Genre: Real Time Strategy (RTS), Simulator, Strategy, Indie
Empires of the Undergrowth
January / February 2020 Newsletter
Welcome to 2020! We've been running an optional beta on Steam since late December which mainly introduces a reworked freeplay mode, and more recently adds the challenge mode for the third tier formicarium levels. Since that time we've been working through the veritable mountain of issues and other feedback with it, and we're now in the home stretch for bringing this out of beta and to the main branch for everyone to play. There's still time to join the beta if you haven't already - see the instructions near the top of this link if you'd like to join in. NOTE: The beta will only run on Windows. Once we've finished the beta period Mac and Linux will get the full finished update.
Leafcutters on the march from Limey21
We'll start this newsletter by talking about the changes to freeplay mode, then have a look at the mechanics of phorid flies in the campaign challenge mode. We'll also talk about the first of the new extra missions to come along with the update - Aggrandise. Lastly, we'll go over what has taken us many months to get to this point - the laborious changes to the movement and path finding code.
Freeplay Mode Changes
Leafcutters in Freeplay
The update to freeplay will include leafcutters as their own independent colony type. When you play as leafcutters many of the landmarks that appear on the surface will be patches of leaves, since the sole source of food for them is their fungus gardens fuelled by leaf cuttings. This puts them at somewhat of a disadvantage at the start of a freeplay run, since they cannot attain food from underground and must quickly venture to the surface to collect foliage. To help with this, we have extended the exclusion zone around active nest entrances which should help leafcutter colonies get a foothold. Later in the run, the majors should more than make up for the humble beginnings!
Leafcutters doing their thing in Towhead
New Freeplay Map - Embankment
To thematically celebrate bringing leafcutters to freeplay, we are also introducing a new rainforest-themed map! Embankment is set in the Ecuadorian jungle, like the third tier story missions, along the banks of a trickling forest stream which splits the map in two lengthways. You can of course play with any of the other species on this level, but I personally find it particularly satisfying to make a freeplay setup that only spawns wood and rainforest creatures, disable everything but the rainforest enemies, and immerse myself in jungle ambience.
Click the thumbnails to see the full Embankment screenshots
Scaled Enemies
A big change to the way freeplay works is that now as difficulty increases, you will get enemies that are scaled up in both size and strength, rather than just more enemies inhabiting the world. In this way we can increase the challenge without having a lot of creatures running around reducing performance. By mousing over the "menu" icon in the top right of the screen, you can see the current difficulty setting and will notice enemies getting quite significantly larger as it goes up.
Some big boys here from Ainz Ooal Gown - note he was playing a Creative game here (another new freeplay option), so their size is unlikely to be reached in a normal game!
Rebalanced Uber Creatures
Up until this point uber creatures have always simultaneously been the most interesting and frustrating thing about a freeplay run. They represent an immediate existential threat to your colony and only the foolhardy would underestimate their presence after it is announced. However, even for well-run colonies, an uber creature currently spells almost certain death unless you are very advanced into the game. Furthermore some colonies like Formica fusca can do very little against them. Whilst we certainly want players to feel that squirm of panic when ubers are around, we don't want them to spell a definite end to proceedings.
In the current way of doing things, ubers spawn and immediately go about deciding if they're going to attack the player or just mill around for a while. With the new update, there will be a grace period of eight minutes during which the uber will definitely not attack the nest - this gives players ample time to get home if they feel they need to or start to swarm the uber before it becomes invasive. Furthermore, they will no longer ignore the "Nest invasions" setting in freeplay so if you've turned invasions off, they will never threaten your queen.
Pro tip - holding down an appropriate creature's spawn button for 10 seconds in the Battle Arena will spawn its uber version!
On top of this, each uber in the game has been tweaked and changed to give it specific strengths and weaknesses. They've all had health and strength reduced somewhat - they are all still very strong creatures that need measured resistance, but they should feel much fairer now. This isn't a blanket change to all ubers and each one has been tweaked individually, in both stats and abilities - we will detail these in the patch notes when the time comes. A lot of uber effects are based on AOE (area of effect) and a game-wide change to the way AOE works will affect just about every uber creature (there is now pronounced falloff of AOE damage from the epicentre of an attack to its edge - this incidentally also affects wood ant mortars).
