Optional Beta 0.22032** - Gameplay Balance, AI Additions & Changes

MikeSlugDisco

Community Manager
Staff member
Community Manager
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.

Freeplay and AI changes
  • 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
Balance Changes
  • 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
Fixes
  • Fixed an issue preventing movement avoidance code working properly
  • Fixed an issue where enemy colonies would continue building after their queen had been killed

*EDIT:
A small update to the currently-running optional beta has been released. No new features, 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

**EDIT 2:
Another small patch was released for a couple of issues; version is now 0.22032.
  • 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)
 
Last edited:

TheRexYo

Queen
So, I was playing Wood Ants in Freeplay today. For once in my life, buying Wood Ant Melees wasn't a total loss!
I still wish they were a little better at shielding other melee units in addition to tanking hits for ranged ones (a feature I think all tank units should have), but otherwise this is a huge improvement!
 
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