If you missed the dev livestream on the new Outbreak features, the Youtube recording is now available to watch! [previewyoutube=5MiRnDHlWwk;full][/previewyoutube]

[ 2020-07-10 23:43:19 CET ] [ Original post ]

Lead designer Boogily Woogily will be playing Outbreak and showing off the new content that the dev team has been hard at work on! If you're interested in Amoeba Battle, join us to get an idea for how it plays and how Outbreak mode works. If you've been playing Outbreak mode, come check out the new content that we can't wait to get into your hands! The stream will start on Thursday, July 9, at 4pm PST (7pm EST).

[ 2020-07-07 18:06:52 CET ] [ Original post ]

Summary: This patch focuses on stability and crash fixes. it also has a handful of balance tweaks. Please note that the AMI screen has some graphical issues that we are working to resolve. Details: - Reduced meteor damage to 200 from 400. - Increased the Viper's FP cap to 300 from 200. - FIxed a bug where beating the final mission while the location was infected would not win the game. - Fixed a bug where the Stop Poking Me upgrade didn't work properly. - Fixed a bug where players had vision of algae trees. - Fixed a crash where a sound would attempt to play at end of a mission and it would crash. - Fixed a crash involved in selecting an upgrade (including reinforcements). - Change how biohazard levels are calculated. - The final mission will always have 3 biohazards. - When players disconnect, the game should be able to handle it better. - Votes are no longer saved between sessions. - Minor UI and bug fixes.

[ 2020-07-07 01:48:06 CET ] [ Original post ]

Outbreak - Minor Patch 1.04.7637 Summary: - Save files should now be more reliable, especially when swapping between solo and groups. - Save files for teams should now no longer care who the party leader is or which player is in which slot. - Discovery locations now provide a choice of three options, just like regular discoveries. - The difficulty of the final mission has been reduced. - Brutal difficulty has been made easier. - The infection will spread faster on a mission failure. Details: - Fixed a crash related to deploying reinforcements. - Fixed a bug where the infection did not always spread as much as it could. - Fixed a bug where resource labels were not removed when a node was infected. - Trait boards are color coded by diet group. - The discovery confirmation popup has been removed. - Discovery locations now provide an choice of three options, just like regular discoveries. - The Chaos Amoeba in the final mission should no longer be affected by biohazards. - Brutal difficulty has been made easier. - Fixed an issue where save files were mixed up between solo/duo/trio. - Fixed an issue where party members were resuming a save only to get another player's stuff. Now the party leader and the players' positions in the party should not matter, only the players in the party. - Colors in Outbreak mode should now be consistent from load to load. - The infection now spreads twice as much on a mission failure. - The final mission can now be attempted as many times as you wish until the location gets infected. - Reduced difficulty of final mission. - Reduced amount of resources granted by resource locations. - Reduced starting resources. - Reinforcements early in the game now drop a tier 2 amoeba. - Added new ping sounds to help differentiate different kinds of pings. - Fixed a crash with Regurgitating Queens spawning microalgae off the map. - Fixed an issue with the skirmish map selector not showing the correct map.

[ 2020-07-02 00:38:22 CET ] [ Original post ]

