This small patch deals with some issues from the 1.1 update that arrived yesterday. There are more fixes on the way soon but these deal with the most pressing ones, so we're getting these out first.

Fixes - General

• Fixed an issue with charge abilities (ie, driver ants and big-headed ants) not working in Battle Arena
• Fixed ants with garbled textures on Beetles Rise Up! extra level and Hungry Spider seasonal level
• Fixed glow position on the leafcutter supermajor (Adventure extra level)
• Altered several assets to optimise texture streaming

Fixes - Exploding Ants DLC

• Fixed a hang / crash that occurred when expIoding termite colonies were added to custom games
• Rapid Maturity & Accelerated Gland Filling now correctly update exploding termite worker visuals when they become explosive & fully powered
• Fixed termite mound not appearing on No Ant's Land extra level
• Fixed exploding ant worker and queen descriptions
• No Ant's Land extra level now uses termite voice lines
• Exploding termite workers now have access to the lignocellulose digestion toggle if in a Macrotermes colony
• Mulch on No Ant's Land extra level can now be harvested up to 45 at a time (depending on the harvester)
• Fixed an issue where new creatures were not changing the mouse cursor to the build tool
• Changed exploding termite soldier to melee class to match other UI elements

Empires of the Undergrowth 1.1 is out now! A major remastering of many art assets including the rainforest environment, leafcutter ants, black ants, and gene thief ants is included for all owners of the game. Many changes and fixes are also included - full details are included in the patch notes below. [previewyoutube=YA5EEMeWJ_k;full][/previewyoutube] Releasing simultaneously is the Exploding Ants DLC, which adds the exploding ants (Colobopsis explodens) and exploding termites (Neocapritermes taracua) to the mix. These are based on real-life species that really do rupture their bodies in an act of self-sacrifice for their colony! Nature is endlessly inventive. Finally, the Supporter Pack is also releasing today and is now available separately.

Leave a Review, Fuel the Swarm

Empires of the Undergrowth 1.1

Rainforest Art Remaster

• 3.1 The Harvest
• 3.2 Front Line
• Custom game map Basin
• Custom game map Embankment

Creature Art Remaster

• Leafcutter ants - queen, majors, mediae, minors, minims
• Gene thief ants - queen, workers
• Black ants - workers, soldiers

Improved Creature Animations

• Leaf mimic praying mantis
• Jumping spider
• Trapjaw ant

Fixes & Changes

• Pillage the Pillagers achievement can now be attained
• Fixed Matabele medics getting stuck if their heal target is removed from play
• Queens can no longer be picked up by larger creatures
• Fixed a termite mound issue in Drive Them Back (Custom Game Version)
• Fixed a texture chamber issue on old beach tile set
• A voice line referencing ants will no longer play if the player is a termite colony
• Prevented lignocellulose spawning in termite mound walls in custom games
• AI colonies in custom games will no longer harass colonies that are dead / missing their queen
• Seasonal hats will now appear in the right place on Matabele & termite queens
• Added a failsafe to a possible crash involving phorid flies
• Fixed players army ants counting towards objectives in Adventure in remix mode
• Some lighting corrections in Drive Them Back (Custom Game Version)
• Fixed All The Heals achievement failing on hard difficulty due to starting soldier tiles
• Fixed a crash relating to the American bullfrog
• Fixed mulch landmarks always being on the map with pre-set landmarks even when no Matabele or termites are in play
• Fix for Full House achievement issues
• Some grammar / spelling fixes here and there

The Exploding Ants DLC - Headline Features

Exploding Ants - Colobopsis explodens

• A choice of Controlled Blast or Violent Blast, increasing the damage or radius of the explosion, respectively
• A choice of Chain Reaction or Persistent Secretions, increasing the damage of other exploding ants caught in the blast or leaving a pool of liquid that causes continual damage, respectively

• Colobopsis explodens majors do not explode, but take less damage from the front and have an underground-only ability. They will go stationary, and buff the armour of allied units around them

Exploding Termites - Neocapritermes taracua

• Since they are workers, they will perform nest jobs as usual
• Workers are born inert but become explosive after a time, indicated by a change to their UI icon
• The older the worker is before it explodes, the more damage over time and the longer the confusion effect will be

• A choice of Rapid Maturity or Accelerated Gland Filling, which reduces the time until they become explosive or speeds up the damage over time and confusion increase, respectively
• A choice of Extreme Toxins or Extreme Confusion, which increases the length of the damage over time or the confusion effect, respectively

• Neocapritermes taracua majors do not explode, but they have a dual ability called Asymmetric Snapping. Underground, this ability causes high damage to enemies. Above ground, it will sun an enemy and cause the termite itself to be flung back
• Exploding termites consume lignocellulose in a similar way to African termites, but they do not require the steps to process it into fungus and instead consume it directly

DLC - Supporter Pack

• Myrmecia ereptor gene thief skin - new models and animations for the gene thief ants. Includes both queen and worker models. Inspired by real-life bull ants (Myrmecia genus)
• Original Soundtrack - the Empires of the Undergrowth soundtrack, 170 minutes presented in 35 separate tracks and downloadable as uncompressed WAV files
• Sounds of the Undergrowth widget to listen to the music and voice-lines in-game, with adjustable sliders for intensity
• 7 4k wallpapers with multiple variations for a total of 16 wallpapers
• 19 emojis, with some based on the games achievement icons
• 12 portraits

Empires of the Undergrowth is now 50% off as part of the Hooded Horse Spring Publisher Sale. Command an ant colony and wage strategic battles in the insect kingdom. This ant-based RTS challenges you to build, defend, and expand your colony, using unique pheromone-based strategies and powerful warrior ants to overcome formidable foes. Hooded Horse Spring Publisher Sale 2025
https://store.steampowered.com/app/463530/Empires_of_the_Undergrowth/

Thank you all for the amazing response to the new beta with the remastered artwork! Weve had a bunch of feedback and have been able to fix the majority of the problems for the time being. Please see below for full patch notes. The beta is now available on Mac. If you didnt join last time and would like to, see the previous post for details on how to activate the beta. The password for the beta is rainforestrefresh. As before, any feedback you can provide on any errors or crashes, etc is much appreciated - please post on the Steam discussions for that.

Fixes & Changes

• Fixed inaccessible leaves in several levels
• Fixed climbable plants & stuck aphids in Basin
• Fixed decorative water clipping through the ground in Basin
• Fixed black ants and trapjaw ants carrying things in the wrong place
• Fixed behaviour toggles not appearing in the formicarium when appropriate
• Fixed leafcutter mediae & majors not getting larger with level
• Fixed references to DLC creatures appearing where they shouldnt
• Repositioned the glow effect on the leafcutter supermajor (Adventure extra level)
• Fixed messed up textures on starting workers in the tutorial & formicarium levels
• Fixed messed up textures on royal guard in Enemy of my Enemy 1 & 2
• Fixed some rainforest decorative plant model issues
• Removed a hexagonal dev tool graphic that was accidentally left in some levels
• Fixed the defeat cinematic animation in 3.1 The Harvest
• Level select now uses the new black ant worker model
• Latest localisations added
• Added Mac build to beta

KNOWN ISSUES

An optional beta is now available for all Steam Windows users of Empires of the Undergrowth. Weve 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. Weve 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

Press close - the game will now update to the beta branch. [/olist]
New Formica ereptor models

Headline Features

• Rainforest environment remastered in the following levels:
  • The Harvest
  • Front Line
  • Embankment
  • Basin
• Full remastering for several ant species, which are:
  • Leafcutter ants
  • Gene thief ants
  • Black ants (workers & soldiers)
• New animations for several rainforest creatures:
  • Jumping spider
  • Leaf mimic praying mantis
  • Trapjaw ant

Changes

• Added new custom game AI temperament - hostile
• Added new custom game reaction speed - quick
  • Aim with both of these is to create a smaller gap between moderate & aggressive
• AI hard preset changed to quick instead of fast & extreme set to hostile & quick
• Increased check rate of custom game objectives
• Battle Arena & Creature Spawner spider icons will change to question marks if arachnophobia mode is on
• Colony creatures collected for treatment will now lose any food value (termites)
• Colony creatures collected for food will no longer be able to be treated (termites)
• Many localisation updates
• UI icon updates in many places

Embankment & Basin custom game levels with the new artwork

Fixes

• Pillage the Pillagers achievement can now be attained
• Fixed Matabele medics getting stuck if their heal target is removed from play
• Queens can no longer be picked up by larger creatures
• Fixed a termite mound issue in Drive Them Back (Custom Game Version)
• Fixed a texture chamber issue on old beach tile set
• A voice line referencing ants will no longer play if the player is a termite colony
• Prevented lignocellulose spawning in termite mound walls in custom games
• Seasonal hats will now appear in the right place on Matabele & termite queens
• Added a failsafe to a possible crash involving phorid flies
• Fixed players army ants counting towards objectives in Adventure in remix mode
• Some lighting corrections in Drive Them Back (Custom Game Version)
• Fixed All The Heals achievement failing on hard difficulty due to starting soldier tiles
• Fixed a crash relating to the American bullfrog
• Fixed mulch landmarks always being on the map with pre-set landmarks even when no Matabele or termites are in play
• Possible fix for Full House achievement issues
• Some grammar / spelling fixes here and there
• AI colonies in custom games will no longer harass colonies that are dead / missing their queen

KNOWN ISSUES

Game stays running after closing for some users - weve narrowed the cause of this down - it affects AMD users but fixing it involves some deep engine changes and we dont think its wise to be making the change so close to a major release. Please continue to report if you have the issue, as other changes have been made which may impact this. Built-in crash reporter does not seem to currently appear reliably after a crash - please let us know if you get a crash without a box popping up referring to sending in a report.

[ 2025-03-15 11:02:50 CET ] [ Original post ]

Empires of the Undergrowth is part of the Steam Spring Sale at 50% off. Check it and other games out in the Hooded Horse Spring Sale. Hooded Horse Spring Publisher Sale 2025

Exploding Ants DLC!

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! [previewyoutube=tKteisc1-Rs;full][/previewyoutube] 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! https://store.steampowered.com/app/3402420

Exploding Ants - Colobopsis explodens

Exploding Termites - Neocapritermes taracua

Boom!

In the past few weeks weve made a bunch of progress in the remastering of older art assets to the game, including some creatures - well show you a little preview of some improved leafcutter animations - and the new rainforest environment. Were 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 youd 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 (theres lots more upcoming stuff I could talk about, if I was allowed to!) well mainly be going over what were 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 wasnt 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 wasnt at all certain but is now secured.

Artwork Improvements Continue

Remix Updated Fixes - WIP

Supporter's Pack

Our Industry-Leading Sound Effects Process

Screenshot Central

Empires of the Undergrowth is now 50% off as part of the Hooded Horse January Publisher Sale. Command an ant colony and wage strategic battles in the insect kingdom. This ant-based RTS challenges you to build, defend, and expand your colony, using unique pheromone-based strategies and powerful warrior ants to overcome formidable foes. Hooded Horse January Publisher Sale 2025
https://store.steampowered.com/app/463530/Empires_of_the_Undergrowth/

Were excited to share that Empires of the Undergrowth is participating in the January Sale at 50% off. Check it and other games out at the Hooded Horse January Sale. Hooded Horse January Publisher Sale 2025
[hr][/hr]

Empires of the Undergrowth Update: New Features and Changes

Headline Features

• New Game Mode: Remix
  • Play almost any level with nearly any combination of ants or termites. Custom colonies adapt to the feeding habits of the selected queen, providing a highly flexible and replayable experience.
  • Accessible from the Arcade section of the main menu.
  • Some combinations are unavailable due to technical constraints.
• Custom Colonies
  • Create colonies with nearly any ant or termite species in the game. Custom colonies adopt traits and worker designs matching their queen.
• New Custom Game Maps
  • Grasslands
  • Drive Them Back (customized for termites or regular ants depending on colony selection).
• Tier 4 and Tier 5 Achievements
  • 8 new achievements for Tier 4 challenge levels.
  • 45 new achievements for Tier 5 challenge levels, now accessible in New Game Plus.

Story and General Gameplay Changes

• Reduced the stun, confuse, and damage effects of sun spiders, centipedes, and emperor scorpions on Easy and Normal difficulties for fairer balance.
• In 5.2, increased casualties required for victory on lower difficulties, making it more challenging to achieve victory early.

• Challenge scorpions now retain their health between days but regenerate 10% daily.
• Scorpions' escape behavior now varies based on combat location (surface or underground).

• Enemy colonies now start with more workers and resources.
• Increased food storage capacity for enemy colonies in higher settings.

• Matabele revival time reduced from 10 seconds to 7 seconds.
• Fire ant "Last Laugh" ability range increased from 200 to 300.
• Mounted creatures are displaced when large creatures move through nest exits.

Custom Games

• Black ant soldiers now cost less to hatch and take reduced damage from single attacks.
• Big-headed ant majors gain an adrenaline ability for damage resistance and speed boosts.
• Leafcutter media ants now cost less and harvest more efficiently, though their health and damage have been slightly reduced.
• Termite landmarks regenerate resources over time and maintain persistent spawn nodes for longer gameplay viability.
• Fire ant Vigorous ability buff reduced in custom games for better balance.
• AI colonies now prioritize building soldiers, especially for black ants, fire ants, and little black ants.

Other Additions

• Achievements can now be earned in New Game Plus.
• Seasonal levels, like Festive Spider, have updated visuals, music, and weather effects (including snowfall).
• Several extra levels now use custom game stats instead of story mode stats for a more consistent experience.

Fixes and Optimizations

• Numerous AI improvements, including better handling of underground invaders and more balanced build strategies for AI colonies.
• Fixed issues with Matabele ant medics, subtitles, map resources, and various level-specific bugs.
• Reduced memory usage with on-demand asset loading and minor optimizations for queens and large creatures.

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. [previewyoutube=hBZZP_vNBxc;full][/previewyoutube]

Empires of the Undergrowth is now 50% off as part of the Hooded Horse Winter Publisher Sale. Command an ant colony and wage strategic battles in the insect kingdom. This ant-based RTS challenges you to build, defend, and expand your colony, using unique pheromone-based strategies and powerful warrior ants to overcome formidable foes. Hooded Horse Winter Publisher Sale 2024
https://store.steampowered.com/app/463530/Empires_of_the_Undergrowth/

Just in time for the holidays! This major update introduces a brand new arcade mode - Remix. With it, you can play just about any level in the game with just about any combination of colony members (ants and termites)! Want to know how bullet ants fare at raking in The Harvest? Go for it! How about sending traitorous big-headed ants after their own kind in Cold Blood? The possibilities are practically endless. [previewyoutube=6tglFD103Ys;full][/previewyoutube] You can also build custom colonies in custom games, using the same system. Just choose custom from the species selection as you go through your game setup. Speaking of custom games - there are also 2 new custom game maps to play, set in the heat of the savannah. Grasslands is specifically designed for Matabele vs termite scuffles, but of course any colonies can be played. Drive Them Back (custom game version) takes the same layout as the campaign level - this has been long-requested, and if the reception is good we might do more custom game versions of campaign levels in the future. We have made some balance changes to creatures that will only affect custom games, since these generally have slightly different balance requirements to the campaign. All detailed below. The final headline feature of this update is the long-awaited tier 5 achievements pack! Weve added a whole bunch of new achievements, some easier and some more devious, for tier 5 and for tier 4 challenge modes. Achievements can now be attained in New Game Plus mode as well as the base story. Full (and extensive) patch notes are at the bottom of this news post. We hope you enjoy! As always, your support means everything to us. Thank you so much for playing Empires of the Undergrowth in our release year - well see you next year for even more!

Headline Features

• New game mode: Remix
  • Can play almost any level with almost any combination of ants or termites
  • Custom colonies will adopt the feeding habits of the selected queen
  • Accessed from the Arcade area of the main menu
  • Some combinations disallowed for technical reasons
• New custom game feature: Custom Colonies
  • Allows colonies to contain virtually any ant or termite in the game
  • Can be selected in colony setup
  • Workers will match the queen
• New custom game maps - Grasslands & Drive Them Back (custom game version)
  • If playing as termites, will spawn in mounds otherwise in regular nest entrances
  • Non-colony fodder termites will otherwise spawn from unoccupied mounds if Matabele ants are in play
• Tier 5 & Tier 4 Challenge Mode Achievements
  • 8 new achievement for tier 4 levels with challenge mode
  • 45 new achievements for tier 5 levels
  • Can now be achieved and earned in New Game Plus

Changes - Story & General

• 5.1 nighttime invasion changes:
  • On easy and normal, the sun spiders stun duration has been reduced to 2.5s (down from 5s) and damage reduced to 5 (down from 8)
  • On easy and normal, the sun spiders 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 centipedes venom pool damage per tick reduced to 4 (down from 8) and initial target damage reduced to 200 (down from 400)
  • On easy and normal, the giant African centipedes body slam area of effect reduced to 200 (down from 300), damage reduced to 30 (down from 40)
  • On easy to extreme, the emperor scorpions attack damage reduced to 20 / 20 / 35 / 40 / 45 (down from 45 on all difficulties)
  • On easy and normal, the emperor scorpions 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 challenge scorpion now maintains its health between days but heals 10% life each day
  • The challenge scorpion no longer gets its abilities back when it respawns or moves underground (abilities that happen at 25%, 50% and 75% health)
  • The challenge scorpion will no longer attempt to walk away when it performs a ground thump
  • The challenge scorpion will only run away if engaged underground; if on the surface it will continue to fight so long as there are enemies to fight
  • The challenge scorpion now only escapes when termite sun damage is in progress
• 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 ants 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
• Added an extra harvesting slot on woodlice for faster food collection
• Stink ants can no longer climb smaller climbable creatures

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
• Black ants now have armour (0/1/2, up from 0/0/0)
• 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 20s (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)
• Termites lignocellulose landmarks will now spawn 3 new nodes every 3m and will not despawn when empty
• 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
• Fire ant Vigorous ability damage reduction buff is now 15% (down from 25%) in custom games
• 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)
• Increased chance that Matabele soldiers will be built in AI colonies
• 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)
• Dead fish landmark replaced with map-appropriate large food sources
• Large food source landmark will spawn opposing ants that are map-appropriate
• Added Aloe Version of aphid plants for savannah custom games

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
• 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 due to an extra ambient occlusion pass allowing for deeper apparent recessing
• 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)
• Updated the Slug Disco logo on the main menu
• Many, many localisation updates

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
• 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
• Fixed an issue where termite kings would be removed in custom games if landmarks are set to random
• Fixed green lynx spiders being culled if they start climbing whilst in combat
• Fixed a missing subtitle related to earwigs
• Moved some unharvestable leaves in 3.2 to be reachable
• The Other Foot progress bar will now only display its tooltip when visible
• If the 5.3 challenge scorpion is killed on the surface its dialogue no longer plays on defeat (as it mentions being killed underground)
• 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
• Assassin bugs will now despawn after 10s like other creatures in 5.1 and 5.2
• Final objective in 1.2 Subjugation now marks as finished on victory
• Wave spawn should now continue after play more is pressed in custom games
• Prevented multiple versions of the hybrid fight sequence occurring
• Fixed a crash related to creature climbing
• Ants fighting titans when the titan dies are less likely to be automatically killed
• Pheromone markers in enemy nests now respond to the smoke visual option
• Prevented destructible barriers from being inspectable with the Inspect tool
• 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)
• Loading screen corrected for several extra levels

Happy Holidays, everyone! Were excited to share that Empires of the Undergrowth is participating in the Winter Sale at 50% off. Check it and other games out at the Hooded Horse Winter Sale. Hooded Horse Winter Publisher Sale 2024
[hr][/hr]

Latest Update News: REMIX Mode, Freeplay Maps, and More.

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 doesnt 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

As we barrel towards the end of the immense year that was 2024, were still running a long optional beta which is testing some major new features - we hope to get that out for everyone before Christmas. Thank you so much to everyone who has been having a play with it; your feedback as always is invaluable. Poor old John has been run off his feet for the past several weeks trying to implement it!
The bleak depths of winter are nearly upon the colony... In this final newsletter of the year, well concentrate on the features that will be arriving sooner rather than later, the most exciting of which is probably completely custom colonies for your skirmish and freeplay games! Thats been an interesting one to implement, and well get to that shortly. First, lets go over the recent extended beta period and how weve been gathering feedback.

Beta Testing

Custom Colonies

Remix Mode

New Freeplay Maps

Tier 5 Achievements

Art Refresh

Festive Spider

GameDeveloper.com Article

New Game - Strange Seed!

Company News - New Hires

Screenshot Central

The End of Launch Year

Empires of the Undergrowth is available at a 50% discount as part of the Autumn Publisher Sale running until December 4th. Command an ant colony and wage strategic battles in the insect kingdom. This ant-based RTS challenges players to build, defend, and expand their colony, using unique pheromone-based strategies and powerful warrior ants to survive against formidable foes. Hooded Horse Autumn Publisher Sale 2024
https://store.steampowered.com/app/463530/Empires_of_the_Undergrowth/

Hello, colony caretakers! Now that autumn is here, your local ant colony might be seeking a warm place to hunker down. But were seeking something a little different a nomination for Most Innovative Gameplay during this years Steam Awards.
Since we launched Empires of the Undergrowth earlier this year, weve received a swarm of positive feedback about its unique blend of colony management simulation & RTS gameplay. Its been such a pleasure to immerse you all in the complex world of ant colonies. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELSOKmgDRvA Over the last year, weve released several updates to ensure Empires of the Undergrowth is the best game it can be. These updates have introduced a number of new features and key gameplay improvements.

Heres a look at some of the most important features we added over the course of the last year:

• Post-Release Patch 1
• 1.0 Release Update
• New Years Feast & Fixes Patch
• Custom Game & Achievements Update

New Features Now Available in Beta

• Two New Custom Game Maps: Savannah-themed environments offering unique challenges.
• Custom Colony Options: Use any ant species in custom games.
• New Game Mode: Remix: Replay levels with different or customized colonies.
• Tier 5 Achievements: New objectives for players to complete.
• Balance Changes, Fixes, and Optimisations: Adjustments and updates for a smoother experience.

