spawn as part of a wave in freeplay
    Fixed an issue where huge creature landmarks if they could not find a slot could cause all other landmarks in the current queue to not spawn
    Fixed an issue where under some circumstances less lignocellulose would spawn than was supposed to in custom games
    Fixed some issues preventing AI controlled Matabele ant colonies from hunting termites
    Lignocellulose landmarks now can only spawn weaker termites early game, ramping up to larger ones later game

[Asid]

VLOG 11 - What's next for Empires of the Undergrowth
Mon, 8 July 2024



Empires of the Undergrowth has been out for a month, so what comes next?

In this vlog, community manager Mike goes through the roadmap for the immediate future of EotU.

Since this is a Slug Disco vlog it also has some news about another game published by us - if you'd like to skip that and get to just the EotU bits, the timecode is 1.26

[Asid]

August 2024 Newsletter
Mon, 5 August 2024



Upcoming achievements, engine upgrades, art refreshes, and more!

As the dust continues to settle after the 1.0 launch, we’ve solidified our plans for the short and long term goals for Empires of the Undergrowth. This newsletter will be a bit briefer than usual, as we try to return to some form of normality after the huge upheaval brought by the game’s release!



The ereptor colony languishes in its cupboard purgatory, from Zvistic on our Discord

We’ll go over what the team are working on right now, but for a more comprehensive look at the future of the project I’d highly recommend taking a peek at the previous newsletter or vlog - there’s an in-depth breakdown of the intended roadmap in both of those, and there’s not much point in repeating that completely here.

Read on...

[Asid]

Optional Beta- Custom Game Stats & AI Changes, Campaign Balance, Lots More!
Wed, 11 September 2024



Some bold changes to custom games, balance for the 5.x levels, and preparation for future content

This optional beta is testing some fairly large changes to custom games, particularly AI colonies - as well as experimenting with more bold changes to ant stats specifically in that game mode. These changes are being tested in some extra levels, too, where we feel it’s appropriate.

For the first time we are separating stats between the story and custom games, to allow for better balancing (they have slightly different needs) and some more experimentation outside of the more rigid structure of the story. Most stats are staying the same for now, but there are some notable changes.

PLEASE NOTE: We’re taking some broad strokes with experimental changes to ant stats and abilities in custom games!
As such they might seem a
bit
extreme, which is why we’d like to hear your feedback in the optional beta. We’ll be refining as we go on! Please post your feedback in the Steam community forum or on our Discord.

You'll notice a new tab on the main menu titled DLC - there is nothing there for now, but in the future this is where DLCs like the
Myrmecia ereptor
Kickstarter reward skin will live.

The version of Unreal Engine 4 the game runs on has been updated - please keep an eye our for any weirdness. There are also several balance changes, particularly to the newer story levels (5.x). We’ve be very keen to hear your thoughts on those, too.

The optional beta is only available on Windows 64 bit systems, and only on Steam. As well as the featured changes there are a large number of fixes and other balances. Recent changes to in-game text are currently lacking localisation and will display in English.


Code: balanceandchanges

If you would like to join the beta, the code is balanceandchanges. If you don’t know how to join a beta and would like to, follow the instructions below:
    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
       balanceandchanges
       
    4. After the "Access code correct" information appears, make sure you've chosen "Open beta" 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.


Patch Notes

Changes - Custom Games ONLY
    • Black ant soldier hatch cost reduced to 3 (down from 5)
    • Black ant soldiers take no more than 40 damage from a single attack
    • Big-headed ant major soldiers have a new ability - adrenaline. This reduces damage taken by 60%, 20% increased movement speed and 80% increased attack speed for 40s (10m cooldown)
    • Big-headed ant major cost increased to 35 (up from 25) and egg hatch cost increased to 4 (up from 2)
    • Leafcutter media harvest quantities increased to 20 / 24 / 30 (up from 17 / 19 / 22)
    • Leafcutter media health reduced to 80 / 95 / 110 (down from 100 / 115 / 130)
    • Leafcutter media damage reduced to 4 / 5 / 6 (down from 4.5 / 6 / 7)
    • Leafcutter media build cost reduced to 65 (down from 80)
    • Leafcutter colonies will start with 200 fungus (up from 100)
    • Termite’s lignocellulose landmarks will now spawn a new node every 3m and will not despawn when empty
    • Large giant African mantis and large hermit crab will no longer invade nests
    • Earwig nymph should no longer invade nests
    • Earwig juvenile, earwig and alligatorback scorpion juvenile added as possible cavern creatures in custom games
    • AI colony queen workers are only sent out for the first 10m and return faster for smaller amounts of food. If harvesters are dead queen workers can go out again
    • Timid AI colonies are less likely to invade and will harass less frequently
    • Reduced AI colony food dropoff build priority (except for leafcutters and termites)
    • AI wood ant colonies make more melee tiles
    • AI
      ereptor
      colonies likely to make more balanced build choices, not always favouring larger ants
    • AI colonies receive damage reduction to patrols (differs based on cheat settings). This tapers off over time
    • AI little black ant, black ant and fire ant colonies will make more soldiers than they used to (unless they are docile)