Outbreak - Minor Patch 1.04.7610 Please note: Existing Outbreak saves should still work but are not guaranteed to be compatible. Summary: - Missions, especially in Region 1 and 2, should be much faster to complete. - Rewards and resources have been rebalanced. - Added a new special location, "resource", that gives bonus resources. - Players now start with probes available in AMI screen. - Regions should have more locations and travel range increased giving more options. - Various balance and numbers tweaks. - Added AMI voice lines. - Fixed a crash involving amoebas with poisons. - Fixed an issue with save files between solo/teams getting mixed up. Details: - Starting resources have been adjusted. - Resources awarded per mission has been adjusted. - Each location now grants a small amount of a random resource. Resources of the same type are lumped together as one reward. - Cost for discovery reduced to 10. - Discovery cost should be deducted once discovery is purchased. - Added a new special location "resource". Resource locations grant extra resources. - Reduced the number of discovery locations and added resource locations to compensate. - AMI Modules now cost resources to uninstall, rather than install. - Players now start with Cryo, Poison, and Heal Probe Modules already discovered. - The number of locations per region is now always 25. - Travel distance from location to location has been slightly increased. - Infection now begins spreading after 3 travels. - Adjusted balance of biohazards. - Reduced the damage of meteors slightly. - Increased the research tokens generated by meteor storms by 100%. - Rebalanced the Queensguard trait. - The first upgrade of a mission is much faster to earn. - Major retuning of Microarchaeology missions. There are now more fossils and analyzing more at any one time will dramatically increase research rate. Enemies will also now scale over time so if you take too long, everything will get harder. Net result is mission should be faster and slightly harder. - Major retuning of Hold the Line missions. Enemy waves now start much earlier, though there are fewer total waves. Net result is mission should be faster and slightly harder. Added a "time before first wave" to help players prepare. - Minor tuning of Eradication missions. - Added AMI voice lines to help communicate events, such as start of enemy spawning or how close you are to victory. - Campaign missions 4 and 5 have been made easier. - Fixed a crash that involved amoebas with poisons. - Fixed an issue where solo/team save files were getting mixed up if a player switched back and forth. - Minor UI changes and bug fixes.

[ 2020-06-30 01:52:38 CET ] [ Original post ]

If your save file for Outbreak mode seems to have disappeared, not to worry! We've simply moved the folder in which those save files are stored. If you want to retrieve your save file, follow these instructions: For Windows: 1. Go to your %localappdata% folder. 2. Navigate to AmoebaBattle\Saves\SavedGames. 3. Transfer the Adventure_*****.absv files in this folder to AmoebaBattle\Saves\Adventures. 4. Restart the game. That should be it!

[ 2020-06-27 01:41:05 CET ] [ Original post ]

Outbreak - Minor Patch 1.04.7589 - Losing at an uninfected location now progresses the infection as if you had traveled. - Biohazards rebalanced. - Aquadynamic Fins (Shark) now works properly. - After completing a mission, the rewards you earned are now listed in the right info panel. - SFX hooked up to Discovery selection. - Discovery location rewards are now color coded by diet type. - Fixed a crash when you attempted to deploy reinforcements on Microarchaeology missions. - Fixed a crash related to loading a game. - Fixed a bug where the screen would "flicker" for a moment. - Fixed a bug where probe tooltips were not appearing. - Fixed a bug that could cause you to get stuck at a location and be forced to restart. - Fixed a bug where the load screen showed erroneous save files. - Fixed a bug where an Outbreak campaign would not be saved. - Various other bug fixes and minor improvements.

[ 2020-06-27 01:38:21 CET ] [ Original post ]

Introducing Outbreak mode, a roguelike RTS campaign mode that can be played solo or co-op with up to two friends! In an Outbreak campaign, you will traverse a randomized microscopic world with dynamically generated missions. These missions award resources that are used to unlock persistent upgrades that carry over from mission to mission. Outbreak is designed to have endless replayability, and no two campaigns will ever play out the same! This patch is just the beginning though - we hope to update Outbreak continuously with more content for the foreseeable future to keep it fresh and interesting! Please note: Outbreak mode is currently only available in English and has limited controller support at this time. We are sorry for the inconvenience and will remedy this as soon as possible.

BATTLE THE INFECTION... WITH FRIENDS

Outbreak can be played solo or co-op with up to two friends. Each party for Outbreak has their own save file so you can play solo, then save and exit to play with a friend in a different campaign! Outbreak also features the usual four difficulties so you can play a Veteran solo campaign and then switch to a Casual Outbreak campaign with your friends.

TRAVERSE THE WORLD.... WITH PERMADEATH

Outbreak is a non-linear, roguelike style campaign mode where you can choose what missions to undertake and what locations to visit. Each location has a mission that gives rewards on completion. Explore locations as you wish, but be careful! The outbreak will be following close behind and if you are caught at an infected location and lose, the entire campaign is lost and you will have to start over!