Empires of the Undergrowth: Thank You for an Incredible Year

In this optional beta update, we're introducing Remix - a new game mode accessible from the Arcade menu. With it, you can play almost any level in the game (from the campaign documentary missions, extra levels and demo levels) with almost any combination of ants or termites. The possibilities are nearly limitless!

This optional beta is for Windows 64 bit systems only.

Code: balanceandchanges

Greetings, colony caretakers! Were excited to share the latest developments for Empires of the Undergrowth, including updates introduced in the optional beta for custom games. This update brings the highly anticipated Custom Colonies feature, enabling players to create unique colonies combining unit types in new ways. Additionally, Empires of the Undergrowth is part of the Hooded Horse November Publisher Sale, offering 50% off until November 23rd. See other Hooded Horse games in our publisher sale. Hooded Horse November Publisher Sale 2024

Recent Highlights: Custom Colonies Beta

• Balance Adjustments: Updates to lignocellulose nodes, termite spawn rates, and unit abilities refine the strategic flow of custom games.
• Fixes and Improvements: Lighting corrections, texture fixes, and updates to underground levels enhance the overall experience.

Learn More

Until November 23rd, Empires of the Undergrowth is available at a 50% discount as part of the Hooded Horse Publisher Sale. Command an ant colony and wage strategic battles in the insect kingdom. This ant-based RTS challenges players to build, defend, and expand their colony, using unique pheromone strategies and powerful warrior ants to survive against formidable foes. See other Hooded Horse games in our publisher sale. Hooded Horse November Publisher Sale 2024
https://store.steampowered.com/app/463530/Empires_of_the_Undergrowth/

Congratulations, Microids and Tower Five, on the Empire of the Ants launch! We're excited to announce that we've created an ant-credible bundle featuring our games to celebrate this fantastic release. Lead your colony through the perils of the forest in this groundbreaking, photorealistic RTS, where you command insect legions in epic battles. Experience an epic microscopic world with our special bundle featuring both games. https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/47006/Empire_of_the_Ants__Empires_of_the_Undergrowth/

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

The Hooded Horse Publisher Sale Has Arrived!

Explore amazing deals on all Hooded Horse titles during the Steam Publisher Sale.

The Hooded Horse Publisher Sale Has Arrived!

Explore amazing deals on all Hooded Horse titles during the Steam Publisher Sale.

From Today Until October 10th

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. [previewyoutube=7dbwyzARZes;full][/previewyoutube]

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 its 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: Were 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 wed like to hear your feedback in the optional beta. Well 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). Weve 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

As the dust continues to settle after the 1.0 launch, weve 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 games release!
The ereptor colony languishes in its cupboard purgatory, from Zvistic on our Discord Well go over what the team are working on right now, but for a more comprehensive look at the future of the project Id highly recommend taking a peek at the previous newsletter or vlog - theres an in-depth breakdown of the intended roadmap in both of those, and theres not much point in repeating that completely here.

Tier 5 achievements

Rainforest Art Refresh

Engine Upgrade & Graphics

Balance

Official Wiki

ANTCON 2024

Screenshot Central

Empires of the Undergrowth is 35% off from July 21 to August 4.

Features:

• Real-time strategy with an emphasis on colony management
• Different ant species with unique traits and abilities
• Dynamic environments with diverse biomes
• Engaging campaign and endless freeplay modes
• Stunning graphics and immersive gameplay
• Don't miss out on this captivating strategy experience. Act fast and get Empires of the Undergrowth at 35% off during the sale!

Latest Empires of the Undergrowth Update & Future Roadmap

Slug Disco Studios Socials

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. [previewyoutube=cNXrE74xurI;full][/previewyoutube]

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

The Hooded Horse Summer Sale Has Arrived!

From Today Until July 11th

Along with the 5.1 titans making it into freeplay, this optional beta has a bunch of fixes and improvements to make the game more stable. Lets go over a few things related to these optional betas for people who havent participated in them before. Firstly, please note: optional betas are limited to the Steam Windows 64 bit build, and may be missing localisations in some newer or updates areas.

WARNING: YOU ARE STRONGLY ADVISED TO MAKE A SAVE BACKUP

Code: customtitans

Weve 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 youve been enjoying the game since launch on Friday, 7th June 2024. Its been a rollercoaster of a few days for us, to say the least, and weve got a lot to talk about - so lets 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 well also talk about some of the coverage that the game has been getting and how the launch itself went.

1.0 Launch

The Immediate Aftermath - Roadmap

Fixes & Improvements

Balance

Tier 5 Achievements

Rainforest Art Refresh

Savannah Maps

CSV Setup for Custom Games

Ubers / Huge Creatures

New Extra Levels

Further Custom Game Changes

Firecracker Mode

And more!

Thank You

Screenshot Central

ITS FINALLY HERE!

Headline Features

Main Game Modes

• The story of Empires of the Undergrowth reaches a cataclysmic conclusion, now playable in its entirety with a fully narrated documentary-style campaign inspired by real world scenarios, and shocking challenges in an adjacent sci-fi setting
• Battle for survival in the wild, then bring the spoils of war back to your formicarium and unlock ugradeable ant species to meet the challenges set by the evil scientist
• Play endlessly customisable missions in skirmishes and freeplay games against environmental creatures, AI colonies, or both!
• Take on the Arcade with a multitude of inventive extra levels, both nature-inspired and more fanciful, and the Battle Arena to watch the chaos unfold
• The campaign is repeatable with end-game rewards and New Game Plus

Final Campaign Tier 5

• Enter the heat of the African savannah with the Matabele ants
  • Obligate termite eaters, they must raid nearby nests as their only long-term viable food source
  • Mighty titans of the undergrowth threaten the very existence of the Matabeles at night
  • Driver ants and African stink ants give fierce competition to the Matabele ants
  • The Matabele will nurse their wounded back to health - a near-unique trait among invertebrates
• Play a special campaign level as the termites!
  • Play a scenario as one of 3 termite colonies under threat of the Matabele, stink ants and other hungry predators
  • Farm for fungus by collecting decaying plant matter from the surface, but beware the midday sun!
• Return to the formicarium for the REAL final experiment, where the plans of the scientist are finally laid bare and the ultimate battle must be won
• Beat the campaign to add the end-game reward of mighty bullet ants to your colony, as well as several other units!
• Take your enhanced colony into custom games, or repeat your colonys journey with tougher challenges in New Game Plus - but this time you can take your formicarium upgrades into the mission with you!

New Challenge Modes

• Take on the fire ant missions with an added twist; the six-spotted fishing spider has joined the fray, causing havoc at pontoon construction sites
• The sinister assassin bugs prowl the savannah in the Matabele ant missions, taking victims and disguising themselves with the dead bodies of their prey

Custom Games

• Matabele ants and termites are now selectable as separate colonies in custom games!
  • Matabele colonies must search out termites to eat
  • Termite colonies must find patches of lignocellulose to grow into fungus
• New savannah creatures will now spawn in custom games when activated - take on alligator back scorpions, earwigs, centipedes and more!

New Extra Level - Tug of War 3

• Tug of War 3: battle with new units, including the enormous bullet ants and Matabele, in this continuation of the tug-of-war style of extra levels weve added previously

Other Major Changes

• New main menu, loading screens and buttons
• Expanded arachnophobia mode (you can just have the hat to be visible)
• Increased rewards across the board for first-time level playthroughs
• New music in 5.1 & 5.2, as well as in the final formicarium
• New Battle Arena (surface) and new options for creatures
• New decorations and underground looks for the formicariums

Quality of Life Changes

• New Inspect tool (right-side of the pheromone panel) to show creature stats; stats will also now show in tooltips
• Clearer display of challenge mode and its rewards
• Important notifications should now be more obvious
• Numerous small quality of life changes

Fixes

• Fixed an issue preventing fire ants Last Stand ability from triggering
• Improvements applied to swamp and beach environments
• Several issues with minor improvements fixed
• Numerous small fixes

The Future

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! [previewyoutube=tEBdPgNTWM8;full][/previewyoutube] 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

Today marks World Earth Day, an occassion where we mark the importance of our planet and the factors that are impacting it. But with human-made issues such as climate change, pollution, overpopulation, lack of sustainability, and conflicts, it's a stark reminder not to take our planet for granted. That's why we're taking part in Earth Appreciation Fest 2024, which contains both post-apocalyptic games that remind us of what we stand to lose, and nature-based games to help celebrate the incredible bio-diversity of the planet we call home. You can check out the full range of games taking part in Earth Appreciation Festival here. Psst! Don't forget Empires of the Undergrowth is also exhibiting at WASD 2024, where you'll be able to try out the latest build of the game from 25th - 27th April!

Every couple of months we like to do a vlog. This is a big one, both literally and metaphorically. It's a big roundup of all the tier 5 news that has been announced over the last few weeks, with a few new tidbits thrown in, as well as having its very own big creature reveal. I was holding one back especially for vlog 10 - and I'm glad I did! [previewyoutube=SuLCpe0RKcY;full][/previewyoutube] The thumbnail might be my finest work. The vlog's main focus is Empires of the Undergrowth, but it also has a short section about the other games published (but not developed) by Slug Disco Studios - if you'd like to skip that, then the timecode is 04:00.

Empires of the Undergrowth is now 35% off until April 29th. Command a colony, build, and battle in the bustling world of ants. Every decision, from food collection to frontline combat, matters in the undergrowth empire. [previewyoutube=WHFamaHashM;full][/previewyoutube] https://store.steampowered.com/app/463530/Empires_of_the_Undergrowth/

Just in case the change in the winds isn't perceptible to all yet, Ill 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

Termites

African Stink Ant

Sun Spider

Common Earwig

African Tiger Beetle

The Savannah

ANTCON 2024

Screenshot Central

Ant-icipation Rises

Hello! From now until March 21st, you can save 35% on Empires of the Undergrowth, and get great deals on all other games published by Hooded Horse during the Steam Spring Sale. Come check the game out!
[previewyoutube=UhMEkuqT5o0;full][/previewyoutube]

Empires of the Undergrowth is participating in the Digital Tabletop Fest: Roll of the Dice, hosted by Auroch Digital.
This festival celebrates tabletop-inspired games and the incredible game studios behind them. From March 7th to March 11th, you'll find demos, previews of upcoming titles, panels from developers, and game discounts, too. If you've been anticipating playing Empires of the Undergrowth, it is currently 35% off until March 10. Survive, build, conquer, and rule over the ant hill today! https://store.steampowered.com/app/463530

The final chapter of the story is not too far away, so let's talk about the final ant species you'll be playing as in Empires of the Undergrowth. The video below is a creature feature style one to reveal a little about the ants and their environment, and their eating habits. [previewyoutube=HxC-m0B-E_I;full][/previewyoutube] In the expansive savannah of sub-Saharan Africa, the sun scorches the earth during the day and creatures find different ways to survive. Some dig; some build spire-topped cathedrals. Some of the diggers feed on the builders. Large, powerful, and specialised, Megaponera analis - the Matabele ant - feeds almost entirely on termites. They habitually conduct sweeping raids of nearby mounds at dawn and dusk, when the heat is more forgiving. We'll be doing fairly regular reveals on our social media from now on (YouTube, Facebook and X / Twitter and of course our Discord server) so those are the places to follow along if you want news as fast as you can get it - but we'll be doing round-ups in newsletters and vlogs, too. The newsletter coming in a couple of weeks from this post will be packed with tier 5 stuff! Making this game has been a wonderful, long, life-changing journey that is now nearing its end and we're glad you made it with us.

From now until March 10th, you can save 35% on Empires of the Undergrowth. Come check the game out! [previewyoutube=WHFamaHashM;full][/previewyoutube] https://store.steampowered.com/app/463530/Empires_of_the_Undergrowth/

We've decided internally on a release date for Empires of the Undergrowth - it's now full steam ahead to meet it! We'll be doing some creature and setting reveals for the final tier soon. This vlog, while necessarily short, should plug the gap between calm and storm. Note that this vlog also deals with news about 2 other games that Slug Disco publishes - if you'd rather skip that, the timecode is 3:53. [previewyoutube=UZjGSKeculo;full][/previewyoutube]

Hi everyone! Empires of the Undergrowth is currently on sale for 20% off. At the end of the sale, the price of the game will be raised to reflect advancements made during Early Access. We wanted to provide advance notice in case anyone would like to purchase the game at the current discounted price. Thank you for all of your support! https://store.steampowered.com/app/463530/Empires_of_the_Undergrowth/ [previewyoutube=ihLRjXkTQjQ;full][/previewyoutube]

So, were in Empires of the Undergrowths release year now! Thats a terrifying and exciting concept. If you watched last months vlog, youll have seen that weve managed to narrow down the release window of the game to a slight 12 months. Well done us.
The Nian Beast encounters firecrackers in the New Year's Feast level. From Orion (Dilphy) on our Discord Just a reminder that Novembers newsletter contains the roadmap that should cover what to expect as we approach full release of the project - so refer back to that if youd like some clarification on whats happening over the coming few months. Ill try to keep this newsletter relatively brief - in this time shortly before we start revealing stuff from the final tier, news is a little slight. However, next time should be full of exciting reveals! Theres definitely a few things worth discussing now - lets dive in.

2024 Release

Creature Features

Daily Devlog

New Years Feast Now Active

Map Contest Over and Out

Honourable Mentions

Buglife charity donation

Thank You

Screenshot Central

The recently-implemented automatic crash reporting system in Empires of the Undergrowth has highlighted some issues that have been lurking in the dark for a long time, that weve now been able to root out and patch up. This update deals with the most pressing of those.

0.320034 Notes

• Fixed a crash when a titan-class creature is near the edge of the map
• Fixed some creature fringe cases causing other crashes
• Fixed several rarer crashes

Notes for Windows 32 bit / Mac

• Cramped extra level will no longer trigger 3.2s 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 Years Feast achievements should now register
• 'Full House' counting issue fixed

• Fix for velvet worm attacking itself
• Closed the New Years 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

Welcome to 2024! This patch fixes some issues with achievements and extra levels that have cropped up over the Christmas break - and I thought Id throw in a reminder about the New Years Feast level as well, which is now active and playable through until the end of February. Its a little early for Chinese New Year, but we figured we should be early with something for once. [previewyoutube=5Kz-w3A_4k0;full][/previewyoutube]

"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!"

Version 0.320032 Patch Notes

Achievements

• Cramped extra level will no longer trigger 3.2s 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 Years Feast achievements should now register
• 'Full House' counting issue fixed

Other

• Fix for velvet worm attacking itself
• Closed the New Years 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

Hi everyone, get Empires of the Undergrowth for 20% off during the Steam Winter Sale! Command swarms of warriors at an unprecedented scale of warfare. Lead ant colonies against the many fearsome threats of the insect world: Check out this game and Hooded Horse's other published games during the Winter Sale until January 4. [previewyoutube=UhMEkuqT5o0;full][/previewyoutube]

Happy Holidays! From now until January 4th, you can save 20% on Empires of the Undergrowth, and get great deals on all other games published by Hooded Horse during the Steam Winter Sale. With Empires of the Undergrowth's early access journey coming near to an end with v1.0 arriving in 2024, now is a great time to come check the game out!
[previewyoutube=ihLRjXkTQjQ;full][/previewyoutube]

New custom game / freeplay maps! Achievements! New difficulty options! More generous mission rewards! This major update for Empires of the Undergrowth brings in a whole bunch of new stuff, and also puts us in good stead for the final chapter and full release coming in 2024. Thanks so much to everyone whos been helping to test all the additions over the past few weeks. [previewyoutube=Bj0msTbh1JY;full][/previewyoutube]

Headline Features

• New Custom Game Maps! The 2 winners of our summer map design contest have been completed & added to the game, as well as one more
  • Imprisoned, based on a design by - a swampy area that floods & drains, opening up easier access to other resources & colonies
  • Strawclutch, based on a design by Noctazar - tightly-packed nests around central resources in the swamp ensures intense skirmishes with neighbours. Comes with a map option for wider-spaced nest locations
  • Sand Spit - a sandy peninsula designed for a 3v1 setup, where the single colony has an uphill battle ahead of them
• Achievements! There are now over 100 achievements for all aspects of the existing story mode & seasonal levels
• Reworked Difficulty Settings! More resolution in lower difficulty settings with more linear gradation as they increase
  • Easy, Medium, Hard, Extreme & Impossible are the new difficulties, with new Easy a little easier than the old, & Extreme being where old Hard was. Impossible is the new name for what used to be Insane

Other Additions & Changes

Mission Rewards

• Mission rewards increased significantly:
  • Rewards for a repeated play of a mission increased
  • Rewards for playing on higher difficulties increased
  • Consolation rewards for a defeat increased
  • Easy, Medium & Hard - although these difficulties are easier than before they provide the same rewards they used to
  • Extreme - although as difficult as Hard used to be, it will provide the same rewards that Insane did
  • Impossible - although as difficult as Insane used to be, it will provide more rewards than Insane did

Creature Changes

• Pine woods tree frog now climbable
• Uber hermit crab is now climbable
• Uber red velvet ant is now climbable
• Uber mole cricket is now climbable
• Young velvet worm is no longer climbable
• Improvements to climbing points on hermit crabs
• Small harvestmen now become food on death
• Jumping spiders now become food on death
• Ladybirds now become food on death
• Young praying mantis can now only be harvested by 1 ant
• New beach creatures now spawnable in Battle Arena
• Level 3 leafcutter mediae & majors can now remove a phorid fly ever 2 minutes (down from 3)

Custom Game Changes

• Leafcutter colonies in custom games now start with 19 queen tiles, meaning more workers / minims & increased fungus capacity
• Creature resource quantity slider added to freeplay options, allowing players to make creatures in their game drop more or less food if they like
• Restart button added to custom game defeat screen
• When spawning attack waves, freeplay director will now choose larger creatures to spawn if none can be found in the smaller creature options
• AI harvesting process now considers the average of total & ants alive when deciding where to harvest & not just enemy ants alive
• AI colonies on Towhead & Embankment will hide for a time after a flood
• More creatures should spawn at the start of a custom game when using singular spawning
• Environmental enemies ramp up faster in singular spawning (including skirmish)
• Adjustments to nocturnal / diurnal spawn timing in custom games
• Freeplay now starts with a default save name

Graphical Changes

• Default FPS is now set to 60
• Updated beach loading screen to use new assets
• Arcade button graphics updated
• Improvements to the living sea urchin decorative asset
• Seaweed models updated in 2.1 & 2.2
• New hat for the sand bear wolf spider

Localisation

• Many updates & fixes for existing languages
• Support added for the following languages:
  • Hungarian
  • Italian
  • Portuguese
  • Turkish
  • Traditional Chinese
  • Ukrainian

Other Changes

• New early game objectives added to 3.1 The Harvest
• The idea here is that the early objectives act as a mini tutorial, so the player has a good-sized leaf & refuse chamber before encountering the enemy colony. Shouldnt interrupt established gameplay otherwise
• New narrator dialogue added regarding leafcutter refuse storage
• Formicarium Challenges now have names instead of numbers
• Visual pulsing effect when the queen is at low health & has recently taken damage (can be disabled in Advanced Options)
• Minor Improvements can no longer be applied mid-mission
• If a creature cannot transfer to the surface it is now killed instead of just being left underground to try again (for example, when exiting an enemy nest after water has risen)
• Creatures no longer heal in the formicarium after purchasing an ability
• Formicarium Challenge 3 (now called Possibly the Final Experiment):
• Easy difficulty now slightly easier
• Enemy queen no longer has abilities on Normal as well as Easy
• Mole crickets & praying mantises no longer have food reduction on harder difficulties
• Adventure: leafcutter supermajor can no longer climb creatures or carry food
• Extremis: food from killed creatures increased
• Extremis now uses newer ability icons
• The Culling: tripled food from spawned creatures
• The Other Foot:
• More time given on Impossible (previously Insane) difficulty
• Food drops from spawning creatures build up & spawn with the next drop
• The Crucible demo level now has difficulty settings
• Spider levels:
  • Added sound effects to spider abilities
  • Increased healing from Devour by 17%
  • Increased max health gained by Bite level
  • Hungry Spider: reduced uber wolf spiders attack damage (down from 410 to 150)
  • Hungry Spider: added some queen corpses with 60 food each near the uber wolf spider
  • Festive Spider: early game a bit less difficult with more food
  • Festive Spider: waves rebalanced in several spots

Fixes

• Fixed environmental creatures with singular spawning not attacking each other
• Enemy colony health bars are now properly hidden in fog of war
• Adventure-specific UI elements no longer overlap the huge whip spider health bar
• UI elements no longer visible when photo mode is on during a victory animation
• Fixed depth of field for cinematic cameras in several places
• Minor improvements are now applied to fire ants at point of purchase
• Adaptations panel jelly value will now update on purchase of minor improvements
• Formicarium Challenge 4 (The Final Experiment) victory camera positioning fixed
• Fixed some old beach style level tunnel exit to use the old one
• Fixed the wrong loading screen showing in some situations in a custom game
• Fixed some huge creatures & hybrids appearing to resurrect after a formicarium reload
• Fixed long creatures adorably chasing their own tails (sorry!)
• Fixed a crash when colony 2 was empty in a custom game
• Hermit crab shells & spider hats no longer receive decals
• Pressing Esc during difficulty selection will no longer lead to a UI overlap
• Fixed an issue with dragonflies that could cause a slowdown over time
• Fixed a problem in Festive Spider where an upgraded tower could be knocked back
• Fixed a crash when a creature firing a projectile was deleted before the projectile lands

This is very likely to be the final update to the optional beta before we set it live later this week, unless theres something that needs urgent fixing. Please test if you have some time - and thank you to everyone whos been doing that over the last few weeks! A bunch of fixes for some achievement issues that have arisen in testing, and a few other bits and bobs. The achievements should now all be localised for all of our supported languages on Steam, and a Win32 build is now included.

