Hi all,
This is a fairly gargantuan update, the largest by far for this project since it's release. I'm gonna chat about it for a moment and then get to the patch notes.
v0.4.0 marks a dramatic level up for the ants of ant farm. They individually store a lot more data and systems which are core to the overall new experiences. All of these changes are for the Idle Mode, and the Productivity Mode with no interaction does not need these Idle game systems. Ants now have individual hunger levels, as well as age. And more importantly, they can perish. How all of this works is inherently tied to the new ant type: Forager Ants.
Forager Ants are slower and more expensive than a Worker Ant but they are the only ants that can gather the nutrients left behind after breaking some dirt blocks. When an ant's hunger meter empties, it must eat a single nutrient to completely restore it's hunger meter or risk death. A Nutrient Blob left behind by a destroyed dirt block (a 10% spawn chance to start) with yield you 10 nutrients. That's 10 ant's hunger reset per Nutrient Blob.
In addition to buying Forager Ants, you can now upgrade the spawn chance of Nutrient Blobs by 2% per purchase. To coincide with two new purchasable upgrades as well as the need to re-buy perished ants, the math formulas for cost scaling have been adjusted across the board.
As ants become too old, they have a chance to Perish naturally regardless of their hunger meter. Currently this is measured as ~100 trips to and from the underground. If you only have 1 ant remaining, it cannot die of old age.
It's also easier than ever to see your stats and buy upgrades now that not only is the shop keyboard friendly, but mouse friendly too. The GUI elements for each upgrade display what they are on hover and you can click them to upgrade right there. The expand information button on the B key now breaks down relevant stats for your current ant farm.
There are a handful of loose threads I plan to follow off of this major patch as smaller iterative patches. It will be a slower path to the next title update (v0.5.0) but the interim patches in the meantime will expand on the ideas here is meaningful ways, with new upgrades, more stats shown, and more. Stay tuned for those small updates and stay further tuned for a v0.5.0 Roadmap plan sometime in the next few weeks.
With all of these changes, existing Idle Mode ant farm saves may not perform as intended (although they should load), so a clean Idle Mode ant farm save file is recommended to enjoy these changes as they were intended.
On to the full notes:
v0.4.0
Added Forager Ants
Added Nutrient Blobs
Added Nutrient counter to the HUD
Added upgrade "Increase Nutrient Spawn Chance"
Added Ant Hunger system
Added Ant Age system
Added Ant Perishing system
Adjustments to Ant Save Data
Ant Hunger, Age, Location, and more now save and load between sessions
Adjustments to Idle Mode Save Data
Nutrient Blob locations, nutrient count, and several other variables associated with Forager Ants now save and load between sessions
Added Clickable GUI Elements
On Hover - upgrades display information, cost, and current value
"B" Expand info menu now display a range of ant stats in one location pertaining to the current ant farm
Slightly lowered the cost scaling of Worker Ants
Increased the cost scaling of Ant Strength
Added 9 New Steam Achievements
Added 3 New Steam Stats
HUD now displays total ant count, sprite change to reflect total of both types of ants