DYNAMICALLY GENERATED RTS MISSIONS

Amoeba Battle's unique gameplay allows us to do what few RTSes can - roguelike campaign missions. Each location on the map has a mission you can attempt with a randomly chosen objective that gives randomly generated rewards. The mission takes place on a randomly selected map with a randomized start point and randomized resources with randomized hazards... you get the idea! The combination of random variables yields thousands of possible mission combinations - and we plan to add even more!

SPLICE DNA TO IMPROVE AMOEBA TRAITS

Unlike the story campaign, Outbreak allows you to collect resources and use them to improve your amoebas from mission to mission. You spend DNA resources to unlock traits on the trait board - the trait locations are randomized for every playthrough so like any roguelike, you'll have to adapt. Additionally, some traits are special traits that give your amoeba a powerful ability!

AMI JOINS THE BATTLE

Your AI assistant AMI is a big part of Outbreak mode - you can acquire a variety of AMI modules that give you unique benefits like starting with more amoebas, giving an advantage in a particular environment, or even modifying your probes! AMI has specific systems and each system has a limited number of slots so you will have to choose wisely. But don't worry - AMI's systems can be upgraded with more slots using the Tech resources you acquire!

WHAT'S SCIENCE WITHOUT DISCOVERY

To acquire the more powerful traits and modules, you can spend Data resources to unlock a discovery. A discovery gives you a choice of three powerful options that are randomly chosen from the pool of discoveries. Make your choices wisely and build around your discoveries to maximize your effectiveness!

GIVE THE PEOPLE WHAT THEY WANT

Since Amoeba Battle launched, we've heard a ton of feedback from our players, but the requests we heard most often were more campaign content and PvE co-op missions. We made Outbreak mode to fulfill these wishes and plan to keep building on it to make it even better! As always, thank you for playing Amoeba Battle, and stay safe in the microscopic world!

BATTLE ROYALE BALANCE UPDATE

One more thing! Along with Outbreak mode, we've also updated the balance of our Battle Royale skirmish and multiplayer. While most of the update is dedicated to the PvE Outbreak mode, we didn't want to forget our PvP amoeba battlers!

