Did you think your colony was the only one the scientists have been giving a hard time? How would things look from the perspective of the counterpart Formica ereptor colony - the one that has been providing feeder ants for the primary colony to fight against in its challenges?



It's time for some payback! In The Other Foot, you take command of the counterpart colony, controlling different units such as army ants, trap jaws and slave makers. To start off with, you'll need to provide workers for the scientist's diabolical experiments, working through challenges 1 and 2 before finally reaching the ultimate goal - the defeat of the primary colony in challenge 3.

Considering the context of this level, we do not recommend you play it until you've completed formicarium challenge 3.

Change history - because this time, the shoe is on The Other Foot. Available now in the Extra Levels menu!

During the last few weeks we've been able to really crack on with the fire ant update. After the long and arduous process that was re-designing the game's movement code from the ground up, we're really glad to be concentrated nearly solely on our Solenopsis invicta ants and all the accompanying flora and fauna that will bring them to life. As is always the case when we add a new formicarium tier to the game, there are several new systems that have to be designed and those are also in the works.


Taking down an uber Spiny Devil from Steam user BrickyGraph631


It's important to note that although this newsletter will concentrate mainly on the fire ant update, as a matter of policy we do not do estimates for the timings of our updates. That's because historically we've been pretty terrible at even guessing these, and given the small size of our team it's better for us to be 100% sure we can hit a deadline before we announce it. At the moment the best we can say is it's a while off yet, but as soon as we have a date we'll be very loud about broadcasting it!


Whilst he's our engine specialist and deals with lots of deep-level gubbins of Unreal Engine 4 which powers the game, Matt is also our artist. He's recently been working on the models and animations for the fire ants - the first one here is of the fire ant queen. By comparison to the existing queens in the game, she's positively miniscule!


The Solenopsis invicta queen


Below shows the queen next to some fire ant workers. There's a direct side-by-side later in the newsletter but they're comparable in size to Atta cephalotes minims. They'll do the nest jobs - digging and tending to brood. Fire ants will be a swarm-style unit - small, individually relatively cheap but high in numbers.


Some workers with their queen


Fire ants will also have a soldier unit. These are significantly bigger than the workers and will specialise in fighting, in a similar way to the Formica fusca black ants currently in the game. In our research for fire ants we've found that there's significant debate amongst myrmecologists about the existence of true fire ant polymorphism. Whilst there are a range of sizes, there does not appear to be discrete castes in the way that, for example, leafcutters clearly have. For this reason, we are simplifying things and calling the larger ants "soldiers" and the smaller ones "workers".


Soldiers and workers vs wood ants. Fire ants won't be fighting wood ants in the campaign; they're included for size comparison only!


Fire ants get their name from the burning sensation their sting delivers- ouch! In-game, as well as their regular bite attacks they have a sting which they will use periodically. The bite will deliver regular physical-type damage whilst the sting will deliver venom-type damage. Below is a short video showing off the animations for these attacks.


Fire ant animations


The system that will allow these ants to swarm over larger enemies (titan climbing) is still in development but they have their own unique animation for that too, whereby they will bite hold of the victim and deliver several stings in quick succession. We're looking forward to showing off this system once it's closer to completion - it's one of the main new mechanics that will enrich the game and differentiate the fire ant update from others.


Fire ants are, for the most part, quite small in stature compared to other ants in the game. In the below pictures you can see the level 1 worker being slightly smaller than the leafcutter minims, which are currently the smallest ants in the game.


Solenopsis invicta worker vs Atta cephalotes minim


Pictured below is a rather unfair comparison - the largest queen (again, leafcutter) versus the smallest. Do not be deceived by the small stature of the fire ant - they’ve earned their name!


I wouldn’t mess with either of them, TBH



The fire ant levels are set in the swamps of North Carolina in the USA. As such, the levels will feature a lot of water. Back when we did our Kickstarter, one of the stretch goals was to include fire ant bridges as a gameplay mechanic. That goal was reached, and Matt has been puzzling out the details in his head ever since. We’re not quite ready to show off the results of this yet, but there’s an offshoot of this mechanic that has expanded things significantly.

