Genre: Real Time Strategy (RTS), Simulator, Strategy, Indie
Empires of the Undergrowth
Enemy of my Enemy - New Extra Level - Out Now!
There's a new extra level for Empires of the Undergrowth - and this one is rather unique. In Enemy of my Enemy, packs of enemies are hostile to each other - the trick is to get them to take each other out before they reach your queen. It's a short game mode, with lots of different solutions - the puzzle of how to unlock the packs gets more complex at higher difficulties.
[previewyoutube="n-yIbi4rACc;full"]
Digging is instantaneous and done with the mouse, and marker placement is not allowed - instead, your queen is protected by a number of strong Royal Guard ants that will always stay near her. They're your last line of defense against the enemy packs, but of course you should be aiming to set them on each other and wipe each other out before they get close! A bit of trial and error is expected, but the average run of Enemy of my Enemy only lasts 10-15 minutes.
Perhaps in the future we'll run a speedrun competition for this level; its short form factor would suit it! The mission will be in your Extra Levels menu now - your client will not need to be updated.
Notice about the campaign we must post with each new extra level:
For those concerned about extra levels taking up dev time, please know that compared to the campaign content, these missions take practically no time at all to develop - just a few short hours apiece (you can watch us do most of the development for these on stream). Because they all use existing assets, systems and artwork, one of our devs can create an extra level very fast indeed.
We're still charging full steam ahead with the fire ant update - we just thought there's plenty of you who would appreciate something new to play in the meantime.
Cramped - New Extra Level - Out Now!
Cramped is a new extra level for Empires of the Undergrowth, and it's out right now! This leafcutter level is very tight on space - with a tiny underground nest and many enemies that must be slain, only a superior knowledge of the game systems will allow for victory. Find the level now in the "Extra Levels" section of the menu.
[previewyoutube="klayhKhH5nk;full"]
Your game client will not need to be updated to play; the level will already be in the list. Thanks to everyone who helped test and balance this level when it was in beta.
Notice about the campaign we must post with each new extra level:
For those concerned about extra levels taking up dev time, please know that compared to the campaign content, these missions take practically no time at all to develop - just a few short hours apiece (you can watch John do most of the development for these on stream). Because they all use existing assets, systems and artwork, one of our devs can create an extra level very fast indeed.
We're still charging full steam ahead with the fire ant update - we just thought there's plenty of you who would appreciate something new to play in the meantime.
May 2021 Newsletter
Good lord, it’s May already. This newsletter will spotlight some more enemies coming for the fire ant update, with a particular focus on nature’s favoured form – the beetle. We also have some talk about new AI systems that we’ve been working on over the past few weeks, which will be used in the last of the campaign levels and eventually in freeplay too!
A classically red Formica ereptor queen from GlitchyGamer
We’ve still got quite a few critters to show off as we complete work on them, as well as a few we don’t want to spoil until we get very close to release time.
4th Tier Creatures – Beetles
Ah, beetles. They are the most diverse group of insects, and arguably of all animals. They appear throughout human culture and history, in art and science – they exist just about everywhere that we do. Naturally, we need more beetles in Empires of the Undergrowth (but perhaps not so many as to cause an uprising…) so we have a few more joining our various tiger beetles and rove beetles in the upcoming fourth tier.
Bombardier Beetle
Bombardiers are a kind of well-armoured ground beetle. There are several species – this one is called Brachinus alternans. They get their name from the distinctive popping sound they make when threatened, and a closer look at the cause of this sound reveals a defensive system that can be deadly if you happen to be small and in its way.
A bombardier beetle faces off against fire ants
By mixing various chemicals and enzymes together in a special internal chamber, the beetle produces a violently exothermic reaction. The resultant mixture reaches close to the boiling point of water and is expelled by the rapid rise in pressure through an opening pointed at the beetle’s enemy.
Near-boiling liquid is explosively fired at the beetle’s enemies
If you’re a large vertebrate predator, this irritant is likely to be enough to put you off having a bombardier beetle for dinner. If you’re the size of an insect, however, the momentary boiling temperature of this liquid can easily be fatal. With the large area of effect this defensive spray has, it’d be wise to consider carefully whether the bombardier beetle is worth the inevitable casualties.