Changes - Story & General
    • 5.1 nighttime invasion changes:
        ◦ On easy and normal, the sun spider’s stun duration has been reduced to 2.5s (down from 5s) and damage reduced to 5 (down from
        ◦ On easy and normal, the sun spider’s confuse duration has been reduced to 2s (down from 4s) and damage reduced to 4 (down from 7)
        ◦ On easy and normal, the giant African centipede’s venom pool damage per tick reduced to 4 (down from and initial target damage reduced to 200 (down from 400)
        ◦ On easy and normal, the giant African centipede’s body slam area of effect reduced to 200 (down from 300), damage reduced to 30 (down from 40)
        ◦ On easy to extreme, the emperor scorpion’s attack damage reduced to 20 / 20 / 35 / 40 / 45 (down from 45 on all difficulties)
        ◦ On easy and normal, the emperor scorpion’s stun has been reduced to 1s (down from 2) and confuse reduced to 2.5s (down from 5)
     
    • In 5.2, extra soldier tiles reduced on easier difficulties to 5 / 3 / 1 / 0 / 0 (down from 7 / 4 / 1 / 0 / 0)
    • In 5.2, casualties required for victory increased on easier difficulties to 120 / 135 / 150 / 150 / 150 (up from 100 / 125 / 150 / 150 / 150)
    • In 5.3 challenge mode, the emperor scorpion now maintains its health between days but heals 10% life each day
    • In 4.1 New Game Plus, enemy colonies now receive more food storage at the start of the game and more workers (based on how high NGP is set). The little black ant colony also gets more starting resources
    • Matabele anaesthetist revival time reduced to 7s (down from 10s)
    • Increased range of fire ant’s Last Laugh ability to 300 (up from 200)
    • Mounted creatures are thrown off when a large creature starts to move through a nest exit
    • Changed final objective in 1.2 Subjugation to say raid instead of wave


Other Changes
    • Achievements can now be completed on New Game Plus!
    • Hovering over achievement in the achievements menu will show the highest difficulty it was achieved on
    • The Nian Beast and Festive Spider levels can now be accessed at the appropriate times of year
    • Festive Spider now uses the same music as Hibernation
    • Festive Spider now uses the updated rotten log textures (WIP - will look overly contrasty for now)
    • It will now snow in the Festive Spider level!
    • Extra levels The Culling, The Culling 2, Tug Of War (1, 2 and 3) and Cramped will now use custom game stats rather than story stats
    • Environmental textures will now be more detailed (WIP - some levels may look dark due to the deeper recessing the extra ambient occlusion pass is causing, please report if you see this, particularly in extra levels and custom game maps)
    • Tile hover window now displays a message when tiles have been locked out
    • Graphical updates to Tug of War 3
    • Game engine updated to Unreal Engine 4.27 - please keep an eye out for any weirdness here
    • DLC menu added to the main menu in preparation for future content such as the Kickstarter reward (
      Myrmecia ereptor
      worker skin)

Fixes & Optimisations
    • Fixed a bug where AI was sometimes unaware of underground invaders in freeplay
    • Bullet ant attack damage increases from minor improvements should now work against targets that are not executed by their attack
    • Fixed an issue that could cause Matabele ant medics to get stuck at the queen (happened a lot in Tug of War 3)
    • Fixed an issue in The Culling 2 where floating seeds were not falling in a small section of the map
    • Fixed an issue that could cause resources to not count towards score in some levels
    • Fixed an issue with Imprisoned where termites sometimes could not path to where the water would be
    • Narrator in custom games should talk about termites more when they are fighting, rather than calling them ants
    • Assassin bugs will now despawn after 10s like other creatures in 5.1 and 5.2
    • Tug of War 3 name now in keeping with the other ToW levels
    • Final objective in 1.2 Subjugation now marks as finished on victory
    • Fixed an issue where two voice lines were showing as the wrong scientist
    • Fixes for UI scaling
    • Minor optimisations to large creatures and queens
    • Memory use reduction (more things should only load into memory as needed)