Victory Conditions
When you set up your freeplay game, in the advanced options there will be a section that allows you to choose from several different ways to officially "win" your freeplay game, and to set a threshold for that goal. There are several of these, detailed below:
Biomass - raise your colony to reach a specific size, with more expensive tiles contributing more points
Domination - defeat enemies to earn points towards your goal
Survival - survive for an amount of time
Score - reach a set score by defeating enemies, building tiles and harvesting resources
As you approach your goal you will notice difficulty increasing sharply, so be prepared for the onslaught! After you attain your goal you will be given your score - you can then either quit to the menu or continue playing, having achieved what was set. Well done you.
Exporting / Importing Freeplay Setup
You will be able to alter freeplay settings to your heart's content, save them as a preset, and easily export them to share with other players. Exporting works by creating a string you can copy to your clipboard, and importing works by reading such a string. Share on your medium of choice - in fact we'll be making a dedicated forum thread for your favourite setups when the update is released.
Sharing a string for a freeplay setup called Island Nation
3.x Challenge Mode - Phorid Flies
Along with the freeplay update, we will be completing the third tier formicarium levels by introducing the challenge mode to them. 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.
A tiny phorid fly, very close to the camera, prepares to lay eggs on leafcutter ants
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 (there's an incentive to get upgrading!). A successful defence will cause the fly to leave. They appear on the minimap as a distinctive fly icon - so try to keep clear of these areas unless you have no other choice.
Extra Level - Aggrandise
We've long spoken about including extra levels apart from the main campaign, and with the coming update we're introducing the first of these - Aggrandise. It has a simple aim - kill the giant whip spider.
Your objective: kill that guy
There are no tricks here, no enemies hidden in caverns or surprise nest invasions. Simply start in the middle of the map, expand cautiously and use your knowledge of the game to decide which enemies to take down next for food. Once you have the forces, it's time to take on the big guy.
The overview
In this level you command a Formica ereptor colony with access to wood ant mortars and, for the first time, trap jaw ants! These ants have a powerful bite and can use their fast-moving jaws to propel themselves out of combat, healing in the process. This makes them deadly close range units with impressive survivability for their size.
Control trap jaw ants in Aggrandise!
Movement Code
The primary focus of the coming update may be a rework of freeplay, but it is not the most fundamental change that will come along with it. For the past several months a majority of the work we've been doing has been completely gutting and re-writing the movement and path finding system that creatures use to navigate the map. Although this results in very few visible changes, it has been a monumental undertaking when considering the size of our small team - we've been replacing built-in Unreal Engine 4 functions with bespoke ones which are more fit for our purposes. We had used the default functions all over the project, and such a basal change to things is obviously going to have lots of issues. We're nearly there in working through these now.
The primary motivation for all this work is optimisation - removing unnecessary calculations which reduce the frame rate and restrict the number of creatures that can exist in the world. We've previously announced that the focal species of the next formicarium tier will be fire ants, and we want there to be a lot of them - swarming over enemies and overwhelming them. As well as making current content smoother for everyone, the groundwork put into this now will improve everything for the future.
Twitch Highlight - CnRNaggarock
We've been delighted to see EotU get some great coverage recently, and lots of people have been getting lots out of the beta despite the issues it has had! Scottish streamer CnRNaggarock is a long-time player of Empires of the Undergrowth, and as far as I'm aware is the only person with a documented win of the Hungry Spider Halloween / full moon level with video evidence. We always get a kick out of watching his streams. Give him a follow on Twitter, subscribe to him on Twitch, and support his content!
So after writing a particularly long newsletter, I finally come to my favourite part - looking through a few of the fantastic screenshots you lovely people take of our game on a regular basis, making it look much better than it has any right to be. If you'd like to contribute simply upload your screenshots to Steam - F12 by default takes a snap. To get some interesting angles press F9 in-game to get to photo mode. If you hold down shift whilst you do this, the camera will be freed up for some really nice photographic potential. You can also email your snaps to me at mike@slugdisco.com.