False Bombardier Beetle
Mimicry is seen everywhere in the animal kingdom – creatures evolve to look like more dangerous ones, which gives them a deceptive advantage. The false bombardier beetle (Galerita bicolor) has evolved to look almost identical to its namesake, with some minor differences in colouration and morphology.
An impostor among us – a false bombardier beetle looking sus
This helps it avoid predation, but the false bombardier beetle is not without defences – it’s significantly larger than the true bombardier, has the same chitinous armour, and uses muscle action to spray a solution that is mainly made of a familiar substance – formic acid.
Size comparison to the false bombardier (left) and the true bombardier
Whilst not as deadly as the boiling liquid that is explosively fired by the true bombardier, formic acid will still do considerable damage to small creatures. It’s the same acid used by the ranged wood ants of the 2nd tier, and it’ll have a similar in-game consequences – an area of effect venom-type attack.
Checkered Beetle
Cleridae – the checkered beetles – are distributed worldwide. This particular species is called Enoclerus rosmarus, and it’s a common sight in North America. They’re active hunters, and their preferred habitats are moist and sunny – qualities which will bring them into conflict with your fire ants.
A checkered beetle minding its own business
Checkered Beetle Larva
Checkered beetle larvae are also hunters, which in Empires of the Undergrowth will give them a similar role to rove beetle larvae in previous levels. They’re more vulnerable in this state, before they develop the chitinous armour they have as adults – but they’re still a force to be reckoned with.
Checkered beetle larva fights fire ants
AI Scanning
At the moment, the various AI colonies we have in the game are either heavily scripted (as in 2.2) or reliant on preset “points of interest” which they use to decide where to send their forces (3.1, freeplay). This makes them relatively robust but doesn’t allow them to make very complex decisions on a changing battlefield. Liam has been working on a scanning solution that will let colonies periodically scan the surface for interesting things, giving them the ability to make much more relevant choices.
[previewyoutube="yVcObGD57rc;full"] Green squares represent areas of interest the AI scan has found
These will be used on all of the remaining campaign levels, all of which will feature AI colonies in some form. Eventually, we hope to transplant this feature to freeplay too – after fire ants, we are likely to do another big round of freeplay changes to bring that game mode closer to its release form.
[previewyoutube="RAbjCkBHAjc;full"] Two colonies scan for points of interest on one another – light orange is the real scan, the maroon is a skipped scan where it decided to use saved data from a scan not so long ago in the same place
Community Wiki
I’m sure many of you are familiar with the fan wikis that crop up; fandom.com is one of the more prominent ones. We’ve been slightly bemused by these and not entirely sure what to make of them – up until very recently, they were simply placeholders with very little in the way of articles. However, thanks to some dedicated community members, the Empires of the Undergrowth fandom.com wiki has had some big content additions over the past couple of months.
Particular thanks to thanhmk28 on our forums for putting a lot of time into the fandom wiki, and writing / formatting a majority of the articles so far. On it you’ll see creature stats and abilities (taken from a version of the spreadsheets that the game uses that we host on our website) that might well be useful for people looking for a more solid idea of what various creature’s strengths and weaknesses are until we implement a way to see these in the game.
The EotU Fandom Wiki
There’s even a dedicated spoiler page for the upcoming 4th tier update, which details all of the new stuff we’ve revealed in Screenshot Saturdays and these newsletters. This wiki is open to further contributors, so if you’d like to help thanhmk28 out with writing some new articles then by all means do! Our community continuously proves itself to be one of the best there is, and we couldn’t be more thankful for that.
For final release, there will be plenty of information accessible in-game with our own encyclopedia system. Even after that’s implemented, there will always be a place for community-driven wikis like these – they’re definitely an appropriate place to post guides, creative strategies and suchlike that won’t be in the game itself.
Ecosystem Updates
A couple of months ago, Tom Johnson released his evolution simulation game Ecosystem into early access on Steam. Slug Disco are the publishers for it, and it’s been a joy to see how it’s been received and how community feedback is already shaping the direction Tom has decided to push things.
About once fortnightly, Tom has been sharing his progress and direction with us and we’ve been posting these as articles on the game’s Steam page. He’s now at a point where he can share the path he’s chosen for Ecosystem’s first major update, which will focus on graphs and analytical tools so the player can see plant, predator and prey relationships in much greater detail than before.