BATTLE ROYALE BALANCE PATCH NOTES - PATCH 1.04

Balance Patch Notes 1.04.7 Locust: - Replicate cost increased to 3 from 2. -- Developers' Note: Mass Locusts tended to smother most amoebas other than Alphas. This change will make it much harder for a Locust player to lock down the enemy by simpling surrounding and replicating. Shark: - Pack Tactics upgrade: Increased bonus damage to +3 from +2. Duration decreased to 2 seconds from 4 seconds. -- Developers' Note: Pack Tactics was good, but Sharks could never stand up to higher tier units so hopefully this gives them more of a fighting chance. - Base line of sight range increased to 8 from 4. - Blood in the Water upgrade: Sight range bonus reduced to +4 from +8. -- Developers' Note: We wanted to give the default Shark more utility so we took some of the increased sight range from its upgrade and built it right in, so it can act as a scout. - Blood in the Water upgrade: Enemy vision time reduced to 10 seconds from 20 seconds. -- Developers' Note: While we like that players can do an early Shark strategy to try and devour everyone else before they can get higher tier units, the vision time was so long that enemy players didn't have any options to disengage or hide from the Sharks. This upgrade is intended to make it hard (but not impossible) for enemies to disengage so we're toning it down. Stingray: - Base health increased to 120 from 110. -- Developers' Note: The Stingray needed a little more staying power in prolonged battle so we gave it more health. This change also makes it more resilient against Alphas in particular, usually requiring an extra attack to kill the Stingray. Rhino: - Reduced attack to 8 from 10. - Base health increased to 220 from 180. -- Developers' Note: The Rhino wasn't as sturdy as we wanted compared to the Viper, and being an omnivore, sturdiness should be built into its DNA. We traded some of its damage for a big boost in health. - Heavyweight upgrade: This upgrade is being replaced with Stop Poking Me!. - Stop Poking Me! upgrade: When an enemy amoeba attacks the Rhino in melee range, the attacker takes 3 damage for each enemy amoeba surrounding the Rhino. -- Developers' Note: The Rhino was a little weak in its intended role which was to get in the thick of the battle and wreak havoc. The Heavyweight upgrade was just too slow at dealing damage and didn't help against their primary target. The new Stop Poking Me! upgrade means the more the enemy surrounds the Rhino, the angrier it will get and the harder it will hit. Viper: - Increased attack to 20 from 16. -- Developers' Note: The Viper needed a small buff, and since carnivores are noted for their ferocity, we decided to give the small bump to their attack. Alpha: - Bloodlust upgrade: The Bloodlust buff now only lasts 5 seconds before it disappears. -- Developers' Note: The Bloodlust upgrade is intended to shine in bigger battles in mid-combat, but the unlimited duration made it easy for players to hunt weaker amoebas in skirmishes to "charge" the ability, then bring that big advantage to the very start of the fight. This change forces Alpha players to work a little for that advantage, rather than having it handed to them. - Base food cap increased to 700 from 500. -- Developers' Note: The Alpha is incredibly powerful once well fed, being able to one-shot Locusts and trigger any upgraded abilities. It was a little too easy to feed the Alpha so this change will make well fed Alphas a little harder to come by. Herbivores: - Algae Grass damage bonus increased to +100% from +50%. - Algae Grass healing bonus reduced to +4 from +10. -- Developers' Note: Herbivores could retreat to grass to heal, but the grass didn't do enough to let the herbivores fight back any invaders. Enemy armies could still surround them and either stalemate or slowly whittle away at the herbivores' health; the extra health regen just made death slower. With this change, our hope is to let herbivores, who already have low attack values, have enough damage to force invaders to disengage or take heavy casualties. To compensate, their health regeneration was lowered, and coupled with the damage change, should make grass battles shorter and more decisive. Note that this change is also an indirect buff to the Go Green herbivore upgrade which we felt was a little underpowered. - Bug Fix: Go Green should no longer increase well fed damage. Omnivores: - Natural Highway upgrade: Movement speed bonus increased to 100% from 50%. Speed buff duration after leaving undergrowth reduced to 2 seconds from 4 seconds. -- Developers' Note: Natural Highway was an "okay" upgrade but felt a little underpowered compared to others, especially since it was tied to specific areas of the map (and useless otherwise). This should make it feel a lot more impactful and fun to use. Carnivores: - Feeding Frenzy upgrade: Whenever you kill an enemy amoeba, adjacent carnivores also gain +10 health. -- Developers' Note: Feeding Frenzy was a little weak so this buff should make it more desirable and allow Sharks to better handle mass Locust armies (which they sometimes struggled with). General Upgrades: - Salvage upgrade: Destroying an enemy Gather Probe now grants +120 Energy. Gather Probe costs are no longer discounted. -- Developers' Note: This upgrade was intended to focus on hunting down enemy Gather Probes but the passive cost decrease was extremely powerful on its own. These changes should bring the upgrade back into its intended role. - Amoeba Antibiotics upgrade: Purify Probes now refund 95% of their cost if used on a wild amoeba. Purify Probes are no longer discounted. -- Developers' Note: Most players were picking this upgrade primarily for the cheap Purify Probes that allowed them to shut down other players' high-tier amoebas very cheaply. These changes should bring the upgrade back into its intended role, as a way to turn the wild to your side. Extinction Upgrades: - Developers' Note: Most of the extinction upgrades were too weak to bring a player back into contention aside from the Chaos Amoeba, which many players enjoyed using. We want to bring all the weak extinctions up to the level of the Chaos Amoeba so players can have more variety. - Probe-lem Solved!: Probe costs now also reduced by 50%. -- Developers' Note: This extinction upgrade wasn't very useful unless the player had big energy reserves and a player who earned an extinction is already in a tough spot. This change should massively increase the effectiveness of this upgrade, especially since it also affects Gather Probes for even more energy gain. - Armageddon: Increased number of meteor waves to 5 from 3. -- Developers' Note: This extinction upgrade was fun but not very effective at hurting higher tier armies because most of them could take a meteor or two. This change should wreak more havoc all around. - Call of the Wild: The wild amoebas will paradrop in at a much faster speed, paradrop in waves, and paradrop in a more concentrated area. They will also act as a cohesive army, defending each other. -- Developers' Note: This extinction had minimal impact if you wanted to deal damage to a player and instead became a way to get more amoebas with the Amoeba Antibiotics upgrade. With these changes, you should be able to use this extinction to ruin someone's day (or at least try to). Other Changes: - pointsUnitReplicator: Changed to 33 from 50. -- Developers' Note: Since the Locust is the easiest unit to make, most weak players will probably have it so this change increases their chances of getting an extinction. At the same time, this change reduces the chance an extinction upgrade is given to players with strong armies (because of Locust score inflation).