Known Issues
    • Some extra levels will appear dark or overly contrasty due to rendering changes - please report them if you see them

[Asid]

Vlog 12 - Our Empires of the Undergrowth plans after 3 months
Sat, 21 September 2024



Our thoughts on new plans (outside of the roadmap) after 3 months since full release. Includes new rainforest art shots!

Now that we've had a few months post-release to ruminate on things, we've got a clearer idea of what we want to do for Empires of the Undergrowth in both the short and long term, outside of the things mentioned in the most recent roadmap for the project. Community manager mike breaks it down (as a talking head piece - don't expect dancing).

Including some new screenies of the upcoming tier 3 art refresh.

[Asid]

Beta Update - Custom Colonies!
Fri, 11 October 2024



This update to the beta has a new feature for custom games - custom colonies! Using it, you can create an entirely unique colony for your game that mixes-and-matches many different unit types - for instance, you can have a Matabele colony with leafcutter majors and termite soldiers in it. Find the option in the colony setup section of the custom game launch menu. There are also further balance changes and fixes - see below for full notes.

If you're not currently participating in this optional beta and would like to, see the previous post for details on how to join it. The password is balanceandchanges.


Additions & Changes

    • New custom game feature: custom colonies
     
        ◦ Allows colonies to contain virtually any ant or termite in the game
        ◦ Can be selected in colony setup
        ◦ Colony will adopt the feeding habits of the selected queen
        ◦ Workers will match the queen
        ◦ Some combinations are disallowed for technical reasons (eg: Matabele medics cannot be included in a leafcutter colony)
     
    • Black ants in custom games now have armour (0/1/2, up from 0/0/0)
    • 3 lignocellulose nodes per landmark will spawn at a time instead of 1
    • Limited lignocellulose nodes per landmark to 15
    • Increased time between termite spawns on the lignocellulose landmark (now every 6-30s, up from 4-20s)
    • If a lignocellulose landmark has no mulch, termites spawned to harvest from it will despawn
    • Big-headed ant major Adrenaline ability duration reduced to 20s (down from 40)
    • Adrenaline ability now uses the same visuals as the fire ant Vigorous ability
    • Fire ant Vigorous ability damage reduction buff is now 15% (down from 25%) in custom games

Fixes
    • Loading screen corrected for several extra levels
    • Undergrounds of The Culling and Hibernation now use the rotting log environment
    • Fixed lighting on multiple extra and demo levels
    • Victory music for the Festive Spider seasonal level now works
    • Fixed tunnel exit textures in Hibernation extra level
    • Creature stats in the build menu will now use the ones currently in use, not just the story ones
    • Moved some unharvestable leaves in 3.2 to be reachable
    • Fixed an issue where saving and loading would cause the wrong egg type to appear on some termite tiles
    • Attempted to fix a Cold Blood crash - please report if you are still getting crashes on this level

[Asid]

Beta Update - Achievements & Other Fixes
Sat, 14 December 2024



We've just released another update for the ongoing optional beta. We're not far from the end of this beta period now, and it will soon be released for everyone.

Again, thank you to everyone who has tested and reported issues over the past couple of months of this long-running beta.