There are of course many creatures that swim in or on the surface of still water, the latter exploiting surface tension to avoid sinking. Liam, the developer who's been working on this system, has shared the below picture and paragraphs explaining the technical details.

"In anticipation of floating fire ants in the next update we have been tacking on some upgrades to our new movement systems to allow creatures to do a few things that were previously impossible. While we were at it, it seemed a shame to have the realm of water limited to fire ants and so we loosened the rules a bit to potentially support a few other water-faring critters."




"To start with, the navigation rules in the game have always been based on a single, connected, immovable mesh (a structure that informs the navigation system). This was the first problem to overcome as if water is a ‘walkable’ surface it could create routes to previously unconnected zones. Now instead of being connected or disconnected, meshes are now members of zones that can be linked or separated.

Next, we needed to account for water being able to rise and fall. On the campaign levels Rising Tide and Queen of the Hill, the water is very dynamic and we wanted to be able to keep this sort of movement as an option. The plan at the moment is to do this with multiple static layers of mesh, rather than having a single layer of movable mesh. Layers are generated for every height the water is expected to reach and baked into the level data (‘baked’ here means pre-calculated and included in the level file)."



Following suit from previous species, fire ants will have selectable types for their soldiers. Like with the wood ant ranged units (mortar or rapid fire) and leafcutter majors (stun or taunt), on starting a fire ant level you'll have the choice to take one of two kinds of soldier into battle with you. Fire ant abilities encourage aggression, which is very true to their nature. They're detailed below:

Pervasive - if pervasive soldiers are selected, hatching new soldiers after the previous ones have died will be free if the egg has been on the soldier tile for a set period of time. The exact time will be down to balance, so we'll decide on that when we're in a position to properly test them.

Vigorous - soldiers with this option will have a buff to their stats (attack damage, speed and health) for a time after they are born. Again, the exact time and buffs will be down to balance.

As you can see, these abilities encourage aggression and you are actively rewarded for spawning new ants as the old ones die. It wouldn't be very fitting of the reputation of fire ants to be retreating into their nest to hide from danger - much more becoming of their character to attack it until there's no longer a threat!


A question was asked on our Steam forums - is it possible to complete the formicarium challenges using only workers? We knew it was possible for Challenge 1 - in fact there’s an achievement for it. We weren’t so sure beyond that; and in fact said we’d only believe it given video footage. Cue Phoenix7786, who proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that Challenge 2 can be done using only workers, using a very simple yet clever nest layout and appropriate queen abilities.

https://youtu.be/BHWclleyCu0


Always my favourite part of writing a newsletter - if you’d like to submit a nice screenshot for this part of the newsletter, simply upload it to Steam (by default F12 takes a shot - you’ll be given an upload option on exiting the game) or email it directly to mike@slugdisco.com. F9 activates photo mode for artistic composition!


I think you got him! Overwhelming numbers from Steam user Raptorr575



Those mandibles though - from Steam user The Great Empire of Japan



F in comments to pay respects to Steam user YOZEN折 22's Formica fusca queen

A new extra level is available now for Empires of the Undergrowth - Extremis. The aim is to survive all the waves - but you won't do it first time. After you die, you are given a number of points (based on how far you got) to unlock new units for your army the next time you play! You might need to reinforce your colony with some wood ant ranged units, or save up for the mighty tanks of the leafcutters!



To find the new level, choose "Other Modes" from the main menu, then "Extra Levels". Please note that your game client will not need to update to unlock Extremis - it will be present in version 0.2131.

Some fairly significant balance changes for the game in today’s patch, as well as important updates to localisation and a bunch of fixes and minor changes, all detailed below!

Thanks to Raptorr575 for the screenshot used in the artwork for this post!

