Empires of the Undergrowth News

We're not far from concluding the beta testing for this upcoming large update - with this patch we are re-activating the campaign mode with the entirely new movement code. If any of you in the optional beta feel like starting a new campaign run, now is the time, and report back any issues to us!

It's not too late to join in the optional beta if you would like.
NOTE: The beta will only run on Windows. Once we've finished the beta period Mac and Linux will get the full finished update.

To access the beta, follow the below steps:

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 christmasants
   
4. After the "Access code correct" information appears, make sure you've chosen "openbeta" 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.
   

By doing so, you are acknowledging that this is a beta and things are not in their finished state.

We have renamed “Formicarium” to “Story” as we feel it points better to where a player should start. Some content and settings have been added to the story. Additionally, there are a load of fixes added, some projectile optimisations and some substantial balance changes to ubers and AOE attacks.

[h2]New Content[/h2]

• Challenge mode added for levels 3.1 and 3.2 - Phorid Flies!
  
  • Avoid leaf patches infested with these critters; they will inject their eggs into the heads of your ants causing 2 minutes of reduced stats followed by inevitable death
    
  • All ants have a chance of fighting off the flies when they are attacked, but level 3 mediae and majors have a 100% chance to fight them off. A successful defence will cause the fly to leave
    
• Difficulty settings added for formicarium challenge levels 1 and 2. You can now take these on in easier difficulties… or harder if you feel you were not punished enough!
  

[h2]Balance Changes[/h2]

• Damage falloff implemented for some area of effect abilities doing less damage the further away from the epicentre of the attack the creature is (reaching zero at the very edge)
  
  • Implemented on level 3 wood ant mortar attacks
    
  • Implemented on all uber basic attacks
    
  • Implemented on some whip spider attacks
    
• All Uber creatures have been rebalanced and should now be possible to take on with any colony
  
• All have had their damage, health and resistances reduced
  
  • Hermit crab, beach tiger beetle and devil's coach horse ubers scaled down to be defeatable by a very large black ant army
    
  • Beach wolf spider uber rebalanced to be strong against leafcutter majors but weak to larger armies of lower powered units (no AOE damage on main attack, very strong single target damage) also given high venom resist
    
  • Jumping spider uber is now very dangerous to wood ants (very high venom resistance, ability that deals enough damage in an area to one-hit kill them)
    
  • Spiny devil uber is now strong against black ants and other low health melee
    
  • Whip spider uber is now strong against wood ants (high venom resist, strong, midrange attacked tuned to do well against them)
    
  • Praying mantis uber is now strong against majors, weak to black ants and medium to wood ants
    
• Black ants now have all AOE damage dealt to them that they are not at the epicentre of reduced by 20% (new stat AOE damage resistance)
  

[h2]Optimisations[/h2]

• Projectiles have seen significant optimisations and are now handled differently (this should be most noticeable with rapid fire wood ants)
  
• Projectiles visuals tweaked
  

[h2]Bug Fixes[/h2]

• Fixed an issue where the player's ants could appear red on the surface minimap with fog of war turned on
  
• Fixed some visual issues in Crucible
  
• Alleviated some flickering shading issues
  
• Eaten creatures not part of a colony will now correctly disappear the moment they are eaten
  
• Battle arena now only removes creatures that are not in combat
  
• Uber whip spider now moves properly
  
• Fixed an issue with projectiles that could cause the explosion to veer to the bottom right
  
• Woodlouse is no longer in the floor
  
• Removed an unneeded sound from various rove beetle sprays
  
• Moved a food item out of the wall in Embankment
  
• ixed an issue where items dropped inside another undug tile were removed (they are now repositioned onto a dug out tile)
  
• Fixed an issue where a jumping spider that is killed mid jump would continue to be attacked even after its death
  
• Trap jaw walking animation should now better follow its movement
  
• Fixed an issue where rove beetle type B and its larvae would be switched around in tick boxes in freeplay advanced creature settings
  
• Fixed an issue where marker paths could go past the marker and loop back
  
• Fixed an issue where marker path arrows were pointing the wrong direction
  
• Fixed an issue where dead minims refuse model was blocking mouse tile interactions
  
• Photo mode is forced off when the menu opens to prevent confusion with it unpausing the game
  
• Seeds will no longer land part way up the stem on poppy plants
  
• Ubers will no longer ignore the nest invasion setting in freeplay setup
  
• Woodworm will no longer float
  

Some freeplay balance, some monthly level fixes and improvements, some optimisations, some other fixes… a bit of everything!

