The last couple of months have been focused on some complicated systems for the fire ants as well as some large changes to freeplay, which are currently in an optional beta for Steam Windows users (details below). Whilst complex from a game design point of view, the extensions to the movement systems needed for the fire ants is getting there. We're close to having the fire ant bridge building system the way we like it!


Uber vs Uber in this colourful shot from Steam user Kist7ck

Whilst Liam and Matt are dealing with the complexities of fire ant systems, John has been adding some much-requested features to freeplay, most notable amongst them being AI colonies to battle against or with! Although they're in an early form right now, they will be improved on over time. Let's start this newsletter properly with details on the freeplay colonies.


It's probably the most requested feature for freeplay, and it is now in an optional beta phase - AI colonies are being implemented properly into freeplay. In their early form, their intelligence is fairly basic but is being improved on iteratively with each update. As things stand, the player can choose up to 3 AI colonies to be active in their game, and can put them on different teams as they see fit. The AI has various levels of options to allow it to cheat - this helps level the playing field against human players. Over time, we anticipate most players will reduce the AI cheating level as we get better at making them cleverer.


AI leafcutter clash with AI wood ants in freeplay

We've been running the optional beta for the AI colonies for a few weeks now and the feedback has been invaluable. We expect the beta to last for a few weeks longer yet at the time of writing (early September 2020) so if you haven't participated yet and would like to join in then please follow the instructions near the top of this post. You will need to be a Steam Windows 64 bit user to access the beta. Please note that for the time being freeplay saving is disabled in the beta; this is because we're still working on everything needed to fully save the AI's brains.

The AI colonies add a lot of fun and replayability to freeplay, even in their first implementation. In the future, there are lots of things we would like to do to expand their functionality. At the moment, the AI uses a pre-built nest plan but there is a system we worked on a while back that could eventually allow AI to design its own underground, regardless of the map layout. Don't expect this system to be active in the near future but it's an example of where we could go with things.


As mentioned, fire ant progression is continuing apace. The expansion to the movement systems (and bending of the pre-established game rules) that things like bridge building requires has taken up a large chunk of our recent development time! Below, you can see a video we posted recently that shows how the fire ants form a floating bridge - they link together, walking on each other's backs, until they reach the other side of the gap they are intending to span. A bridge can be constructed at set points on a map to reach territory and resources otherwise unattainable. Once a bridge has served its purpose, it can be dismantled and the ants that formed it are freed up to act normally again.



You can see in this short video we posted a few weeks back how things are improving with this system; compared to a few weeks ago the ants no longer queue up to form the bridge and it happens a lot quicker than it did before. There are still plenty of tweaks to get there to make it look a bit more natural and fluid, but we're pretty pleased with the results so far!


The fourth tier levels will take place in a swampy area of North Carolina in the United States. We've already talked about some of the wildlife you'll encounter in these levels in a previous newsletter (for example the Venus fly trap and the bombardier beetle). We thought we'd reveal another creature in this newsletter, and it's an interesting one - the red velvet ant (Dasymutilla occidentalis)! This distinctive insect is named for the bright red fuzz that covers its back.


Red Velvet Ant, from Wikimedia Commons. License: CC BY 2.0. Cropped for newsletter

Despite its name, it is not an ant at all but instead a species of wasp. The female of this species is wingless, and given the close relation between wasps and ants you can see why it is often mistaken for an ant. The bright colouration should be a warning of its nature - it has an exceptionally painful sting, earning it its nickname of "cow killer".

There are lots more creatures that are coming in the 4th formicarium tier, in fact it will feature the largest creature count so far by quite a way. Amongst these are titans, huge creatures that have some special rules applied to them. We're not ready to show off any of those yet, but we will talk about them in future newsletters closer to the time!


The next extra level, Tug of War, has been in beta at the same time as the AI colonies in freeplay. This is an auto-battler mode where your strategy comes down to the placement of tiles in your nest. Periodically, you will be given an injection of resources, as will your AI opponent. Eggs will hatch simultaneously on a timer, and the idea is to push back your enemy to their queen and kill her! It's a game mode that harkens back to Empires of the Undergrowth's origins; this is not too far from what the game would have been like when it was first envisaged as a game for mobile devices back in 2014. We've come a long way since then, but it is nice to return to our roots with this one-off game mode. It will be released as a new extra level with the next non-beta update.