• Updated translations for Russian, German, Chinese and Spanish
  
• Fixed some interface element issues that could occur in some languages

• Story now always highlights if the player does not have a formicarium colony
  
• Small army ants (media) now cost 3 to hatch down from 5 (this will affect both formicarium challenge 3 and an upcoming extra level)
  
• The ‘Evasive’ worker ability now avoids damage 60% of the time down from 95% and the workers are now camouflaged (enemy creatures need to be a lot closer to see them)
  
• Leaf landmarks in freeplay now regenerate every 5 minutes up from 4
  
• Aggrandise balance: Hard and Insane mode now have slightly more food available (an extra 10% of each creature’s base level food)
  
• Aggrandise balance: The fish provides 50 more food in Insane and 100 more food in Hard
  
• Aggrandise balance: Woodlice and woodworm will not wander about and are located closer to the player’s starting location
  
• Aggrandise balance: There is now a 3 tile wide access route between the player and the huge whip spider. If it or its two bodyguards are disturbed they will all now attack the player’s queen
  
• Freeplay now has an autosave feature. The time between saves can be set from the options menu. When loading a freeplay save you can choose to load the most recent save, the autosave or the manual save. Load most recent save from the in-game menu will now load whichever of those is most recent

• Tooltip for allied colony minimaps no longer says you need to be in their colony to see them
  
• Fixed an issue where the new ubers had incorrect (low) food values and too few harvesting points
  
• Pebbles will now be removed from web landmarks even in loaded games
  
• Fixed some issues with ants falling through ramps
  
• Fixed an issue where sometimes in freeplay egg collection would take multiple attempts
  
• Moved a problematic pebble in 2.1
  
• Fixed an issue with player starting ants being grey in an upcoming extra level
  
• Balance changes and fixes for upcoming extra levels
  
• Fixed an issue where the nest group marker could be placed via the minimap
  
• Fixed an issue on 2.1 where a voice line was not playing
  
• Creatures that do not wander such as wolf spiders can no longer stay still if they are inside a nest entrance (fixes the issue on Baby Sitting with the wolf spider hiding in the allied nest entrance)
  
• Potential fix for ladybirds being harvestable after they have flown away
  
• Fixed an issue in freeplay setup where play difficulty would not change if changed from advanced game setup
  
• Fixed an issue on 2.2 where a ramp near an enemy colony was trapping ants (the dreaded BOX 4 has been removed)
  
• Collision updated for cliff edges; should mitigate some movement issues
  
• Movement robustness improved around ramps (gaps should be removed)
  
• Fixed an issue allowing players to name their colony with the same name twice (or no name)

Welcome to our March / April 2020 newsletter! First of all, I'll address the corona-elephant in the room and hope that you and your families are staying safe during the lockdown. Let's all remember to be kind to everyone, especially to ourselves, during this pandemic. Let's hope things return to normal in a safe and steady manner. Play some video games, read a book, keep in touch with your loved ones, stay indoors when you can. Now, on to slightly more cheerful matters - including a new game that is joining Ecosystem as a Slug Disco publishing project - Beetle Uprising!


Uber wolf spider from Steam user fetisov.a


A month ago we released the 0.21 update for Empires of the Undergrowth. This update concentrated on an overhaul of freeplay mode, but more fundamentally it included a near-complete rewrite of the crucial pathfinding and movement code that all creatures in the game use. It's difficult to exaggerate the importance of this change, as well as how fundamental it is to the game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptjMDWqm3QU
Ants working out how to avoid each other in the new movement system when it was in development in August

It took us many months to get to this point with it, since it replaces nearly all of the default Unreal Engine equivalents (which are excellent built-in functions but not ideally suited to our purposes) and thankfully there don't seem to be any major issues with the new system. Thanks so much to everyone who helped us test these updates - in particular HofNerd on our official forums, who I think has submitted more bug reports than everyone else combined!

On 24th April, a second extra level was added to the game to join Aggrandise - Baby Sitting. You can find the extra levels, which aren't part of the main campaign, from the "Other Modes" option on the main menu. We will be adding to these regularly - we're aiming for a month apart for them, but it might sometimes take us longer (hence us calling them "regular" rather than "monthly" - you know how it is with game development!).