Version 0.320031 Patch Notes

• Fixed the I Love Sashimi achievement - turns out this one was just properly glitched
• Fixed No Entry and The Way Is Shut achievements (bonus point to the first person who tells me the reference)
• No Entry now stops checking once it has been failed, less nagging
• The Free Willis achievement will now say the correct one has succeeded / failed
• Stopped At Arm's Length achievement always succeeding
• Moved an underground food item in 4.1 preventing all food being gathered (relevant for Toad In The Hole achievement)
• Separation Of Duties achievement now checks the ladybird health to make sure it escaped from damage and was not just leaving with an aphid
• Rearranged some other achievement stuff
• Fixed a movement problem for ereptor colonies in a loaded custom game in Imprisoned
• Fixed an issue on Imprisoned where rising / falling water notifications were the wrong way round if saved on the highest or lowest water point
• Fixed an issue on Imprisoned where colonies hiding would not happen on the lowest water level when water is about to rise
• Fixed a rare simultaneous defeat & victory situation in freeplay
• Fixed dwarf salamanders in 4.1 not being properly eaten by the bullfrog
• Fixes for AI colony hiding process

Finally, doing the achievements in the beta will count on Steam! The 100+ new chieves have been properly hooked up into Steams systems and will now register permanently if you get them during the optional beta. Remember: Steam achievements are permanent and cannot be reset once accomplished. If youre not participating in the beta yet and would like to, please see the initial post for instructions on how to join: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/463530/view/6939545579750168983

Changes

• New achievements will now be registered on Steam! Theyll need to be repeated if youve done them in the optional beta already
• All achievements now have lovely new square icons
• Extremis now uses newer ability icons
• Singular enemy spawning in freeplay increased when day / night cycle is disabled
• Level 3 leafcutter mediae & majors can now remove a phorid fly ever 2 minutes (down from 3)
• Several changes to Festive Spider:
  • Early game a bit less difficult with more food
  • Waves rebalanced in several spots

Fixes

• Fixed a bunch of achievements that werent triggering properly
• Fixed a problem in Festive Spider where an upgraded tower could be knocked back
• Moved some food in demo level The Nest to keep it out of a cavern wall
• Imprisoned leafcutter plant spawns repositioned to ensure full leaf access
• Minor improvements are now applied to fire ants at point of purchase
• Adaptations panel jelly value will now update on purchase of minor improvements
• Larger velvet worms can now be climbed properly
• Fixed a crash that could occur when a creature firing a projectile was deleted before the projectile lands
• Imprisoned now uses a different UI timer to prevent interference with other timers

Vlog 8 is here, and it's been increasingly clear to us over the past several months that we're finally approaching the full release goal for Empires of the Undergrowth. The long road of early access is drawing to a close, and release plans are being worked on. We will be releasing the game fully during 2024. [previewyoutube=e8joCmJMFKY;full][vlog][/previewyoutube] This vlog goes into a bit of detail about where we are with it, and while we're not ready to commit to an exact date (and never will do unless we're sure we can meet it) I hope you can gather from my enthusiasm that it really is a-comin'. Current roadmap (published November 2023):

Another few fixes for the latest optional beta update!

V0.320022 Patch Notes

Fixes

• Fixed an AI base building issue in Imprisoned
• Gave wolf spiderling the frog hat
• Fixed a rendering issue with level 2 tiles that receive -2 refuse debuff
• Fixed an issue with the effect of refuse tiles on upgrade points at distance -1
• Fixed an issue where leafcutter initial resources were deleted on saving & loading if there were no non-leafcutter colonies in the game
• Fixed an issue on Imprisoned where creatures on islands without a colony on them could fail to spawn
• Fixed ants being stuck in certain situations
• Fixed several aphid issues
• Sand Spit now displays its map info when loading a custom game

Changes

• If a creature cannot transfer to the surface it is now killed instead of just being left underground to try again (for example, when exiting an enemy nest after water has risen)
• Updated localisations

An update to the optional beta has been released. There's an experimental change to leafcutters in custom games in this one: potentially very game-changing and will need a lot of testing! To test out this substantial change, start a fresh custom game. Remember that it's experimental and subject to change.

V0.320021 Patch Notes

• Leafcutter colonies in custom games now start with 2 rings of queen tiles, meaning 19 starting workers / minims & increased fungus capacity
• Fixed an issue where saving & loading would cause all tunnel exits to be set to the same one if using the alternative exits in Strawclutch
• Added translator credits

A whole bunch of fixes and changes in this latest iteration of the currently running optional beta, including some experimental surface tunnel options for Strawclutch. If youre not participating yet and would like to, then please see here for details on how to join.

V 0.32002 Patch Notes

Changes

PLEASE NOTE: youll need to start a new game on Strawclutch or Imprisoned to notice most of these changes - so do that!

• Strawclutch:
  • Alternative surface tunnel locations can be chosen with the map option in the freeplay menu - this is experimental, so wed like some feedback on this. Itll significantly change the way Strawclutch plays. Is random in skirmish
  • Added in some food items to show the shape of the cavern in front of the nest exit
  • Adjusted positions of aphid plants
  • Player is no longer blocked by an enemy when tunnelling to the surface
• Imprisoned:
  • Water level change timings changed
  • Rising water no longer destroy resources it touches
  • Additional surface resources added
  • Dragonflies will now land on either side of the islands they inhabit
  • Dragonflies will no longer land if they are unable to reach their target after landing
  • AI colonies will now hide before water rises
  • Repositioned caterpillar plants
• AI colonies on Towhead & Embankment will hide for a time after a flood
• AI colonies & creature swarms attempting to invade a nest do extra checks for a valid path
• AI colonies stealing aphids now do more checks to make sure theyre reachable
• Significantly more creatures should spawn at the start of a custom game when using singular spawning (including skirmish)
• Environmental enemies ramp up faster in singular spawning (including skirmish)
• Adjustments to nocturnal / diurnal spawn timing in custom games
• Remaining translations for this patch added

Fixes

• Fixed environmental creatures with singular spawning not attacking each other
• Strawclutch & Imprisoned now default to swamp creatures for map appropriate choice
• Fixed weird pathing issue in Strawclutch underground
• Fixed an issue where praying mantises on patrols might not despawn
• Fixed the initial creatures in pack spawning not appearing
• Fixed enemy counting for objective in The Crucible
• Fixed camera focus issues in Strawclutch & Imprisoned
• Fixed an issue killing dragonflies when loaded too high off the ground
• Fixed an issue with dragonflies that could cause a slowdown over time
• Fixed AI digging issues in Imprisoned
• Fixed some missing grass textures

From now until December 13th, you can save 20% on Empires of the Undergrowth. Come check the game out! [previewyoutube=WHFamaHashM;full][/previewyoutube] https://store.steampowered.com/app/463530/Empires_of_the_Undergrowth/

With the start of the Autumn Sale, nominations for this years Steam Awards are underway and wed like to ask for your support by nominating Empires of the Undergrowth for the Labor of Love Award.
In the years since Early Access release, weve continued to improve Empires of the Undergrowth with huge, game-expanding updates - but were not done yet. We know all too well that our tiny team takes their time on the major updates, but we do that in the name of quality - and your kindness in supporting that allows us to take a considered approach. We couldnt be more grateful, so this isnt just our labor of love - its yours too! Over the past year, weve been working on the following:

• A whole bunch of changes to custom games, including Skirmish - a new way to play freeplay maps.
• More up-to-date artwork for the beach and rotting log levels, bringing them in line with the visual fidelity of the more recent parts of the game - our aim is not just to finish the game, but have it be at its best possible quality too.
• Extended the climbing system to many more creatures in the game, really helping us settle into the skin-crawling feeling of ants crawling over everything!
• Working towards completing the systems and artwork for our final release, tier 5 which will feature 3 new campaign levels set in an as-yet unrevealed location. Then a final climactic formicarium challenge which the scientist has been preparing your colony for!
• Bug fixes (ha!)
• And many more updates!

With the start of the Autumn Sale, nominations for this years Steam Awards are underway and wed like to ask for your support by nominating Empires of the Undergrowth for the Labor of Love Award.
In the years since Early Access release, weve continued to improve Empires of the Undergrowth with huge, game-expanding updates - but were not done yet. We know all too well that our tiny team takes their time on the major updates, but we do that in the name of quality - and your kindness in supporting that allows us to take a considered approach. We couldnt be more grateful, so this isnt just our labor of love - its yours too! Over the past year, weve been working on the following:

• A whole bunch of changes to custom games, including Skirmish - a new way to play freeplay maps.
• More up-to-date artwork for the beach and rotting log levels, bringing them in line with the visual fidelity of the more recent parts of the game - our aim is not just to finish the game, but have it be at its best possible quality too.
• Extended the climbing system to many more creatures in the game, really helping us settle into the skin-crawling feeling of ants crawling over everything!
• Working towards completing the systems and artwork for our final release, tier 5 which will feature 3 new campaign levels set in an as-yet unrevealed location. Then a final climactic formicarium challenge which the scientist has been preparing your colony for!
• Bug fixes (ha!)
• And many more updates!

Weve fixed and changed a few things in our ongoing optional beta - if you arent participating yet and would like to, see the previous post for details on how to join.

V 0.32001 Patch Notes

Fixes

• 3.1 Hard achievement now correctly says Boundary Dispute rather than Shoot the Messenger
• 2.1 Extreme with challenge mode will now spawn tiger beetle larvae
• 3.2 Sitting Ducks achievement now only fails if an ant tile is upgraded to 3, not any tile
• Formicarium Challenge 3 Extreme difficulty now possible
• Fixed uber praying mantis, spiny devil and whip spider not being climbable
• Fixed an AI chamber building issue in Sand Spit
• Fixed an AI construction layout issue in Imprisoned
• Fixed amphibians using their swim animation underground
• Removed a floating seed in Strawclutch
• Pressing Esc during difficulty selection will no longer lead to a UI overlap
• Small beach wolf spider given correct hat

Changes

• Formicarium Challenge 3:
  • Easy difficulty now slightly easier
  • Enemy queen no longer has abilities on Normal as well as Easy
  • Mole crickets and praying mantises no longer have food reduction on harder difficulties
• Tooltips on freeplay sliders will now appear faster
• Uber mole cricket now climbable
• Added latest localisations
• Added some decorative rocks to Imprisoned

Known Issues

• Ghost hybrids from older saves
• Enemies stuck in nest entrances on Sand Spit
• Something activating random caverns in freeplay
• Issues with dragonfly landing and dying on Imprisoned
• Wrong rewards displayed on easy in FC1 and FC2

With the start of the Autumn Sale, nominations for this years Steam Awards are underway and wed like to ask for your support by nominating Empires of the Undergrowth for the Labor of Love Award.
In the years since Early Access release, weve continued to improve Empires of the Undergrowth with huge, game-expanding updates - but were not done yet. We know all too well that our tiny team takes their time on the major updates, but we do that in the name of quality - and your kindness in supporting that allows us to take a considered approach. We couldnt be more grateful, so this isnt just our labor of love - its yours too! Over the past year, weve been working on the following:

• A whole bunch of changes to custom games, including Skirmish - a new way to play freeplay maps.
• More up-to-date artwork for the beach and rotting log levels, bringing them in line with the visual fidelity of the more recent parts of the game - our aim is not just to finish the game, but have it be at its best possible quality too.
• Extended the climbing system to many more creatures in the game, really helping us settle into the skin-crawling feeling of ants crawling over everything!
• Working towards completing the systems and artwork for our final release, tier 5 which will feature 3 new campaign levels set in an as-yet unrevealed location. Then a final climactic formicarium challenge which the scientist has been preparing your colony for!
• Bug fixes (ha!)
• And many more updates!

New custom game / freeplay maps! Achievements! New difficulty options! More generous mission rewards! Were close to pushing a large update, and were now at a point where were inviting anyone whod like to test it a bit to do so. We are adding over 100 achievements to the game in this build - but PLEASE NOTE, if you accomplish them in this test build they will not activate on Steam during the beta. You can use the in-game achievement tracker and victory screens to determine if youve accomplished an achievement goal, and wed very much appreciate feedback on any problems with them. We are after feedback on all manner of issues that may occur, focusing on glitches, crashes, and balance. Any and all feedback on this optional beta is very much appreciated - please post it to the community discussions! As ever, thanks so much to our closed testing focus group who have been providing feedback to get this patch to this point. Lets go over a few things related to these optional betas for people who havent participated in them before. Firstly, please note: optional betas are limited to the Steam Windows 64 bit build, and may be missing localisations in some newer or updates areas.

WARNING: YOU ARE STRONGLY ADVISED TO MAKE A SAVE BACKUP

Code: mapsandachievements

This will be the last newsletter of 2023, with one more vlog to come in December. 2023 has been a formative year for Empires of the Undergrowth with the freeplay / custom game mode being brought much closer to its final form, and the bulk of the systems and level work on the final stages of the game being done.
Fire ants in the swamp from Solstitium on our Discord The end is, finally, in sight but theres still a stretch to go. To that end, the main feature of this newsletter is an updated roadmap that might take us all the way to release (well have to see how things go!). Well spend the majority of our word allowance going over that.

Updated Roadmap

New Achievements

New Custom Game Maps

Strawclutch

Imprisoned

New Years Feast Updates

Further Custom Game AI Changes

Tier 4 Challenge Mode

Fire Ant Bridging

New Extra Levels / Custom Game maps

Version 1.0

Screenshot Central

For those of you who have joined us since last time, welcome to our infamously difficult Halloween level, which will earn its conquerors the rarest achievement in Empires of the Undergrowth. To celebrate this time around we've made an updated 4k trailer with the newer environment artwork. Enjoy! [previewyoutube=ENeIl3JvsB8;full][/previewyoutube] The Hungry Spider's cobweb appears around Halloween and on full moons, and he's absolutely ravenous. Help him grow and defeat his enemies in a gluttonous fury as he stalks a web-shaped map. His hunger causes him to constantly lose health - quickly unlocking the 'devour' ability is paramount as it'll keep him alive. Take down bigger and stronger prey, upgrading his abilities as you go. We find this level just as tough as everyone else does - and in fact our very own community manager Mike likes to attempt this level once a year on stream, and this year he's upping the stakes by bringing a ridiculously spicy challenge into the mix. At 10pm UK time, on Saturday 28th October, join him on YouTube for this year's attempt.

It's the 1 year anniversary of the Slug Disco vlog! In this episode, Mike talks about the Empires of the Undergrowth map contest results, progress on tier 5, achievements, roadmaps, and a probably stupid idea he had for his yearly attempt at EotU's Hungry Spider level. The brutally difficult Hungry Spider will be returning, by the way, on October 25th. As is usually the case, this is also a general Slug Disco vlog with mentions of the rest of our publishing charges - if you'd like to skip these and go directly to the EotU good stuff, skip to time code 2.29. [previewyoutube=hjDNxy1FKCI;full][/previewyoutube] Get the video to 500 likes to make Mike suffer, if he fails at Hungry Spider again!

Hi everyone! Empires of the Undergrowth and other games published by Hooded Horse are all featured at the Hooded Horse Publisher Sale. Come check it out! Hooded Horse Strategy Publisher Sale [previewyoutube=bwcg7R7QfIE;full][/previewyoutube]

Welcome to September, the worst month of the year (or so I'm told). I'll do my best to ensure you don't have to listen to Green Day on repeat to get through it, with some lovely news about achievements, map contests and difficulty changes coming to Empires of the Undergrowth. If you think that'd cheer you up, read on.
Leafcutter ants swarm over a huge whip spider in this shot from Steam user Bananta As the art team and two out of three of our devs press forward with tier 5 work, one of our devs has been making changes to the difficulty options to Empires of the Undergrowth which were detailed in the most recent vlog last month. Before we get onto all the ins and outs of that, let's talk about the recent map contest!

Map Contest

Difficulty Changes

Achievements - Nearly There!

Tier 5 Progress

Gamescom

Tokyo Game Show

Screenshot Central

From now until September 4, you can save 20% on Empires of the Undergrowth at the Steam Strategy Fest. Come check the game out! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHFamaHashM https://store.steampowered.com/app/463530/Empires_of_the_Undergrowth/

In Slug Disco Vlog 6, Mike goes over changes to the difficulty settings for EotU and also the map contest that is currently running. We're expanding difficulty to have 5 options instead of 4, with better gradiation between the lower ones - this should help people who want to step up or down to a different difficulty get a better feel for that. Except for the most difficult, of course, now renamed to 'Impossible'. That's just as punishing a challenge as it ever was! Dan also gives a brief update about 3 of our other publishing projects - if you want to skip the section about the other 3 games and get straight to the EotU content, the timecode is 1.44. [previewyoutube=zBBYukekqrI;full][/previewyoutube]

Thank you everyone who has supported, tested and played the recent release! We're very happy with the reception, and it sets us in good stead to press forward to the completion of the campaign. There are some issues that have cropped up, and those are at the forefront of the next patch that is likely to come in a few weeks, along with some other stuff.
A six-spotted tiger beetle swarmed by fire ants by Gimpsimian on our Discord This newsletter will mainly concentrate on what you can expect from that next patch, and what is more likely to trickle in over some smaller patches afterwards. The team is very keen to press forward with completing tier 5 now, so that is their primary focus - but there are some other things that will be coming very soon.

The 0.31 Update

Further AI Improvements

Coming Soon

Achievements

Some Naughty Some Nice - beat the Christmas spider level with at least half the gifts remaining under the tree.

Toad In The Hole - tunnel out all underground food by the second night and beat the level on hard difficulty.

Freeplay Maps

Sand Spit

Not Coming Immediately - Tier 4 Challenge

SimFest 2023

Gamescom 2023

Screenshot Central

Empires of the Undergrowth is featured on the front page of Steam today, with its first ever 20% off sale. The discount will run until July 29th. Come check it out! https://store.steampowered.com/app/463530/Empires_of_the_Undergrowth/

It's time for a big overhaul of freeplay, a whole bunch of new art, and a campaign rebalance! Welcome to Empires of the Undergrowth version 0.31, and thank you to everyone who has helped test it for the past week and the focus group who have been on it for the past month or so. Watch the video for a breakdown of the major new features! [previewyoutube=4xT3aETtJow;full][/previewyoutube] This is part 1 of the update - we are immediately launching into finishing work on part 2, and now that everything is in place and working, we can work on improvement and tweaking. So, once you've given it a spin, head on over to the discussions and let us know what you think could be done to improve the AI and balance of the custom games in general.

Patch Notes - July 14th 2023

Headline Features

• Smarter AI - much cleverer freeplay colonies, with a new modular AI system
• Freer Freeplay - new freeplay features, new uber creatures!
• Skirmish Mode - quick-to-setup game vs AI colonies based on freeplay
• Prettier Artwork - for beach story & freeplay levels, & some creatures!
• Campaign Balance - the campaign has been rebalanced with many changes
• Mount Your Enemies - many more enemy creatures can now be climbed by your ants!

Freeplay / Custom Game

• Freeplay now lives in the Custom Game menu with the new Skirmish setup mode.
• Freeplay AI completely reworked
  • Much more intelligent building & food collection priority
  • Assists allies under attack & plan coordinated attacks
  • Guards resources, steals aphids, harrasses opponents
  • Nest designs tailored to species & room location
  • New build priority system for different species
  • Build orders adapt to storage & battle needs
  • Will hide from rising water on applicable maps
  • Customisable temperament & reactions
• Streamlined setup mode called Skirmish
  • Quick battle setup vs computer-controlled colonies
  • Emphasises colony vs colony combat with conquest victory condition
  • Preset landmarks & creature spawns
  • Generally shorter form games
• New landmarks
  • Huge creatures (whip spider, great blue skimmer or bullfrog)
  • Caterpillar plants
  • Relocatable aphid plants (rosemary in beach levels, fewflower milkweed otherwise)
  • Carnivorous plants
• New uber creatures
  • Bombardier beetle
  • Red velvet ant
  • Eastern newt
  • Narrow-mouthed toad
• Beach tiger beetle & beach wolf spider are now custom game / extra level only creatures
• The above have had stats & abilities changed to differentiate them from the new campaign creatures taking their place (see below)
• Freeplay can optionally use the fixed landmarks from Skirmish
• Freeplay now has the option of spawning environmental creatures with roaming patrol routes

Story Campaign

• Food has been added into both levels
• 1.2 slave maker attacks will now have level 2 & 3 ants amongst them
• 1.2 slave maker attacks will get harder more rapidly on hard & insane
• Challenge mode cricket attacks will be more frequent on harder difficulties
• Funnel web spiders now become food items rather than harvestable corpses on death
• Enemies in top-left of 1.2 will now attack the queen on being unearthed

• More food added to the undergrounds of both levels
• Has higher level enemy ants on the map & in attack waves
• Notification about creature mounting moved to 2.1
• 2.1 underground caverns added
• 2.1 has more daytime surface food
• 2.1 has a new food arrival event with new narrator dialogue
• 2.2 aphids now produce food throughout the night
• Melee wood ants speed increased to 320 up from 300
• Melee wood ants given 30% AoE resistance
• Reduced number of challenge mode beetle larvae in some areas
• Creature changes
• Beach tiger beetle replaced with northern dune tiger beetle (same stats as old beach tiger beetle)
• Beach wolf spider replaced with sand bear wolf spider (same stats as old beach wolf spider)
• Larger variant of hermit crab added

• Level 2 & 3 huge whip spider added for hard & insane in 3.2
• Significantly increased health of huge whip spider
• Huge whip spider now has a health bar like the bullfrog & great blue skimmer

• Aggressive creatures now drop a little more food
• Pervasive fire ant free hatch timer improved to 1m30s (from 1m40s)

Artwork Changes

• New decorative beach assets: rippling beach sand, flowering bindweed, samphire plants, water weeds, limpets, scallop shells, sea-smoothed rocks, sea urchins
• New artwork for the 2 replacement beach creatures: northern dune tiger beetle & sand bear wolf spider
• New model for black ant queen
• New water look for beach levels

Enemy Climbing / Mounting

Extra Levels & Festive Levels

• Food has been added into most extra levels in line with the food value changes
• The Hungry Spider now has 80% thorns resistance
• Aggrandise
  • Different levels of huge whip spider final boss added depending on difficulty
  • Removed extra whip spider juveniles from the final boss
  • Fish no longer loses resources on harder difficulties
  • Huge whip spider will no longer ignore players ants on the way to the queen

Other Changes

• Realistic Mode removed & replaced with Advanced Options for control of individual things it did
• Seasonal costumes option added in Advanced Options to allow them to be disabled
• Point values have been reassessed & updated (this affects enemy creature spawning & score)
• User interface updated in multiple places (adaptations, level select, options menu, achievements) to use up more screen space & allow more space for language & UI scaling
• UI scaling slider added to the menu to allow manual increasing of UI scale (good for handhelds & TVs)
• Updated harvesting spots on some dead creatures so no more ants are harvesting than there is food available
• Minor performance improvements & reduction of visual artefacts on resources
• Changed the Battle Arena tile set to the new beach one
• Localisation additions & changes
• Updated enemy mounting button icon
• Tooltips will now show when the game is paused

Fixes

• Fixed some visual effects remaining on creatures after death
• Fixed an issue where attack points could sometimes be unreachable causing attacker to wait on the floor by them
• Uber velvet worm can now be harvested by 8 ants at a time
• 1.1 & 1.2 player colony now black in colour
• Fixed an issue in Tug Of War 2 that would lead to the enemy colony spawning black ants
• Decals now correctly delete when a tile is downgraded or deleted
• Fixed an issue where ants would not rotate for a short while after collecting a queen egg
• Fixed an issue where ladybirds may not land if they are not being observed by the player (quantum ladybird wave function now collapsed)
• Fixed an issue where loaded eggs would only appear after the game had started
• Fixed a pontoon construction point in 4.2
• Numerous text & AI scaling fixes
• Matched the colour select UI more closely to the in-game colours
• Queens will no longer perform pain animation on loading
• Salamanders & newts will still be rendered when just off-screen
• Aura effects should display better on inclined surfaces
• Lynx spider should no longer do its climbing animation when walking
• Fixed a wood ant firing sound issue

Known Issues

• There are some localisation issues causing problems with custom game setup. We intend to fix this as soon as possible.
• There are still some crashes being reported, but we don't have enough to pin down causes. If you experience a crash, please manually email the 3 crash files as attachments to us. Instructions on how to do this are in this thread on Steam. This needs to be done for us to see what's happening - hitting "send and close" on the crash dialogue doesn't work.
• Some extra levels are unbalanced, and The Other Foot in particular might not be winnable on higher difficulties. It is possible to beat the level on easy, so if you want the reward before we can fix the level then we suggest playing on easy.
• The Besieged victory condition in freeplay currently has very weak or empty early waves until the difficulty increases. Until we patch this, it can be avoided by playing with environmental difficulty set to insane.