At first glance this shot from ant27rex looks like a crab nestling down in hay for the night, until you realise it’s a whole bunch of whip spiders
A cheeky jumping spider waits for leaf cutters to emerge in another shot from Limey21
A pleasingly purple Formica ereptor queen from whoamijr
We're not far from concluding the beta testing for this upcoming large update - with this patch we are re-activating the campaign mode with the entirely new movement code. If any of you in the optional beta feel like starting a new campaign run, now is the time, and report back any issues to us!
It's not too late to join in the optional beta if you would like. NOTE: The beta will only run on Windows. Once we've finished the beta period Mac and Linux will get the full finished update.
To access the beta, follow the below steps:
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 christmasants
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
Press close - the game will now update to the beta branch.
By doing so, you are acknowledging that this is a beta and things are not in their finished state.
We have renamed “Formicarium” to “Story” as we feel it points better to where a player should start. Some content and settings have been added to the story. Additionally, there are a load of fixes added, some projectile optimisations and some substantial balance changes to ubers and AOE attacks.
New Content
Challenge mode added for levels 3.1 and 3.2 - Phorid Flies!
Avoid leaf patches infested with these critters; they will inject their eggs into the heads of your ants causing 2 minutes of reduced stats followed by inevitable death
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. A successful defence will cause the fly to leave
Difficulty settings added for formicarium challenge levels 1 and 2. You can now take these on in easier difficulties… or harder if you feel you were not punished enough!
Balance Changes
Damage falloff implemented for some area of effect abilities doing less damage the further away from the epicentre of the attack the creature is (reaching zero at the very edge)
Implemented on level 3 wood ant mortar attacks
Implemented on all uber basic attacks
Implemented on some whip spider attacks
All Uber creatures have been rebalanced and should now be possible to take on with any colony
All have had their damage, health and resistances reduced
Hermit crab, beach tiger beetle and devil's coach horse ubers scaled down to be defeatable by a very large black ant army
Beach wolf spider uber rebalanced to be strong against leafcutter majors but weak to larger armies of lower powered units (no AOE damage on main attack, very strong single target damage) also given high venom resist
Jumping spider uber is now very dangerous to wood ants (very high venom resistance, ability that deals enough damage in an area to one-hit kill them)
Spiny devil uber is now strong against black ants and other low health melee
Whip spider uber is now strong against wood ants (high venom resist, strong, midrange attacked tuned to do well against them)
Praying mantis uber is now strong against majors, weak to black ants and medium to wood ants
Black ants now have all AOE damage dealt to them that they are not at the epicentre of reduced by 20% (new stat AOE damage resistance)
Optimisations
Projectiles have seen significant optimisations and are now handled differently (this should be most noticeable with rapid fire wood ants)
Projectiles visuals tweaked
Bug Fixes
Fixed an issue where the player's ants could appear red on the surface minimap with fog of war turned on
Fixed some visual issues in Crucible
Alleviated some flickering shading issues
Eaten creatures not part of a colony will now correctly disappear the moment they are eaten
Battle arena now only removes creatures that are not in combat
Uber whip spider now moves properly
Fixed an issue with projectiles that could cause the explosion to veer to the bottom right
Woodlouse is no longer in the floor
Removed an unneeded sound from various rove beetle sprays
Moved a food item out of the wall in Embankment
ixed an issue where items dropped inside another undug tile were removed (they are now repositioned onto a dug out tile)
Fixed an issue where a jumping spider that is killed mid jump would continue to be attacked even after its death
Trap jaw walking animation should now better follow its movement
Fixed an issue where rove beetle type B and its larvae would be switched around in tick boxes in freeplay advanced creature settings
Fixed an issue where marker paths could go past the marker and loop back
Fixed an issue where marker path arrows were pointing the wrong direction
Fixed an issue where dead minims refuse model was blocking mouse tile interactions
Photo mode is forced off when the menu opens to prevent confusion with it unpausing the game
Seeds will no longer land part way up the stem on poppy plants
Ubers will no longer ignore the nest invasion setting in freeplay setup
Woodworm will no longer float
Beta Testing - 0.2113 - Some Balance, Some Optimisation, Some Other Stuff
Some freeplay balance, some monthly level fixes and improvements, some optimisations, some other fixes… a bit of everything!