The graphs and analytical tools coming soon to Ecosystem
Ecosystem continues to progress rapidly as a project and if you have an interest in speculative evolutionary biology, serene aquatic environments, or even just producing abominations such as human-like fish then we heartily recommend giving Ecosystem a spin. It has a demo which shows a lot of the basic features, but the full thing is gearing up to be something altogether more special.
Screenshot Central
Seriously, I feel like this section is just for me – every time I write a newsletter, I look forward to the bit where I have a browse through some recent screenshots posted to our Discord or uploaded to the community, and select three of my favourites. If you’d like to participate, by far the easiest way to get your screenshot to us these days is Discord. You can also email them directly to mike@slugdisco.com.
A pleasing formicarium from BrickyGraph631
Trapjaws under attack from a hidden jumping spider from Rarity
A close call in extra level Excavators from Crazlex9
Occupation - New Extra Level - Out Now!
Occupation - a new extra level for Empires of the Undergrowth - is out now! In this level not unlike the campaign mission New Home, you control wood ants (with mortars) with the simple mission to kill all nearby creatures. Beware - your occupation of this prime nesting location will not go uncontested.
[previewyoutube="P091qp-8f_Y;full"]
Although the level is definitely the most straightforward of the four that will be releasing over the next few months, that doesn't mean it's a walk in the park - it has a particularly tricky start, and you'll need to use your knowledge of the game systems to walk away from a very tricky early encounter with your queen still living.
You can find the mission in Extra Levels right now - your game will not need to update first; as long as you're on version 0.23 it'll be there.
It's worth reiterating at this point that compared to the campaign content, these missions take practically no time at all to develop - just a few short hours of dev time apiece (you can watch John do most of the development for these on stream). Because they all use existing assets, systems and artwork, one of our devs can create an extra level very fast indeed.
We're still charging full steam ahead with the fire ant update - we just thought there's plenty of you who would appreciate something new to play in the meantime.
V0.23 REINSTATED - Issues Fixed with Localisation
A localisation issue that didn't come up in testing meant we had to roll back yesterday. This has now been rectified, and so version 0.23 has been reinstated.
Other than that, all the patch notes from the 0.23 post apply. Thanks for your patience on this everyone, and thanks to the players who reported the issues they were having!
EMERGENCY ROLLBACK - Returning Temporarily to 0.22112
Hi all,
Due to some Mac and localisation issues that didn't come up during testing we're going to have to do an emergency rollback from 0.23 to the previous version, 0.22112. This should only be temporary but it's vital since those groups are having major issues to do with saves and language defaults.
We'll work fast to get everything sorted, re-packaged and re-uploaded. In the meantime this shouldn't affect much since there isn't any new content scheduled to come out until April 2nd - but we appreciate your patience on the matter!
Empires of the Undergrowth 0.23 Out Now - Engine Upgrade, Planned Extra Levels
Apart from 4 new levels set to roll out over the next few months (thank you to everyone who’s been helping test and balance them) the main bulk of this update is under-the-hood changes.
To deal with a persistent problem experienced by a number of laptop users, we’ve accelerated plans to upgrade the game engine by several versions. We’re always reluctant to do this since it invariably breaks lots of things, and most of the time over the past month has been spent dealing with the fallout. Once again, thank you to everyone who’s helped us iron out those wrinkles. Particular thanks to Scyobi_Empire who helped us diagnose the initial laptop issue.
There’s also a new menu for the extra levels, which will give a description of them and a preview of their minimap, as well as an estimate of how long they’ll take to complete and any reward associated with them.
Features
Extra levels now come with a description and minimap preview when selecting them from the menu
New extra levels added to be rolled out every 6 weeks starting on April 2nd
Occupation - a wood ant level not unlike the campaign level New Home
Cramped - a heavily infested leafcutter level with a surface, kill all enemies!
Enemy of my Enemy - a unique game where digging is instant and done with the mouse; packs of enemies are hostile to each other. Get them to kill each other before they kill the queen!