Further Balance

• Whilst the new freeplay AI is in place and working, it is not yet as optimised as it could be. The system is very easily tweaked, however, so we'd love to hear your suggestions for it - please post on the forums.
• Similarly, freeplay creature statistics are now divorced from the campaign and can be tweaked without altering the difficulty of a story level. If you have ideas for making creature stats and abilities more balanced, let us know. This applies to both colony ants and environmental creatures.

Optional beta V0.31005 is out. Unless theres something catastrophically wrong with it, this is likely to be the final patch before we set the update live for everyone, but please dont stop giving feedback on bugs and balance! If you haven't taken part in this beta yet and would like to, follow the instructions in the original post. Once it goes public, we will be working hard on part 2 of this large update and implementing more changes, with a particular view to improving the AI further and fine-tuning freeplay / skirmish balance. Might even chuck in a new freeplay map or two whilst were at it.

Fixes

• Fixed uber mole crickets giving no food on death
• Fixed a crash related to AI processes
• Fixed a common custom game crash
• Custom game creatures with a UI health bar will always display it when taking damage from the player, and not from other colonies
• Fixed lingering status visual effects in Battle Arena
• Beach asset graphical fixes
• Root aphid graphical fixes
• Rearranged some leaves in Embankment

Additions & Changes

• Added samphire plants to 2.x & The Dunes
• 1v1 custom games will now always be on opposite sides of the map
• Updated Basin tunnel exits to be from the Ecuador art set
• Updated 1.x, 2.x & wood ant variant video thumbnails
• Seasonal levels back to their regular scheduling

Optional beta V0.310046 is out. If you're not participating in the optional beta yet and would like to, follow the instructions in the original post!

Fixes

• Fixed northern dune tiger beetles spawning as allied to the player
• Fixed destructible barriers not sinking into the ground
• Fixed destructible barriers disappearing on load
• Fixed aphids staying when their plant is deleted
• Woodlice and woodworm will no longer invade nests
• Fixed defeated colonies in a custom game not dropping the resource type of the colony that dealt the killing blow
• AI nest entrance digging will now save and load correctly
• Creatures will now continue to spawn if day/night cycle is disabled
• Carnivorous plant landmarks no longer count towards max number of landmark spawns
• Fixed a broken patrol route in The Dunes

Changes

• Uber red velvet ant poisonous thorns reduced to 40% damage (down from 60%)
• Text will auto-wrap on all play menu buttons to help with overlapping issues in Russian & Spanish

Optional beta V0.310045 is out now.

IMPORTANT! Start a new freeplay save & do not play older ones

Fixes

• All new uber creatures now have 8 harvesting spots
• AI colonies will no longer steal aphids from the player if they are allied to them
• Landmarks will no longer spawn in weird places like underground
• Caterpillar & aphid plants will remove resident caterpillars & aphids when deleted
• Fixed simultaneous winning & losing in a custom game (Linning? Wosing?)
• More sensible handling of landmark spawning & deletion
• Basin barrier invisibility issue fixed

AI Colony Changes

• AI colonies prioritise food storage higher when space is low
• Will emphasise food storage near the start of a game
• Queen workers will not leave the nest in mature colonies
• Leafcutters wont build ant tiles other than workers until their first chamber is completed

If you're not participating in the optional beta yet and would like to, see the original post for details on how to participate. Thanks for the feedback on the optional beta! Our Discord server has been a particularly active hive of activity over the last several hours since it was released, and we thoroughly encourage you to join - the devs are currently very active there, responding to bug reports and collating feedback. Theyre friendly devs, too, as long as John has had his 7 hours of sleep! Weve addressed some of the more pressing issues that have cropped up in this patch (V0.310044) - this is the first of what we anticipate to be several patches during the testing period. The most urgent fix here is a translation problem that was causing large issues with freeplay setup in non-English languages. Again, the reports are very much appreciated. These optional betas are vital to catching issues that need a much bigger sample size than we can manage with internal quality control and the small focus group - were so glad youre choosing to be a part of it!

Fixes

• Fixed translation issue affecting freeplay setup in several ways
• Large tiger beetle defeat line restored in 2.1
• Fixed an issue preventing creatures from fighting among [strike]us[/strike] themselves
• Woodlice and woodworm should no longer appear in attack waves (terrifying though they were)
• Fixed overlapping issue on level select screen
• Disable Colony Attacks button should now work as intended
• Reordered some landmark spawning on game begin / load
• Fixes for some loading & saving crashes

Changes

• Remastered beach underground applied to the first formicarium
• 2.2s escaping queens can no longer be picked up by tiger beetle larvae

A large update is imminent - large enough that were running an optional beta to test it out before we make it permanent. Theres a complete reworking of the freeplay / custom game mode AI, a new streamlined setup mode called Skirmish, major rebalances for the campaign, a big extension to the enemy mounting system, and lots of new artwork to replace older assets. We are after feedback on all manner of things in this very extensive update, mainly focusing on glitches that crop up, crashes, and balance. Any and all feedback on this optional beta is very much appreciated - please post it to the community discussions! Thanks so much to our focus group who have been providing feedback to get this patch to this point. Please note that optional betas are only accessible on the Steam Windows 64 bit build. WARNING: This beta changes many things about freeplay mode, including how it is saved! Old freeplay saves will no longer be loadable. IT IS STRONGLY ADVISED TO MAKE A SAVE BACKUP: 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.

Code: newbeachtesters

[previewyoutube=UvPU0OwS59o;full][/previewyoutube] Vlog 5 talks mainly about the planned summer update for Empires of the Undergrowth - balance changes to the campaign, new uber creatures, new artwork and more. We also check in on Dan P with some updates to Horticular, Adapt and Ecosystem coming in the near future (other games published by Slug Disco) - if you want to skip that and get straight to the EotU stuff, the timecode is 4:54.

We've had the last of our extra levels in the 'sequel season', so it's time to re-evaluate the road ahead with an updated map. The compressed parts of the previous one are fast approaching, so we can 'zoom in' on that part of it, as it were, to give a bit more detail. Most of this newsletter will deal with breaking down what'll be arriving in the near future.
A bombardier beetle attacks fire ants from NappyB on our Discord We also have some business news - we've joined with indie publishers Hooded Horse to publish Empires of the Undergrowth! There are also some real-world events we'll be attending soon. More on that later - first and foremost, let's get the new roadmap up and talk through it in order.

New Roadmap

The End of Sequel Season

Campaign Balance Pass & Level Changes

Beach Creature Changes

UI & Quality-of-Life Changes

Art Asset Changes

Freeplay AI

New Freeplay Landmarks & Options

The True Interim Update

Version 1.0 - New Game Plus

• Upon completing the campaign, youll have the option of converting a save to New Game Plus
• That process will be similar to rehousing the colony in the campaign in terms of lost resources and gained royal jelly
• All levels will be significantly harder
• All ants will be unlockable from the start with your stash of jelly, including the bonus species (bullet ants)
• Queen upgrades, species-specific upgrade and minor improvements will all be active in documentary campaign missions in New Game Plus mode to counteract the increased difficulty
• The mode can be completed again, in New Game Mode +2, 3, etc to an as-yet undefined limit

Hooded Horse

ANTCON & Gamescom

Screenshot Central

The Culling 2 - the final level in the 'sequel season' series - is out now in Extra Levels! [previewyoutube=NQMPgGBDUTA;full][/previewyoutube] Take command of big-headed ants (Pheidole morrisii) in their first stand-alone level. In The Culling 2, your colony must survive for six nights in the swamp, whilst packs of hostile creatures invade as darkness falls. They will build up over time, eventually becoming overwhelming - even for the best-prepared colonies. Your hope lies in controlling the amount of enemies before they become insurmountable. Cull their numbers during the day, whilst gathering food to last out the night. Mighty big-headed supersoldiers will help you hold the lines as they charge and crush their enemies with a single bite. We hope you've enjoyed extra level sequel season! We'll be taking a break from extra levels for a while, as we're concentrating on the freeplay and tier 5 updates for the timebeing.

Hi all, In the next few days we will making some adjustments to the regional pricing of Empires of the Undergrowth. The USD price of the game is staying the same at $19.99, and the Euro price will remain 19.99 also. The regional discounts in some other currencies will be reduced to become closer to the USD & Euro price. We thought we should give a heads-up so that anyone who's been waiting to pull the trigger before the regional changes come into effect can make an informed decision. The change will likely occur on Monday 1st May.

With the Earth Appreciation Festival in full swing, we thought it'd be a good time to do a short livestream of Empires of the Undergrowth! Community manager Mike will be playing one of the more recently added campaign levels (4.1 'Cold Blood') for the occasion. Please join in, and ask any questions you like! [previewyoutube=QfV_RIE7Ffg;full][/previewyoutube]

The Earth Appreciation Festival is now live on Steam! Slug Disco is a co-organiser of the event this year, along with Mechanistry and Straw Fawn. Empires of the Undergrowth is 10% off in this festival of games that highlight the wonders of nature (such as EotU, Timberborn and Wandering Village) as well as games that deal with human-made issues, such as Frostpunk, Deponia and This War of Mine.
Slug Disco and Hooded Horse will be donating 10% of revenue generated by Empires of the Undergrowth during the event to Buglife, a UK-based invertebrate conservation charity that is very close to our hearts. Invertebrates represent a fundamental part of the ecosystem, and we're very happy to be supporting a charity that works towards their conservation. We'll check in again a little later in the week with the Earth Appreciation Festival to see how things are going, perhaps with a little round-up video - see you then!

Challenge mode, and game plus, and new artwork, oh my! After going over some in-person events that have happened recently for a couple of Slug Disco's other publishing projects and an important business move, Mike breaks down recent progress for Empires of the Undergrowth - including the long-anticipated challenge mode for tier 4, and plans for the post-campaign game plus mode coming along with tier 5. To skip the Slug Disco news and get directly to the Empires of the Undergrowth goodness, start the video at 03:11. [previewyoutube=cdkz5PqfN28;full][/previewyoutube]

The penultimate level in our Sequel Season is here - the short-form extra level Enemy of my Enemy 2 puts your queen in the middle of a map, surrounded by hostile creatures. All of them must be eliminated to win, but only a small garrison of Royal Guard ants protects the queen. [previewyoutube=5SK4Kn1cuLE;full][/previewyoutube] You can't build brood chambers, but you can dig with your mouse. Thankfully, the enemy packs are hostile to one another - and therein lies the key to victory. Tunnel them out strategically, forcing them to encounter one another before reaching the queen. We think this level will probably benefit from another balance pass in the future due to it being too difficult, but we aren't quite in a position to make a new build of the game for it just yet due to our current work on the campaign and freeplay changes. For now, it will remain an extremely difficult extra level (almost certainly the most difficult, particularly on insane difficulty) but we are curious to see if a meta arises that can reliably beat it before we make any changes! Extra levels don't take us very long to develop - they're there to give everyone some extra time in the Undergrowth whilst we work on the really big stuff!

We're entering a stage of development where we're making some pretty fundamental changes to both the campaign and freeplay mode, in order to get them closer to their final implementation when the game leaves early access. That's been the priority for our devs in the past few weeks - and we'll detail some of the changes that are coming in this newsletter.
A fire ant about to be entangled from NappyB On the graphical side of things, there's a new Formica fusca queen model on the way and a change to two of the beach creatures for geographical consistency. We've also been finalising work for the visual improvement of the beach levels. Whilst we're not ready to show that in all its glory we will go through some of the new things that will be making the beach even beach-ier than it was before. A little later this month we'll have the penultimate extra level in the Sequel Season appearing. Once again, the enemy of your enemy is your friend. Well, not quite your friend, it'll attack you, too - but you get the idea. Finally, in late February I sat our 3 devs down to confront them with the harsh reality that some people don't like their game. This was a giggle, and all in good fun - see the results later!

Campaign Balance Updates

Freeplay Changes

New Creature Artwork

Beach Decoration

Enemy of my Enemy 2

Reacting to Mean Comments

Screenshot Central

Our third company vlog is out now, and there's a few juicy details in the Empires of the Undergrowth section. Our creature artist Matt has made a new Formica fusca queen model, and there's some details about upcoming extra levels and large changes to freeplay coming in a major update a bit further down the line. If you'd like to skip to the meaty EotU content, then the time code is 6:18. [previewyoutube=b9Sf5x7CIbM;full][/previewyoutube] Slug Disco publishes several other games other than EotU (but we only develop EotU), and the start of the vlog deals with these as well as some general company updates first.

The Empires of the Undergrowth auto-battler mode is back with a new level. Tug of War 2 continues our Sequel Season of extra levels - with a new set of ants to use, and a whole different set of enemy builds to fight against. Tug of War 2 is a short-form level versus an AI opponent. Army composition is everything in this auto-battler game mode. You do not control your ants directly - they will all hatch together, in waves, and immediately rush to take down the enemy queen - but your opponent has the same goal. Resources are given at regular intervals, and you'll have to make every seed count. You don't want to be playing catch-up - fall too far behind and you'll quickly find yourself overwhelmed. [previewyoutube=5LAWGR8SUzc;full][/previewyoutube] Extra levels are relatively easily-made content (since they re-use existing assets and systems) that we spend a little of our dev time on whilst we work on the much bigger stuff. We always have fun making them, and we're currently in the midst of Sequel Season - follow-ups to previous extra levels, playing on their ideas in a slightly different way. In other development news, we've made an update to the black ant (Formica fusca) model which will be rolling out with the next update, made some sensible changes to menu options, as well as made large strides towards getting the improved colony AI from the 4.x levels compatible with freeplay. In the next week or so there will be a vlog detailing these developments and more!

Theres a new seasonal level, New Years Feast, and its available now with the latest patch! We like to break from reality with our extra and seasonal levels, and weve had a lot of fun making this one. Play it by clicking on the lantern that has appeared in the main menu. [previewyoutube=5Kz-w3A_4k0;full][/previewyoutube] Its almost time for Lunar New Year, and the fire ant queen is making her famous New Year's Eve hotpot for her family and friends. However, in the chaos of the party preparations, her daughters have forgotten to forage for the ingredients for the broth. Help them find the correct spices in time for dinner, whilst making liberal use of festive firecrackers to clear enemies and shorten your path. Its not just a fire ant level, though - this New Years party has many guests who have gotten lost in the undergrowth. Rescue them from peril and bring them home safely - to show their gratitude, theyll add their species to your colony! This is a very special seasonal level and we cant wait for you to have a go - so jump right in! There are a bunch of other fixes and changes that also arrive with this patch, so lets break down the full patch notes.

V0.30215 Patch Notes

Headline Feature - New Years Feast

• Help the fire ant queen gather ingredients for her New Years hotpot
• Theres an explosive accompaniment to go along with the broth
• Rescue friendly ants to add their species to your colony
• New artwork & music set the tone of this festive level

Other Fixes & Changes

• Adventure
  • Players can now choose between Royal Guard & Royal Decree
  • Supermajor abilities no longer cool down when game is paused
  • Royal Guard ants are now leafcutter-shaped if used in a leafcutter colony
  • Updated some text to say nimble rather than evasive
  • Inaccessible leaf made accessible
• Fixed level selection menu disappearing after winning a formicarium challenge
• Fixed a foliage rendering issue
• Creature swarming optimisations
• Tweaked animation distance optimisations
• Rotting Log aesthetic added to tutorial level
• Rotting Log aesthetic added to Hold Out & The Nest demo levels
• Correct loading screens attached to demo levels
• Corrected spelling mistakes here and there
• Fixed some text formatting issues in various localisations
• Fixed BHA workers showing as wood ants in the UI
• UI buttons should now only appear on appropriate levels (creature climbing, etc)
• Voice credits updated
• Freesound credits updated

Hang on a minute, where on Earth did 2022 go? That whole fire ant update thing went by in such a blur. It still feels like it was last week, but it was very nearly six months ago now! Welcome to a brand spanking new year - 2023, which kicks off with several more extra levels in our 'Sequel Season', as well as a surprise or two along the way. [url=https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images/28521019/679bc9d8819c03224b1acfd41691d8a224adb0c2.png]
Happy New Year from Medin on our Discord Before we get into upcoming stuff for EotU and things happening in Slug Disco as a company, I'll just take a moment to thank each and every one of you for making 2022 by far the best year that Empires of the Undergrowth has had, in every reasonably measurable metric. We make this stuff, but it's you who makes it a success and gives us the drive to continue. We hope to carry on with that energy in 2023.

Sequel Season - Tug of War 2

New Seasonal Level

Beach Revamp

Freeplay Update Progress

Tier 5 Reveal When?

ICS Recap

New Community Managers

New Game

Screenshot Central

Occupation 2 is available now in the Extra Levels section! The first in our Sequel Season of extra levels - this little black ant mission follows many of the same lines as its predecessor, but with a more urgent twist! Many critters will not wait patiently to be unearthed and will take a proactive approach to challenging your colony. [previewyoutube=rrW33ibdRfE;full][/previewyoutube] Extra levels take us very little time to develop, so we release them periodically as some nice bonus content for the community whilst we work on the bigger stuff! We're currently working on large changes to freeplay, upgrading the art assets for the beach levels and creating the tier 5 levels. We have several more planned for Sequel Season - stay tuned in the new year.

We're back with another vlog! This time Mike goes over upcoming changes to freeplay, how the Adventure + update went (and some changes coming to Adventure in the future) as well as talking briefly about a new unique seasonal level that will arrive in the not-too-distant future. Towards the start of the video, our product marketing manager Dan talks about two other games that are published (but not developed) by Slug Disco, Ecosystem and Adapt. If you're not interested in those, skip to timecode 2:28 for the Empires of the Undergrowth meat. [previewyoutube=QJbMb1pL1yg;full][/previewyoutube]

What could get you more into the spirit of the season than defending gifts against a horde of insects and arachnids using more insects and arachnids? The Festive Spider is here for the holidays! Touch the gift box on the main menu to play. [previewyoutube=_IPkapEX60c;full][/previewyoutube] Help the Hungry Spider keep the gifts safe from the invaders. Be warned - like the Halloween level, this one is punishingly difficult and unforgiving - expect multiple playthroughs to perfect your strategy. This unique tower defense game mode is sure to keep you on your toes well into the new year.

We've made some updates to the free demo - if you've not taken the plunge yet then now's a great time to try out the demo, and if you like it, the game is 10% off for Steam's Autumn sale! This update adds the tutorial level that we recently added to the main game, as well as a limited form of the Battle Arena - a mode where you can easily pit the various critters found in the demo against each other to see what wins.

Demo Changes

• Tutorial added to demo
• Battle Arena added to demo with creatures included in the demo
• Demo levels The Nest and Hold Out updated to use rotting log textures
• New menu added to demo
• Various smaller changes from the full game are now reflected in the demo
• Support in demo for recently-added languages

V0.302036 has been released, addressing a few issues that came up over the last couple of days as well as making some mainly visual changes to the Hungry Spider level. Patch notes below: Additions

• The Hungry Spider level now uses the new rotting log tile set
• Enjoy the Hungry Spider event for longer - now until Nov 10th!
• A few extra pillars for cover and lighting near spawn on Hungry Spider
• Queens now have a gentle spotlight on them

• Fixed invisible cricket issues in Adventure
• Fixed a visual error in 1.2
• Tweaked rotting log materials
• Removed any possibility for unfinished landmarks to spawn in freeplay
• Notification given in the tutorial will always appear regardless of settings

Surprise, were doing it now! As it turns out, everything we talked about in yesterdays newsletter is good to go, so here it is! The Adventure + update is available now. This is a regular update, but quite significantly larger than most of our regular updates. As well as the long-awaited extra level Adventure, weve also put the even longer-awaited velvet worm into its rightful place in the 3.x levels - including previously unheard narrator lines! [previewyoutube=WZKoG6ORS2A;full][/previewyoutube] This update also includes a feature that has been overdue for a long time - tutorial mode. New players will be encouraged to first play through the tutorial before diving into the campaign, and even more experienced players may benefit from the refresher course it provides. A redesigned menu integrates this addition into the game, with a new section called the arcade for extra levels, battle arena, and demo levels Finally, the 1.x levels now have their own tile set - the rotting log will no longer look like sand! A new texturing of decomposing birch wood and crumbly soil will set it apart from the beach. Full patch notes below.

