Empires of the Undergrowth News

New custom game / freeplay maps! Achievements! New difficulty options! More generous mission rewards! This major update for Empires of the Undergrowth brings in a whole bunch of new stuff, and also puts us in good stead for the final chapter and full release coming in 2024. Thanks so much to everyone who’s been helping to test all the additions over the past few weeks.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

• 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. Comes with a map option for wider-spaced nest locations
    
  • Sand Spit - a sandy peninsula designed for a 3v1 setup, where the single colony has an uphill battle ahead of them
• Achievements! There are now over 100 achievements for all aspects of the existing story mode & seasonal levels
  
• Reworked Difficulty Settings! More resolution in lower difficulty settings with more linear gradation as they increase
  
  • 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:
  
  • Rewards for a repeated play of a mission increased
    
  • Rewards for playing on higher difficulties increased
    
  • Consolation rewards for a defeat increased
    
  • Easy, Medium & Hard - although these difficulties are easier than before they provide the same rewards they used to
    
  • Extreme - although as difficult as Hard used to be, it will provide the same rewards that Insane did
    
  • Impossible - although as difficult as Insane used to be, it will provide more rewards than Insane did

[h3]Creature Changes[/h3]

• Pine woods tree frog now climbable
  
• Uber hermit crab is now climbable
  
• Uber red velvet ant is now climbable
  
• Uber mole cricket 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
  
• Level 3 leafcutter mediae & majors can now remove a phorid fly ever 2 minutes (down from 3)
  

[h3]Custom Game Changes[/h3]

• Leafcutter colonies in custom games now start with 19 queen tiles, meaning more workers / minims & increased fungus capacity
  
• Creature resource quantity slider added to freeplay options, allowing players to make creatures in their 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
  
• AI colonies on Towhead & Embankment will hide for a time after a flood
  
• More creatures should spawn at the start of a custom game when using singular spawning
  
• Environmental enemies ramp up faster in singular spawning (including skirmish)
  
• Adjustments to nocturnal / diurnal spawn timing in custom games
  
• 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]Localisation[/h3]

• Many updates & fixes for existing languages
  
• Support added for the following languages:
  
  • Hungarian
    
  • Italian
    
  • Portuguese
    
  • Turkish
    
  • Traditional Chinese
    
  • Ukrainian

[h3]Other Changes[/h3]

• New early game objectives added to 3.1 The Harvest
  
• 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 (can be disabled in Advanced Options)
  
• Minor Improvements can no longer be applied mid-mission
  
• If a creature cannot transfer to the surface it is now killed instead of just being left underground to try again (for example, when exiting an enemy nest after water has risen)
  
• Creatures no longer heal in the formicarium after purchasing an ability
  
• Formicarium Challenge 3 (now called Possibly the Final Experiment):
  
• Easy difficulty now slightly easier
  
• Enemy queen no longer has abilities on Normal as well as Easy
  
• Mole crickets & praying mantises no longer have food reduction on harder difficulties
  
• Adventure: leafcutter supermajor can no longer climb creatures or carry food
  
• Extremis: food from killed creatures increased
  
• Extremis now uses newer ability icons
  
• The Culling: tripled food from spawned creatures
  
• The Other Foot: more time given on Impossible (previously Insane) difficulty
  
• The Other Foot: food drops from spawning creatures build up & spawn with the next drop
  
• The Crucible demo level now has difficulty settings
  
• Spider levels:
  
  • Added sound effects to spider abilities
    
  • Increased healing from Devour by 17%
    
  • Increased max health gained by Bite level
    
  • Hungry Spider: reduced uber wolf spider’s attack damage (down from 410 to 150)
    
  • Hungry Spider: added some queen corpses with 60 food each near the uber wolf spider
    
  • Festive Spider: early game a bit less difficult with more food
    
  • Festive Spider: waves rebalanced in several spots

[h3]Fixes[/h3]

• Fixed environmental creatures with singular spawning not attacking each other
  
• 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 for cinematic cameras in several places
  
• Minor improvements are now applied to fire ants at point of purchase
  
• Adaptations panel jelly value will now update on purchase of minor improvements
  
• Formicarium Challenge 4 (‘The Final Experiment’) victory camera positioning fixed
  
• Fixed some old beach style level tunnel exit to use the old one
  
• Fixed the wrong loading screen showing 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
  
• Pressing Esc during difficulty selection will no longer lead to a UI overlap
  
• Fixed an issue with dragonflies that could cause a slowdown over time
  
• Fixed a problem in Festive Spider where an upgraded tower could be knocked back
  
• Fixed a crash when a creature firing a projectile was deleted before the projectile lands
  

This is very likely to be the final update to the optional beta before we set it live later this week, unless there’s something that needs urgent fixing. Please test if you have some time - and thank you to everyone who’s been doing that over the last few weeks!