[ 2020-06-25 19:08:10 CET ] [ Original post ]

The first update for Amoeba Battle has arrived! We've been collecting feedback from you since our launch and we're pleased to release this update that addresses many of your suggestions and concerns.

REVAMPED BATTLE ROYALE AI

The battle royale AIs have had their aggressiveness, strategies, tactics, and decision-making processes overhauled. The AIs are also now smarter with energy usage, especially with regards to probes, and they will use the extra energy to field more varied armies. We heard your feedback that the Casual and Normal AIs were too difficult so we've tuned their personalities to be less aggressive. Newer players should now be able to jump into battle royale mode without the immediate threat of microscopic annihilation. For our more experienced players, the Brutal AI is now more brutal, so there's something for everyone!

IN-MATCH LEADERBOARD

You can now pull up a complete leaderboard of all players during a match (default hotkey TAB). The leaderboard shows the map name and each player's (or team's) rank, their color, their MVP amoeba, and whether or not they have no amoebas remaining.

SPECTATING IMPROVEMENTS

When spectating, you can use the leaderboard to view the game from a specific players perspective! Doing so will set the shroud and fog of war to what that player can see. This functionality works both during a live match and when viewing replays. When spectating, the new leaderboard will also show how many amoebas each player has left.

REPLAY VIEWER IMPROVEMENTS

The replay viewer has gotten some major upgrades! You can now adjust the speed of the playback, making it either slower or faster than normal speed. You can also pause the replay and jump forward/backward in time so you won't need to restart the replay to rewatch your favorite part.

CONTROLS IMPROVEMENTS

Based on your feedback, we've made some adjustments and additions to the controls. Players using a controller can now add amoebas to a control group using RT + D-Pad. The virtual cursor for controllers now has a lower minimum speed. We also discovered that newer players had a tendency to accidentally deselect their amoebas, and expressed frustration when their amoebas did not follow orders. To address this, we've implemented sticky selection, which will not deselect any amoebas unless you explicitly want to select new amoebas.

ONLINE SCREEN IMPROVEMENTS

The Online screen now displays the number of users online, the number of users in the queue (waiting for a match), and the number of matches in progress. Hovering over this information with the mouse or virtual cursor will show a breakdown of the users in the queue and matches in progress. This feature is still experimental so it may get disabled as we iron out issues. Additionally, there are some minor improvements like being able to copy+paste invite codes (on PC), and the online screen will now play a sound jingle when it finds a match!

WE WOULD LOVE TO HEAR YOUR FEEDBACK!

There are a host of other, smaller improvements and bug fixes made throughout the game that are in the official patch notes below. Please let us know what you think of these changes in the Steam discussion boards or on our discord. We hope you enjoy this update and thank you for playing Amoeba Battle!

OFFICIAL PATCH NOTES - PATCH 1.03

Feature: Battle Royale AI Improvements

• Wild amoebas will now enter the battlefield 60 seconds after the match has started (instead of 5 seconds). Developers note: We noticed some players were being paradropped directly onto Wild amoebas or had to deal with one or two groups right at the start, frequently losing one of their first three amoebas. We felt this was too punishing so their appearance has been moved later into the game.
• Default Battle Royale AI difficulty for Versus matches has been changed from Veteran to Normal. Developers note: Since new players are more likely to face AIs than other players at this time, we decided to make Versus mode more forgiving.
• All Battle Royale AIs have had their aggressiveness, strategies, tactics, and decision-making processes overhauled.
• All AIs are now smarter with their energy usage, especially with regards to probes.
• All AIs are less likely to build only Locusts and will try to field a more varied army.
• Only Brutal AI will be mean enough to purify your last amoeba.
• Casual AI is much less aggressive in early-mid game, no longer uses advanced tactics, cannot use extinction upgrades, and has a limited amoeba cap. Developers note: The old Casual AI was not fulfilling its intended function as an easy way for new players to jump into battle royale mode and figure it out. This new version should remedy this problem.
• Normal AI is less aggressive in early-mid game and no longer uses advanced tactics.