Fixes

    -Fixed an issue where formicarium and custom colonies could end up not having heating tiles in Hibernation
    -Fixed an issue that broke formicarium colonies in skirmish mode
    -Fixed an issue that could cause an Aloe aphid farm to spawn in the air in Drive Them Back (custom game version)
    -1.2 Subjugation now counts all soldier types for objective fulfilment
    -1.2 Subjugation now updates objectives on construction rather than a periodic check
    -The Other Foot now accepts any worker for tube objectives
    -The Other Foot progress bar will now only display its tooltip when visible
    -The Crucible no longer requires mediae to be built if the colony doesn?t have them
    -Drive Them Back (custom game) fixes to prevent pathing and culling issues
    -Can no longer click to enter an enemy nest if it is unopened
    -Down arrow will no longer show on enemy nests on hover if it is unopened
    -Changing the game type in freeplay will no longer reset landmark settings
    -Fixed a missing subtitle related to earwigs
    -Moved the landscape in 5.1 to prevent it interfering with the tile grid
    -Matabele medics and bullet ants can now harvest mulch if in a termite colony
    -Fixed wood ant melees having different AoE resistance values then they should in NG+
    -Stink ants can no longer climb smaller climbable creatures
    -Prevented multiple versions of the hybrid fight (FC4) sequence occurring
    -Termites should no longer be able to spawn from mounds that are currently occupied
    -Fixed an issue causing Formicarium Challenge 3 tunnel exits to be inaccessible
    -Drive Them Back (custom game version) should no longer display formicarium rewards on victory
    -All non-worker ants should now be able to fight off phorid flies at level 3
    -Increased chances of Matabele soldiers being built in AI colonies in custom games
    -Fixed some collision issues on Drive Them Back (custom game version)
    -Ants fighting titans when the titan dies are less likely to be automatically killed
    -Fixed an issue where queen death would not cause a colony to become food in Drive Them Back (custom game version)
    -Wave spawn should now continue after Play More button is pressed in custom games
    -Fixed an issue where termite kings would be removed if landmarks are set to random
    -Attempted fix for lynx spiders being killed if they start climbing whist in combat (please let us know if you see this still happening)
    -Fixed an issue where fog of war could be seen through on the top of both the nest and linked termite mound in the savannah custom game maps
    -Fixed some instances of Matabele medic tiles displaying as black ant tiles
    -Drive Them Back achievement icon fixed
    -Fixed achievement ?A Bridge Too Many?
    -Fixed achievement ?Finish Your Vegetables?
    -Fixed "Just Ignore Them? achievement
    -"Finish Your Vegetables" tracker no longer says ?Termighty? has been fulfilled

[Asid]

2025 Roadmap & VLOG
Sun, 19 January 2025



Time for our twice-yearly update to the EotU Roadmap

It's time for our twice-yearly update to the Empires of the Undergrowth development roadmap, including some early details of the timing for our first DLC. Click on the below picture to see it in all its glory!



We also have a vlog to go along with the updated roadmap. Community manager Mike takes us through this - with some timing details on what you can expect for the next few months.

NOTE: since this is a general Slug Disco vlog as well as an Empires of the Undergrowth one, towards the start of it it goes over other games published by us. To skip those and get to the EotU stuff, jump to timecode 3:10.

[Asid]

February 2025 Newsletter
Sat, 15 February 2025



Improved artwork, animations and a little bit about upcoming stuff

In the past few weeks we?ve made a bunch of progress in the remastering of older art assets to the game, including some creatures - we?ll show you a little preview of some improved leafcutter animations - and the new rainforest environment. We?re also not a million miles away from our first DLC at this point; see the current roadmap below for a breakdown of what to expect in the near future.



The current roadmap - click to see the details

If you?d like to see an in-depth discussion of the full roadmap, then see our latest vlog - the timecode for it is 5:10. Some of the things noted on the roadmap might come sooner than advertised (remember: everything in our roadmaps is subject to change), particularly the improved creature artwork.

In this slightly shorter newsletter (there?s lots more upcoming stuff I could talk about, if I was allowed to!) we?ll mainly be going over what we?re doing in our continuing effort to bring more of Empires of the Undergrowth up to the visual fidelity of the more recent additions. Until the official announcement for what the first DLC will consist of is made I'm not at liberty to divulge any details about that, but we can certainly talk about what is coming in the base game.

Now is a good time, once again, to say a big thank you for all of the support you folks gave us during our release year of 2024 - if it wasn?t evident by now EotU is very much a passion project for us, and as well as producing more content for the game we also want it to be the very best it can be in its entirety. The support we received around the release period means we can dedicate the resources to improving older artwork and bringing it up to scratch - a luxury that wasn?t at all certain but is now secured.


Artwork Improvements Continue

Firstly, we?ll talk about recent improvements to the creature artwork - the models, textures, and animations. Everyone please say hello to Aron and Jack, our two new character artists who have been hard at work over the past couple of months to do just that. Whole species are in the process of getting remasters, and the first of these is the leafcutters. I don?t want to spoil their new look in its entirely just yet, but we would like to show some updated animations - I?ll show off their new texturing at a later time, perhaps as a Screenshot Saturday (see our social media to keep up-to-date with that).