If you're not participating in the optional beta and would like to, follow the instructions in the original beta post for details of how to participate. You'll need to be running the game on Windows and through Steam.
Fixed an issue where a picked up creature would kill the creature picking it up and would cause it yo be locked in an attack animation permanently
Fixed issues where ants in another colonies nest could could freeze when the marker was removed and other situations
Fixed an issue that could cause flickering with moving static meshes
Fixed some aesthetic issues on the crucible
Substantially reduced the cost of rendering the Isolepis Cernua (spiky plant)
Movement changes preventing creatures rubber banding off one another (the vibrating woodlouse for example)
Added in a minimap ping and alert message on babysitting when the enemy colony is attacked, when they head out to attack some enemies and when they head out to defend the player
Increased the amount of time the allied colony has to gather the starting resources
Fixed a crash that could occur when viewing climbable plants resource quantities and it is deleted
Fixed an issue where vines could show as harvestable above tiles that were not accessible
Victory condition now works in Extremis (wave 30) and will provide a reward
Small optimisations with auras
Wood ants will no longer target allied colonies
Fixed a crash that could happen with loaded freeplay games (and harvestman legs)
Fixed an issue that could cause abilities not to trigger
Fixed an issue that reduced wood ant range dramatically and cased them to freeze
Optimisations
Nativised some costly classes
Some additional optimisations in creature scanning
Creatures scanning for other creatures has seen several optimisations (this should lead to better performance when lots of creatures are in close proximity). Please note there may be bugs with this change, if you notice any strange behaviour please let us know
Freeplay Changes and Balance
Small creatures now cannot invade for half the amount of time large creatures cannot invade for
Fixed a bug that caused the large creature invasion block to not change with difficulty setting
Massively reduced the chance a passive swarm will invade the player nest
Slightly reduced the chance an aggressive swarm will invade the players nest
Reduced chance aggressive swarms will spawn early on
Moderately reduced the chance defensive and neutral swarms will invade the players nest
Creature swarms are now removed when all creatures belonging to the swarm are killed
More than doubled the range at which enemies cannot loiter around the players nest entrance
HOTFIX for Beta Test V0.2112 - Crash Fix
Thanks to plenty of reports from everyone kind enough to help us test, we've identified a very common crash in the most recent beta test (V0.2112). It was to do with creatures spawning underground and therefore affected just about every level, eventually. Due to lots of people very kindly taking the time to send in their crash reports to us it took us practically no time to identify the issue - this is a hotfix for the currently running beta to fix this issue only.
Patch Notes
Fixed a crash caused by any creatures not belonging to the player colony spawning underground or entering the nest
If you're currently participating in the beta your game should update automatically to fix this issue. Again, thank you to everyone who helped us - you made finding this issue super easy.
Beta Testing - 0.2112 - Balance In All Things Freeplay
This beta patch includes several fixes, some new freeplay features and optimisations! This is an update for the currently running optional beta.
If you're not participating in the optional beta and would like to, follow the instructions in the original beta post for details of how to participate. You'll need to be running the game on Windows and through Steam.
Full patch notes for beta update 0.2112 are detailed below:
General Fixes
Some funnel web tile surfers on Baby Sitting will now correctly spawn when your ally tunnels them out.