The Culling - a black ant level with interesting enemy spawning mechanics
Fixes
The game will no longer crash on startup when using specific Intel graphics chips
Fixed an issue where non-aggressive buried enemies were heading to the queen when dug out
Fixed an issue where after a freeplay save one of the enemy colonies would become un-enterable
Fixed an issue where ubers were linked to the wrong freeplay setup check boxes
Fixed a pathing issue on The Crucible demo map
Fixed a crash that could occur at low frame rates
Fixed an issue in 2.1 where night creatures could get stuck in the tunnel exit
Fixed an issue where creatures on top of tunnel exits could get stuck
Fixed an issue on 2.1 where first night creatures to spawn would immediately despawn (there are now more creatures at night)
Night creatures in 2.1 will now be more attracted to combat
Fixed an issue with an ant getting stuck in 2.2 on a specific ramp
Enemy woodworm dug out at start of 3.1 are now friendly again and hence the narrator makes sense
Fixed an issue where the uber mole cricket would freeze instead of doing its thump attack
Creatures will no longer decelerate when they spot and item of food or an enemy (movement should look smoother when going to gather food)
Minor cosmetic painting issue fixed on 3.1
Fixed an issue where the scientist was not coaxing your ants out when you retreated underground in formicarium challenge 3
Fixed an issue where loaded food items underground could count as enemies being in your nest (this could cause a computer ally in freeplay to never stop protecting you)
Fixed an issue where the scientists finger jab would aim at dead ants
Changed victory animation on 3.1 and 3.2 so they correctly come out of the tunnel exit
Minor cosmetic fixes to 2.2 (water edges and painting issues)
Dug out a tile that should have been in the leafcutter demo level (on top of the tunnel exit)
Fixed some potential issues with bots
Freeplay AI enemy colonies will now leave an enemy’s nest faster after the queen is dead
Fixed an issue with freeplay AI colonies that caused them to sometimes place a marker off the map resulting in the associated ants breaking
Fixed various minor issues with Freeplay AI colonies
Fixed a minor issue where leafcutters could rarely teleport to a plant to climb
Changes
Upgraded to Unreal Engine 4.24 (up from 4.20)
Minor optimisations in plant climbing
Changes to how AI colonies in freeplay decide which resources to harvest from
Cheating freeplay colonies can now resurrect more than one dead group at a time if they have no resources and their ants in groups are all dead
Minor bot optimisations
Minor tweak to the way trails work
Improved checks added to food pickup meaning food should go ignored less
Known Issues on Linux
We have become aware that some Linux users are experiencing graphical problems with this version. In our tests these have only been minor but some may be having more serious issues.
As a first step we would suggest ensuring you have the latest distribution of your particular OS (with an approved graphics driver), but if there's still no joy please let us know your distribution version and system specs, and we can put some time into properly troubleshooting the issue.
It's possible that forcing use of the Vulkan API might fix some Linux graphical problems you're having. You'll need to add the -vulkan command line argument as a launch option.
Thanks to DiloDog_ on Steam for the screenshot used in the artwork for this post!
Optional Beta 0.23 - Final Fixes for Engine Upgrade
We're likely to run this beta just overnight and get it out onto the main branch some time tomorrow, as long as no huge problems are discovered! Whilst it doesn't have much in the way of new features, v0.23 is a significant patch because we've upgraded the engine that Empires of the Undergrowth runs on (Unreal Engine 4), and we've spent a significant amount of time fixing problems that arise from that.
So, just to reiterate - no major new features since the last optional beta, but there have been plenty of changes going on under the hood. This beta is available on all platforms. It will also remove the four extra levels, with the first of them (Occupation) being due for full release on April 2nd.
If you'd like to join the beta just for the evening, the beta key is givemeextraextra. If you don't know how to join a beta, here's how to do it:
Find Empires of the Undergrowth in your Steam library, right-click on it and choose "Properties"
Choose the "Betas" tab
In the box titled "Enter beta access code to unlock private betas", enter givemeextraextra
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
Press close - the game will now update to the beta branch
Patch Notes
Fixed randomised caverns in Freeplay
Fixed Chinese and Russian languages
Minor tweak to the way trails work
Fixed a minor issue where leafcutters could rarely teleport to a plant to climb
New extra levels removed from list & scheduled for release in future - set your system clock forward a few months to unlock them all if you'd like to continue beta testing them (at your own risk)
The Culling balance changes
Slightly increased food dropped from creatures in hard and insane
Slightly reduced creature spawn rate on insane
Added an extra ramp to the south
Thanks to LilRenn on our Discord for the screenshot used in this post!
March 2021 Newsletter
We’ve got another few Empires of the Undergrowth critters and some size comparisons from the upcoming fire ant update to show you in this edition of the newsletter. We’ve also done an engine upgrade which has had us banging our heads against our keyboards for the past few weeks! Those of you who have been having issues on certain laptops, whilst a small number, will be pleased to know that the next update will fix this problem in a roundabout way. At the time of writing this patch (0.23) was coming towards the end of optional beta testing. See this thread for more detailed discussion of the issue.