If you're not participating in the optional beta and would like to, follow the instructions in the original beta post for details of how to participate. You'll need to be running the game on Windows and through Steam.

https://steamcommunity.com/games/463530/announcements/detail/1705107447279697254

[h3]General and Extra Level Fixes and Balance Changes[/h3]

• Fixed an issue where a picked up creature would kill the creature picking it up and would cause it yo be locked in an attack animation permanently
  
• Fixed issues where ants in another colonies nest could could freeze when the marker was removed and other situations
  
• Fixed an issue that could cause flickering with moving static meshes
  
• Fixed some aesthetic issues on the crucible
  
• Substantially reduced the cost of rendering the Isolepis Cernua (spiky plant)
  
• Movement changes preventing creatures rubber banding off one another (the vibrating woodlouse for example)
  
• Added in a minimap ping and alert message on babysitting when the enemy colony is attacked, when they head out to attack some enemies and when they head out to defend the player
  
• Increased the amount of time the allied colony has to gather the starting resources
  
• Fixed a crash that could occur when viewing climbable plants resource quantities and it is deleted
  
• Fixed an issue where vines could show as harvestable above tiles that were not accessible
  
• Victory condition now works in Extremis (wave 30) and will provide a reward
  
• Small optimisations with auras
  
• Wood ants will no longer target allied colonies
  
• Fixed a crash that could happen with loaded freeplay games (and harvestman legs)
  
• Fixed an issue that could cause abilities not to trigger
  
• Fixed an issue that reduced wood ant range dramatically and cased them to freeze
  

[h3]
Optimisations[/h3]

• Nativised some costly classes
  
• Some additional optimisations in creature scanning
  
• Creatures scanning for other creatures has seen several optimisations (this should lead to better performance when lots of creatures are in close proximity). Please note there may be bugs with this change, if you notice any strange behaviour please let us know
  

[h3]Freeplay Changes and Balance[/h3]

• Small creatures now cannot invade for half the amount of time large creatures cannot invade for
  
• Fixed a bug that caused the large creature invasion block to not change with difficulty setting
  
• Massively reduced the chance a passive swarm will invade the player nest
  
• Slightly reduced the chance an aggressive swarm will invade the players nest
  
• Reduced chance aggressive swarms will spawn early on
  
• Moderately reduced the chance defensive and neutral swarms will invade the players nest
  
• Creature swarms are now removed when all creatures belonging to the swarm are killed
  
• More than doubled the range at which enemies cannot loiter around the players nest entrance
  

Thanks to plenty of reports from everyone kind enough to help us test, we've identified a very common crash in the most recent beta test (V0.2112). It was to do with creatures spawning underground and therefore affected just about every level, eventually. Due to lots of people very kindly taking the time to send in their crash reports to us it took us practically no time to identify the issue - this is a hotfix for the currently running beta to fix this issue only.

[h3]Patch Notes[/h3]

• Fixed a crash caused by any creatures not belonging to the player colony spawning underground or entering the nest
  

If you're currently participating in the beta your game should update automatically to fix this issue. Again, thank you to everyone who helped us - you made finding this issue super easy.

This beta patch includes several fixes, some new freeplay features and optimisations! This is an update for the currently running optional beta.

If you're not participating in the optional beta and would like to, follow the instructions in the original beta post for details of how to participate. You'll need to be running the game on Windows and through Steam.

https://steamcommunity.com/games/463530/announcements/detail/1705107447279697254

Full patch notes for beta update 0.2112 are detailed below:

[h3]General Fixes[/h3]

• Some funnel web tile surfers on Baby Sitting will now correctly spawn when your ally tunnels them out.
  
• Moved all pebbles of walkable area in the original spider level
  
• Fixed more pathing issues to do with ramps (some issue that arose on Baby Sitting and other areas)
  
• Fixed an issue where if an enemy died on top of a tile that used to be a cavern it would be un-harvestable
  
• Minor optimisation in ant eggs
  
• Ice plants in Baby Sitting no longer block clicks
  
• Prevented creatures from hanging out within the ant nest tunnel where they cannot be attacked or attack (both on surface and underground)
  
• Shortened text on score screen of a bonus multiplier that was overlapping the score
  
• Fixed an issue where if graphics setting were changed during some particle effects, then they would exist forever
  
• Fixed an aesthetic issue with leafcutter minor’s attack animation loop
  
• Several optimisations for pathing and location functions
  
• Overground minimap will now stop flashing if tabbing to the overground
  
• When trying to place a marker in an un-pathable underground zone it will try and snap to a neighbouring pathable tile, if this fails and error sound plays
  
• Fixed a visual error with the wood ant projectile splash
  
• Players can now place markers on ramps via the minimap
  
• Minor optimisations to do with marker placement
  
• Optimisation added to repathing due to tunnelled out tiles
  
• Optimisation added in various areas that required a calculated path length
  

[h3]Freeplay[/h3]

• Fixed an issue where loaded minims would immediately drop their leaves
  
• Saved plant climbers will now correctly harvest when they reach there harvest points
  
• Fixed an issue where climbers could load stuck climbing a plant and in the wrong place (and unstuck and saved stuck ones)
  
• Fixed an issue where creatures could exit the maps from the position they were standing (and hence could just ping out of existence)
  
• Fixed an issue where sometimes right clicking the minimap would not draw the path of a marker on the surface
  
• Infestation landmark now obeys disabled creature fighting
  
• Fixed victory / defeat animations in Embankment
  
• Moved a log outside of play area on Embankment
  
• Harvestman severed legs will now save and load with a visual mesh and will no longer walk around on their own when loaded
  