For the first time in the game, Baby Sitting introduces allied colonies. In real-world nature, Formica rufa (wood ant) colonies often form large super-colonies, where an individual nest buds off from a larger one when queens move to a new location. Although they often have different birth queens, the ants recognise the pheromone signature of their cousins and sisters, and operate as one.


The two nest entrances of the allied colonies in Babysitting


In this level, you take command of a queen who has recently relocated to a new nest, apart from the larger colony. One of her sisters has also set up nearby - her ants are controlled by an allied AI. However, the sister nest's offspring are not quite as wily as you are - they will need help to survive! What they lack in intelligence, though, they make up for with fearlessness. They will charge to your aid when they think you need help, and may take on challenges a little beyond their capabilities. As the wiser of the colonies, it's your job to make sure they don't bite off more than they can chew - kill all enemy creatures and keep both queens alive to complete the mission!


The allied colony's underground nest

Next time for the extra levels, there will be a mission called "Extremis" - which is a wave-based survival mode with a rogue-like twist. Other maps in the works include a mode where you'll play as the other formicarium colony from the 3rd tier challenge and a tug-of-war style map, which is rather like the very first implementation of the game we made way back in 2014, when it was still a project for tablets and mobile devices. Keep an eye on our Twitter and Facebook for more info on extra levels.


As you're aware, the species of the 4.x formicarium tier will be fire ants. Now that we're tackling the very last of the issues with the new movement and pathing code, we can concentrate on the next batch of preparations for the fire ant levels. A while back we completed the final list of creepy crawlies we'd like to include in these levels, and whilst we can't be sure they will all make it into the final build (the sadly-cut velvet worm from the 3.x levels is testament to this) we would like to share the names of a couple we're pretty sure will make the cut, as well as the setting we’ve homed in on for these level - North Carolina in the United States.


The determining factor of where we’d like to set our fire ant levels was dictated by the natural range of this fascinating plant. Because of the range of the Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula), the fire ant levels will be set in the swamps of North Carolina - more specifically an area called the Green Swamp Preserve. Fire ants are not native to this area, but are invasive to it as they are in many parts of the world.


Fly in a flytrap, from Wikimedia Commons. License: CC-BY-SA 4.0. Cropped for newsletter

I scarcely need to introduce the iconic Venus flytrap to you - it is by far the most famous carnivorous plant at least in the west, with dramatic traps that use a trigger system to close and trap insect prey. Nectar is secreted on the surface of the traps, but if an insect touches two of the trigger hairs inside, its fate is slow digestion. Lovely! Mechanics will evolve with development but it seems likely ants will be able to collect nectar from the traps, with a chance of triggering them.


Firing hot, noxious liquid from the end of its abdomen, the bombardier beetle lives up to its name. There are many kinds of these ground beetles - this one is specifically Brachinus alternans. They hunt other insects at night, but are also remarkably social - they will tend to congregate with others of their species when not actively looking for food.


A bombardier beetle, from Wikimedia Commons. License: CC-BY-SA 2.5

When threatened, these insects can unleash a mix of two chemicals - hydroquinone and hydrogen peroxide - which very quickly gets to near the boiling point of water. As the hot gases expand, they are ejected explosively from the end of the abdomen, often with a distinct “popping” sound. This may inflict a mild stinging burn to an amphibian or bird, but will certainly be fatal to any small insects threatening the beetle.

We're not quite ready to show finished artwork for these yet, but as always, follow us on our Twitter and Facebook and we'll be sure to start sharing things with you all as soon as we can! The bombardier beetle is a convenient segue into the introduction below...


About seven months ago, we announced our partnership with our friend Tom Johnson, who is working on a complex evolution-based sandbox game called Ecosystem. Although we're not developing the project (it's entirely Tom's baby) we are acting as the publisher for it through Steam and other platforms. During our time developing Empires of the Undergrowth, we'd like to think that we've learned a few things about media and marketing for a nature-based game project, and we've kept our eye out for projects that fall under this banner. We'd now like to talk about Beetle Uprising!