Feature: Replay Viewer Improvements

• The replay viewer now supports fast forward, rewind, and pause. It also has controls for playback speed.

Feature: Leaderboard

• You can now view a full leaderboard during multiplayer matches!
• The leaderboard shows your rank, the ranks of every player in the match, and every players current MVP amoeba. It also shows the name of the map you are on and which players have already been eliminated.
• When playing a team match, the eliminated icon appears next to allies on the leaderboard that have lost all of their amoebas to better alert you that they need a reinforcement upgrade.

Feature: Spectating Improvements

• When spectating, you can now use the leaderboard to view the game from a specific players perspective! It will set the shroud and fog of war to what that player could see. This functionality works both during a live match and when viewing replays.
• When spectating, the new leaderboard shows how many amoebas each player has.

Feature: Controls

• You can now add amoebas to control groups using a controller using RT + D-Pad!
• The virtual cursor for controllers now has a lower minimum speed. Developers note: Some players have requested a slower virtual cursor so we lowered the speed of the minimum setting. As an example, if the virtual cursor speed slider previously ranged from 100-300 speed, it now ranges from 10-300 speed.
• There is now a limit on the number of pings you can issue in a given time frame.
• Using box select on mouse and keyboard, lasso select on Switch touchscreen, or the paint select on controller no longer deselects previously selected amoebas until it would select a new amoeba. Developers note: This functionality is called sticky selection. Weve noticed newer players end up accidentally deselecting their amoebas quite frequently, then become frustrated when their amoebas seem to ignore their commands. Sticky selection should remedy that problem.

Feature: Online Screen Improvements

• You can now copy+paste invite codes on the online screen on PC.
• The online screen now plays a sound effect when it finds a match, and periodically beeps as the match timer counts down.
• The online match countdown will now stop if only one player is left in the queue because the other player(s) left.
• The online screen now displays the number of users online, the number of users in the queue, and the number of matches currently in progress. Hovering over this information with the mouse or virtual cursor will show a breakdown of the users in the queue and what queues they are in. Developers note: We heard feedback from players that they would like to know if other people are playing the game so that they know to wait for the next game. This feature is still experimental so it may get disabled as we iron out any issues.

Feature: General Improvements

• Within a given session, skirmish lobby settings are saved so that players dont need to re-input the settings if they wish to play multiple skirmish games in a row.
• Announcement UI on the main menu has been updated, including the ability to hide it.
• A game clock has been added to the upper right corner of the screen during a match.
• Replicating and mutating amoebas now remember if they were holding position or not after the cysts hatch.
• Upgrade Ready animation has been changed so it is more noticeable and helps draw the eye to the research bar.
• When playing a team match, getting a Reinforcement upgrade now forces the Upgrade menu to open. Developers note: We found players didnt know about reinforcements in team games so this should make it clearer to players that they can redeploy amoebas and continue playing.
• Changed icons for Reinforcement upgrades. Developers note: We found that players didnt necessarily realize that the reinforcements upgrades were different from regular upgrades so we changed the icons to make them stand out.

Other: Bugfixes

• Battle Royale Wasps should no longer get stuck trying to attack things they can't see.
• Implemented optimizations to reduce the number of disconnects and unable to connect online errors.
• Fixed an issue where trying to view a replay would lead to a black screen.
• The display name for Rocks on the unit info panel is no longer broken.
• The message alerting players that they can still use probes in team matches when they have no amoebas now properly shows up every time they lose their amoebas instead of only the first time.
• Fixed an issue where cutscene music was not playing if music volume was set to 0.
• Added some missing people to the credits.

[ 2020-05-18 17:00:23 CET ] [ Original post ]