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

The Empires of the Undergrowth roadmap gets updated every six months, with the optimistic thought that one of them may unexpectedly be the last one we have to do. Is this that one? We dont know probably not, but hope springs eternal as they say. Feast your arthropod-hungry eyes on this beauty, as we then go through each step in turn:
Now I am become roadmap, destroyer of deadlines A couple of changes from the last one include using year quarters to refer to time instead of seasons to help our friends in the southern hemisphere, and giving a slightly longer explanation at each station. If theres no ballpark date on a step then thats because were not comfortable putting one there just yet, although we are aiming to get everything done as swiftly as we can. The ordering and timing is, as always, subject to change.

New Achievements

First up is achievements. These have been thoroughly detailed in both the previous newsletter and the most recent vlog, so Ill keep this section brief. In short, more than 100 new achievements are being added for all of the existing campaign and seasonal levels. We still intend to run an optional beta on Steam to test out some of these, and with any luck well have some news on this very soon keep your face orbs unshrouded.

New Custom Game Maps

A while back we held a contest to design a custom game / freeplay map for Empires of the Undergrowth, picking one winner from YouTube / Discord entries and another from Bilibili. We had a good time going over the finalists (in a pre-recorded video for the Bilibili one and a fun livestream for the YouTube one) and ultimately settled on our winners Strawclutch, and Imprisoned. [previewyoutube=mFpXtCyphGI;full][/previewyoutube] We have already very nearly completed work on bringing these designs to the game our level designer John has built them, and our environment artist DanC has decorated them. So, lets talk about each one in turn.

Strawclutch

Strawclutch (designed by Noctazar) will, at least in its skirmish form, be a fast-paced map with short overall playtime. The four colony spaces are in close proximity to each other, and in the very middle of the map is a large growth of aphid-bearing milkweed plants. These act as the main food source when played as a skirmish game, and there will be early and repeated quarrels as the colonies vie for control of this territory.
Clutching at straws in the middle of the winning map design by Noctazar

Imprisoned

Our Bilibili winner is called Imprisoned (designed by ), and it features a locking mechanism that will put colonies in direct conflict with each other only periodically, as the water level changes. This had to be adapted somewhat from the original concept to work without fire ant bridges (see later in the roadmap for more information about that) but the basic premise remains the same for most of the time in this map, colonies can only get to each other via a long road, but with the change of the water level there will be fighting.
A lot going on in Imprisoned by It was a lot of fun running this contest and theres a very strong possibility of us doing more stuff like this in the future, perhaps post-release as part of ongoing content after we reach version 1.0. There is one more custom game map coming along at the time of this update: Sand Spit, which is designed for 3v1 setups. We detailed this map more back in the July newsletter so have a look back there for some more detailed information (and some pictures). All 3 of these maps will be coming simultaneously, and with any luck will be part of the upcoming beta test that focuses on the achievements as well. For anyone wondering about other work-in-progress custom game maps that weve shown glimpses of, such as Archipelago and Wetlands they are dependent on fire ant bridging being completed for custom games and well discuss more about this later on.

New Years Feast Updates

The New Years Feast event level will be returning in January and February to coincide with Chinese New Year with a whole bunch of achievements attached. This time around well be making a bit more of an event of it, too with some new cosmetic updates to make the map a bit more thematically pleasing, as well as a much-needed balance pass to bring the map up to speed with the food rebalancing that happened back with the 0.31 update. [previewyoutube=5Kz-w3A_4k0;full][/previewyoutube] For those of you who havent played it yet its a whimsical themed level based around fire ants collecting ingredients for a hotpot, with an explosive twist and a fantastical ending. Check out the trailer above for a preview the level will reappear on January 8th, marking its return with a lantern in the main menu.

Further Custom Game AI Changes

Version 0.31 of the game introduced some sweeping changes to the way AI colonies worked in a freeplay / custom game. Whilst theyve been successful in lots of ways, its clear that there are some further things we can do to make it more effective without too much cheating.
In the UE4 Editor, AI colonies look like this for reasons that no-one but Liam knows One of the issues weve had recently is quite simply just playtime taking time to play the mode exhaustively ourselves outside of the context of just having it working or fixing it. We spend all of our time developing and playing in chunks we listen to a lot of external feedback from testers and players, and implement it based on general consensus. However, this is often lacking the personal context of lots of time just spent playing for the sake of playing. Our devs have gained good momentum on tier 5 right now and we dont want to disrupt that so weve put aside several days in the new year to do nothing but play custom games and take notes. Rather than immediately run off and fix every issue we come across, as is usually the case with development work, we will absorb the experience in its entirety. We hope this will give us some sounder knowledge for what we should prioritise in making the mode work better.

Tier 4 Challenge Mode

This is another thing that weve spoken about extensively before, so Ill be brief right now tier 4 challenge mode is waiting for the aforementioned tier 5 momentum wave to crest. Once that spike of activity reaches its zenith and dies back down again, the six-spotted fishing spider will finally make its long-awaited appearance, wearing its pirate hat if you want it to.
Yarrr!

Fire Ant Bridging

Fire ant bridging in custom levels is tricky for several reasons. How do we handle multiple colonies competing for the bridging spot, for the most obvious example these problems have been mostly solved, but the more time-consuming issue of allowing fire ant bridges to be save-able in a custom game has not. Once it has been, fire ant bridging will be introduced to appropriate maps.

New Extra Levels / Custom Game maps

We will inevitably hit a period of time where were getting everything finalised and ready, ramping up the marketing effort and preparing for the very scary task of bringing our first project to full release for the entire world. How long this ends up being is complete guesswork right now, but it is likely that at this time there will be enough of a gap to squeeze in an extra level / custom game map or two. John (level designer) told me recently that hes had some ideas that hes itching to try out, but hes being very good and concentrating on getting the game to 1.0 right now. This period of time is when he might have a few spare hours to bring these to fruition.
Archipelago on hold for the time being It might be here that custom game maps Archipelago and Wetlands make their appearance they both have some aspects to them that will require input from all 3 of the devs to work, though, so well have to see how we do with the implementation of fire ant bridging in custom games.

Version 1.0

Finally, after years of work, we will be here and this is now a real horizon-loomer. Final release will feature the last 3 story / campaign levels (the fifth tier will have 3 levels, instead of 2 like the others) and the ultimate formicarium challenge that the scientist has been preparing your colony for. I hope youre all ready.

Screenshot Central

Time for some pretty Empires of the Undergrowth screenies! If youd like to be featured in this section at some point in the future, the easiest way is to join our Discord and post on the screenshot channel there. Other than that, Ill occasionally trawl through the community tab on Steam to see whats been going on there. By default, press F9 to enter photo mode (hiding the UI) hold down shift while you do that to uncouple the camera from the floor for some neater angles.
The big-headed ants overlooking an uber beach wolf spider from Dolly on our Discord
A pleasingly picturesque view of 4.2 A Bridge Too Far by Orion (Dilphy) on our Discord
The army is on the march in the formicarium from GoldenUngy on our Discord