Moved all pebbles of walkable area in the original spider level
Fixed more pathing issues to do with ramps (some issue that arose on Baby Sitting and other areas)
Fixed an issue where if an enemy died on top of a tile that used to be a cavern it would be un-harvestable
Minor optimisation in ant eggs
Ice plants in Baby Sitting no longer block clicks
Prevented creatures from hanging out within the ant nest tunnel where they cannot be attacked or attack (both on surface and underground)
Shortened text on score screen of a bonus multiplier that was overlapping the score
Fixed an issue where if graphics setting were changed during some particle effects, then they would exist forever
Fixed an aesthetic issue with leafcutter minor’s attack animation loop
Several optimisations for pathing and location functions
Overground minimap will now stop flashing if tabbing to the overground
When trying to place a marker in an un-pathable underground zone it will try and snap to a neighbouring pathable tile, if this fails and error sound plays
Fixed a visual error with the wood ant projectile splash
Players can now place markers on ramps via the minimap
Minor optimisations to do with marker placement
Optimisation added to repathing due to tunnelled out tiles
Optimisation added in various areas that required a calculated path length
Freeplay
Fixed an issue where loaded minims would immediately drop their leaves
Saved plant climbers will now correctly harvest when they reach there harvest points
Fixed an issue where climbers could load stuck climbing a plant and in the wrong place (and unstuck and saved stuck ones)
Fixed an issue where creatures could exit the maps from the position they were standing (and hence could just ping out of existence)
Fixed an issue where sometimes right clicking the minimap would not draw the path of a marker on the surface
Infestation landmark now obeys disabled creature fighting
Fixed victory / defeat animations in Embankment
Moved a log outside of play area on Embankment
Harvestman severed legs will now save and load with a visual mesh and will no longer walk around on their own when loaded
Minor leaf cosmetic changes in Embankment
Rounded victory condition goals to nearest whole number
Deletion jobs for full refuse tiles are now correctly saved and loaded
Default difficulty is now 20%
The time period where the player does not get invaded in freeplay now slowly allows invasions based on a weighted dice roll (first 10 minutes no large creature invasions, next 10 minutes moving from very few, to normal amount by the end)
Added a “Play Difficulty” that affects multiple things including:
Constant difficulty max and ramp rates in difficulty
Extends grace periods before ubers can spawn and enemy creatures can attack
Wave sizes
Difficulty increase due to victory condition getting close
Score multipliers added for the above
Swarms of creatures should no longer hang around nest entrances of active players
25% increased spawn rate of landmarks when playing as leafcutters (slightly more leaves)
Ubers will not invade a player nest until they have existed on the map for eight minutes, then it is up to them!
Beta Testing - 0.2111 Beta Update - Bug Fixes
We've released a bug-fixing (yes, we've heard the joke before!) update for the currently running beta. All of the most recent changes are listed below. If you're not participating in the optional beta and would like to, it is still running and as long as you own the game on Steam and use Windows, you can participate. Follow the instructions in the original beta post for details of how to participate.
Added an option slider for a darkened square behind resource counters for visibility
Fixed a problem with creatures moving on z axis when they shouldn’t
Fixed an issue with creature movement on thin ramps
Fixed a sound issue with rove beetles and wood ants
Trail calculations have been updated. Should lead to more ants at the end of trails, more consistent flows and less ants waiting underground
Minor optimisation of markers
Baby Sitting map no longer says “Return to Formicarium” at the end and now returns to the main menu
Framerate changes will now correctly save and reload when changed
Fixed an issue that could cause honeydew to appear as big grey spheres on food tiles
Fixed an issue when a minim looks for a drop off point and re-paths at the same time (it will no longer lose the food)
Beach wolf spider hats (in arachnophobe mode) can now be clicked through for marker placement
Fixed issues with minims getting stuck in walls
Fixed an issue where leaf plant landmarks in freeplay would never despawn and constantly hold a landmark spot (this should lead to more leaves spawning in freeplay)
Fixed an issue that could cause one landmark to spawn on top of another in freeplay after a save and load
Optimisation added to leaves
Increased areas landmarks can spawn on Embankment threefold
Starting landmarks in Embankment increased to 16 (up from 10) and landmark spawns per day increased to 13 (up from 9)
Leafcutter queen death will now trigger defeat in freeplay
Embankment map text and image added to freeplay setup
Embankment minimap colour changed to rainforest colours
Moved some starting food on Embankment
Fixed various movement and pathing issues
Fixed an issue where creatures colliding with walls were picking bad locations to pop out to
Optimisations added to ant jobs
Fixed an issue where freeplay difficulty was set to zero at the start of playing ramp (no matter what setting you had for start difficulty)
Level 1 ants that are swarm creatures (such as the ones in the Battle Arena) will now display their level
