Optional Beta OPEN NOW! New Custom Game Maps, Achievements, Difficulty Settings

New custom game / freeplay maps! Achievements! New difficulty options! More generous mission rewards! We’re close to pushing a large update, and we’re now at a point where we’re inviting anyone who’d 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 you’ve accomplished an achievement goal, and we’d 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.

Let’s go over a few things related to these optional betas for people who haven’t 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.

[h3]WARNING: YOU ARE STRONGLY ADVISED TO MAKE A SAVE BACKUP[/h3]

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. Copying the data in that folder to somewhere else will keep it safe from any potential issues.



If you would like to join the beta, the code is mapsandachievements. If you don’t know how to join a beta and would like to, follow the instructions below:

1. Find Empires of the Undergrowth in your Steam library, right-click on it and choose "Properties"
   
2. Choose the "Betas" tab
   
3. In the box titled "Enter beta access code to unlock private betas", enter mapsandachievements
4. 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
   
5. Press close - the game will now update to the beta branch
   

[h2]Headline Features[/h2]

• 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 鶴轟 - 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
    
  • Sand Spit - a sandy peninsula designed for a 3v1 setup, where the single colony has an uphill battle ahead of them
• Achievements! Over 100 new achievements for all aspects of the existing story mode & seasonal levels
  
  • Please note: in this test build, meeting an achievement’s conditions will not activate the achievement on Steam, but you’ll be able to see if you got it in victory screens
    
  • Icons for the new achievements are still in the works, so worry ye not if you spot them defaulting to an older one!
• Reworked Difficulty Settings! More resolution in lower difficulty settings with more linear gradation between them
  
  • 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

[h2]Other Additions & Changes[/h2]

[h3]Mission Rewards[/h3]

• Mission rewards increased significantly:
  
  • Formicarium rewards for a repeated play of a mission have been increased (increased by 67%), for a defeat have been increased & the rewards provided at higher difficulties are higher.
    
  • Easy, Medium & Hard - although these difficulties are easier than before they provide the same rewards they used to
    
  • Extreme - although this is as hard as Hard used to be, it will provide the same rewards that Insane used to
    
  • Impossible - although this is as hard as Insane used to be, it will provide more rewards than Insane used to
    

[h3]Creature Changes[/h3]

• Pine woods tree frog now climbable
  
• Uber hermit crab is now climbable
  
• Uber red velvet ant 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
  

[h3]Custom Game Changes[/h3]

• Creature resource quantity slider added to freeplay options
  
  • Allows players to make creatures in their freeplay 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
  
• Freeplay now starts with a default save name
  

[h3]Graphical Changes[/h3]

• 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
  

[h3]Other Changes[/h3]

• New early game objectives added to 3.1 The Harvest, the same as in The Crucible
  
  • 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. Shouldn’t 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 to more urgently telegraph that the queen is in imminent danger
  
  • Can be disabled in Advanced Options
• Minor Improvements can no longer be applied mid-mission
  
• Creatures no longer heal in the formicarium after purchasing an ability
  
• Adventure: leafcutter supermajor can no longer climb creatures or carry food
  
• Extremis: food from killed creatures increased
  
• 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
• Both spider levels:
  
  • Added sound effects to spider abilities
    
  • Increased healing from Devour by 17%
    
  • Increased max health gained be Bite level
• Hungry Spider only:
  
  • Reduced uber wolf spider’s attack damage (down from 410 to 150)
    
  • Added some queen corpses with 60 food each near the uber wolf spider
• Many new & updated localisations
  

[h3]Fixes[/h3]

• 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 in tutorial level victory camera
  
• Fixed depth of field in Hungry Spider victory & defeat cameras
  
• Formicarium Challenge 4 (‘The Final Experiment’) victory camera positioning fixed
  
• Fixed some old beach style level tunnel exit to use the old one
  
• Fixed some issues that would cause the wrong loading screen to show 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