Beetle Uprising has been on Steam for some time now. John and Mike played it on a live stream at one point - we've had a friendly rivalry with Iocane Games (who are developing it) ever since we heard that in the game you can be awarded a trophy commemorating beetle dominance over ants. Whilst we were expecting an enjoyable mix of Sims-like home building and real-time tactics (RTT) combat, we weren't expecting the deep complexity of its genetics breeding system, which kind of blew us away. These systems are remarkably close to real-world genetics, with all the subtleties of genes, alleles, gametes and all those words you'd nearly forgotten about from school.



We thought this game really deserved to see the light of day more than it had, so we got in touch with the guys at Iocane to see if they'd like to work with us to that end, and to our delight they did. We've been advising them on getting a demo up for the game (in a similar vein to the one we have for Empires of the Undergrowth and Ecosystem) and improving its website and the like. The demo is available now to download from IndieDB, follow this link to download it from IndieDB, and also the project is near completion and can be purchased from Steam! The demo is currently in the review process on Steam - once it's been approved, this newsletter will be updated to reflect that.


Click above to visit the Beetle Uprising IndieDB page and download the demo! Steam demo pending

We really hope you give the demo of this surprisingly complex, genre-defying genetics / home building / tactics game a go, and if you enjoy it support the project. The Iocane guys are looking forward to your feedback on this game - jump into the discussion forums on Steam or on our official forums to let us know what you think. Now, back to regular programming!


This time in lockdown has been a bit difficult for us all - even I, who normally only likes to actually leave the house a few times a week, have found it difficult not being able to walk my dog in the park very often or even just be out in nature for a short while. I thought the time we have indoors would be a great opportunity to concentrate on community-submitted screenshots, so that's what I've been doing for a few weeks on Saturdays. Here's links to the Twitter posts for them, each week following various themes. I'll do a few more of these whilst the pandemic is ongoing, so if you'd like to suggest a theme for future weeks please comment!

Theme: "Monsters"
https://twitter.com/SlugDisco/status/1246461641614639111?s=20

Theme: "Huge Armies", suggested Gustav Bäckström on Facebook
https://twitter.com/SlugDisco/status/1249020783256535040?s=20

Theme: "Nest Design", suggested by Mr_Ced on our forums
https://twitter.com/SlugDisco/status/1251622985619955713?s=20

Theme: "Up Close", suggested by Huỳnh Cẩm Thành on Facebook
https://twitter.com/SlugDisco/status/1254073977045164032?s=20


And finally, my favourite part of the newsletter - as I have done for the Community Screenshot Saturday, I trawled through recent submissions to the Steam screenshots section of our community tab, and submissions directly to me mike@slugdisco.com. No particular theme for these ones, I just select ones that look the most striking. To take a screenshot, press F12 (by default) in-game. To get a really nice screenshot, press F9 to enter photo mode with camera controls, or press shift + F9 for a completely free camera.

An excellently-designed hexagonal nest by Mr_Ced. It includes paths between the hexes for efficient nest movement


Leafcutter majors charge in the formicarium from Steam user Bilbo Baggins


Looks like an argument between rove beetles from Steam user Atta Republic

For patch 0.213 we’ve addressed some issues that have come up in the past few weeks - in particular one which has prevented new content (the 4 jungle uber creatures) from appearing. Freeplay map Towhead has seen a fair few changes - increased landmark numbers and some new paths. Also a bunch of quality-of-life changes in this one.



Towhead has seen several changes this time round

• Solved a bug preventing the 4 new ubers showing up in freeplay (they would be announced but not show)
  
• Landmark spawn rate with leafcutters reduced down to 200% (from 250%) as it was filling all available landmark spots causing landmark droughts on some maps
  
• Leaves now regenerate every 4m down from 5m
  
• Increased the number of landmark locations on Towhead by about 8 (and shuffled some around)
  
• Added a couple of central crossing paths into Towhead to allow better access to the new landmark locations from all spawn points
  
• Funnel web landmarks no longer spawn pebbles (eliminates a bug making ramps inaccessible if the web spawns near one)
  