Headline Features

Velvet Worm

• Added to 3.x levels, freeplay, battle arena & new extra level Adventure
• Long creature with the ability to spray slimy glue at its enemies that slows them
• Comes in 3 sizes of varying strength

Adventure

• A long-form leafcutter extra level with unique mechanics
• Build up XP to upgrade your colony & unlock new units
• Unlock the uber velvet worm for use in freeplay as a reward

Tutorial mode

• A new 10-15 minute tutorial to explain the basics in a practical way
• Goes over digging, hatching, pheromones, combat & more
• Both new & experienced players should benefit from this thorough tutorial

Main menu rework

• More descriptive buttons to guide players to the right place
• Will highlight tutorial mode for new players
• Added an arcade section for battle arena, extra levels & demo levels

Rotting log tile set

• Woody, crumbly textures added for the rotting log environment
• 1.x levels no longer use the beach underground tile set

Other Changes & Additions

• Big-headed ant workers are no longer encumbered when carrying
• Camera rotation buttons are now rebindable
• Resource, tile & creature info toggles moved to side of pheromone panel
• Reworked underground lamp distribution
• Hold Out scoreboard changed to match that of Extremis
• Added thumbnails for demo levels
• Some rewording of objectives & descriptions
• Numerous improvements & optimisations to many game processes
• Updated localisations

Fixes

• Enemy colony in 3.1 should no longer hide underground permanently
• 1.1 victory cinematic reworked slightly to not show the sky
• Subtitles no longer overlap if a certain creature is killed too quickly in FC4
• Fixed an issue that caused lynx spiders to shrink on loading a freeplay game
• Fixed accidental switching of some minor improvements menu descriptions
• Status effect particles now present for the hungry spider
• Extra level scoreboards now all display the difficulty
• Fixed some spelling mistakes

We've had a remarkably busy couple of months since the last newsletter, and there's a fair few things to discuss relating to the next update for Empires of the Undergrowth. Most of this newsletter will be going over progress made in matters written about in the previous one. We're currently in a consolidation phase, working on improving under-the-hood systems to increase the efficiency and reliability of many game systems, as well as improving the onboarding process for new players and revamping some of the older artwork. We've also made some fairly extensive changes to the main menu.
A river crossing from Discord user Ice Age 2 Were also very close to introducing a long-awaited enemy to the game the velvet worm, and have several extra levels lined up over the next few months. To preempt the question of when all of the changes detailed in this newsletter will arrive, the answer is in the near future (fingers crossed)! On the community side of things, weve also made the first edition of a new video series that will work alongside and in tandem with these newsletters. Well discuss the plans for those at the end of the newsletter, after all the game news. Lets get to it!

Velvet Worm Ready!

Its Nearly Adventure Time!

The Rotting Log

Main Menu Changes

Tutorial Mode Update

Optimisations

Vlogs

Screenshot Central

Tucked away in a dark corner of the world, this wolf spider hungers... [previewyoutube=L3QtFadJryI;full][/previewyoutube] ...and it's up to you to slake his relentless thirst for hemolymph. From midnight on the 25th October local time, the Hungry Spider will be here for the rest of the spooky season - and he is so very hungry. Access this festive extra level by selecting the spider web that has appeared on the main menu. Be warned - this level is not for the faint of heart, or slow of pointer - it is intensely difficult and few have ever completed it. Those that do will earn themselves a special achievement as a badge of honour. Even under ideal conditions, expect multiple playthroughs to learn the quirks of the levelling and abilities system. Slice the carapace, dissolve the innards, suck the juices, chop, melt, drink...

Time to talk about the immediate future of Empires of the Undergrowth, in video form. [previewyoutube=jhAKuBIspI8;full][/previewyoutube] This is the first of our new vlog format, which will act as a counterpart to the newsletters, running bi-monthly alongside and inbetween them. We recognise not everyone wants to read a 1,500 word essay to get their Empires of the Undergrowth news, so hopefully this video series fills in that gap! If you have any better ideas for the vlog's name than just "Slug Disco Vlog" then please let us know.

This hotfix is currently only for Steam Windows 64 bit users but we thought it was crucial enough to get a fix out for our biggest user base as fast as possible. The fix for Windows 32 bit, Mac and other storefronts will roll out over the next few days. Apologies for the confusing back-and-forth with this one - we released this update last night, but due to a change to aphids for a future update there was the unexpected effect of stripping aphids completely from the 4.x levels, so we had to revert it. All should now be well.

Patch Notes

• Fixed fire ants not being able to place pheromone markers on the surface in some freeplay maps

A whole bunch of fixes have been made, mainly regarding the fire ant update and freeplay (theres plenty more changes to freeplay coming in a larger update a bit further down the line). Extremis fans will be pleased to know that level is now playable again, and the poor bullfrog will no longer get beaten up by its lunch! Thanks to everyone whos helped to test this patch over the last few days.

Patch Notes

4.1 Cold Blood

• Bullfrog will now always eat creatures intended to feed it instead of being beaten up by them if they get too close
• Titan health bar will no longer appear during feeding events if the bullfrog is dead or has hopped away

4.2 A Bridge Too Far

• Players ants still in the Monomorium colony after it floods will now die
• Monomorium nest entrance now looks correct after end-of-level flood cinematic
• Reduced Top of the Hill level end requirements on all difficulties
• Underground aesthetic updated

Formicarium Challenge 4

• A few decals added to cupboard interior after FC4 for extra detail
• Fixed an issue where continuing play too quickly after FC4 could cause the end to not properly happen

Freeplay

• Little black ants & big-headed ants will no longer be called Atta cephalotes in defeat screen
• Fixed a convoluted issue in freeplay causing random leafcutters to spawn in the place of dead queens
• Fixed an issue in freeplay where if dead enemy colonies were in the game, creatures would be less likely to attack the player
• Fixed an issue where the freeplay setup info would always appear as if 4 players were in the game (1v1v1v1)
• Fixed an underground tile that was crashing games in Basin
• Fixed an issue that could cause fire ant queens in freeplay to be off the ground

General Fixes

• Extra level Extremis will not crash the game any more
• Fixed carried aphids sometimes being removed if the ant is distracted whilst picking it up
• Fixed refund being prevented for 2nd refuse tile / leaf drop-off chamber
• Moving queens in 2.2 can no longer be killed by environmental creatures
• Fixed army ants despawning in Beetles Rise Up! which sometimes made the level unwinnable
• Fixed autoclicker food duplication issue
• Various UI elements made more stretchy to account for languages with longer sentences
• Distance increased between Battle Arena lanes to prevent knockback abilities hurling critters into the other lane
• Fire ant & little black ant queen mesh repositioned so they should float less
• Fixed population totals not being updated when a tile is cancelled before being built
• Removed access to a decorative plant that looked appetising to leafcutters in 3.2
• Buried creatures (! & ? icons underground) will now only ever be visible by their rendered outline; no more accidentally seeing the model poking out somewhere
• Fixed an issue where Formicarium Challenge 2 would never end if all creatures were dead at some point after spider spawn
• Can no longer click through augmentations menu to select a tile
• Reduced size of fire ant worker eggs so they are not poking out the top of the queen
• Cancelling a tile before it is built will now correctly update population totals
• Corrected some spelling issues in the Freesound credits

General Changes

• Replaced queen worker chamber crown icon with a flag
• Team stripes added to abdomens of fire ants, little black ants & big-headed ants
• Reduced size of all little black ant eggs to make them properly little
• 'Play More' button removed from 2.2
• Couple more first-time playthrough hints added to the first formicarium
• Numerous texture optimisations; they should pop in faster
• Font update in minor improvements panel
• Various animation optimisations added
• Some lab decorations moved closer to the formicarium so they can be seen in play
• Objectives will now update faster when something has changed
• Star power scale is now taken into account for minimap & physical size of buried creatures
• When an indestructible tile is made destructible (by, for example, a toad burrowing through it in 4.1) the tile break effect will play
• Chinese localisations updated
• Credits updated

Known Issues

• Under some circumstances, fire ants seem unable to place pheromone markers on the surface in freeplay
• On rare occasion, fire ants can get stuck when they're part of a bridge and the bridge is disassembled
• Green lynx spiders can rarely get stuck at the base of a pitcher plant

Weve made a bunch of fixes and some changes since the fire ant update, so many in fact that we want to run an optional beta before full release to make sure we havent damaged some vital system somewhere. This opt-in beta will run for a short while. Please note that optional betas are only accessible on the Steam Windows 64 bit build. If you would like to join the beta, the code is fireantfixtest. If you dont know how to join a beta and would like to, follow the instructions below: [quote] [olist]

Its been a while since the situation has warranted one of these newsletters we said that after the last one in March, we didnt want to spoil anything else and just wanted to concentrate purely on getting the fire ant update ready to go, and so we did! Welcome to the first newsletter as the sun rises in a post-fire ants world.
The Green Swamp Well be dividing this newsletter into a few sections - firstly, well talk about how the fire ant release went. After that, its time to talk about the future - well put forth a new roadmap to get us to version 1.0, and detail the steps that we will take to get there, including the development of a specific tutorial level to make player onboarding much better. After some internal discussion, we dont quite feel like we want to talk about the tier 5 species and setting just yet - just know that its been long-planned, scripted, voice-acted, and partially implemented already!

The Fire Ant Update

Early 2022

Balance

Tutorial

Roadmap

Adventure

Other Extra Levels

Freeplay

Tier 4 Challenge Mode

Achievements

Speed Running & the ICS

Screenshot Central

Here's a moment we've been waiting for as long as you have - we're burning with joy to be releasing the fire ant update to everyone! Let's keep this introduction short, because I'm certain you want to dive right into that lovely swamp as soon as you can. Here are the full patch notes for the update.

Patch Notes - The Fire Ant Update

• A whole new formicarium tier, featuring 2 new documentary scenarios:
  • 4.1 Cold Blood: a newly-settled fire ant queen must deal with the threat of the amphibians & other denizens of the green swamp
  • 4.2 A Bridge Too Far: use the fire ants abilities to traverse water and reach all the resources you can, whilst an ominous shadow looms overhead

• New focal ant species: fire ants (Solenopsis invicta) which come in two soldier variants:
  • Pervasive fire ants will respawn for free after a while
  • Vigorous fire ants will have a buff to their stats for a time after spawning
  • The tiles of both variants can support 2 ants at a time at level 3

• Fire ants introduce several new ant skills:
  • Bridge building: fire ants can build floating pontoons over water to reach resources previously unplundered, but beware of changing water levels!
  • Aphid relocation: relocate yellow aphids from distant milkweed plants and bring them closer to home for a reliable source of honeydew, but other colonies may not like that!
  • Titan climbing: very large new enemies can be climbed for extra damage!

• New auxiliary ant species:
  • Big-headed ants (Pheidole morrisii) have an ancient genetic variant waiting to be awoken
  • Little black ants (Monomorium minimum) use a chemical threat display called gaster flagging

• New swamp environment
• A menagerie of new swamp-dwelling critters with unique stats & abilities
• New voice acting from the narrator & scientists
• New music for our dynamic conductor system

• Surefooted: gains extra attack damage when mounted on an enemy
• Evasive: gains a small chance to take no damage from a hit
• Last Stand: at zero health, will survive for a short time longer with reduced attack speed
• Last Laugh: upon death, the fire ant will deal high damage to its closest enemy if in range

Other Changes

• Buried creatures (! & ? icons underground) will now display on the minimap
• Additions to the minimap & more consistent minimap pings
• Woodworm & woodlice will now appear as food on the minimap
• Escape key will now close the in-game menu
• Made Formicarium Challenge 3 a little easier on Hard & Insane
• Holding Insert & PageUp keys now rotates the camera view 90 left & right respectively
• Added a quick build / upgrade tool which detects nearby tile type to use, thumb mouse button by default
• Delete tool can now be used on tiles where building has not yet started
• Added an entirely new set of icons for the Formica ereptor adaptations menu
• Added a check for progress file corruption on game startup. If detected progress file is wiped and a new one made
• Added victory & defeat images for Beetle Rise Up! & the Hungry Spider levels
• Power-scaled creatures will have a star next to their health overlay displaying their scale level (currently only used in freeplay and some extra levels)
• Creatures will now correctly display the status effect they are currently experiencing
• Renamed worker "evasive" ability to "nimble" to avoid confusion with fire ants
• Formicarium level setup rewards on gateway levels now appear as zero before difficulty select
• Clicking an active underground minimap tab will now take you there from the surface
• The Promised Land demo level reinstated
• Moving buried creatures will now throb on the minimap
• Dead harvestable creatures in the Battle Arena will now not sink for 2 seconds
• Credits updated

Fixes & Optimisations

• Colony rehousing will now give the correct jelly amount for level 3 tiles (previously it was counting level 3 tiles as level 2)
• Fixed an issue where wood ants could get stuck in a deployment animation when a line-of-sight check was failing
• Huge improvement to render times for all 2D overlays (upgrades, health, food, etc)
• Numerous optimisations to swarming, pathfinding & movement
• Numerous optimisations to rendering for many individual assets
• Fixed an issue in Battle Arena where some ant levels werent working
• Fix for a rare pheromone marker crash
• Fixed a rounding error causing incorrect number of creatures to spawn in battle arena
• Fixed an issue where creatures dying mid-air had their food collection point far from their corpse
• Fixed an issue causing underground tile highlighting to stick on some tiles
• Connecting bridge in the interlocking formicariums will now load correctly

Localisation

• Updated, fixed and changed many interface & game narration lines in existing localisations
• Various menus & UI elements adjusted to allow for translations that were the wrong size for them
• Font changes for CJK languages
• Added 7 new officially-supported localisations. These are:
  • Czech / etina
  • Spanish / Espaol
  • French / Franais
  • Korean /
  • Japanese /
  • Dutch / Nederlands
  • Polish / Polski

Known Issues

• Extra level Extremis is currently crashing on launch (caught this one too late to re-package the project in time; will be fixed for the next patch)

Just a very short post to confirm that the launch of the fire ant update won't be occurring at midnight but at 6 pm UK time tomorrow, or approximately 23 hours after this is posted. Converted to some other times this comes out as: 1 pm: US East Coast 10 am: US West Coast 7 pm: Most of Europe 3 am on the 28th: Most of Australia A quick search engine query should let you convert your own local time from the team's 6pm BST (British Summer Time). Today we posted a quick tutorial video that should help you quickly get up to speed with some of the major new mechanics introduced with this update. It doesn't spoil anything that hasn't already been revealed, but if you're trying to keep entirely unspoiled you'll probably want to skip this one. [previewyoutube=jqd791hvD-M;full][/previewyoutube] Roughly an hour before we launch the game, some of the team are going to do a livestream on YouTube going over some of the new mechanics, changes, and other such things. A quick breather before we push the button! Join us over there: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jTm53w8fHk

Hey Just a quick post to allow streams to appear on the store page during the summer sale and to celebrate the release of the fire ant trailer: [previewyoutube=-JW8rmLDta0;full][/previewyoutube] Cheers! Dan

We are delighted to announce that the fire ant update is coming on July 27th 2022! Grab an eyeful of the updated trailer that shows off the new environment and (some of) the new enemies that come along with it. [previewyoutube=-JW8rmLDta0;full][/previewyoutube] A whole new formicarium tier awaits - guide a young fire ant (Solenopsis invicta) queen and her first brood as she invades an unfamiliar swamp environment in two full new story missions. The swamp is swimming with amphibians that are not adverse to a spicy snack! As well as having by far the most critters weve added in a single update, the 4th tier includes a long-awaited class of enemy: titans. Titans are huge creatures - big enough, in fact, to be climbed. They do not represent an existential threat since theyre too big to invade the nest, but they must be dealt with in other ways and are a challenging obstacle to be overcome. Fire ants themselves have a unique ability, outside of their incessant stinging - by linking their bodies together, they can form floating pontoons that can cross water, reaching resources previously unplundered. This is a skill that will come in exceptionally handy in the regularly-flooded green swamp. They come in two very different soldier varieties - pervasive and vigorous. If you choose pervasive, they will spawn for free after the egg has been on the tile for a time. This can be a crucial advantage when food is scarce. Alternatively, vigorous fire ants will have a significant buff to stats for a time after birth. This opens up the potential for aggressive expansion, but beware of pushing too far too fast. At level 3, both variants will be able to spawn 2 ants from each tile. Once youve conquered the swamp, return to the formicarium where the scientist is far from done with you yet - what dastardly design has he decided is due to your Formica ereptor colony? Finally, welcome to new people who are finding us through the Steam Summer Sale! We hope you find our little ant game worth your attention, and if youre considering giving it a go youve joined us at a very good time. Well see you on July 27th for the invasion of the fire ants!

This will be a shorter-than-usual newsletter, just catching up with the last of the things weve posted on our social media before the fire ant update. Were rounding the corner to the home stretch on that front now, and whilst were not quite ready to announce a date (that will come out of the blue one day with a trailer) we are at a point where we dont want to spoil anything else, as we still want there to be plenty of surprises for when the update drops. Well go over a few things that have been previously announced all of the things shown in this newsletter are from the 4.x missions.

Environment Showcase

Venus Flytrap in Action

Caterpillars & Sweetbay Magnolia

Milkweed & Aphids

Screenshot Central

The main feature this time is full support for gamepads (Steam Deck, XBox One and PlayStation 4 controllers are all officially supported). If you prefer to play with a gamepad or would like to try it out, now is the time! We are also adding six new languages localisations (we are not updating our store page to say we officially support these yet; they should be considered to be in beta for now). The languages are Czech, French, Japanese, Korean, Dutch & Polish. Theres also some fixes and changes, detailed below, including a fix for Mac so Mac users should be able to play Hibernation now! We have also moved the game files to an encrypted form, so the download is likely to be larger than a regular patch since Steam wont recognise the encrypted files.

Headline Features

• Gamepad support added
  • All standard gamepad buttons now have functions which can be viewed from the options menu
  • When using a gamepad, key bindings show gamepad glyphs
  • Several notifications have been added or replaced to explain gamepad support when using them
  • The Hungry Spider can now be properly controlled with a gamepad
  • XBox One, PlayStation 4 and Steam Deck gamepads can be selected from the options menu to display the correct glyphs
  • When using Big Picture mode on Steam, or the Steam Deck the on-screen keyboard will display when needed
• Several new localisation languages added for testing (Czech, French, Japanese, Korean, Dutch, Polish)

Other Fixes & Changes

• Mac build is now updated to include the Hibernation extra level
• Fixed a memory leak in creature despawning
• Fixed some minor pathing bugs
• Several areas in the game with small text have had their text size increased
• Fixed an issue where the mouse pointer would not change until moved in some circumstances
• Fixed an issue where brood chamber hover information would come up overground after having it come up underground
• Fixed an issue where ants could get stuck on the overground nest exit
• Fixed an issue where sometimes level setups could drop off the screen at the bottom
• Minimap pings will now display more consistently
• Fixed an issue where dragging the mouse during a cutscene could cause tiles to tag for digging
• Fixed an issue where tiles would be left highlighted when tabbing to surface
• Fixed an issue where dead creatures could sometimes be carried off to the side of the carrying ant
• Fixed an issue where the mouse cursor would change when hovering over an enemy nest but not change back when moving off it
• Added in quick build / upgrade key binding (default to thumb mouse button 1). Hold to automatically select the upgrade or build tool most suitable for where your cursor is

Welcome to the year of the fire ant! For those of you wondering how were doing with the 4th / fire ant tier, weve recently gotten the last of the dialogue and voice acting into the game, and sent things off to translators for localisation. Keep an eye on our social media for further public narrowing of our release window. As always we wont give a date until were certain we can hit it. The marketing team have indeed been working on the trailer as the art team completes the detailing on the levels, and were positively itching to show it all off to you but we have to be patient too.
The Year of the Fire Ant is upon us! Lets talk about a few things that have come up over the last couple of months, including the exciting return of a creature long thought lost to the sands of time the velvet worm.

The Velvet Worm

Pitcher Plants

The Gaster Flag

Steam Deck

Freeplay Balance

Hibernation

Screenshot Central

A minor patch tonight to correct some small issues that have cropped up. This should resolve a recent freeplay crash related to leafcutters and a more long-standing issue causing problems with the "Play More" feature.

• Fixed a crash related to changes made to resource collection for Hibernation that inadvertently affected leafcutters in freeplay
• Fixed an issue that caused UI problems when selecting "Play More" after completing a level

We've recently been working with our voice cast to record all the lines for the remainder of the campaign. We realised that we wouldn't be able to hit our planned release of the 4th tier levels this year (see the most recent newsletter for more on this), but we still wanted to do something extra special to see out 2021. We asked Callum, the narrator, to record some extra voice lines for a special winter-themed extra level. Also, we spent some of our free time creating bespoke music for it. Behold, Hibernation! [previewyoutube=H2rb-MdPLI8;full][/previewyoutube] Many wood ant colonies live in Alpine mountains, where harsh winters close in fast. They have evolved a special way to survive these conditions - collecting vegetation which gives off heat as it decays, saving the near-frozen colony from certain doom. Hibernation has a special new resource and chamber to store it - pine needles are collected from the surface and stored in heating chambers. The nest will be saved from disaster by their decay, and ants walking through them will be able to visit the frozen surface for longer after walking through one. There's also some fixes and changes - here are the full patch notes for this update:

• Added Hibernation - guide a wood ant colony to survive the Alpine winter
• Fixed an issue where during rehousing the colony the UI would not always fade back in
• Whip spider can now be harvested by 8 ants at a time
• Slight buff to whip spider and is more likely to use its AOE bleed attack
• Whip spider food value dropped to be in line with forthcoming titans
• Fixed an issue with D key becoming unmapped
• Beetles Rise Up! made easier on Insane and Hard (more beetles!)
• The cookie on the Festive Spider level will now pause respawning if fighting a boss that stops the flow of the enemy waves (preventing the boss being held and getting infinite resources to build)
• Hungry Spider abilities now cast instantly without a wind-up (wind-up has been moved to the wind-down)

Today, we pre-emptively released a build with the intention of getting ahead of things for the planned release of our winter level on Wednesday. Unfortunately it seems that we missed a glitch when testing - level 2.1 Rising Tide seems to have problems with food spawning in the new patch. For now, we've rolled back these changes so the game is still completable. This shouldn't affect too much since the new level, Hibernation, wasn't due to be fully released until the 22nd anyway. We'll get everything fixed and re-packaged, and reinstate the update when we're ready!