A new leafcutter idle animation

Read on...

[Asid]

Exploding Ants DLC - Coming March 24!
Mon, 10 March 2025



Our first DLC includes 2 new playable species - exploding ants and exploding termites

The exploding ants DLC is arriving on March 24! It comes with not only exploding ants (Colobopsis explodens), but also exploding termites (Neocapritermes taracua). Please enjoy the trailer!




Once you have the DLC they'll be available in your formicarium, in separate colonies for custom games, and in two extra levels that are twists on campaign levels (The Harvest - Firebreak, and Front Line - No Ant's Land).

The store page for the DLC is live now - add it to your wishlist to be informed when it releases. Exciting times ahead!

Empires of the Undergrowth - Exploding Ants

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3402420/Empires_of_the_Undergrowth__Exploding_Ants/


Exploding Ants - Colobopsis explodens

The exploding ant has an unusual defense mechanism - when the colony is threatened, some of the soldiers undergo a process called autothysis where they rupture their bodies, spraying a toxic goo over their usurpers. In the game, this is represented by a concussive blast that causes high damage to enemies, impedes their movement and sends them flying!


A queen with a healthy brood of Colobopsis explodens ants

When added to an ereptor colony, exploding ant soldiers will have a choice of upgrades. One choice is between Controlled Blast and Violent Blast - increasing the damage or radius of the explosion respectively, while Chain Reaction or Persistent Secretions will increase the damage of other exploding ants caught in the blast, or leave a pool of liquid on the ground that deals continual damage.

The major soldiers do not explode but take reduced damage from the front, and generate high threat (making enemies more likely to target it). It has an underground-only area of effect ability - it will become stationary, and increase the armour of nearby allies.


Exploding Termites - Neocapritermes taracua

Autothysis is not unique to ants! Some termites have also evolved this remarkable ability, and in the case of Neocapritermes taracua it is the workers that do the exploding rather than the larger soldiers. For a while after birth they are inert, but will soon mature into their volatile adult selves (indicated by a darkening of their colouration).


A growing Neocapritermes taracua colony. Over time the workers darken in colour, indicating they are ready to go boom

Exploding termite workers will confuse and cause damage over time to enemies caught in the blast. The longer the worker has lived before exploding, the more damage will be caused and the longer the confusion effect will be.

As part of a gene thief colony, exploding termite workers have a choice between Rapid Maturity (reduces the time until it is explosive) and Accelerated Gland Filling (speeds up the rate at which the damage and duration of the explosion increases). They can also choose between Extreme Toxins (increases the duration of the damage over time effect) or Extreme Confusion (increases the duration of the confusion effect).

The larger taracua soldiers do not explode, but they have a dual ability called asymmetric snapping with different effects depending on if they are on the surface or underground - underground, the ability causes high damage to an enemy, while on the surface it will stun and cause the termite itself to be flung back.


Boom!

We hope you enjoy the Exploding Ant DLC coming on March 24! It will also be launching in the wider context of a major artwork overhaul for the game - with a completely reworked rainforest environment and updates to creature models, textures and animations in many areas.

[Asid]

Optional Beta - Artwork Remaster, Fixes & Changes
Sat, 15 March 2025



The remastered rainforest, as well as many creatures, are ready for beta testing along with fixes & changes

An optional beta is now available for all Steam Windows users of Empires of the Undergrowth. We?ve had a very large graphical overhaul of several parts of the game - most notably the rainforest environment, leafcutter ants, ereptor ants, black ants, and others. Some creatures have had animation improvements. We?ve also fixed (we think!) a long-standing problem with the Pillage the Pillagers achievement and several others.


Remastered rainforest environment, level 3.2 Front Line

Any feedback you can provide on any errors or crashes, etc is much appreciated - please post on the Steam discussions for that.


Code: rainforestrefresh

If you would like to join the beta, the code is rainforestrefresh. If you don?t know how to join a beta and would like to, follow the instructions below:

    1. Find Empires of the Undergrowth in your Steam library, right-click on it and choose "Properties"
    2. Choose the "Betas" tab
    2. In the box titled "Enter beta access code to unlock private betas", enter rainforestrefresh
    4. After the "Access code correct" information appears, make sure you've chosen "Open beta" 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.



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