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