Tug of War screenshot from Steam user whoamijr

We're also working on the next extra level after that, called "Adventure" - John's been streaming some development of this level for some time now, and it looks to be another unique level altogether! More information on this as we get close to releasing it.

In early August, we took part in the Yogscast Tiny Teams festival! This was an event that highlighted some of the really neat work that's produced by teams with 3 or fewer core members. As well as some of the better known ones and their own selection of titles, the festival featured lots of lesser known titles such as our own. Although it wasn't part of the festival, Tom of the Yogscast has been streaming Empires of the Undergrowth on his Twitch channel recently and as someone who's been following the Yogscast for nearly a decade, I consider that a personal accomplishment for us!


We're a Tiny Team!

It was lovely to be part of such an event, and we'd definitely like to do more of them in the future!


We've been spoilt for choice for Screenshot Central this month! Some excellent stills and it's great to see more of you guys using photo mode to get some nice angles for your snaps! F9 by default enters photo mode; if you hold down shift whilst you press it you get an unconstrained camera for ultimate creativity! Take shots through Steam (F12 by default) and upload them to Steam Community if you'd like us to feature them in a future newsletter. Alternatively, you can email them to mike@slugdisco.com and I'll check them out.


A Counterpart Colony on the march from Steam user The Dreaded Kazoo


Nice shot of a Formica fusca queen from Steam user Liam


A stunning leafcutter major from Steam user Din0ll

A small update to the currently-running optional beta has been released.

• Fixed an issue where allied queens could count towards conquest victory condition
  
• Altered rapid fire wood ants animation to fix an issue with them becoming stuck after attacking (there may still be issues with this; please let us know if you spot any)

A small update to the currently-running optional beta has been released. No new features in this one, just some fixes for common issues. This brings the version number to 0.22031.

• Disabled save on quit in freeplay when save should be disabled (currently save is disabled when playing with enemy colonies; the proper mechanisms for saving AI game states are not yet fully implemented)
  
• Prevented creatures attacking dead queens if it was a player that killed the queen in freeplay
  
• Fixed an issue where accepting advanced options in freeplay with the Counterpart Colony selected as your colony would turn it back to a Formica ereptor colony
  
• Fixed an issue on 3.2 where army ant scouts would not move (this may fix other issues as well)
  
• When an ally uses a queen ability it now correctly says an ally used the queen ability instead of enemy
  
• Fixed an issue in tug of war where placing tiles down in the first second would cause an egg to spawn on them instantly
  
• Fixed an issue where the enemy colony difficulty would flip to the other option (easy or normal) when opening the AI colony setup
  
• Fixed a crash that occurred when a medium AI colony tried to pause an attack

We’ve updated the currently-running optional beta. As well as fixes and changes to the freeplay AI, this one also includes some rather extensive balance changes that will affect the campaign levels as well. We’re particularly looking forward to feedback on these.

This will currently only affect you if you're participating in the optional beta. If you’re not participating in the beta and would like to, please see the details in this link. Note that the beta is only available to Windows Steam owners.

• Easy AI Player added
  
  • Will not attack another colony for at least the first 20 minutes
    
  • Far less likely to attack another colony
    
  • Attacks on enemy colonies are shorter
    
  • Will wait longer between attacks
    
  • Makes decisions less often
• Medium AI Player added
  
  • Can regroup during an attack if it is going poorly (briefly pause an attack)
    
  • Can come to the aid of an ally if they have more than 10 enemies in their nest and are not currently attacking
• Raiding defeated colonies added
  
  • Players may now remain inside enemy colonies once they are defeated
    
  • Defeated players colony is dismantled at a rate of 1 tile per half second, dropping resources to the ground
    
  • These resources can be carried off by an opposing colony
• Players can now see into nests where allied ants are located

• Lower difficulties of cheats starting base size and resources reduced slightly
  
• Leafcutter ant media buffed
  
  • Attack damage increased to 4.5 / 6 / 7 (up from 3 / 4.5 / 6)
    