Once again, the Hungry Spider has crawled out of his hole. This time he's in a better mood, having just finished his Christmas shopping and gotten everything wrapped and ready for the little ones. However, envious eyes are looking over his haul - and he'll need to protect it! [previewyoutube=_IPkapEX60c;full][/previewyoutube] The Festive Spider level is here once again for the season. Find it by clicking on the gift that has appeared on the main menu. Whilst you may be familiar with the upgrade system and control scheme from the Hungry Spider level, this game mode is more akin to a tower defense. Like the Hungry Spider level, it is incredibly difficult - very few players have defeated all of the waves and saved Christmas for their spiderlings. Building towers is vital - whether recruiting funnel web spiders to slow enemies and snatch them away, or wood ants to launch acid at them, you'll need to think about tower placement and longevity to be succesful. Placing towers costs life, so you'll need to balance this single resource carefully. A little tip - the spider's abilities are also extremely useful for making sure enemies don't get away with your precious presents. It'd be a good idea to start with the Crippling Venom ability to slow enemies from afar. Merry Christmas, ya filthy animals!

Welcome to 2021s last newsletter! Well get straight to the point about where were at with the fire ant release plans after this introduction. Weve also got a very special extra level set to come out shortly before the holidays next month so plenty of details on that. Theres a final creature we want to show off, some finished animations and game mechanics for a creature revealed a while back, and some finished artwork for the swamp environment in which the 4th tier will be set, as well as the first of our carnivorous plants.
Trap jaw ants on the march from Kacper on our Discord

4th Tier Release Plans

Extra Level Coming Soon Hibernation

Eastern Newt

Swamp Environment

Venus Flytrap

Materials Breakdown

Red Velvet Ant In Action

EGX 2021

Screenshot Central

Years End

It's that time of year again. The nights are drawing in, the air is getting colder.... and the Hungry Spider awakens, and finds that he is ravenous. [previewyoutube=L3QtFadJryI;full][/previewyoutube] The Hungry Spider level will be around for the remainder of the spooky season - to access it, click on the cobweb that has mysteriously appeared in the lab. In this level you directly control an endlessly starving wolf spider (although I am of the belief that he has some sort of terrible metabolic issue) as he eats his way around a web-shaped map. To those who haven't played this one before, it is a brutally difficult level and few have achieved victory in it. The uber creatures are the real killer, and you'll have to take them all out to win. Upgrade your abilities as you level up, improving your chances against the monsters. But in the end, of course, the real monster is you.

Discard the shackles of oppression - in our latest extra level Beetles Rise Up!, you must grow your beetle pack to annihilate your captors. All of your beetles are controlled by a single pheromone marker - simply move near beetles to add them to your pack, bolstering your strength. Kill all enemies and free all beetles to win! Game knowledge from your campaign and freeplay experiences will be helpful; it'll allow you to gauge threats before you take them on. [previewyoutube=F7MWqlfuowU;full][/previewyoutube] Your game client will not need to update to get the new level; it will already be there. This extra level is inspired by Beetle Uprising, a game by our friends at Iocane Games! It's a deeply complex genetics game with real-time tactics and some colony management elements. Check it out here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/662680/Beetle_Uprising/ Notice about the campaign we must post with each new extra level: [quote]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.[/quote]

At this stage in the development cycle for the rest of Empires of the Undergrowth, were very close to having all of the creatures for the 4th tier complete (as well as a sizable chunk of the 5th tier ones). Our environment artist is working hard on perfecting the aesthetic of the Green Swamp, as the art team populates it with appropriate (and sometimes dangerous) flora.
An infestation of harvestmen from TheRealStormCZE on our Discord Were ready to show off some of the underground look that the fire ants and their enemies will inhabit, as well as focusing on something that has, until now, evaded the Undergrowth entirely vertebrates! The fire ant levels will feature a number of backbone owners, and weve been dying to show them off to you. Well also talk about the events weve been part of recently.

Swamp Environment

Amphibians

Pine Woods Tree Frog

Narrow-mouthed toad

Dwarf Salamander

American Bullfrog

Events

EGX 2021

Indie Arena Booth

Big Indie Pitch

BitSummit

Screenshot Central

We love events, but for obvious reasons we've so rarely been able to attend them recently. Enter the Gamescom 2021 Indie Arena Booth, an online event that is running from 25th-29th August! We have a booth in the virtual world, which you can visit with your 2D avatar. There's an NPC representation of the scientist there to answer some questions, and of course we'll be there ourselves too! To celebrate this, from the moment of this post there is a limited-time demo level available. For the first time we're letting fire ants loose for a preview before their appearance in the upcoming 4th tier levels! In The Promised Land, you'll need to use the fire ant's bridge building skills to acquire resources from neighbouring islands, before building as long a bridge as you can to reach the aforementioned land that was promised on the right side of the map. Simply place a pheromone marker on an island you wish to reach, and your fire ants will use their bodies to make a floating bridge for their sisters to use. Beware of falling water levels stranding them - ants that get cut off from the colony will panic and quickly die. Also, keep an eye on the bombardier beetle population - they'll attack your colony together with their near-boiling liquid spray. The Promised Land will be available until August 29th, when Gamescom ends. Full patch notes below:

Features

• Fire ant demo level The Promised Land available between 23rd and 29th of August (accessible through a pop-up in main menu) whilst Gamescom is running
• Vulkan can now be used in Windows (add -vulkan to launch options)

Improvements / Changes

• Improved walk cycles across game (creatures should now longer look like they are sliding when slowed)
• Enemy underground tabs will now stretch to the full available size above the minimap rather than just taking a set size (this allows up to 6 colonies on a map, needed for future levels)
• Creatures slow resist will now also resist attack slows

Fixes

• Really slow creatures wiggle left and right less
• Fixed an issue with creatures killed during pickup getting stuck in the creatures jaws
• Disabled colony section of the colony setup tab in freeplay setup (due to a bug that could cause it to be inconsistent with the basic setup tab)
• Fixed a bug that could sometimes cause ants to spin on the spot for a short amount of time
• Reward tooltips will no longer display if the mouse is hovered over the invisible reward area on levels without rewards

The Promised Land

Time for the last of the extra levels we put out in beta earlier this year to be released - it's The Culling! In this black ant level, packs of enemies will slowly swell in number during the daytime. If you allow them to grow too large, they will overwhelm your colony when they attack en masse at night. [previewyoutube=R2CZO5CteR8;full][/previewyoutube] The trick is to keep their numbers in check by regular culling - every slain enemy will reduce the intensity of the nighttime onslaught. There are aphid farms to keep you supplied with food, but they'll need defending from ladybird beetles that can strip them bare. Also, beware the tiger beetle larvae lying in wait! The Culling represents the last of the four extra levels we had scheduled to release, but we're not done with extra content yet! We've got an exciting announcement regarding a special demo level due to coincide with our appearance at the Gamescom Indie Arena Booth which is open online from August 25th - 29th. And yes, it will feature fire ants. More on that when we're ready to update! Also, we might have managed to sneak in one more non-Gamescom related extra level whilst we were at it. Notice about the campaign we must post with each new extra level: [quote]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.[/quote]

Its been an important last couple of months for Empires of the Undergrowth, and those of us at Slug Disco Studios! Work continues apace on the fire ant update, and were not too far away from having all of the 4th tier creatures complete and ready for placement in the levels. Weve also decided that now is the time to expand our dev team, and weve brought in a fantastic new artist to work on our environments Ill introduce you to Dan (yes, this is the 2nd time in the past year weve hired someone called Dan) a little later in the newsletter.
A whip spider observes a trail of Atta cephalotes from Crazlex9 on our Discord Last time, the creature feature was all about beetles. Were (almost) moving away from insects for our newly-finished critters this time, into the world of spiders! We apologise in advance to any arachnophobes who already find looking at them difficult. Theres also a beetle larva to show that wasnt ready in time for the last newsletter.

Spiders

Green Lynx Spider

Magnolia Green Jumper

Six-Spotted Fishing Spider

False Bombardier Beetle Larva

Our New Environment Artist

Swamp Underground Environment

Size Comparison

Deep Dive: AI

Screenshot Central

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][/previewyoutube] 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: [quote]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.[/quote]

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][/previewyoutube] 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: [quote]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.[/quote]

Good lord, its May already. This newsletter will spotlight some more enemies coming for the fire ant update, with a particular focus on natures favoured form the beetle. We also have some talk about new AI systems that weve 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 Weve still got quite a few critters to show off as we complete work on them, as well as a few we dont want to spoil until we get very close to release time.

4th Tier Creatures Beetles

Bombardier Beetle

False Bombardier Beetle

Checkered Beetle

Checkered Beetle Larva

AI Scanning

Community Wiki

Ecosystem Updates

Screenshot Central

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][/previewyoutube] 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.

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!

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!

Apart from 4 new levels set to roll out over the next few months (thank you to everyone whos 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, weve accelerated plans to upgrade the game engine by several versions. Were 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 whos helped us iron out those wrinkles. Particular thanks to Scyobi_Empire who helped us diagnose the initial laptop issue. Theres 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 theyll 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 enemys 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'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: [quote] [olist]

Weve 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. Weve 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 Well also be talking about the imminent release of Slug Discos foray into publishing, Ecosystem! Were 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

Tier 4 Creatures

The Big-Headed Ant

The Cow Killer

The Wasp Mantidfly

Size Comparison Great Blue Skimmer

Screenshot Central

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. Weve done plenty of testing ourselves but a change like this is systemic, so any part of the game could have issues that weve 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 dont know how to join a beta and would like to, follow the instructions below: [quote][olist]

In our first newsletter of the new year, covering news from December 2020 and January 2021, we have some critters from the fourth tier of the formicarium story to talk about (and perhaps a tiny little sneak preview of a story mission), as well as some discussion of some new extra levels that will be coming your way over the next few months. Also, on the company side of things (which we do have to occasionally think about) weve recently launched an updated version of our website, which should make it easier to find information about Slug Disco Studios Ltd. and the games we publish. Thanks to Dan, our recently-hired marketing content creator, for his stellar work on bringing the website into the 2020s!
A screenshot from an upcoming extra level Cramped

4th Tier Creatures

Six-Spotted Tiger Beetle

Great Blue Skimmer Dragonfly

Little Black Ant

Fire Ant Mission Preview

New Mechanic: Aphid Relocation

Titan Climbing

Upcoming Extra Levels

• Occupation a wood ant level not unlike the campaign level New Home
• Cramped a heavily infested leafcutter level with a surface; kill all enemies
• The Culling a black ant level with interesting enemy spawning mechanics
• 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!

Fixing Stuff

Screenshot Central

Until Next Time

Its time for an optional beta! This beta has some fixes for long-standing issues and, more excitingly, comes with 4 (!) new extra levels for testing and balance. Extra levels are fast to develop as most of them don't need extensive new systems and artwork; we can make one of these in just a few short hours but testing them for balance is another thing. They need some feedback! We are looking for feedback on balance in the 4 new extra levels. You can leave them on our Discord, Steam forum, or official forums. If youd like to help out, wed be very happy for you to give them a spin now! Youll need to be a Windows 64 bit owner on Steam to join the beta. PLEASE NOTE! Once the testing phase is over and this update goes live on the main branch, the new extra levels will be removed from the list again, and will reappear monthly after that (exact dates to be announced as the time approaches). If you would like to join the beta, the code is givemeextraextra. If you dont know how to join a beta and would like to, follow the instructions below: [quote][olist]

Thanks for the people who have helped us identify a crash with the recent short optional beta. This has now been fixed and we're ready to move this patch to the main branch just in time for Christmas. It is now possible to save your freeplay games that include AI colonies! This should make them more viable for long-term games instead of short skirmishes. Freeplay AI should still be considered to be in its early days and there are a multitude of extra things we'd like to do for it (making it cleverer being the main one) but it's likely this is the last feature update for freeplay until after the 4th tier campaign levels (fire ants) are released.

Headline Features

• Saving is now available with AI colonies in freeplay
  • Please keep an eye out for strange behaviours of the enemy or allied colonies after a save and load in freeplay; it is possible some of their behaviour has not been correctly restored. Please report these on our forums or Discord!

Fixes

• Fixed some underground visual tile bugs
• Fixed a minor issue with the slave maker button in battle arena
• Swarm slave makers now have team colours working properly
• Fixed a surface tile painting issue on The Dunes
• Removed some specks of dirt that were floating on the open nest entrances in The Dunes
• Fixed an issue where AIs that were cheating could only get a free hatch once per game
• Fixed issues with the AI colonys visibility of spawned landmarks (should lead to some more sensible landmark harvesting decisions)
• Fixed an issue where surface tunnels could switch when a freeplay game was loaded
• Fixed an issue where randomised caverns were not loading and saving
• Fixed an issue where some creatures could freeze if interrupted during picking up another creature
• Creatures eaten by other creatures will no longer drop invisible food
• Festive Spider level funnel web kills now count towards your experience
• Adjusted web size in Christmas spider level the better represent the area funnel webs can detect enemies
• Webs in the Festive Spider level will no longer expand upwards covering the map
• Webs stop increasing in size beyond level 9 in the Festive Spider level
• Fixed an animation issue to do with wood ants rapid firing
• In freeplay uber mole crickets now count towards the hunter victory condition
• Can no longer tag and untag another colonys tunnel exit for excavation
• Stopped aphids moving when being eaten by a ladybird; should fix floating honeydew

Optimisations

• Optimisation added to creature spawning when looking up its class (should speed things up when lots of ants are hatching at once such as the beginning of a freeplay game)

Weve made big strides towards getting the freeplay AI save-able, and were at the point where we could do with some extra feedback before we declare it good to go. This opt-in beta build adds saving to freeplay games with AI colonies, which should make them much more viable in a long game. If you would like to participate, the beta code is christmasants. You will need to be a 64 bit Windows user to join. If youre unfamiliar with how to activate a Steam beta and would like to, follow the steps below: [quote] [olist]

Did you think you'd seen the last of the Hungry Spider this year? He's back for Christmas, and his concerns are a little more wholesome this time. He's trying to protect his carefully-wrapped gifts for his spiderlings - but others are regarding his haul with envious eyes. [previewyoutube=_IPkapEX60c;full][/previewyoutube] Festive Spider is controlled similarly to the Hungry Spider level - except this time, you'll need to use a tower defence system to keep the gift-coveting hordes of enemies away! BE WARNED: like its predecessor, Festive Spider is a brutally difficult level and we expect very few will be able to complete it successfully. You'll need multiple runs to get a feel for the level, so set some time aside if you intend to complete it. You'll need to be selective with what spider weapons you use, and how you upgrade them. A small tip for those starting out - those ants taking your gifts are awfully quick. Starting out with Crippling Venom to reliably slow them down will make them much easier to keep in range.

He protec He attac But most importantly He still want snac

Welcome to our November 2020 newsletter! The past few months have seen quite a few things happen, both for Empires of the Undergrowth and for us, Slug Disco, as a company. Very importantly, we are taking our first steps into expanding a little, and weve brought Dan on board as our Marketing Content Creator. Well have a little from Dan later on as he introduces himself to you all.
The modular formicariums from Steam user roobyRoss

Tier 4 / Fire Ant Systems

Planned Tier 4 Creature: Six-Spotted Tiger Beetle

Introducing our new Marketing Content Creator

Pheromone Marker Changes - Ant Trails

Using Beetles to Fix Bugs

Beetle Uprising Launch

Screenshot Central

Hey everyone! Along side the Steam Autumn Sale the Steam Award Nominations are back! We are putting our hat in the [strike]undergrowth[/strike] ring for the Labor of Love award for Empires of the Undergrowth and we would love it if you could vote for the game (and maybe pester your friends to do so too!) We've been working on Empires of the Undergrowth for almost 3 years now and it truly is a labor of love. Along side the updates and the extra levels we've loved seeing our community grow. Whether it's the lovely folks over on our Discord or the players interacting with us on Twitter we couldn't be more thankful :) So no matter the outcome of the awards the team wants to say a massive thank you to you all and we can't wait to continue the journey. Oh and if you missed it - our latest extra level "Tug of War" is now live! [previewyoutube=AjpGA9iLgHE;full][/previewyoutube]

Not ones to miss a trend, we've made our own auto-battler game mode a good 18 months after it was properly in vogue in the form of Tug of War. [previewyoutube=AjpGA9iLgHE;full][/previewyoutube] In Tug of War, almost all of the macro decision making is taken care of for you - there's no food gathering or egg placement to concern yourself with. Instead, you'll be granted a regular income of food and eggs will be placed automatically. The meat of this game mode is in the choice of army composition - and you have lots of options available to you. You'll get some bonus income if your ants are past the mid-way point of the overworld. Kill the enemy queen to win! Thanks to everyone who's played this game mode in its various beta forms over the past few months - your feedback has informed it to the point where it is now!

Thanks for everyone who's tested our short optional beta over the weekend. We're confident that it's good for everyone now, so version 0.22103 is available for everyone from this point. There is one known issue detailed below the patch notes that didn't quite make it into this build on time - expect a fix for that next time round. We are still looking for more information about a known bug where a leafcutter gets stuck on a plant with an exclamation mark appearing above its head. If this happens to you we would appreciate anything you can tell us or show us (screenshots or videos) about how it happened and if the leafcutter was affected by a status effect at the time (for example confuse caused by a devils coach horse).

Fixes

• Fixed an issue where food buried underground but not part of a cavern would not be labelled as buried and not seen as an outline
• Randomised caverns for leafcutters now produce smaller leaves as so not poke through the surface and are randomly rotated
• Placing a marker on an enemy nest exit whilst your ants are in a different enemy nest will now cause your ants to leave the nest they are in
• Fixed a bug that allowed you to get a refund for a tile upgrade if cancelled the same frame it was completed (was easier on low FPS computers)
• Fixed a couple of painting issues on the surface to do with tunnel exits when they are not tunnelled out
• Fixed a crash that could occur in formicarium challenge 3 when the hand moved
• Player not selecting a unit option in freeplay will no longer refer to wood ants
• Fixed a crash that could occur on low end hardware
• Tunnel door now correctly stops ants walking through on The Other Foot
• Freeplay maps without a map option now grey out the option in the basic setup
• Fixed an issue for Russian language in the main menu text
• Fixed an issue that could cause creatures to freeze in an animation until the player looks at them
• Fixed a couple of spellings on the freeplay scoreboard
• Fixed an issue where creatures could get stuck in the tunnel exit at a low frame rate
• Fixed an issue that could rarely cause a creature to get stuck in the air when picked up by a praying mantis
• Fixed an issue where the praying mantis could on rare occasions freeze doing nothing
• Fixed some visual underground tile bugs
• Fixed some UI issues with freeplay setup
• Fixed an issue with pathing at the northern end of Basin
• Fixed an issue where status effects were not being dealt with correctly in priority order (for example a creature could flee when stunned)
• Fixed an issue where turning gathering off whilst an ant was gathering caused it to walk back and forth to the food it was going to gather
• Destructible barriers can no longer be knocked back or affected by other effects
• Fixed some UI interaction issues with the freeplay setup menu especially when opening a saved setup
• Fixed a typo in the Discord tooltip

Changes

• Barrier between nests in Basin is no longer destructible if you are not allied with the colony on the other side
• Barriers that are destructible in Basin now appear as pieces of wood rather than stone
• Simplified some interaction in the freeplay menus that were causing issues to do with creature checkboxes and the creatures type dropdown
• Hunter and Domination game modes in freeplay no longer disable colony attacks
• The Hungry Spider levels uber beach wolf spider can now take more than 6 damage per hit (should be easier to kill with a bite build now)
• Added in notifications explaining how to combat phorid flies in 3.1 and 3.2
• The player is now given a warning that they could lose their rewards if they try and restart a level when rewards are waiting for them in the formicarium
• Quitting or restarting Extremis now gives the player the reward points they had earned up to that point
• Some creatures now cannot be knocked back or forced to flee
• Some more improvement to funnel web performance in freeplay
• Smoothed some of the landscape at the edge of 2.2 and prevented some tiles poking through the sea bed
• Forum link changed to discord and patch notes link updated
• Mole cricket (and uber mole cricket) added to the Battle Arena
• Couple of icon updates for ant species in Battle Arena
• Slave maker ants added to Battle Arena
• Uber mole cricket can now be unlocked for freeplay by completing Excavators (should be retroactive)
• Dropped creatures will now try and drop where they are held rather than the centre of the holding creature

Known Issues

• Currently uber mole crickets do not count towards the Hunter victory condition. A fix for this will be out in the next patch
• Some recent changes intended for future updates may cause some unintended weirdness. Although unlikely, please let us know about any unusual behaviours you see

An update to the currently running short optional beta has been released. This will only affect you if you've opted into the beta - if you haven't and would like to, follow the instructions near the top of this link: https://store.steampowered.com/newshub/app/463530/view/2905346555607593463 Please note that this is a short beta and we are likely to set it to the main branch in short order anyway.