Fixed an issue where a praying mantis could crash the game when using abilities
Fixed a crash that could happen if a projectile shooter (wood ant) was eaten before the projectile collided (could happen with wood ants vs. praying mantis)
Fixed Embankment lighting and some cosmetic issues
Fixed an issue where the AI of an ant could break if a marker is placed in its own nest when ants are in an enemy nest
Fixed an issue where a praying mantis could pick up a creature being held by another creature
Removed food in impenetrable rock on Baby Sitting
Fixed an issue where night and day were not correctly progressing on some levels
Camera zoom now interpolates (very rapidly)
Freeplay import / export boxes no longer allow clicking other things when active
Plant climbing speed is now based on the current ant speed, not its speed when it started climbing
Improved food store space reservation
Allied creatures now properly avoid one another
Fixed an issue where tile refund costs would not remain constant through a save for initial builds and upgrades
Optimisation on buried harvestable creatures
Slight smoothing of camera movement (it is improved further by setting a framerate limit)
Improved pathing for dig jobs
Fixed an issue where saving and loading a freeplay game with leafcutters would cause extra creatures objects to spawn each time (potentially leading to a lot of wasted processing)
Wave spawning in freeplay now takes food height into account and no longer spawns in the floor
Fixed a memory leak to do with leafcutter majors with the “Sharp” upgrade infinitely adding more Thorns auras to nearby creatures
Thorns aura now drops off as was intended when leaving the range of the leafcutter major
Thorns aura is now correctly positioned on affected creatures
Fixed an issue where certain food items would think they were under the wrong tile when buried
Removed the phantom log that would float through the middle of the Embankment map from time to time
Beach tiger beetle larvae will no longer try to attack creatures that cannot be killed and will no longer attack creatures that cannot be picked up
Beta Testing - V0.211 Update - New Extra Level, New Freeplay Map, Bug Fixes
Thanks to everyone who has taken part in the beta test that has been running since Christmas eve! We have an update to that beta, available now, that introduces a new extra level (Baby Sitting) and a new freeplay map (Embankment) set in the rainforest environment, as well as a lot of bug fixes from the extensive feedback we've received. We're also extending the Christmas Hungry Spider event until the end of January to allow more people to play it - look for the gift on the main menu!
A new extra level has been added - Baby Sitting! Can you keep an allied colony alive whilst it makes some questionable decisions?
A new freeplay map added - Embankment. Setup your freeplay colony next to a stream in the rainforest.
Fixes
Restored minimap path drawing
Fixed a divide by zero crash that could occur whenever a creature jumps (the trapjaw crash)
Fixed an issue causing large frame rate drops when funnel webs were checking for targets
Fixed an issue where green food capsules would display if playing freeplay leafcutters with fog of war on
Fixed an issue on the monthly levels where the starting units were displaying colourless
Fixed an issue on Extremis where waves would stop at wave 23
Media and trapjaws will now properly say selected once they have been purchased in Extremis
Tunnellers will now head to the queen if their dig targets are tunnelled out in Extremis
Fixed an issue on Extremis where a wood ant upgrade purchase would display the wrong one
Fixed a tile exclamation mark that was mispositioned on Hold Out
Exclamation mark enemies should now always spawn when tunnelled out
Fixed an issue with Beach Tiger Beetle Larvae where they could sometimes get stuck attacking and will no longer attempt to attack a target that cannot be picked up
Media belonging to a Formica ereptor colony should no longer have fungus waste, minims and be able to pick up normal resources
Fixed an issue with Crucible where colony creatures could not get above ground
Fixed an issue with paint work on closed tunnel exits in the dunes and other similar issues in freeplay levels
Fixed an issue where mantis chirping could be heard after death
Exclamation mark spawning should more consistently be at the location of the mark
Plant shoots should no longer spawn off the visible edge of a cliff
Black ant workers feet pulled out of the floor
Fixed an issue where used fungus quantities could go negative in the top bar
Fixed a tick box issue with freeplay landmarks
Fixed an issue where food would still think it was buried if generated on a cavern (and the ants could not pick it up)
Fixed an issue where creatures could pick food up from long distances
Fixed an issue where dropped items would appear anywhere with 300 radius of the drop
Fixed an issues with leafcutter colony economy when loaded in freeplay (wrong storage values, and used fungus not being regenerated properly on tiles)
Corrected some translation errors
Changes
Allied creatures now show as yellow on the minimap and health bars
Extended the Christmas level until the end of January
Added in extra frame rate limits
Movement changes and fixes
Improved movement around ramp entrances
Fixed issues with creatures trying constantly to walk off some cliff edges (and being teleported back onto the cliff)
Fixed an issue where creatures would attempt to path through pebbles and other obstacles
Leafcutter Freeplay / Christmas Level Beta NOW!