  • Health increased to 100 / 115 / 130 (up from 90 / 105 / 120)
    
  • Speed increased to 310 / 320 / 330 (up from 300 / 300 / 300)
    
  • Piercing increased to 0.2 / 0.3 / 0.4 (up from 0.2 / 0.2 / 0.2)
• Wood ant melee buffed
  
  • Threat generation increased to 0.2 / 0.25 / 0.3 (up from 0.1 / 0.1 / 0.15)
    
  • Damage increased to 0.6 / 1.2 / 1.8 (up from 0.5 / 1 / 1.5)
    
  • Armour increased 0.2 / 0.4 / 0.6 (up from 0 / 0 / 0)
    
  • Distance values altered so they will get slightly closer to enemies before attacking (should allow other melee units the ability to get closer to the fight)
• Health regeneration on many melee units buffed
  
  • Leafcutter major, army ant major and slave maker ants health regen increased to 0.1 / 0.15 / 0.2 (up from 0.1 / 0.1 / 0.1)
    
  • Black ant, wood ant melee and leafcutter media health regeneration increased to 0.1 / 0.2 / 0.3 (up from 0.1 / 0.1 / 0.1)
• Rapid fire wood ants will now get in and out of attack mode much more quickly

• Fixed an issue preventing movement avoidance code working properly
  
• Fixed an issue where enemy colonies would continue building after their queen had been killed

We’ve updated the currently-running optional beta - this will only affect you if you're participating in said currently-running optional beta, detailed in this post.

• Freeplay teams implemented - AI colonies in freeplay can now be assigned a team (including allied with the player)
  
• If the player places a marker on an enemy colony, AI allies will join the attack if it deems it sensible
  
• Allied players ping the minimap when they themselves are attacking an enemy colony to let the player know
  
• AI allies will join in each other's attacks on enemy colonies
  
• Conquest victory condition now takes into account allies
  
• Counterpart colony will now be available to play in freeplay once you beat extra level “The Other Foot” (you will need to beat it again if you already have done so; difficulty doesn’t matter)

• Royal Guard are now immune to stun, confuse, pickup and execute
  
• Royal Guard health increased to 200 (up from 120)
  
• AI colonies now build more rooms and should have a more sensible distribution of ants in their marker groups
  
• Formica ereptor AI colonies can now build from the entire pool of ants available to them (even those unlocked by editing the save files)
  
• Formica ereptor AI colonies will now build up to 4 species in freeplay
  
• Infestation landmark is now defaulted to off
  
• AI now turns off harvesting and turns on attacking when going into combat with a colony and turns both on when leaving combat with a colony
  
• AI cheats now have bigger pre-built bases at lower difficulties
  
• AI cheats now have smaller pre-built bases and higher difficulties
  
• AI cheats now have more starting resources at lower difficulties

• Fixed an issue where switching from evasive worker upgrade would leave the camouflage on
  
• Fixed an issue that could cause the first wave to have no creatures in Extremis
  
• Fixed an issue where creatures spawned on lab formicarium 2 after returning from a mission could be stuck slightly in the ground. The previously friendly spiders will now immediately attack; F in comments for spiderbro :(
  
• Fixed a bug where reloading a freeplay game that has no manual save would cause the map to load in its default setup without workers or queen tiles
  
• Fixed an issue where an AI colony ants could be carrying eggs on the surface
  
• If no AI player exists and Conquest is selected a Formica fusca colony is added in freeplay
  
• Fixed an issue where leafcutters were climbing empty plant leaves
  
• Fixed an issue that would cause AI colonies to attack player 0 even if no colony exists in the game with that ID (AI ants will no longer attack inactive nests)
  
• Fixed the revenge mechanic for AI colonies; they will now be more likely to attack a player that has killed some of their ants recently
  
• Fixed an issue where the whip spider (and other large enemies) could potentially skip the line-of-sight check if switching targets while an enemy is actually visible (stops whip spider attacking ants above it on the ridge)
  
• Minor improvement to target acquisition efficiency for abilities
  
• Fixed an issue where only 20 refuse was removed when cancelling a build or upgrade job rather than the full amount that was created
  
• Check added to prevent save files read-only crash and appropriate error message given to player
  
• Fixed an issue where resource numbers could appear to float upwards when food drops close to and behind the camera
  
• Fixed a crash that would occur when loading a level with pre-set leaves

An update to the currently running beta has been released - this will only affect you if you're participating in the currently-running optional beta, detailed in this post.

