Empires of the Undergrowth News

Congratulations, Microids and Tower Five, on the Empire of the Ants launch! We're excited to announce that we've created an ant-credible bundle featuring our games to celebrate this fantastic release. Lead your colony through the perils of the forest in this groundbreaking, photorealistic RTS, where you command insect legions in epic battles.

Experience an epic microscopic world with our special bundle featuring both games.

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/47006/Empire_of_the_Ants__Empires_of_the_Undergrowth/

This update to the beta has a new feature for custom games - custom colonies! Using it, you can create an entirely unique colony for your game that mixes-and-matches many different unit types - for instance, you can have a Matabele colony with leafcutter majors and termite soldiers in it. Find the option in the colony setup section of the custom game launch menu. There are also further balance changes and fixes - see below for full notes.

If you're not currently participating in this optional beta and would like to, see the previous post for details on how to join it. The password is balanceandchanges.

[h2]Additions & Changes[/h2]

• New custom game feature: custom colonies
  • Allows colonies to contain virtually any ant or termite in the game
    
  • Can be selected in colony setup
    
  • Colony will adopt the feeding habits of the selected queen
    
  • Workers will match the queen
    
  • Some combinations are disallowed for technical reasons (eg: Matabele medics cannot be included in a leafcutter colony)
    
• Black ants in custom games now have armour (0/1/2, up from 0/0/0)
  
• 3 lignocellulose nodes per landmark will spawn at a time instead of 1
  
• Limited lignocellulose nodes per landmark to 15
  
• Increased time between termite spawns on the lignocellulose landmark (now every 6-30s, up from 4-20s)
  
• If a lignocellulose landmark has no mulch, termites spawned to harvest from it will despawn
  
• Big-headed ant major Adrenaline ability duration reduced to 20s (down from 40)
  
• Adrenaline ability now uses the same visuals as the fire ant Vigorous ability
  
• Fire ant Vigorous ability damage reduction buff is now 15% (down from 25%) in custom games
  

[h2]Fixes[/h2]

• Loading screen corrected for several extra levels
  
• Undergrounds of The Culling and Hibernation now use the rotting log environment
  
• Fixed lighting on multiple extra and demo levels
  
• Victory music for the Festive Spider seasonal level now works
  
• Fixed tunnel exit textures in Hibernation extra level
  
• Creature stats in the build menu will now use the ones currently in use, not just the story ones
  
• Moved some unharvestable leaves in 3.2 to be reachable
  
• Fixed an issue where saving and loading would cause the wrong egg type to appear on some termite tiles
  
• Attempted to fix a Cold Blood crash - please report if you are still getting crashes on this level
  

[h2]The Hooded Horse Publisher Sale Has Arrived![/h2]

Ever wonder what it’s like to command an army of ants in a world where everything from ladybugs to hermit crabs wants you dead? Welcome to this ant-based RTS, where you don’t just build a colony—you wage war on the insect kingdom. It’s not just ants versus bugs; it’s strategy on steroids, with pheromones as your secret weapon and hundreds of warrior ants clashing in a frenzy of mandibles and formic acid artillery.

Until October 10th, explore the fascinating world of ants in Empires of the Undergrowth at a 50% discount.

[h3]Explore amazing deals on all Hooded Horse titles during the Steam Publisher Sale.[/h3]


[hr][/hr]
Empires of the Undergrowth is a real-time strategy game where you manage an ant colony, gather resources, and defend against predators. Check out the recent 1.0 release![hr][/hr]
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h2]The Hooded Horse Publisher Sale Has Arrived![/h2]
Until October 10th, explore the fascinating world of ants in Empires of the Undergrowth at a 50% discount.

[h3]Explore amazing deals on all Hooded Horse titles during the Steam Publisher Sale.[/h3]


[hr][/hr]
Empires of the Undergrowth is a real-time strategy game where you manage an ant colony, gather resources, and defend against predators. Check out the recent 1.0 release![hr][/hr]
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][h3]From Today Until October 10th[/h3]
The discounts on Empires of the Undergrowth and all other Hooded Horse games are available through October 10th — perfect for enhancing your summer gaming experience. We're excited to see the worlds you build and the adventures you undertake.

Happy gaming!

Now that we've had a few months post-release to ruminate on things, we've got a clearer idea of what we want to do for Empires of the Undergrowth in both the short and long term, outside of the things mentioned in the most recent roadmap for the project. Community manager mike breaks it down (as a talking head piece - don't expect dancing).

Including some new screenies of the upcoming tier 3 art refresh.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]