A bunch of fixes for some achievement issues that have arisen in testing, and a few other bits and bobs. The achievements should now all be localised for all of our supported languages on Steam, and a Win32 build is now included.

• Fixed the I Love Sashimi achievement - turns out this one was just properly glitched
  
• Fixed No Entry and The Way Is Shut achievements (bonus point to the first person who tells me the reference)
  
• No Entry now stops checking once it has been failed, less nagging
  
• The Free Willis achievement will now say the correct one has succeeded / failed
  
• Stopped At Arm's Length achievement always succeeding
  
• Moved an underground food item in 4.1 preventing all food being gathered (relevant for Toad In The Hole achievement)
  
• Separation Of Duties achievement now checks the ladybird health to make sure it escaped from damage and was not just leaving with an aphid
  
• Rearranged some other achievement stuff
  
• Fixed a movement problem for ereptor colonies in a loaded custom game in Imprisoned
  
• Fixed an issue on Imprisoned where rising / falling water notifications were the wrong way round if saved on the highest or lowest water point
  
• Fixed an issue on Imprisoned where colonies hiding would not happen on the lowest water level when water is about to rise
  
• Fixed a rare simultaneous defeat & victory situation in freeplay
  
• Fixed dwarf salamanders in 4.1 not being properly eaten by the bullfrog
  
• Fixes for AI colony hiding process
  

Finally, doing the achievements in the beta will count on Steam! The 100+ new ‘chieves have been properly hooked up into Steam’s systems and will now register permanently if you get them during the optional beta.

Remember: Steam achievements are permanent and cannot be reset once accomplished.

If you’re not participating in the beta yet and would like to, please see the initial post for instructions on how to join: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/463530/view/6939545579750168983

• New achievements will now be registered on Steam! They’ll need to be repeated if you’ve done them in the optional beta already
  
• All achievements now have lovely new square icons
  
• Extremis now uses newer ability icons
  
• Singular enemy spawning in freeplay increased when day / night cycle is disabled
  
• Level 3 leafcutter mediae & majors can now remove a phorid fly ever 2 minutes (down from 3)
  
• Several changes to Festive Spider:
  • Early game a bit less difficult with more food
    
  • Waves rebalanced in several spots

• Fixed a bunch of achievements that weren’t triggering properly
  
• Fixed a problem in Festive Spider where an upgraded tower could be knocked back
  
• Moved some food in demo level The Nest to keep it out of a cavern wall
  
• Imprisoned leafcutter plant spawns repositioned to ensure full leaf access
  
• Minor improvements are now applied to fire ants at point of purchase
  
• Adaptations panel jelly value will now update on purchase of minor improvements
  
• Larger velvet worms can now be climbed properly
  
• Fixed a crash that could occur when a creature firing a projectile was deleted before the projectile lands
  
• Imprisoned now uses a different UI timer to prevent interference with other timers
  

Vlog 8 is here, and it's been increasingly clear to us over the past several months that we're finally approaching the full release goal for Empires of the Undergrowth. The long road of early access is drawing to a close, and release plans are being worked on.

We will be releasing the game fully during 2024.

[previewyoutube][vlog][/previewyoutube]

This vlog goes into a bit of detail about where we are with it, and while we're not ready to commit to an exact date (and never will do unless we're sure we can meet it) I hope you can gather from my enthusiasm that it really is a-comin'.

Current roadmap (published November 2023):

Another few fixes for the latest optional beta update!



[h2]Fixes[/h2]

• Fixed an AI base building issue in Imprisoned
  
• Gave wolf spiderling the frog hat
  
• Fixed a rendering issue with level 2 tiles that receive -2 refuse debuff
  
• Fixed an issue with the effect of refuse tiles on upgrade points at distance -1
  
• Fixed an issue where leafcutter initial resources were deleted on saving & loading if there were no non-leafcutter colonies in the game
  
• Fixed an issue on Imprisoned where creatures on islands without a colony on them could fail to spawn
  
• Fixed ants being stuck in certain situations
  
• Fixed several aphid issues
  
• Sand Spit now displays its map info when loading a custom game
  

[h2]Changes[/h2]

• If a creature cannot transfer to the surface it is now killed instead of just being left underground to try again (for example, when exiting an enemy nest after water has risen)
  
• Updated localisations