• Fixed an issue where creatures could end up stuck on top of your nest in freeplay
  
• Uber spawn chance increased when playing Hunter victory condition
  
• Creative mode now automatically spends resources allowing you to harvest resources if you wish
  
• Wave number will no longer increase if defeated before the timer for the next wave starts in freeplay
  
• Added option in freeplay to disable difficulty increase when approaching victory
  
• Renamed a couple of difficulty options in freeplay
  
• Uber spawns now cause a minimap ping
  
• Funnel web landmark despawn timer will tick down 4x as fast if all its inhabitants are dead
  
• Funnel web spiders will not be given targets until they reach their nest
  
• Besieged victory now occurs on final wave defeat rather than just before spawn
  
• You can no longer save the game during an attack wave

• Achievement fail and success messages are now off by default and can be turned on from an option in the menu or from the scoreboard (achievement tracking)
  
• Added a widget to the main menu that will show up after you have completed the campaign and will highlight games made by our friends (only on Steam)
  
• Fixed a bug that could break formicarium challenge 2 if you kill the tube spawning ants too quickly after they spawn
  
• Fixed a bug that could cause a green riser to appear if you cancel a dig job the moment a cavern is tunnelled out
  
• Fixed more issues with creatures or food getting stuck under ramps
  
• Funnel web now has immunities to several crowd control effects
  
• Hungry Spider projectile is now visible again
  
• Hungry Spider mouse movement should feel a lot smoother however it no longer paths around walls so you need to manually manoeuvrer it
  
• Fixed an issue where Hungry Spider bite and venom strike were doing less damage than intended further from the centre of the attack
  
• Creatures with low visual range can now see enemies that attack them from further away
  
• Fixed some text issues
  
• Fixed an issue that could cause aphids to float (sometimes very high in the sky) when ladybirds attempt to pick them up
  
• Ladybirds will no longer try and escape once they have started picking up an aphid (they will escape after anyway)
  
• Fixed an issue with brood tile hotkeys not functioning correctly
  
• Massively reduced issues with chamber rep panel thinking the mouse is hovering over a chamber when it is not (worse at lower FPS)

There's a new Empires of the Undergrowth extra level available now! In Baby Sitting, you have an AI-controlled sister colony. They're very plucky, but not that bright. You'll have to make sure they don't bite off more than they can chew and keep them out of trouble! Both queens must survive to win the level. To find the new level, choose "Other Modes" from the main menu, then "Extra Levels". Good luck!



Note: your game client will not need to update for this level to be unlocked.

For many months we have been working hard on improving movement in Empires of the Undergrowth, and this patch represents successes in this area but also a bunch of content and quality-of-life changes that we hope you will be pleased with.

Thanks so much for those of you who have helped out during the beta phase for this update; we’re very glad to be able to release it for everyone!





After replacing most of the movement code in the game and running extensive beta tests, this is now ready to go. This will lead to a noticeable performance boost for all which ultimately means more creatures and bigger maps!

This will also help fix bugs that have been persistent in movement for a long time. Bugs to do with ants freezing or getting stuck on ramps should, for the most part, be eliminated.

Freeplay has seen many changes and should feel very different now than it used to.

• Leaf cutters make their way to freeplay, along with climbable plants!
  
• New rainforest map Embankment
  
• Difficulty has been tuned and and extra difficulty option added that affects how quickly and how far the games difficulty will change
  
• Optional victory conditions have been added allowing you to set goals (these also affect the difficulty as you approach victory)
  
• Freeplay setups can be saved, and can also be shared via a string
  
• Ubers have been rebalanced bringing them to a fairer difficulty level. They have also been altered to be strong / weak against various enemy combinations
  
• As difficulty increases, creatures will now get stronger (rather than just more numerous) and will have much less food reduction

We will be bringing regular extra missions to the game apart from the main campaign. Here we have allowed ourselves more freedom to do things in a more game-like fashion rather than true to nature, like we strive to be in the story.The first 3 maps will be released a month apart!