• Hunter and Domination game modes in freeplay no longer disable colony attacks
• Simplified some interaction in the freeplay menus that were causing issues to do with creature checkboxes and the creatures type dropdown
• Fixed a typo in the Discord tooltip
• Fixed an issue preventing uber mole crickets spawning in freeplay
• Fixed an issue where status effects were not being dealt with correctly in priority order (for example a creature could flee when stunned)
• Fixed an issue where turning food gathering off whilst an ant was gathering caused it to walk back and forth to the food it was going to gather
• Fixed some UI interaction issues with the freeplay setup menu especially when opening a saved setup

We're running a very short optional beta for this one. It's mainly a bug fixing patch, but the fixes potentially have some far reaching implications and we'd like to be sure we haven't missed anything huge. We'd appreciate any feedback on issues you experience in this beta - if you're on Windows 64 bit and would like to participate in this short beta, read on. We are looking for more information about a known bug where a leafcutter gets stuck on a plant with an exclamation mark appearing above its head. If this happens to you we would appreciate anything you can tell us or show us (screenshots or videos) about how it happened and if the leafcutter was affected by a status effect at the time (for example confuse caused by a devils coach horse). Additionally we would appreciate it if you could let us know if anything unusual happens with creatures using their abilities. Any freezing, stuck in animations or changes to how it worked before would help. We made a change to something fairly fundamental to do with abilities which is why we are asking for information around them. The beta code is summertimeants - the same as it has been recently. If youre unfamiliar with how to activate a Steam beta, heres how to do it: [olist]

This update has been bubbling in the cauldron for quite some time, and we think it's finally tender enough for everyone to sink their teeth into. Thank you so much to everyone who has been helping us test this patch for the past couple of months - we've been able to resolve issues much faster than we would have done just by ourselves! We had hope to have full saving for AI colonies ready at this point but that hasn't been possible; that feature is still in the works and will hopefully appear soon. Other than that, we're good to go.

Headline Features

Freeplay Overhaul

• AI Colonies are available in freeplay (NOTE: activating these will currently disable freeplay saving)
  • They have Easy and Normal difficulty and can cheat (if you set them to) to create a greater challenge
  • Up to 3 AI colonies can be added, and can be enemies or allies
    The new freeplay setup screen, showing the AI options
• New freeplay map: Basin
  • Designed for 2v2 but can be played in any configuration
  • Map option adds in destructible barriers to open up new access routes on the map
    Basin in all its lush green glory
• New option: randomised caverns allow for a different underground setup every game!
• Freeplay game type selection allows quick and easy setups
  • Victory conditions, creatures and other options are automatically setup when selecting the game type
  • All other options can still be found in the tabs

New Extra Levels

• Excavators is now available to all in the extra levels section wait.. did that exclamation mark just move?? [previewyoutube=-rhmL4VfQhs;full][/previewyoutube]
• Tug Of War will be available at the end of November, an auto-battler against an AI

Other new features

• Finishing The Other Foot extra level will unlock the Counterpart Colony for use in freeplay
• More ramps have been added to Towhead to make it easier at the early stages
• Rework of pheromone trails. Ants will now leave the nest immediately and some will turn around on their way to form the trail [previewyoutube=9BQ2vdb4zGI;full][/previewyoutube]

Full Patch Notes

Fixes

• Fixed an issue where a loaded harvestmans leg could cause the game to crash
• Can no longer place markers for nest group underground via minimap
• Blocked side routes for the huge whip spider on Aggrandise (preventing your ants pathing through its chamber unintended)
• Fixed an issue where switching from evasive worker upgrade would leave the camouflage on
• Fixed an issue that could cause first wave to have no creatures in Extremis
• Fixed an issue where creatures spawned on lab formicarium 2 after returning from a mission could be stuck slightly in the ground. The friendly spiders will now immediately attack; F in comments for spiderbro :(
• Fixed a bug where reloading a freeplay game that has no manual save would cause the map to load in its default setup without workers or queen tiles
• Fixed an issue where leafcutters were climbing empty plant leaves
• Fixed an issue where the whip spider (and other large enemies) could potentially skip the line-of-sight check if switching targets while an enemy is actually visible (stops whip spider attacking ants above it on the ridge)
• Minor improvement to target acquisition efficiency for abilities
• Fixed an issue where only 20 refuse was removed when cancelling a build or upgrade job rather than the full amount that was created
• Check added to prevent save files read-only crash and appropriate error message given to player
• Fixed an issue where resource numbers could appear to float upwards when food drops close to and behind the camera
• Fixed an issue on 3.2 where army ant scouts would not move (this may fix other issues as well)
• When an ally uses a queen ability it now correctly says an ally used the queen ability instead of enemy
• Fixed an issue where the wrong music would play when playing more after 2.1
• Fixed a crash that would occur on The Other Foot when creatures got close to bridge edges (after the formicariums are connected)

Balance Changes

• Reduced point value of army ant media
• Leafcutter ant media buffed
  • Attack damage increased to 4.5 / 6 / 7 (up from 3 / 4.5 / 6)
  • Health increased to 100 / 115 / 130 (up from 90 / 105 / 120)
  • Speed increased to 310 / 320 / 330 (up from 300 / 300 / 300)
  • Piercing increased to 0.2 / 0.3 / 0.4 (up from 0.2 / 0.2 / 0.2)
• Wood ant melee buffed
  • Threat generation increased to 0.2 / 0.25 / 0.3 (up from 0.1 / 0.1 / 0.15)
  • Damage increased to 0.6 / 1.2 / 1.8 (up from 0.5 / 1 / 1.5)
  • Armour increased 0.2 / 0.4 / 0.6 (up from 0 / 0 / 0)
  • Distance values altered so they will get slightly closer to enemies before attacking (should allow other melee units the ability to get closer to the fight)
• Health regeneration on many melee units buffed
  • Leafcutter major, army ant major and slave maker ants health regen increased to 0.1 / 0.15 / 0.2 (up from 0.1 / 0.1 / 0.1)
  • Black ant, wood ant melee and leafcutter media health regeneration increased to 0.1 / 0.2 / 0.3 (up from 0.1 / 0.1 / 0.1)
• Rapid fire wood ants will now get in and out of attack mode much more quickly
• Reduced mortar arc height

Changes and Improvements

• Underground enemy "!" icons are now scaled based on how many points they provide. This should make it easier to gauge threats before attacking
• Ramp collision improvements
• Marker calculations have been improved (should be more responsive)
• Royal Guard are now immune to stun, confuse, pickup and execute
• Royal Guard health increased to 200 (up from 120)
• Infestation landmark is now defaulted to off
• Dropdown boxes in freeplay setup now display tooltips for each individual option when hovered over
• Freeplay now has an option to disable colonies entering one another (this turns on by default if playing Domination or Hunter game modes)
• Can now select which ubers you wish to spawn in freeplay

Performance

• Optimisations for creature movement
• Changes to how certain checks are done on the behaviour tree to improve performance
• Minor performance improvements on funnel web landmark (still needs more work)
• Improved honeydew resource performance
• When an egg hatches, the open egg and particle effect will only occur if the player is viewing that tile grid at the time (as will the hatch sound)

Mac & Linux are now included in the beta; we're very close to full release of this content for everyone.

• Reloading in freeplay now selects the correct loading screen for the map
• Root aphid clusters now spawn closer to the central point of interest in freeplay to prevent them spawning over cliff edges
• Fixed an issue where being at the south end of Excavators map would map the world bright
• Autosaves are now deleted when a game is deleted fixing an error that could try to load the wrong save into a freeplay level
• Killing an uber with a damage over time (DOT) effect will now count the kill towards victory objective Hunter
• Uber mole cricket now has 3000 food up from 30

"Sticky innards..... glorious feast..... hunger still gnawing.... appetite must be sated!"

This is hopefully the last release in this current beta before we move it to the main branch. Enjoy the new extra level, Excavators, that features spooky crickets lurking in the dark, grouping up to attack you! Were fairly sure thats the first time anyone has ever called crickets spooky, but yknow, tis the season. This will currently only affect you if you're participating in the optional beta. If youre not participating in the beta and would like to, please see the details in this link. Note that the beta is only available to Windows Steam owners.

• Extra level Excavators is now available to all wait.. did that exclamation mark just move???
• Fixed some minor underground tile graphical bugs
• Hungry Spider will no longer draw marker paths on the minimap
• Hungry Spider will now path on left click release rather than walk in a strait line to the location (if you hold down left mouse or right click it is still a straight line)
• Added in creature and food info toggles to the Hungry Spider levels (Halloween and Christmas)
• Tiles no longer highlight when hovered in the Hungry Spider levels
• Right clicking minimap is now disabled in hungry spider levels
• Creature scaling in freeplay now affects thorns and knock-back at 10% the rate of other stats
• Warning about AI colonies disabling save added into freeplay
• Thorns now includes a range check to the affected target so thorns cannot be applied from far away
• Fixed an issue where dead creatures would not show their food values
• Destructible barriers should save their state in Basin (when playing without AI colonies)

It's a bit overdue but due to popular demand we've set up an official Slug Disco Discord - and of course its main section is for Empires of the Undergrowth. If you'd like to talk with friendly, nature loving gamers about Empires of the Undergrowth (or the other two games in Slug Disco's portfolio - Ecosystem and Beetle Uprising) then this is the Discord for you. CLICK HERE for your Discord invite!

Thanks to everyone who has reported issues, this has allowed us to get to the bottom of them quickly! Some issues remain however the worst ones have been solved.

• Fixed a crash that would occur every time a save happened (such as starting a story colony or playing a story mission)
• Fixed an issue causing certain landmarks to float on the map Basin
• Fixed an issue in Tug Of War where ants were being sent home
• Fixed an issue where having map appropriate creatures set on Basin map would not always be rainforest creatures
• Fixed an issue where alliance starting points were not functional on map Towhead
• Fixed an issue with AI colonies markers sending ants home shortly after they get to surface
• Fixed a bug in freeplay setup where a setup is first saved it would not be selected from the menu but would act like it was
• New freeplay games with open the setup window with default settings now instead of trying to restore your previous settings (they have been issues with this functionality so it is being disabled until a fix can be found)

Weve updated the currently-running optional beta including a new freeplay map! - this will only affect you if you're participating in said currently-running optional beta, detailed in this post. New Features

• New freeplay map - Basin (This map is designed around a 2v2 match)
  • If you have a single ally, you will start in the same area and have quick access to each other's nests
  • This map also has destructible barriers at the top and bottom of the map which when destroyed open up new routes of attack (make sure the map option is on)
• Allied starting locations have been implemented on all freeplay maps (if possible allies in groups of two will be put next to one another)
• Towhead has had ramps added near each players nest, reducing both distance to landmarks and chance of being trapped by an enemy

• Markers rework
  • Ants will now all immediately leave the nest
  • In order to create trails some ant will turn around on their way to the destination and start coming home early
  • This video explains the changes: [previewyoutube=9BQ2vdb4zGI;full][/previewyoutube]

• Fixed a crash that would occur on the other foot level when creatures got close to bridge edges (after the formicariums are connected)

Some crash fixes for the optional beta today. This brings the beta version up to 0.22034. This will currently only affect you if you're participating in the optional beta. If youre not participating in the beta and would like to, please see the details in this link. Note that the beta is only available to Windows Steam owners.

• Fixed a crash that could occur at multiple places when a creature without AI (such as a queen or a harvestman leg) would reset its behaviour (such as when it is stunned)
• Fixed an issue that could occur in freeplay setup when the player does not have a formicarium colony. This would cause the game not to register any colonies being set ,including the players, and would crash when the game started
• Some fixes for marker issues introduced in the last patch - keep an eye out for any further issues with markers as there may still be some lingering ones

The latest changes to the optional beta have been released. This one includes an extensive overhaul of the freeplay setup menu as well as some extra features in freeplay, like randomised caverns below ground. This will currently only affect you if you're participating in the optional beta. If youre not participating in the beta and would like to, please see the details in this link. Note that the beta is only available to Windows Steam owners.

Headline Features

• Freeplay setup menu overhaul
  • This new menu allows faster setups of freeplay games with more focus given to other colonies and victory conditions
  • All options are still available and have been grouped into tabs
  • Games can be set up quickly through the game type dropdown which applies presets to options
• Randomised underground caverns in freeplay
  • When enabled, underground caverns are generated randomly on game start which hold basic resources and enemies. Resources and dangers can be altered in the game setup
• Domination and Hunter victory conditions in freeplay are now team based and are a race to beat the other colonies

Changes

• Work has been done on making marker behaviour more predictable (so if you move a marker to your queen or remove it all together it should now have similar effects)
  • We are aware of some bugs with the marker changes such as the ants getting stuck at markers that have been removed. We are working to resolve these as fast as possible
• Dropdown boxes in freeplay setup now display tooltips for each individual option when hovered if required
• Freeplay now has an option to disable colonies entering one another (this turns on by default if playing Domination or Hunter game modes)
• Reduced mortar arc height
• Can now select which ubers you wish to spawn in freeplay
• Easy AI colonies will no longer be more likely to attack the weakest player
• AI colonies should be more likely the gather nearby food than far away
• Freeplay will not allow the game to launch with Conquest as the victory condition if there are no enemy colonies
• Tug of War extra level now allows fighting within the tunnel exit so colonies can no longer sneak past one another

Fixes

• Fixed an issue preventing allied colonies defending one another
• Fixed an issue where allied colonies would defend one another even after queen death
• Fixed an issue where allied colonies would see their own presence in an allied nest as an enemy presence
• Fixed an issue where the wrong music would play when playing more after 2_1
• Possible fix for rapid fire wood ants strange behaviour when shooting and getting stuck

Performance

• Optimisations for creature movement
• Changes to how certain checks are done on the behaviour tree to improve performance
• Performance improvements on funnel web landmark
• Improved honeydew resource performance
• When an egg hatches, the open egg and particle effect will only occur if the player is viewing that tile grid at the time (as does the hatch sound)

The last couple of months have been focused on some complicated systems for the fire ants as well as some large changes to freeplay, which are currently in an optional beta for Steam Windows users (details below). Whilst complex from a game design point of view, the extensions to the movement systems needed for the fire ants is getting there. We're close to having the fire ant bridge building system the way we like it!
Uber vs Uber in this colourful shot from Steam user Kist7ck Whilst Liam and Matt are dealing with the complexities of fire ant systems, John has been adding some much-requested features to freeplay, most notable amongst them being AI colonies to battle against or with! Although they're in an early form right now, they will be improved on over time. Let's start this newsletter properly with details on the freeplay colonies.

AI Colonies in Freeplay

Fire Ant Progress

4th Tier Creature: Red Velvet Ant

Tug of War

Yogscast Tiny Teams

Screenshot Central

A small update to the currently-running optional beta has been released.

• Fixed an issue where allied queens could count towards conquest victory condition
• Altered rapid fire wood ants animation to fix an issue with them becoming stuck after attacking (there may still be issues with this; please let us know if you spot any)

A small update to the currently-running optional beta has been released. No new features in this one, just some fixes for common issues. This brings the version number to 0.22031.

• Disabled save on quit in freeplay when save should be disabled (currently save is disabled when playing with enemy colonies; the proper mechanisms for saving AI game states are not yet fully implemented)
• Prevented creatures attacking dead queens if it was a player that killed the queen in freeplay
• Fixed an issue where accepting advanced options in freeplay with the Counterpart Colony selected as your colony would turn it back to a Formica ereptor colony
• Fixed an issue on 3.2 where army ant scouts would not move (this may fix other issues as well)
• When an ally uses a queen ability it now correctly says an ally used the queen ability instead of enemy
• Fixed an issue in tug of war where placing tiles down in the first second would cause an egg to spawn on them instantly
• Fixed an issue where the enemy colony difficulty would flip to the other option (easy or normal) when opening the AI colony setup
• Fixed a crash that occurred when a medium AI colony tried to pause an attack

Weve updated the currently-running optional beta. As well as fixes and changes to the freeplay AI, this one also includes some rather extensive balance changes that will affect the campaign levels as well. Were particularly looking forward to feedback on these. This will currently only affect you if you're participating in the optional beta. If youre not participating in the beta and would like to, please see the details in this link. Note that the beta is only available to Windows Steam owners.

Freeplay and AI changes

• Easy AI Player added
  • Will not attack another colony for at least the first 20 minutes
  • Far less likely to attack another colony
  • Attacks on enemy colonies are shorter
  • Will wait longer between attacks
  • Makes decisions less often
• Medium AI Player added
  • Can regroup during an attack if it is going poorly (briefly pause an attack)
  • Can come to the aid of an ally if they have more than 10 enemies in their nest and are not currently attacking
• Raiding defeated colonies added
  • Players may now remain inside enemy colonies once they are defeated
  • Defeated players colony is dismantled at a rate of 1 tile per half second, dropping resources to the ground
  • These resources can be carried off by an opposing colony
• Players can now see into nests where allied ants are located

Balance Changes

• Lower difficulties of cheats starting base size and resources reduced slightly
• Leafcutter ant media buffed
  • Attack damage increased to 4.5 / 6 / 7 (up from 3 / 4.5 / 6)
  • Health increased to 100 / 115 / 130 (up from 90 / 105 / 120)
  • Speed increased to 310 / 320 / 330 (up from 300 / 300 / 300)
  • Piercing increased to 0.2 / 0.3 / 0.4 (up from 0.2 / 0.2 / 0.2)
• Wood ant melee buffed
  • Threat generation increased to 0.2 / 0.25 / 0.3 (up from 0.1 / 0.1 / 0.15)
  • Damage increased to 0.6 / 1.2 / 1.8 (up from 0.5 / 1 / 1.5)
  • Armour increased 0.2 / 0.4 / 0.6 (up from 0 / 0 / 0)
  • Distance values altered so they will get slightly closer to enemies before attacking (should allow other melee units the ability to get closer to the fight)
• Health regeneration on many melee units buffed
  • Leafcutter major, army ant major and slave maker ants health regen increased to 0.1 / 0.15 / 0.2 (up from 0.1 / 0.1 / 0.1)
  • Black ant, wood ant melee and leafcutter media health regeneration increased to 0.1 / 0.2 / 0.3 (up from 0.1 / 0.1 / 0.1)
• Rapid fire wood ants will now get in and out of attack mode much more quickly

Fixes

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

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

New Features

• Freeplay teams implemented - AI colonies in freeplay can now be assigned a team (including allied with the player)
• If the player places a marker on an enemy colony, AI allies will join the attack if it deems it sensible
• Allied players ping the minimap when they themselves are attacking an enemy colony to let the player know
• AI allies will join in each other's attacks on enemy colonies
• Conquest victory condition now takes into account allies
• Counterpart colony will now be available to play in freeplay once you beat extra level The Other Foot (you will need to beat it again if you already have done so; difficulty doesnt matter)

Changes

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

Bug Fixes

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

An update to the currently running beta has been released - this will only affect you if you're participating in the currently-running optional beta, detailed in this post. Here are the notes for this beta release:

• Fixed an issue where formicarium colonys territory and jelly were set to zero and tunnel exit closed. (If you saved a formicarium in this state we advise restoring it from a backup, detailed here)
• Fixed an issue where Tug of War map would display formicarium rewards at the end
• Enemy ants should no longer provide vision in freeplay with Fog of War active
• Fixed an issue where freeplay enemy colonies unit selection was the opposite of what was chosen
• Fixed the game icon

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

It's a regular query, but we imagine not many of you here on Steam know the answer. We are often asked how big our team size is, and that's a very valid question - it affects many things about a game's development cycle. In our case, the answer is three - three developers on a very ambitious project that is laden with pitfalls. Despite the extra difficulties in being very small, really neat things can come from tiny teams - we'd like to think that Empires of the Undergrowth, for all its small-team shortcomings (our big updates take a long time, but you're all super understanding!) is a quality game worthy of your time investment. There are many other indie devs that operate solo or in tiny teams, and some of the best works of this generation of gaming have come from that. The Yogscast agree with us. We've been selected to be a part of their Tiny Teams games festival, which is running from 8PM BST tonight (9th August) until the 15th. It'll be highlighting and celebrating the very small teams (a core team of 1-3) who produce amazing things with limited resources. As well as this Steam event, the Yogscast will be running tie-in Twitch streams to go along with the festival. Empires of the Undergrowth will feature. Join the Yogscast stream at https://www.twitch.tv/yogscast. We'll see you in Twitch chat! Also for you guys who don't visit the forum very often - here's a very early work-in-progress of fire ants building bridges with their own bodies. [previewyoutube=-3-R2l0Q_vk;full][/previewyoutube]

Did you think your colony was the only one the scientists have been giving a hard time? How would things look from the perspective of the counterpart Formica ereptor colony - the one that has been providing feeder ants for the primary colony to fight against in its challenges? [previewyoutube=8g4_siq7UwA;full][/previewyoutube] It's time for some payback! In The Other Foot, you take command of the counterpart colony, controlling different units such as army ants, trap jaws and slave makers. To start off with, you'll need to provide workers for the scientist's diabolical experiments, working through challenges 1 and 2 before finally reaching the ultimate goal - the defeat of the primary colony in challenge 3. Considering the context of this level, we do not recommend you play it until you've completed formicarium challenge 3. Change history - because this time, the shoe is on The Other Foot. Available now in the Extra Levels menu!

During the last few weeks we've been able to really crack on with the fire ant update. After the long and arduous process that was re-designing the game's movement code from the ground up, we're really glad to be concentrated nearly solely on our Solenopsis invicta ants and all the accompanying flora and fauna that will bring them to life. As is always the case when we add a new formicarium tier to the game, there are several new systems that have to be designed and those are also in the works.
Taking down an uber Spiny Devil from Steam user BrickyGraph631 It's important to note that although this newsletter will concentrate mainly on the fire ant update, as a matter of policy we do not do estimates for the timings of our updates. That's because historically we've been pretty terrible at even guessing these, and given the small size of our team it's better for us to be 100% sure we can hit a deadline before we announce it. At the moment the best we can say is it's a while off yet, but as soon as we have a date we'll be very loud about broadcasting it!

