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Optional Beta Invite - ON NOW! - Freeplay AI Overhaul, Beach Art & Story Balance

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

If you would like to join the beta, the code is newbeachtesters. If you dont know how to join a beta and would like to, follow the instructions below: [quote][olist]

Find Empires of the Undergrowth in your Steam library, right-click on it and choose "Properties"

Choose the "Betas" tab

In the box titled "Enter beta access code to unlock private betas", enter newbeachtesters

After the "Access code correct" information appears, make sure you've chosen "Open beta" from the "Select the beta you would like to opt into" drop-down menu

Press close - the game will now update to the beta branch [/olist][/quote]

Patch Notes

Headline Features

Smarter AI - much cleverer freeplay AI! Itll give you a run for your jelly.
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, along with the new Skirmish streamlined setup mode.

Freeplay AI completely reworked
- Much more intelligent building & food collection priority
- Assist 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 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

Most levels in the campaign have been changed. In general, in the 1.x & 2.x levels aggressive creatures drop less food, whilst environmental food is increased. In the 4.x levels, aggressive creatures drop slightly more food. The 1.x, 2.x & 4.x levels should now feel fairly consistent in that regard. There are many other changes, too.

All beach, forest & rainforest creatures have had their food quantity recalculated & reduced
All swamp creatures have had food quantities increased to bring them in line with the new values in the rest of the game

1.1 New Home & 1.2 Subjugation

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

2.1 Rising Tide & 2.2 Queen of the Hill

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

3.2 Front Line

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

4.1 Cold Blood & 4.2 A Bridge Too Far

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

Artwork Changes

The beach environment has been updated to bring it up to the fidelity of the more recent swamp & rotting log environments. 2.1, 2.2 & the freeplay / custom game maps The Dunes & Towhead all use these new assets.
New decorative beach assets: flowering bindweed, 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

In this update, many more creatures can be climbed and mounted by your ants - not just the very largest creatures! As a general rule of thumb, most creatures as big or larger than a large tiger beetle can be climbed - but there are some exceptions. Smaller mountable enemies cannot be climbed by larger ants - for example, a leafcutter major cannot climb a wolf spider. Ants mounted on enemies deal bonus damage, and apply a damage buff to allies attacking the creatures from the ground. There are circumstances where you may be better off disabling enemy mounting, however - if speed is an issue, it takes ants time to climb up and down larger creatures, and if a creature despawns with ants still on it those ants will be lost. The pine woods tree frog is currently unmountable (we intend to change this before this update leaves the optional beta phase).

Extra Levels & Festive Levels

All festive levels are now active for testing - access these by clicking on the spider web for Hungry Spider, the gift for Festive Spider, and the hanging lantern for New Years Feast. These will be reverted to their timed form when this update leaves beta.

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 (augmentations, 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

[ 2023-07-07 22:01:23 CET ] [ Original post ]

Empires of the Undergrowth

Slug Disco Studios Developer

Slug Disco Studios Publisher

2017-12-01 Release

Strategy Simulation Singleplayer EA Tags

GameBillet: 15.00 €

Game News Posts: 212

🎹🖱️Keyboard + Mouse

Very Positive (13017 reviews)

http://www.eotugame.com

Steam Store

The Game includes VR Support

Public Linux Depots:

Empires of the Undergrowth Depot Linux [2.13 G]

"Your queen has set up home beneath a rotting log. She is fat, and vulnerable. Her first brood will need to move quickly if the colony is to survive. Their priority now is to find food, and there is plenty around; but there are other hungry creatures in the undergrowth. The workers will need to be vigilant."

Empires of the Undergrowth is an ant colony management game, in a fast-paced real-time strategy style. The player excavates their nest underground, constructing tunnels and chambers to store food and raise brood. On the surface, the ants claim territory, gather resources, overwhelm fearsome arachnids and clash with other colonies. Nest design, army size, composition and attack timing are key to securing victory.

Carve out and construct your underground nest to suit your strategy
Engage in fast-paced colony versus colony combat above ground
Play as different ant species and explore their unique traits and weaknesses
Encounter and overpower dangerous beetles, arachnids and other awesome arthropods
Grow your pet formicarium over time by completing missions

MINIMAL SETUPOS: Any reasonable new Linux distro (Ubuntu 16.04)
Processor: Intel Core i3-4340 / AMD FX-6300Memory: 4 GB RAM
Memory: 4 GB RAM
Graphics: nVidia GeForce GTX 660 2GB / AMD Radeon HD 7850 2GB
Storage: 2 GB available space

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