• Minor leaf cosmetic changes in Embankment
  
• Rounded victory condition goals to nearest whole number
  
• Deletion jobs for full refuse tiles are now correctly saved and loaded
  
• Default difficulty is now 20%
  
• The time period where the player does not get invaded in freeplay now slowly allows invasions based on a weighted dice roll (first 10 minutes no large creature invasions, next 10 minutes moving from very few, to normal amount by the end)
  
• Added a “Play Difficulty” that affects multiple things including:
  
  • Constant difficulty max and ramp rates in difficulty
    
  • Extends grace periods before ubers can spawn and enemy creatures can attack
    
  • Wave sizes
    
  • Difficulty increase due to victory condition getting close
    
  • Score multipliers added for the above
• Swarms of creatures should no longer hang around nest entrances of active players
  
• 25% increased spawn rate of landmarks when playing as leafcutters (slightly more leaves)
  
• Ubers will not invade a player nest until they have existed on the map for eight minutes, then it is up to them!
  

We've released a bug-fixing (yes, we've heard the joke before!) update for the currently running beta. All of the most recent changes are listed below. If you're not participating in the optional beta and would like to, it is still running and as long as you own the game on Steam and use Windows, you can participate. Follow the instructions in the original beta post for details of how to participate.


https://steamcommunity.com/games/463530/announcements/detail/1705107447279697254

[h3]Changes / Bug Fixes [/h3]

• Added an option slider for a darkened square behind resource counters for visibility
  
• Fixed a problem with creatures moving on z axis when they shouldn’t
  
• Fixed an issue with creature movement on thin ramps
  
• Fixed a sound issue with rove beetles and wood ants
  
• Trail calculations have been updated. Should lead to more ants at the end of trails, more consistent flows and less ants waiting underground
  
• Minor optimisation of markers
  
• Baby Sitting map no longer says “Return to Formicarium” at the end and now returns to the main menu
  
• Framerate changes will now correctly save and reload when changed
  
• Fixed an issue that could cause honeydew to appear as big grey spheres on food tiles
  
• Fixed an issue when a minim looks for a drop off point and re-paths at the same time (it will no longer lose the food)
  
• Beach wolf spider hats (in arachnophobe mode) can now be clicked through for marker placement
  
• Fixed issues with minims getting stuck in walls
  
• Fixed an issue where leaf plant landmarks in freeplay would never despawn and constantly hold a landmark spot (this should lead to more leaves spawning in freeplay)
  
• Fixed an issue that could cause one landmark to spawn on top of another in freeplay after a save and load
  
• Optimisation added to leaves
  
• Increased areas landmarks can spawn on Embankment threefold
  
• Starting landmarks in Embankment increased to 16 (up from 10) and landmark spawns per day increased to 13 (up from 9)
  
• Leafcutter queen death will now trigger defeat in freeplay
  
• Embankment map text and image added to freeplay setup
  
• Embankment minimap colour changed to rainforest colours
  
• Moved some starting food on Embankment
  
• Fixed various movement and pathing issues
  
• Fixed an issue where creatures colliding with walls were picking bad locations to pop out to
  
• Optimisations added to ant jobs
  
• Fixed an issue where freeplay difficulty was set to zero at the start of playing ramp (no matter what setting you had for start difficulty)
  
• Level 1 ants that are swarm creatures (such as the ones in the Battle Arena) will now display their level
  
• Fixed an issue where a praying mantis could crash the game when using abilities
  
• Fixed a crash that could happen if a projectile shooter (wood ant) was eaten before the projectile collided (could happen with wood ants vs. praying mantis)
  
• Fixed Embankment lighting and some cosmetic issues
  
• Fixed an issue where the AI of an ant could break if a marker is placed in its own nest when ants are in an enemy nest
  
• Fixed an issue where a praying mantis could pick up a creature being held by another creature
  
• Removed food in impenetrable rock on Baby Sitting
  
• Fixed an issue where night and day were not correctly progressing on some levels
  
• Camera zoom now interpolates (very rapidly)
  
• Freeplay import / export boxes no longer allow clicking other things when active
  
• Plant climbing speed is now based on the current ant speed, not its speed when it started climbing
  
• Improved food store space reservation
  
• Allied creatures now properly avoid one another
  
• Fixed an issue where tile refund costs would not remain constant through a save for initial builds and upgrades
  
• Optimisation on buried harvestable creatures
  
• Slight smoothing of camera movement (it is improved further by setting a framerate limit)
  
• Improved pathing for dig jobs
  
• Fixed an issue where saving and loading a freeplay game with leafcutters would cause extra creatures objects to spawn each time (potentially leading to a lot of wasted processing)
  
• Wave spawning in freeplay now takes food height into account and no longer spawns in the floor
  
• Fixed a memory leak to do with leafcutter majors with the “Sharp” upgrade infinitely adding more Thorns auras to nearby creatures
  
• Thorns aura now drops off as was intended when leaving the range of the leafcutter major
  
• Thorns aura is now correctly positioned on affected creatures
  
• Fixed an issue where certain food items would think they were under the wrong tile when buried
  
• Removed the phantom log that would float through the middle of the Embankment map from time to time
  
• Beach tiger beetle larvae will no longer try to attack creatures that cannot be killed and will no longer attack creatures that cannot be picked up