Fire Ant Models / Animation

Fire Ant Sizes

Fire Ant Bridges & Water Traversing

"In anticipation of floating fire ants in the next update we have been tacking on some upgrades to our new movement systems to allow creatures to do a few things that were previously impossible. While we were at it, it seemed a shame to have the realm of water limited to fire ants and so we loosened the rules a bit to potentially support a few other water-faring critters."
"To start with, the navigation rules in the game have always been based on a single, connected, immovable mesh (a structure that informs the navigation system). This was the first problem to overcome as if water is a walkable surface it could create routes to previously unconnected zones. Now instead of being connected or disconnected, meshes are now members of zones that can be linked or separated. Next, we needed to account for water being able to rise and fall. On the campaign levels Rising Tide and Queen of the Hill, the water is very dynamic and we wanted to be able to keep this sort of movement as an option. The plan at the moment is to do this with multiple static layers of mesh, rather than having a single layer of movable mesh. Layers are generated for every height the water is expected to reach and baked into the level data (baked here means pre-calculated and included in the level file)."

Fire Ant Abilities

Can it be done? Formicarium Challenge 2

Screenshot Central

A new extra level is available now for Empires of the Undergrowth - Extremis. The aim is to survive all the waves - but you won't do it first time. After you die, you are given a number of points (based on how far you got) to unlock new units for your army the next time you play! You might need to reinforce your colony with some wood ant ranged units, or save up for the mighty tanks of the leafcutters! [previewyoutube=bty83tsLaQ0;full][/previewyoutube] To find the new level, choose "Other Modes" from the main menu, then "Extra Levels". Please note that your game client will not need to update to unlock Extremis - it will be present in version 0.2131.

Some fairly significant balance changes for the game in todays patch, as well as important updates to localisation and a bunch of fixes and minor changes, all detailed below! Thanks to Raptorr575 for the screenshot used in the artwork for this post!

Language

• Updated translations for Russian, German, Chinese and Spanish
• Fixed some interface element issues that could occur in some languages

Changes / Balance

• Story now always highlights if the player does not have a formicarium colony
• Small army ants (media) now cost 3 to hatch down from 5 (this will affect both formicarium challenge 3 and an upcoming extra level)
• The Evasive worker ability now avoids damage 60% of the time down from 95% and the workers are now camouflaged (enemy creatures need to be a lot closer to see them)
• Leaf landmarks in freeplay now regenerate every 5 minutes up from 4
• Aggrandise balance: Hard and Insane mode now have slightly more food available (an extra 10% of each creatures base level food)
• Aggrandise balance: The fish provides 50 more food in Insane and 100 more food in Hard
• Aggrandise balance: Woodlice and woodworm will not wander about and are located closer to the players starting location
• Aggrandise balance: There is now a 3 tile wide access route between the player and the huge whip spider. If it or its two bodyguards are disturbed they will all now attack the players queen
• Freeplay now has an autosave feature. The time between saves can be set from the options menu. When loading a freeplay save you can choose to load the most recent save, the autosave or the manual save. Load most recent save from the in-game menu will now load whichever of those is most recent

Fixes

• Tooltip for allied colony minimaps no longer says you need to be in their colony to see them
• Fixed an issue where the new ubers had incorrect (low) food values and too few harvesting points
• Pebbles will now be removed from web landmarks even in loaded games
• Fixed some issues with ants falling through ramps
• Fixed an issue where sometimes in freeplay egg collection would take multiple attempts
• Moved a problematic pebble in 2.1
• Fixed an issue with player starting ants being grey in an upcoming extra level
• Balance changes and fixes for upcoming extra levels
• Fixed an issue where the nest group marker could be placed via the minimap
• Fixed an issue on 2.1 where a voice line was not playing
• Creatures that do not wander such as wolf spiders can no longer stay still if they are inside a nest entrance (fixes the issue on Baby Sitting with the wolf spider hiding in the allied nest entrance)
• Potential fix for ladybirds being harvestable after they have flown away
• Fixed an issue in freeplay setup where play difficulty would not change if changed from advanced game setup
• Fixed an issue on 2.2 where a ramp near an enemy colony was trapping ants (the dreaded BOX 4 has been removed)
• Collision updated for cliff edges; should mitigate some movement issues
• Movement robustness improved around ramps (gaps should be removed)
• Fixed an issue allowing players to name their colony with the same name twice (or no name)

Welcome to our March / April 2020 newsletter! First of all, I'll address the corona-elephant in the room and hope that you and your families are staying safe during the lockdown. Let's all remember to be kind to everyone, especially to ourselves, during this pandemic. Let's hope things return to normal in a safe and steady manner. Play some video games, read a book, keep in touch with your loved ones, stay indoors when you can. Now, on to slightly more cheerful matters - including a new game that is joining Ecosystem as a Slug Disco publishing project - Beetle Uprising!
Uber wolf spider from Steam user fetisov.a

The 0.21 Update

More Extra Levels - Baby Sitting & Beyond

Fire Ant Progress - Location, Plant & Critter Species

Venus Flytrap

Bombardier Beetle

Introducing: Beetle Uprising

Community Screenshot Saturday

Screenshot Central

For patch 0.213 weve addressed some issues that have come up in the past few weeks - in particular one which has prevented new content (the 4 jungle uber creatures) from appearing. Freeplay map Towhead has seen a fair few changes - increased landmark numbers and some new paths. Also a bunch of quality-of-life changes in this one.
Towhead has seen several changes this time round

Freeplay Fixes and Changes

• Solved a bug preventing the 4 new ubers showing up in freeplay (they would be announced but not show)
• Landmark spawn rate with leafcutters reduced down to 200% (from 250%) as it was filling all available landmark spots causing landmark droughts on some maps
• Leaves now regenerate every 4m down from 5m
• Increased the number of landmark locations on Towhead by about 8 (and shuffled some around)
• Added a couple of central crossing paths into Towhead to allow better access to the new landmark locations from all spawn points
• Funnel web landmarks no longer spawn pebbles (eliminates a bug making ramps inaccessible if the web spawns near one)
• Fixed an issue where creatures could end up stuck on top of your nest in freeplay
• Uber spawn chance increased when playing Hunter victory condition
• Creative mode now automatically spends resources allowing you to harvest resources if you wish
• Wave number will no longer increase if defeated before the timer for the next wave starts in freeplay
• Added option in freeplay to disable difficulty increase when approaching victory
• Renamed a couple of difficulty options in freeplay
• Uber spawns now cause a minimap ping
• Funnel web landmark despawn timer will tick down 4x as fast if all its inhabitants are dead
• Funnel web spiders will not be given targets until they reach their nest
• Besieged victory now occurs on final wave defeat rather than just before spawn
• You can no longer save the game during an attack wave

Other Fixes and Changes

• Achievement fail and success messages are now off by default and can be turned on from an option in the menu or from the scoreboard (achievement tracking)
• Added a widget to the main menu that will show up after you have completed the campaign and will highlight games made by our friends (only on Steam)
• Fixed a bug that could break formicarium challenge 2 if you kill the tube spawning ants too quickly after they spawn
• Fixed a bug that could cause a green riser to appear if you cancel a dig job the moment a cavern is tunnelled out
• Fixed more issues with creatures or food getting stuck under ramps
• Funnel web now has immunities to several crowd control effects
• Hungry Spider projectile is now visible again
• Hungry Spider mouse movement should feel a lot smoother however it no longer paths around walls so you need to manually manoeuvrer it
• Fixed an issue where Hungry Spider bite and venom strike were doing less damage than intended further from the centre of the attack
• Creatures with low visual range can now see enemies that attack them from further away
• Fixed some text issues
• Fixed an issue that could cause aphids to float (sometimes very high in the sky) when ladybirds attempt to pick them up
• Ladybirds will no longer try and escape once they have started picking up an aphid (they will escape after anyway)
• Fixed an issue with brood tile hotkeys not functioning correctly
• Massively reduced issues with chamber rep panel thinking the mouse is hovering over a chamber when it is not (worse at lower FPS)

There's a new Empires of the Undergrowth extra level available now! In Baby Sitting, you have an AI-controlled sister colony. They're very plucky, but not that bright. You'll have to make sure they don't bite off more than they can chew and keep them out of trouble! Both queens must survive to win the level. To find the new level, choose "Other Modes" from the main menu, then "Extra Levels". Good luck! [previewyoutube=1b9Xx4onP5A;full][/previewyoutube] Note: your game client will not need to update for this level to be unlocked.

For many months we have been working hard on improving movement in Empires of the Undergrowth, and this patch represents successes in this area but also a bunch of content and quality-of-life changes that we hope you will be pleased with. Thanks so much for those of you who have helped out during the beta phase for this update; were very glad to be able to release it for everyone! [previewyoutube=ErWhxEVW3ss;full][/previewyoutube]

Headline Features

Updated Movement Code

Freeplay Overhaul

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

Extra Levels

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

Third Tier Challenge Mode

First Tier Achievements

Optimisation and Balance

Optimisations

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

Balance

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

Selected Improvements

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

Selected Fixes

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

Last bits of balance and fixes! Just a very short test to make sure nothing weve added or fixed causes any major issues - and then this should be the last one before we set it on the main branch. Hang tight just a little longer if youve been waiting for the beta to finish! This beta now includes Mac, Linux and Win32 builds if anyone would like to test for them! For those familiar with how to activate a beta password the word is christmasants. For more detailed instructions see this post on the forum. Thanks to ant27rex for the screenshot used in the header and cover of this post!

Balance - Baby Sitting

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

Fixes

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

We're entering the final stages of beta testing for the 0.21 update now - and for the first time in the game this update introduces achievements! The first batch (formicarium tier 1) are present here - more will follow suit later down the line. Weve also done some fairly extensive balancing. This is an optional beta - if youd like to join the beta whilst its still running, follow the instructions in the box near the top of this previous post. If you're already on the beta branch you won't need to do this; the game should update by itself. Thanks so much to everyone who has helped us test this large update; were nearly there now! NOTE: The beta will only run on Windows. Once we've finished the beta period Mac and Linux will get the full finished update! Thanks to whoamijr for the screenshot used for the header and cover of this post!

Achieving Balance

Headline Features

• Achievements are now active on Steam for the first tier of the formicarium. Note you will currently only be able to get these in the beta
• Some level balance changes, more details below

Balance Changes

Aggrandise

• Raised the cost of trap jaw ant build to 90 (up from 60)
• Added black ants to the players build options to give a mid-way unit now trap jaw cost has been increased so much

3.2 Front Line

• On higher difficulties less patrolling creatures appear
• On higher difficulties more level 2 and 3 army ants will appear

Formicarium Challenge 3

• Reduced the number of resource refills the enemy colony receives across various difficulties (now 0/1/2/4 down from 0/1/5/10)
• Reduced reload quantity to 1800 (down from 2000)
• Resource reloads will now appear gradually (10 per second) rather than instantly
• Reduced size of cricket drops on harder difficulties

General

• A couple of achievement times adjusted for balance reasons
• Creatures set to attack player when damaged now only attack the first player that attacked them and do not switch

Fixes

• Food reservation now affects leaves and harvestable creatures, so you will not harvest from these unless there is space available for ants to reserve a slot to place them
• Minor change to a web on 1.2 allowing the spider to see other ants that are on top of its nest
• Fixed another resource pickup issue that could cause an ant to get stuck trying to pick up a resource
• Funnel web spider can no longer be introduced after its death has been announced in 1.2
• Fixed an issue where leaves could be dropped in a way that made them inaccessible around nest entrances
• Fixed an issue with recent changes to mole crickets that made them spawn on the same spot (and could crash)
• Fixed an issue that could occur with harvesters when harvesting was turned off (they could walk back and forth to the thing they were previously harvesting for a time)
• Fixed some bugs with achievements in 1.2
• Resources dropped from deleting tiles now correctly display food values and appear on the minimap
• Fixed an issue where ubers were still invading with invasions turned off (again!)
• Moved some food in the old demo levels to be in caverns
• Fix added for water rising on low frame rates that could cause it to overshoot (sometimes enough to kill ants coming out of their nest)
• Fixed an issue where an ant could briefly be given a job as it was heading to the surface, causing its AI to break and not move when it reached the surface
• Potential fix for ants locking out harvesting of plant from a long distance away
• Minor adjustments in food size in critters to help flickering
• Fixed a bug with plant disembarking
• Leaf sizes are now more sensible in 3.1
• Fixed a rare crash that could occur in pathfinding
• Fixed an issue where an ant targeted by a funnel web that was killed could not be targeted by another until ants stopped entering the nest

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

Freeplay Balance Changes

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

Fixes and Optimisations

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

A bug fixing update for the optional beta, dealing mainly with the fallout from reintroducing the story campaign back into it. Were homing in on having this update ready for the main branch but if youd like to join the beta whilst its still running, follow the instructions in the box near the top of this previous post!

Fixes & Optimisations

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

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.
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

• 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
• Hunter - kill a set number of uber creatures
• Besieged - survive a set number of attack waves

Movement Code

Twitch Highlight - CnRNaggarock

Screenshot Central

We're not far from concluding the beta testing for this upcoming large update - withj 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: [quote]To access the beta, follow the below steps: [olist]

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. https://steamcommunity.com/games/463530/announcements/detail/1705107447279697254

General and Extra Level Fixes and Balance Changes

• 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

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

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. https://steamcommunity.com/games/463530/announcements/detail/1705107447279697254 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 minors 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!

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. [url=https://steamcommunity.com/games/463530/announcements/detail/1705107447279697254]Follow the instructions in the original beta post for details of how to participate. https://steamcommunity.com/games/463530/announcements/detail/1705107447279697254

Changes / Bug Fixes

• Added an option slider for a darkened square behind resource counters for visibility
• Fixed a problem with creatures moving on z axis when they shouldnt
• 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

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! If you haven't participated in the beta yet and would like to join in, it is still open to all Windows owners on Steam. Follow the instructions in the previous post about the beta.

New Maps

• 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

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!

How to Access the Beta

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 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][/previewyoutube] 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.

Autumn (or fall if you're that way inclined) has well and truly began to take a hold in our part of the world. The nights are drawing in, the temperature is dropping and there is some fun stuff being worked on for Empires of the Undergrowth. Or boring technical stuff, depending on your point of view. Either way, we shall detail it here for your perusal!
Nighttime crab hunting from Steam user Bald Hippo z With there not being much in the way of visual newness at the moment (a large majority of the recent work has been on systems and algorithms rather than artwork) I asked each of our three developers to give me some background information about what they've been working on. John has been expanding current systems to handle the upcoming fire ants, Liam has been finishing off his overhaul of the movement code, and Matt has been working on a long-anticipated feature, the titan climbing system!

Titans of the Undergrowth - Matt

Movement Code - Liam

Fire Ants and Extra Missions - John

Breaking Your Own Rules

Extremis

Screenshot Central

With the summer coming to a close we thought we'd publish another newsletter for you guys. This time we'll be talking about a few extra systems we've been working on (such as achievements) as well as talking about us as a company taking the intrepid steps into working with some other indie developers. So, we'll be introducing Tom and his game Ecosystem a bit further down!
A dramatic shot of leafcutters battling wood ants in freeplay from Steam user hugo27rex

Getting There - Updated Systems

Achievements

Extra Levels: Holdout Extreme

Publishing

Introducing: Ecosystem

YouTuber Highlight: TheGamingBeaver

Screenshot Central

All Steam users of Empires of the Undergrowth now have access to cloud saving! From now on, your games are backed up automatically to the cloud when you exit the game. This means that for people who log in on another system or those who come back to the game after changing their setup, the saved games they've made should always be ready for after launching the game from Steam. Cloud saving is enabled by default. The only issue we foresee is people who have different saved games on multiple systems - if Steam detects a discrepancy between the local files and the cloud ones it will ask you if you wish to push your local saves to the cloud or download from the cloud, overwriting the local. In these cases you can choose which to save, or disable cloud saving for EotU on machines you do not wish to be overwritten.

We are now deep into our open-engine surgery of the game which will streamline and reduce computational overheads allowing for bigger armies, faster frame rates and smarter enemies. We detailed this a fair bit last time. Whilst this is happening we've also been working on a new, hopefully regular feature that will be debuting along with the next large update - extra missions!
An ereptor colony takes on a wolf spider from appropriately-named Steam user wolf

Extra Missions

4th Tier

Optimisations - Path Finding

Recent Changes

• Profiling additions on tick
  • This is Matt, our engine specialist, adding things into the code that help him find out exactly where excess calculations are being performed. In Unreal Engine 4 terms, a "tick" is a complete cycle of the program loop so things that tick perform calculations every frame the game runs. By eliminating as many of these as possible CPU processes are reduced, frame rates increase, and the world becomes a happier place. Ultimately, these rounds of profiling make the game better for everyone.
• Optimisations to the chamber representation widget
  • "Widgets" are a feature of UE4 we use for user interface and HUD elements. The process of profiling and optimising happens throughout the project, and this is another case of processes being refined and streamlined for faster performance.
• Re-working of creature overlap detection
  • A recent change has meant that creatures aren't constantly checking to see if they're overlapping other things (which is quite expensive for the CPU if it's happening every tick). Instead, John has recently gone through the code to see exactly where overlap calls are important, and by running the overlap detection functions only at these times a considerable number of calculations can be cut down.
• Minimap optimisations
  • More work by Matt. The minimap is a remarkably complex thing to do correctly and there are lots of avenues to making it more efficient, so these changes will contribute to the overall efficiency savings.

Screenshot Central

Just a little interim news post in lieu of the full newsletter to let you guys know we're still working hard! We're currently in the midst of lots of deep, boring changes to the code that don't produce much in the way of visual excitement. Expect the newsletter in a few days!
A work-in-progress shot of a side mission John has been streaming what will become a feature starting from the next big update - regular side missions! The idea here is to give you guys more regular content that doesn't have the huge scope of the main missions, whilst also giving you a way of building up formicarium resources without too much replaying. More info to come with the full newsletter, but check out the streams on YouTube. https://youtu.be/VkOMXg5sT-w Liam has been working on new path finding algorithms (remember what I said about deep boring stuff!) to speed things up a bit, and Matt has been combing through the code to find all the nooks and crannies where unneeded calculations are being done. This is all in service of allowing things like larger army sizes (those fire ant colonies have a lot of ants!) and smoother framemrates for everyone. It's an important step before we go charging headlong into the 4th tier, and as always we appreciate the infinitely patient bunch of lovely people that is our community. https://youtu.be/NckJFg3WRoQ To finish, just a reminder that if you'd like more regular updates then follow out social media! We'll be posting screenshots on Saturday, letting you know when we go live for some development streaming, and getting up to all sorts of ant-related things. http://www.twitter.com/SlugDisco http://www.facebook.com/SlugDisco http://www.twitch.tv/SlugDisco

To start with, a small distraction from the main event - Steam have recently held a summer promotion whereby leaving reviews gains you points. The recent reviews have been pushed into "overwhelmingly positive" territory - and we recognise that's directly down to you guys. Thank you so much! Now, on to the actual content of the newsletter!
Leafcutters doing their thing in this widescreen shot from Steam user Himmuguegeli We've recently had a meeting to discuss the direction for the rest of the game. We were almost entirely sure of what the next playable ants would be, and the meeting has cemented that decision. Many other things were also decided, and they will have an impact on both the long-term and short-term development of the game.

Fire Ants

Optimisation

• Significant increase in performance
• Algorithm responsible for stuck creatures removed
• Reduced overheads for future enemy colonies
• Much more viable to have larger armies

Freeplay Update

Kickstarter Reward - Myrmecia ereptor

YouTuber Highlight - Snootz TV

Screenshot Central

It's been just over a month since we unleashed our first major update for Empires of the Undergrowth - the Leafcutter Update - upon the world. We've worked through most of the glitches and balance issues now, and it's been a joy to see you guys have fun with the new additions to the game. Feedback has been almost entirely positive and we're so happy that you guys seem to be enjoying it!
Leafcutter trail from Steam user Jynn This newsletter will cover some of the issues that have come back in the immediate fallout, go through what we've added since the update in a bit more detail, and discuss what's going to happen in the immediate future.

The Leafcutter Update

Colony-vs-Colony

Direction of the Game

New Additions

Demo Level - The Crucible

UI Additions

Localisation

Performance Improvements

What Comes Next

Changes to Freeplay

Formicarium Tier 4

YouTuber Highlight - Smash GaminG!! - Frazzz

Screenshot Central

This is mostly a bug fix patch (should be the last before the freeplay update barring game breaking bugs) but also includes the final support for simplified Chinese and a couple of minor features. As always do let us know if you find any bugs and we will continue to squash them as they come in! Localisation

• Added the final simplified Chinese interface translations
• Removed the default English setting, allowing those with localised languages to default to their language (German or simplified Chinese)
• Purchase confirm dialogue now fits better with localised languages
• Repositioned some victory / defeat widgets to prevent overlap with subtitles
• Added a couple of missing German translations strings

• Level setup dialogue no longer disappears off the bottom of the screen in certain languages with certain options
• Fixed an impenetrable tile visual
• Modified main menu textures so they do not stream (will appear full resolution when they appear)
• Graphical overlay now correctly shows the positive upgrade points coming from speed tiles
• Minor improvement of the positioning of numbers from tile upgrade overlay
• Food will no longer fall through the formicarium on load, and food lost due to falling should be moved to the surface on load
• Fixed an issue where the queen could get stuck doing the flinch animation
• Fixed a crash that could happen when drawing the resource overlay
• Fixed an issue where ants could get stuck inside formicarium plants and objects if fighting near them
• Possible fix for floating de-buff issue (please let us know if this is still occurring)
• Fixed an issue where rainforest creatures could only spawn in freeplay of woodlouse was set to spawn
• AI effects (such as stun or confuse) now force creatures to drop any other creature they are carrying (fixed praying mantises walking around with creatures in front of them)
• If carrying a creature but not using an ability, the creature is now dropped
• Removed food gathering from ants spawned into the formicarium through the post gate level spawner
• Possible fix for an issue where a tile was unbuild-able on after digging it out
• Upon finishing challenge 3 the players queen is restored to full health. If somehow a queen has died and the game has saved that queen will be respawned on load in the formicarium
• All sizes of whip spider capsule sizes reduced a lot (this prevents them spawning on top of objects when dropped into the formicarium but also meant more of them can get into a fight)
• Fixed a bug with pressing a tab after an overlay button