• Aggrandise launches today! Command a Formica ereptor colony featuring the fierce trap jaw ants and carefully choose your targets as your colony grows large enough to take on a large foe!
  
• More are on the way - follow our social media for details!

Phorid flies are tiny, inconspicuous-looking insects that could easily be mistaken for fruit flies but are far deadlier. They lay their eggs between the armoured carapaces of insects, in particular your ants, leading to a time where they will be less effective followed by inevitable death as the larva eats away at the innards.

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.


We have also added a bunch of achievements for the first tier levels of the game. This includes New Home, Subjugation and the first formicarium challenge. Multiple achievements have been added for various difficulties and challenge modes. There are the generic achievements, such as finishing a level on a specific difficulty, but also tasks that have specific conditions to achieve. Check your achievements from the in-game menu.


On top of all these additions there has been a raft of optimisation changes made that should also improve performance. Some areas have also seen balance changes including area-of-effect (AOE) attacks, insane difficulty on 3.2 Front Line and many others. Many of these changes are listed below.

• Projectiles have been significantly optimised (very noticeable with rapid fire wood ants)
  
• Substantially reduced the cost of rendering the Isolepis Cernua (spiky plant)
  
• And many more! See previous patch notes from beta testing for extensive details

• Black ants now take 20% less damage from AOE attacks
  
• 3.2 Front Line on harder difficulties will spawn less environmental creatures and more higher level army ants
  
• Formicarium challenge 3 has been made much easier on harder difficulties:
  
• Reduced the number of resource refills the enemy colony receives across various difficulties (now 0/1/2/4 down from 0/1/5/10)
  
• Reduced reload quantity to 1800 (down from 2000)
  
• Resource reloads will now appear gradually (10 per second) rather than instantly
  
• Reduced size of cricket drops on harder difficulties
  
• Damage falloff implemented on wood ant mortar, uber basic attacks and some whip spider attacks. This deals less damage the further away from the epicentre of the attack the creature is (reaching zero at the very edge)

• Multiple frame rate limits added
  
• Added an option slider for a darkened square behind resource counters for visibility
  
• Markers should feel more responsive with faster movement between different markers, more ants at the end of the marker and far fewer ants waiting at home to head to the marker
  
• Camera zoom now interpolates very rapidly
  
• Visuals added for leafcutter major auras
  
• Difficulty levels have been added for Formicarium challenges 1 and 2
  
• Trail calculations have been updated. Should lead to more ants at the end of trails, more consistent flows and less ants waiting underground
  
• And many more! See previous patch notes from beta testing for extensive details

• Significantly less ants getting caught on corners
  
• Corrected an error that could cause creatures to get stuck at the entrance to ramps
  
• A previously dormant patrol route behind the player’s nest has been reactivated in 3.2
  
• Fixed an issue where workers could survive their tiles being deleted if they have the “evasive” skill
  
• After purchasing a queen ability, all queen cool-downs need to recharge (prevents switching queen abilities during formicarium challenge exploit)
  
• Ladybirds now immune to many crowd control effects to prevent them being affected whilst eating an aphid
  
• “Attack when favourable” creatures (such as mantis and jumping spider) now take nearby allies into account when deciding to attack or not
  
• Improvements to ant crowd movement - particularly in combat
  
• Mole crickets now take room size into account when selecting a room to spawn in
  
• Improvements to collision detection with difficult shapes
  
• Battle arena now only removes creatures that are not in combat
  
• Ubers will no longer ignore the nest invasion setting in freeplay setup
  
• Moved all pebbles off walkable area in the original Hungry Spider level
  
• Fixed a visual error with the wood ant projectile splash
  
• And many more! See previous patch notes from beta testing for extensive details

Last bits of balance and fixes! Just a very short test to make sure nothing we’ve added or fixed causes any major issues - and then this should be the last one before we set it on the main branch. Hang tight just a little longer if you’ve been waiting for the beta to finish!

This beta now includes Mac, Linux and Win32 builds if anyone would like to test for them! For those familiar with how to activate a beta password the word is christmasants. For more detailed instructions see this post on the forum.

