New Release! Demo 0.064. Main discussion

[MikeSlugDisco]

Hello all! We've released an update to the demo. This demo does not include new content, but does have many significant fixes, changes and future-proofing additions. Give it a spin, then comment here to let us know what you think.

http://www.indiedb.com/games/empires-of-the-undergrowth/downloads/eotu-win64-underground-demo-0064/

Trails have been reworked

- Half of the ants assigned to a trail will now remain at the end of the trail, and when a new trail location is placed, the ants at the end of the trail will head straight to the new location. This makes the control system feel more responsive whilst maintaining the some of the natural trail behaviour.
- Two new groups have been added allowing more trails.

Ant movement reworked

- Ants will no longer move through one another in combat (no more weird death balls)
- The front line is now a thing; you can physically block a corridor and limit attacks coming in
- Ants will make constant attempts to get around one another
- Larger creatures will no longer path to where they cannot reach (such as right next to a wall)
- Many other changes designed to make movement feel a lot better
- Massive efficiency savings, your FPS should be significantly higher (doubled in some cases)

All food values in the game have been increased by a factor of 5

- This should not affect gameplay but gives us more design space to work with. A few examples:

- A seed can now contain 5 to 15 food, up from 1 to 3.
- Black ants cost 50 food to place a tile, and 5 food to hatch a new one.

Dig speed has been decreased by a factor of 3

- It was too easy to tunnel out huge areas and this change should lead to more thoughtful tunneling.

Creatures will no longer pass through one another if they are near an enemy

- You should no longer have large numbers of creatures on the same spot moving slowly after a battle, additionally creatures cannot push through each other to reach the front line.

Right clicking a call to arms will no longer remove it

You must use the interface button to do this

All colony ants will regenerate health slowly (player only)

- All ants now regenerate health at a rate of 1 per second (queen, worker and black ant). This only applies to the player colony, and not enemy ants.

Creatures

- Large balance changes for Devil’s Coach Horse Adult
- Small balance changes for Beach Tiger Beetle
- Beach tiger beetle now performs an AOE stun periodically
- Food rewards from all creatures reduced

Levels

- Multiple small balance changes for levels
- ‘Surrounded’ now prevents larger creatures from spawning until a certain time (shorter timer for harder difficulties)
- Backers’ level becomes a lot harder after 22 minutes (halved wave timer after that point)

Bug Fixes

Multiple small bug fixes
- Devil’s Coach Horse Adult will no longer deafen people upon death (sound level has been reduced)
- Creatures passing through one another will no longer push other creatures
- Ants will now drop food if there is no space to store it
- Non-worker ants will drop food if they spot an enemy

Upgrade system

- This is not yet implemented, but the user interface icon is visible.

 

[Redmoth27]

This is great!

 

[takomako]

when i use alt and (wasd) at the same time, buttons may stop responding until i click somewhere! not a big problem at the moment but just a heads up.

 

[JohnSlugDisco]

Thanks takomako, I will note this down!

 

[Chaospinhead]

Am i the only one having a wicked time getting this demo to function? I tried the backers level and Critters and both I was obliterated after a certain point because my eggs stopped hatching even when I had 1000 food my worker/soldier count never reached cap...and the ants wouldn't place eggs on half the tiles I had made available to each type. They just turn yellow and stop hatching.

 

[MikeSlugDisco]

The worker ants will only place eggs if their ant trail passes close to tiles without eggs, or if they're in the nest group (left, without a pheromone marker).

I've not experienced the eggs not hatching when there's food and slots for them - any chance of more details on this? All works fine for me.

 

[Planemaster]

The worker ants will only place eggs if their ant trail passes close to tiles without eggs, or if they're in the nest group (left, without a pheromone marker).

I've not experienced the eggs not hatching when there's food and slots for them - any chance of more details on this? All works fine for me.

In another thread, he says that he got confused through the fact that he couldn't right click to disable markers. Looks like it's all solved for him now

 

[Olek]

Only just discovered this game, and I'm very excited to see how this game goes, I've been studying ants for the last 40 years, and had numerous colonies of Bulldog ants, and I'm just about to start another one as my oldest son has taken an interest, though he wants Meat Ants, got a 5 foot fish tank ready for the queen

Enough about me, The Demo shows a lot of potential, hopefully there will be some modding support?
Keep up the great work!

 

[Kaien_Saerin]

Few things id like too see just coming from this version:

Tunnels shouldn't hinder our attacking ants and should allow us to run under tiger beetles at the least so our ants can get the maximum hits on it, rather then single file line of death.

Tiger beetles are way too op right now especially when the travel and attack in groups of 2-3 in moderate/intense on surrounded. I don't think tiger beetles roll in packs like that normally so its strange that they'd attack all at once.

Although enemy ants have always been friendly with other insects they aren't Formica ereptor so they shouldn't be allied but i think they should also try too steal food from the other 2 enemy insect tunnels so the game doesn't become too easy on surrounded for letting them fight it out.

REALLY need a way too build our own dirt walls in the underground stages. Of course I'm sure its in development or completed in the actual game but for this one it almost seems required on surrounded in order to protect your red ants from sudden attackers.