Empires of the Undergrowth News

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
  

An update to the optional beta has been released.

There's an experimental change to leafcutters in custom games in this one: potentially very game-changing and will need a lot of testing!

To test out this substantial change, start a fresh custom game. Remember that it's experimental and subject to change.

• Leafcutter colonies in custom games now start with 2 rings of queen tiles, meaning 19 starting workers / minims & increased fungus capacity
  
• Fixed an issue where saving & loading would cause all tunnel exits to be set to the same one if using the alternative exits in Strawclutch
  
• Added translator credits
  

A whole bunch of fixes and changes in this latest iteration of the currently running optional beta, including some experimental surface tunnel options for Strawclutch.

If you’re not participating yet and would like to, then please see here for details on how to join.



[h2]Changes[/h2]

[h3]PLEASE NOTE: you’ll need to start a new game on Strawclutch or Imprisoned to notice most of these changes - so do that![/h3]

• Strawclutch:
  
  • Alternative surface tunnel locations can be chosen with the map option in the freeplay menu - this is experimental, so we’d like some feedback on this. It’ll significantly change the way Strawclutch plays. Is random in skirmish
    
  • Added in some food items to show the shape of the cavern in front of the nest exit
    
  • Adjusted positions of aphid plants
    
  • Player is no longer blocked by an enemy when tunnelling to the surface
• Imprisoned:
  
  • Water level change timings changed
    
  • Rising water no longer destroy resources it touches
    
  • Additional surface resources added
    
  • Dragonflies will now land on either side of the islands they inhabit
    
  • Dragonflies will no longer land if they are unable to reach their target after landing
    
  • AI colonies will now hide before water rises
    
  • Repositioned caterpillar plants
• AI colonies on Towhead & Embankment will hide for a time after a flood
  
• AI colonies & creature swarms attempting to invade a nest do extra checks for a valid path
  
• AI colonies stealing aphids now do more checks to make sure they’re reachable
  
• Significantly more creatures should spawn at the start of a custom game when using singular spawning (including skirmish)
  
• Environmental enemies ramp up faster in singular spawning (including skirmish)
  
• Adjustments to nocturnal / diurnal spawn timing in custom games
  
• Remaining translations for this patch added
  

[h2]Fixes[/h2]

• Fixed environmental creatures with singular spawning not attacking each other
  
• Strawclutch & Imprisoned now default to swamp creatures for ‘map appropriate’ choice
  
• Fixed weird pathing issue in Strawclutch underground
  
• Fixed an issue where praying mantises on patrols might not despawn
  
• Fixed the initial creatures in pack spawning not appearing
  
• Fixed enemy counting for objective in The Crucible
  
• Fixed camera focus issues in Strawclutch & Imprisoned
  
• Fixed an issue killing dragonflies when loaded too high off the ground
  
• Fixed an issue with dragonflies that could cause a slowdown over time
  
• Fixed AI digging issues in Imprisoned
  
• Fixed some missing grass textures