Thanks to ant27rex for the screenshot used in the header and cover of this post!

• Reduced number of funnel web spiders on hard and insane difficulties
  
• Provided slightly more time between computer actions on insane difficulty
  
• Dead creatures provide more food on hard and insane difficulties

• Just Isn’t Cricket achievement will now correctly complete instead of completing a different one
  
• Slave makers now correctly drop resources when they see an enemy
  
• Fixed an issue where an invisible enemy could be present in replays of formicarium challenge 3
  
• Fixed an issue where you would autocomplete Rapid Growth and NOPE after beating 1.2 insane
  
• Achievements will now only give their failed or succeeded announcement if you do not already have them
  
• Fixed an issue where tunnelling enemies (Extremis and Surrounded) could get stuck digging nothing or standing still if they tunnelled out and could not see an enemy

We're entering the final stages of beta testing for the 0.21 update now - and for the first time in the game this update introduces achievements! The first batch (formicarium tier 1) are present here - more will follow suit later down the line. We’ve also done some fairly extensive balancing.

This is an optional beta - if you’d like to join the beta whilst it’s still running, follow the instructions in the box near the top of this previous post. If you're already on the beta branch you won't need to do this; the game should update by itself. Thanks so much to everyone who has helped us test this large update; we’re nearly there now! NOTE: The beta will only run on Windows. Once we've finished the beta period Mac and Linux will get the full finished update!

Thanks to whoamijr for the screenshot used for the header and cover of this post!

• Achievements are now active on Steam for the first tier of the formicarium. Note you will currently only be able to get these in the beta
  
• Some level balance changes, more details below

• Raised the cost of trap jaw ant build to 90 (up from 60)
  
• Added black ants to the player’s build options to give a mid-way unit now trap jaw cost has been increased so much

• On higher difficulties less patrolling creatures appear
  
• On higher difficulties more level 2 and 3 army ants will appear

• Reduced the number of resource refills the enemy colony receives across various difficulties (now 0/1/2/4 down from 0/1/5/10)
  
• Reduced reload quantity to 1800 (down from 2000)
  
• Resource reloads will now appear gradually (10 per second) rather than instantly
  
• Reduced size of cricket drops on harder difficulties

• A couple of achievement times adjusted for balance reasons
  
• Creatures set to attack player when damaged now only attack the first player that attacked them and do not switch

• Food reservation now affects leaves and harvestable creatures, so you will not harvest from these unless there is space available for ants to reserve a slot to place them
  
• Minor change to a web on 1.2 allowing the spider to see other ants that are on top of its nest
  
• Fixed another resource pickup issue that could cause an ant to get stuck trying to pick up a resource
  
• Funnel web spider can no longer be introduced after its death has been announced in 1.2
  
• Fixed an issue where leaves could be dropped in a way that made them inaccessible around nest entrances
  
• Fixed an issue with recent changes to mole crickets that made them spawn on the same spot (and could crash)
  
• Fixed an issue that could occur with harvesters when harvesting was turned off (they could walk back and forth to the thing they were previously harvesting for a time)
  
• Fixed some bugs with achievements in 1.2
  
• Resources dropped from deleting tiles now correctly display food values and appear on the minimap
  
• Fixed an issue where ubers were still invading with invasions turned off (again!)
  
• Moved some food in the old demo levels to be in caverns
  
• Fix added for water rising on low frame rates that could cause it to overshoot (sometimes enough to kill ants coming out of their nest)
  
• Fixed an issue where an ant could briefly be given a job as it was heading to the surface, causing its AI to break and not move when it reached the surface
  
• Potential fix for ants locking out harvesting of plant from a long distance away
  
• Minor adjustments in food size in critters to help flickering
  
• Fixed a bug with plant disembarking
  
• Leaf sizes are now more sensible in 3.1
  
• Fixed a rare crash that could occur in pathfinding
  
• Fixed an issue where an ant targeted by a funnel web that was killed could not be targeted by another until ants stopped entering the nest