A wood ant queen surveys her dinner from Steam user roobyRoss
We’ll also be talking about the imminent release of Slug Disco’s foray into publishing, Ecosystem! We’re not the developers of this game by Tom Johnson but are publishing it under our banner, and are of course hopping up and down on the spot in anticipation of playing the early access version after months of playing the demo.
Ecosystem Early Access – March 16th
We first spoke about Ecosystem shortly after we brought it on board as the first Slug Disco publishing-only project (we are not developing it), back in September of 2019. Tom Johnson is an accomplished developer and we were impressed with his ingenious ocean evolutionary sim based on real-world science.
We’re very pleased to announce that the game is ready to hit early access on March 16th! Please check out the launch trailer below and read on further to find out about this genuinely brilliant simulation game.
[previewyoutube="diOH8eEhHtk;full"]
Set in an ocean world of your devising, the first task in Ecosystem is to design your marine environment using an array of terrain generation and decoration tools. Your world can look decidedly familiar at one extreme and positively alien at the other. A variety of plants, rocks and decorations can be used to enhance the look of your Ecosystem. Plants and corals have a direct effect on how your creatures will evolve – they form the basis of the food chain on which all evolving animals ultimately depend. You can unlock new plants and corals as you progress.
Ecosystem is a technical marvel and it’s been a joy to see how far the game has come. It’s a remarkably satisfying experience to know your creatures are evolving in a true sense, using neurons that learn how to apply torque at the joints to push against the water, without any preordained animation. The game will be available on Steam from Tuesday 16th March – add it to your wish lists right now, and give the demo a spin if you’re not convinced!
Now, back to our regular programming!
Tier 4 Creatures
The Big-Headed Ant
Another species that will be tussling with fire ants in Empire of the Undergrowth’s 4th tier is the big-headed ant (Pheidole morrisii).
Like many species, it has minor and major castes, but it also has a category of major often called “supersoldier” in scientific literature. This beast has a huge head and a wicked pair of pincers. The head powers huge bite force much like a leafcutter major, but in a much more awkwardly-proportioned form.
Pheidole morrisii about to drop the hottest album of 2021
The head is very big in comparison to the body (hence the name), so although the bite is formidable the supersoldiers do tend to be a little on the clumsy side! This is likely to translate in-game as the supersoldiers being very tough, but also having the unfortunate tendency to stumble and fall every so often simply due to the disproportionate size of their heads.
The big-headed ant joins the little black ant (Monomorium minimum, see the previous newsletter for more details about them) as another peripheral species that will appear in the fire ant levels opposing them, but they’re not the focus of the update. Unlike the peripheral species of the leafcutter update (trap-jaw and army ants), both of these species are ideal candidates for inclusion in freeplay as their own distinct colonies, as they have suitable nesting and foraging behaviours. As always with unreleased in-development things, this is subject to change.
The Cow Killer
The cow killer, or red velvet ant (Dasymutilla occidentalis) is not an ant at all but is a kind of wingless wasp. In nature, the males fly to find mates but the females spend most of their lives looking remarkably ant-like as they busy themselves foraging. Seeing her resemblance to a queen ant but with distinct furry red patches, it’s quite easy to see how ants and wasps are closely-related in the insect kingdom – both being members of the order Hymenoptera.
She doesn’t actually kill cows, but her sting would certainly put one out of action for a while
Red velvet ants are usually non-confrontational and will avoid conflict if they can, but if threatened the sting is so potent that the species gets its common nickname of ‘cow killer’. Her exoskeleton is remarkably tough for an insect – it has been reported that entomologists have difficulty using metal pins to pierce it for display mounting!
Her stats and abilities are related to the tough exoskeleton, reluctance to fight and exceptionally painful sting. She’s likely to be very tough for her size, and to only start using the stinger at low health, perhaps also sometimes fleeing with a speed boost. Overall the cow killer is a tough and deadly addition to the swamplands of North Carolina.
The Wasp Mantidfly
The wasp mantidfly (Climaciella brunnea) is neither a wasp nor a mantid – the wasp-like pigmentation is mimicry to fool predators, and the mantis-like arms are an excellent example of convergent evolution, where similar solutions to a problem evolve in unrelated species.