Merry Christmas all! We've got an optional beta build for testing the freeplay leafcutters & reworked freeplay setup ready for those that would like to help us test. We also have a very festive special level for you to try!
WARNING: This is a beta build and the new movement code still needs to be perfected. Formicarium levels have been disabled until we have dealt with specific issues in these levels. If you wish to play these levels, disable the beta in steam which will opt you back out. It is available to all Steam Windows players.
The beta code is christmasants.
The main features for you to test in this beta build are:
Leafcutter ants are now a playable colony in freeplay
Under "Other Modes" there is a new menu - Extra Levels - and the first two of these, Aggrandise and Extremis, are there to be tested
A special Christmas level - click the gift on the main menu!
Guess who's back?
WE HIGHLY RECOMMEND BACKING UP YOUR SAVE GAME FILES before attempting to play freeplay.
Please see this thread on the forums for information about where your saved games are stored so you can back them up.
How to Access the Beta
To access the beta, follow the below steps:
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 christmasants 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.
By doing so, you are acknowledging that this is a beta and things are not in their finished state.
We are quite happy for you to post and share videos / screenshots of everything in this beta - in fact we're looking forward to seeing if anyone can beat the new Christmas level, which is just as devilishly difficult as the legendary Halloween one! In fact, you might recognise the protagonist...
To access the new Christmas level, simply click on the gift that appears on the main menu after opting into the beta.
Oh boy! I wonder what it could be?
Our aim is to expand the scope of the beta after the Christmas break, bringing the formicarium levels back in with the re-worked code and add a few extra bits and bobs, such as the challenge modes for 3.1 and 3.2. Once this is all sorted we'll activate support for achievements and release the update for everyone.
November 2019 Newsletter
And so, winter came. And with it, the season of darkness and cold but also the season of goodwill and cheer. A little bit of a shorter newsletter this month, as we are still (I know, I know) working through the last of the movement code changes. Keep an eye open for the beta announcement - before putting it onto the main branch, we will run an optional beta for all Steam Windows players to help us pin down the last of the issues.
Night-time jungle from returning contributor MorPacke
There are a couple of new things to show, however - the extended time it's taken to get the rewrite done has meant that John has had the time to get ahead on some other systems whilst Liam and Matt are busy with that. We're ready to show off the creature that will feature in challenge mode for levels 3.1 The Harvest and 3.2 Front Line, so let's get right to that!
Phorid Flies
The mortal enemy of many ant species, the tiny phorid fly may look as unassuming but it harbours a deadly secret. It can quickly lay its eggs on the bodies of vulnerable ants. The eggs will hatch into maggots that burrow into the body of the ant, eating its innards and inevitably killing it.
Innocuous-looking and tiny, but deadly - the phorid fly
Leafcutter ants are not entirely defenseless against such a gruesome fate, however. The tiny minims - which under normal circumstances rarely if ever leave the nest - can hitch a ride on the back of their much larger nest-mates, fending off the attacking phorids and sparing their sisters from being eaten from the inside out.