Here are the notes for this beta release:

• Fixed an issue where formicarium colony’s territory and jelly were set to zero and tunnel exit closed. (If you saved a formicarium in this state we advise restoring it from a backup, detailed here)
  
• Fixed an issue where Tug of War map would display formicarium rewards at the end
  
• Enemy ants should no longer provide vision in freeplay with Fog of War active
  
• Fixed an issue where freeplay enemy colonies unit selection was the opposite of what was chosen
  
• Fixed the game icon

An optional beta is available to all Steam owners of the game running a 64 bit Windows system. The idea with these occasional builds is to give people access to new things that need wider testing, with the understanding that there are likely to be crashes and balance issues. We would appreciate feedback if you can provide it - post on our Steam forums, or our official forums.

The beta code is summertimeants. If you’re unfamiliar with how to activate a Steam beta, here’s how to do it:

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 summertimeants
   
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.

IMPORTANT: If you participate in the optional beta, you do so with the understanding that crashes are likely and there are incomplete features since it is a test build. In this beta, freeplay saving is disable due to AI colonies not having the code to properly save their thought processes yet. Due to the unpredictable nature of beta tests, we strongly recommend you back up your formicarium saves before you play:

You will find your saves on Windows in:

C:/Users/YOUR USER NAME/AppData/Local/EotU/Saved/SaveGames

Note that AppData is usually hidden; you can either un-hide the folder in the files settings or just type it into the bar. If you make a copy of this folder and save it somewhere else, you can restore your saves by replacing this folder with the backed up one.

• An auto-battler game mode in which you pit your chosen build against an AI opponent
  
• The enemy has a number of different builds to choose from; to beat it you’ll need to be smarter and faster!
  
• Instead of gathering resources you are given food periodically based on how well you’re doing
  
• Push back the enemy and kill their queen to claim victory

• AI enemy colonies can now be added to a new freeplay game in the setup menu
  
• In this first implementation their AI is basic so they don’t have a difficulty setting (it is greyed out; this will be expanded on later) but you can give yourself a challenge by having them cheat to varying degrees
  
• A new victory condition - Conquest - can be set in Advanced Options. To achieve it, all enemy queens must be killed

• Fixed an issue where a loaded harvestman’s leg could cause the game to crash
  
• Can no longer place markers for nest group underground via minimap
  
• Blocked side routes for the huge whip spider on Aggrandise (preventing your ants pathing through its chamber unintended)
  
• Underground enemy icons are now scaled based on how many points they provide. This should make it easier to gauge threats before attacking
  
• Allied creatures now show health when camouflaged
  
• Ramp collision improvements
  
• Reduced point value of army ant media
  
• Marker calculations have been improved (should be more responsive)

It's a regular query, but we imagine not many of you here on Steam know the answer. We are often asked how big our team size is, and that's a very valid question - it affects many things about a game's development cycle. In our case, the answer is three - three developers on a very ambitious project that is laden with pitfalls.

Despite the extra difficulties in being very small, really neat things can come from tiny teams - we'd like to think that Empires of the Undergrowth, for all its small-team shortcomings (our big updates take a long time, but you're all super understanding!) is a quality game worthy of your time investment. There are many other indie devs that operate solo or in tiny teams, and some of the best works of this generation of gaming have come from that.

The Yogscast agree with us. We've been selected to be a part of their Tiny Teams games festival, which is running from 8PM BST tonight (9th August) until the 15th. It'll be highlighting and celebrating the very small teams (a core team of 1-3) who produce amazing things with limited resources.

As well as this Steam event, the Yogscast will be running tie-in Twitch streams to go along with the festival. Empires of the Undergrowth will feature.

Join the Yogscast stream at https://www.twitch.tv/yogscast. We'll see you in Twitch chat!

Also for you guys who don't visit the forum very often - here's a very early work-in-progress of fire ants building bridges with their own bodies.

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