Hello there!
Voracious hunters of insects, they are more than willing to tussle with fire ants for a quick snack. They grab their prey very much like a praying mantis does – using those uncanny front arms. They then fly off to devour it in peace. Expect to see them lurking among the flora of North Carolina waiting for your colony to stray too close!
Size Comparison – Great Blue Skimmer
Titans – huge creatures with unique behaviours that differentiate them from the regular denizens of the undergrowth – will be coming to the game along with the fire ant update.
She's a beauty!
We detailed the first confirmed titan, the great blue skimmer (Libellula vibrans) in the previous newsletter. Check out its animations to see it in action! What is difficult to see from these stills and video is just how big this dragonfly is. In the above picture, we’ve put it next to a very familiar ant type – the Formica ereptor ant – as well as the upcoming fire ants, who the skimmer will battle. You can see just how much of an absolute unit she is.
Screenshot Central
Always my favourite part of writing these newsletters – this time round taken exclusively from our Discord‘s screenshots channel. If you haven’t already, come along and join our nature-loving community! Friendly ant enthusiasts guaranteed.
Fezes are definitely cool in this shot from PeepsPlays_YT
The Hungry Spider never forgets his top hat. As long as you have arachnophobe mode on. From syrian dugong
The hermit crabs await the arrival of their uber-powered lord from Dr. Spooks
In order to fix a crash that was happening on certain laptops with Intel chips we have had to update the Unreal Engine version Empires of the Undergrowth is built on. Doing so may have some performance improvements but mostly the experience should be the same.
We’ve done plenty of testing ourselves but a change like this is systemic, so any part of the game could have issues that we’ve missed.
We are running this beta to make sure there are no hidden bugs that cropped up during the engine update, and we appreciate anyone who can spend some time testing any and all aspects of the game for problems.
If you would like to join the beta, the code is givemeextraextra. If you don’t know how to join a beta and would like to, follow the instructions below:
Find Empires of the Undergrowth in your Steam library, right-click on it and choose "Properties"
Choose the "Betas" tab
In the box titled "Enter beta access code to unlock private betas", enter givemeextraextra
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
Press close - the game will now update to the beta branch.
We highly recommend making a backup of your saved games before you run an optional beta, on the off-chance that some changes cause them to be corrupted. To see where your saves are stored, see the information in this thread on the Steam forums.
Fixes
The game will no longer crash on startup when using specific Intel graphics chips
Fixed a crash that could occur at low frame rates
Fixed an issue with player-controlled spider movement
Fixed an issue in 2.1 where night creatures could get stuck in the tunnel exit
Fixed an issue where creatures on top of tunnel exits could get stuck
Fixed an issue on 2.1 where first night creatures to spawn would immediately despawn (there are now more creatures at night)
Night creatures in 2.1 will now be more attracted to combat
Fixed an issue with an ant getting stuck in 2.2 on a specific ramp
Enemy woodworm dug out at start of 3.1 are now friendly again and hence the narrator makes sense
The Culling is no longer stuck on easy
Fixed an issue where the uber mole cricket would freeze instead of doing its thump attack
Creatures will no longer decelerate when they spot and item of food or an enemy (movement should look smoother when going to gather food)
Minor cosmetic painting issue fixed on 3.1
Fixed an issue where the scientist was not coaxing your ants out when you retreated underground in formicarium challenge 3
Fixed an issue where loaded food items underground could count as enemies being in your nest (this could cause a computer ally in freeplay to never stop protecting you)
Fixed an issue where the scientists finger jab would aim at dead ants
Changed victory animation on 3.1 and 3.2 so they correctly come out of the tunnel exit
Minor cosmetic fixes to 2.2 (water edges and painting issues)
Dug out a tile that should have been in the leafcutter demo level (on top of the tunnel exit)
Fixed some potential issues with bots
Improved checks added to food pickup meaning food should go ignored less
Freeplay AI enemy colonies will now leave an enemy’s nest faster after the queen is dead
Fixed an issue with freeplay AI colonies that caused them to sometimes place a marker off the map resulting in the associated ants breaking
Fixed various minor issues with Freeplay AI colonies
Features
Extra levels now come with a description and minimap when selecting them from the menu
Updates
Minor bot optimisations
Thanks to syrian dugong on our Discord for the screenshot used in the artwork for this post!