In Empires of the Undergrowth, phorid flies will join the mole crickets and tiger beetle larvae in our menagerie of critters for people who like an extra twist on their levels, or who just want to collect some extra royal jelly! The exact mechanics of the minims riding on the backs of the bigger ants are yet to be fully implemented but we can't wait to show you once they are.
The current plan is to get the challenge modes into the game along with the upcoming freeplay update. As always, until we're entirely sure we don't want to speculate on when we'll be ready - we will announce a firm date when we can be certain of meeting it.
Achievements Unlocked!
Another system that we've been itching to get into the game is achievements, as mentioned a couple of newsletters ago. John did a successful test of these working with Steam on one of his live streams - see the below video of the wonderful moment he managed this (around the 1: 43: 15 mark)! Along with the upcoming update the first batch of achievements will be added to Steam, with more coming later.
[previewyoutube="I0T4rm0bvDo;full"]
This means the first set of achievements is now locked in, but if you have suggestions for fun hidden achievements then please drop by the thread we've set up for this purpose on our official forums.
EGX Berlin
At the start of November, Liam travelled to Germany along with Tom (who is working on his sandbox evolution game Ecosystem, which we're publishing and you should play the demo of) to meet up with Matt and exhibit both Empires of the Undergrowth and Ecosystem to the attendees at EGX Berlin. We always love doing these events for a specific purpose - the true value of them lies in observing the reactions to someone entirely new to the experience. It gives a level of insight that is entirely different than curated feedback sent to us over the internet - the hands-on approach is just not achievable any other way.
Ecosystem and EotU, and some curious beetles at the end... hmmm
We'd like to thank everyone who stopped by our booths to play for a while, and we loved hearing (and seeing) what you felt about the way things are going! We don't go to many of these events, perhaps one a year - but we make the most of them whilst we're there.
Off the back of EGX Berlin we're also very grateful to Nicholas Montegriffo of PC Invasion for including Empires of the Undergrowth in his list of 5 indies to watch from the event! Go and give his article a read.
Just For Fun - Scale Difference
Just a little fun here that gives a bit of an insight into the way scaling works in Empires of the Undergrowth. Unreal Engine 4, which is the engine system we use, uses a convention of 1 engine unit = 1cm, which would be a bit fiddly for Empires of the Undergrowth given our subject matter of tiny creatures. So we scale creatures up an order of magnitude, for our own convenience. The main menu has very little in the way of tiny creatures in it, however, so that is made at the standard scale.
I wonder, then, what would happen if I put a normal creature into the main menu OH NOOOOOOOOOOO
And the scientist's hand from the third formicarium? Well, I've gone this far already, I've only myself to blame. Actually, it was suggested by someone on Facebook so you can blame them.
What have I done?!?
Screenshot Central
If you'd like to contribute to our monthly screenshot section then simply upload your screenshots to Steam (F12 by default) or mail them to mike@slugdisco.com. I'll look through them and choose some of the real lookers. You can enter the cinematic photo mode by pressing F9 - and if you do that whilst holding shift you'll have free movement of the camera, allowing you to get some really interesting angles. Give it a spin!
An unfair end to freeplay from klagana6166 - we're working on balancing it!
Nice wide shot of the jungle from WraTTaFix
The scientist waits impatiently for ereptors to clash from Cthulaid42
The Hungry Spider Level Returns!
The Hungry Spider level is now back for the spooky season! This devlishly difficult level sees you play as the aforementioned arachnid as he eats his way through a web-shaped map. Okay, enough alliteration.
Unlike other levels, you control him directly with the mouse or buttons you'd usually use for moving the camera. There's a special apparition on the main menu to let you access the level - see the YouTube video for help in finding it. [previewyoutube="L3QtFadJryI;full"]
Be warned: this level is legendarily difficult and very, very few have succeeded! Those enemy spiders are a real killer. If you don't beat the level this time round, it'll also show up on full moons.
